Dungeon Master Guide

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The Dungeon Masters of Crossroads are dedicated to establishing the setting of the Lost Hills. They exist not to dictate narratives, but to cultivate an immersive environment and form a backdrop in which players can tell their stories. By providing encounters that embody the living world, they strive to stimulate the community’s roleplay with rumors and intrigue. They are not here to overshadow the creativity of the players, but to uplift it by setting the stage in which players can create narratives with each other.

While events are aimed to provide attention to smaller parties of adventurers in order to simulate the tabletop experience, the effects of these for more groups of players form interests and fears for the characters of the server at large. They are storytellers and worldbuilders, who seek to have their roleplay hooks shared so that the effects of them can spread. As players, you will be rewarded for taking initiative, as Crossroads is a social experience that requires collaboration between players to be fully enjoyed. Players who make attempts to follow plot threads, foster roleplay for others, or open tickets to interface with the Dungeon Masters for storycrafting ideas will be rewarded for their creativity and communicativeness, and players who make an effort to share their plot threads with others will be rewarded for their kindness.

Crossroads is not a narrative to be completed, but a world to be experienced.

With hundreds of active players, the Dungeon Masters seek to give all a chance to experience that world, without diminishing the accomplishments of characters who have progressed through a story, nor closing off opportunities for those who have not had the chance. Thus, the Dungeon Masters form a collaborative experience with the players, as the two parties form an agreement to make this experience mutually enjoyable.

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Crossroads DM Events

‒ How to Get Involved

Typically, a single Dungeon Master can accommodate 4-6 players in a single event, which can require hours worth of preparation before the event is run. With an average of 5 players per event and one event per week for a month, a single Dungeon Master will accommodate 20 players in that month. With a server as large as Crossroads, this barely scratches the surface of our playerbase, and with a team of volunteers across varied availability, schedules and specializations, not every player will be able to simply happen upon an event. Thus, certain plots may require out of character coordination through event assistance, dm-other or event request tickets to schedule events and inquire about certain hooks. Otherwise, most hooks will be found in the overworld, through POIs, sets or random pop-up events to reward players who make an effort to explore the wilderness. If curious of the specific usages of tickets, refer to the Dungeon Master section in the #tickets channel.

'No Easy Wins' Event

A "No Easy Wins" event provides higher rewards at the cost of higher difficulty and consequences in a DM event.

Being downed in such a DM event includes Serious or Devastating Wounds as a mechanical consequence.

A group of players may request such an event, or consent to being a part of one before a DM encounter begins. By knowingly participating in a No Easy Wins event, a player is consenting to a higher difficulty of event, and higher stakes for losing.

Characters are recommended to take extra buffs, potions and food before such an event, and strategize their party composition and abilities for the best chance of success.

A DM is required to inform the players of their intent to perform an event before the encounter begins, and the players must grant their consent.

Player Run Events

‒ Guidelines

Separate from getting involved in events hosted by the Dungeon Masters, the team aims to empower players to tell their own stories, providing assistance through publicly-accessible builds that act as ruins, caves and other staple fixtures of the fantasy genre, and tools to be able to write their own events.

A player and their friends can perform events for themselves, through requesting permission through an Event Assistance ticket. Through this function, a player can write their own encounters with non-sapient creatures by Combat Rank (CR) of 2 and below, with some exceptions included on this page. Open such a ticket, and a Dungeon Master will respond to help a player with visual representations. Below lies examples of the creativity that the team hopes to foster.

• The party is camping in the wilderness when they encounter…
• The party overhears strange noises in the distance when they encounter…
• The party discovers a ruin, and they encounter…
• The party is in search of treasure, and they encounter…
• The party is traveling between settlements, and they encounter…
• The party is foraging for natural resources, and they encounter…

HOOKS:
Roll a 1d6 to decide the circumstance of the encounter.

CREATURES:
Then, pick a table, and roll another 1d6 to determine the creature encountered.

EXAMPLE: Roll a 3, choose UNDEAD, then roll a 1. Players discover a ruin, and encounter skeletons!

The tables above represent lore-accurate and simple encounters that can be run by players, with ToTs that the Dungeon Masters can supplement players with. From here, the player who is running the event can decide the mechanics of the event; do they want free-form writing to determine the outcome? Or do they want to implement skill checks, such as rolling their casting or attack attribute, or specific skills against a flat AC? There are many ways to portray encounters such as these and plenty of freedom, and all they require are basic storytelling skills, of which the Dungeon Masters seek to empower within the players of Crossroads.

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The following is a standardized dice system for self-DMed content:

Roll 1d20 + Casting/Attack Stat. 3/3 HP per mob
On 12+, you succeed.
On 18+, you succeed and it is decisive (enemy flees, dies or is mortally wounded).
On 11 or less, enemy counters — PCs take 1d12 damage (Fluff).

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Dungeons & Builds

For Season 2, builds created by the dungeon masters and build team are intended to be long-lasting fixtures meant to ground players to the setting and immerse them into the wonder of exploring the wilderness. These builds are intended to be stages for DM events and locales for characters to explore and PVP within these builds when not in use for an event.

In order to accommodate as many players as possible and manage the workload of the DM team, we ask that players not open tickets about DM builds unless given express permission by a DM or POI by a DM stating to do as such. Additionally, players are not allowed to steal from DM builds without DM permission, alter its appearance (such as through destruction or construction), or perform rituals that alter gameplay within the builds, such as magic mouth, magic circle, forbiddance or hallow, without permission from a DM.

Builds by the DM team are typically denoted by the appearance of instanced warps that take you from one location into the next, status messages that appear on your screen to tell you of the site, and POIs that have no time of placement assigned to them.

DISCLAIMER:
While heavily based on the source material provided in Forgotten Realms, Crossroads at times makes slight deviations from the lore in order to create a setting that is conducive to the server’s health and accommodating to players of varied writing styles and familiarity with Forgotten Realms lore.