Sword Coast & the North | D&D 5.5e | Beginner Friendly Campaign

Creating your character

CHARACTER CREATION Characters begin at 1st level and are expected to advance to approximately 18th level. APPROVED MECHANICAL SOURCES • Player’s Handbook (2024) • Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants • Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons • Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse • Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything • Xanathar’s Guide to Everything • Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn This list is exhaustive. Mechanical options from other official books, third-party material, D&D Wiki, Unearthed Arcana, or player-created homebrew are unavailable unless I explicitly add them to the campaign rules. The 2024 Player’s Handbook is the rules baseline. When an approved option has multiple versions, the newest approved version takes precedence. Ask before choosing legacy material whose interaction with the 2024 rules is unclear. Cosmetic reskinning is welcome when mechanics remain unchanged. Characters may own, describe, or craft ordinary nonmechanical objects not listed in an equipment table. Anything that changes Armor Class, damage, weapon properties, hands required, action economy, proficiencies, mastery properties, spellcasting, or another game mechanic counts as a new mechanical option and must already exist in approved material. Crafting may create approved published items and ordinary narrative objects. It is not a general method for designing new weapons, armor, feats, spells, or other mechanics. ABILITY SCORES Use the Standard Array or roll 4d6, dropping the lowest die, six times. If the average of the six scores is 12 or lower, the entire set may be rerolled once; the second set must be kept. HOMEBREW AND TABLE RULINGS This is a RAW-first campaign with no standing player-facing homebrew character options. I customize adventures, encounters, monsters, NPCs, treasure, and campaign events, but those GM-side changes do not make additional player mechanics available. I may occasionally allow a situational Rule of Cool ruling when it improves a scene, resolves an unusual edge case, or keeps play moving. Such rulings are discretionary, usually apply only to that moment, and do not automatically create a permanent rule or precedent. Rules questions and corrections are welcome. During play, briefly explain the concern and provide the relevant rule if available. Once I rule, we continue. Longer discussion can happen between sessions, but the final campaign ruling rests with the GM. BEFORE APPLYING Please message me brief answers: 1. Are you comfortable building within this exhaustive source list and accepting final GM rulings after a brief discussion? 2. Is any mechanical option, third-party rule, homebrew item, class feature, or rules interpretation essential to your enjoyment? Mention it before joining so we can determine whether the campaign is a good fit.

Preparing for the session

You do not need an active subscription with Roll20 to participate, but you will need a free account. You will also need a discord ID. This is a voice only game, no webcams are required, but a decent mic is. Players are expected to be considerate of other players and the DM. There is zero tolerance when it comes to this expectation.

What Spider brings to the table

I will provide maps, images, music, voices, and more. You can expect combat every session, but plenty of room for RP and exploration besides this. I like to stick to RAW and generally don't allow 3rd party or Unearthed Arcana material in my games.

Homebrew rules

This is a RAW-first campaign using the 2024 Player’s Handbook as its rules baseline. The approved-source list in the Character Creation section is exhaustive for player-facing mechanical options. Third-party material, Unearthed Arcana, D&D Wiki content, and player-created classes, subclasses, species, backgrounds, feats, spells, weapons, armor, and other mechanics are not used unless I explicitly approve and add them to the campaign rules. Cosmetic reskinning and ordinary nonmechanical objects are welcome when published mechanics remain unchanged. Crafting may create approved published items and ordinary narrative objects, but it is not a general method for designing new weapons, armor, or other mechanical options. I customize adventures, encounters, monsters, NPCs, treasure, and campaign events. These GM-side changes do not make additional player-facing homebrew available. I may occasionally allow a situational Rule of Cool ruling when it improves a particular scene or resolves an unusual edge case. These rulings are made at the GM’s discretion, normally apply only to that situation, and do not automatically establish a permanent rule or precedent. Rules questions and corrections are welcome. After a brief discussion, I will make a final ruling so play can continue. Longer discussions may happen between sessions, but the final campaign ruling rests with the GM.

How Spider creates a safe table

I make use of a Lines and Veils document and we cover this in Session 0. Zero tolerance for the following items: Homophobia Racism Real-World Religion Sexism Torture Transphobia Self-Harm Romance that is Explicitly Described