The Elrendar Fellowship

Roll Brackets & Stances

Stances can be changed throughout an event at a player's discretion, but they take a full turn to transition between once active. There's an ideal stance for every situation, but if balancing your numbers isn't a priority, stick to just one and take things as they come.

Changing stance takes your turn. Healers can treat “damage” as “healing” without any other changes.

Aggressive

Balanced

Defensive

Focused

Interventions

On any failing or even succeeding roll(i.e. Draw or better) you can step in and take the hit for an ally—if you're close or can reasonably get to them that is. Keep it flowing forward though; if you want to, you can try it; there's no need to ask the DM. If you take the hit, you can either take the injury for your ally, or block/deflect it if you rolled high enough.

Keep in mind that rescuing everyone from everything can take a lot of the weight off consequences and fate; be mindful that sometimes it's better to let things happen to increase the stakes. That said, interventions are a great way to foster interactivity between players.

The same goes for team ups; if you and a friend both roll successes, you can absolutely team up and cause mayhem together. Maybe you set one another up for an attack; maybe you do some crazy springboarding to throw your partner onto the back of some giant monster. These events are places for you to let creativity fly. Unless it's something that is going to dramatically change the scales of the event, you usually don't need to check in with the DM at all. As long as you're dealing your damage and taking your injuries, things will move forward smoothly.

Environment & Perception

Environment & Terrain Calls (DM picks a TN and a bite)

The DM sets a target number (TN). If you fail it, you'll take a little disadvantage or damage based on how nasty the scene is, or lose your grip if you're grappling with some obstacle. If you pass it, however, you keep your footing and progress. Simple as that.

Additional environmental effects which can be announced depending on circumstances:

• Lava / Fire - fail = −2 to −4 HP
• Ice / Slick - fail = −1 to −2 HP or Off-Balance
• Poison Cloud - fail = Poisoned
• Darkness - fail = Blind (1 turn)
• High Winds - fail = ranged attacks at disadvantage
• Deep Water - fail = −1 to −2 HP and halved movement

Perception

DM sets a TN. Highest success gets the first whisper with the most detail; we cascade to the rest in order with less valuable hints. It’s fair and fast, and rewards the high rolls without leaving everyone else in the dark.

If your class bonus or a perk grants a bonus to Environment or Perception, apply it to the relevant roll that round (declare it briefly OOC if it matters).

Class Bonuses

Always-on helpers. Nothing to track—just remember your edge in the scene.

• Mages & Healers +2 dmg/heal on hits, and +3 to Combat and Perception Rolls
• Assassin / Rangers +3 to Combat Rolls, and +2 to Environment and Perception Rolls
• Aggressive Fighters +2 dmg on hits, and +3 to Combat and Grapple Rolls
• Thief / Mercenary +2 dmg on hits, and +3 to Charisma & Perception Rolls

Perks & Debuffs

Pick three; whatever fits your character. Perks marked “Always-on” are constant and require no work; limited perks or user activated ones, however, show uses. If two don’t play nice together, it's listed. Keep it fast and honest.

Perks

If a perk is “mutually exclusive,” pick one of the pair and stick with it for the event.

Debuffs (used across our monsters)

If a monster trait uses a flavorful name (e.g., “Void Phase” or “Amber Sting”), map it to the closest effect above and keep the fiction strong.

Using the Monster Manual

Every entry in the Monster Manual already has what you'll need to create cool encounters, including:

Name, Class, HP/Level: 1-50, Traits: [two to five quick effects]

Monster Levels

• Minion 4-12 HP
• Elite 13–40 HP
• Boss 41+ HP

Linking & Lore

Traits & Abilities

Build & Run Encounters

The Monster Manual and DM Event Assistant work together as a closed-loop system.

• Explore & ideate: Browse factions, monsters, NPCs, and history on the Monster Manual and History pages to spark event ideas.
• Build enemies fast: In the Encounter Builder, set challenge level (Minion, Elite, or Boss), apply existing traits or create new ones, and choose preset or custom HP values to assemble a full roster.
• Export & run: Export your encounter as a data file, then upload it into the DM Event Assistant to track damage by turn, update states/debuffs, and keep big events organized.
• Mindset: Everything you need is here on the site—and in your head. Get creative, explore, and make cool shit happen.

Tip: Keep your exported encounter files so you can remix them for future events.

Introduction

As nerdy as it may sound, one of my favorite things about roleplay is learning component (in the meta sense, as well as the IC). As a high school teacher in real life, I spend a lot of my time working with students on how to engage more deeply with their writing, and we do that by examining styles and techniques used by all sorts of authors from all over the globe and history.

There are so many different backgrounds and approaches to writing, that there's a near-endless amount of learning we can achieve, and it only gives more opportunities to engage and enjoy.

These guides, built by both myself and other members, are by no means a requirement for anyone to follow, but I do hope that they may be of some use to you, regardless of whether you're a veteran RPer or brand new to the gig.

Enjoy, reflect, and then get back in the game!

~Ansinosth

General Tips

Roleplay is at its best when everyone feels like they have a stake in the scene. That doesn’t mean every line has to be a monologue, or that every action has to shake the world. Often, it’s the small, consistent habits that keep the community alive: responding to others, giving their actions weight, and remembering that no character is the main character all of the time.

My advice here mirrors what I tell my students in writing workshops: be generous. Quote or reference what others wrote, build on it, and let your own character be shaped by those interactions. And if you’re feeling stuck, anchor yourself in place. Describe the chair your character is sitting in, or the torchlight on the wall—sometimes setting details are the doorway into deeper character expression.

Failing Forward

This is news about me, but I have a particularly big beef with dry-as-hell failure posts. Let's get that out of the way from the getgo.

Let's say you miss your attack, or you take an injury. Sounds pretty lame, right? Well, it doesn't have to be, at least with the Fellowship (where we encourage creative permissiveness).

Instead of "Jim the Bard squares up with the giant monster, but fails to block the incoming strike and staggers backwards," why not make it just as intense and heroic as a two paragraph success post?

What if it became about Jim the Bard setting up an allied player for their own successful attacks while taking their hit? What if Jim the Bard did some insane flips and climbed up the log-thick arms of this monster and grabbed it by the nose ring, yanking it low so that Stacy the Rogue can get a clear shot at the monster's throat while injuring themself in the process?

Changing the perceptive and vibe of the post does two things: 1. It keeps the player engaged despite the disappointment of a failure. 2. Fosters a sense of failing forward and supporting one another.

The Fellowship champions in earnest the mindset of collaborating at events wherever possible. Give your allies an opening; take your damage while selflessly throwing yourself in front of an ally to spare them a potential injury (maybe an incoming blow they didn't even see coming!); use your miss as a way to set up an even more powerful attack the next turn. Whatever you can, give yourself opportunities to fail forwards in the most spectacular way possible.

Depth of Emotes & Actions

One of the most critically impactful exercises I employ in my work, with both students and RPers, is to focus on the physical engagement between your character and the world.

What I mean by "the world" is any other character, an object, a setting, or whatever else you can imagine. When your character has something tangible to interact with, it gives grounding and weight, and it can offer so many new avenues for interaction.

The difference between “She smiles” and “She presses her lips together, trying to hide the smile tugging at the corner of her mouth” is the difference between surface-level RP and something immersive that carries weight others can feel. I often push my students in writing to go beyond simple past tense adjectives and into verbs with texture. Don’t just write that a character is “angry.” Show it: the clenched jaw, the tapping foot, the muttered breath they can’t quite contain.

Think of emotes as stage directions, and the actual actions as the narrative glue. The more specific the action, the more others have to grab onto. And when in doubt, ask yourself: what does this look like to someone else in the room? That perspective shift alone can add layers to your writing.

For example, when a character in a tavern is holding a mug, it can become a window into their state of mind. Are they fidgeting with the mug nervously? Is their grip too tight with white knuckles showing? Is their drink rippling from anxious shaking? Even something as simple as what they do with the mug when it's empty can tell us so much—and all of this is without even uttering a single word in character.

Small things like this can go a long way to deepening the immersive experience for us all.

Education & Training RP

An IRL Teacher’s Perspective

Here’s the simple truth: RP is one of the most naturally educational activities people stumble into. You’re practicing and flexing skilles tied to writing, reading, communication, empathy, and improvisation—often without realizing it. That’s liquid gold in a classroom.

When I work with students, I focus on transferable skills and learning rather than the content: how describing a scene hones narrative writing; how embodying a character sharpens public speaking confidence; how negotiating outcomes teaches collaboration. For guildmates, my “teacher advice” is simple: treat every RP moment as both art and practice. Celebrate improvement, be generous with feedback, and build routines that reinforce growth (brief recaps, reflection prompts, and the occasional peer shout out); these all go a long way.

Now, if you’re using RP as a training space—whether for writing, leadership, or teamwork—set small, visible goals. Maybe it’s “use one sensory detail per post,” or “respond directly to someone else’s action every round.” Normalize opt-ins and content warnings, respect boundaries, and make it safe to try new things. That’s the environment where people improve fastest.

Most importantly: enjoy yourself. The more we treat RP as a living workshop rather than a performance, the more confident and creative everyone becomes.

In Game Teaching RP

One thing we do see fairly often in game is a lot of in character apprentice/mentor relationships and dynamics. Magical instructors, squires and knights, apprenticeships, and so on. These are great opportunities to dive into how our characters, not just us, learn and grow. There is, however, an unfortunate trend of the lecture style approach being the most dominant, which in larger settings can leave people feeling very left out.

This is where my years as a teacher have actually helped me out a lot. One thing that research has shown over the years is that people learn more through doing, rather than just listening. Schools are trying to incorporate group work and less teacher-directed lessons, and it applies doubly so in role-play. Take a magical lesson setting, for example:

A classic example we see is where the magical instructor stands in front of the role-play group and lectures about this and that. Great fun for the lecturer, and interesting reading for the students, but only one person out of the entire group is actually doing any meaningful interacting. Just like a DM who writes all the actions for the players, the bulk majority of the people are left twiddling their thumbs IRL.

A more constructive way to approach the situation is to be engaging the students with actual action-focused posting while the lecture is ongoing. This could be them drawing runes tied to the lecture, or trying to untangle some ley-energy puzzle, or maybe sparring with one another while the instructor provides commentary and critique.

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what you're doing, as long as something is happening.

Another piece to consider is having long term goals as well as small-bite tasks. Doing scatter shot lessons where every week it's something different doesn't prompt or encourage focused development and growth in-character. Giving a character the task of learning how to shoot a fireball can be broken into a bunch of different sections: figuring out the words or runes, figuring out how to shape the energy, figuring out how to properly aim or place the spell, learning how to defend against or negate that type of magic, understanding how to combine that type of magic with others (felfire ball, frostfire ball, etc.)

If you have dedicated apprentice/mentor roles established, think about how you can incorporate this sort of mindset to give the apprentice something to focus on independently inbetween sessions.

While other tips and tricks will come later, the biggest take away should be to focus on interactivity, rather than just lecture.