Bonds

Let’s start with bonds. This one is pretty simple, but it’s a very handy one to have, and for the Dungeon Master to know about. This is what you are connected to. Often times, this is going to be a character, such as a family member, but it can also be an organization. If you play a monk, it might be the monetary that you studied at. If you’re a half-orc barbarian, it might be the tribe that grew up with. Or maybe you play a druid who has a wild old bear friend.

The important element, here is, that you don’t tie them too tightly into anything. While they are your bond, keep it a bit nebulas as to how. Why you want to do that, is so the Dungeon Master can play with the character more. If you create someone who is extremely specific in location and backstory, it is going to be trickier to integrate.

Flaws

Next up is the flaw. I think this one is very important as well because it is going to be important for your role playing. This is something that you character doesn’t like. I think the name flaw makes that fairly obvious, but let’s lay it out clearly. And this is something that you can role play when you play Dungeons and Dragons.

Now, I think most players pick a flaw that isn’t too big a complication. But a bigger complication can create more interesting role playing moments. For example, a character in my game dislikes leprechauns. Another one is afraid of water. These make for interesting moments in the game because water is a thing, rain is a thing. And turns out the fey are very important to the story so leprechauns show up.

And while I think a lot of players will gravitate towards, I dislike something, or I’m afraid of something. I think there is a physical element that you can add to. What does it look like if your rogue is missing an arm? How is that going to complicate life for them, because as an adventurer, and in particular a rogue who maybe does second story work, that is going to make the life way more challenging.

Ideals

Another way to say an ideal would be, what is your characters north star. And I want to use that term, because I think ideals are less role played out than some. But there is a very important reason to have them in your game and for your character.

Now, the reason I think it is less role played than other things, in Dungeons and Dragons, is that it’s a positive. I think a good ideal can be role played though. So how do you do that?

I think that you make it specific and general enough. Now that sounds weird, but if it’s too general, it can’t be acted upon. If it is too specific, like a bond, it is a fixed element of the story. There is less room for the story to grow.

The other thing the ideal is good for is the north star. This is for those moments when you get stuck asking yourself, what would your character do? As a north star, this is going to give you a quick decision check that you can think about. But there are risks to this, but we’ll talk about that later.

Personality Traits

These are going to be role playing prompts as well. But these don’t always serve that extra purpose for the Dungeon Master to use. Sure, they might be, but the others often more tie to a specific thing. But often times they are lesser things.

You might be very brash after you’ve had a couple of drinks. That is a personality trait, and something you can lean into. It is something, also, that a Dungeon Master can use. Or maybe when someone breaks your trust it is forever gone. That is something else that a Dungeon Master can use.

But a lot of the time, since you do two of these, it is going to be more important to how your character interacts with the party, the NPC’s and the world in general. So as a player, think about them, so you think about how you use them to get into and get out of trouble. Because a good personality trait should be a bit of both.

Using Them As Framework Not The Law

Let’s talk about something important that I hinted at with the ideals. The ideal, personality traits, flaw, and bond are all great things to help shape your character. But they are not all of who your character is. There is one thing as a player that you want to avoid.

And this goes to what I consider a golden rule for Dungeons and Dragons, gaming of any sort really. Is everyone at the table, yourself included, having fun. Ideally that answer should be yes. And it might be some fun with the game and a lot of fun with the company, or a lot of fun with the game.

Why talk about that now? Well, I think it is pretty easy to fall into the trap of “that is what my player would do.”, and that’s negative behavior at the table.

Example

What do I mean by that? Imagine you have a flaw where you have sticky fingers, common for a rogue in Dungeons and Dragons. What happens if you go into the castle and you see some jewels sitting out in the throne room? Do you steal them or not? Now your flaw might say yes. But the room is full of guards, nobles, and the king. If you get caught, what is the king going to do? You won’t be able to talk your way out of it.

If you play by the letter of the law with your character, you would steal them. Likely by stealing the jewels you get caught and you get your whole party in trouble. Now everyone in the party, and probably the people at the table, are annoyed with you.

So, let your character be smart. Don’t let them just be driven by their ideals, bonds, flaws, and personality traits. It is going to go against that fun for everyone at the table. Sure, you might find some fun with it, but is it going to be worth the long term ramifications?

They Can (And Should) Change

The final thing I want to talk about is changing them. This is an element of character creation that is often over looked. Mainly because, I think most players, myself included, think of it as part of character creation. But as you play your Dungeons and Dragons campaign, you will change. So at the start you might be brash, or you might have sticky fingers. But will you continue to have that?

I want to go back to the flaw of being afraid of rain. After a rainman killed the character and he was reincarnated, the player character became afraid of rain. That is going to knock out the previous flaw. Or it is going to be added to the previous flaw as an additional one.

Or, another example, very early on my players decided to befriend and get the help from a fellow student at their school. So now that is a bond that the characters have. They want what is good for that NPC because they befriended them. Sure, they pick other bonds before, but now it is one to add to their character.

Those are two easy examples. But the main point is that your character is a living character. In the world, they go on missions, fight monsters, and interact with people. Every thing they do is going to change them as time goes by. So update your bonds, flaws, ideals, and personality traits as needed.

Final Thoughts for Dungeon and Dragons Traits

There is a good amount in there. I always want to point back to the golden rule for Dungeons and Dragons and all RPGs. And thanks to The RPG Academy for being the ones who made it. But don’t let these things get in the way of fun at the table for everyone. The great thing is that your bonds, flaws, ideals, and personality traits are all tools to enhance the fun at the table.

Which is the hardest to get that proper balance for?

Two more topics to go for players. Let me know if there is an additional Dungeons and Dragons player topic(s) you want to see covered. I want to make this as comprehensive as possible.

• Roleplaying your character
• Character Arcs

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What Is A Dump Stat?

A dump stat is going to be the thing that you are worst at. In terms of what that looks like on your character sheet, 10 is supposed to be average. If someone were to have a 10 in all their stats, they are the average person in the world.

So it’s not just your lowest stat, it is a stat that is below that average. If you are even one less, at 9, you get a negative one penalty on the roll and you are lower than average with what you can roll. But that is talking about it mechanically, it is also a weakness in how you role play out that below average trait.

Playing A Dump Stat in Dungeons and Dragons

The first question to ask if if your character knows they have a dump stat. If you are just below average wisdom or intelligence you know that you aren’t as smart. If they are a fair bit below, now they start to think that they are smarter. Some of the physical ones, strength or dexterity, you might always know that you aren’t as good at, but is that how you are going to play it.

Let’s go through each stat and come up with a way to play it.

Strength

For strength, I think that there are two common ways that you could play it. First, you could have the character constantly try and get people to help them. Even for a meaningless task, like opening a pickle jar with a loose lit, or pull a small dead branch off a tree, they also have someone else help them.

Or on the other side of things, they could refuse help. They might know they are weak, but they are going to do it themselves. So when the big fighter or barbarian tries to help them, they get upset and refuse the help. It is a matter of pride that they will be able to do it on their own.

Dexterity

Dexterity is going to follow along the lines of strength. They know that anything slightly dexterous is tricky for them, so they never do it. In fact, really easy things, they try and make someone else do it. Or they are going to try no matter what.

Constitution

For constitution you can make it about them getting sick all of the time. If the weather turns, they get a slight cold. They have the sniffles about 90% of the year. When the group goes into the bar, they are a light weight and after a drink they are up on the table and possibly looking to pick a fight or hitting on someone at the bar and getting into trouble that way.

Intelligence

Intelligence is pretty straightforward as well. You just assume knowledge about things. If someone talks on a subject, you assume that you know more than they do. And you don’t really feel a need to look into it further because, again, you know. On the other hand, you know about libraries but wouldn’t think about going to them to find out information.

Wisdom

Wisdom is going to be more about how the world works. You think you know how criminals work on the streets. You think you know how things will play out in a situation, especially social. But you really don’t know how any of that works. If you are down a little, you’re probably worried about messing any situation up. If you are very low on wisdom, you just assume that you know what is going on and are a bit of a bull in a china shop.

Charisma

Charisma is probably the most interesting to have as a low stat mainly because charisma as a high stat is pretty narrow. Or at least how a lot of people play it, it is. But as a low stat, you have a lot of ways to go. You can just assume that everyone likes you, even though you are annoying. Being very quiet is another way to play it. Or try and overcompensate by talking loudly or being too affectionate, or whatever thing your character believes is the normal things people do that is most certainly not normal.

Final Thoughts

Dump stats are fun, mainly because it gives your character a chance not to shine. There are a lot of opportunities to utilize strengths. And a good DM (Dungeon Master) should present opportunities like that to players. But a chance to create a fun or interesting moment with a weakness, that is going to be as memorable as that great thing that you did. A dump stat is also a great way to bring in comedy or intended conflict.

An example would be a low dexterity character trying to sneak around the edge of a group of goblins versus the rogue doing so. They fall into the midst of goblins, now you have a weird combat that is going to start happening. Or a low charisma character getting flustered by some light flirting and accidentally proposing to a princess in front of the king. You will be talking about when those moments happen way more than when the fighter takes out the goblins.

So lean into it and have fun. That is the fun of a role playing game. Dungeons and Dragons, or whatever system you are using, is about that fun at the table versus winning the game. In fact, very few D&D campaigns reach the end, stories get too big or schedules change, but there are always going to be moments that you remember in the game.

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The Session

The group, Kip, Barrai, and Bokken decided to head off in search of Narduk, but going to the bar. Which, it actually works out for them. The bartender doesn’t know Narduk but the older man who runs the fights does. Narduk was an adventurer who used to go into the tower. But after some accident in the tower she stopped fighting and adventuring, but set-up a shop that buys curios from the tower and sells them.

They head over to her shop and find a sign on it that says “buy something or stay out”. Looking around a little bit, most all of the items cost a ton of money. They eventually try and buy information on the man they were following and Nazhir. Turns out that she had sold Nazhir an amulet that would control a sphere of annihilation. And that the man they were following was actually keeping an eye on Nazhir because he didn’t trust him. They are able to get this information by Bokken trading his cloak of the Arcane Stalker for a Sun Sword and the info, hinting that he didn’t know it’s full potential.

They slipped up with something they said and pushed her too hard. I forget exactly what they were trying to get from her that she felt threatened. She dropped two high level spells on them before they could react and ended up banishing them to Malbolge, where Barrai had been from. The group ends up in Barrai’s old cell which is thankfully unoccupied.

With no better plan, they decide to try and see the ruler of that level, Glasya. They spend some time sneaking around before they find a few high priority prisoners. They bust out an elf with thoughts that they might use him as a distraction and the same thing with a half-giant. But they are surprised to see Barrai’s sister there as well.

Glasya meets with them at this point. She is annoyed that Narduk basically messed up her plans with Barrai. So Glasya pulls Narduk from the mortal realm and sends all of the characters back. As well as Barrai’s sister who now kind of looks like Narduk, but with a few tiefling traits still hidden about her to run Narduk’s shop and aid in Glasya’s plan for Barrai.

Behind the DMs Screen

This was generally another wing-it session because I didn’t have time to prepare. But I thought it that it worked well. There was no combat really in the session just some good role playing. I think it’s useful to create some sessions that are really for role playing. They could have fought in Malbolge, but that wasn’t their best plan. I thought it was likely they would though, so I was finding the correct devils for them to fight.

Would you play in a game session like this one? How have you used the different layers of hell before in your games?

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What’s the Difference?

So the concept that I’m going here for Dungeons and Dragons or any role playing game is one between dice and how you play a character at a table. If I’m focused on roll play, I’m focused on the mechanics of the game and how combat works. If I am focused on role play, that means I am putting more focus onto the character, character traits, and how you play your character in social interactions with NPC’s and other characters.

Which is Better?

You need a balance of both in your gaming. But I do think for a lot of new players the roll play is what they focus on. Learning the mechanics of the game seems daunting. There, however, needs to be a balance between the two. You need to know how your character works but also how you’ll play them. If you focus too much one role play, you can slow down combat. On the flip side, too much on roll play, you’ll not enjoy a large chunk of the game.

The Pitfalls of Both

Firstly, let’s start with role playing. If you focus too much on that, what is the issue that can occur? The big one is during combat. You don’t know what to do and your turns take a long time. This slows down combat and the game as a whole. Knowing your characters mechanics means that you are ready for those situations where you do roll the dice. You don’t need to look up spells as much, and you know what you’ll do when it’s your turn in combat.

Secondly, we have roll playing. This one is the more common of the two that new players really focus on. Why, because most games are about winning or losing. The role play aspect is abstracted from the mechanics of a game a lot. But playing in combat, it feels like something a player should be able to win. The downfalls of this, are different though. You might just enjoy the game less. If it’s not focused on combat and rolling the dice, you don’t have an interesting character to fall back onto. You will also step on other players toes when you do get to dice rolling.

Let me explain that other one a bit more. I know I’ve brought it up before, but every character and player at the table should have something they are best at. If that means you are the best at fighting, that’s great. But for new players you often want to be the best at everything. If you are the wizard, you shouldn’t be the best at acrobatics. That is something that the rogue should be doing.

How Would I Balance It?

• Pick a concept
• Learn your character sheet and default attack
• Develop a personality

Pick A Character Concept

I’d start by coming up with a character concept. A character concept that isn’t being Batman, Batman is good at everything and an evil character. I don’t let evil aligned characters into parties that often, but ignoring that joke, Batman breaks the rule. He is good at everything so he steps on everyone’s toes.

Instead, pick a concept for a character and what you want to be good at. If you want to be the drunken tank, that’s a great concept. Why because it gives you two things to work with. It gives you a role playing piece, how do you play being a drunkard and why are they that way? Plus you now know the character is a tank, that gives you direction when picking classes. You’ll likely go with a fighter, barbarian, or paladin in that case.

Learn the Basics Of Your Class

Next, learn your character class, kind of. This is where players can go too far. They try and optimize what they are going to do with their character before they start playing. You have a general ideal, not the final plan, and at level 1, your tank isn’t going to be that much of a tank. But the point is that you’ll build towards that. What you are trying to learn are the basics of the your class and what your default is going to be. By default, I mean default in combat, what attack will you do if you don’t have a special plan? Have that ready so you are ready to go on your turn.

Develop Your Characters Personality

Then spend time with the personality traits, flaws, bonds, and ideals. Make them make sense and give yourself a real flaw. These can help inform your role playing. What you want to do is create a character who has a reason to be part of the group. And you want those four things to be role playing defaults. This is slightly different than combat. These aren’t ones to be wielded as justification for how your character is. These are meant when you, as the player, can’t decide what your character would do, a way to give an answer.

That’s really it, come up with that character concept. Something that gives you an interesting backstory and a direction towards what you’re good at. Then it’s about learning your character, on the paper and how they act from there. And just play around with that as you go. You will find that it develops and grows over time both on the paper with roll play and personality wise with role play.

Why Does This Matter So Much?

Now, I’m clearly harping on this topic a lot. I’ve written about mistakes new players make. I’ve written about homebrewing a campaign or starting up a new character. Why do I talk about it as much as I do?

Well, because Dungeons and Dragons and other role playing games are cooperative games. It is a game where you want everyone at the table to be having fun. I know I keep on going back to this, The RPG Academy says it well, if you’re having fun you’re doing it right. And that is for the whole group at the table, not just you. Play to have fun as a group. If you build a character who is pointless in combat so you are always running away from a fight, that’s not going to be fun for everyone. On the flip side, only good in combat, when there isn’t combat you’ll not be having fun.

I think another way to describe it would be that new players often want to have the most fun. Doing so reduces the overall fun at the table if not done well. And being that Batman character who is good at everything, in my opinion, isn’t how most players will have the most fun. Memorable moments and fun moments come from doing well but also from role playing your 7 charisma barbarian.

So, I don’t want to take away your fun, but also consider how you can have fun without it always needing to be Batman. And make those weaknesses fun for you as you play. I’ll plan on writing about weaknesses in Dungeons and Dragons an other role playing games and how those make things more interesting and fun.

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But this idea, it isn’t that type of game. The world is peaceful and the characters lead normal lives. No one goes out adventuring to stop anything, there are no wars that need to be broken up. Goblins are nice, Chromatic Dragons are peaceful, deomons aren’t even a thing that cross people’s minds.

This, however, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. And it kind of needs to be that way, because otherwise it’s a boring game. If there is no danger, what is going to push the players out adventuring? What is going to keep them going out instead of just starting a nice little school for adventurers? Where do you get even the skills for adventuring?

The Perfect World

The lands of Calagathra are beautiful. The crops grow and there is always enough food. While people get old and pass away, no one has died of an accident or illness. There are no wars between the neighboring rulers. Everything is amazing.

The players start out in the capitol city of one of the lands, and everything is amazing. They are part of a school which is focused on teaching about the history of the lands. But the lands of Calagathra only seem to go back about 1000 years. Before that, besides the creation story, there is no information. But there are rumors of ruins, at the edges of the Silver Mountains, in the middle of the Swamps of Carthak, and deep below the blue waves of the Estidial Sea.

That is the jumping off point for the campaign. The players, either because they are required to or because they want to, will pick one to go investigate. What they find is going to be a world that doesn’t match the rest of Calagathra. Going to the place is not a sanctioned activity, but a Professor can ask them to assist or investigate something if they need motivation. But the ruins are banned for people to go to, for some reason. But everything else is so perfect that no one cares. Most people who study are doing so because technology, magic, and knowledge of the natural worlds is growing at an amazing rate.

The Ruins

The ruins should tell the players that something isn’t what it seems. Which ever one they pick, it is going to be the first spot they encounter danger. The further they go into the ruins, the more danger there is. We are talking skeletons in some areas, traps in other areas, but also just injury, checks they need to make to avoid accidents. If you make a trap, maybe make it a poison or a disease.

With that, though, the player characters learn about the world as well. They find out that the perfect lands of Calagathra might not have been so perfect before. The ruins contain signs of battles, they find remains, unanimated, of people, they see ghosts and specters who either attack or beg for help. And the characters should be unprepared for this. I would let the characters buy weapons, but when they start, roll for gold instead of letting them pick equipment. Weapons outside of something like an axe or knife don’t exist in this world or are just toys.

The further the go into the ruins, the more weird that they find, like I have said. But what’s in the middle? I think there needs to be something that captures their attention. The adventure is kicked off by whatever they find. Bind a spirit of something powerful and hide it away deep in the ruins.

Break The World

That spirit, that is a good spirit. Or it was a good spirit anyways. The spirit tells a lie about why it was trapped and some of the truth when pressed. It was trapped along with three of it’s kin to create almost a protective field around the lands of Calagathra. Nothing bad is allowed to come through, no murders, no robberies, no diseases, no accidents, nothing of the sort. The players, by stepping foot into this area, are now free of the compulsion to be good, however. In fact, anyone who steps into the ruins, any of them will lose that compulsion.

The spirit asks to be freed. Basically talking about all the pain, suffering and agony that it is taking on, the stuff that could be happening to the people. Not that will, but that could happen, all the possibilities, and how it is slowly tearing it apart. The spirit promises to help them, promises to try and keep as much calamity at bay as it can, in exchange to being freed. It should only promise twice though.

Now, there are a few things that can happen. The players can free the spirit. If they don’t, someone else can free another spirit. Maybe have the professor leading one team and the players going on another. Either way, when one spirit is freed, you can either have the other two freed or all the pain and everything can crash into those two causing them to explode or something along those lines.

Either way, when the players come back to town, or come back to the world of Calagathra, things are going poorly. People are getting sick and something like a common cold is now a big deal because no immune system has had to deal with anything for years. People break a leg and that does them in because no one knows how to heal. The weather starts to become unpredictable versus a light shower most mornings and then sunny in the afternoon with a mid 70’s high. Basically the world is breaking up.

Where To Go From There?

There are so many ways you can go with this. Villains arise, dragons start to horde again and attack, demons could even show up. And of course, the players will be blamed at least in the capitol and at their school for what happened. So put the players on the run. Also, the good spirit, make it fey, and it didn’t promise three times, and it said it’d help as much as it can. However, the other two spirits did not. So even the helpful spirit, which should bounce between our realm and the fey realm needing to recharge, shouldn’t be that helpful.

The decision or the players asks if they should capture, basically torturing the spirits again, or if there is another answer. As well as they should be on the run, and they need to try and stop some power hungry people who happen to be ahead of the curve when it comes to being the ones in control.

At the end of the campaign, I think the players will face a decision that can go a few ways. They can capture spirits again and learn to trap them. Or they can do a never ending job of stopping power hungry wizards or dragons, but there will be a big bad who is going to try and destroy the world. That can be the one they focus on at the end of campaign and need to stop.

Heck, even make it their Professor who is stepping in wherever they create a power vacuum by stopping someone else, pretending to be good. Make it their scheme that set this all in motion. The Professor can monologue about how they had gone to the ruins before and been enlightened. They knew that they need a fall person to free the spirits, someone who everyone would blame. They could then be the good person coming in after, but really, they wanted to destroy it in a way where they ruled everything.

And that is the Perfect World campaign. Is this one that you’d be interested in running? As a player would you want to play in a game like this? Now, it hits some traditional things later on, how would you role play in the perfect world?

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The Session

After spending last session continuing their investigation, the party, Thrain, Barrai, Bokken, and Kip head back to the school to talk to Assendial. The school is still in chaos as the teachers are talking to the Half-Orc, Lasanial, whose room the group had found the second scarab in. Catching Assendial’s attention, they get her to come over and talk with them.

The chat is pretty brief. They fill her in on some of what happened and asked if they thought Lasanial was the culprit. Assendial says that he seems to be telling them the truth that he had no idea what had been going on. And they find out that Lasanial has made of lot of money in the fights which is why he had so much money and stuff in his room. They tell her a little bit about their suspicions of Addrus, but don’t go into full details as to why. But they do confirm that he should have only had four keys for the bank, from the school. Assendial says that she saw Addrus going to their barracks with Parrag while the party was out looking for him.

The party rushes over to the barracks to look for Addrus and confront him and try and get more information from him. They burst in and see Parrag lying face down on Barrai’s bed. Addrus is no where to be found in the room. Barrai goes to try and wake Parrag and Bokken steps outside to see if he can see anything suspicious. The place is still noisy, but Bokken hears something from the other side of the barracks and decides to investigate.

We drop into combat at this point; as Bokken goes around the corner and sees Addrus, the friends whom he’d met with in the market for a meal the time Bokken was following him, the adult whom had been with them, and Castillia. They are all making their way towards a wagon, though for Castillia it’s against her will. Bokken raises the alarm to the other three and charges into battle.

Things start out going well for the group. Bokken takes out one of Addrus’s friends in the first round and makes his way towards the wagon where it looks like they are going to try and kidnap Castillia. The other three come around the corner to see the battle in full swing. Turns out that Addrus friends can use magic and are slinging around magic missile spells at everyone and they do a fair amount of damage to Bokken. Everything moves along nicely for our players as Kip, Thrain, and Barrai keep things interesting for the friends and Addrus, including Barrai throwing down a sleep spell. However, that sleep spell knocks out the two friends who are moving Castillia and Castillia just as Bokken reaches the wagon.

The adult, clearly frustrated with how the battle is going, decides to join the fight and drops a fireball on everyone, minus himself and the horses. Most of them manage to make the saving throw, but with the damage that they already have taken, it takes down all of Addrus’s friends, Bokken, and Kip. Thrain casts a magical darkness over the wagon as Barrai heals Kip getting him back into the fight. Addrus comes charging out of the darkness and throws two daggers taking down Barrai. And the adult, in the darkness, disappears, which surprises Thrain as he can see through magical darkness. Thrain rushes into the dark, to avoid being attacked and seeing both Castillia and Bokken down casts Spare the Dying on both of them. Outside of the darkness, Addrus comes to attack Kip to take him out, but Kip casts the second sleep spell of the battle and Addrus falls asleep.

At this point in time we drop out of combat and the teachers, some second years, and Sanphire come around the corner to see what has happened. Thrain drops darkness so that they can see everything, and Assendial heals the party and Castillia getting them back to their feet. She tells all of them to come join her for a conversation. As they head back, Bokken grabs a few things from the wagon, Addrus’s trunk, a cloak with the initials L.M., F., and A.O., he also stops to check on Parrag and grab Dorin’s trunk again. Parrag is just unconscious, so Bokken lugs all of that to Assendial’s office. She heals them all again and that brings Parrag back to consciousness.

They fill in Assendial on what happened with the fight, but then say that Castillia might know more. She tells Assendial that she’d seen Addrus go out of the barracks with some people so she’d decided to investigate because Barrai and Kip had asked her about Addrus. Going into the barracks, she’d found Parrag unconscious and been grabbed two of Addrus’s friends who were still in the room, shortly after that the fight started, so Parrag might know more. He says that he wad spotted Addrus so he’d gone to ask him about the extra key, why Addrus had borrowed his shirt, and why he’d gone missing. Of course, Addrus’s friends had been there and they knocked him out. Assendial asks them some more questions, but nothing much more comes to light. The group tries to get paid for their investigation, but Assendial basically tells them no because she knows they’ve taken money from some of the other rooms.

Behind the DM’s Screen

I came up with this idea for a fight after last session. I had originally planned for them to run into Addrus at the bazaar, where he’d been before, but the group went to the bank and the bar to look for him instead. I figured, since time has passed, he’d have made it back to school, but with the year end, he’d probably be looking to ditch quickly as well, especially once he knows the party has been sniffing around.

I actually had a plan of how I wanted this fight to go, did it go that way, nope. In my plan it was going to be a countdown of a few rounds until something happened, the fireball, and then whomever was left in Addrus’s group would make a break for it on the wagon. However, I put in modified Acolytes into the fight as Addrus’s friends, they can do some things, but not take hits from Bokken when he attacks it turns out. I should have gone with less but tougher ones if I were to do it again. So when Bokken got close to the wagon and the boss who was based off of the [redacted] template. That boss decided it might be better, not really planning on fighting, to set off his attack early and drop a fireball on everyone. I let the players roll for that just in case it waited a round before it happened, but it didn’t.

I wanted this more set piece type fight also in this session as we’ve gotten through the first year. Now the players have their next mission that they decided, deliver Dorin home, and also have a villain who can come back. Overall a successful and fun session.

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“We see that you remember us, even if you don’t search for us anymore.”

A tall lithe woman stands on the top of one of these giant creatures with her fishy lips curled up in a sneer.

Boom, drop the players into that introductory scene. The fish people who are the descendants or maybe just the people who were lost in the neon seas are coming to exact their revenge upon the land and the people who abandoned them, or did they abandon those on land.

The players are going to have to first escape or be captured and taken to the under water city under the Neon seas. I think it should be something that the players do have a choice in, they can do either and both would offer some different challenges. First, if they escape, they are going to have to be on the run as the forces from the water are going to try and take back the land. If they go down into the underwater city, it’s going to be an escape that they have to eventually complete, not from a jail cell, but from the fact that the city is surround by leagues of water and they can’t breath underwater, yet.

From there, the story can go a number of different ways as well, but eventually it’s going to be about the players learning about the Neon Sea and what happened. As the story goes, this group of people traveled to the lands in search of a new continent to start their lives on, and to see what they could make for themselves. But things on the voyage didn’t go as planned. Thorogoth the Brave, whom the players were celebrating might have been more of a tyrant who led the people on ships not through storms and destruction, but through sacrifices and pain as they got rid of those who didn’t follow him in an effort to appease the god of the sea.

But not all who were being thrown over weren’t great as well, in fact, on the way to the new continent, several spies for the old lands were on the ship and were thrown over into the Neon Sea. And these people have been stirring up this return that is happening all to claim back the lands and to finally be able to send word back to the original continent about the lands and about what might be found on the new lands.

I would say depending on what the players do, that’ll determine what they find out about first. If they run, they find out about Thorogoth the Brave first, if they are captured, about the spies and the plan to return to the continent. So the players will need to get both sides to reconcile because eventually those from the original continent will come, and they are considered “bad” for some reason.

Now, there are a few ways you can go with this, they can unite as a group after taking out the spies against those from the original continent. Or they can pick either side to back. I want for this game to have a real sandbox feel and for them to start to understand the depths of the culture that they are in and also probably start to learn more about the continent that they are on as it’s been a few generations but the people have never really left the shore area and moved further into the island. Just kind of give it some funky things about the continent, probably dinosaurs somewhere on there, hidden ruins of ancient civilizations, and probably things that are going to make them question if this continent is the paradise they had hoped, maybe even finding out, and this would be a twist I would enjoy pulling off, that this new continent is actually their old continent, the one that they had before their previous continent and that this whole situation had actually played out before to some extent.

I wouldn’t weave in all of that at once, but start to lay the groundwork for a lot of those things and see what the players latch onto in terms of what you’ll make most important in your story. Normally there is a more defined end goal, but in this, we have people from the previous continent coming, are they really a BBEG, probably not, people from under the Neon Sea, probably not the BBEG either. So see what happens when things are a bit more grey, or in this case neon.

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Session one, the first thing you have to do to show off your skills is use a rope, attached to a flag pole and swing with it to a balcony. And you fall in your face. You try it again, and you fall on your face. Somehow you managed to leap from roof top to roof top and then repel down into a secret chamber to steal some crown jewels, but this is impossible.

So, what’s wrong with this picture?

There are probably a couple of things, but I want to talk about one thing in particular, and that’s having a backstory that is just too big for your level 1 character.

There’s a really strong desire to jump into an epic game and an epic moment with your epic character. But if the campaign starts at level 1, you aren’t epic yet. You might have had some small adventures, but to have big epic stories as to what’s happened in your past, it can be jarring when the reality of playing the character and the fickle nature of the dice end up causing your character to feel not like the backstory that you created.

So much of this is driven by wanting your character to be that end product of the dashing rogue who steals form the rick and gives to the poor, and can toss out a witty one-liner and insult the King and get away with it with a wink. Or to be Batman and the force in the dark keeping the peace. Or to be a powerful wizard hurling lightning bolts and calling down meteor storms on the heads of your enemies. But this is really the end product that you should be striving for.

At level 1, you are a hero, you are better than the average person, but there are so many bigger and scarier and more powerful things out there in the world than you. So when creating your backstory keep is scaled to who you are. Maybe you helped with the heist to steal the crown jewels, but you were just the lookout two blocks away. Maybe you did sale around the world, but you helped the cook on the ship and spent most of your time killing rats. Maybe you did have to prove your love and worthiness to your fiance and their family, and this is it. But it is about keeping your story in line with the level that you are at. You probably don’t have many big and grand adventures yet, and that’s why you are setting out adventuring now.

Now, I think to go along with scaling down your heroic actions in a game, you also need to shift the focus of your character concept. A lot of the time people end up with a way to big backstory because they start their character fully into the concept. Being Batman is an end goal, a bad one but one, so instead of thinking that you’re Batman from the start, think about the path that Bruce Wayne took to becoming Batman, you’re somewhere right after Bruce Wayne’s parents were killed at level 1, or Spider-Man before he was bitten by the spider. So your goal is to become Spider-Man or I guess if you have to, Batman. So what do you need to do to create those two backstories? If you’re Batman, be focused on revenge, be paranoid, and have dead parents, that’s the level 1 backstory for Batman. So, whatever your concept would be, consider where they would start at level 1 and when they hit level X where you want that concept to be fleshed out, what are the steps to get there?

Taking the approach of building towards and end character, someone who grows into that style of play you want over time, gives you a lot of motivation for what your character is going to do in the campaign, giving you clearer decision and role play paths. It’s also going to help keep that story from being too expansive or feeling like you should be better and leading to frustration because your character isn’t better or doesn’t match what you have in your head. Now, for some people they have a concept, they want to drop it into a game and play it immediately. So maybe you are Spider-Man, but you’re just learning the ropes, and consider how you want your character to grow more and more into that role so it feels more and more like your concept.

When creating a backstory do you just do something that has a lot of epic moments like I talk about, or do you build one that allows your character to grow into a concept? What’s the hardest part of doing it that way, because it is more difficult? What have you done to overcome challenges with a backstory?

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What Archetype Of Character Do I Want To Be

This is pretty big, but we’re talking about a pretty big generality here, do you want to be a sneaky character, or maybe a helpful one, maybe you want to be able to rush into battle or sling spells from afar. Think about the broad terms that you can play. Bring this general idea to the table for your character creation as it’ll give you something to build off of and help you make more informed choices. Another way to do this is to think about your favorite people, normally in fiction, but could be from the real world, and think about what makes them them. If you love Yoda, what is essential Yoda, we have the age, the wisdom and the force powers, but when he was younger, slightly, also could be a nimble fighter. So look for those characters or people you really love and think about what would make them an interesting D&D character.

This Is a Chance to Play Pretend But Start Similar To Yourself

Now, I just got done saying, pick your archetype and pick whatever sounds like fun, but infuse it with your personality. Playing a role playing game is great because you get to take on other personalities and dive into a life and a world that isn’t you, but for your first character, unless you’ve done a lot of acting, it’s going to generally be you. Even if you don’t want it to be, unless your a seasoned actor or improv performer, you’re going to drop back into playing yourself or making decisions based off of what you’d actually do. So instead of pulling away from that and being frustrated when it does happen or feeling like you aren’t on the level of Critical Role, instead make your first character like you, but with a few twists on it. Give yourself a few fun things that you can interact with that are different than yourself, but keep general personality pretty close to your own, because most of the time it’ll end up there for your early player characters.

Constitution Is Your Friend

I don’t care that you want to be this wispy elf wizard who is gaunt and stares off into the distance while vowing to never eat again, constitution is your friend. It’s easy to think that it mainly matters for fighters or barbarians or anyone on the front line, and that stat is very important to them, but a -1 on constitution for a wizard who has D6 for their hit die, that means you start off with 5 health. There are a lot of monsters that can kill you at that point. At worst have a 0 in constitution, but most classes and characters, I really think having a +1 one is huge, even if your just taking the average of your hit die, that +1 is really important, and if you’re rolling for your hit points each level, that keeps you from ever doing too poorly.

Backgrounds Can Evolve

With the background you are picking some personality traits, ideals, flaws, and bonds. For your first character I’m telling you to keep a broader picture of who they are going to be, and the background can feel like it’s locking you in. Talk with your DM, and they should know this already, but backgrounds and personality are fairly fluid in the first few sessions. You might have wanted this charismatic Barbarian, but instead they are kind of a dick to everyone. Or maybe you want them to be the face, but instead they use their charisma as a quiet confidence and less of the face. Less the background will be changing, but the personality traits, flaws, bonds, and ideals might change and evolve as you go. Totally expect this to happen, especially if you are going with a bigger departure from your own personality.

Finally, Being Bad at Something Isn’t Bad, It’s Good

When playing an imaginary character there’s a strong desire to be good at everything, because who doesn’t want to be awesome at everything all the time? But that’s not going to be the most fun character. It might be pretty fun for you, but it won’t be fun for the other people at the table if you’re better at the things they’re supposed to be good at. But beyond that, you’re playing a character who is supposed to grow and evolve throughout the game. And, you are also going to be put in more fun and interesting situations if you aren’t good at everything. Maybe you’re the fighter, why should you be good at sneaking around, you’re just ready to bash stuff with a sword, so when you fail to sneak all the time, that’s something you can play into. Your deficiencies on the character sheet are not weaknesses but role playing opportunities for you to create a fun and memorable character.

Now, there’s a whole lot more I could talk about when building your first character, and I’ll probably go more into the details of it in future articles, but these are some big picture items to consider when building your first character that might be overlooked. What general advice have you given new players, if you’ve played a bunch before, for their first character? What piece of advice stands out to you from this article?

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A quick recap, Bokken, Barrai, and Thrain took the test of the Tower and ended up with new powers, and got into Strawgoh, a school of assassination and dark arts. There they were told that there were a couple of spies in their class that they could find and get extra credit if they properly identified them. After messing around with that, they came at odds with the fourth person in their group, Dorin, a halfling and fought to get him out of the group and another person in. That fight just went okay but they ended up with Dorin leaving the group.

That took us to the first half of the first semester, before midterms. They studied well with Barrai spending too much time with watching Dorin and struggling in classes but Bokken and Thrain focused pretty well and Domon was the top of the class. Barrai does find out that Dorin is really concerned about getting kicked out of school.

Thrain and Barrai worked together to scam over a few bars and their patrons taking money in staged fights as Thrain wants to save up to get plate armor and Barrai wants to get studded leather armor, they made some progress but it was slow. They also got kicked out of three bars and made an enemy, Zaphir. Barrai also goes to some fights, which are the entertainment in the area, and notices two of the top competitors, Esmelda Dean and Sanphire, whom he starts to think that he might right ballads about.

Bokken spends some of his time breaking into teachers offices and trying to track down who might be a spy, but doesn’t find out much information on them. Instead of finding out who the spies might be, he does find some information, that while the people who were spies did go through the tower just like and at the same time as everyone else, they were recruited ahead of time.

Then comes the first part of midterms. So midterms takes place in the Tower but not in kind of the training section, where they were before, but on the first floor, which doesn’t change, and where the monsters respawn every night. So after going through a couple of empty rooms with their class, they are brought to a larger circular center room. The three barracks are brought to spots around the center, equally as far away from each other and are given instructions. They are to race to an island at the center of the room, whichever team gets there first gets the best grade, but grades can go down, depending on how much the party is damaged.

At the sound of the horn all of the groups take off, and Thrain, Barrai, Bokken, and Parrag, the fourth in their group, take off into a dense forest that surrounds the lake. They decide to stealth their way through, but Parrag does horrible on his stealth and stumbles across a couple of giant rats and three smaller rats. They manage to just about take him down, but Barrai is able to cast a spell to heal him. Meanwhile, Bokken and Thrain are chopping the rats with an odachi and blasting them with Eldritch Blast. Thrain keeps backing up and stumbles across a swarm of rats. Just as Bokken finishes off the last of them by Parrag, Thrain gets swarmed over and goes down. Bokken and Barrai go to help with Parrag following behind. Then they get close, Bokken starts hacking away and Parrag fires off a healing spell bringing Thrain back to his feet and then helps finish off the swarm of rats.

To make up for lost time, the group starts booking it through the forest as fast as possible, and they are making good time, when a group of three flying snakes drops out of the trees and takes down Bokken. Parrag casts another spell getting Bokken back to his feet. Barrai casts a spell making the sound of a predatory bird and scares off one of the snakes. Thrain and Bokken then make quick work of the other two and they are off running again. This time stumbling across some elk who don’t want to tangle with them and take off running towards the lake as well. Bokken angles the barrack group slightly to avoid the elk and they make it to the shore without further incident.

When the hit the shore, they see an island about 40 feet out into the water with two teachers on it. Busting through the edge of the tree line as well is Castillia’s group with Narius in it as well. Thrain immediately takes a potshot with an Eldritch blast, but on the run, the blast goes wide, and Castillia notches an arrow on her bow and pulls it back aiming at Thrain.

That’s where we ended do to internet troubles. And that’s one of the downsides of playing on Zoom instead of in person, but it worked well for the most part and we got a lot in.

Behind the DM’s screen a little bit, I was actually using a website to just generate random encounters for me in the tower. I had one picked out ahead of time, but the rat swarm, flying snake, and elk were all randomly picked out. It worked well for the most part, and the party while having a couple of members go down, actually was in pretty decent health by the time they reached the shoreline.

Some of the stuff that we did at the beginning was just narrated. I had asked the players to send me things they wanted to do, so stuff like the money making venture that Thrain and Barrai did with staging fights for people to bet on was part of that.

Finally, the first floor of the Tower is the test basically for the midterm. So next session the players will be leveling up, so we’ve basically had one session at level 0, and now three plus part of one coming up, at level 1.

What do you think of the game thus far?

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