Creating Characters: Point Buy vs Rolls

One of the longest lasting element of any character are his opening stats.  It feels great to roll those dice and get monster stats.  It feels a lot less great to come up with middling numbers. Often times a DM will allow a reroll, but their is a tendency for some people to just accept what they have rolled and possibly be unhappy with it for a long time. 

I've always favored point-buy or similar approaches as they result in the same resources for all players.  This starts everyone off on an even playing field and pretty much assures that class abilities will matter.

I ran across an article that discusses the benefits of point buy on the web, and want to share the link here: Dungeon Solvers: Why You Should Use Point Buy for D&D 5e Character Creation

Another approach that allows rolling stats, is a collective pool.  All the participants roll up their set of stats and then the numbers are put into a common pool. The players then take turns taking the number of their choice from the pool.  Most likely in an order determined by high rolls, reversing in the next round, so that the person who picks first in round one picks last in round two.  The next two sets of rounds can retain the same order or determine new orders.

Discord Server

I just setup a Discord server tto be used as an augment to campaigns I am playing in.  A link is provided in the list to the right and below.

Bear It D&D Discord Server

Much of the content on the server will be private.  You will need to join the server and let Joe know your discord name so that he can set your access appropriately.

Trouble in Dessarin Valley (TDV) Campaign

Joe is running a campaign for a newly created group that recently formed at Huzzah Hobbies.  The campaign is based on the published adventure titled: Prince of the Apocalypse. It being a Wizards published adventure there are plenty of spoilers available online, participants have been asked to avoid spoilers, you know, because they will spoil elements of the adventure. 

Session Notes are shared via Google Docs (they contain spoilers up to the current point of the adventure). If participants wish to have edit authority, please ask the DM for authorization. Because they have been getting long, very long, I have split the most recent sessions into a new doc and likely will keep splitting them as they grow.

• Session Notes -- Level 1-4
• Session Notes -- Level 5&6 
• Session Notes -- Level 7+

Campaign Timeline and an overview of the Fareun calendar has been added to my google docs for this campaign.

Group treasury maintained by Jon: Ellandra Silverhand's Ledger of Coinage and other Assorted Valuables

House rules and conventions in use for this campaign are spelled out in a PDF reorganized in February of 2020. It can be accessed from the list of links in the player's tools section: Joe's House Rules & Rulings.


Corona Home: https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/6351060/trouble-in-dessarin-valley

Factions in Trouble in Dessarin Valley (TDV) Campaign

Factions are like political parties, religious organizations, or secret societies. Players can have connections to some of the five factions: the Harpers, the Order of the Gauntlet, the Emerald Enclave, the Lords’ Alliance, and the Zhentarim. The relationship may be friendly or adversarial. All five factions have their own reasons for opposing the spread of Elemental Evil. However, none fully comprehend the gravity of the threat at the adventure’s start.

From a strict campaign perspective, the factions don't necessarily have a direct impact, though they might become important dependent on develops/