Curse of Strahd Reloaded (All levels of experience are welcome)

Creating your character

Characters will be created in Roll20. Anything available in the Roll20 resources I share with you is available. If there is something you would like to use that isn't included just let me know and 99.9% of the time I will be ok with using it. Finding art for your character can be done any way you see fit. If you're not sure where to start Hero Forge is a great resource. While characters can be made prior to session 0, we will also be going over this during that session to make sure everyone's ideas mesh well together. I recommend coming to session 0 with a few ideas that we can all fine tune together. We will be using point buy for stats and we will be starting at level 2.

Preparing for the session

Before joining, make sure you have a Roll20 and Discord account created. We will be using Roll20 for character creation and playing. Discord will be used for voice/text chat both during and outside of sessions. You will need some kind of microphone. Webcams are not required but are encouraged as they help avoid talking over each other as well as using body language to help convey tone.

What Connor brings to the table

I have a pretty extensive library of resources in Roll20 that I will be sharing with everyone. If there's anything you'd like to use that I don't already have just let me know and I'll either purchase it on my end so everyone can use it or we can manually input what you need. I try to have maps ready for most of what I plan but their will inevitably be times where something comes up that I am not prepared for. In cases like those we will either use theater of the mind or I will have generic battle maps to use if need be. I embrace the rule of cool in most situations but I will also want to ensure that everyone is comfortable with any approaches that go against RAW before implementing them. While I focus more on story and roleplay, combat will still be present and PC death will still be a very real possibility in difficult encounters.

Homebrew rules

I have a few homebrew rules. We can talk about these in session 0 and if the general consensus is not to use any of these I am more than happy with forgoing them. Encumbrance-No need to track the weight of everything but don't abuse it. If you're walking around with 13 longswords in your pack then we're going to have to reexamine things. Ammo-No need to track every arrow but keep a general idea of when you may need to resupply. Similarly, no need to track every spell component, but if there is a set price attached to the component then that will be something you will need to buy/find. Health Potions-I actually have two rules here. First, using a health potion on yourself is a Bonus Action but using it on someone else is an Action. Second, in an effort to make Medicine checks more involved, I allow you to make one when using a health potion and if you roll over the max HP it would provide, you get the max health from the potion. If you don't then you roll for the potion as normal. Weapons-The DND weapons list leaves a lot to be desired so I’ll be using pathfinder’s weapon list with some tweaks. If something you want can’t be translated over 1-1 we’ll figure out how best to handle it. This is done mostly just to add some variety but don't feel like you have to use it if you don't want to. https://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment/weapons/ Critical Hits-I personally find it a bit disappointing when critical hits get bad rolls and end up hitting for less than a what a normal hit could potentially do. In most of my games, I house rule that critical hits result in max damage of a normal hit and then you roll your additional crit dice on top of that. However, this would apply for both players and enemies, so I can see why some people would not want this. Again, if the general consensus is to stick to rules as written here then I am fine with that.

How Connor creates a safe table

I will be creating a google doc where everyone can submit their lines and veils and do so anonymously if they wish. After those have been submitted we will go over them together during session 0. Aftercare will be done via a group check in after each session. X's, N's, and O's can be done however you feel comfortable. Typically, I recommend people either directly message me or send a message to the group as a whole when these are being used. The timing of breaks depend both on session length and flow. We can decide what works best for us as a group during session 0, but typically I recommend a break near the halfway point of each session, or at least checking in to see if people need one. Stars and Wishes will be discussed during session 0, as well as during aftercare. If preferred, players can also message me privately about these.