A Tale of Two Cities | Dragon Heist + Descent into Avernus | 5.5

Creating your character

Foundry will carry your primary character sheet, so we'll build the characters in a free session 0 directly on the VTT we're using. As for rules and resources, we'll be using Point Buy as our system with a somewhat constrained list of books for subclasses and races. Foundry is somewhat limited in what content is available to be licensed, which means unfortunately I can't give complete carte blanche on 5e content. To make up for this somewhat and to deepen your ties to the various factions of Waterdeep, one origin feat of your choice from the Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun player resource book will be added in addition to standard character creation rules. There's a few extra feats for factions not present in the resource book (as well as some factions that don't have a presence in Waterdeep). At 4th character level you'll also get the succeeding feat in the feat chain from whatever origin you picked. For both the extra origin feat and the base WOTC content available to us, I have a google doc that will be provided as and when players are locked in.

Preparing for the session

We'll be using a discord server to actually play the game with voice chat, and a text channel for coordinating and talking about the game between sessions. Foundry doesn't have a great deal of set up associated with it (at least, for the players). I'll provide you a link to the server our game will be hosted on. This server will be available all the time, and a few of the players I've had in the past (some of which will be part of this campaign) really enjoying making art that they can add to their character sheets or abilities, so you'll be able to do that whenever you'd like by signing in to the server. Profile creation on Foundry is very simple, but manual on my part, so we'll just coordinate at your leisure to set up a profile you can log in to.

What Erik brings to the table

Inspired by Faerun's late Renaissance setting, I'm taking a classical spin on Waterdeep, complete with a rather Mediterranean style of architecture that will hopefully find itself present in many of our maps. I'm a big believer in rendering a setting in full, so all consequential encounters will either have a premium map from a professional creator or at least something I put some time and effort in to myself. Of course, Waterdeep is a diverse city with individuals and collectives from many walks of life, so there will be no shortage of creaking, damp wooden taverns with shrouded figures haunting the shadows. Regardless of the visual setting, in appropriate scenes I will use some music. I tend to run the books with rules as written, although I'm a big fan of creative solutions that may colour outside the lines a little bit. Additionally, some content from 2014 5e tends to struggle in 2024's paradigm, so some movement is always needed on these fronts. I wouldn't say I'm strictly laissez-faire or adherent to the core ruleset, but I'm definitely keen to safeguard against particularly game-breaking or degenerative readings and interactions of rules (no, you're not allowed to do the Friendly War-Caster Opportunity Cast thing, IYKYK).

Homebrew rules

A couple steps back down to 2014 on a few rules, here: 1. Surprise: 2024 Surprise rules often lead to a player sitting at the top of initiative, being surprised, and not knowing why combat has begun and awkwardly taking dodge actions. To remedy this, I tend to run 2014 surprise rules, with the ability for a single actor to fire off a shot before an encounter begins. Note, this can and will be used by NPCs against you. 2. Health potions: I just prefer 2014's action time to drink or administer a health potion. in 2024 many classes will find themselves aggressively spending bonus actions on drinking potions because they have nothing better to do, which leads to balancing nightmares. As for completely homebrew rules: Lateral Fall Damage - Forced movement equal to or exceeding 10ft can cause fall damage equal to 1d6 per 10ft the creature *would have* moved before hitting a surface.

How Erik creates a safe table

The Session 0 document will present a space for us to all place some lines and veils. I have a few options already outlined as fodder for conversation. Ultimately, safety and fun in tabletops come from solid communication, so we'll have some designated time to talk things through and revisit those discussions later, if need be.