Howdy Everyone,

Thanks for showing interest in joining me in my quest to pick up DMing and storytelling once again. I'm thrilled to get another opportunity to toss you into a new world and see what you do with it. I had previously attempted to start this campaign 2.5 (now 3) years ago through a one shot.

Those who have played in my games before will appreciate that we are not going with Pathfinder. This was immediately vetoed by my wife, so you can thank her. That doesn't stop me from trying to make all sources of content available that could work with this new system.

We will be using Advanced 5e by Level Up. A5E builds upon 5e and expands the ruleset. I'll try to list some of the key differences that you should expect if you're familiar with 5e.

Link to Changes

I'm still learning this system and fully expect some rough terrain in the beginning. I plan on keeping the wealth of content available from 5e and will provide access to digital content. Unfortunately DnDBeyond will not be provided or used by me. Wizards of the Coast has made things difficult and the 2014/2024 content rule changes honestly make things more confusing.

My style of DMing

• I don't like railroading, but if the players choose too much chaos, the world will bring them back.
• I spend a ton of time thinking and developing possibilities, tying in and tangling fate as much as I possibly can into the player/character backgrounds and their stories.
• I'm more than willing to bend the rules for something to be cool. I'm open to feedback and don't mind players openly questioning a decision. If it's something that will take time to decide on we will make a quick decision and table it for outside the current session.
  • Rule of cool. I may bend or be flexible if your idea doesn't quite fit within the rules.
• If I determine there is no possible way for your character to accomplish something I will state so. I'm not one of those DM's that will allow any role just to have an arbitrary unreachable number set as your target. Example:
  • Player: I want to jump to the moon
  • DM: Okay roll athletics
  • Player: rolls [18] +8 26, did I succeed?
  • DM: No, you needed a 1,261,154,400. (I had AI calculate this for me), the actual number would be ~21 million to reach escape velocity but this is a lot more real than we're intending to do here.
• If a player introduces something and the group agrees and wants to continue to use it - consider it fair game for the world or enemies to use.
• I like my worlds and games to be a mix of experiences. Not one specific style of game. I like to include small frequent battles, large scale battles or bosses, dungeons, traps, puzzles, loot, magic items, social interactions, faction influence, reputation, hero progression, world lore and mystery, and an underlying plot affecting everything. Thinking this through causes some anxiety, it's a lot.

As much as I would like to start playing immediately I'm just now getting back into the world creation. While I have several sessions of content that I could cobble together.. it's not ideal, and it wouldn't have any of your characters integrated. That being said - we will need to start developing your characters now with you looking at the available content or at least thinking about what you would like to play. I expect ideas to come from you and for me to fill in the blanks with the established world information. These ideas from you will help me focus on parts of the world that may be underdeveloped and needing some clarity.

My expectations for you as a player

• Be respectful. We're all adults, each with limited time to avoid actual responsibility.
• Roleplay. I like my games to be social. I want you to interact with the world and the other players. Your interactions are part of what creates the story.
  • We can discuss some exercises between sessions that will help you develop a desire to know more about your fellow party members.
  • If your characters don't care or trust other ones it will impact the game. This is also true for your fellow players. The better friends we become IRL the more fun the game will be.
• Be involved, present, and pay attention to what's happening. Making sure that you're preparing for your next action (in combat or scene) is key to keeping a combat shorter and more time to explore the world.
• Give everyone their chance to roleplay. Your character could be the face of the party, but you don't need to insert yourself into every scene.
• Min / Max ? No, but its critical that you develop a character and set goals, motivations, and decisions based on them. Obviously you're going to be drawn into a style of play and are free to influence your character based on that.
  • There is no need to min max, though it's not prohibited. I tend to make the players strong through magic item generosity and additional sub-systems introduced as the story progresses.
• Understanding your character, keeping up with your abilities, stats, equipment, and other items and their traits that you may obtain along the journey. The more upkeep of your character you take on yourself the more time it gives me for the rest.
• I always ask if the session was fun. Please provide feedback on what you liked or didn't like.

Some things we can establish prior to session 0.

• Player Introductions @discord
• System, rule changes, content, customization flexibility, Resource location.
• Group collab tool (Google Chat, Discord, other suggestions?) Starting with discord.
• Sessions will be held in person once a month at my house with (4/7) present.
• Session length TBD but I'm thinking 3-4 hours is probably our best bet.
• Safety - I will be sending out more a less of a consent form to get an understanding of what you're comfortable with. IE - are we going to be playing in a fun little cute animal adventure game or Beserk the Anime? The topics listed are not necessarily planned or in my wheel house at all but understanding boundaries at the beginning avoids a lot of issues.
• Distinguish if we want integrated discussions or specifically above table talk be separated.
• Determine if party NPC's will potentially be used. Followers, companions - do the players want to be responsible for NPC safety during travel. How in depth do you want these NPCS.
• How do we want to handle downtime. What can we do in downtime?
• Conflict is great, but an intentionally evil or chaotic character meant on disrupting the player experience is not welcome.
• Determine if we are doing strict XP leveling or Milestone progression.

Home Brew changes

• Death saves are rolled in secret by the GM.
• Immediately apply 1 level of exhaustion when going down in combat.
  • This is to add some realism to having your health hit 0 and abusing the 5e healing system mechanic ( all healing magic brings you to positive health) It's technically more efficient to just bring people back up to low digits with healing word than it is to heal them back to full.
• Inspiration will be granted to great role play. Cool moments. Appropriate jokes. Answering lore questions from a characters perspective.
• Quaffing potions. Bonus action = roll dice. Full action = max healing.
• Critical hits = Max roll + normal roll (instead of doubling). Critical hits should not ever feel like they aren't impactful.
  • Example: Barbarian rolls and crits. 1d12+5 damage. (Great axe (1d12), Strength 16 (+3), Rage (+2))
    • Normal: 1d12 [2] + 5. Double dice = 9 damage, or roll twice: [2,1] + 5 damage = 8.
    • Homebrew: Max 1d12 [12] + 1d12 [2] + 5 = 19 damage.
    • Both still have the potential to hit 29, but homebrew is more consistent.
• Anything you can do as a bonus action, you can do as an action.
• # of attuned items max = proficiency bonus
  • Dispelling magic that would break the magically attuned item is protected if your average bonus from INT, WIS, CHA is greater than the # of attuned items.
  • If your # of attuned items exceeds this. Then they have a chance to break if you encounter dispelling magic.
• I do not cap abilities. 20 is not the ceiling for ability score
• In order to do the help action - you must be proficient in that skill.
• Rolling for stats
  • 6 rolls of 4d6 drop lowest, re-roll 1's (1 time)
  • 1 additional roll to replace the lowest.
  • Health Max for 1st level + an additional roll without modifier to start.
  • 1 additional feat.
• Flanking does provided advantage however you have to have engaged with that enemy within your last turn. Either by damage or being damaged from them.
• I'm sure I'm missing a few..

House Rules (A5E / 5e) — Categorized

1) Death & Dying

Secret Death Saves (GM Rolled)

Rule: Death saving throws are rolled in secret by the GM.
Effect/Benefit: Increases tension and uncertainty, reducing meta play and making unconsciousness feel more dangerous and urgent.

Exhaustion on Going Down

Rule: Immediately gain 1 level of exhaustion when reduced to 0 hit points in combat.
Effect/Benefit: Discourages “yo-yo healing” and makes dropping to 0 HP feel consequential, encouraging better positioning and risk management.

2) Heroic Moments & Roleplay Rewards

Inspiration for Roleplay & Table Engagement

Rule: Inspiration is granted for great role play, cool moments, appropriate jokes, and answering lore questions from a character’s perspective.
Effect/Benefit: Encourages players to stay in-character, engage with the setting, and contribute to memorable moments beyond combat.

3) Healing & Consumables

Potion Quaffing (Bonus Action vs Action)

Rule: Drinking a potion as a bonus action restores rolled healing; drinking as a full action restores maximum healing.
Effect/Benefit: Makes potions more usable during combat while rewarding players who spend their whole turn to stabilize or recover more reliably.

4) Combat Rules & Tactics

Critical Hits: Max + Roll

Rule: On a critical hit, deal maximum damage for the dice + roll the dice normally (instead of doubling dice).
Effect/Benefit: Makes critical hits consistently impactful and prevents underwhelming crits, increasing excitement and threat level in combat.

Flanking with Engagement Requirement

Rule: Flanking grants advantage only if you have engaged that enemy within your last turn (by dealing damage or being damaged by them).
Effect/Benefit: Prevents “flanking conga lines” and rewards active, involved positioning rather than passive advantage farming.

Bonus Action → Action Flexibility

Rule: Anything you can do as a bonus action, you can also do as an action.
Effect/Benefit: Improves action economy flexibility and reduces wasted turns when a character’s bonus action options conflict with other abilities.

5) Magic Items & Attunement

Attunement Limit Scales with Proficiency Bonus

Rule: Maximum attuned items equals your proficiency bonus.
Effect/Benefit: Gives higher-level characters more room for magical customization while keeping early-level item stacking under control.

Over-Attunement Risk vs Dispel Effects

Rule: If your number of attuned items exceeds your average INT/WIS/CHA bonus, dispelling magic may break attuned items.
Effect/Benefit: Adds a meaningful risk-reward choice to heavy magical loadouts and makes magical disruption more narratively threatening.

6) Character Creation & Advancement

No Ability Score Cap

Rule: Ability scores are not capped at 20.
Effect/Benefit: Enables truly legendary characters and supports high-powered campaigns where progression continues meaningfully into higher tiers.

Stat Rolling (Heroic Array Method)

Rule: Roll stats using 6 sets of 4d6 drop lowest; re-roll 1s once; roll an additional set to replace the lowest.
Effect/Benefit: Produces consistently heroic characters and reduces the chance of a player being stuck with an unfun stat spread.

Extra Starting Durability

Rule: Start with max HP at 1st level plus an additional hit die roll (no modifier).
Effect/Benefit: Makes level 1 less fragile and helps reduce “random death” from early crits or high spikes in damage.

Bonus Feat

Rule: Characters start with 1 additional feat.
Effect/Benefit: Increases build variety and lets players define their character concept earlier with meaningful mechanical identity.

7) Skill Use & Assistance

Help Action Requires Proficiency

Rule: You must be proficient in a skill to take the Help action for that skill.
Effect/Benefit: Prevents unrealistic “help spam,” reinforces character specialties, and makes teamwork feel earned and believable.