Dungeons & Dragons for Beginners: The Lost Mines of Phandelver

Creating your character

I always like to start my players creating the characters together in the first session. Players will be level 1, and will be created using D&D Beyond. For beginners, I would stick to what is available in either the 2014 or 2024 player's handbook. For intermediate or experienced players just looking to have fun; as long as it is published material, I will allow it.

Preparing for the session

I would recommend creating a D&D Beyond account; it is totally free and very user-friendly. If you have not found your own set of dice yet, D&D Beyond has its own built-in dice roller, which is super convenient.

What Raven Moore brings to the table

As an online DM, I love to provide ambient music and voices, and use the VTT built into D&D Beyond. I am rather lenient when it comes to the rules; I typically adhere to the spirit of the rules as written, but I do highly encourage player creativity, so yes Rule of Cool does apply to specific scenarios.

Homebrew rules

Here are the house rules that I use at my table: - Potions: Drinking the full potion as an action gives you the maximum benefit of the potion; using a bonus action forces you to roll for results instead. - Critical Hits: I use for critical hits what I call "Crunchy Crits." Instead of rolling damage dice twice, players take the maximum outcome of damage first, then roll in addition to the maximum damage. - Inspiration: The first Natural 20 in the session automatically gives that player an Inspiration point. Further Natural 20s can force me to flip a coin. If the player guesses the result correctly, they may gain an additional Inspiration Point. Inspiration (continued): - 1 IP: Individual player may reroll a die roll as a reaction to the result. - 2 IP: Player may elect for another player to reroll a die roll as a reaction to the result. - 3 IP: Players may pool their inspiration to force me, the DM, to reroll a die roll as a reaction to the result.

How Raven Moore creates a safe table

I usually go over lines and veils in session 0, confirming what people are and aren't comfortable with. Since my sessions are held over Zoom, players may type "Line" or "veil" in the chat at any time if they are uncomfortable with a subject.