Dungeon of the Mad Mage 💀 Siege of the Sargauth Strongholds

Creating your character

You’ll be creating your character on D&D Beyond with the complete official library and any available partnered content to scheme with. We use 5.5e where available, with 5e (2014 rules) filling in the gaps. Homebrew is not on the table. Characters start at level 7 and use point buy with fixed hit points. For gear, take your normal starting equipment - you may sell back anything you don’t want - then add 1,150 GP, plus one common and one uncommon magic item. You may buy additional equipment and magic items before the game at 5.5e prices. Please finish your sheet with details like height and weight; some traps pay attention to that. Completed characters must be submitted before the game so I can approve and import them into Foundry. You’ll have access to the game ~30 minutes before the session if you want to test dice rolls or poke at macros.

Preparing for the session

💬 Discord: Install the app (not the browser version), make an account, and join the server link I send after you book. 💻 VTT: Foundry runs in your browser, you don’t need to buy anything. Use Edge for best performance (Chrome’s fine). Turn on hardware acceleration. 📜 D&D Beyond: Make your character there and send me the link before your first run - I'll need to import them into Foundry. It's free to sign up. 🎧 Audio gear: Headphones required. If we hear pets, fans, traffic, or typing, please enable push-to-talk. 🎬 Tech check: Join Discord 10 minutes early for a quick audio check and chatter. Then we kick the doors off their hinges. 🛰️ Connection: Stable internet. If your Wi-Fi is powered by sadness, plug in. Turn off your VPN and downloads.

What DM Dan Knight brings to the table

🐲 Master subscription on D&D Beyond for sharing the entire official 5e digital library ⚒️ Foundry VTT on Molten Hosting for accelerated network speeds 🎼 Syrinscape for licensed atmosphere and music 🗺️ Only the best third-party maps, tokens, and animation assets available 🎙️ Discord Nitro for exceptional speech clarity 🌈 A welcoming and inclusive game for everyone of all walks of life I run games from my studio with production-quality camera, lighting and audio. With a background in film, theatre, AV, and design, I bring a production mindset to the table. The space is built for your character to take centre stage with a focus on presentation, flow, and narrative punch - so every session plays like a live show built around your party’s story. Watch my video pitch here: https://youtu.be/htEhWDgKbsU

Homebrew rules

➤ Backgrounds are decoupled from ability score modifiers and origin feats, and you can select and adjust those appropriate to your character. You can leverage your backgrounds for skill check advantages in circumstances that would narratively favor your background. ➤ Drinking a potion as a full action provides maximum results on all rolls. Drinking as a bonus action rolls dice as normal. Administering a potion to another is a full action with dice rolls. ➤ Critical hits provide maximum damage, followed by an additional roll of all dice. ➤ No reactions when surprised. ➤ No flanking, but gain advantage on attacking targets out of their line of sight. Reactions can be spent to turn to face an attacker before the attack is resolved.

How DM Dan Knight creates a safe table

This is high-energy, heroic survival horror in Faerûn’s deadliest death trap: the content warnings below are a feature, not a bug. If the fiction gets too close to home, that’s completely valid. The table runs on an open-door policy: you can step away, call a break, or tap out at any time with zero judgement. Intimacy fades to black and stays offscreen. There’s no racism, sexism, homophobia, or transphobia at the table. Any bias toward fantasy peoples (orc hate, drow misandry, etc.) is roleplay only, and it earns in-world consequences. PvP only happens with explicit consent from everyone involved. Villains may threaten ugly things, but we don’t linger on it, we keep it offscreen, and player characters never perpetrate it. We always close with a quick debrief so nobody leaves carrying anything heavy. For everyone’s safety, sessions have their audio recorded.