Image by Dean Spencer
Deadfall: Death in the Desert
Danger, intrigue, magic! Your adventures will draw you into the distant desert demesne of fiery lords, where foul necromancers have seized power!
TYPE
LANGUAGE
EXPERIENCE
AGE
$39.00
/ Session
Details
3 players following this game
Weekly / Friday - 11:00 PM UTC
Session Duration / 3–4 hours
Campaign Length / 40+ Sessions
3 / 6 Seats Filled
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Meet your party members
3/6
About the adventure
Dark rumors blow in from the land of Xir. Their fabled trade caravans have disappeared, and no emissaries return from the Gilded City. Rumors grow of terrible magicks enacted by its fire-blooded rulers, and its already questionable reputation as a land of dark sorceries, blasphemy, and human sacrifice are whispered in taverns and lordly halls alike. But for the folk of Illdenstern, the desert land of Xir is a distant tale to speak of around the hearthfire- there are much nearer problems that take precedence over such dubious hearsays! Widespread raids by ruthless gnolls, goblins, and worse have left many without home or means of living. Caravans of fearful refugees flood the roads to the fortified baronies of Illdenstern, passing abandoned or burned farmsteads and thorps on their journey to safety. It is this road that you and your companions find yourselves on, answering a call for those with skill in steel or spell. Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall is a high level adventure featuring spellcraft and spywork in a land ruled by evil mages; I'm running this in my own setting, and we'll be starting at low levels to build up and lead in to Deadfall, so your characters and party have history and experience before the events of Deadfall. Clips from some of my sessions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skSi4oFDScs Games that I run have: Expert DMing and improvisational skills to roll with your decisions and ideas 🧙♂️🎭 A handcrafted setting, shaped and enjoyed by dozens of players over a decade 🗺 Beautiful battlemaps 🌆 Danger & consequences for your choices ⚔️ I run with a somewhat old-school mentality: life can be cheap and the world is full of danger, but I am a fan of the party. I want you to succeed! Your enemies though, they have their own ambitions- they're going to do their best to stop you. I love it when players get invested in their characters, but the dice will fall where they may; hold on lightly! The games that I run are very reactive and improvisational- your actions will have consequences, and you'll be presented with opportunities to choose and alter the paths set before you.
Game style
Combat Heavy
Dungeon Crawl
Tactical / Crunchy
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(24)
4 years on StartPlaying
480 games hosted
Highly rated for: Creativity, Storytelling, Voices
About me
Hey there! Quick rundown of my DMing style for you: 🧙♂️ Veteran DMing and improvisational skills to roll with your choices 🎭 Notable NPCs with immersive interactions 🗺 Quality battlemaps 🎆 Spell effects ⚔️ Engaging tactical combat 🙌 Newbie-friendly attitude with patience to walk you through an RPG There's an amazing feedback loop that happens when both the DM and the players are invested in the game. Whether it be characters, the story, the setting and lore- the more interest you show in the game that we're all enjoying together, the better it becomes! You can see gameplay clips and other content of mine at https://youtu.be/skSi4oFDScs https://youtube.com/@distracteddm https://www.tiktok.com/@distracteddm I'm an enthusiastic, experienced DM that's been playing & running TTRPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons for over 25 years- ever since I walked into a game store as an 11-year-old because it had a chess piece on the sign and I thought "I'd like to be good at chess." There was no chess to be had, but there were plenty of people playing wargames and D&D. The rest is history. I have experience in voice acting, teaching, and general nerddom- though my professional fields have been in Intellectual Property (Gaming, Streaming, Technology) and voiceovers. I love running games because of the choices that players make, the dramatic conflicts that are presented during play, and the way that players develop their characters and personalities throughout campaigns. I am delighted when the party does things that I don't expect- for this reason, I am also an excellent improviser. The world is a living place, though the primary actors are the players every NPC has their own reason for being that motivates them and informs their attitudes. The guard you're talking to in town doesn't know he's an NPC, he's a gruff man that respects the law and wants to safely get home to his family. I enjoy writing, especially scenes and short stories that are inspired by the world and actions that we put into motion at the gaming table. I may present these 'cutscenes' to players every few sessions, as it gives them insight into the world and other goings-on that are adjacent to their actions in the world. I like teaching new players, as well as running games for people that are old hands with the hobby! Welcome to the table, and I'll see you in the dungeon!
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
We'll all talk character creation in the Discord server and do a Session 0 in which we talk as a group about what kind of would be appropriate and who wants to play what, and then start playing! Players can use either 5e, 5.5e, or Level Up A5E characters (I'll share those with you if you want to take a look, or they're freely available on the a5e.tools site).
What to expect
Preparing for the session
You'll need a microphone, a stable internet connection, and optionally a webcam. The virtual tabletop, rolling, and optional webcam will be over the in-browser website Foundry VTT (please see Foundry's Client Requirements https://foundryvtt.com/article/requirements/ ) Voice and between-session chat will be over Discord. Please have accounts created for: https://forge-vtt.com/ (this is a cloud service for the Foundry VTT) Discord, installed Please ensure that Hardware Acceleration is turned on in your Chrome browser https://www.howtogeek.com/412738/how-to-turn-hardware-acceleration-on-and-off-in-chrome/
What Distracted DM brings to the table
An enthusiastic attitude, coupled with decades of experience A skillfully crafted, engaging setting with secrets to discover Animated and professionally done Battlemaps Quality tokens and art A Discord server to talk about the game between sessions, including personal in-game downtime activities when relevant PDFs and DnDBeyond content as needed
Homebrew rules
I've been running 5e for almost 10 years now, and have designed and discarded a number of house rules over the years. We'll discuss any house rules used, but don't expect anything drastic, at least not without a group discussion first!
Equipment needed to play
Computer
Microphone
Internet
Platforms used
Safety
How Distracted DM creates a safe table
This is a fantasy world that includes combat, death, dangers, and magic. Please voice any issues (ex. arachnophobia) before or, if necessary, during play- this is an entertaining and engaging experience, mild discomfort may occur depending on the vividness of your imagination, but you should never be made more uncomfortable than you're comfortable with, if that makes sense :) "Romantic" encounters are fade to black ("the bard and the barman are into one-another, that night they meet, fade to black on that"). Descriptions of blood, death, violence, etc. are present but are not the focus- the intent is to draw you into the world.
Content warnings
Safety tools used