DnD 5.5e Homebrew world; "VEYROS"

Creating your character

Characters begin at **Level 1**. We’ll create characters **before the first adventure begins**, with plenty of room to work together. I’m happy to help with character concepts, mechanics, backstories, and connecting your character directly to Veyros. New players are welcome, and you do not need to know the setting before building a character. We’ll use the **2024 D&D rules** as our foundation. Official character options are welcome. If you want to use older 5e material, third-party content, or homebrew, talk to me first. I am usually open to a good idea if it fits the campaign and works at the table. For ability scores, **rolling is welcome**. We’ll use a shared, agreed-upon rolling method so everyone starts on fair footing. Standard Array and Point Buy are also available if you prefer them. Characters should be created and maintained in **D&D Beyond** whenever possible. The most important part is not arriving with ten pages of finished lore. Bring me a person. A road-blade. A failed apprentice. A second son. A village healer. A gravekeeper’s daughter. A soldier who walked away. A priest with questions. A dwarf carrying an unpaid debt. An elf who took the wrong road home. A farmer with a sword and one reason to leave. Give your character something they want, something they owe, and someone or somewhere they care about. Then we build outward together. Your hometown can become part of the map. Your family can become a bloodline with land, enemies, debts, and old promises. Your faith can put a shrine into the world. Your former commander can still be alive. The monster from your childhood may be real. The war in your backstory may have left ruins. You do not need to memorize Veyros before play. Start at Level 1. Bring a character willing to take the road. We’ll find out what waits there.

Preparing for the session

Getting ready is simple. You do not need to know the lore of Veyros before joining, and new players are welcome. Before your first game: • Create a free **Discord** account and join the campaign server. We’ll use Discord for voice chat, campaign discussion, scheduling, character talk, and sharing handouts between sessions. • Create a free **Roll20** account and join the campaign game. Roll20 will be our virtual tabletop for maps, tokens, exploration, and combat. • Create a free **D&D Beyond** account. Characters should be built and maintained there whenever possible. I’ll provide the campaign link and help with setup. • Make sure you have a working microphone and a stable internet connection. A webcam is not required. • Build your Level 1 character with me before the first adventure. You do not need a finished backstory or deep knowledge of Veyros. A strong concept, a few personal connections, and a reason to take the road are enough. • Come ready to collaborate. Veyros is a living homebrew world, and your character can add to it. Your hometown, family, faith, enemies, old military unit, debts, mistakes, and unfinished business may become part of the setting. I provide the world, maps, campaign material, and support you need to get started. You bring a character willing to step onto the road.

What James Darley brings to the table

I provide a **fully prepared, player-driven campaign** built around the people at the table. Expect: • **A living world that reacts to your choices.** Veyros is not a fixed storyline with one correct path. Factions move, enemies remember, settlements change, roads open and close, and consequences carry forward. • **Character-focused storytelling.** I actively build your backstory into the campaign. Families, rivals, mentors, debts, faiths, homelands, old wars, mistakes, and unfinished business can become part of Veyros. Your character is not visiting my setting. They live here. • **Custom campaign artwork.** I create original visual material for the campaign, including character concepts, locations, factions, monsters, major story moments, artifacts, and episode art, all built around a consistent old-school 16-bit fantasy identity. • **Prepared maps and tactical encounters.** Combat matters. Enemies use terrain, movement, positioning, objectives, and their own survival instincts. Not every fight is a room full of creatures waiting to die. Some enemies retreat. Some bargain. Some call for help. Some fights can be avoided, changed, or made much worse. • **Roleplay with distinct NPCs and character voices.** I use voices, speech patterns, physical behavior, goals, and recurring relationships to keep NPCs recognizable. Important NPCs remember how you treated them. • **Music and atmosphere.** I use ambient sound and music where it supports the scene: roads in bad weather, crowded taverns, dungeon pressure, ritual spaces, battles, and quiet moments after things go wrong. • **Mystery without predetermined answers.** I give you evidence, rumors, witnesses, physical clues, faction agendas, and people who lie for reasons. I want players asking questions, comparing notes, and deciding what they believe. • **Rules with room to move.** I use the 2024 D&D rules as our foundation. I respect the rules because shared expectations matter, but I am not interested in stopping a strong scene over a technicality. I embrace creative plans and the Rule of Cool when they fit the fiction and do not erase another character’s abilities or choices. • **A table where failure moves the game forward.** A failed roll may cost time, position, resources, trust, safety, or control. It does not always mean nothing happens. Bad outcomes create new problems. • **Player agency.** I prepare situations, factions, locations, threats, and consequences. I do not prepare your decisions. You can walk away from jobs, make deals with enemies, spare monsters, betray patrons, protect people I expected you to hate, and turn minor NPCs into major parts of the campaign. I also provide help with character creation, D&D Beyond setup, rules questions, backstory development, and connecting your character to the world. My GM style is **cinematic, character-driven, collaborative, and grounded in consequences**. There will be dark roads, old ruins, bad bargains, tactical fights, strange people,

How James Darley creates a safe table

Veyros is a dark fantasy setting. The world may include horror, violence, death, body horror, religious conflict, grief, disease, undead, monsters, coercive powers, and people making hard choices. Player safety matters more than preserving a scene. Before play, I use **Lines and Veils** to establish clear boundaries. Lines are content that will not appear in the game. Veils are content that may exist but will remain off-screen or fade to black. Players can update these boundaries at any time. You never need to justify a boundary or explain personal history. During **Session 0**, we cover campaign tone, expected content, character boundaries, player-versus-player expectations, romance, horror intensity, table behavior, and anything the group wants handled with care. We also talk about the kind of dark fantasy everyone actually wants to play. “Dark” does not mean anything goes. I use **X, N, and O safety tools** during play. These can be communicated digitally through Discord, by private message, or verbally. If something needs to stop, change direction, or move off-screen, we do that. No debate is required in the moment. The **Open Door** is always in effect. Players can step away from the table, take a break, leave a scene, or leave a session if needed. Real life comes first. I also use regular **check-ins and post-session debriefs**, especially after intense sessions. After difficult horror, character conflict, major loss, or emotionally heavy scenes, I make space to come out of character, talk through the session, and check that everyone is good before we sign off. Players are also welcome to message me privately after a game. Player-versus-player conflict requires consent. A character can argue, distrust, threaten, or oppose another character when the players involved are comfortable with it. Stealing from another PC, attacking another PC, sabotaging another character, or using social mechanics to override another player’s agency is not something one player gets to impose on another. I do not use surprise sexual violence as a storytelling device. Sexual content fades to black. Player boundaries around children, animals, body horror, addiction, pregnancy, religion, phobias, and other sensitive material are established with the group and respected throughout the campaign. Most importantly, safety tools are not a one-time form completed before Session 1. The campaign changes. People change. Boundaries can change too. You can always tell me something is no longer fun, needs less detail, should happen off-screen, or should be removed entirely. We adjust and keep playing.