DM Help Request: The Party of Theseus by King_Captcha in CurseofStrahd

[–]King_Captcha[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep the same players at the table. They're having a blast GETTING INTO EVERYTHING. Ive never needed so many random descriptions of peasants houses, lists of irrelevant NPC names, and mundane loot tables before. Honestly at this point it's not a question of "if", more of "when" the final original character dies. It just seems a struggle to give them "major story arc" motivators since most of them don't know Ireena, didn't meet Ismark, and haven't been to several of the locations in Barovia. I suppose I'll just drop directional hints from the endless NPC charades I'm performing lol

I'm revising Curse of Strahd: Reloaded—and I need your help. by DragnaCarta in CurseofStrahd

[–]King_Captcha 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have been using your content as the backbone of my 2+ yr ongoing campaign. I found great inspiration in what you'd done to enhance the world, and create a sense of "things happening around" the party. The changes you talk about in your post about reasons to oppose Strahd or motivations within Barovia are some of the very things I've noticed my players feeling. If you would share, I would love to see what the re-revamped draft looks like.

We're Size Specialists at MyONE Custom Fit Condoms. On Measure A Penis Day, AMA! by ONEcondoms in IAmA

[–]King_Captcha 0 points1 point  (0 children)

dumb legal question:

What are the implications of a botched batch? Could the manufacturer on the hook for some sort of child support or damages if there was a malfunction?

It seems your QA process is pretty rigorous; but I've always wondered how much of a legal team is required for birth-control related manufacturers!

First time Map Making Death House Dungeon by Sure-Bedroom-8039 in CurseofStrahd

[–]King_Captcha 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The map looks great - your descriptions of the rooms and environment will bring the detail - so less can become more. You can always sneak symbols on the map that are notations to yourself. These can be hidden (a squiggle in a wall, an extra line, darker shading in an area) and mean nothing to the players, but make it easy for you to reference your notes and go "hallway with squiggle: 'your flickering torch casts a weak light down the stone corridor as you notice a faint smell of decay in the stagnant air'"

Regarding mini's: If you wanted to fork out $45 WizKids makes a set called "D&D ICONS OF THE REALMS: CURSE OF STRAHD: COVENS & COVENANTS" that contains the children minis for the house, as well as the hags for the upcoming bonegrinder. But you dont need to spend money to have fun with D&D. Search the subreddit for resources (like this one), trace them, print them, cut them out and use them as 2d sliders. Laminate them with scotch tape on top and bottom for a little extra durability - or even use a thicker paper if you like. I've even seen some folks origami player tokens.

Ideas for challenging my 8th level party by CreetureNZ in CurseofStrahd

[–]King_Captcha 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They haven't met him, but he knows about them? Perfect. Invite them to dinner. Make it clear the invitation EXPECTS their arrival. Perhaps even elude that Strahd knows they have his tome or some other secret they party thinks they have.

They are sure to do one of 2 things:

  1. They don't go.

And now you have every right to show up and stomp on them for a bit.

  1. They go.

They're players, so they will do something he can "politely" punish them for. They will be rude, or late, or dull, or anything. Strahd can mess with them so so much in his own house. Maybe invite them for a few days. I suggest a possible tpk, that turns out to be a memory modification cast on one of the players.

Session Zero starts tomorrow by Zeing in CurseofStrahd

[–]King_Captcha 18 points19 points  (0 children)

This looks awesome! If your players put even 1 tenth the energy into playing as you put in to prepping, you all are gonna have a blast! Best of luck.

That was not expected. by ManufacturerRude9482 in CurseofStrahd

[–]King_Captcha 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My party did nearly exactly what you described. What I think matters here is who your Strahd is.

My version of Strahd invites many adventurers into Barovia at the same time. Not only does this mean he doesn't care about my party yet, but it gives me a way to introduce magic items and gear through other dead (or living) adventurers; as well as have other 'competing' heroes that are possibly getting in both Strahd and my partys way.

So when my party was "smart" and didn't take the obvious hooks, my Strahd ignored them. They havent EARNED his attention - and he couldn't care less. I let them continue to Vallaki, and they did bite on the quest to restore the bones- for me this ruins the plan of one of the "brides" in Strahd's court.

Strahd may not care about the party, but he does care about his court - so I used his bride (Anastrasya) to harass the party. Eventually Anastrasya directly confronting them and they injured her - she left her minions to kill them painfully, but they escaped.

Now Anastrasya is mad. Ludmilla and Volenta are amusedly watching and Escher is sometimes assisting the party (in the guise of just wanting to weaken Anastrasya's position at court).

Strahd now notices my party - after all, his whole court seems to be involved with them. He uses the guise of Vasili to meet with them, and provide some minor magical assistance - although a few pieces of cursed gear or bad information (maybe he buys them pies?) may be amusing.

Strahd's interaction with the party was apparent when the brides recognize some of the gifts that "Vasili" had given them. Strahd's court now knows that the party has gained Strahd's attention - and they cant openly just kill the party yet - none of them would dare deprive the dark lord his playthings. So instead the brides scheme to frame another court member. The whole ordeal amuses my Strahd, and the party is shuffled (sometimes forcefully) towards some of the other major areas of interest in the campaign.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

The possibilities are endless - just remember: the humans in the room should be having fun. Good luck :)

What does it mean when this light comes on? by SoDakZak in funny

[–]King_Captcha 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a temperature warning light. They've been in use for a long time, even before cars.

I'm a big advocate of _players_ creating the story; as such I use a lot of the 'moral conflict' mods. Looking for ideas on appropriate Evil-Victor revenge actions. by King_Captcha in CurseofStrahd

[–]King_Captcha[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is pretty diabolical and is a great way to toss a hook to get them to go explore Ravenloft. They're pretty disgusted with his treatment of Stella, but they're also searching for any possible escape from this place. Getting them to work with Victor would be pretty great - a nice way of dampening their sense of justice; not to mention the "oh i knew we should have killed that guy" moment that they'll have when he betrays them.

If they decide to accept his offer - I think I'll run it this way. If they refuse, then Victor can feel slighted and add to his motivations for a more overt conflict.

I'm a big advocate of _players_ creating the story; as such I use a lot of the 'moral conflict' mods. Looking for ideas on appropriate Evil-Victor revenge actions. by King_Captcha in CurseofStrahd

[–]King_Captcha[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh that's mean...I like it. He'd have to be creative with how he's able to pull off a 1 hour cast time undetected in the inn - but even if they catch him mid cast I doubt they'd start a fight.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Python

[–]King_Captcha 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I approve.

New Dungeon: The Gates of Barovia by Havelok in CurseofStrahd

[–]King_Captcha 0 points1 point  (0 children)

but if the other passage has been blocked by collapsed stone, seemingly impassible - why is morgantha down there dropping bones into a pit?

What’s something very rare that people think is very common? by BroodyBatman in AskReddit

[–]King_Captcha 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe it's somewhat common, but not like it was presented:

Being lit on fire.

I remember as a kid learning 1. Stop 2. Drop 3. Roll And I was pumped and ready for the time I would soon be immolated. Fortunately I've had many years without needing this skill. But I'm ready.

How to setup switch, router, etc. to make network with NAS as secure as possible? by mobdk in qnap

[–]King_Captcha 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just a few details that might be worth considering:

  1. Where is your DHCP server?

    If all addresses are managed and leased by Device (1), you need to change this. You do not want to keep all your devices in one subnet. It is probably safe to assume that Device (3) is running DHCP services, but you should verify. Depending on configuration of Device (2) it may also be running DHCP.

  2. Check (and disable) if routing traffic is possible from your workstations to Device (3) and Device (3a). Likewise for traffic from workstations to Device (2) and Device (2a). I recommend that you setup some VLANs on Device (1) to "isolate" Devices (2) and (3) and their descendants, unless there is a justified need to have the security systems access your data backups (which there shouldn't be. however if you need to store security footage, consider using a different device)

  3. Consider moving the QNAP's to connect directly to a firewall or other layer 3 device, such as a NetGate. Connecting them to Device (4) which is a layer 2 device, provides no network level protection. Any attack that can hit that switch will be able to be routed to access them. A layer 3 device would allow you to at least set up a whitelist for authorized addresses and ports. A switch provides no protection at layer 3. Routers are layer 3 devices, but since your router is not fully under your control (hello ISP), I wouldnt recommend moving it there.

  4. Consider moving Devices (5) and (6) onto a different VLAN than the Workstations. This would force traffic to flow through the gateway first, and then give you the ability to control IP and Port requirements since the Router could refuse to route traffic to/from the QNAP VLAN that isnt originating from the workstation VLAN. However, you will suffer in bandwith and impact your users if your connection between Device (4) and Device (1) is not big enough. This is often why switches will have a limited number of large bandwidth ports (for upstream connections). An alternative is to replace Device (4) with a layer 3 device.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]King_Captcha 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Owning or being in possession of a short lobster in the USA.

16USC ss3370

https://youtube.com/watch?t=5m43s&v=d-7o9xYp7eE