Fables of Refuge

Fables of Refuge is an actual play Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition YouTube show and podcast. It was the first show produced by the Fables YouTube channel with the first episode premiering on July 17th, 2019. It is set in an original world called Refuge, created by the Game Master Jarret Sullivan.

The first six months
Fables of Refuge was the first time the dapper DM, Jarret had run a 5th edition game, as well as the first time for some of the players to experience the game style and table top role playing in general. This meant the show would showcase the experience of learning how to run and play the game, with open discussions of what went wrong or right, how this happened, and how it could be improved upon. Everyone showcased their experience with acting, writing and the wider entertainment industry.

The show started as a pre-recorded three to four hour session of game play, edited and formatted afterwards my CMike. A simple introduction identified the show as a collaborative story telling experience using the 5th Edition D&D rule set as a catalyst. Episodes were uploaded regularly once per month, with lessons to be learned in production along the way. The quality of production increased with each episode, these improvements included sound design, optimized recording setup, quality of equipment, the actual story telling and the final product. The first episode with original music to be credited by Brian Metolius premiered on December 2nd, 2019. A tremendous leap in the production bringing new life to the story with a live score, with character themes that would evolve over time to match the story of each character and environment they were in.

In the beginning episodes were recorded up to one month in advance, by the end of 2019 it was up to two months, recording twice per month with the intention of increasing episode output with a whopping three, three hour long episodes published in December 2019. The last episode uploaded in 2019 was the Christmas episode premiering on December 24th, 2019. This episode was special because it was the first with a guest player, Tom Phillips, and the first episode to feature the new channel art by Alicia Edwards.

2020
The year started strong for the show, a new release format of one episode cut into 20 to 40 minute parts uploaded every Tuesday and Thursday. The jump to the new format had some teething issues with certain episodes having technical difficulties. This new year had great story telling, the players and GM had settled into their roles and were providing consistent story telling while diving deeper into the Lore of the show and Dungeons and Dragons with the first encounter with a Manticore.

Covid_19
As soon as the reality of the pandemic had made its influence on the show the production relied on its pre-recorded footage to sustain regular uploads. However that only lasted to April. The show was put on hold which led to a series of Side Quests (One shots). Refuge took the change as an opportunity to experiment with live streaming months before they intended to do so. So until it was safe to do so the Refuge Side Quest about the crew of the ship Nerada was the main story of the channel until August 13, 2020 when Fables of Refuge made its Live Stream Debut on Twitch.

Character Creation
Customized races: Jarrett allows in character creation customization options, so a Half elf/ Half Dwarf or any combination of the fantasy races is possible. Although this is is not strictly against the 5th Edition standard rules, there are no explicit mechanics to allow it.

Combat

 * Critical Hit Damage: Critical hits deal damage equal to the maximum damage possible, plus the damage dice normally rolled. Normally, Critical hit damage would be twice the damage dice normally rolled plus any modifiers.
 * Critical Fail Table. When a character rolls a natural 1 on an attack a second roll is made to see if any effects take place.
 * 16. You are too close to the target and they get to attempt to grapple you as a reaction.
 * 16. pulled muscle, disadvantage on attacks and ability checks requiring the upper body for 1 turn.
 * 18. pulled muscle, disadvantage on attacks and ability checks requiring the upper body for 1 turn.
 * Flanking. The variant rule of flanking is used. See page 251 of the Dungeon Master's Guide
 * Health Potions (Potion of Healing): used as an action and gives maximum healing. Normally Healing 2D4(6) +2 HP, will now always heal 10 HP.