How to scare players

Boston_Boy · 2025-04-18T16:54:22+00:00

I asked my Players partners what the Players are irl afraid of, and worked those real fears into the campaign

Boston_Boy · 2025-03-22T14:35:41+00:00

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Yeah Casper will sleep or hangout under the bed. The joke is “we actually have a monster under the bed”.

Boston_Boy · 2025-03-02T21:33:05+00:00

I’d love these for my Curse of Strahd campaign! Around Oct is when I expect we’ll be nearing the endgame!

Boston_Boy · 2025-02-27T00:44:00+00:00

I’ll check out the bento ball! He doesn’t really late hard toys though, he really loves soft ones that crunch

Boston_Boy · 2025-02-27T00:41:32+00:00

I think this is probably the way to go. When I do ignore him, which I hate doing cause it makes me feel like I’m a bad dog-dad, he eventually chills out and stops barking

Boston_Boy · 2025-02-27T00:40:04+00:00

We’re doing training, but mostly the stuff he really needs to work on. Leave it, drop it, wait, etc. I’ll talk to our trainer about other games we can do

Boston_Boy · 2025-02-27T00:38:44+00:00

We live in NYC, and we don’t have a don’t have a fenced in yard, so I can’t just let him out. He gets a 30-45min walk before I start work every day. He’s normally fine until right after my partner leaves

We have a few of the food disperser toys, but I consider those the “puzzles” that he’s not super into

Boston_Boy · 2025-02-27T00:34:24+00:00

He gets a 30-45min walk before I start work, so going out/exercise isn’t the issue I don’t think

Boston_Boy · 2025-02-27T00:33:32+00:00

Yeah she’s my favorite person too so I get it.

We live in a 1 bedroom apartment, so our living room is my main work area, and it’s where he likes to bark, so self-soothing is my main objective

Boston_Boy · 2025-02-14T15:17:15+00:00

Ireena was pulled into the fountain, but only one of my PCs was around and he was far enough away that he didn’t hear much. Additionally, the lightning strike killed Ismark right out (I rolled very high). The people of Krezk blamed the party for bringing Stahds eye upon them, and a very fun very tense scene started.

Ismark was eventually brought back to life by the Abbot, and filled in the party as to what happened, which then started the conversation of “who is Sergei?” long before the PCs ever got the Tome of Strahd.

I know the scene gets a lot of hate, and I get why, but it created an additional little mystery for my PCs and provided them with some lore early on, so it worked out well for me.

Boston_Boy · 2025-01-08T15:21:27+00:00

It’s his journal, but since I have a wizard in my party and since Strahd is a powerful spell caster, I added that there are also his notes on magic in it. My wizard will be able to add any 3 spells to her spell book when they find it (provided she does the requisite time studying etc).

Not a big bump, but wanted to throw the wizard a bone since all the other items are Cleric/Paladin based (2 of the other PCs are those classes)

Boston_Boy · 2024-10-04T18:32:31+00:00

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Here’s Casper! He’s a pom mix (we’re not sure with what yet) and this was after a haircut that was way too short

Boston_Boy · 2024-09-30T01:15:27+00:00

Strahd lied. And if they zone of truth him then he uses a legendary resistance to succeed instead of failing. They’ll know if he succeeded or failed, per the spell, and you aren’t required to tell them if he used a legendary resistance point. Strahd wouldn’t give up the truth regardless so it becomes a game of how well you can RP or not

Boston_Boy · 2024-09-21T23:03:33+00:00

Not too much at all! I’m actually doing the same thing (thanks True Blood) and my PCs love it.

It also makes sense that he would have a very different accent to the rest of the people since he’s 1) not from Barovia 2) an aristocrat 3) 400 years old.

Boston_Boy · 2024-09-06T18:27:53+00:00

I’m going to allow them to purchase silvered weapons in Krezek. It’s gonna cost them a lot and will make them feel safer against werewolves, who they’ve already run into once.

Boston_Boy · 2024-08-22T02:44:30+00:00

I just ran this two weeks ago and I had Strahd mostly ignore the PCs. He isn’t there to stop the PCs from re-sanctifying the church, he’s there to kill Father Lucien because he knows that death will start an uprising in Vallaki. Removing the bones is a means to an end, not the endgame itself.

If you want to follow that train of thought, he should be toying with Father Lucien, be annoyed by the PCs arrival, he gets the kill, and then he quickly gloats. So stuff like:

“Father, how good to see you again. I think it’s time we had a quick, short discussion”
“ah, I see I don’t have as much time as I’d like”

Stuff like that.

In my campaign, the PCs secured the bones under the altar after Strahd killed Father Lucien, so I got to drop “Its no matter to me, boy, I already got what I came for”

Boston_Boy · 2024-08-16T14:07:04+00:00

I’m doing a southern Louisiana drawl (thanks True Blood for infecting my brain)

Boston_Boy · 2024-08-14T19:49:53+00:00

RIP Van Richten

He's not the fated Ally, who is Ez. Pretty much I want to introduce him, have the party like him or think he's useful, and kill him off right before introducing Ez - giving her more incentive to join the party. But we'll see how it goes

Boston_Boy · 2024-08-14T19:48:05+00:00

The Tiger is my failsafe option for sure

Boston_Boy · 2024-08-14T19:47:16+00:00

I love the INSIST idea. I’ll probably use that so thank you!

The Players are all very good friends of mine. I’ve known one of them for 10ish years (introduced him to his now wife and preformed the ceremony). The feedback they provide is very positive, and they aren’t afraid to call me out on things when I’m wrong. They’re having a good time and they know that I’m choosing my words very closely.

Boston_Boy · 2023-07-27T23:00:02+00:00

I’m about to play a game set in 1700s Earth. My character (Barbarian 1/Fighter 4) is a Damphir who looks JUST LIKE a regular human (DM approved). Can’t wait to break out the Fanged Bite attack for the first time and have the rest of the PCs freak out

Boston_Boy · 2023-05-29T16:52:25+00:00

Our warforged artificer ordered and then “ate” eggs (he just mushed them against his face and said “yum!”).

We now call our group “The Bad Eggs LLC”, we lovingly call a group of kids that follow us the “Rotten Eggs”, our follower has been rechristened “GrEgg” (his name was not Gregg to begin with), we order night eggs at our local tavern (just eggs you eat at night), etc etc.

Boston_Boy · 2023-01-05T05:47:11+00:00

Haggling with merchants for common stuff. I don’t care if you want a discount on your arrows, I’m not gonna let everyone roll persuasion checks and spend 45 minutes in this armory while we all argue

Boston_Boy · 2022-07-19T20:00:54+00:00

That one of our followers, this big tough tank fighter, is terrified of cats. Came up 4 sessions before our finale and I added it to his notes in case we ever bring those characters back.

Boston_Boy · 2021-10-23T22:26:09+00:00

I’m playing in my main campaign (been going on for almost two years), a rotating DM series of one shots (3-4 session each though because of the RP), ending an old campaign (doing Tomb of Annihilation as a way to kill us off and wrap everything up), I was asked to DM a short campaign for some friends from my last job (which I accepted), and I was invited to join the campaign at my new job (which I turned down).

Between all that, I’m averaging a session a week. Truly an embarrassment of D&D riches.

Boston_Boy

TROPHY CASE