CoS - You can checkout anytime you like, but you can never leave

Creating your character

I like to have my players start thinking of their character, their characteristics, quirks, flaws, ideals and backgrounds to what made them who they are today. Since I start my campaigns where the characters are at level 1, the characters might have been introduced to some techniques, but certainly don't come with a character backstory which would rival a level 15 character... or even any level character. Think of why the character wanted to leave their current station in life, to start adventuring. I want the player to get fully involved with their character concept, so that they can play their character well, when in the party and facing experiences where their traits, flaws and ideals might come into play. Each player will use the standard 27-point buy system to set up the character's ability scores and I like to see players use other skills, other than swinging weapons or spells to overcome encounters. No character's ability score can ever go above 20, no matter what level the character may be at. Which is why I am limiting races and classes to the Players Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide, with a few extensions afforded by Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and Xanathar's Guide to Everything, so that the characters are not optimized. I feel the players get more enjoyment and a sense of accomplishment when characters face insurmountable encounters, and have to creatively find ways to surpass them. The level of triumph is tied to the difficulty of the task. Yes, this limits the players to the more basic races and classes, but that is intentional. Oh, and NO WARFORGED OR ARTIFICERS! Not looking for OP characters. If you are looking to play optimized characters or feel strongly against this idea, this campaign is not for you. At the session 0, after all the expectations and rules are discussed, the players should be ready to introduce their character to the rest of the party.

Preparing for the session

The campaign will be running on Foundry VTT for battle maps, when they are required, and Discord for voice. So the player needs to have access/a Discord account and a web browser that has at least 1920x1080 (Full HD) resolution. A link to the campaign server will be provided along with an user account for the player to log into. It will be requested that the player changes their password during their first log in, to provide security to their character.

What Dragon brings to the table

High Fantasy, not Modern/Sci-Fi: This is part of my posting in the Foundry VTT Channel, but I will repeat here... There are no firearms, gunpowder, modern weapons, phasers, lasers, etc. allowed. This is a high fantasy campaign so, "swords and magic" (medieval arms and armaments... and magic) type of things. Style of Play - Not a Video Game: I would call it "old school style". Something like virtual "pen and paper," whereas this is not a video game -- no animations, no sound effects. Think of it like if you were sitting in a basement in the 70's/early 80's with a bunch of friends playing. If you need all the "bells and whistles" to keep your attention, well, I am glad we got that out of the way -- this is not that. Long Campaign: The Curse of Strahd Campaign most likely could provide years of roleplay enjoyment, as the adventure starts characters at level 1 and spans up to level 12+. There are several side-quest opportunities along with the main directive and depending on the roleplay of each session, several sessions might be required to progress along the mission. If a player misses two sessions in a row, they will be replaced. Please - no murder-hobos or combat-junkies: Yes, there will be combat in this campaign, and I am sure plenty of it.... But I would like to find players for this campaign that leverage all three pillars of roleplay: Combat, Social Interaction and Exploration. Preferably favoring the exploration/investigation/social interaction: 75-80%, combat the remainder. If you need to have combat every session, this most likely is not the campaign for you. Combat heavy campaigns tend to get tedious with the monotony of every weeks slogging through one combat after another. If that is your vision of a perfect campaign, this one might not be for you. Sandbox Campaign - Full Freedom: This is a sandbox campaign, meaning that though there is a main mission, the characters will proceed at their pacing. The DM will not "railroad" the characters to follow his agenda, but the story will be a combined effort between the DM and the players. This means that players might be given some ideas to what to do next, in the form of rumors or talking with NPCs, but the players will not be forced to follow them. Please be aware of this free to roleplay fully approach, as some players might feel a sense of lack of direction. They story is yours to write through your characters.

Homebrew rules

I will provide all the rules and expectations to the players in my discord channel for the campaign. Things might change as new things come to light, an I will make sure that all players are made aware of any and all changes.

How Dragon creates a safe table

I have a module called "Raise My Hand" installed in FVTT, where if a situation or theme is uncomfortable or makes the player feel unsafe, they have the opportunity to click the icon on the left of their FVTT screen, that will notify me that there is an issue. This notification is set to just notify me, so other players are not aware. If a player does trigger a notification, I would call a break, and then have a personal conversation with them to find out the issue and discuss how we can get around it. Once a solution is discovered, the appropriate actions would be implemented. Sometimes themes are integral to the story line, sometimes not... If they are, maybe another way to express them could be used. If they are not, then they are removed.