Tales of Vespera! Hexcrawl-4-ALLL!!!

Creating your character

So whenever creating a character, it's best to know what options are in front of you. We will be using a combination of Discord and Roll20 to create our campaign and characters. I am a big believer that if one person wants to roll, then we all have to roll. Keep it consistent. To pull it back one layer further and give you options for how we could do this! 1. If you feel comfortable enough, I'm always down to just let you do your thing, hitting it with light tweaks to fit the narrative come game time. The least inherently collaborative, BUT also important because sometimes the world just needs a few pillars first to get the ball rolling for me and others. 2. If you want, I'm open to setting up a call or helping through text while you make it! It's always fun to bounce ideas off someone. I do ask you to come a little prepared. A little prepared to me, is that you've at least thought about some inspiration for some characters you might wanna play, and IMPORTANTLY, being able to point at the idea. Don't worry about feeling unoriginal or blah blah blah, just tell me what the thing is. You wanna play as Aladdin? AWESOME! You wanna play as the genie? AWESOME! Don't be afraid to point at whatever it is you want to emulate to a degree; from there, we will make it our own. 3. We sit down at the "table" for a session 0, and you get the full experience of doing it with everyone by your side! This option really is the most fun. There's nothing better than hopping on a call with some friends, messing around as we all bounce ideas off of each other, before suddenly we have characters and a campaign ready to be built. This truly is a core memory of Dungeons and Dragons. Everybody should sit around the table and think about all the endless combinations of fun we could have. I also find it easier to truly help you guys have fun when I am invited to the process, because I will say over and over, "Don't think about the team comp. THINK ABOUT FUN" The only caveat being overlapping, why overlap when there's room to shine brighter somewhere else?

Preparing for the session

Discord is a must. It will be the best way to reach me. I want to set up a Discord channel with different pages for each campaign. Different pages depending on what you guys are comfortable sharing with the server, and what is left for the campaign, and one layer further... what is left for only the player's eyes. Roll20 is what I am most experienced with, but I am always open to suggestions!

What Omy "Doofy" brings to the table

I am methodical in my approach and consistent. Each session will always start with a little housekeeping. I will award an inspiration or two for last week's play. Address any homebrew, retcons, and rule changes, and then I will give a fun fact about this world that can range from a useful tip to following an encounter with a random NPC, and how he's doing now after parting ways with the players. Then I will hand the microphone off to a player to recap last week's session, and tell that player they are on deck for next week! After the recap, I have been experimenting with short stories that can fall under three categories: 1. A short story that is less than 5 minutes, which I will read to the players. 2. If we are ok with it, I will write up a 5-minute short story, but cast the roles off to you guys at the table, and read the exposition and a character or two. 3. If a player wants to write a short story themselves and then send it to me to just finalize it for time's sake and consistency within the lore, then you can cast the table, BUT THIS IS A PRIVILEGE. I am only ALLOWED to cast the table BECAUSE MY PLAYERS KNOW THEIR ENJOYMENT COMES FIRST AS A WHOLE. If you send a script and I see you doing something to try and "mess" with another player's enjoyment of the game, you will lose that privilege. I will be shuffling between ambiance, music, battle music, and specific OST's for specific scenes. I will also be voicing almost all NPCs! This is something I've recently fallen in love with, and I have been trying to incorporate it to the best of my ability. The combat will be intense. I am very much from the Matt Colville school of D&D, especially when it comes to action-oriented monsters/Bosses. There's certainly a place for rules as written, but case-by-case is how I like to handle things. Sometimes, the rule of cool SHOULD win, even if it comes with some downsides or whatever.

Homebrew rules

There are some that are deep changes that I've personally seen other Dm's use. These rules would be: desperation casting, drinking a potion as a bonus action, MASSIVE damage, flanking = +1 or +2 to hit, critical failures, emphasis rolls, and secret death saves. Some of the less traditional homebrew I like to run can be: potions not being consistent from town to town, 2d+4 is the base, but they are different from brew to brew, salt is super effective against spirits, for longer campaigns, at level 4, I like to try and homebrew a feat that can level up alongside the player! This doesn't cost XP to level up! A good example would be the chef feat, the more you cook, the better chef you become! I feel like this helps the slog in mid dnd, when leveling takes forever, because I like to run XP. In a similar vein, weaker magic items can also level up. If you can't tell, I love to homebrew, and I will allow homebrew so long as you allow me to balance check it before the game starts and allow me to tweak it as we go to make sure it stays fun for you, and a couple more I can't think of off the top of my head.

How Omy "Doofy" creates a safe table

It will start with a Lines and Veils document tailored to the current party make-up, as not all parties are the same. There is a family-friendly Lines and Veils, and an adult lines and veils with MY LINES AND VEILS MARKED ALREADY, because while I am a professional, everyone is entitled not to want certain things in their game! Our session 0 will somewhat resemble what an average session will look like. It will start with a little chit-chatting and ice-breaking, before I get into the first housekeeping. I will go over lines and veils before asking questions about the game we want to run! The questions go as follows: 1. How serious do we want the world to be on a scale from 0-10 0 = Disney Princess Universe 10 = Game of Thrones 2. There are many kinds of games. Are we telling a heroic tale with you guys at the center? Are you a group of ragtag adventurers just trying to survive? I am so flexible with this and will rely on bouncing ideas off you guys for this part. I really do love catering to my players and will try to nail the vibe we are looking for! 3. How rare do we want magic to be? 4. How political are we comfortable the campaign being? I'm a big believer that there is politics in everything, BUT how tuned in you are overall is up to you. How much you engage is up to you, and if we are gonna lean into it, everyone has to be ok with it. 5. Now we start creating our characters, and this is where we can have some fun with it if you guys would like. I've run a level 0 start, and there is certainly some fun to be had with that, BUT it's not for everyone, and I certainly understand that! Levels 0, 1, and 3 are my favorite starts, but I've recently experimented with mixed levels, which can always be an option, so long as everyone is on board! 6. Depending on how much time is left, maybe we can get just a little encounter, or actually do a little playing! I don't mind hanging around after a session for a bit while we decompress. I will often ask questions about the session, just to check in! The X, N, & O's can be done whatever way you feel most comfortable!