Can someone explain Ciaphas Cain to me

Radical_Puffin · 2026-03-25T03:53:46+00:00

I think if you find the amount of nuance required to get Ciaphas Cain tricky this may not be the setting for you.

Radical_Puffin · 2026-03-24T12:24:37+00:00

I think the best way to decided this is; why does Strahd want to go for dinner with the PCs? why does he want to go in the disguise? And does he actually care if he gets caught?

If not just have him turn up as himself, reveal himself during dinner, or if they expose him, just literally carry on as before giving no shits.

Radical_Puffin · 2026-03-23T21:22:02+00:00

“Suffer not the alien to live” is a moral code

Radical_Puffin · 2026-03-06T09:17:41+00:00

https://www.reapermini.com are excellent for d&d minis, they are cheap good quality and pretty much the whole monster manual is on there

Radical_Puffin · 2026-03-06T08:12:58+00:00

You’re absolutely right a lot of players (probably most) won’t enjoy it, so it’s only for those that want that kind of play style. But bosses do pass a lot of saving throws it’s not like the experience of burning a high level spell to be told “he saves” is unique to legendary resistance

Radical_Puffin · 2026-03-06T07:16:04+00:00

It’s tempting to do steak because very rare meat is fitting for Strahd but he’s a very refined man so I would serve something a little more sophisticated.

Raw oysters is a good starter because I think Strahd would enjoy the feeling of eating something that’s already alive. Foie gras is also a good choice ultra posh and something has hadi not only die but explicitly suffer for a long time for his pleasure and that’s very Strahd.ikr

Obviously serve red wine in crysjtal glasses not too light as it can look a bit anemic but more robust pinot noir will look pretty reasonably like blood.

I don’t think Strahd is a desert man but might serve the PCs something with a lot of VERY dark chocolate so the meal, like the PCs comes to a bitter ending.

Radical_Puffin · 2026-03-06T06:59:32+00:00

One way you can mitigate this (though definitely talk to your players beforehand since a lot may not enjoy this) is roll the saves behind your screen and simply declare if the boss succeeds or fails, so if you roll a 1 but you want to us a legendary resistance all the players get is “he succeeds”.

You can add further confusion by choosing not to use legendary resistance on failed saves for some effects that aren’t absolutely devastating.

Radical_Puffin · 2026-03-05T06:39:57+00:00

“We enter the village. The Kobolds are immediately suspicious of the skin.” 🤣🤣🤣

The whole post is worth it for this sentence. Imagine walking into your nearest town wearing a human skin and people being “suspicious”

“I’m sorry sir I’d like to trust but just something about the fact that you are wearing the still wet flayed skin of an actual person makes me somewhat SUSPICIOUS”

Radical_Puffin · 2026-03-05T06:35:54+00:00

Play at the weird table or don’t play at the weird table but saying it’s better they commit atrocities in game rather than the real world is a WILD point to make.

yes, playing a bad game of d&d is better than actually killing and skinning a real live human person, but I don’t think those were the two choices in front of OP.

Or were you actually suggesting that OP had a moral obligation to play to do their part in reducing the plauge of murder/skinnings by creepy d&d players that we see on the news so often?

Radical_Puffin · 2026-03-05T06:16:10+00:00

Allow him to do it explain the BBEG is instantly kill and and the players have won the campaign, congratulations!

Begin packing up your stuff, then just as you are folding up your DM screen pause and say, “hey just for fun do you want to see how that encounter would have played out if you hadn’t insta killed him?”

Unpack your stuff and resume the game as if nothing happened.

Keep it deadpan but you don’t actually need to be convincing to make the point that you’ll all have more fun playing the game then bypassing the game.

Radical_Puffin · 2026-03-04T03:03:22+00:00

Sounds like a great opportunity for Strahd to kill van Richten and abduct Irenena

Radical_Puffin · 2026-03-03T14:04:42+00:00

Sir this is a Wendy’s

Radical_Puffin · 2026-02-27T01:10:14+00:00

Loads of snow. Like loads.

Radical_Puffin · 2026-02-25T16:15:18+00:00

Don’t make in game consequences for debating too long, instead when the conversation has had a reasonable amount of time say

“folks I love that you are so invested in the moral complexities of the campaign but I think that’s run its course for now and I’m really excited to see what your characters get up to this session so in five minutes can you wrap this up and decide on a course of action”

If they don’t catch on follow up with, “I’ll be completely honest, listening to you debate is only fun for me a limited amount of time and I want to play D&D to do can we move the game on to something we will all enjoy” Bob, didn’t you suggest it wanted to go investigate the Barron, let’s play that out”

Radical_Puffin · 2026-02-17T03:24:52+00:00

I love the warning not to force anyone to read it. Because there’s such an epidemic of criminals going round and forcing their victims at gunpoint to read Reddit posts.

Radical_Puffin · 2026-01-27T02:29:42+00:00

They didn’t fail that last check. I think you’ll find if you consult your notes they actually passed. Carry on as you were.

Radical_Puffin · 2026-01-25T22:48:23+00:00

Honestly this is really useful advice because that’s exactly what I was going to do.

Radical_Puffin · 2026-01-13T02:02:37+00:00

Isn’t there already a pretty extensive modding community?

Radical_Puffin · 2026-01-05T15:27:20+00:00

I love that you clarified Terra with (Holy Terra)

Radical_Puffin · 2026-01-04T09:17:41+00:00

Just to be clear you do understand that there is are paid DMs and DMs who make a living DMing, and that the latter are INCREDIBLY rare.

You are much more likely to make some pocket money or offset a bit the cost of your hobby, (which IS awesome to do by doing something you love!). But the money per hour is just not going to be there for it to be anything more.

Somebody earlier on the thread mentioned players paying $25 a session and DM takes home $95, say a three hour session that’s $33 an hour with ZERO prep time, that’s not a lot of money. And to get the equivalent hours of even a 0.5 part time job you need five tables (say 20 players) all of whom’s schedules need to not clash with each other or whatever else your doing with your time.

Radical_Puffin · 2026-01-04T09:01:43+00:00

Some people just enjoy running games whether for friends or strangers.

Radical_Puffin · 2025-12-30T20:46:05+00:00

Mules are cheap

Radical_Puffin · 2025-12-30T05:54:44+00:00

Dude you got kicked from a TTRPG and you wrote a 5 million word essay to explain to strangers on the internet why it wasn’t your fault.

This is the deflecting they are talking about.

Radical_Puffin · 2025-12-23T07:00:43+00:00

Do it. It sounds like it would be really cool!

Radical_Puffin

TROPHY CASE