1. What happens to my character when I'm away?

: If you have to miss a session, you can choose

whether you want to choose someone else to also play your character or not (if you don't leave
word, the assumption is that you don't). The advantage to having someone else play your
character is that your character will gain experience during the session with everyone else, and
you won't be left behind leveling. The disadvantage, of course, is that you might die. If you
don't want someone else to play your character, then your character's absence (and
reappearance) will either be weaved into the story as a plot point, or you'll just mysteriously
vanish and reappear, the subject of the whims of some powerful being on the astral plane who
chose to subject you to some astral probing before returning you.
2. How will roleplay be handled? : A part of your experience allocation (probably about 20%) will
be based on gameplay, which consists of two elements : roleplay and engagement.
Engagement rewards attentiveness and problem solving, and penalizes passive or "hack & slash"
play. Roleplay rewards you when you contribute to the other players feeling of being immersed
in the world of the campaign. A really simple way to get some roleplay points is just to always
refer to everyone else by their character's name during the game. Remember to give each other
a safe space to role play ... when you see players actively roleplaying, respond in kind. Dialog is
better than monologue. Be careful with farce ... a little bit is welcome comic relief, too much
will actually pull the other players out of the campaign and into sit-com territory.
3. What's the best way to have fun? : First, go wide before you go deep. What this means is if you
stumble across a passage that you feel advances the plot of the story to the next point, consider
if you've given enough to the current stage of the adventure yet before you advance. There
may be interesting encounters and sweet loot yet to be had before you take the plunge. You'll
only sacrifice your own enjoyment if you race through a campaign without taking time to
explore the world around you. Second, indulge your DM and other players. Do your best to
visualize the world being described around you and what the other characters are doing or
saying. Pretend you're really there. Allow yourself to be a kid, and concentrate as much on cool
stuff to do as you do the mechanics of the rules and gameplay.
4. What's the best way to die quickly? : That's easy ... treat every encounter you have as hack &
slash, and charge forward weapon drawn. If you'd like to avoid dying, consider things like
persuasion, negotiation, intimidation, subterfuge, etc. Especially at the beginning of the
campaign, when you are 1st level, you will have encounters where you will most certainly die if
you approach them as hack & slash. Size up your enemy, and know that particularly in this
campaign, just because you encounter something doesn't mean you're expected to kill it, or at
least kill it right away. If it's being described as one bad mfer, you might want to try a different
approach. One other word of advice : if you want to be a hero at low-levels, then play a tank. If
your character isn't a tank, then don't play like one.
5. What if my character is better than I am? : For things like persuasion, negotiation, intimidation,
etc. your character may be much better at these things than you are. When you're roleplaying,
just do these things in an interesting or entertaining way. You don't need to adopt period
speech, just tell what you're doing ("I'm going to try to intimidate him") and give it a go ("Ok you
nasty scoundrel, tell what you know or it's the end for you."). Your character's success or failure
will depend on the die roll, not your acting chops. And your roleplay experience will be based
 on how much you've tried to roleplay, not how well. Remember if you see another party
member trying to persuade or intimidate, that you can chime in too ("yeah, scum, you better
listen to him..." etc.), and who knows, the character might get advantage on your ability check
roll.
6. What if I want to sneak around? : Excellent idea! In fact, if the whole party is trying to be
stealthy, you may end up surprising any group of hostile's you encounter. Also consider doing
things like regularly thinking about when you might be in an area that's booby trapped and
checking for those. Consider searching where appropriate and how long you're willing to
search. Remember to post watch if you're resting or sleeping. And if you're in combat with
enemies that you need to know something from, remember to knock one unconscious or
grapple them instead of killing them all.
7. How do I know what we're supposed to do next? : There are a number of ways... first, if the DM
tells you "you suddenly have inspiration" or "the gods seem to be with you, and you feel a
weight lift off your shoulders", or anything like that, that means you're on the right track for
something important, and may also mean you have "inspiration" : advantage on your ability
check for whatever you're trying to do. Also listen for subtle clues in the descriptions of your
environment or characters ... it's old adage that a dagger seen in a desk drawer in act 1 will
probably be a plot point in act 2. Finally, pay attention to time. If the DM tells you that you
have a few days to hang out in a city before some other crucial event that you're waiting for
happens, that probably means that city is well fleshed out in the campaign, and there will be lots
to do or explore there.
8. What if I do some crazy shit? : Go ahead. A little bit is great ... maybe you wander off the map
or choose to pursue something that isn't really part of the campaign. The DM will try to
integrate that as much as possible into the story line. Random encounters may appear. But if
you wander too far astray or get the party off the plot timeline too much, the harder it is to
reconcile the two, and the less interesting and less coherent the campaign will become. So,
definitely do this, but do it in a controlled way. Run around the playground a bit, but try to
always circle back around to the sandbox. That's where the interesting stuff is.

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