Welcome Home!
Home Game in the Cloud (Home Game or HGitC for short) is a new supplement to our monthly Virtual D&D Weekend events! The aim of HGitC to give players and DMs a chance for a more stable and intimate gaming experience where a DM can guide a regular group of players through an entire storyline from start to finish.
HGitC experiences will typically last between 6 and 12 sessions (with some running longer), with the goal being to strike a balance between stability and flexibility: we want groups to be able to play through the whole story together, but we also know that sometimes life happens and people may have to drop out of a campaign.
How it Works
Unlike our Red Carpet program, where players organize the game and hire a DM, with HGitC the DM is the driving force; the DM picks the adventures and sets the schedule and then we put the tickets up for sale on the Yawning Portal. That said, if you have an idea for a Home Game, and you’re not a DM, you can get the ball rolling in the #bmg-group-organizing forum of our Community Discord server, and see if a DM is interested in running it.
Most games gave their tickets as first-come, first-served, but some DMs may choose to control who gets access to buy tickets. And either way, existing party members always get early access to buy tickets for subsequent games, with sales opening up to other players if any of the existing party members decide not to play.
Tickets prices are a bit higher than standard VDDW tickets, but the ticket price is all-inclusive. There’re no extra booking fees and 75% of the ticket price goes right to your DM, so you’re helping support your favourite DMs and rewarding their hard work!
What are we Playing?
Our intent with HGitC is that it be used for complete storylines or campaigns, but that’s entirely up to our DMs. The only restrictions we impose are that games have to be D&D and must meet our content and safety guidelines. Outside of that, anything goes: official D&D hardcover adventures, DDAL storylines, even homebrew stories. If you’ve got a favourite DM and a thing you’d like them to offer as part of HGitC, feel free to let them know!
Frequently Asked Questions
I already have a group, can we play together?
You and your friends are free to all buy tickets individually to a Home Game table, or one person can buy tickets for the whole group, but if the Home Game experience you want to play in has open ticketing (first-come-first-served), it’s possible someone else may get some or all of the tickets before you. If you have a firm group, you may want to reach out to the DM and see if they’re willing to work with you and give your group controlled access to tickets.
If you already have a group that wants to play together and just a few specific adventures a month, we do have our Red Carpet program where you can pick the adventures and book a DM exclusively for your group during Virtual D&D Weekends.
The DM I want to play with is a friend of mine, can they reseve a spot for me?
Right now it’s an all-or-nothing situation with tickets: either tickets are open to everyone, first-come-first-served, or the DM controlls access to all the tickets, they can’t “hold” one ticket, sorry.
When will tickets go on sale?
Ticket sales for the first session of a Home Game will go on sale on the Yawning Portal 10 days before the session occurs. Tickets to subsequent sessions will be made available to existing party members at the start of their previous session. If a game has open ticketing, and any unsold tickets will become available to everyone else 72 hours later.
What DMs will be running the games?
Any Herald’s Guild (Baldman Games’ DM organization) DM, who has successfully run for us at least one event (online or in-person) is able to apply to run a Home Game experience, but we’ll be giving priority to DMs with a proven track-record.
How can I tell what kind of game the DM intends to run?
We’ll include a short write-up from each DM in their game’s description but we do encourage you to reach out to the DM on our BMG Community Discord server if you want to learn more.
What about scheduling? How does that work?
Scheduling is up to the DM; we only have a few guidelines: games must happen (on average) at least once per month, and games cannot happen during a Virtual D&D Weekend event. Other than that, individual DMs are free to set up the timing as they wish.
Do DMs have to run D&D? Can we play Pathfinder/Call of Cthulhu/Cyberpunk?
Sorry, not at this time. Because the Home Game program is part of our Virtual D&D Weekends, sponsored by Wizards of the Coast, only Dungeons & Dragons games are allowed. They don’t need to be official adventures and they don’t even have to be 5th edition, but they have to be using some version of D&D as their game system.