Starlight Stories: The Last Lights of Xaryxis

Creating your character

Start dreaming of your characters now and be prepared to bring their stars into alignment with the group during session zero! What this adventure assumes about your characters: > The characters will just be starting out on their adventures and may have heard tales of the adventures of others but do not have first hand experience adventuring. > Each character doesn't have to be friends with the other characters but they should have an enduring reason to work with them. > This adventure will plunge the characters into a realm of fantastic space travel, so they should have ties they will fight FOR but not cause them to hesitate answering the call to adventure. > The characters are not aware of spelljamming and that travel to wildspace is a possibility. We will being using the 2024/5.5 edition rules with modifications for the Spelljammer material set in the 2014/5.0 rules. When making characters: > Be level 1 > Use the standard attribute array: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 > Use milestone experience > Use the core 2024 Players Handbook Species, Classes, and Backgrounds and optionally the 2024 Artificer from The Forge of the Artificer > Do NOT use Spelljammer character species or background options

Preparing for the session

> Game telepresence will be done through Discord so you will need an account. You can sign up at www.discord.com > Game tracking will be done with D&D beyond. You can sign up for an account at https://www.dndbeyond.com. If you do not have materials for D&D 5.5e I can extend them to you digitally through the campaign. You can also find the System Reference Document which is the base rules here: https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd > We will do tactical sessions (combat and exploration) with D&D Beyond's Maps application.

What Driftless Journeys brings to the table

My philosophy as a game master is to create a situation that allows the people at the table to ask interesting questions and make interesting choices. The fun of the game is following the players' choices as the situation unfolds around them; both in spite of, and in reaction to, their choices. My narration style is deeply descriptive and I like to illustrate complicated characters and rich environments to provide theme and flavor to the events as they unfold. I also focus more intently on exploration and role-play elements of the game than I do combat. When dealing with system, for a game with beginning players I will do more work to explain what needs to be rolled and remind you about abilities you might have but I heartily recommend that any player take some time to familiarize themselves with their character's abilities. In D&D there are sometimes a lot of them! For more advanced players, I welcome players proposing novel actions or alternate uses for their abilities and I love working to see those through, but I reserve the right to say 'no' if things seem too far fetched.

Homebrew rules

At the table: > Any player may nominate a different player for a heroic inspiration for something they did. If the game master and another player agrees, they get it! Characters: > Characters may train additional skills, tools, individual weapons, or individual armor usage, up to their Intelligence Modifier. A character must learn from somebody proficient in the skill. Training takes at least 100 days, a minimum of 4 hours a day. NPC trainers often will charge between 200 gp to 500 gp to take on a student. > During periods of downtime of at least 2 weeks, a character may make preparations for something. Similar to a readied action, the character needs to explain the specific circumstances they are getting ready for. Examples might include: Making a crash landing, boarding another ship, or fighting a specific foe. The character may use their preparation to gain advantage on a check during that circumstance. A character may make a number of preparations equal to their Wisdom modifier. Spelljamming: > When attuned to a Spelljamming Helm, a pilot may spend up to 10 spell levels to generate spelljamming speed, with each spell level increasing the speed by 10 million miles per 24 hours. > A ship traveling at spelljamming speed will naturally slow down if it comes within 1 mile of an object of 1 ton or larger. A pilot may override this action with a DC 15 Pilot (Space) check. > A pilot may cast spells originating at any point in the vessel. > All pilots have a unique color to their magic that shows up when the ship is traveling at spelljamming speed. A DC 15 Pilot (Space) check identifies the pilot if you have encountered them before. > In combat, an a pilot uses their movement action to move the ship. > In the Astral Sea, an attuned pilot may propel and tactically maneuver the ship with their mind at a rate of 5 times their Intelligence score. The Astral Sea > When physical entities pass into the Astral Plane do not need to eat, drink, breath, or sleep to stay alive. > Characters on the Astral Plane that do not eat, drink, or sleep cannot gain the benefit of a short or long rest. > Clouds of prismatic, elemental proto-matter called 'phlogiston' can occur on the edges of wild space systems and in the astral sea. If the phlogiston comes into contact with any fire or other ignition source, they explode into a ball of fire for 10d6 damage to any character inside of, or within 10 feet of, the cloud; a successful DC 15 DEX saving throw takes half damage.

How Driftless Journeys creates a safe table

Its a priority to me that my games are a place for everybody at the table to be able to play in safety; here is how I work to facilitate that: > I use the Lines and Veils technique. When a game is confirmed I'll send out a link to the game's Lines and Veils document where you can anonymously add topics. We will go over the document in Session Zero to see if we need to add anything. > I like using Session Zero as a way to review safety tools for the campaign, in addition to going over character and game structure topics. If you would like to request additional accommodations or safeguards we can discuss that in private or during session zero. > If something comes up during the game that makes you uncomfortable, I prefer to use the Luxton technique of stopping the action and discussing it. This discussion doesn't have to be long but I've found that it helps everybody at the table understand what happened and how to avoid it in the future. > I prefer to take the last 15 minutes of the session to debrief about the session for any feedback, bright spots, or areas folks at the table think need to be addressed. > If you have safety concerns that you do not want to voice in front of the group I'm always happy to take private messages where we can discuss the issue and how to remedy it. > Lastly, if for any reason you need to take a break from the game and not attend a session or two, this is an OK thing to do! If you intend to return to the game we will keep your character in the background so that you can jump back in.