Practical Example: Starting a D&D 5E SRD Campaign

Ready to play some games? In this guide, we're going to get you set-up with a campaign in 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons.

This guide will cover starting a campaign from both the player and GM perspectives — with the aim of providing a complete overview of what parts need to be completed by both users, in order.

Getting Ready

DONE BY: PLAYERS

As a player, you need a character build to join a campaign. To build one, or see public characters that you could choose to play, head to the "Character Building Page".

Make sure that the top of the page is currently set to your preferred Rule System. In our case, we want it to say "Dungeons & Dragons: 5th Edition SRD":

If it does not, use the "Change Rule System" button to correct the currently selected Rule System.

Then click "Create Character" to enter a name and create a blank new character.

Now click the pencil icon in the top right to enter edit mode and build out your character.

Starting with a description and potentially a character image.

Next, you'll see an area for the Default Character Sheets. Remember, on Hedron, a "Character build" defines your choices in building a character (class, attributes, etc.), while a "Character Sheet" represents your visual representation for your data.

If you have built a Character Sheet, or found one you liked on Hedron, you can set it as the Default Character Sheet for your character, so whenever you play this character, it is always loaded by default. And don't worry, you can always change these decisions later (or change sheets mid-session with just a button press).

You can also set multiple default sheets if you want different sheets for different situations. Each one will just appear as a tab in the Virtual Tabletop.

For our purposes, let's use the "Hedron Official Character Sheet", a sheet made by Hedron staff for general use. If you don't like it, feel free to create your own — it's mostly just drawing!

Next, you see a section for Sharing Access. If you'd like you could make your character public for others to also use, but you can also leave it private.

Now, for actually building our character.

Heritages

Start by selecting a heritage. In 5th Edition, this time, we'll simply choose Human.

Now, click "Add Level" to start building your character.

At level 1, you'll notice an area for "Initial Input", which is highlighted. This is for point buy, the default character creation configuration in Hedron's 5th Edition SRD.

In the top right, you'll notice "0/27", indicating the maximum investable points, 27, and your currently invested points, 0. Go ahead and use the + and - buttons to allocate the points for your initial point buy.

You'll also notice that our numbers started at 9. This is because we chose the Human Ancestry, which grants a +1 to all attributes.

If you're ever not sure how a number if calculated, try hovering over it to see a breakdown:

For example, above, we hover over Charisma and see that we start at 8, we put 2 points into it, then we get another +1 from our "Heritage": Human.

Note: On Hedron, Heritage is what "Ancestries" are for our engine. We are trying to update our Engine to also rename the functionality to "Ancestry", but it has not yet been done.

Once you've done it, the section will un-highlight, and you can move on to Class Levels.

Class Levels

Click the prompt to select a class for your first level-up. In our case, we'll use it to select Fighter. Once you do that, you'll see the next few sections update with your class information, such as new abilities.

For one of our Abilities, we also will see "Sub Ability Unlocks". That means we have to decide on some sub-ability. To do that, simply click the lock for the Sub-Ability you want to unlock.

As you scroll down, you'll then see areas for all of your calculated stats (none of which have any input allowed):

And finally, a section for Bonus Abilities. Bonus Abilities are basically here if, for whatever reason, your character is supposed to have new or additional abilities beyond the ones they normally have from class. For our purposes, we can skip this.

And that's it for Level 1. To create your Level 2 set-up, just click "Add Level" at the bottom of the page, and you'll see a new section for Level 2. Repeat as many times as you'd like to set-up your character to whatever level you'd like.

What if your Campaign wants you to start at Level 1?

Not a problem! You're really just designing your character build on this screen, when you enter a session, you will have your level set by your Game Master. So feel free to plan your build ahead as much as you'd like.

What about Items?

Items are handled in the Campaign, so don't worry about them in your character build. You'll get them from your Game Master.

What Next?

Now, your Game Master sets up their campaign and sends you an invite.

Creating a Campaign

DONE BY: GAME MASTER

The first step to starting a campaign is to actually create one. As the Game Master, this is your responsibility.

Head to the "Campaigns & Parties" page for your system of choice and make sure that the top of the page is currently set to your preferred Rule System. In our case, we want it to say "Dungeons & Dragons: 5th Edition SRD":

If it does not, click on the "Change Rule System" button to change the system to 5th Edition.

Then, click "Create Campaign" and name your campaign.

As the Game Master, you'll see a simple screen designating that you are the Game Master, which Rule System the campaign is using, and members of your party (which will be no one for now).

Now, once your players have completed the first step above and created a character, click the pencil icon to enter edit mode.

Optionally, give your campaign a description, image, and/or lore book if you want to have a quick reference for your lore.

Some systems may also have "Campaign Fields" for you to configure, however, 5E is not one of them.

Now that you've configured those details (optionally), move on to the "Party Info" section.

Click "Add Player", and then "Search for a User" to invite your players to your campaign. When you do so, they won't be added immediately. Instead, they will receive an invitation to join your campaign (next step). Once they accept, their chosen character will appear in your Party List.

If you want to add all of your users from a previous campaign or by role, you can optionally also use those choices in the dialog that appears after you click "Add Player".

Let's return to the player side to see what it would look like for them.

Accepting an Invite to Join a Campaign

DONE BY: PLAYER

Navigate to your profile page under the personal icon in the top right.

From your personal page, scroll down to "Your Invitations". You'll notice a new invitation from your Game Master to join their campaign.

When you click accept, you'll be asked to share and choose a character for your campaign. Select the character you either built or selected from the available characters above.

Once you've accepted the invitation, click "details" to navigate to your new campaign.

OR, you can find it by going to the "Campaigns & Parties" page from the navigation menu at the top.

You'll notice a notice at the top right that says "Not Session Ready". This is because your GM now has to set your character's level before you can enter the VTT.

Set Character Levels

DONE BY: GAME MASTER

Now that your player has joined your campaign, you'll see them on your campaign's page, as well as under the "Party" section in edit mode.

Enter edit mode, and go to their character:

You'll notice a drop down set to "Unset". This is their character's level. When you click on it, you'll see a list of all levels for which this character build has been set-up. To change this player's character level, simply change it from this dropdown.

If a player hasn't yet specified their character build for a particular level, you can't set them to that level. So if you need to, please ask your player to define their character's next level.

Once all of your players are set-up, you are ready to enter session! And so are they!

Closing Notes

And that's all it takes to set up a campaign. Now that you've set it up, either for yourself as a player or Game Master, you can click the "Join Session" to enter the Virtual Tabletop.

In a follow-up guide, we'll go over some of the various functionalities of the VTT, which can be used for either live or play-by-post games.

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Happy Gaming!