Learn to Play D&D 5e in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist!

Creating your character

We'll create characters together in session zero, but to get you started: 🧙 You’ll create your character on D&D Beyond Create a free account on D&D Beyond, and join via the campaign link in the confirmation email you’ll receive after joining the table. Once you join the campaign, you’ll have access to my shared content, which includes the 2024 Players Handbook, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, and a few more I feel are appropriate for the setting. No homebrew for beginners tables. 🆕 You’re a Level 1 Adventurer All characters will start at level one. You can use standard array or point buy for your stats. We will be using milestones for leveling instead of XP. 🪪 Character Backgrounds The game begins in the infamous Yawning Portal, and fully takes place in Waterdeep. For the sake of simplicity and group dynamics, your characters should have some tie to Waterdeep, whether they've lived there their whole life or they're visiting. You’ll receive a link to some background information about the city, inhabitants, factions, and some background hooks to help you flesh out your character in your confirmation email. Integrating your character into the ongoing story requires sharing backstory and details with me and your fellow players. I'll share a template with you to help you build a well-rounded character, and you're always welcome to reach out for brainstorming! We can decide in session 0 what the characters know about each other. Since you’re level 1, they don’t need to be an established adventuring group; you’re setting out on your first adventure in this game! You'll need to work together as players to develop your personal backstories, though. ⛏️ Workshopping We'll work on character creation during session 0 and in Discord in the time leading up to our 1st session. Session 0 will focus on character classes, deciding high-level details of your party's interpersonal relationships and jobs, discussing game rules, etc. You don't have to wait until our session 0 to determine what you want to play!

Preparing for the session

💻 Accounts you'll need D&D Beyond Account 🧝 www.dndbeyond.com - You only need a free account! You'll create your character here, with access to content I've already paid for. The Forge 🔥 https://forge-vtt.com - this is how you'll access the game server. You’ll receive an invite link after you join the game. Discord 💬 We'll use Discord for all communication after signing up, including the voice sessions for our games.

What Ashley brings to the table

👥 Community & Safety First and foremost, I intend for all of my tables to be a safe space for newbies, women, BIPOC, and LGBTQA folks, and I won't tolerate antagonization. I will ask for and share lines & veils before we begin playing to ensure the table is safe for everyone. 🧙 A Narrative Focused DM I'm your narrator! I prefer to add atmosphere and prompt players for action. I'm not a voice actor by any stretch of the imagination, but I do my best to help differentiate between different NPCs. 🎮 Foundry VTT via The Forge We'll play our game on Foundry, and you'll need a Forge account to access the server. I utilize a lot of fun and quality-of-life features in Foundry to help with immersion and keep us focused on the game versus figuring out what buttons to press. We'll spend some time in our session 0 ensuring we know how to navigate the instance. 📕 D&D Beyond Content: I'll provide access to the necessary content to create your character via D&D Beyond. We'll use the 2024 PHB, DMG & MM, as well as some expanded content like Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, some 3rd-party resources, and a homebrew situation here and there. Don't worry about Beyond20 - I'll import your D&D Beyond sheets to Foundry for seamless play! 🗺️ Colorful (sometimes animated) Maps, Tokens, and Sound Scapes I have a lot of fun, vibrant maps from Cze Peku and other map makers, can help you make fun tokens and access a huge library of immersive music and soundscapes. I use Kenku Radio for music to help the VTT run smoothly. 🗨️ Discord We'll have a private channel for this game in my community Discord server, including channels to chat with your party outside of sessions, do some between-mission text roleplay, and track loot. ⚙️ Rule of Cool & Rules as Interpreted D&D 5e is a rules-heavy game. You’ll do a lot of rolling to understand your success level during combat, exploration, and social situations. Some of the rules, as written, have very clunky language that sometimes encourages bad-faith interpretation. I operate a mostly Rule of Cool table, and while I appreciate a good hustle, I don't spend too much time debating my rulings. I prefer to make a ruling that feels right for the situation than be handcuffed to "The Rules".

How Ashley creates a safe table

📝 Session 0: We'll have a session 0 to discuss the context of the game, rules, character creation, lines and veils, other safety tools, and anything else necessary to set the right tone and vibe at the table. 🦺 Lines & Veils: Before the session 0, you'll need to submit a response to a lines & veils survey so I can make sure the table remains safe for everyone. We'll discuss what the limitations are at our session 0. ⏳ Breaks: We'll take two 10-minute breaks per session to give folks time to breathe, grab snackies and bio.