Game Expectations
What to Expect
If I begin to think the party has wandered too far away from the main plot, Harshnag will help steer you all back to the main story. Faction members can also provide a sense of growing urgency and point you all in the right direction.
Combat
In order to facilitate the speed of the game, I offload a lot traditional DM responsibilities on to you. I will post the statblocks of whatever your fighting along with their hit points. You will be expected to roll the enemies’ saves against your spells, and you’ll know instantly if your attacks have killed them.
Maps
I post battle maps. You will be expected to give me your location in your post as a Letter-Number coordinate: e.g., M23, Z6, A15, etc., unless you didn’t move, in which case, an em-dash (—) is fine.
Deadly Encounters
One of the reasons that I want big parties, allow characters to roll stats and have extra feats is that I also like to throw more stuff at them. The less I have to worry about a TPK, the more fun we can all have, and the less work I have to do carefully balancing encounters.
- I will accept 6 PCs.
- Leveling is done by milestone.
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This game is going to feature adventurers who will be swept up into a conflict between giants and the smallfolk. Please make a character who is . . .
- . . . good.—not merely what is written on your character sheet, but one who will actually act in accordance to that alignment.
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. . . a team player. There’s certainly something to be said about scouting ahead alone for the good of the party. No one ever said that’s bad. But what leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth is the “lone wolf” who “don’t need no party” and only begrudgingly goes along with the party when “what’s in it for me?” is a handsome sum that no one can afford to pay, or “Why would my character do this, again?”. My RPG philosophy is this: when in doubt, your character . . .
- . . . always wants to find the next adventure (rather than be dragged along, kicking and screaming),
- . . . always wants to delve that dungeon (rather than having to be cajoled into it by the rest of an exasperated party),
- . . . always wants to fight (or negotiate with) that monster (rather than run away from it in fear (the frightened condition notwithstanding)),
- . . . always wants to find heaps of treasure and magic items (so they can fund more adventures and become more powerful to win those future adventures).
Mostly, this is just advice from the DM to the players and not hard rules. That said, if I’m choosing between someone who checks all the boxes above, and someone who only checks half of them, I think you know who I’m going to pick.
Attributes
Please roll three sets of six attributes—4d6, drop the lowest, each. You may pick the set that you like the best, and arrange them as you see fit. If you would prefer not to roll, or if you just don’t like any of the three sets you did roll, you may use a 27-point point-buy or use the standard array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8).
Lineage, Background, and Class Options
Lineages
No lineages with a flying speed, or with flying as an option. As you adventure, you will gain access to spells and magic items that let you fly.
You may use any of the following lineages (and where they are found):
- Aarakocra MPMM (NO FLIGHT! Flight is replaced with resistance to bludgeoning damage from falling)
- Aasimar MPMM
- Bugbear MPMM
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Dragonborn
- Dragonborn (Chromatic) FTD
- Dragonborn (Gem) FTD
- Dragonborn (Metallic) FTD
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Dwarf
- Dwarf (Duergar) MPMM
- Dwarf (Hill) PHB
- Dwarf (Mountain) PHB
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Elf
- Elf (Drow) PHB
- Elf (Eladrin) MPMM
- Elf (High) PHB
- Elf (Sea) MPMM
- Elf (Shadar-Kai) MPMM
- Elf (Wood) PHB
- Firbolg MPMM
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Genasi
- Genasi (Air) MPMM
- Genasi (Earth) MPMM
- Genasi (Fire) MPMM
- Genasi (Water) MPMM
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Gnome
- Gnome (Deep) MPMM
- Gnome (Forest) PHB
- Gnome (Rock) PHB
- Goblin MPMM
- Goliath MPMM
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Half-Elf
- Half-Elf (Variant; Aquatic Elf Descent) SCAG
- Half-Elf (Variant; Drow Descent) SCAG
- Half-Elf (Variant; Moon Elf or Sun Elf Descent) SCAG
- Half-Elf (Variant; Wood Elf Descent) SCAG
- Half-Elf PHB
- Half-Orc PHB
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Halfling
- Halfling (Ghostwise) SCAG
- Halfling (Lightfoot) PHB
- Halfling (Stout) PHB
- Harengon MPMM
- Hobgoblin MPMM
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Human
- Human (Variant) PHB
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Human PHB(there’s no point!)
- Kobold MPMM
- Lizardfolk MPMM
- Minotaur MPMM
- Orc MPMM
- Shifter MPMM
- Tabaxi MPMM
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Tiefling
- Tiefling (Variant; Devil’s Tongue) SCAG
- Tiefling (Variant; Hellfire) SCAG
- Tiefling (Variant; Infernal Legacy) SCAG
- Tiefling PHB
- Tortle MPMM
- Triton Medium MPMM
- Yuan-Ti MPMM
Custom lineage from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is not allowed.
Assigning Attribute Scores
ALL Races get a +2 to any desired stat and a +1 to any other desired stat, OR a +1 to any three, different stats as desired.
Backgrounds
You may take a background from any of the sourcebooks I listed at the bottom of the Overview page. With the exception of the Giant Foundling or Rune Carver backgrounds, you may not use a background that provides a feat (see Starting Feats, below). Of course, you may make your own Background as outlined on pages 125–6 of the Player’s Handbook.
I will not be accepting any 3rd-party material, such as found on DriveThru RPG, D&DWiki’s Homebrew, etc..
Class Options
Non-Setting-specific classes and subclasses are allowed. By that, I mean, for example, the Lunar Sorcerer is not available because it is for the Dragonlance Campaign Setting and relies on that setting’s three moons.
The Tasha’s alternative class options are all available.
Just to make it explicit: you may take a feat instead of an ASI whenever you have an ASI available.
Starting Feats
You may begin play with a 1st level bonus feat of your choice between the Magic Initiate feat, the Martial Adept feat, the Skilled feat, or the Tough feat.
Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants features two new backgrounds, the Giant Foundling and the Rune Carver, both of which provide a feat. If you take one of those two backgrounds, then you must take the feat that comes with those backgrounds, rather than from the choices above.
- Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos’s Witherbloom Student, Silverquill Student, Quandrix Student, Prismari Student, and Lorehold Student;
- Sigil and the Outlands’s Planar Philosopher and Gate Warden;
- Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen’s Mage of High Sorcery and Knight of Solamnia;
- The Book of Many Things’s Ruined and Rewarded; and,
- Astral Adventurer’s Guide’s Wildspacer and Astral Drifter backgrounds
. . . all come from supplements that aren’t allowed.
4th-Level Bonus Feat
At 4th level, you gain another bonus feat of your choice from the following list:
- Alert
- Magic Initiate
- Martial Adept
- Mobile
- Sentinel
- Skilled
- Tough
- War Caster
If you meet the prerequisites for the Ember of the Fire Giant, Fury of the Frost Giant, Guile of the Cloud Giant, Keenness of the Stone Giant, Soul of the Storm Giant, or Vigor of the Hill Giant feats, then you may take one of those instead of the feats listed above.
Posting Rate
I ask for 1 post/week, minimum, with more dependent on schedule. I’m a teacher in Japan, so my posts will likely be when others are asleep, and I don’t have much time at work to devote to this, so they’ll have to wait until I get home from work. That said, sometimes I do have time at work!
Application Deadline
I will begin accepting applications from the moment the game goes live. The deadline is 11:59 PM JST (UTC +9), Friday, April 05, 2024.
Homebrew Rules
Healing Magic & Hit-Dice. My IRL D&D group uses a homebrew rule to great effect to prevent the Yo-Yo of knock-out-heal-knock-out-heal in combat: Whenever a healing spell, or single instance of healing from a feature like a paladin’s lay-on-hands or a healing potion is used, you may roll one of your hit-dice and add that to the total. You may roll one hit-die per spell level, or per 5 points of lay-on-hands, or per level of healing potion.
For example, if a cleric casts the cure wounds spell with a second-level spell slot, you may roll two hit-dice. If a paladin uses 5 to 9 of their lay-on-hands, you can roll one hit-die, but if they used 10 to 14, you could use two hit-dice, and so on. If you take a potion of greater healing, you can roll two.
Small Creatures and Weapons with the Heavy Property. A small creature that has an attack stat (be it strength, dexterity, or some other stat used in place of either of those two granted by a class feature) of 15 or above AND has proficiency in the use of that weapon may use a weapon with the heavy property without disadvantage.
Critical Success/Failure on Saves. Some spells require your opponent to roll a save, rather than you having to roll a spell attack. In these cases, I’m house-ruling that if the save is a natural 1 on the d20, then it counts as a critical success for the spell caster. For example, if you cast the sacred flame spell and the enemy creature rolls a natural 1 on its Dexterity saving throw, then you roll twice the number of damage dice as you normally would.
Conversely, if they roll a natural 20, then the spell automatically fails, and they suffer nothing—even if the spell description says they take half on a success.
However, the converse works on you, too!
Non-Posting Rule
I really hate being ghosted. If you discover that this ends up just not being the game for you, you don’t even have to tell me why—but definitely tell me you’re bowing out. We can talk about how you’d like your character to leave, too. I’m not just going to kill them violently out of spite.
However, if you haven’t posted for three weeks straight, with no explanation as to why—you’ve just seemingly disappeared like a fart in the wind—then I will remove you from my game.
Remember: I only require one post/week for this game. More is great, but at minimum, one.
On week two of no posts, I’ll at-you in the OOC Thread, asking if you’re planning on posting next week.
If you have an up-coming prolonged absence, let us know and we can accommodate your character being off-screen.
Flanking
I do not use the optional flanking rules: flanking does not grant advantage on attacks.
Surprise
Just pointing out that surprise does not grant advantage on attacks—it merely denies the surprised creature any movement, actions, bonus actions, or reactions during the surprise round.
Block Initiative
I roll initiative for everyone—PCs and NPCs alike. I’ll average the PCs’ initiative rolls and the NPCs’ initiative rolls and whoever wins goes first. Obviously, if you or the NPCs are surprised, by default, the other side goes first. Once the blocks have been determined, you may post in any order. All posts are chronological; in other words, if someone posts before you, then what they did in that post has happened before your character took their turn.
Open Rolling
I don’t roll in secret. I roll in the open, right there on the page. If you’re getting barnfarkled, it’s not because I’m being an asshole, it’s because the dice hate you.
Secrecy
I feel like games like this are a lot more fun when everyone is working together to facilitate each others’ fun and further the characters’ goals. What’s a lot less fun is being out of the loop while others worked together behind your back, or one player knowing something the others don’t. The “big reveal” often isn’t fun, and tends to be a let-down for the revealer, and outrage-inducing for many of the other players who feel betrayed or alienated, or both. Finally, when we keep secrets, our fellow players might inadvertently work against our goals and not understand why we get upset at them, and not understand why we’re doing something suspicious.
To that end, you’ll be required to keep things out in the open.
CHARACTERS can have secrets they keep from other characters. But the PLAYERS at the table will know them.
To whit: I’d rather risk a little metagaming that can be called out with a gentle reminder than risk an outraged player quitting my game because they feel like everyone left them out of the loop.
PvP and Stealing from Fellow PCs
Neither one of these will be tolerated. Characters are fully free to disagree with one another, but at no point should either of you be telling the other to “roll initiative!”
Related to the “Secrecy” (above), do not have your character try to steal from your fellow PCs. You have a city absolutely chalk full to the brim with NPCs ripe for the burgling, robbing, and pick pocketing. Your fellow PCs are not part of that group. That said, chances are, if your character was going to do that, I didn’t pick you for my game in the first place!
Related to PvP, no one will be using skills against one another, either. “I rolled a 20 to persuade your character to . . .” No. Just no.