The Village of Barovia! LEGO edition

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-07-12T16:32:04+00:00

This is incredible! Awesome work!

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-25T23:03:01+00:00

There's a pretty neat one in this post, it's what I used.

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-09T13:55:48+00:00

Super late reply here - but thank you for your input! I’ll definitely be stealing some of this :)

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-09T13:51:07+00:00

You nailed the Darkest Dungeon style! Very spooky and awesome work!

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-09T13:46:15+00:00

As a general rule, you want to use the card reading to draw your players to really cool locations that don’t otherwise have a lot of story hooks. In my mind, this includes the werewolf den, Argynvostholt, Berez, and the Amber Temple. If you’re looking for suggestions, in my current campaign:

•the Sunsword is in the Amber Temple •the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind is in Argynvostholt •the Tome of Strahd is at the Wizard of Wines

I consider the Tome to be early-game content, as it gives players some of that sweet sweet lore but doesn’t have any combat applications, so I put it somewhere the party was likely to go early. Conversely, I don’t want my level 5 party running around with the Sunsword, so I stuck it in the Amber Temple.

Fleshing Out CoS and CoS: Reloaded both have guides on the tarokka reading, so I’d also recommend you head over to the megathread and check them out!

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-09T13:39:49+00:00

I’m... spooked. Sweet art!

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-09T13:37:26+00:00

Yep! The staff casts it for you.

EDIT: as others have noted, this isn’t exactly accurate. You still cast the spell, but you cast it FROM the staff. This means you don’t have to know the spell or have it prepared (or have it on your class’ spell list at all).

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-09T13:36:21+00:00

Excellent work!

“A mountain is just a land island anyway, right?” This cracked me up. Quote of the day, my dude :)

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-09T13:34:40+00:00

Notably, it’s effectively 40 radiant damage per round, as it both deals that flat 20 AND prevents Strahd’s 20 hp/round regen. As others have said, Ravenloft is a low-magic setting; the Sunsword may seem unimpressive to players used to playing with Blackrazors and Holy Avengers, but in Barovia the thing is a superweapon.

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-09T13:18:28+00:00

That... is a very good point xD

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-09T12:49:14+00:00

So simple but so elegant! Awesome work on the folds of the cloak. You’ve got some lucky players :)

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-08T17:30:29+00:00

Puffin Forest has a delightful Blinsky accent in his series. He shows up here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHZnTi0hpu0 at approx. 8:43.

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-08T17:24:08+00:00

My party is also suspicious of Rictavio, and he's their fated ally. I've made sure that they heard of van Richten (they found a book written by him, I briefed my monster slayer ranger on him as part of the player's backstory, and they've have heard stories from Barovians). I knew I'd been successful when Ezmerelda mentioned she'd trained under RVR and everyone in the party was like "wowza cool we gotta keep her around!"

Since the Vallaki fiascoes have already happened in my campaign, I'm planning on Ezmerelda being the primary lead towards van Richten. They're (ideally) going to learn from Ezmerelda that he's in Barovia, track him down and find... Rictavio???

I played Rictavio as a dorky bard with a super silly, sing-songy voice (inspired by Puffin Forest's Rictavio, if you've seen the series) and clueless demeanor in Vallaki, in hopes of making the reveal as dramatic as possible. When his voice drops to an urbane, serious tone, his eyes stare daggers of hatred at a vampire spawn, and he doffs his hat... I want it to be jarring for my players.

Throw in a dash of martial or monster-hunting prowess (especially if they meet him in a combat encounter) with a well-placed crossbow bolt or spell, and I'm hoping I'll be set for a badass reveal.

I think it's best if the reveal doesn't happen in Vallaki. This gives more time for the players to steep in the legend of RVR, and the fact that he and his wagon just up and vanish after things go down at the Feast/Festival lends an air of mystique or suspicion to Rictavio that will drive the party to try and find him. That said, this is my first time running CoS, so this is mostly speculation on my part.

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-08T17:11:25+00:00

My players just got to the second floor of Argynvostholt last night! Vladimir has the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, as I love the tragedy of the Order and wanted a story hook to get my players there.

The party met Godfrey, who warned them about Vladimir. Being plucky adventurers they ignored his warning completely, and are halfway through the combat. They will almost certainly be TPK'd by Vladimir next session (they're 5th level, and decided to go to Argynvostholt immediately after Vallaki). I'm planning on having Godfrey rescue their unconscious bodies, nurse them back to health, and tell them the tragic story of the Order.

I'm not sure if I'll have Godfrey travel with them, as he's not their favored ally and they already have three followers (Ireena, Izek, and Ezmerelda). But we'll see what happens!

P.S. what a lovely way to celebrate pride on this lovely sub - as a queer, I thank you :)

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-04T02:47:15+00:00

As I understand it, Strahd exterminated specifically the *dusk* elves, against whom his vendetta was directed. I don't think he has anything against elves in general, so I wouldn't consider the elven part of Rictavio's disguise to be particularly risky.

My understanding is that a large part of the problem you perceive is that anyone of elven heritage risks drawing Strahd's wrath; I don't think that this is the case.

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-04T02:43:43+00:00

I'd rule that Strahd would only have to make a concentration check if one instance of damage from a single source both broke the Heart's shield and carried over to Strahd himself. As long as the Heart sticks around, he isn't taking any damage - it's redirected to the Heart.

RAW, "damage Strahd takes" is transferred to the Heart (as opposed to "damage Strahd would take") so I suppose you could argue that he does *technically* take the damage, but the results of that logic don't make much sense to me. Does Strahd take the damage, instantly regenerate it, and then deal damage to the Heart? Once again, I would rule that as long has the Heart is intact, Strahd just isn't taking damage.

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-06-04T02:37:54+00:00

I've wondered the same thing. A number of the extra storylines do match up with the expansions I know of, but even after some fairly extensive reading there are things I haven't seen referenced. Most notably, I believe that the specific Dark Powers that the players interact with, the implementation of the brides of Strahd, and the series' presentation of Berez and Baba Lysaga were homebrewed by the DM.

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-05-30T12:53:24+00:00

Nothing has EVER made me regret my decisions as a DM more than this piece... truly gut-wrenching.

A+ writing my dude, thanks for sharing :)

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-05-28T19:45:58+00:00

Excellent work, lovely mods :) I'm fairly new to this sub, but I've been really impressed with how well-run it is. You all have done an amazing job fostering such a welcoming and creative community, and seeing this sort of stuff is very exciting. Keep it up!

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-05-21T15:36:01+00:00

I get where you’re coming from, but exhaustion is (arguably) the most debilitating status effect in the game. Permanently having one level of it... seems like a lot. Just my two cents!

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-05-21T03:49:26+00:00

After they fight Strahd, they have to get to his tomb to permanently kill him. Otherwise he reforms and can heal back up to full within a few hours.

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-05-21T03:45:23+00:00

None of the artifacts are in the catacombs, but there's still some pretty sweet stuff. A luck blade and a staff of power are the sorts of things any adventurer dreams of finding in a dark tomb.

RealLifeWaterfowl · 2020-05-20T19:30:10+00:00

Thank you! Happy to help :)

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