The Spark Eternal: A Ravenloft Mini Campaign

Creating your character

I find the best way to create characters with my players is for you to bring a concept to me that you’re very passionate about. It could be a specific build, a piece of artwork you found, journal entries you’ve written as your character or any other creative idea. Resist the urge to fill in all of the blanks! Once I understand what you’re interested in and is important to your play experience at the table, I start to find ways to graft your character to the settings and campaign and the other player characters. Campaign and character creation is a grand and ongoing conversation that can shift and change from session to session; and that’s the magic of this storytelling medium in my opinion. For this specific campaign, try to channel your inner Victorian Goth; in whatever way that means to you. If you need existing properties, shows, movies or books to get you started, I’d be happy to provide them.

Preparing for the session

There will be links to both the Alchemy game and the Discord sent once you join. If you haven’t already created an account for either Alchemy or Discord, you can make a free account for both and that should be everything you need. As far as digital vs. physical dice and how you keep track of your character sheet; I find it’s often best to leave that up to you the player. But if you need any help getting set up, rolling a character sheet (or a premade character), have any lore or campaign questions; just let me know and I’d be happy to help in any way I can.

What Sawyer brings to the table

I bring an inclusive, player-experience focused; Game Mastering style, that is story first; rules second in most every regard. I bring over 10 years of experience running games for all types of players and systems. I bring the Alchemy RPG, virtual platform which includes embedded music, art, battle maps and handouts for each specific and unique campaign or one shot. I bring animated battle maps that I create or build off of, from the Dungeon Alchemist Platform on Steam. I bring memorable and compelling NPC performances and characterizations from my background in theatre and performing arts and my current foray into Voice Over work. Also all of my NPC’s are hot and romance-able. I don’t make the rules, expect I do and those are the rules.

Homebrew rules

If it’s agreed on between myself and the player, I like to ask for the opportunity to roll death saves for them if they go unconscious in combat. I take this as an opportunity to allow memories to flash before them and give them an epic resurgence if they save, and a memorable send off, if they do indeed expire. It’s not required but it’s something I offer and am totally open to discussing if it appeals to you.

How Sawyer creates a safe table

Player buy-in is paramount to me, and you can’t really do that and relax into the game and story at hand unless you feel safe, seen and heard by both myself and the other players. To best facilitate this, I do a session 0 free of charge before we begin to make sure everyone is on the same page. Before we meet I have everyone fill out and send back to me (via Discord or e-mail) the Monte Cooke Consent in Gaming Form. Then at the top of session 0, I make my players aware of my own lines and veils, and make space for us all to hear each others (if there’s a line or veil that you need acknowledged, but would like to remain anonymous to the group, you may let me know and I will bring it up as a general rule). This allows other players to make an informed decision about whether or not they want to play at this table, and it allows me to make any last minute tweaks to the adventure or campaign (removing spiders for instance). Lastly we go over the X, N & O function that is built into the Alchemy platform, when and how to use that, and any other safety issues or agreements that I deem necessary for maximum enjoyment to be had all.