Dark Road West

New Players Guide

Introduction
Welcome to Dark Road West. A West March D&D 5e game with dozens of players and multiple GMs. Players all play within an
open world that changes often due to the players involvement. Sessions are ran almost every night by different GM’s all operating
inside the same world. In between sessions players can RP as much as they want in discord at several locations throughout the
main city.

The Setting
While your characters were born and raised on Toril, an unfortunate event happened resulting in their death. Alas it was not the
end. A powerful Archmage on the world Sorela in the Outer Dark Crystal Sphere has merged himself with a device connected to
the weave and used that power to scour the different worlds looking for people that could help bring the corrupt and evil infested
world of Sorela into the light. Coming across Toril, a world of heroes, he began pulling the souls of the people who showed
promise back from death, resurrecting them on the new world.
The world we use is a new creation that has given us freedom to write and create almost all of its lore. We still continue to create
lore based on where the players take us. There are 4 Head Game Masters. Each of these OGM’s run a specific direction of the
world, North, East, South, and West. The rest of the GM’s help the OGM’s and run plenty of adventures in their areas and even
have their own plot going on that often happens within the main city and players can get involved with it all in discord RP.
 Character Creation - Part One of Two
All characters start at level 3 with a 27 point buy. You can take the average on health or ask a GM to be with you while you roll.
Below is a list of the source books we use as well as extra additions that have been added as time has gone on.

Source Books
Players Handbook
Dungeon Masters Guide
Volo’s Guide to Monsters
Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything*
Swords Coast Adventurer's Guide**
*We do not allow the custom racial abilities or backgrounds from Tasha’s
** We do not allow Winged Tieflings

Additional Items
Races:-
Grung - One Grung Above
Leonin - Mythic Odyssey of Theros
Minotaur - Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica
Loxondon - Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica
Genasi - Elemental Evil Players Guide
Backgrounds:-
Athlete - Mythic Odyssey of Theros
Plaintiff - Acquisitions Incorporated
Archaeologist - Tomb of Annihilation
Anthropologist - Tomb of Annihilation
Subclasses:-
Ascendant Dragon Monk - Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
Drakewarden Ranger - Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
Bard: College of Spirits - Van Richtens Guide to Ravenloft
Warlock: Undead - Van Richtens Guide to Ravenloft
Spells:-
Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, all spells
Feats:-
Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, all feats

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Character Creation - Part Two of Two
When creating your backstory, plan it as if you were making it for a character set in the normal world of Toril, but something
unfortunate happened resulting in your characters death. While it will still need passing, feel free to get creative with how long ago
your character died and how it happened. This will have no effect on your character other than backstory, race/class and so on will
still be the same. Your backstory should end with the character dying, everything after that is where your characters story here
begins.
Starting equipment is the same as whatever your class and background provide AND 1 basic healing potion. These items are
recreations of whatever you had in your old life, or the closest that could be created. For example, if in your background you had a
bow with scratches on it for each of your kills, an almost exact replica will be there (if it's part of your starting gear), scratches and
all, but it is NOT the same bow.
In addition, each character gets a free starting feat from a list of feats we have. This is to let you add some flavour to your character
without worrying about getting the “best” feat/asi later on.
Feats
-Actor
-Alert
-Athlete
-Bountiful Luck
-Chef
-Dungeon Delver
-Durable
-Healer
-Heavily Armoured
-Inspiring Leader
-Keen Mind
-Lightly Armoured
-Linguist
-Moderately Armoured
-Observant
-Prodigy
-Skilled
-Squat Nimbleness
-Telepathic
-Weapon Master
PLEASE NOTE!
While we allow Artificers including Artillerists, guns of any kind do NOT exist in this setting. The gods are also slightly different
here as it is a different world and sphere giving them more or less worshipers affecting their overall power. A list of the main gods
and their rank can be seen later in this guide.
Please make your character sheet on an editable PDF or in a character maker such as DnDBeyond. Once you have made it and
have a PDF send it to one of our many GM’s. They will check it over and then show it to the other GM’s. If it is passed or rejected
they will let you know.

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 Levelling
Rather than using experience points, we use a custom way of levelling called Level Points. In order to level up, your character
needs to get enough level points equal to your next level (Example: A level 5 would need 6 points). You get points from taking part
in adventurers which will award LP based on the difficulty of the adventure.
Normal: 1 Point
Average adventures. These are the bread and butter of the game. They are essentially like actual campaign adventures, not hard
unless the dice take it that way. They are the kind of sessions where unless the dice really hate you then the players can enjoy the
ride, get a challenge but more than likely overcome that challenge.
Hard : 2 Points
More difficult adventures, ranging from chance of death to chance of tpk. Can still involve a lot of RolePlay but often have much
harder fights or challenges to overcome.
Extreme: 3 Points
Very difficult adventures, usually reserved for end of plot adventures or specific events. These sort of adventures should not be
taken lightly and each player should make sure they are well stocked on potions and scrolls if able. Each GM tends to have their
own rules for Extremes, though generally these rules are that game mechanics are mostly RAW, monsters will all act according to
their intelligence, and monsters may attack downed players if it makes sense for it to do so.

Game Sessions
GM’s will post their games in one of the Sign-Up channels. This will provide information such as what levels can sign up, what the
difficulty is, the max players, and a summary of what the adventure is about.
You can then sign up by reacting to the event with your class icon.
There are four types of games, Adventures, Hunts, Specials, and Events.
Adventures, these are done in level ranges. If you are the correct level you can sign up. Players are selected for adventure games
based on their priority. This is based on when they last played, how many games they have played within the last week, what order
they signed up in, and finally if they have any player warnings.
Essentially, your prio will be higher if you have not played as recently as others who have signed up and have played less games
in the past week.
Hunts, these are games that have been requested, usually to hunt for a material for a magic item. They work the same way as
Adventures for prio except the Hunter who has a spot despite their priority. A player can request a hunt once every 30 days. Hunts
still provide LPs and loot.
Specials, these are sessions that do not grant LP but may still provide loot. They will often not have a level range. Players are
usually picked specifically by other players so that a certain group can go together. We use this for player lead group adventures or
Thief Guild missions.
Events, these include things such as Arena Fights, or random events that drag players into roll20. They usually do not have a level
range and they do not give LP. They may occasionally give loot. They are usually much shorter and so do not stop you gaining
downtime. These also usually do not affect your future priority.

Levelling & Game Sessions

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Hunts & Magic Items
Common and Uncommon magic items can be found randomly on adventures though are never a guarantee. To make sure you get
the magic item you want you can request a hunt for a specific material needed to craft a magic item. The list of craftable items and
what is needed can be found in the Western discord channel arcane-house, inside the magic-item thread.
There are three types of hunts available:
Material Request, costs 5 days of downtime working for the Adventurers Guild and 800 gold.
With this you can request a component but not need to be on the adventure. The Adventurers Guild has a list of things people
have requested and will pay the group that retrieves it 1000gp for the item. This is the quickest way to get the thing you want as
the item will likely go out on the next available adventure if it makes sense to be there. The requester does not get a guaranteed
spot on the adventure.
Adventure Request, costs 10 days of downtime.
This type will get the character a guaranteed spot on an upcoming adventure where the requested material will make an
appearance. This allows GMs to run the normal adventures they were planning but gets you your requested item, likely in a
random encounter or by complete chance. The GM who takes on your hunt will contact you to make sure you can play on their
next adventure.
Hunt Request, costs 10 days of downtime.
This is similar to Adventure Request, except the adventure will be purely based around you hunting the item. This request will
likely (but not always) take a lot longer to come up as you will need to wait for a GM who has the time to run it instead of their own
adventures and plot.
Higher rarity items will become accessible for characters beyond level 10.
If there's a particular magic item of common/uncommon rarity that does not have a formula, players are welcome to request one
be made. This does not guarantee the formula will be made, only that it will be discussed.

Downtime
Characters begin gathering downtime after their first Adventure that counts against their priority. They get 1 day of downtime
every day that goes by where they have not adventured in that day. They can then spend downtime to do a variety of different
downtime activities from the PHB, XGtE, or even our special homebrew downtime supplements. A work week is 5 days.
A player can accumulate a maximum of 20 days downtime at any one time, after 20 any more days are not counted and lost
forever.

Hunts, Magic Items, and Downtime

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 Death and Resurrection
Characters can die, this will usually only be during an actual session and not in discord, though there are rare cases. We use a
custom rule set for resurrections to keep death as a bigger threat than to just your wallet.

With each resurrection a person goes through their soul or essence becomes harder to pull back.
When a character performs a resurrection spell, they must make a standard check against a DC of 10. The DC increases by 1 for
each time the dead character has been resurrected before (Not including the initial one from the setting).
On a success, the creature is returned to life if its soul is willing. On a failure, the creature's soul is lost, and further resurrection
rituals fail automatically.
Only the strongest of magic can bypass this ritual, in the form of True Resurrection or Wish spells. These spells can also return to
life a creature whose soul was lost from a failed ritual.

Aiding the resurrection

When a creature is targeted by a resurrection spell with a casting time longer than one action, such as Raise Dead or
Resurrection, a ritual is initiated in which up to three creatures can contribute in order to call the creature's soul back to their
body. The creature makes an ability check with a skill the DM deems appropriate for the action, against a DC that the DM also
determines.
For each successful check, the creature's death DC is lowered by 3 for this ritual. For each failure, it increases by 1 for this ritual.
Spells and abilities that last 1 hour or longer can be used both by the three creatures aiding or by other people before the ritual
starts. After the ritual starts no one else can be involved, including casting or spells or using the aid action.

Quick resurrection
When a creature is targeted by the spell Revivify, the caster makes a spellcasting ability check against the target's death DC. On a
success, the spell takes hold and the creature is resurrected. On a failure, the creature's death DC is increased by 1, and they can't
be resurrected until they are resurrected by a spell with a casting time longer than one action.

Death & Resurrection

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The World - Part One of Three

Geography
The setting we are in is on the world Sorela on the continent of Fengar. Fengar is made up of two regions. The Inner, and the
Outer Region. The Inner Region is somewhat safe and where the majority of the civilised population lives. The Outer Regions are
the much more dangerous lands and where a large portion of the adventurers explore.
The Capital of Fengar is a city called Torrim, this is where characters are resurrected and where the majority of discord RolePlay
happens. The city has 5 districts and a central island. Each district is quite different and ran by different NPC’s, these areas each
belong to a certain OGM who is in control of that area. While all five OGMs work together in regards to the central island, much
like how the cities rulers work together to rule the island and the city as a whole.
The Inner Region, much like the city, is split up into five regions, Northern, Eastern, Southern, Western. These work in the same
way the districts do in that IC (In Character) they are ruled over by the particular ruler, OOC (Out of Character) the specific OGM
controls the area.

Days/Months/Years
While we use the same day names and numbers, we do have specific names for the months in Sorela.
The current year is 1633. In regards to the Forgotten Realms timeline, it is the latest year.
Winter
Storing - 31 days (December)
Midwinter - 31 days (January)
Melting - 28-29 days (February)
Spring
First Green - 31 days (March)
First Planting - 30 days (April)
Lightsborn - 31 days (May)
Summer
First Harvest - 30 days (June)
Highsun - 31 days (July)
Last Planting - 31 days (August)
Autumn
Sunsfall - 30 days (September)
Last Harvest - 31 days (October)
Darksborn - 30 days (November)

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 The World - Part Two of Three

The Pantheon of Sorela

Deities exist across Spheres, however depending on the world and their worshipers they may have more or less power. These are
the main gods of Sorela and the ranks they hold.

Gods and Goddess'

Auril, Greater Goddess of winter, NE
Azuth, Lesser God of wizards, LN
Bane, Lesser God of tyranny, LE
Beshaba, Greater Goddess of misfortune, CE
Bhal, Lesser God of murder, NE
Chauntea, Intermediate Goddess of agriculture, NG
Cyric, Greater God of lies, CE
Deneir, Intermediate God of writing, NG
Eldath, Demi Goddess of peace, NG
Gond, Intermediate God of craft, N
Helm, Intermediate God of protection, LN
Ilmater, Lesser God of endurance, LG
Kelemvor, Greater God of the dead, LN
Lathander (Pelor), Intermediate God of birth and renewal, NG
Leira, Intermediate Goddess of illusion, CN
Lliira, Lesser Goddess of joy, CG
Loviatar, Greater Goddess of pain, LE
Malar, Intermediate God of the hunt, CE
Mask, Intermediate God of thieves, CN
Mielikki, Lesser Goddess of forests, NG
Moradin, Lesser God of Dwarves, LG
Myrkul, Demigod of death, NE
Mystra, Greater Goddess of magic, CG
Oghma, Greater God of knowledge, N
Savras, Intermediate God of divination and fate, LN
Selûne, Intermediate Goddess of the moon, CG
Shar, Greater Goddess of darkness and loss, NE
Silvanus, Greater God of wild nature, N
Sune, Intermediate Goddess of love and beauty, CG
Talona, Intermediate Goddess of disease and poison, CE
Talos, Greater God of storms, CE
Tempus, Greater God of war, N
Torm, Intermediate God of courage and self-sacrifice, LG
Tymora, Lesser Goddess of good fortune, CG
Tyr, Lesser God of justice, LG
Umberlee, Greater Goddess of the sea, CE
Waukeen, Lesser Goddess of trade, N

The World - Part 2 of 3

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The World - Part Three of Three

The City
The city of Torrim is mostly accessible through discord RP. On the central island there are a few shops where you can buy things
IC. The items available are in the Pinned Messages. To buy something, simply post as your character stating what you are buying
and how much it is. When it is reacted to with a money emote by a GM you will know it went through successfully.
For potions or ingredients use the Alchemy Shop, for weapons and armour use the Blacksmiths, and for everything else use the
General Store.

Religions
There are many churches or areas dedicated to certain gods throughout Torrim. These are usually recognisable as being called
Temples or Churches. These places can also offer spell casting of certain kinds for a price. These prices may change based on the
current events, and how your character stands with the district you are in.

Housing
Characters are welcome to stay in The Tower, the place they are resurrected, for free for an indefinite amount of time. While here
their lifestyle is considered comfortable, their food is provided free and they are, for the most part, safe. However after a while you
may be expected to move out, especially if the tower's rooms fill up. You can approach a certain district to rent a house, or if you
prefer to stay on central you can rent an apartment in the Adventurers Guild.
We also now include the ability to build your own buildings using our Homebrew supplement. You can rent a plot of land within
the city to build on, or purchase land outside the city to build on. Building outside the city however comes with risks that get worse
the further away you go.

Laws
Like most places, the city and its surroundings have laws. Some of these laws are specific to the district/region. Something that is
legal somewhere, may not be legal in another district. We highly recommend you look over the laws on our Player Information
spreadsheet as breaking the laws even in Discord will likely result in your character being wanted or caught and punished.

The World - Part 3 of 3

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 Homebrew - Part One of Two

We have a few homebrew rules in an effort to make the game both more fun and more balanced. These are all detailed below. Most
new homebrew rules go through via Player Votes, majority winning.

Custom Inspiration
At DM's discretion (which 99% of the time will be yes) you can choose to use your inspiration AFTER a roll to re-roll it or take the
advantage already rolled. This is symbolised in game as you doing something that didn't go great, so you instantly correct what you
were doing or change what you were doing and attempt it again. You can describe this act yourself or let the GM roll with it.
Changing Subclass
A player can change their subclass, such as a Fighter changing from Arcane Archer to Battle Master.
This takes a number of days
of downtime = 5 + 2 x to your class level, and 100gp x your level.
(Example: A level 5 fighter would need 15 days of downtime and
500gp)
Selling Things
The majority of weapons/armour and possibly other things that are found "out in the wild" such as on enemies or dead people are
either greatly damaged or rusted, it is unlikely to have been kept well maintained. Because of this, unless stated otherwise, these
items are only good for smelting or scraps and can be sold for 10% of their base price.
Occasionally you may find better quality items, these will go off the normal RAW rules of 1/2 price.
Your own armour or weapons that you have bought yourself are assumed to have been cleaned and maintained by you, so these
are still also able to be sold at the normal 1/2 price.
Magic Items
Magic items can be traded to other players between adventures ONCE PER MONTH, keep in mind these items could get broken
or stolen.
If you trade/give/sell a magic item please send a message in the "PM-TRADE-TRACKER" channel.
Learning Languages and Tools
If a character learning a language is spending time during downtime with someone who speaks or knows the language or tool they
are learning and that character is okay teaching them, then the character can reduce the time to learn the language by two
workweeks. A character can only teach one person at a time.

Homebrew - Part 1 of 2
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Homebrew - Part Two of Two

PvP
A PvP role can be requested for your character. If you do not have this PvP role you cannot purposefully harm, kill, steal, be
harmed, be killed, or be stolen from by other players (unless it’s a GM making them do it for plot reasons or deems the situation
calls for PvP to be allowed).
If you get this PvP role, your character can do the above to any other characters who also have the PvP role enabled. Please
remember this role is permanent for your character. It cannot be undone.
As well as the role, we will require players to add (PvP) on the end of the character name with it in their nickname. Think of it like
your name being in red to other players.
In regards to stealing party loot during adventures, while still down to GM's discretion, if all present players have the PvP role
then there is nothing stopping one from trying to steal party loot before or after it has been found by the entire party. If there is
even one player without PvP, you cannot steal party loot.
To get this role, ask in gm-questions stating which character you want it enabled on.
Please remember, you must still have valid IC reasoning to act out against another player in any way, just because two characters
have PvP enabled does not mean you can for no reason just decide to attack them.
Note! GMs can say that PvP is enabled between characters if they deem the situation justified for it. Extreme example, if character
A kills character B's NPC brother, the player who controls character B could request to attack character A in retaliation and the
GM would likely allow it.

Downtime rolls
For any downtime rolls that are performed.
Static permanent bonuses are allowed.
Any spells are allowed.
Anything that would normally give advantage, instead now gives a +3 bonus.

Homebrew - Part 2 of 2
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