Critical Role | Exandria: Hunt for the Lost Gods |🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧

Creating your character

We will build characters together in session 0, starting at level 4. I don't mind what each player uses for their own character, so long as I have easy access to the info on a regular basis. I have More Purple More Better sheets that I can provide, which are very versatile 5E pdfs. It's not a bad idea to come with a character concept or two in mind. Feel free to use anything from the PHB, Tasha's, Xanathar's, or the Critical Role sourcebooks (Tal'dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount). Don't get too tied to anything before session 0 though, as I would like a varied party composition and characters who have interesting social dynamics with one another.

Preparing for the session

Make sure you have set yourself up with a Discord account and a Roll20 account. It's also a good idea to make sure you have a program you are comfortable viewing and editing pdfs in.

What Lauren brings to the table

I do use ambient music, mostly from video game and movie soundtracks. I enjoy embodying weirder characters, so will utilise a character voice from time to time, but it is not always.

Homebrew rules

Simple ones are: - To drink a potion yourself costs a bonus action. To feed a potion to another creature costs an action. - "Bloodied" is a signal for a creature being at half hit points - Critical hits do maximum damage, plus a normal damage roll. - Flanking doesn't provide advantage, just a static +x modifier, where x is the number of creatures flanking, up to a +5. - All martial classes will gain a small number of battle master manoeuvrers. If a player wishes to be a battle master fighter, they will have access to more uses per rest. The more complex one is the way I rule advantage. In normal 5E, any number of advantages are cancelled out by any number of disadvantages. In my games, if you have more instances of advantage or disadvantage, you roll with that. For example, if the rogue has advantage from hiding, and advantage because the enemy is prone, but is poisoned, they still roll with advantage, because they have more instances of advantage than disadvantage.

How Lauren creates a safe table

I have a large questionnaire form that I will send to players before session 0. There you can annonymously fill out any lines and veils you may or may not have. I will then have that to hand while i prepare for the sessions. Additionally, on discord, I will create a server with a character channel. There you can ask game questions that are not urgent. If I see a DM from you while we play, I will assume it is urgent, and pause to check it. If i see a capital N, I will lighten up on the intensity of the current scene, assuming that it is approaching a place you are uncomfortable with. If I see a capital X, I will pause the session or scene to check in. Players are welcome to DM me details instead or as well as the N or X, as well as any other relevant urgent information they do not wish to say outloud. I also love sticking around a little while after each session, if it is practical for the players to do so, and debriefing everything that happened. Often this is to celebrate and enthuse about great moments that happened, but this is also a great time to do some aftercare, and have a good separation between the game and real life, which has helped previous players of mine that were prone to emotional character bleed.