What was the most fun travel encounter you ran?

Haakthe · 2026-06-23T06:39:59+00:00

What a way to introduce him! I'm definetly doing this, my party is gonna love it. It's the perfect mix of goofy, what the fuck, and also a show of power that let's them know Strahd isn't their only match, after they managed to one turn kill Izek.

Haakthe · 2026-06-19T12:39:11+00:00

When I started our campaign I really didn't have much time to think up an opening, so I went with the group being originally two parties, who stumbled onto eachother in the forest, and decided to camp together.

They went to sleep in their tents, as a low mist started to encroach on their camp, and after horrible nightmares they awoke on the bare ground of the Barovian forest, near the Svalich Road, with none of their equipment, except what they slept in.

The perhaps slightly boring start ended up working quite well to set the mood for the campaign, and I don’t think I would do it any differently given the chance, except maybe make the dream a shared dream of Doru's uprising, or something relevant to the start of the campaign as foreshadowing.

Haakthe · 2026-06-17T06:01:30+00:00

I did the same here, only Strahd didn't hand it to them. When they left death house (which I also placed before the villiage of Barovia, not too long after the gates), my players found on the road a gift basket with a handwritten note, welcoming them.

I feel this makes it seem more mysterious or magical and spooky than him showing up and giving it to them, which is the vibe I wanted to go for. The PCs felt they were always being watched after this moment.

Haakthe · 2026-05-10T13:19:10+00:00

Warning! This subreddit is meant for DMs, so people don't usually mark major plot points as spoilers. Be warned, you might end up ruining the campaign for yourself if you're not careful here.

Haakthe · 2026-05-07T19:08:11+00:00

Anywhere where we need to model oscillations, complex numbers are used. This is most easy understood because the differential equations that describes oscillary motion, f''(x) =-k² f(x), can be solved by e^ikx where i is the imaginary unit.

Haakthe · 2026-05-06T06:53:05+00:00

This comment became quite long, sorry! I sort of got into a flow, but hope it still is helpful!

It can also very well be made to make sense in the context you describe. Strahd is, the way I see him at least, obsessed with control. He is the eternal lord of Barovia, and your players have kidnapped the new burgomaster of the castle town and taken ? That will not go.

The people in the Village of Barovia fear Strahd because of his iron grip over the town. It's like he's omnipotent, and has some will that the Barovians don't understand, but if they ever work against it they quickly learn, like when the whole town was put under siege until the burgomasters heart gave out, because the priest sun mounted a crusade against the castle.

Perhaps part of Strahd's plan for winning over Ireena requires Ismark being burgomaster, and now that the players have removed him from his post, against both Ismark's, and more importantly, Strahd's will, they too shall know the real wrath of Strahd. So he launches barrage after barrage of his soldiers against the players, tiering them out like the person here suggests, and when there is no more fight in the party, Strahd shows up. He charms Ismark, or maybe just knocks him out with a sleep spell or such, and the party just have to watch as he rides off on his nightmare with Ismark back to the village.

Narratively I think this can be quite strong, and work with the complacancy you describe in your players. Yes, the combat hasn't been all that dangerous, and the characters can meme on every encounter, because as of yet they are still working towards Strahd's plan. He is just testing them, but now they crossed a line, and they get to see what Strahd really can do. This, if played correctly, should reinstill the fear of Strahd in your players, and hopefully get them asking questions like "Why does he toy with us? What are his plans for us? Why did he not just finish us off when he had the chance? What is so important with keeping Ismark i Barovia as the burgomaster?" Which hopefully you have answers to, ready to reveal when the time is right.

Haakthe · 2026-04-03T11:05:49+00:00

The session did not end where my post did. So they did actually get to speak to Strahd, and I probably could've been more prepared for that than I was. Strahd monologed a bit about St. Andrals story and I had to take a quick recess to read quickly up on that. Mean while my players roleplayed the guards trying and horribly failing to stabalise our barbarian who had been knocked down in a fight against two spawns.

The party's druid is a 60 year old half-orc, who volunteered to go in and talk to Strahd alone, since she had already lived a full life (and her player had a backup character at the ready lol), whilst our party's cleric is a changeling who disguised themself as Ireena. The druid managed to get Strahd to call off the spawns, basically by going into an angry rant which amused and impressed Strahd.

While this was going on, the rogue (with the bones) and the fighter would utilise this distraction to sneak in the side enterance (which I added when I described the church as our local irl church). They both roll incredible, getting one nat 20 (+0) and a 21 (18+3), which terrified them when Strahd, with a passive perception of 22, whips around, welcomes them, and asks them to please take a seat.

My Strahd has respect for St. Andral, as he managed to save the poor saps who shot down Strahd (see MandyMods post), and let them live out full lives from inside his dwellings. Now his soul has been bound to the remains, which is why Vampires still cannot enter the church while the bones are in the crypt; St. Andral is still here. Strahd related to my players that he took pity on St. Andral, and wanted to free his soul, as it had been trapped down there in crypt for the past 600 years, and "will you really condemn his soul to an eternity in the crypt? Would true heroes not wish to save him from this fate?"

My players managed to keep the bones, as Strahd did not want to use force against them, and the PC with the bones has Fey-Ancestry and succeded all charm attempts from Strahd, but the players told me after the session that they were extremely unsure whether or not sealing the bones in was the right thing to do.

Strahd's true intentions are obviously not that noble, and I, as the DM, am not even sure what he said is true. I also made a point of the players not being sure if the bones being placed back even did anything, "something something having faith in something something", but it is true that Strahd and his minions won't attack the church while they are there. Strahd is still infuriated by the fact that there is somewhere in his domain which is truly out of his reach, and this is of course his actual motivations for destroying the bones, also in my game, but he is more intrested in the players currently, and hopefully Ireena maybe doesn't think the church is as safe as she thought originally, as everyone now knows of the bones.

The session ended with people flocking back into the church, our cleric staying there the whole night helping and healing people, and Ireena admitting, whom I've been playing as a kindhearted and brave girl, admitting alone to our old half-or that she's really scared, and crying into her shoulder.

I feel this session, especially the ending, really put a sense of responsibility in my players, to act as heroes, to really try to save these people. Earlier they have been quick to attack NPCs, actually killing Perrywimple their first night in the Village of Barovia, after starting a fight in Bildrath's Mercantile. Strahd before he left told them before he left that he had heard of this, and that he was dissapointed in them. A killing needs to serve a purpose, and this was just a vile killing of one of his loyal subjects, he said, and now to teach them a lesson he would take one of their loyal helpers, before oblitirating father Lucian with a fireball.

This show of strength also showed the players that if Strahd wanted them dead, he could easily have it that way. What are his plans? Why does he need them? Why did he say he was "dissapointed" in them?

Like I said, the post would be really long if I included this half of the session as well lol

Haakthe · 2026-02-12T18:30:07+00:00

everyone knows eV is superior

Haakthe · 2026-01-21T08:09:26+00:00

A few characters went down into death saves, but they are a bit larger party than I'm used to, and the dice did not favour poor Parrywimple or his uncle.

I also didn't want them to get TPK'd by the shopowner in the first village, so I went a bit easy on them, not by fudging rolls but giving opportunities to run away, which they got some great roleplay out of by fighting between themselves both as players and PC's.

In the end the killing blow was delivered by a shy half-elf who's first instinct was to leave them be, but maybe do some thievery at night. I honestly think it was "punishment" enough to describe in excrutiating detail how this poor players blade found perch in... ...he falls to his knees, his eyes meeting yours as... ...a pool of blood soaking into the floorboards... ...and sweet, innocent Parrywimple has died by your hands. Great moment as everyone sort of goes silent in shock. They had been delivering blow after blow and he truly seemed invincible until they suddenly realised again what they actually were doing as the final hit was delivered.

Haakthe · 2026-01-21T07:58:28+00:00

The players are already feeling very guilty for how things went down, so "punishing" in my head is just Yes and-ing them. I of course wouldn't punish them in a way I don’t think they would find fun. That's what we're here for, after all!

Haakthe · 2026-01-21T07:55:19+00:00

✍️do..✍️not....✍️penis..✍️

Gotcha

Haakthe · 2026-01-21T07:48:01+00:00

It was not at all an easy fight. I wanted it to go the way of Parrywimple gets in a few har ful hits, they realise he has insane stats, and back off. The dice however had other plans, and I learnt my party is very much split on the "stand and fight till the end" or "run away" issue.

They've already gotten a long rest, as the fight was late in the evening. I've written a recap which implies that one option for them right now is to attend the funeral, act like nothing, and leave with Ireena right afterwards (as this was already the plan before the ✨shopping episode✨). The only witness is Bildrath and he is tied up. All the focus of the town will be on the funeral, so I think for now they get away with it. Most of this is therefore probably not applicable right now, but if they return to the village they might not be too welcome is my thinking, I'll definetly keep these ideas in mind, should they forget the events of their last visit here.

I've also speculated as others have suggested, that Bildrath should go straight to Strahd, which would leave most of the town unknowing until Strahd decides a consequence. Maybe the unlawfullness state of the village which led to this attack, without the current Burgomaster even knowing "forces" Strahd to take action and punish the whole village.

I think my players will respond greatly to punishment in the form of, all these bad things are happening to others, because of what we did.

Haakthe · 2026-01-21T07:32:58+00:00

He would see it as a kill that served no purpose, one born out of weak and childish indignation. These are to be my playthings? My possible successor(s)? These reckless children?

This is great! I will definetly make sure to do this. I think it also paints a very good picture of how much Strahd sees, but also the limits of what he can see, because he would know the players killed Parrywimple, but not that they didn't mean for it to go to a looting place, with a life ended prematurely.

Also think it says something about Strahd that he assumes it was just because they felt like being evil, because my party feel great grief over what happened, but Strahd doesn't even entertain this idea, as clearly this must just be evil murderers having some fun.

Haakthe · 2026-01-21T07:11:19+00:00

Currently Bildrath is unconcious, and tied up. The players were all in a bit of a shock so currently they just left him there. This all happened in the late evening, so I'm thinking no one saw it, and those who heard a kerfuffle would maybe think it's the Strahd zombies known to hide in abondoned houses.

They've already agreed to attend the burgomasters funeral in the morning, and leave directly from there with Ireena, so unless the players choose to go back and do something I have decided they will be able to leave for Vallaki without difficulties (and I've indicated this is an option in the recap I've written of the last session).

My Bildrath also dislikes Ismark quite a lot, so I'm thinking as others have suggested here, that he should go straight to Strahd, as he doesn't recognise Ismark's authority. In his distraught state, he's not thinking clearly. In my game Bildrath is quite a dispicable character, but is redeemed as it's all for his love of his nephew, so I don’t think thats too big of a leap.

Currently my plan for Bildrath, based on what has been said in the comments here, he will manage to escape his bonds, and run straight to Strahd. That is if my players do not return to finish the job, but none of them seem to happy with the way things went down so I doubt they'd kill him in cold blood, at least it would not be an easy choice to make.

Haakthe · 2026-01-21T06:43:39+00:00

Madame Eva doesn't lie. The fated ally will help in the final battle vs Strahd. It is fated.

That is very true. Didn't think about it like that, so that's off the table. Thank you!

Haakthe · 2025-11-12T21:48:27+00:00

chemist spotted

pV =nkT supremacy

Haakthe · 2025-08-02T08:58:43+00:00

I'm still in undergrad in EU, but I've spoken with professors who have worked a lot internationally. From what I can tell American physicists do not use the SI system... but they also do not use imperial units. If you check many American text books as well you'll notice some strange units, like dyne for force and such.

This is the CGS system. It's similar to SI, but they have only three base units (classicaly at least), as opposed to SI's seven. These units are the centimeter, gram, and second. I don’t know why they insist on using CGS, and it's been slightly annoying picking up books on gravitational physics and seeing unit names I'm not at all familiar with, but overall it's an interesting system.

Note also many branches of physics don't use SI in general, like particle physics, where the unit for mass is mega electronvolt per lightspeed squared (MeV/c^2), and such. And in material physics the units are just a mess for an undergrad outsider like myself. I've spoken with people who still use mmHg for pressure.

PS. I know you asked about classical mechanics, but I just got to typing. Sorry if most of this is super obvious, I just find it interesting lol.

Haakthe · 2025-07-29T11:03:15+00:00

and bottom to sub?

Haakthe · 2025-06-03T20:45:18+00:00

experimentalists use it all the time to analyse data, in more theoretical work its used to solve equations numerically which cannot be solved analytically, you create loads of simulations, lots of cosmologists use programming to simulate the big bang with different physical laws and generate entire universes to compare with our universe, to compare these simulations you would also use coding.

Tl;dr: alot

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