The Butcher of Bryndall (Tuesday)

Winters are never much fun in Bryndall. This year, things are a lot worse. The sudden attacks by packs of vicious gnolls are bad enough, but there is now a serial killer within the walls of the quaint little town, taking a new victim every few days. As the temperature drops, the snow intensifies, and the gnolls step up their efforts to breach the town's defenses, will anybody be able to catch the elusive Butcher of Bryndall?

UPDATE: We are several sessions in. Party is level 3, and consists of a Cleric / Fighter, a Rogue / Ranger, a Monk, and a Cleric.

Hi all,

My name is Asha, and I have been playing D&D for about twenty years and DMing for nearly that long.

This D&D 5E (2024) campaign is a homebrew campaign of my own design that I have run for numerous groups.

This is a paid game, and costs $15 USD for each three hour session, paid through PayPal. Your first session is free. Roll20 is not responsible for any payment transactions and cannot enforce any private arrangements.

When We Play:

• This game will be played on Tuesdays at 7 PM, US Eastern Time. Sessions will be roughly three hours. If unsure of the time zone conversion, the "Next Game Will Be" section above displays the game time in your own time zone. We will play most weeks, with occasional weeks off.

• It's fine if you miss games sometimes - we all have our own lives and responsibilities - but please give advance notice whenever you will be late or absent. You will not be charged for sessions you don't attend. Please only apply if you think this game will usually fit into your schedule.

• This game observes North American daylight savings time. If you live in a time-zone that does not do daylight savings, or observes daylight savings during different periods of the year, please keep this in mind, as the game time will change for you whenever North America has a DST change-over.

How We Play:

• In most circumstances, this game will go by RAW (Rules as Written) as per the official 2024 D&D rulebooks.

• I'm pretty relaxed when it comes to roleplaying - there's no need to write an elaborate backstory or go all-out in roleplaying your character unless you want to.

• Discord will be used for voice chat. At the moment, I don't use video or music in my games.

• First-time and inexperienced D&D players are more than welcome, but please make an effort to familiarize yourself with the basics of the D&D 5E rules before the game begins. I'm happy to assist you with building your character, using the Roll20 platform, and playing the game in general, but I will not be able to make your character from scratch for you. If you are a beginner and would like some help in-game (either with Roll20 or with the D&D 5E rules), please let me know.

• Common sense "don't be a dick" rules apply. Be nice, try to sort out disagreements like an adult, don't hog the spotlight or talk over other players, and generally just avoid being an unpleasant person. Everyone's just here to have fun, after all.

About the Campaign:

• This game will begin with everybody at Level 2. All characters will remain at the same level and XP, regardless of when they joined the game or how many sessions they attend. Expect to reach the mid-teens by the campaign's conclusion. There will be a maximum of six players.

• Evil alignments are not permitted. Whatever your alignment and character concept is, please make a character that is capable of working in a team and co-operating with the rest of the party.

• This game will use the new D&D 2024 ruleset. All content from the 2024 rulebooks is allowed. If you wish to use content from pre-2024 sourcebooks, that will be decided on a case-by-case basis - simply ask me about what you were wanting to use, and I will make a ruling. I have the new Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide purchased through Roll20, and will be sharing my compendium so players can access it for character creation and levelling up.

• It wouldn't be accurate to call this campaign a sandbox, but I do like to provide a lot of opportunities for players to influence events and drive the story in their own direction. I'm not bothered at all if player actions force me to improvise like crazy, ignore and/or significantly alter pre-written material, or hastily prepare new content.

• Expect a decent amount of combat. While there will still be plenty of roleplaying opportunities and non-combat encounters, most sessions will have at least one combat encounter, and there will sometimes be sessions that consist mostly of combat.

• Players don't die often in my games, but it does happen. Don't expect to be able to win every encounter through brute force - sometimes you'll have to use stealth or negotiate or run.

• This game takes place in my own homebrew setting. It is a fairly high magic setting, and you will be able to purchase, sell, and create magic items and weapons, using modified versions of the downtime rules from Xanathar's Guide to Everything.

• The tone is somewhat serious, but I do like to inject humor at appropriate points. (Opinions may vary on whether any of it is actually funny.) Banter and general silliness from players is absolutely fine, as long as it isn't slowing things down too much.

• I'd prefer all players be at least 16 years old. This isn't a "mature" game, but there will be swearing, sexual references, some fairly graphic descriptions of violence, and general "dark" content. I have a strict rule against anything in the realm of sexual violence, but otherwise I consider most things that might require a trigger warning to be fair game.

What Am I Paying For?

I believe that if someone is expecting people to pay money to play D&D, they have to offer a service that justifies the expense. In my pay-to-play games, I offer the following:

• A game that runs on a consistent, almost-weekly schedule, and is intended to be run to its conclusion. While there will be the occasional week off, as explained above, games otherwise will go ahead whenever we have the numbers.

• A DM that has nearly twenty years experience running D&D games, over five years experience running games on Roll20, and over two years experience running pay-to-play D&D games, and has learnt the hard way what makes a good game and what makes a poor game.

• A DM that comes to the game prepared and in the mood to play. I've spent a lot of time writing and putting together this adventure, and have run it for numerous groups.

• A DM concerned with making sure everyone is having fun, that the game moves along smoothly, that combat is exciting and fast-paced, and that the D&D rules are used correctly and fairly.

• A friendly, relaxed gaming environment, where aggressive, disruptive, or just deeply unpleasant players are not tolerated.

• Finally, while I cannot guarantee a perfect game - I'm only human, and I will make mistakes sometimes - I will always strive to make each session as good as I can, and to listen to any concerns players may have about how the game is being run.

How to Apply:

If you are interested in playing, please make a post in the "PLAYER APPLICATIONS" thread.

Players will be accepted on a first come, first serve basis. There is no need to include a character concept or backstory - as long as there is an opening available, you will be accepted into the game.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.