FREE SESSION 0 | Curse of Strahd – A Gothic Horror D&D Adventure

Creating your character

Character creation will be discussed in-depth during Session Zero and in the group Discord beforehand. Access to a DnDBeyond campaign for character creation will be provided when you join the game, and you can feel free to discuss character concepts in the group Discord ahead of time. I suggest that you not completely finalize character creation until after it has been discussed during Session Zero, as after discussing it with the party, you may wish to make some alterations to better fit into the party's identity and goals. 🗡️ Characters will start at 1st level. 🗡️ 27 Point-Buy, Standard Array, or Roll for Stats. 🗡️ Averages for HP instead of rolling. Further prep materials will be provided to you once you're signed up for the campaign, to give you a more in-depth look at just how character-building works. I offer several additional perks for new characters to help you create the character of your dreams!

Preparing for the session

Voice and video communication will be run through Discord, with DnDBeyond used for character creation, and Roll20 for battlemaps, visual aids, and dice rolling. You are not obligated to use video, but I will be running with my video on. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅: 🗡️ 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒎𝒊𝒄 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒔𝒆𝒕, and preferably remain on push-to-talk or otherwise mute yourself between dialogue if you expect to have disruptive background noise. 🗡️ 𝑱𝒐𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒑 𝑫𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒓. 🗡️ 𝑱𝒐𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒏𝑫𝑩𝒆𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒈𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆.

What Michaela brings to the table

📖 All sourcebooks on DnDBeyond 🗺️ Fantastic maps for you and your rebellion to struggle across 💡 Dynamic lighting to brighten the battlefields and darken the dungeons 🎶 Curated music to immerse you into the desperate battle that faces you ✨All the magic you need to have a fantastic time at the table!

Homebrew rules

Inspiration All player characters gain one Inspiration point at the beginning of every session. This stacks with other sources of Heroic Inspiration, but does not carry over between sessions. No Multiple Rerolls Any given d20 can only be rerolled once, regardless of any resources that could stack rerolls (inspiration, class features, improvements, etc) Potions It is a bonus action to drink a potion. If you use your full action instead of your bonus action to drink a healing potion, you gain maximum healing from the potion instead of rolling for it. It is an action to feed a potion to another creature. Breather Sometimes all you need is to take a minute and catch your breath. Once per session when you are not in combat or in a strenuous situation (such as climbing a cliff), your character may take a breather (equivalent to a Short Rest) as an action. This must be a decision made by the whole group. Flanking If you and an ally are flanking an enemy creature, you gain advantage on your attack rolls against that creature. This benefit works the same for your enemies, as well! Death Saving Throws All death saving throws are rolled privately to the Game Master. Some NPC's or important villains will also get death saving throws. Bonus Action Economy Certain bonus actions can be taken as an action instead; this will be a case by case instance depending upon the action being taken or the action economy. Wild Magic Surge The die to see if you trigger a Wild Magic Surge is a d10 rather than a d20. Each time there is a d10 roll for a Wild Magic Surge and it fails to trigger a Wild Magic Surge, the number needed to trigger a surge increases by 1. Once a Wild Magic Surge is triggered, or once the session ends, the Surge value resets to 1. GM may have you roll on a variant Wild Magic Surge table instead of the one provided in the Player's Handbook. Counterspelling Whenever you cast a Counterspell, you must roll to see if you trigger a Wild Magic Surge, even if you’re not a Wild Magic Sorcerer, using the rules above. If that Counterspell is used on another Counterspell, you automatically trigger a Wild Magic Surge (applies to monsters and NPC's as well). GM may have you roll on a variant Wild Magic Surge table instead of the one provided in the Player's Handbook. Readied Spell If a player has readied a spell and the triggering effect had not taken place before the beginning of that players turn, that player can make a DC 15 Concentration check to maintain concentration of the spell till the triggering effect takes place. This concentration still takes up your action to continue to ready it, but leaves you open to use a bonus action or movement. Repeated Party Rolls Players can repeat rolls, however with each repeated roll the DC will increase by 2.

How Michaela creates a safe table

𝑮𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚: I run a script-heavy Roll20 game with plenty of visual aids and handouts, and will (usually) post most of these to a group Discord as well. Dynamic lighting, scripts to improve the accessibility and quality of your game, and macros to make every element of the game as simple as possible are all elements that I offer. These elements can be disabled upon request, if there are issues with lag or concerns about usability. 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝑾𝒆 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒚: We will use Roll20 as a virtual table-top (VTT) for gameplay and dice-rolling, and Discord for voice and (optional) video. I will use a camera, but you are not required to do so unless you want to. I use music bots in Discord for audio and ambience. I will have Discord open at all times on a separate monitor, so if you want to ask me any questions or have concerns about the gameplay, you can message me either straight through Roll20 or through Discord. I am also available throughout the week (excluding Saturdays & Sundays) to help troubleshoot any tech issues or character questions, to a reasonable extent. 𝑺𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒁𝒆𝒓𝒐 & 𝑺𝒂𝒇𝒆𝒕𝒚: Prior to our Session Zero, I will make sure everyone has a copy of the consent checklist to fill out, so that I can note during our conversation what matters are off-limits, and give you some anonymity if you want it. Our Session Zero will cover campaign direction and themes, the main elements of the campaign, preferred style of play and difficulty, content warnings and safety concerns, character creation guidelines, party integration, player etiquette, and house rules. If there are any other elements you'd like to discuss, please feel free to bring them up with me ahead of time, and I will discuss with you as to whether or not we should include them in our conversation.