Play-by-Post | BALDUR'S GATE: DESCENT INTO AVERNUS | Only $9

Creating your character

Please make sure you have a D&D Beyond account (just the Free Tier will suffice, just make sure you join using the Campaign link so you have access to my shared content!) and a Discord account.

Preparing for the session

Step 1: Create a Discord account, D&D Beyond account, and Owlbear Rodeo account (all free!). Step 2: Create a character (more info/guidance provided once you join the Discord)! All characters will start at 1st level. All Player's Handbook (2024) species, classes, and backgrounds are available to choose from. If you would like to choose something from a different source, just let me know and we will work something out! Mostly, I just want to make sure we are all viable to play in the setting of the Forgotten Realms (which is pretty easy to do!).

What DM_Alex | Zoological Gardens brings to the table

I have a very well-organized Discord server full of awesome maps and campaign notes; a paid Owlbear Rodeo account with constant live access, so you can follow the action no matter when you're able to take your turn; and a Master Tier D&D Beyond account to share access to the 2014 & 2024 Player's Handbook, the 2024 Monster Manual, the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide, as well as all my adventures/supplements! *** Weekly cost: Session 0 is free -- you will not be charged until we begin playing in character! The scheduled times are always only for your weekly charge only! Play will continue throughout the week. Please see my GM profile for more details on my super flexible refund policy. *** As game master, my goal is to get through the equivalent of one live play session per week, though it often ends up being more. That usually looks like AT LEAST three posts from me at least five days out of the week. I ask that players try to post at least twice per weekday (or five days out of the week). I track player turns to make sure no one is left behind. We usually are able to get through 2-4 scenes per week, equivalent to about 3 hours of live-action play! *** Communicating with your DM: Each of you will have a channel just visible for you and me if you have any questions, issues, or want to discuss anything you don’t want the rest of the party to know about yet. You can always dm me too but using your channel with me makes things easier to track across my various games, thus speeding up my response time! *** Discord channels: We will have an out-of-character (OOC) channel for general chatter and planning, and an in-character channel (IC) for narration and dialogue as your characters. *** Order of events: This is an asynchronous, play-by-post game, meaning we are working with players across different time zones. This sometimes means events will happen out of order, usually just a bit loosely (i.e. maybe different players are talking to different NPCs, or one player is shopping while another is investigating an alley). *** Ruleset and Game Platforms: 2024 Rules. We will be playing using the 2024 rules of D&D 5th edition (I'm totally open to 2014 stuff too, but my brain has shifted to 2024 in a lot of ways, so it may take some re-explaining every so often). D&D Beyond. Please make sure your character sheet is in our D&D Beyond Campaign and that it is linked to Discord. We may use the “maps” feature on occasion for combat! Avrae. Avrae is a robust Discord bot programmed for playing D&D, and it even links with your D&D Beyond character sheet, but it does have a teeny tiny learning curve*. It’s especially important to know for combat. *If you’re unfamiliar with Avrae, I will teach you, and either way you will learn as we go. If you’re extremely reticent, I can work with you to just do your rolls elsewhere and apply them to monsters myself. Again — I am flexible! I just want this to be fun without random weird coding stuff holding you back.

How DM_Alex | Zoological Gardens creates a safe table

Communication is always the best safety tool, but I like having a structured option for players to use! I know some people don’t like X cards, but they’re important because going in without a net can make or break the game for someone, especially online and especially text-based when tone is nearly impossible to convey. Even if nothing ever comes up, it’s good to have a system in place to help folks feel safe. Use these as often or as little as you’d like, but please know you can always send an “X”, “N”, or “O” to either me in a dm or to the game chat, whatever’s more comfortable for you. You do NOT have to explain why it’s bothering you; though you may need to specify what you’re X’ing or N’ing, you never have to elaborate on why: The X (“stop”) card means the scene has crossed a line for you and needs to stop; we will change the scene immediately. You can use these for anything, even topics you didn’t list ahead of time. Send an N (“near”) card as a warning if you feel we’re nearing content that could be close to a line for you that you’d thought we would be avoiding. It basically means you’re cool with what is happening, but would prefer to proceed with caution or just shift onto the next scene. The O (“okay”) card is a check-in card that just means you’re fine OOC with whatever’s going on, specifically in intense situations. It’s sort of a way to say “okay, this is pretty intense, but let’s keep going”.