Here are some details for the Rise of the Drow campaign being run at JeffCon 2022.

JeffCon is the last MACE and it is being run to honor the memory of Jeff Smith, who passed last year. Jeff was the organizer, brains, and soul of the MACE gaming conventions throughout the Carolinas. He was truly an asset to the gaming community and will be sorely missed. Thank you Jeff for all you’ve done for us over the years.

Sign up for the games at JeffCon is through the OGRe platform at: https://ogre.justusproductions.com/index.php/jeffcon. Sign-ups begin

This game is a Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition campaign adventure that will be run in five sessions throughout the weekend of JeffCon (November 11th to 13th). The gaming schedule is tentative and has not been approved or finalized. I have asked for Friday afternoon and evening, Saturday morning and afternoon, and Sunday morning sessions, each lasting approximately four hours.

It is quite likely that your character will level at least once or twice per session, so either come with a first level character already created, or I can provide a pre-generated one for you to use.

BEGINNERS ARE WELCOME, though some familiarity with Role Playing Games (tabletop or on-line) is preferred. You will be expected to level up your skills as you level up your character. If you want to bring your child with you so they can play too, please do. You know your child’s abilities and whether they can be engaged at the tabletop for hours at a time. I love kids, and I want to encourage the next generation to play, so I will try to work with you to provide them with an enjoyable time.

About Me

My name is Simon Kingaby, I’ve been playing D&D on-and-off for approximately 40 years. I love this game. I am very happy with fifth edition. I believe that D&D is a game based on interactive story-telling (role-playing) where the DM and the Players negotiate the story that the characters are living through. This is more than just dice rolling and combat. It is a tale of villains, heroes, adventure, intrigue, challenges, triumphs, friendship, fun, and, in the end, a good time should be had by all. Please come prepared to play: that is, be prepared to live the life of your character, have fun, be silly, go a little outside your comfort zone, and enjoy yourself.

Rise of the Drow

Introduction

Tonight, a ceremony of light is taking place on the surface.
Meanwhile, a world away in the city of spiders, a drow matron solidifies a pact with soul-consuming entities who require great sacrifices in trade for unimaginable power. Drow eyes turn to the surface.
This adventure and setting, take characters across the surface and into the depths of the world. Adventurers will meet unique denizens, battle horrors of the Underworld, explore epic locations, and fight to stop the rise of the drow.

Resources

Rise of the Drow: Campaign Primer $0.99 – Please, if you can, purchase this primer for a brief overview of the Campaign and the Underworld Races.

Rise of the Drow: Underworld Races and Classes – If you wish to play as one of the Underworld Races, this book will be very helpful.

Occult Secrets of the Underworld – For even more options in the Underworld.

Character Creation

Please create a free account on DnD Beyond and create your character in the Rise of the Drow campaign shared here:
https://ddb.ac/campaigns/join/33319903294316595

By creating a character in that campaign, you will have access to all the sourcebooks (in DnDBeyond that is) and you will have a vast array of alternatives to choose between.

Race: You may create a 1st level character of the following races:

Overworld Standard Races:

• Human (Very common)
• Dwarf (Common)
• Elf (Rare)
• Gnome (Rare)
• Halfling (Rare)
• Half-elf (Very Rare)
• Half-orc (Very Rare)

Overworld non-standard Races:

These are much less common and will be an oddity in the communities and towns that the characters visit. However, pretty much anything goes, within reason. We will be exploring the Underworld, so keep that in mind.

Underworld Races:

• Ahooling
• Colliatur
• Dødelig
• Draaki
• Drow
• Funglet
• Gitwerc
• Hoyrall
• Kraidyl
• Svirfneblin
• Vestraadi
• Zwerc

Characters may be created using the standard rules or the Character Options rules in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.

Ability Scores: Ability scores can be generated using the standard array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) or by using the Customizing Ability Scores methods (sometimes called the point-buy method).

Feats: We will not be using Feats

Alignment: Characters can be Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic but are usually Good or Neutral. A Lawful Evil character might be OK as long as it is not a jerk about it. Same goes for Neutral Evil. Characters cannot be Chaotic Evil. Normally, I would say that characters cannot be Chaotic Evil. However, since we’re heading into the Underworld where evil things lurk, many of the Underworld Races are Chaotic Evil. Drow society, in particular, is highly functional, despite most of its denizens being Chaotic Evil. The trick is to figure out, “As a Chaotic Evil character, how can I balance coexisting with a party with being chaotic and evil.”

Hit Points: You may begin the adventure with your maximum hit points at first level. Subsequent levels can be rolled or take the average. So a cleric with d8 hit dice would be at 8 plus their CON modifier at first level. At second level, they can either roll or take the average of 1 through 8 (rounded up) which would be 5 plus their CON modifier.

Money: Players can start with an appropriate amount of equipment or gold, depending on their class, but not both equipment and gold. Players who choose equipment have a balance of 10gp pocket money to begin the adventure.

Equipment: See money above. If you choose gold, then you will need to purchase the appropriate equipment. Characters may have a small number of portable personal possessions that are suited to their character’s background. For example, I might have a small statue of an elephant that was carved by my grandfather. First level characters do not have magic items.

Background and Backstory: There are a ton of backgrounds to choose from, or you can write your own. Please do keep in mind that we are adventuring in a place where the predominant race is Human and all other races are minorities, as explained in the Campaign Primer (see link above). Non-standard races are even more rare, possibly even unique in this region. Please do feel free to incorporate the information in this post and/or the information in the Campaign Primer to integrate your character more fully into the story. I will read each background and will keep them in mind while running the campaign.