Hunt beneath a bleeding sky

Creating your character

Characters are created before the game begins, on your own time, with final review happening once you join the server. Build your sheet on D&D Beyond and share the link when you're ready. For ability scores, use whichever method you're most comfortable with: standard array, point buy, or rolled stats. If you roll, you get a mulligan(A chance to roll a second time) if the curse of the domains of dread starts a little to early. Starting level is 1, in keeping with the journey aboard the Amaranthine Lady. You'll begin as a passenger, crew member, or guest of the ship, so think about why your character is aboard before the mist finds them. That reason doesn't need to be elaborate. It just needs to give you a foothold for who you are before everything changes. There are no blanket restrictions on race, class, or sourcebook. Bring whatever concept excites you, official or third party source, and I'll review it case by case. If something needs a tweak to fit the tone of the setting (a backstory beat, a reflavor, a mechanic that needs adjusting for the jungle survival themes), I'll work with you on it rather than reject it outright. The one thing I ask is that your concept can plausibly exist on a luxury vessel sailing out of Baldur's Gate. Beyond that, the floor is yours.

Preparing for the session

Join the Discord server. This is where the game lives, including announcements, character review, and out of character chat. Create a D&D Beyond account and build your character there. Share the sheet link in the server once it's ready for review. Get familiar with Avrae. This is the dice bot we use for rolls in Discord. If you've never used it before, don't worry, it's simple and I'm happy to walk you through the basic commands once you're in. Optional: Set up Tupperbox if you'd like your in character posts to appear under your character's name and avatar instead of your own. This isn't required. Plenty of players just post in character with their username and write their character's name at the top of the post, or use brackets/formatting to separate in character from out of character text. Use whichever feels more comfortable. Have an Owlbear Rodeo account ready, though you won't need to do anything with it yourself. I'll handle maps and tokens on my end for any scenes that call for visuals. You'll just be viewing, not setting anything up. Read through the game hook, description, and character creation guidelines posted in the server so you walk in with a sense of tone and what kind of character might fit aboard the Amaranthine Lady.

What Last brings to the table

My focus as a DM is on the world feeling alive and the story leaving a mark on your character, not just the body count. Expect a strong cast of recurring NPCs with their own motives, history, and reasons for helping or hindering you. Some will become allies you trust. Some will become threats you should have trusted less. None of them exist just to deliver exposition and disappear. I care a great deal about personal character journeys. Your backstory, your flaws, your relationships, they're all hooks I want to pull on throughout the campaign, not just window dressing for level one. Expect side plots tailored to your character alongside the main thread, and expect the choices you make in those moments to matter later, sometimes much later. This is a campaign built around a larger story arc that will change your characters by the end of it, not just in levels but in who they are. Valachan asks hard questions about survival, mercy, and what you're willing to become to live through it. I want you walking away from this with a character who feels different than the one who boarded the Amaranthine Lady. As for tone and mechanics: I run combat with weight rather than pure tactical crunch. Encounters matter and danger is real, especially in a game built on horror and survival, but I lean toward narrative flow and Rule of Cool over strict Rules as Written when the two are in tension. If a clever idea makes for a great scene, I want to find a way to say yes to it. Since this is play by post, there's no voice acting or ambient music, but I write NPCs with distinct voice and personality on the page, and I take care with description and pacing to build atmosphere, especially in a setting like this one where dread and beauty are meant to sit side by side.

Homebrew rules

Sometimes I develop homebrew rules as the game develops, or alter a specific rule if I feel it's unbalanced. Mostly I stick to rule of cool, and if there are any rule changes or homebrew rules we will discuss it first as a group.

How Last creates a safe table

Your safety and comfort matter to me, full stop, and that's not just a line in a document. Before the game begins, I'll send out a safety checklist covering lines and veils so you can flag any topics you want hard stopped or softened before they ever come up in play. This isn't a formality I skip past. I read every response carefully and build the game around what you tell me. Since this is play by post, the X, N, and O system isn't practical in real time the way it would be at a table, so instead I rely on open communication. If something in a scene crosses a line for you, even after it's posted, you can message me directly and I will edit, retcon, or redirect without question or judgment. You will never be made to feel like a burden for speaking up. My door is always open. If you have a concern, whether it's about content in the game, pacing, or how another player is treating you, you can come to me privately and I will listen and act on it. I take that responsibility seriously, and I will never let a player be harmed, dismissed, or made smaller so another player can have their moment. I have made decisions in the past that weren't popular with everyone because of this, and I will make them again if it means protecting someone in the game. That's not going to change. This is meant to be a dark story, and Valachan is built to feel dangerous and uncomfortable in the ways the fiction intends. It should never feel unsafe in the ways that matter outside the fiction. If at any point those two things blur together for you, please tell me. That's what I'm here for.