Welcome to The Hellfire Club

Creating your character

This will happen during a session 0, but we can discuss what you might be thinking for a character beforehand, since the setting is heavily homebrewed, meaning I even use homebrewed race variants to what is available in core D&D 5e.

Preparing for the session

You really only need Discord. I have a server, I'll send you a link to join when it comes time for the session 0. I'd also recommend having a D&D Beyond account, not 100% necessary, but it will make everything a lot easier, I promise.

What ZRBillings brings to the table

So I use Discord to actually run the game, D&D Beyond for combat tracking and encounter building, I use Talespire for battle maps and sometimes for exploring sections or just as a "waiting room" (a place for minis to sit whilst in between battles or while players are roleplaying just so there's something to look at). I use Kenku in conjunction with FantasyApp for music. Aiag is my own personal Wonderland. My biggest issue with D&D and why it took me so many years to get into it was because it was a game that said, "your imagination is your limit," but then I was being told by players, "actually, you can only be one of these races." That just doesn't work for me. If you want to be a sentient, banana-knighted, and in the service of a kingdom where everyone is food, then I want you to be able to play that, full stop. I pride myself on being able to combine both whimsical and dark tones into something that feels cohesive. "If you can think it, you can be it." It should come as no surprise to you, after reading all that, that I homebrew a lot. All the core D&D races, some never-before-seen ones, and things from other franchises, even. I have created/modified over 40 playable races, created several different magic items, and created or modified several different mechanics for crafting or cooking. Created benefits for actually having your character read a book because gods forbid you from having your character spend their downtime reading over shopping. As a DM, I'd say I'm a Brennan Lee Mulligan. Rules are great, but plenty of them I bend, plenty I do away with, and plenty I invent for the sake of tension, or to work with the in-world logic of the setting. I've been DMing for 2 years, which doesn't sound like a lot, but bear in mind that's at least 1 game a week, with each session being 3-6 hours long. I'm a 34-year-old genderfluid, pansexual person who is married, whose main group is all members of the LGBTQIA+ community. I'm also a "child of addiction" ifykyk. I clearly like to be as thorough as possible when explaining something, so as you've rightly assumed, I am infact neurotypical. If you make it through all the sessions, I'll send you a custom Hellfire Club shirt as a symbol of your commitment to the journey.

Homebrew rules

There's so much that I'll be going over in a session 0, I have like 22 pages of homebrewed mechanics or adjustments to the core game. I can tell you I don't touch classes or subclasses, so that's all untouched, but there are things like: "bonus damage for exceeding a monster's AC" and "called attacks".

How ZRBillings creates a safe table

So, session 0, we'll go over everyone's "lines and veils", as far as "aftercare" I mean- typically my players and I do like a 15-30min decompression moment after the session just to talk about what happened and stuff. If it was a particularly dark session, players might assure each other that their character's actions weren't personal.