Unless the mod is specifically in VC to hold office hours for mod-related business, we strongly prefer you don't, especially when it comes to new content or questions you would ask in the ask-the-mods channel. No one mod has the authority to make rules decisions; these are all decided by committee. So, we prefer you don't ask mods mod-related questions in VC unless a mod initiated the VC for the specific purpose of conducting mod business (e.g., character creation office hours, dicecloud help, etc.). Also, sometimes we just want to hang out and talk to our members outside of mod business.

Not at all, you can learn as you go along! There are plenty of resources to help you understand the basics such as D&D Beyond or Handbooker Helper, and the mods and other players can fill you in on the rest as it comes up.

Player’s Handbook. It is the primary sourcebook for D&D and contains everything you need to know for character creation as well as rules basics. If you don’t have access to the PHB but want to know something you can check D&D Beyond for a rules snapshot.

It’s a good and official resource. Because D&D is protected by copyright, only open gaming content is available on D&D Beyond by default. If you get stopped by a paywall, we suggest supporting the official resource or using google to find unofficial ones. Be cautious with unofficial resources because they can contain unmarked homebrew or discontinued UA, and these are not permitted in BNB.

Yes! You can participate in art, RP, and writing, just like any other RP group. You will get the most out of the group if you go on the ocassional quest, however.

Yes. You do not need to have deviantart account until you are ready to submit a join request, but we are still a dA group, and it is important that you have an account in order to fully participate in the group.

Joining the group discord server is mandatory to apply. You will not be able to reserve a character unless you join the discord. Beyond that, participation in the discord chat is not required, but the mods may place a lower priority on applicants who haven't demonstrated an effort to acquaint themselves with the BNB community. You are doing yourself a disservice if you don't at least quietly stalk the conversation in the discord chat, moreso if you don't get to know what we're all about. It's important for you to know what you're getting in to and if you like the people here. We don't want you to invest your time and effort in applying, only to realize after the fact everyone in the group quotes Monty Python constantly and you hate Monty Python with a passion. You should also be aware that being an active and vocal member is essential to getting the most out of this group once you are accepted. Participating in social activities like quests, RPs, and art/lit is part of the fun of being in the group! If your schedule or your temperament don't allow you to do these things, BNB might not be the best fit for you.

No! You can make your dicecloud sheet before you join the group, but it isn’t required and won’t affect how the admins review your app. If you are new to D&D, it is recommended that you wait until after you join to create your dicecloud sheet.

You will need to roll for stats, but you do not need to do this until after you are accepted to the group unless you want to do it earlier. Whether you do or don't roll for stats won’t affect how we judge your app. If you’d like to roll for stats before joining, then please read the pins #avrae-spam channel on the discord server. Stats must be rolled with mod supervision in the BNB server using the custom !rollstats command. If you would like to create your dicecloud sheet prior to joining, it is imperative that you carefully follow our dicecloud guide.

We cannot emphasize enough how important it is to use the dicecloud guide when creating your sheet! That said, since a dicecloud sheet is not required to apply to BNB, the mod team will not be providing one-on-one assistance with dicecloud sheets to applicants before they join.

Probably, yes! There are lots of cool races and subclasses . You can read more about character creation here. You must reserve a character in order to apply.

We want to keep track of how many people are going off-book, particularly for races that are supposed to be rare or for classes that are popular.

This is answered in the pinned messages of the #reserve-a-character server channel.

Your character can absolutely be a resident of Lumivaara and we encourage people to be creative with their character backgrounds and stories. We have a growing body of world lore, so it is preferable to use existing major locations (e.g., countries, large cities, capital cities) rather than create new ones. For minor or unnamed locations (e.g., a small farming town in the middle of the country), by all means, make something up! However, please don’t make giant world-changing events a part of your backstory without confirming them with the mods. Rule of thumb is that if it only affects your home area, it’s probably fine; if it’s something you would expect everyone to know about as part of world history, then you might want to tone it down.

We're gonna stop you right there, friend. D&D is a team game, and either everyone succeeds or no one does. Your character doesn't have to be a paragon of morality, but chaotic and/or evil intentions don't make a character complex, it just makes them difficult to work with. Even if your character is a brooding loner, it is important that they be capable of working as part of a team. Please read our Character Creation FAQ if you want to know more.

Yes, of course! Anyone can sign up for any quest - participation is not limited to players only in certain timezones. DMs will post time zones and time zone converters as a courtesy so you can see exactly when the game is in your time, but you can sign up for any quest that you can attend. Don’t worry about not being able to join or create quests based on your timezone!

Yes, you can make last-minute edits as long as join requests haven't closed yet, but if you do, please tell an admin that you made changes. Once you submit an app, we may begin reviewing it at any time. If you don't tell us you changed something, we may review a previous version and not see your revisions. It's highly preferred that you have everything proofread and done before you turn in your app.

It’s a relatively complicated list of things we look for. But we’re looking that you have everything filled out in accordance with the requirements, first and foremost. Then we look at the amount of effort that went into your app relative to your own works. It will certainly help your character is creative, fits in with the world lore, has compelling goals, and can grow. We don’t want to give people a strict list that all apps think they have to follow. Just have fun with it! Remember, this is a hobby!

We get upwards of 50 applications at each opening, and we will not be going over the specific reasons why apps were declined with anyone.