FAQs, rules and admin stuff

[Ed Chivers]

FAQs

These are either "frequently asked questions", or "questions I am expecting to handle so I'm putting the answers out ahead of time"

The basics

1. What is all this?
   
   The super-quick version. It is a 5th edition D&D game I will be running, starting in March 2019. It's an open-table, play-when-you-can "West Marches" style game based around exploration and discovery. My main reason for doing this is to get better acquainted with fifth edition D&D, but I do have a world to share that I hope you'll be interested in. Play will be at the table rather than online.
   
   
2. A West what?
   
   West Marches. I'm taking the name from Ben Robbins' write up which you can read over at http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/78/grand-experiments-west-marches/ - but to sum it up in a couple of key points:
   
   The players start in their home base which is a safe town or settlement on the edge of a large unexplored region
   
   The unexplored world is more dangerous than the town, but it's also where all the adventuring and treasure is - no adventure happens in the starting town
   
   There are a large total number of players from which smaller adventuring parties can form in order to play. You won't all be playing at the same time (because that would be crazy) but depending on who is available and who wants to explore a particular place you, the players, can get a group together to go take a look. Ideally it shouldn't be the same groups of players/characters adventuring together every time, it's good to mix things up a bit.
   
   It's player-lead - players from the wider pool will decide what they want to explore and when they're free to play, and then let the DM (me) know. This should mean that you as players can play as frequently (within reason!!!) or as infrequently as you like, depending on how your schedules look.
   
   Individual explorations should ideally take one session, maybe two but probably not longer. You're welcome to go on longer expeditions but of course while your characters are away, other adventurers might be making discoveries of their own (and nabbing all the good stuff!)
   
   Matt Colville made a video about this style of play, which is on his YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/oGAC-gBoX9k (if you watch it, don't feel like you should watch the whole thing, you'll have got the gist of it once he starts talking about "Microscope" and "Kingdom")
   
   
3. What setting is it in?
   
   The setting is 100% homebrew. If it was a published setting you wouldn't be exploring now, would you?
   
   
4. How will we know where to explore?
   
   A mysterious map has been discovered! That's the starting point - there are things on that map you haven't seen before, and it looks worth exploring. Of course those of you who venture out of the valley to explore may find more interesting things to follow up on.
   
   
5. Is there a story here, or is this just a hexcrawl?
   
   There's no overarching story initially but I'm pretty certain one will emerge fairly quickly as you explore and interact with the outside world. This is a world with secrets to be discovered, and you're not the only ones in it...
   
   
6. How does this work, in practice?
   
   OK, the plan is to build up a pool of players. We can use this group to arrange when players want to meet up, who they want to adventure with, and what they want to go explore (remember this is player-lead). So for example, say there are 20 players total - they're not all going to play together at the same time because there's no table big enough, but perhaps four of them might agree that they want to take a look at that weird-looking ruin on a hill to the south. They can all play in a week's time so they let me know and I prep for that game. Those four players make up the adventuring party for that session, go explore the spooky ruin and see what's there, then come back to the town to share the news of what they've found. Sharing is caring.
   
   Next time, another group goes to explore somewhere - could be a completely different set of players, or it could be a mix of people from the first session and some new people. The key thing is, when adventuring parties return to the town, they share their news - this is absolutely key because although you might be adventuring in small groups, you're all one adventuring community based in the starting town. You're collectively discovering the world and mapping it out. In practice, this means someone from the returning party writes up what they found and shares it with the wider group (in character!) as a post on here. Even though I'm sure you'd do this out of the goodness of your own hearts, there may be in-game rewards for being a good story-teller and sharing. Let's see how things go.
   
   
7. Remind me of that setting again?
   
   OK, here's the starting position. You are all townsfolk living in a green and fertile valley surrounded by tall mountains. Life is good in the valley, and safe. All different sorts of people live here, from the dwarven folk in the surrounding hills and mountains, the forest elves and gnomes, to the humans and halflings enjoying their town lives.
   
   Nobody has ventured out of the valley in living memory - why would you? It's dangerous out there! - but a few days ago the dwarf miners uncovered a carved stone map etched into the rock wall of a tunnel inside the mountain. It shows the valley you all know well, but also other places beyond, mysterious locations potentially rich with treasure and magic. The town is abuzz with talk of exploration for the first time in generations and small groups are starting to band together to venture out into the wilderness to see what they can find. Will you join them?

Character generation

1. What classes, races and backgrounds can we choose for our characters?
   
   You can use any of the character options in the 5th edition Player's Handbook or Xanathar's Guide to Everything. There's an online version of the basic rules (most of them anyway) at https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules if you don't have the dead-tree version. The only caveat I would add is to consider the starting setting when picking backgrounds - most of them can be made to fit a character growing up in an isolated valley but not all. For this reason I would caution against the "sailor" and "soldier" backgrounds unless you can make them fit in a convincing way.
   
   
2. What languages can our characters speak?
   
   Languages are on page 123 of the Player's Handbook and at https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/personality-and-background#Languages - I am happy for your characters to speak any of the standard languages your backgrounds or classes entitle you to. Please talk to me if you want to speak an exotic language, so that we can work out a reason why your character knows any of those languages.
   
   
3. What level do we start at?
   
   Everyone starts at first level
   
   
4. Can we have multiple characters (I want my alts, dagnabbit!)
   
   I think this might be useful in the West Marches style of game, on the offchance that people want to join another session while their main character is off exploring the wilderness, or if they want to adventure with a party and their main character is at a much higher/lower level than everyone else. Let's just not go crazy, yes? Let's say a two character maximum for now. Oh and your alts start at first level too.
   
   
5. Where do our characters start?
   
   In The Valley. The clue's in the name. There's a map and description on this post.
   
   
6. Are there any restrictions on alignment?
   
   Technically no, but I'm not sure how many people will want to adventure with the Chaotic Evil Warlock of Cthulhu. Also, the general alignment of the valley's people is at least not evil, so if you do play an evil character you might not fit in. If you want to play the grouchy Lawful Evil wizard of the Stone Wastes, I'm not going to stop you.
   
   
7. What method should I use to generate my character's ability scores? Can I roll? (I totally got all 18s...)
   
   Please can everyone use the 27 point spend method on page 13 of the Player's Handbook - also at https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/step-by-step-characters#VariantCustomizingAbilityScores so that everyone has the same points to spend and nobody can be accused of dice-meddling
   
   
8. How do we calculate starting wealth?
   
   Starting wealth is based on class and can be found on page 143 of the Player's Handbook. You have the option of taking the starting equipment and gold from your class and background combination OR taking starting wealth based on class as described below.
   
   The starting wealth for a restricted set of classes is in the SRD at https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/equipment#Wealth
   
   I am happy to take d4 rolls as 3s for the sake of argument, if we do this then the starting wealth based on class is as follows:
   
   Barbarian - 2d4 x 10 = 60 gp
   Bard - 5d4 x 10 = 150 gp
   Cleric - 5d4 x 10 = 150 gp
   Druid - 2d4 x 10 = 60 gp
   Fighter - 5d4 x 10 = 150 gp
   Monk - 5d4 = 15 gp
   Paladin - 5d4 x 10 = 150 gp
   Ranger - 5d4 x 10 = 150 gp
   Rogue - 4d4 x 10 = 120 gp
   Sorcerer - 3d4 x 10 = 90 gp
   Warlock - 4d4 x 10 = 120 gp
   Wizard - 4d4 x 10 = 120 gp
   
   You'll get a certain amount of starting equipment from your class and background, anything else you want your character to have needs to be bought using this starting wealth.
   
   
9. Do we have a preferred character sheet?
   
   Rico has found a very nice fillable PDF character sheet which I've attached to this post - character sheet here
   
   

Gameplay and logistics

1. How are we tracking time? If my character is on a month-long voyage in-game which lasts one afternoon IRL, and next week IRL I want them to go adventuring with other characters, are they still on the voyage?
   
   Having multiple parties taking different amount of time in the game gives me a headache. Justin Alexander talks about "lockdown" and "character stables" on his Open Table Manifesto posts. I don't know if we'll need any of that, can we figure it out as we go along?
   
   
2. Are we tracking encumbrance?
   
   I'm willing to hand-wave this unless I think your character is carrying a ridiculous amount of material. As a reminder, your character's carrying capacity in pounds is your strength score multiplied by 15 (page 176 of the PHB). I am not going to slow you down at five times strength, because this would mean half of you would be struggling to carry your adventurer's packs.
   
   
3. What about food and water? Are we tracking that?
   
   Yes we are, since you're exploring the unknown. Some of you may have proficiency in survival and nature skills to help with foraging and hunting, or might have background or class traits to help with that. If your party isn't in that position you may need to rely more upon food you can carry with you from the valley. As a reminder, "rations" are listed in the equipment section of the Player's Handbook and at https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/equipment#AdventuringGear
   
   
4. Roughly how often can we expect to play?
   
   I am aware that by putting myself in this position I am setting myself up as Captain Single-Point-Of-Failure, since we can only play when the GM is available. I believe I can comfortably commit to one session a week - weekends are best, Friday evenings are possible, any other weekday evening is unlikely. I remind you that it will be the players who will decide when they want to play, and then arrange that with me.
   
   
5. Where will we play?
   
   For now, assume we are playing each session at Chez Chivers. If anyone else wants to host, or it makes sense for them to do so for childcare / transport reasons then I can travel and give people lifts.
   
   
6. What happens after a session?
   
   After your characters return from their exploring and adventuring, they will normally pull up a bar stool at the Lakeside Inn and regale the patrons with tales of their heroic adventures. What this means is, someone (or more than one person if you like!) from the party should add a new post tagged with "stories" and write a description of what happened, in character. This way the other players get to learn what you found and can plan their own adventures. I want to take a moment to explain something about when you should post - if your characters are on a longer exploration (e.g. a week or a month) then you should wait that long before posting. You can draft it and keep it ready ahead of  time, just don't post it until your characters "get back", even if you carry out a month's worth of adventuring in game time in a single day's session. I hope the reasons for this should be self-evident, it's to avoid situations where a group of characters head off for a month long trip, then post about it the next day and influence the next band of adventurers who set off a week later in-game.
   

More questions will be added to this post as they come up.

[Rico]

I have downloaded and am currently enjoying the first one on this list (scroll past all those sponsored searches):

https://dnd5echaractersheet.com/

Sure, its 4 pages, but it has ALL THE THINGS! ;)

The download link is where it says 'This Link' in blue, under the sheet.

[Ed Chivers]

That is a nice character sheet. Hooray for crowdsourced nerdery!

[Ed Chivers]

Hi everyone - I have updated the FAQ to add some questions which came up in conversation yesterday. These are mainly around backgrounds, languages, starting wealth and logistics.

[Rico]

My take was that you either get the equipment granted by class and background etc or you roll for starting wealth and are on your own buying equipment from that, rather than getting class/background loot.  I took the gear given by class/background and soent the pcoket change that gave me on a few extra's to round out the gear.  I'm happy to stick with that even if you decide its gear from classes etc and the 'rolled' wealth in cash.

[Ed Chivers]

You are, as usual, correct. I bow to your superior nerd knowledge (and ability to read simple text) and will update the FAQ.

[Rory Cullen]

https://twitter.com/ChrisPerkinsDnD/status/1103751154003894273

"Spells on the Dungeon Master’s spell list include: conceal die roll, extra monster, grant inspiration, and hand wave"

I know for a fact Rico took Improved Extra Monster and Superior Extra Monster back in the day

R. 

[Richard Matson]

Verbal component "second wave... Diiiiiiiive!"

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[Ed Chivers]

Material components - bag of d00ds :)

[Ed Chivers]

Note : I've updated the FAQ post to fold in the information from the "Welcome" post, which in turn was from the original mail I sent out on February 26th. This information is now in the "The basics" section at the top of the FAQ.

[ed.ch...@gmail.com]

Hey everyone -

I was thinking earlier today about playable races, and remembered that in my copy of "Volo's Guide to Monsters" there are stat blocks and traits for a whole bunch of unusual player character races / species. Having taken a look through, I'm thinking of adding goblins and tabaxi to the list of races you can choose for your characters, since we've established the presence of both of these in the game world. At this point this is more likely to affect "alt" characters, as I'm not looking to take on more players at the moment. If you'd like to play a goblin or tabaxi, let me know.

I'll update the FAQ post - https://groups.google.com/g/thevalleyrpg/c/O4ttlv0A768/m/VV5a2zTNBwAJ - to include this info. By the way, Volo's has very specific ideas about alignment and culture for goblins, I am ignoring this. Goblins can be perfectly reasonable characters as far as I'm concerned.

Cheers all,

Ed