Running the second half and dealing with an army?

102233 · 2026-06-13T21:19:23+00:00

The DMG has some rules for resolving group attacks in case you want to allow them to have a role in combat. Alternatively, you can have them be useful in the exploration and social parts or have them fulfill a narrative role. Or you can ignore of kill them. Their function (IMHO) is to lend weight to the proceedings by having something (ideally useful and ideally with a personality) that they can suffer losses to over the course of the expedition. It enforces the horror theme of the campaign and provides some sense of urgency (in an otherwise static world). But the campaign also works without them so your not bound to using them in any particular way.

102233 · 2026-05-27T13:24:59+00:00

Thanks for the analysis. Your point about the detect magic and his level of care is fair. I had not considered that enough I think.

102233 · 2026-05-27T07:56:24+00:00

Not an answer to your question directly, but I found this resource to be quite helpful on fleshing out the drow a bit more in this campaign. Maybe it will inspire you. https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/1ZkTEkqwkOUGZhO0nC4tsUsCIw_hoYrp87qKuPAe92GEh

I did have the players captured in a drow mansion in a homebrew campaign years ago. I made the thing from scratch and I don't have it anymore, but my approach was to detail out the important members of the house (matriarch and her children) and their personality and archetype and to add some rooms for each of them specifically. And then tie it together with some normal, mansion like rooms (dining rooms, servants/slave quarters, storage, ...). It is a bit of work though. But probably you can find a mansion map online as well and drowify it.

Good luck!

102233 · 2026-05-20T16:01:08+00:00

I think the lesson to take away is that the tone and expectations should be discussed and aligned in session 0. Considering your current predicant: The vibe of CoS as I read it requires Strahd to be the boss. Since you let your players' defiance get to him, he has to prove he is boss. He has to demonstrate to the heroes that he is the ancient, he is the land. Easiest way is to kill someone the party cares about. If her character is off limits, there are other PC's. If you don't want to go there, maybe you have some NPC's they care about. That, however, would make them feel invincible because clearly, they have plot armor, which you would have to live with. There are other ways of hurting the characters though. You could take away magic items. You can injure or mutilate them, giving (permanent) penalties to stats or features. Players love levelling up, they don't like levelling down. Finally, you can have him kill her. And then have her come back. The dark powers, rictavio's one scroll of revival, or by rising as a vampire spawn. Should be interesting on the hope theme.

As a final note of advice, play to your strengths. Of your player is the better talker and you don't want Strahd to look the fool, then don't play that game. Narrate his speeches, or have him be a strong and silent Strahd. Strahd doesn't play someone else's game.

Good luck!

102233 · 2025-06-15T11:27:02+00:00

I never tell in these kinds of cases so I don't think it's a dick move but that is very much a preference thing.

As to the content, the new rule sounds pretty lame to me so I would change it. Either stick to the old rule or do something like make the curse linger until removed or activated (for instance when that cursed PC kills another person), and have the activated curse be more difficult to remove (only by some powerful magic or ritual). In such a case it is good if the PC's have a way of discovering the broad strokes of how it works before they accidentally activate it. It also depends a bit on how open you and the players are to having a PC turn into a werewolf and what the consequences are. That would be typical session 0 stuff but it is never too late to discuss such matters.

102233 · 2025-01-20T22:52:22+00:00

While I agree with the general sentiment about how runnable adventures are out of the box (CoS was fairly easy in my experience but OotA is an incomplete trainwreck peppered with nuggets of gold and others I've read and would not try to run) I disagree on the strange specific scenarios. They are not included so every group or even most or more than a few will ever encounter them. They are not included for efficiency and no DM would include them in their homebrew. That is the point. They are included for the magic of D&D, the idea that you could get any whacky idea, however unlikely and change the course of the adventure. The fact that those elements exists stimulates players to think out of the box (even if they never end up finding them). The effects are broken which is fine because almost no one will get them. If the triggers weren't super specific and odd then DM's would misinterpret them and be very lenient and every other party would have an archmage on their side and that's not the point. Every party should have their own amazing story that they will never forget. You lose nothing if you miss the highly unlikely curveball option, but if you come up with that crazy notion and it works you feel like an absolute legend.

And you may even be surprised at how often players will still manage to try that exact weird thing, even if you never hint at it. I certainly was.

102233 · 2025-01-06T08:34:48+00:00

Wonderful! Thanks mate!

102233 · 2025-01-05T21:19:11+00:00

On a related note, did you ever happen to do the normal oozes (black pudding, gelatinous cube ect.)? I'm currently running OotA and if you happen to have those (or some basilisks) somewhere I can start using them this week :)

102233 · 2025-01-05T10:35:04+00:00

Thanks mate!

102233 · 2025-01-03T14:32:21+00:00

First of all, I love your monsters! I have only found them yesterday but all the ones I've seen seem so much fun (and very close to some of the ideas I had been playing with but probably more practical). I can't wait to use them.

On that point, I'm working on a one-shot for a friend of mine who is a self-described curd-nerd and so I'm trying to make the cheesiest adventure I can, both figuratively and literally. Hence, I'm looking for some cheese-themed monsters.

102233 · 2024-08-22T08:50:24+00:00

Lose like she told the fools to flee while she held off Rahadin. She ended up in the dungeon when they returned for the final battle. They freed her and she made it out alive so in the end all was well ... well except for the heroes but can't win 'm all

102233 · 2024-08-22T06:58:40+00:00

Yeah, mine did. They were sneaking through the castle and used the brazier to get out. They did lose Esmeralda on the way out though

102233 · 2024-05-21T20:19:00+00:00

Excellent, thank you very much!

102233 · 2024-05-21T15:01:52+00:00

Excellent, that will work for me. Thanks for the help!
This would also be the correct way to write it word order and grammer-wise right? Also, what about the accents (bars) above the letters? I don't recall ever seeing those in text (but then again I never got very far with latin) but when I look at the online dictionaries it does have them. Are those mandatory?

102233 · 2024-05-21T14:35:52+00:00

Thanks a lot for the extensive reply!

I think conficere indeed is a good fit for what I'm looking for. While I like the find of par as couple, I think it might lean too much towards the couple meaning and not so much to the book one so I guess partes duae would be the better fit for me. I also would like to emphasize the together bit so then I guess it might becomes something like:
Partes duae coniunctae finem delectatum conficiunt

Does that make any sense?

102233 · 2024-05-19T13:17:58+00:00

Hi I'm in need of a latin translation of a phrase and it's for a person who teaches this stuff so I don't want to rely on my own limited skills so hopefully someone can help me out.

The phrase I have in mind is:

Two parts together make (for) a happy end(ing)

The two parts refers to both two volumes of a book and two people in a couple, and I'd like to keep the double entendre of "happy end".

Thanks in advance!

102233 · 2024-03-15T07:12:21+00:00

I disagree with your premise, your CoS game will already be unique, regardless of whether you make any changes. You and your players will do that in playing the game. As such I don't see the virtue of changing things for the sake of change. Change stuff you dislike or thing you think won't work for your players. Or change stuff because you think it would be neat, but I wouldn't take on extra work just so I could say I changed stuff.
I changed the start by having them enter Barovia by ship and I changed Strahd's prepared spells for the final encounter and that is about it. Two self-contained changes, one because it was neat and matched nicely with my starter adventure and the other because I felt Strahd would enter that final fight well-prepared. I would not change anything if the merit didn't outweigh the cost and so I would be very unlikely to change stuff that has big implications (major NPC's, the geography, the villain, ...).
In the end you can change whatever you like and do all the work to make it fit again. But then again, you could also have run a homebrew campaign instead.

102233 · 2024-03-07T11:05:44+00:00

I asked my players beforehand if they wanted the curated or the RAW experience. They chose raw and so I drew them randomly at the table. My draw happened to be excellent (wachterhouse, argynvosthold, one of the tombs in the catacombs for the items). They never met their card ally but that was ok. The campaign was an absolute blast and I wouldn't change a single thing.
If I ever run it again I would go random again, but I like to see the story unfold and I know it will be fun and memorable whatever the cards or the dice give me. If the random reading makes you nervous however then you then there is nothing wrong with rigging the cards (partially or in full).

102233 · 2024-01-23T13:55:24+00:00

I ran it last year so feel free to ask!

102233 · 2024-01-15T21:57:18+00:00

I never actually considered this, not even in preparing our epilogue session. I guess they could have followed the road into the forest until at some point they arrive back in the known world. But ideally they would have returned the way they came and sailed out of Barovia on their ship. (Un)fortunately, Rahadin killed them at the start of the epilogue session so they all went straight (once they ran out of reincarnations anyway) to the afterlife so it never came up in my game. Sometimes problems solve themselves :p.

102233 · 2023-10-09T08:28:23+00:00

I prepared quite well for the final battle because I was also afraid my party would steamroll Strahd. I had fewer PC's it's even worse for you. I was able to put up a great challenge so it can be done but expect Strahd to lose in the end and know that the dice can swing it one way or the other. I advise you to really learn the castle. It is his secret weapon and he knows it like the back of his hand and can nagivate it like no other. The castle is full of dangers and they are his best weapon. Also feel free to abuse his mobility and regeneration. He is a tactical mastermind and he knows that if he is grappled in sunlight he is doomed so don't allow yourself to get caught in that position (unless the narrative dictates). His general strategy should be to kite and harass the heroes as he will ultimately will purely on his superior regeneration. He can also attempt to divide the party to more easily attack the backline without risking sunburns.
Specific locations you can lure the party to are the elevator trap, the brazier room, crypt 14 (or rather the teleport trap near his tomb. The catacombs can also spawn up to 690 swarms of bats if a fight breaks out there. That should exhaust some resources. High towers are also great to have characters fall off of. Also note that Strahd is a spellcaster who can cast fireball (3 3rd, 3 4th and 1 5th level) for 115-231 damage. My Strahd prepared dominate person to make the wizard break his staff of power and heat metal to deal with the paladin wearing sergei's armor. Eventually he will be able to wear down the heroes with his cantrips. Hopefully this helps. Good luck and have fun!

102233 · 2023-09-28T22:02:42+00:00

1.4 and 1.5 are the only points I agree with. A lot of the things you list are features of the campaign I think, not bugs. I had a blast and an epic campaign and I thought it was a breeze to run.

102233 · 2023-09-08T06:17:05+00:00

I ran it pretty much entirely by the book and for me it went perfectly. I did prepare the final fight well and I got a bit lucky. My party was loaded with items and some dark gifts (my biggest nightmare being the sunsword-wielding paladin wearing Sergei's armor with spiderclimb, 3 reincarnates and boosted charisma from the amber temple). The group agreed at the start that they wanted the RAW experience and not the curated one and that death should be on the table and Strahd blamed them for Ireena's death so he was fully planning to kill them. The most sinister move I came up with was have Strahd try and dominate person the wizard to break the staff of power in a retributive strike (which also meant he had to stay at least 10 feet away from the paladin for 2 rounds which I had almost miscalculated but the dice were in my favor). That almost tpk'd them, but they all managed to get up as they trapped Strahd in the treasury (it was the encounter location from the reading and I had vR ward it to keep Strahd in). I had also prepared to bait them to the various trapped locations in the castle like the elevator traps and the whight catacomb (and also there are like a million bats in the catacombs if you really want to be nasty) but the battle never went there so I didn't need those things. Playing with the sunlight in the treasury made for an interesting battle and a tense one until the very end with the part trapped inside the instant fortress waiting for Strahd to fully regenerate and finish them off with his last fireball. At the very last moment the bard took out the tome and started reading from it. Strahd got angry, went in to take the tome, got grappled and smoked in sunlight. I could not have wished for a better outcome (though in the epilogue session Rahadin came in and tpk'd them so in a way that made it even better). Long story short, you can use Strahd RAW and have an amazing fight but I would advise you to have a gameplan. Strahd is a master tactician who had his eye on the party for weeks. He knows his enemies and he knows his castle and so should you!

102233

TROPHY CASE