Tomb of Annihilation Wednesday

## OLD SCHOOL ADVENTURE, OLD SCHOOL DM
UPDATE: We need one more player. Group is currently level 18 and have finished Tomb of Annihilation as well as several other stories. As we come to the end of the campaign, we are preparing to seek out Acererak again, but this time in the Tomb of Horrors. He's been our BBEG since the beginning. We are looking for one player who enjoys role play and won't be bothered by non optimized characters who enjoy joking and playing around in character. This has been a closed group for over a year. We now have one spot available, but only accepting players who want to have fun. Even though the party is a bit of a motley crew, they have made it to 13th level with out min/maxing or power gaming and they want to keep it that way. If you enjoy having fun and speaking in character, please come give us a try. The party is currently following up on consequences of the end of Tomb of Annihilation. The party recovered the Black Opal crown and then had it stolen to raise Dendar the Night Serpent. They finished that quest and are now trying to stop Xandala, who stole the Ring of Winter from them, from becoming the next empress of the Giants.

Original description:

...Looking for 5 players to play through "Tomb of Annihilation," the new campaign from WotC. The campaign takes place in Chult, a mysterious peninsula far to the south, ringed with mountains and choked with rainforests. For me it will be a welcome break from the Sword Coast. The WotC website claims that it will be an adventure for levels 1–11, although I plan to use it as the starting point of a Sandbox campaign set in The Forgotten Realms for a long term game run all the way up to level 20.

For over a year now, I've been creating a sandbox in Roll20 sown with old school D&D modules. I had re-created "S1 - Tomb of Horrors," "S2 - White Plume Mountain," and "S3 - Expedition to the Barrier Peaks" from old maps using tile sets. I had also integrated G1, G2, and G3 "Against the Giants" into my sandbox. Then WotC published "Tales from the Yawning Portal," making the hundreds of hours I'd spend world building unnecessary. Although I had good maps and dungeons built, I purchased the "Yawning Portal" for the updated color maps and other features they contained to enhance what I already had. I also have "Lost Mine of Phandelver" and "Curse of Strahd." Both are excellent products with tons of role play opportunities in them. I've also added a homebrewed dungeon, a smaller space ship that crashed 10,000 years ago, to introduce the players to the Sci-fi elements in S3 - "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks". That's the beauty of a sandbox, the players get to decide where they want to go. If you don't like Sci-fi in your D&D, then don't go on the "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks." If you think funhouse adventures ruin the immersion, don't go there. But any direction you do go is tied into the overall story.

Don't be frightened off by the "pay to play" tag. The first session is free so you can see how we play before making a commitment. You might also like to know a little more about me or my DM style, so here is a link to my profile: https://app.roll20.net/users/1684767/andres-d Here's the fine print required by Roll20: “This game will require payment to the Game Master at a rate of $15 per session, payable by paypal. A discounted monthly payment of $50 can be made through a subscription service (Patreon) that covers all the sessions in a month. Roll20 is not responsible for any payment transactions and cannot enforce any private arrangements."

Below are a few details about my campaign setting:

1. In my version of the Realms, after the Spell plague ended and the Times of Trouble were past and after everything that happened in 4th edition D&D to the Realms is long over, 30 years after the Sundering, finally things are getting back to normal in the Northern Sword Coast. A massive amount of rebuilding is still needed, but Civilization is starting to push back against the encroaching forces of nature.

2. As a result of the the Sundering, The mirror worlds of Abeir-Toril have separated again into just Toril and Abeir. Our adventures take place on Toril. The Sundering returned much of the geography to its original state. Therefore, the great cities of the Dragonborn and the populations of Tieflings that were brought to this world have been magically removed and sent back to Abeir, leaving only the basic races that always existed here. (Humans, Elfs, Dwarves, Haflings, Orcs, goblins, etc.) This means that any of the races that came from Abeir will be very, very rare. Very few of their kind are left on this planet. This might lead to some racial profiling and general racism, but it will always create drama.

3. Certain classes are just about as rare as Tieflings and Dragonborn on this newly separated world. Warlocks and Sorcerers are uncommon. This makes story sense because Sorcerers were introduced with the Dragonborn. Now that the Dragonborn have gone, so have the Sorcs. Warlocks are very rare as they should be, while wizards abound and are rebuilding their great schools of Wizardry.

TIME AND DATE

I have games on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. This particular game is on Wednesdays at 10 am CST. I live in the heart of Mayan territory in Mexico. My time zone is GMT-6. Sessions are programmed to last 4 hours, but routinely run over. Sometimes many hours over. Please speak with me if you have strict time limits on session length.

GENERAL RULES

Of the six games I run on Roll20, I have games with homebrew content as well as games that strictly follow the rules in the Player's Handbook. If you have a certain character concept in mind that requires bending the rules or uses homebrew material, please contact me so that we can discuss your character and it's needs. I might be able to place you in a group where your character will more easily fit in. This particular game on Wednesdays doesn't currently have any homebrew in it.

ALIGNMENT AND STYLE OF PLAY

I prefer a group of heroes. I think it is a wonderful story when evil is knocking at the gates and the player-characters show up to save the day. I would normally look down on a story where the players were the "evil" beating down the gates. That said, I can understand the desire to play certain literary archetypes like the "lovable rogue" or even the "honorable" Lawful Evil character. In all my years of D&D, I've never seen an "Evil" party make it to level 20. Even among friends it is hard to run an evil campaign. With complete strangers in an online game it is impossible in my opinion. I tried to let one of my groups transition into evil using corruption points in Curse of Strahd. They were mostly good role players and even then people got their feelings hurt. If you want to play an evil or CN character, please speak to me first so that we can talk about your expectations.

PARTY SIZE

I prefer a party of 5 player characters. This is large enough to survive, while not taking too terribly long to finish one round of combat. A party of four can often have trouble with certain encounters, while a party of 6 might be OP. I try to maintain a group of 5 dedicated players. Unfortunately, because of life, job, or school obligations, we will sometimes have players come and go from the group. This will sometimes result in a group of between 4 and 6 players, though I try to balance it to just 5 when possible.

CHARACTERS AND CHARACTER CREATION

I use the Standard Array; 15,14,13,12,10,8. I really believe that the standard array creates more well rounded characters with more depth than Min/Maxing the 27 point buy. After applying racial bonuses you can have very strong characters that still have a "flaw." I will work with you on your background/backstory to make sure have plot hooks to draw your character into the adventure.

HOUSE RULES

RACIAL CHANGES:
DWARF: I've added the Maul to the "Dwarven Combat Training" Feature, under the "Dwarf Traits" section of the Dwarf race. I've done this because a Dwarf with a huge maul is very iconic. "Dwarven Combat Training. You have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, light hammer, warhammer, and Maul."

WEAPON CHANGES:
Rapier now has the finesse and light properties. Was "Rapier 25 gp 1d8 piercing 2 lb. Finesse," now "Rapier 25 gp 1d8 piercing 2 lb. Finesse, light" This allows the Rapier to be used in two weapon fighting without affecting game balance. I do this because a "Rapier" type weapon with a dagger in the off-hand is a traditional European fighting style. I don't do this to min/max characters by using two rapiers. I'll allow one rapier fluffed to whatever you want to call it in the main hand and a dagger in the off hand. I've had characters who want to call it a Katana, broadsword, backsword, or estoc. All are fine.

GENERAL RULES CHANGES:
ENCUMBRANCE: I don't enforce strict encumbrance unless there is a valid reason. We will assume that upon entering combat you drop your backpack. I will increase the carrying capacity of your backpack from 30 lb to 50 lb. This way, a fully loaded pack with rope and bedroll tied to it might weigh around 70 lb. If you agree to drop it every time you enter battle this should put everyone under the encumbrance limit during combat, which is where your movement normally matters. But if you retreat from battle remember to pick it up. If you find yourself's running for your life's, you might have to drop your pack or be affected as per the encumbrance rules. So don't keep all your gold there. ;)

AMMUNITION: I didn't make players track ammo, unless there was a good reason like being in a wilderness without means of replenishing it or in a dungeon where there is no easy way to buy more. Now that I use the API, the ammo is automatically tracked just like spell slots.

RATIONS: Same goes for your food rations. It's important that all characters have at least some food and a waterskin. But unless there is a good reason, like a desert or a trap you can't escape from or your lost in the jungles of Chult, then I won't make you fiddle with your rations. We will assume that every time you are in a city or town or even a farm that you replenish your rations.

SPELL CASTING RULES CHANGES:
You can use a holy symbol as a spellcasting focus for your divine spells or an arcane focus for arcane spells. Thus eliminating the need for material components. The only time I use material components are for spells that have gold piece value on the components. For example:

Stoneskin
4th-level abjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (diamond dust worth 100 gp, which the spell consumes)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
This spell turns the flesh of a willing creature you touch as hard as stone. Until the spell ends, the target has resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

In this case, for simplicity's sake, you deduct the 100 gp from your gold on your character sheet every time you cast this spell. I'm not going make you carry around every single component you need for your spells, nor do I care to role play you getting them. So we assume when you are in a city, you purchase what you need. But you mark down the gold spent when you cast the spell.