The Hollow Beneath

Creating your character

There will be a session 0 to start the campaign. It will discuss character creation pretty in depth. We are starting as level 3 characters. Based on the party, I usually roll 4d6, drop the lowest, reroll ones for stats. I don't like having more than one stat under 10. If that is the case, I will likely deem a reroll to that stat. I am open to any books that you want to pull from, or from a homebrew that can be shared so that I may see it and reference it as well.

Preparing for the session

I will use discord to communicate during the sessions and provide recaps from the previous session. It is also a way for the party to converse without me knowing, I will set up a channel and make one of the party members a moderator so lock me out of it. I am going to be testing a new website called Fabled. It is still in beta testing so their may be some hiccups. As a backup, I will do a physical battlemap and minis.

What Jaclyn brings to the table

I bring a lot of freedom to the table. My ultimate goal is for the party to enjoy the game and make the most out of it. Because of the scheduling, it will need to be once every other week. It gives me time to adequately prepare as well as work around my work schedule. I do like ambient music to be playing in the background. I think that it sets the tone and adds to the mystery of what comes next. This campaign will be heavy tactical combat and lighter on the roll play aspect. Role play is not my strong suit, but if the table decides that they would like more, I am willing to adapt. I operate under the rule of cool. I reward the creative and ambitious with the ability to carry out unique tasks. I also have the ability to award inspiration for thinking out of the box and making hard decisions. This campaign has a unique fear point system that I will explain in a lot more detail at session 0.

Homebrew rules

I have quite a few rules that I like to add to my campaigns. 1. Potion Drinking: If you use an action to drink a healing potion, you get the max healing. If you use a bonus action, you roll for the healing. 2. Flanking: If you are flanking, it gives a +2 to hit as the other PC is distracting the enemy. 3. Critical Hits: If you roll a critical hit, you get to describe how you do it in as much detail as you want (party allowing) and the damage will be max damage + rolled damage, modifiers included in both. 4. Critical Fails: I like to use a critical fail table for both melee and magical attacks. This will be shared with the party at session 0 so that it is known what to expect. 5. Massive Damage: If you cause the enemy to drop to half its HP in a single hit, they also suffer an injury that effects their game play. This is to make it a little more realistic and interesting. 6. Death Saves: I prefer death saves to be done between GM and character, not the whole table. It adds a level of suspense to the game and effects party decisions. 7. Attunement: This is something that I would like to discuss as a party. If the party so chooses, you have to roll to attune to an item, with the rarity level setting the DC. 8. HP: I would like to roll for HP, with advantage, and rerolling all ones, still adding any modifiers. This gives a little bit of variance but also prevents extremely low HP. 9. Assisting: You can only assist others in checks if you are proficient in that skill. Of course all of these are up to discussion, they are just a few that I like to play with.

How Jaclyn creates a safe table

Session 0: I will hold a session 0 to go over lines and veils. This document will be shared through discord so that everyone has access to this at any given point. Content Warnings: Along with the listed content warnings below, I will also be giving content warnings at the start of each session so that party members can be prepared and reminded about what is and is not okay. Debrief: After each session, I will set aside 10-15 minutes to check in with the party. Questions that I am going to ask include what the best part of the session was, what they wished was different, if there were any part of the session that came close to a line that they want to be mindful of moving forward, and if there is anything they would like to discuss with me privately. Breaks: The sessions will be 3-4 hours long. I need to stretch and use the bathroom and just have a moment to regroup. Typically I like to stage these when there is a natural downtime in the campaign, or before and after heavy combat. At any point, a player may get up and do what is needed. I will pause if there is a particular thing going on that I feel the whole party needs to be a part of. Cards: I am a fan of the UNO skip and wild cards. In discord, I will send an image of the cards in the chat. At any point in time a player can play the skip card and we will skip the current event. If the player plays a wild card, we are coming close to a line and we need to change it to ensure safety for everyone.