NOTE: ALPHA AND BETA CHANGES WILL BE MADE TO THIS SECTION PLEASE WAIT UNTIL I HAVE EVERYTHING IN PLACE AND GIVE YOU THE GO AHEAD TO START CREATING - THANKS!
Start by pitching a concept to me and to your group. I will have set up a way for you to chat with the other people you will be playing with. Your characters will be adventuring together so having a good mix of character and personality types really helps create an engaging experience. Once you have something that I approve and your group is behind you can work on your write up.
Make sure to go through the approval process before you spend time working on anything. Be open to pitching more than one concept and working until you find the one that is the best fit for everyone.
Check the Character Races section to see what is available in a Black Rose campaign and how they may differ from what you may be used to.
There are racial limitations to your choice of character class. Refer to the Character Races section for more. These limits are not absolute. If you have a concept that requires a race/class combination that isn't normally allowed talk to me and maybe we can work something out.
Important: I think it is vital to presumes that the player characters are able to work together with a minimum amount of conflict. Conflict between members of your party can (and probably will) happen. It is an important part of the overall experience. We want your struggles to be against common challenges not one another. I know some people enjoy party in fighting. I do not. I always think in terms if story and i seldom see these situations result in anything that would make a good story. Anecdote maybe but thats not enough.
The most important thing you need to know going in is why your character is an adventurer.
What are the things that drive them to rise above the mundane even when it means routinely putting their life on the line. Without that motivation they would be one of the countless faceless people they walk past every day. People they won't tell tales about.
Be able to answer the questions "what do you want" and "what do you want to do?". They are very simple and essential to moving your character forward. Even so, most players hav difficulty answering. Work with me and with your group until you have a sense of who your character is and how they would answer those two questions. Only when you have managed that are you really ready to begin your characters story.
Remember, you don't need have everything all planned out. Your characters story will evolve as you play and may end up somewhere very different than you originally believed. Organic character growth is a big part of why roleplaying campaigns are so great and can result in the best stories. For now, just have some first steps and a general direction in mind. That will get you started and the rest will sort itself out as we discover what their story is.
Getting Started
Start by pitching a concept to me and to your group. I will have set up a way for you to chat with the other people you will be playing with. Your characters will be adventuring together so having a good mix of character and personality types really helps create an engaging experience. Once you have something that I approve and your group is behind you can work on your write up.
Make sure to go through the approval process before you spend time working on anything. Be open to pitching more than one concept and working until you find the one that is the best fit for everyone.
Bear in mind that a 1st level character is a nobody. As your character gains experience they gain more than just raw power, they will also gain influence and status. Your street vendor may become a merchant, who may eventually open his own shop and one day become a Guild Master but he begins as a street vendor. Humble beginnings allow for the most growth and the best story.
After you submit your character I may ask for changes. This is never personal. My goal is always to provide the best experience for everyone individually and the group as a whole. Any changes will be in service of that goal.
D&D Beyond
I use D&D Beyond to track the characters in my campaigns. When you join you will need to set up a Hero Tier D&D Beyond account which will allow me to add you to a campaign and fr you tie have access to all of the books I have through my Master Tier account.
I use a fair amount original material which i am adding to my homebrew collection on Beyond that you will all have access to it. If you want to use something that is on this site bt hasn't been added yet, let me know and I'll add it ASAP.
When creating a character make sure "Homebrew Content" is turned ON and that everything else in the Sources section of the Character Preferences page is turned OFF.
Also set the following preferences as indicated:
- Advancement: Milestone
- Hit Points: Fixed
- Prerequisites: Both ON
- Encumbrance Type: No Encumbrance
- Ignore Coin Weight: On
Available Races
Check the Character Races section to see what is available in a Black Rose campaign and how they may differ from what you may be used to.
Starting Level
I ask that Black Rose campaigns begin at Level 1. D&D 5th works best at lower levels, the setting tops out at 12th level (the super limit for PCs us around 9th) and your individual and group story arcs will be most effective if you start at the beginning and work your way toward your goals. That said, I am here for you and if your group really wants something else just say the word and I'll make it work
Available Classes
There are racial limitations to your choice of character class. Refer to the Character Races section for more. These limits are not absolute. If you have a concept that requires a race/class combination that isn't normally allowed talk to me and maybe we can work something out.
I am not a fan of multi-classing. In my opinion it is broken and easily abused. It isn't prohibited but I want to avoid it unless it is something you feel that you need to make a concept work.
A note on "builds" and "effectiveness" - The way I run roleplaying games the rules are secondary to the story. The mechanics and your rolls are still important (it is a role playing *game* after all) but what really matters is choices you make. I'm not a fan of approaching the experience as though it can be won or lost. When we start worrying about how effective a character is in mechanical terms and focus on "builds" that provide the most powerful combinations of abilites I think we have lost our way. I have seen groups shame players whose characters aren't up to party standards and pressure them to create something else so they can "hold their own". There is no "One True Path" to enjoying your game and if min maxing is something you enjoy I certainly won't think less of you for it but personally I prefer the questions "who is your character and what do they want?" to "what can they do?". One of my favorite characters in fantasy fiction is Samwise Gamgee. He was a terrible build ;)
Ability Scores
You may use either the Standard Array or Point Buy system.
If a group is interested we can go old school I which case I will have you roll 4d6 six times (once for each stat) adding the best 3 of the 4. When everything has been rolled you may switch two of the stats. Four 6's is a 19 and indicates some sort of special legacy or destiny.
The Old School option is a group by group thing - not an individual decision. I also prefer that everyone do their rolling together. Ideally, this is in person but when that's no practical we can arrange a way to do to online.
You get whatever is listed for your Class and/or Background. (in Beyond choose Equipment rather than Gold on the Equipment page of the character builder). Bear in mind that the standard equipment at the standard listed price is considered either "Poor" (of shoddy quality) or "Worn" (used and worse for the wear). This may pose problems from time to time. Buying something better - classified as "Fine" costs two to three times the listed price. You will need to create any of items you obtain using the Manage Equipment function on your D&D Beyond character sheet.
Black Rose doesn't use alignments. Characters are more complex and nuanced for that. In this setting the simplification doesn't help anything.
Starting Equipment
You get whatever is listed for your Class and/or Background. (in Beyond choose Equipment rather than Gold on the Equipment page of the character builder). Bear in mind that the standard equipment at the standard listed price is considered either "Poor" (of shoddy quality) or "Worn" (used and worse for the wear). This may pose problems from time to time. Buying something better - classified as "Fine" costs two to three times the listed price. You will need to create any of items you obtain using the Manage Equipment function on your D&D Beyond character sheet.Alignment
Black Rose doesn't use alignments. Characters are more complex and nuanced for that. In this setting the simplification doesn't help anything.
Important: I think it is vital to presumes that the player characters are able to work together with a minimum amount of conflict. Conflict between members of your party can (and probably will) happen. It is an important part of the overall experience. We want your struggles to be against common challenges not one another. I know some people enjoy party in fighting. I do not. I always think in terms if story and i seldom see these situations result in anything that would make a good story. Anecdote maybe but thats not enough.
Who are they?
The most important thing you need to know going in is why your character is an adventurer.
What are the things that drive them to rise above the mundane even when it means routinely putting their life on the line. Without that motivation they would be one of the countless faceless people they walk past every day. People they won't tell tales about.
Be able to answer the questions "what do you want" and "what do you want to do?". They are very simple and essential to moving your character forward. Even so, most players hav difficulty answering. Work with me and with your group until you have a sense of who your character is and how they would answer those two questions. Only when you have managed that are you really ready to begin your characters story.
Remember, you don't need have everything all planned out. Your characters story will evolve as you play and may end up somewhere very different than you originally believed. Organic character growth is a big part of why roleplaying campaigns are so great and can result in the best stories. For now, just have some first steps and a general direction in mind. That will get you started and the rest will sort itself out as we discover what their story is.
