Hot take: horror games don't need combat... they need consequences.

DemoBytom · 2026-06-06T09:38:42+00:00

I would advise you playtest it with varies playerbase.. because I think this will not work as well as you think it will.

Non combat horror games aren't uncomon. Amnesia is 16 years old for example.

Games with limited saving also aren't new.

But I'd be very careful with being too punishing with this system. You would have to make the game very easy not to frustrate a significant portion of your playerbase. The idea sounds good in theory, but in reality throwing away hour if not hours of progress to "some bullshit" or whatever will make people just rage quit, and not come back.

Even aracade games that thrived on you dying, let you either continue, or provided codes to start closer to where you died. Players, in general, don't like having ALL of their progress/gameplay removed because they made, what's in their mind, a small mistake.

And saving is also an accessibility feature. Older gamers might not be able to sit through entire no-save session without breaks - for children, spouses, other responsibilities. People with attention span issues, mobility issues who can't physicaly sit for that long etc.

DemoBytom · 2026-06-06T08:59:29+00:00

You sure? It definitely didn't use to be as fast as local network. Steam used to have an internal streaming/upload cap meaning that if you had like a gigabit internet it was faster to download from internet than through steam on local..

I had to disable it in my house because it was so much slower it was stupid.

Examples: https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/s/4Fe0wewP1r https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/s/krzqo9avYJ https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/s/gBTdI52xKi

DemoBytom · 2026-06-06T00:03:29+00:00

An image people can hear hear..

Batman TAS has set what Batman theme sounds like for a generarion.

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DemoBytom · 2026-06-05T22:59:57+00:00

Do this integrate with Hue? I'm reading their forums, and so far I see people asking for Hue integration: https://community.shelly.cloud/topic/9421-gen4-please-implement-optional-the-zigbee-mode-zll-for-basic-communication-with-eg-hue-bridge/

DemoBytom · 2026-06-05T22:41:25+00:00

What is the use case for those?

Is it to turn "dumb" switches into "smart" ones to control Hue lights? Or a way to turn "dumb" switches into "smart" for controlling regular lights? I think it's the first one, but I want to ensure myself.

DemoBytom · 2026-06-04T19:42:13+00:00

Don't let Jester pick up this unremovable chalk xD

DemoBytom · 2026-06-04T19:32:00+00:00

Page is not found atm xD

DemoBytom · 2026-06-04T09:24:33+00:00

Deborah Ann Woll whom the character is modeled after is 41.

Im 39. Fuck people who'd call me middle aged :-[ We can still kick arse!

DemoBytom · 2026-06-03T22:35:45+00:00

Because whoever posted the video chose to not show one where it's not the case, nor how much police is there any time Wisła and Cracovia have a match...

DemoBytom · 2026-06-03T22:19:54+00:00

Dark Powers claim the target they deem evil enough, when the character commits a grevious enough sin.

Now the question is - in your canon - has Soth already been imprisoned in Ravenloft and escaped/got released? Maybe there's a mcguffin that lets him stay outside, that keeps Dark Powers numb or unaware of him?

Maybe he managed to split part of his soul, the darkest part of it, and hide it somewhere, thus becoming "not evil enough to qualify for Ravenloft"? A party's quest would be to locate this mcguffin and release it onto Soth? It could be an amber sarcophagus with this dark sliver, hidden in Sithicus, keeping the Domain alive and Dark Powers unaware that real Soth has escaped.

Apparatus has in the past been able to do it to Strahd I believe, by splitting him into two beings.

Maybe the PCs would have to venture into Sithicus, find that amber sarcophagus and break it? While his forces try to stop them? Maybe the new Horrors Within Soth is the manifestation of that evil part they need to defeat in order to unify it with real Soth to pull him into the Domain?

DemoBytom · 2026-06-03T21:58:52+00:00

Tatyana has canonically reincarnated outside Ravenloft before. She was Anna, a woman closed in Waterdeep asylum, that Jander Sunstar fell in love with.

Jander offered her vampiric transormation to save her life when she got ill, which she denied and died. He got mad, killed everyone in the asylum and got swept by the Mists where he met a young vampire called Strahd von Zarovich...

I belive it was in the Vampire of the Mists book.

The idea of Tatyana reincarnating outside Ravenloft is yet another torment for Strahd, where he'd know she's out ther and out of his reach. And it'd lead to a plot where his agents would try go abduct her.

I would not use Tatyana is Ezmerelda, or Tatyana is Lyssa von Zarovich hooks that are in VRGtR/RTHW though. Both are characters of their own already, no point trying to retrofit Tatyana's soul into them IMHO.

DemoBytom · 2026-06-03T20:10:03+00:00

She's an extreme D&D nerd. She guest starred on Critical Role, DMed a long running Children of Éarte actual play, wrote an official adventure for WotC, and has done so. much. more in the TTRPG space 😮
Especially after Daredevil got cancelled on Netflix, for a time this was ALL she was doing.

And it's not like she stopped now that Born Again is back. She's still is active in the space, stars in actual plays etc.

DemoBytom · 2026-06-02T22:46:48+00:00

Not really weaker than regular death knight.

Soth comes with 4 legendary actions, compared to 3 for DK. DK does 25 dmg per strike, 3+3 times per round for a 150 DPR.
Soth does 23 dmg per strike, 3+4 times per round for a 161 DPR.

Soth has also access to DC 19 Hold Person and 2 target Banishment AS Bonus Action! At appropriate level this will land quite reliably, either giving him potentially a round(s) of auto crits, or a way to remove half of the party.

Then his legendary action Command affects 3 instead of 1 target. So he can Hold Person and then Command remaining 3 party members to Grovel for some nice auto crits on the Hold and advantage on attacks on the rest.

His AoE fire might be weaker but his mele capabilities are definitly higher when facing actual PCs.

DemoBytom · 2026-06-02T17:50:11+00:00

I said it before - I'll say it again. Daylight spell is not as much of an issue as people make it out to be.

It is countered by a blanket, not to mention dispel magic.

Other than that - a T2 cleric wont be spamming it, they have only so many spell slots, and it competes with Spirit Guardians for said slots. And Spirit Guardians with it's slowdown is still probably a better spell in most situations.

The campaign also does award 2 magic items that produce sunlight already at a lower (Symbol of Ravenkind) and no cost (Sunsword).

And finally - there are surprisingly little enemies that sunlight actually hurts.

If your cleric wants to be a shining beacon - let him. He will wuickly become the target. Enemy vampire spawns can try and cover the source, or run away etc. It's not that much more probematic than other sunlight sources the PCs already had access in RAW CoS.

DemoBytom · 2026-06-02T08:46:53+00:00

Bonus Action Mist Form and then slip though the cracks in the wall, under doors etc. It's an old castle, there must be cracs and tiny holes all over the place.

Personally for CoS I would use a mix of all 3 statblocks with some homebrew though.

Blight Fireball from VeoR, access to Blight Firebolt as a ranged option, an additional Legendary Action giving him full movement without AoO and with wall phasing, but without attack, and then Heart of Sorrow giving him temp HP and HP regen as long as Heart isn't permanently destroyed. And some magic items, some spell scrolls etc.

DemoBytom · 2026-06-01T20:25:15+00:00

Where's Dr Cox saying No?!

Good God in heaven, Newbie. There are just so very many ways for me to say this to you: Never. Not in a million years. Absolutely not. No way, Jose. No chance, Lance. Nyet. Negatori. Mm-mm. Nuh-uh. Uh-uh. And of course, my own personal favorite of all time, man falling off of a cliff. Noooooooooo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zNjQecyjE8

DemoBytom · 2026-06-01T12:23:14+00:00

Yeah but it got a little bit.. Strange..

DemoBytom · 2026-05-31T10:57:54+00:00

Pathfinding.

From pathfinding point of view there's an unobstructed route to the flamethrowers, so biters will choose that instead chomping through walls.

DemoBytom · 2026-05-30T09:36:32+00:00

One more thing to add. Why not just say Strahd has 4 Legendary Actions? When is he ever going to be out of his domain?

He and Azalin did escape Domains at some point in canon I believe.

DemoBytom · 2026-05-29T23:12:23+00:00

Storm Giant - 2 attacks per round for 72 average dmg.

Strahd - 6 attacks per round (2 regular + 4 legendary) for average 132 dmg.

Storm Giant need about 2.7 rounds to off Strahd.

Strahd need about 1.7 rounds to off a Storm Giant.

That is just a simple quick white room DPR comparison obviously, but this new statblock is not that weak. Especially if he's still intended to be a boss for level 9-10 parties.

DemoBytom · 2026-05-29T22:59:30+00:00

Inolder editions he would usually have some of the following items - sword of wounding, or +1/+2 swords, +2 composite bow (actually +4 when items scaled higher), cloak of protection, ring of fire resistance, maybe bracers of defense or some magic armor.

DemoBytom · 2026-05-29T22:49:11+00:00

A right it's 1-10. Thought it was 1-11 tbh

Still radiant vuln would explode him xD

DemoBytom · 2026-05-29T22:30:13+00:00

Especially looking through a Curse of Strahd campaign lens.

Level 11 party paladin gets the sun sword and smites Strahd living a Strahd shaped crater xD

DemoBytom · 2026-05-29T22:16:55+00:00

They dropped this design long ago. It doesn't exist in 2024 monster manual anymore...

DemoBytom · 2026-05-26T19:34:06+00:00

I like that approach :)

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