Hunt for Strahd. A Level 5-15 Ravenloft Epic Horror Adventure

Creating your character

We will be using the new 2024 rules. Bring a rough character ideas to Session 0. There we will work on creating or finalizing our characters together in Roll20 as we discuss the setting, backstories, lines and veils, and more. If you want to put your character together beforehand and feel comfortable doing so on your own please feel free. Most any race is allowed, except setting specific races like from Ravnica. I am unlikely to allow homebrew unless its really on theme and well balanced. BUT!!! If there is a certain type of playstyle or character your trying to emulate let me know and I can see how we might make it work. I am fine with bending a existing class or feature to better align with your vision. This is a campaign designed for players with at least Intermediate knowledge of the game. Players should be comfortable filling out a 2024 character sheet. I will not have time to teach players how to make a D&D character in session 0, only how to make one that best fits within my world. ALL CHARACTERS MUST BE APPROVED BY ME BEFORE SESSION 1 STARTS. ☠️You will start at Level 5. ☠️Point Buy or Standard Array for stats. ☠️Custom backgrounds allowed. ☠️Reflavoring your abilities and spells is allowed. ☠️Choose a free General Feat at level 1! ☠️Being Evil is allowed, but keep away from excessive gore or torture. ☠️You can start with any regular equipment you like. You also get 100G ☠️You will start with some magic items. Choose 1 rare magic item, 2 uncommon magic items and 3 common magic items. You also get a +1 weapon, spellcasting focus, or armor of your choice. If you have any questions about character creation please feel free to message me and I will respond promptly!

Preparing for the session

You will need: - A computer that's not a total potato, as well as a mic and headset. Camera is optional. - Roll20 account. - Discord account. Once you join the Discord message me and Ill get you access to the campaign channel.

What Dungeon Master Erik brings to the table

---GAME STYLE--- I am a extremely good at improv. Whether that means roleplaying as some deranged cultists or coming up with an encounter on the fly, I enjoy those unexpected and fun moments where the party has a crazy idea they want to try. I love when players find creative ways to approach situations, and I try to reward that. Rule of Cool is definitely in effect, but reasonably done as to not weaken the integrity of the game. The tone of this game will be like Van Helsing meets Castlevania. With the hyper gothic London styling of Bloodborne ---VOICES AND ROLEPLAY--- I am a pretty good voice actor. I have a range of characters I can do from animalistic monsters to stuck up nobles to wrinkled old hangs and more. I tend to match the RP style of the players I'm interacting with. I am not a super deep roleplayer. I do voices and give my NPCs stakes, goals, fears, etc. But my games are not like Game of Thrones where there are long scenes of just pure dramatic roleplaying. In general, in my game the story is moved forward by action not conversation. My roleplaying tends to be more lighthearted and surface level, though major NPCs will definitely have arcs and more in depth characterization. ---IMAGES AND SOUND--- I am a VERY visual DM. I love having lots of maps and graphics and portraits of characters. I am a professional map maker and will hand make most of the campaign maps myself. Pictures paint a thousand words they say! I make extensive use of background ambiance, sound effects and combat music. All chosen to add to the atmosphere. I'm very careful to choose music that's not distracting or harsh to listen to. ---COMBAT--- Combat is moderately frequent. My combats usually play like a fast paced action scene. Lots of trash talking foes, over-the-top moves, and interactive environments. Some combats are designed to make the player feel powerful and flex their skills. Other combats are designed to test your skills or seriously threaten you. Small combats are usually fast-paced and straight forward, sometimes even done in theater of the mind. Larger combats will be more gritty and tactical, making use of all the 5e game elements like cover, stealth, and more. ---LOOT AND REWARDS--- I tend to be fairly generous when it comes to giving out loot. I enjoy giving my players useful items that give them more choices in how they can play their character. I am good at balancing combat, so I prefer to lean towards being more generous and just scaling things up a little to match. I will create custom items or spells that I know will work well for one or more people in the party and place them throughout the world to find.

Homebrew rules

Modified critical hits: 1st set of damage dice are taken at MAX value, the extra dice from the crit are rolled normally. Drinking a health potion as an ACTION gets you the full amount of healing. Drinking it as a BONUS ACTION makes you roll for the healing as normal. You can choose a different damage type for most spells when learn them. (e.g. taking the fireball spell but making it cold damage) I don't track ammo. I don't really use encumbrance or survival rules as long as the players are being reasonable. There will be a light survival element in making sure your ship has enough supplies and navigating the environments. But we are not gonna track daily food or anything like that. I'm sure I have more homebrew rules that will come up, but my homebrew almost always leans in the players favor, and usually just removes elements that make the game less fun. I don't change any fundamental aspects of the game.

How Dungeon Master Erik creates a safe table

In session 0 we as a group can establish if there are any game/rp elements we want to avoid. We can also decide what we want to do if a player does hit a limit for themselves. I as a general rule don't do anything grossly sexual or violent or traumatic. But since this is a Gothic Horror themed game there will be more adult elements like slavery, execution, torture and more. If there is every anything a player wishes to express to me privately as a limit for them they can always message me outside of the group and I will keep it confidential. Same goes for in-game. If there is ever a moment that crosses a line for a player they are welcome to message me privately and I will steer the scene away. I am also available anytime outside of the game to do aftercare or discuss any other issues on the players mind.