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The City of Splendors - RP Workshop on Twitch

Workshops will be broadcast on Twitch.
Learn to use Roll20 and D&D5e at a full time table with consistent players.

I have a DCI # and support Adventurer's League play.


Every story starts somewhere. Any one shot or workshop can lead a character into a long term campaign within this open world.

We can teach you everything that you need to know to get started playing D&D5e on Roll20 within a single workshop.


About the workshop

This workshop is broken up into mini sessions. The first part allows players to present their Race, Class, and Background choices, and how they relate to their backstory to the rest of the group. Then the players learn about the world of Waterdeep, in the Forgotten Realms. The players are given access to minigames that help with learning how to escalate and de escalate situations using RP.

Another mini session can begin at any time, characters can choose to enter Undermountain, go on a dinosaur race, sell newspapers, get into food fights or play darts. My version of Matt Mercer's "Queen's Quick Call" will allow players to work on their ability to have a conversation in character.

The entire world of Waterdeep is available to us, starting with the Yawning Portal.

About the world

My homebrew open world is based on the world building that my players and I have been creating over the last 9000+ hours here. Our world is rooted in the lore of the Forgotten Realms and Waterdeep, using these publications:

  • Lankhmar -City of Adventure, 1985
  • Waterdeep and the North, FR1, 1987
  • Waterdeep, FRE3, 1989
  • Volo's Guide to Waterdeep, 1993
  • City of Splendors (Book 1) Campaign Guide, 1994
  • City of Splendors (Book 2) Who's Who in Waterdeep, 1994
  • City of Splendors (Book 3) Adventurer's Guide, 1994
  • Cloak and Dagger, 2000
  • City of Splendors: Waterdeep, 2005
  • City of Splendors: Waterdeep, Part 2 Environs of Waterdeep, 2006
  • Blackstaff Tower: Ed Greenwood Presents: Waterdeep, 2010
  • Sword Coast Adventure's Guide, 2015
  • Death Masks - Ed Greenwood, 2016
  • Waterdeep Dragon Heist, 2018
  • Waterdeep Dungeon of the Mad Mage. 2018
  • Strongholds and Followers, 2018
  • 45 pages of optional homebrew rules are available for use within campaigns.

About your character

  • Include your Race, Class and Background in your application
  • Ability scores use 27 point buy

Cool Story Bro

I offer characters who develop a backstory a free feat between 1st and 3rd level. Players can create a story that explains how their character encountered the feature that they are seeking. This can be developed into an encounter or can be an addition to the character's backstory. Of course, this rule makes Variant Human redundant.

About the DM

I do not carry the game for the players. Every session will require at least two players who can carry on a conversation in character in order for the DM to be in Campaign Mode.

Campaign Mode allows the characters to go anywhere and do anything they can think of doing. Characters who form a party can activate Campaign Mode.

Every game begins in an RP Workshop. The #1 cause of DM abandonment issues has to do with separating Meta from RP. Players who suck at RP can get better if they commit to doing work. Good players do not happen by accident.

Critical Role is the success that it is because the players are all professionals, who workshop their skills.

The middle mode for my DM Style is Open Game Mode. This focuses on 1-5th level open world games that players can drop in and out of whenever they have time.

I also run One Shots that allow players to setup a character at a given level, or run a pre-made character.


The application process begins in Discord. Please leave a comment below or PM me through Roll20 to get access to our discord server to apply.

Welcome.


Obsidian Bay Stories

ObsidianBayStories.com

Our games have been rated the "Most Fun" on the internet.*
*Not actually a provable claim.

"Even if they have super power, they have to be believable, what they do has to be what any normal person would do in those situations" Stan "The Man" Lee


Character Driven Campaign

My campaigns are all Character Driven Campaigns. The characters are protagonists who drive the story forward through their actions. Every module, game and session has been custom designed as a challenge for the players present. Major changes are made to plot points and monsters are homebrewed to challenge the characters' specific set of skills. I write my campaigns using the Marvel Method. I keep certain things separated even when I am writing on my own. Everyone in my games starts out in the same place. We can go anywhere from here.


Who am I?

My philosophy for Dungeons and Dragons is less like Tolkien and more like Princess Bride. I also have a healthy dose of Time Bandits thrown in (because Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Monty Python - the opening sequence shows the universe appearing on a grid... ).

I care about creating epic adventures. I care about helping every player achieve their vision for their character. I care about creating a world that we can all dream of. I do everything I can to create an environment that supports everyone involved.

I approach the game using tools I learned in film school (SIU, Cinema & Photography 2014). Everything that happens before we start recording a session is pre production. I use the same tools I used to deconstruct Akira Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress (1953, Tohoscope) to develop my encounters. Every D&D game should feel like a vignette from a film.

I am a Dungeon Master with a film degree. Dan Harmon's Story Circle concept is a useful way to apply Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces theory to TTRPG.

Dan Harmon, Writer of Rick and Morty, Community, and HarmonQuest has developed a theory that he applies in his writing.

1:) A character is in a place of COMFORT
2:) But they WANT something
3:) So they go somewhere WEIRD
4:) ADAPT to it
5:) They GET what they wanted
6:) But they have to PAY
7:) They RETURN
8:) Having CHANGED


How do I build a backstory?

Your character is leaving the known and heading into the unknown. There are loads of handouts and information about Waterdeep in the game and in the Discord server. Create a place of comfort and discover something that your character wants. That's all a backstory needs. I'll bring the weird.


Minigames

Cricket - Darts

This classic game has been re-imagined in D&D. This game is incredibly competitive and gets the dice rolling. Also, wild magic surges happen that might turn everything upside down.

Drinking Contest

This seemingly silly game enforces an important concept in role playing. The player begins with a toast, rolls a con save, and then reacts to the results. Players who understand this game learn to stop throwing dice at a DM before being asked. It also gives players a chance to practice playing their character in a confused state.

Arm Wrestling

The arm wrestling contest that we run is a multi step challenge that uses disadvantage and advantage to set the difficulty between contestants. This creates an intense game of player vs player.

Fishing Contest

The fishing contest allows players to create a story that utilizes 3 skills to accomplish a task. Then the characters eat their winnings.

Newspaper game

In order to earn renown with the Newspaper guild, characters can sell 100 newspapers to argumentative citizens of Waterdeep. We look up contentious issues and take three opposing issues on two different newspapers. Between the arguments of the citizens, the characters compete for newspaper sales.

Food Fight

Any combat in the Yawning Portal had better be non-lethal and a declared contest. A declared contest begins with using the issues from the newspaper game to get established players cranked up and ready to declare a contest. The game uses skill checks and random non lethal weapons.

Dinosaur Race

This race allows the players to choose a dinosaur and run in an unchained race. Anything can happen and usually does.

Pickpocket the Cult of People Who Give People Dirty Looks - in the park

This game teaches players how to properly break line of sight to hide, how to stealth, and how to use distraction to get advantage at sleight of hand checks. And how to deal with intimidation checks.

Wanted! These people are worth 500 dragons, hunt them down and catch them

This is my longest running game.

Boaty McBoatface

Load the Ballista!!!! Fire the Ballista!!!
Hunt down pirates, board their ship and take over their shipping lanes. Find the hidden island and get resources for the gang's health potion facility. Find a way to take over the Black Blade and Bloody Boar and run your own fight club.
(This isn't a minigame, it's the what the current homebrew game is up to.)

Gambly games

We have working versions of Roulette, Craps, Dinosaur race betting, and Queen's Quick Call. Queen's Quick Call is a d6 version of Texas Hold em that Matt Mercer used in Critical Role once. We also make bets on characters who go into Undermountain, because Ed Greenwood told us to.


We will run these games before running a rando encounter or one shot of adventures we have available here at my table. The first few sessions that a player participates in will help them get to know people at the table in a way that makes it easy to get to know each other.


One shots - session games

If two players want to schedule a one shot, I will work with them to organize a game. I run games full time and have time slots available throughout the week.

Every session that I run has specific beats and measures, a beginning, a middle, and an end. There will always be some tech support issues that we will have to deal with, but we all ask that players review the Roll20 Tutorial before rage quitting on a Roll20 issue.

Every session begins with presenting new backstories.

The Xanathar

We operate as intellect devourers who operate other creatures like puppets. The Xanathar has certain objectives in Undermountain that require constant vigilance. No one is getting to level 2 on our watch. This game will focus on certain agents within the Xanathar crime syndicate. We run level 1 and the fighting arena in Skullport.
Everyone talks about this fight club.
The Xanathar

Shake Down! The Dungeon of the Mad Mage

Convince adventurers who venture into Undermountain to pay a small price for the opportunity to see a grand show. A three ringed circus! You have been able to decorate the Hall of Heroes to look like the entrance to an amazing spectacle of a Circus. If the adventurers appreciate freedom, beauty, truth and love, they should be able to pay a little coin to enterprising entrepreneurs like yourselves.

Shake Down! The Dungeon of the Mad Mage

The Ruins of Undermountain

Durnan will allow lower level adventurers access to Undermountain for a price. The adventurers usually come back in a few hours, drunk and demanding that they need more beer to heal themselves. This version is a living dungeon and is based on all versions of Undermountain. I use the old school grid maps along with detailed battle maps for certain rooms. Everyone who goes into this dungeon effects it in certain ways. This dungeon is alive and is building itself as we explore it.

Undermountain

The Goblin House

Somewhere behind a stage in Undermountain, there is a green door. Your party was given instructions for safe passage to this place in order to pay a ransom for a deed that was stolen by the Goblins.

The Goblin House

The Goblin Run

Face off on a massive battle field encounter with different rules than normal. It might be a hellscape where you are forced to live over and over, seeing multiple copies of your dead bodies when you "respawn". You wonder if you can use your dead body for cover, and as you dive for it, you find out that it works. gross. big battlefield with two sets of armies that get more powerful as you fight them. this is an incredible battle simulator that uses Greyhawk Initiative and multiple sets of enemies that are being operated by competing DMs. The GM runs the game while the DMs run the monsters. Nil Bog Boh.

This game happens here.

Big Boss Big Boss Battles

Face off with big boss battles from modules we have already run. Relive old battles with new friends using our Helm of Virtual Reality here in the guild tower.

This game happens here.

Capture The Flag

6-8 players organize themselves into teams based on competing interests developed through RP. Once teams are established, the players are presented with a MOBA style battle arena, with minions, turrets, deadly map features and other players. The goal is to capture the flag, but what happens next?

This game happens in the workshop

Druid's Grove

Druid's Grove is a hidden gem in the Obsidian Bay world. Characters have to travel back to Obsidian Bay in order to find Druid's Grove. It used to be right around the corner from the Welcome Wench, but that was before the move to Waterdeep.

Druid's Grove

Hunt for the Scarlet Marpenoth

This game allows players to explore under the deep harbor of Waterdeep for hidden treasure. And fight giant sharks while flying around really slowly in the water.

Hunt for the Scarlet Marpenoth

The Snout of Omgar

Volo says "Do NOT go to Chult!", but the more he talks, the more you want to go to Chult.
Go to the Snout of Omgar and tour the beautiful Dangwaru. (all inclusive)

Snout of Omgar

Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure

Play as Mordenkainen the Mage at 12th level, Bigby the Necromancer, Riggby the Cleric and Yrag the Fighter. These were all Gary Gygax's own characters, reset for 5e.
This dungeon was originally designed for the members of the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association back in 1972 -1973.

Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure


Custom Backgrounds

These games are level 0 games that allow characters to develop custom backgrounds. Whatever happens in these games can be applied to 1st level characters as a background specific to that character's experience.

Treasure Hunt

Your characters have been captured by pirates and must learn to survive by their wits alone. This adventure leads characters from level 0 to level 1 and allows them to create their own custom background titled "Child of the Goddess".

Treasure Hunt

Children of Vallaki

If someone wants to use the Haunted One background, they should play this game in order to see for themselves what haunted their character. They will also learn about the lands of Barovia and the horrors of living in a domain that is ruled by a vampire tyrant. Horrible things will happen to the teenager version of your character that tries to survive in a town with less souls than people.

Children of Vallaki

Waterdeep: Newspaper gang

This background game creates a background that starts with urchin and allows a character to gain renown with the newspaper faction in Waterdeep starting at an early age.

Waterdeep: Newspaper gang


Campaigns that can start any time

Run your game NOW!

It only takes two players to get a campaign started. Once I have a core group to support the game, we can run a Worldbuilding Session 0 for a campaign. This session will allow us to establish the parameters for the entire campaign. We plan everything from level 0 to level 20, Campaign setting, Homebrew rules, everything. My players have as much control over their games as I can possibly give to them. Right up to the moment where the meta ends, and the game begins....

Run your game NOW

Worldbuilding

Do you want to be a GM, and run your own games? I can give you the tools that you need. I have a year long headstart and a full time commitment to successful campaigns to draw from. You can start building your world and testing the pieces of it before you get started with a complete campaign. Undermountain is a dungeon that allows the campaign to build it as it goes. You can build your entire campaign using the same kind of logic that Ed Greenwood baked into his modules and his books. I have maps, encounters, strategies, tactics, goals, implementation, session management, sage advice and the experience that comes from doing something well.

Worldbuilding


The application process begins in Discord. Please leave a comment below or PM me through Roll20 to get access to our discord server to apply.

Discord: Dr.Frank n Furter #5285

Welcome.

Want to join this game? Make a post in the discussion forum below and let the GM know!

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