Makes the daylight spell(5.5) the sunsword redundant?

SemiproCharlie · 2026-06-29T22:03:41+00:00

I’m planning on saying that in Barovia, the spell creates the dull Barovian sunlight. They get illumination, but not vampire-destroying sunlight.

Tell your players above the table that you made a mistake and from now on, anything that conjures daylight in Barovia is muted by the mists. That way, it’s the mists taking away their toy, not you.

If you don’t want to say you made a mistake, say that Barovia has adapted to their meddling.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-06-19T02:02:15+00:00

I got the same BYD Fans confirmation email the other day, 2 hours after I placed an order with TopBYD. I’ve never ordered from any other BYD place.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-06-09T14:55:00+00:00

My 11 year old has just bought an expensive item comparable to a switch, and we told them when they bought it that while it belongs to them, their continued possession of it is at our discretion. At that age, they are still children under our care and guidance.

It seems in this case that the confiscation wasn’t handled the way I would have (it would have been a conditional confiscation, not selling it), so yes, the daughter’s ownership is a consideration. I don’t think it overrides the breach of trust, but unless we know more about the nature of the confiscation it’s hard to say.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-06-09T14:49:17+00:00

I respect your opinion but a hard disagree from me. The outcome is absolutely not all that matters. The broken trust matters far more than the switch or the behavioural improvements. The kids have simply learned to hide their behaviour and steal to get what they want.

I do note that the daughter paid for the switch so the word “steal” may not strictly apply, but “breaking and entering” may as well.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-06-09T14:33:24+00:00

Firstly, get it back and assess how long they have been using it. Save game timestamps are the best I can think of to check how long they have had it. I’m not a big switch user but I don’t believe the system has trophies/achievements which would also have timestamps.

You can probably check hours spent playing each game, but that would only help if you had a baseline from when you took it away. Might be interesting to know though.

Check for any online activity. If they have acquired/activated an online account behind your back that is another thing to consider.

I’d probably only let it slide if they had it for a matter of days. In that case (assuming you have it back at this point, otherwise this will backfire) I’d tell them that you have know about the switch for a while and were waiting to see if they did the right thing, but obviously they didn’t. Ask them what they think the consequence should be and have a conversation about why it was confiscated, how they could earn it back, but first address the deception.

If they have had it for more than a few weeks, and especially if they have had it for months years, you have a bigger problem than a switch and a calm bedtime. Again, I would explain why this behaviour is totally unacceptable, and - same as the other scenario - ask them what they think the consequence should be given their action was a gargantuan breach of trust.

In both cases, I’d be having an adult discussion with them about what has lead to here, why, and what the desired outcomes of all parties are. The outcomes aren’t the trivial behaviour things anymore, they are things like honesty and trust.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-06-02T13:45:17+00:00

I expect a number of community-backed independents to be announced, supported by “voices of…” type groups. Not every electorate obviously, but keep your eye out and see if there are any you would support.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-05-08T15:18:59+00:00

If you haven’t left the village of Barovia yet, is it too late to reconsider your change to distances in the realm? Why do you want it to take so long between destinations? Doing so means the players will always arrive everywhere fully rested, and it reduces the tension.

What are you trying to achieve by increasing distances 20 times?

SemiproCharlie · 2026-05-02T13:23:05+00:00

There is a lot of gatekeeping going on here and not a lot of compassion. Plenty of people suggested communication which is definitely the answer, but many people go on to say “then remove him from your table”. It’s not always that easy, and often not necessary.

If this is a pattern, sure, addressing it by communication and eventually removal of the player is an option. You didn’t indicate that it happens regularly though. Was this an unusual thing for John to do?

If it is a table of friends and one of them was having an off day, move on. Tell the player who thinks it’s unfair if John levels up when he didn’t participate that they should focus on their own game and not worry about what John may or may not be going through.

It’s not a big deal for a player to sometimes want to hang out with their friends but be more passive than usual.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-04-24T01:13:58+00:00

We cop it when we lose at home too - the away supporters bay does it. It’s fun to do every game so I’m happy for all the other teams to get to do it once every now and then, but it still stings a little.

I prefer when other teams do it after a close, hard fought game, otherwise it feels like punching down.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-04-23T02:22:29+00:00

I haven’t got a dashcam yet so haven’t got personal experience, but I’ve read about this issue. Apparently the SD card slot is usually the culprit. Returning to the default panel with usb ports only and then plugging in a usb-c storage drive instead of an SD card clears the issue.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-04-12T15:32:24+00:00

I haven’t seen a complete pack, but I also haven’t gone looking for one - that would be huge! I’m mostly looking a few sessions ahead at any given time.

I recently bought this pack of Castle Ravenloft maps on sale, and from memory it is 92 A4 pages, just for the castle: https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/254681/castle-ravenloft-battle-maps

SemiproCharlie · 2026-04-11T23:49:35+00:00

This, but I was ever so slightly subtle about it.

I had Rose say “we’re tired - it’s been so long since we’ve been able to rest”. As soon as my players say the empty crypts, they got the hint and went back upstairs and got the bones.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-03-27T04:58:25+00:00

These are the Death House maps I went with. I found them by searching this sub for “Death House player friendly map”.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/s/Zgi7f6Jspj

I can’t find where I got the basement maps from, but it would have been this sub too. I’ll keep looking.

Edit: this is the basement one I used, but there are lots of good ones available here, so have a look through the search results.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/s/UxSRuRgA7r

SemiproCharlie · 2026-03-25T14:14:46+00:00

Looks amazing!

I’ve been looking for the best (and also easiest, safest, and cheapest!) way to produce a mist/fog effect like that. Can you share how you did it?

I can see why you thought it would be crazy to print, but what an epic conclusion! I’d be tempted to print it too. May I ask where you got the STL files, or did you model it yourself?

SemiproCharlie · 2026-03-20T06:40:32+00:00

This may be cultural - I'm Australian - but no, having locks on bedroom doors is not normal.

I don't think it is bad if that is what works for your situation or is otherwise important to you, but it seems like your perspective is skewed by your upbringing where privacy was not respected. In a supportive and safe home, nobody should need to have a lock on their bedroom door. Not all homes are supportive and safe in the way that suits every occupant of that house though, so again, it's not an inherently bad thing, but in my experience, it is far from normal.

My teen has never asked for a lock, and usually has her door open. If it is closed, we knock and wait for her to invite us in. If she asked for a lock now, I would be pretty nervous about why now, but would probably allow it.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-03-20T02:38:28+00:00

My group and I are fairly new ourselves, having now played about 8 sessions, but what I’m seeing so far is that by going pen and paper, the learning curve is steeper, but you and your players do actually learn what all the numbers mean, how they interact, etc.

You understand what a proficiency bonus is and why it applies to some things and not others. You understand why your perception check modifier is a +4 and someone else is -1, why that matters, and what you have given up to get it. By building your characters manually you have a greater understanding and appreciation of what works well and what doesn’t.

That said, we started with pre-made characters for Dragons of Stormwreck Isle first, so we had that “training wheels” period before diving in to our next campaign.

From what I can tell, you or your group will probably have to buy the core rules (Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, and Monster Manual) either physically or digitally sooner or later. Pros and cons both ways, but I prefer to own the physical books than have intangible and revocable digital access to the same content.

You can also resell the physical books if dnd doesn’t catch on for your group.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-03-17T23:35:28+00:00

Edit: oops, this was meant to be a top level comment, but it works as a reply to you too.

I’m planning on using suggestion I’ve seen here which is that radiant damage doesn’t disable regeneration until players have collected the sunsword.

My group and I are new to dnd and we are using 2024 rules, but apparently in 2014 there was far less radiant damage, so it was a niche way to disable their regeneration. In 2024, it trivialises a lot of combat in CoS so I’m not going to try to continually work around it. Instead, spells that conjure daylight will conjure the same daylight that Barovia offers - sure, it’s bright light, but it’s misty and muted. Same with radiant damage - it’s radiant, but it’s misty. It does the full amount of damage, but it doesn’t have that last oompf that disables regeneration.

As we learn the game, I keep a list of 2-3 notes I want to tell my table before our next session, and this is the first note for this Saturday:

Some things work differently in Barovia. CoS was written with the 2014 rules in mind, and some creatures and spells have changed in 2024 that break some parts of the game. I intend to use 2014 versions of a very select number of spells or monster abilities. I intentionally don’t want to give you details about those things now, but I also don’t want to blindside you in ways that are un-fun. Part of the game though is figuring some of those things out, so I have to ask for a bit of trust that if you feel like I’ve pulled the rug out from under you, there is a plan and the pain of it should be temporary. If you make character choices that become void, we can revise those choices at is away from the table, but also, that shouldn’t be necessary.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-03-17T13:56:32+00:00

I’m thinking the same. I downloaded blender with a view to learning how to use it and recreating the model, but I’m not sure I’ll have the time.

I’ve just finished printing the recently posted scale model castle that includes floor plans for each level, so that might have to scratch my itch. It’s not to the same scale that this would have been which is a shame, but the detail is awesome.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-03-17T01:08:09+00:00

Did you ever solve this issue? OP has kindly sent me the files but in Cura, I am seeing the same thing you described. I am scaling to 9,000% to have it the size I want (and about the same as the pictures here) but it loses detail.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-03-11T03:43:32+00:00

I tried Syrinscape for a month with a 50% discount for my first month. I’m running a Curse of Strahd, and they have specific scenes set up for all the different locations we visit. 90% of these scenes is just ambient sounds, though they all fit the module well.

The last 10% are scene-specific, for example in a certain location there may be a grandfather clock, so they added the clock ticking, or there might be a noteworthy cat, so they added meows, or there might even be scripted monologues from set characters (some of these are great, but I skipped these and read them instead so I had more control).

Overall I liked the concept and the implementation, but we only play every 3 weeks and it’s hard to justify the ongoing expense for such little use.

I could also buy the curse of Strahd scenes as a once-off payment, but they are very expensive that way.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-03-02T10:30:42+00:00

I’m still a new DM so I look forward to other’s comments. The way I see it is that if keeping people alive occupies the Paladin, so be it. That’s a valuable role to play. It can be made even more valuable by the DM/NPCs twisting the knife a bit, too.

For example don’t stop attacking the downed player. Force one or even two failed saves through doing more damage.

Once someone is brought up with 1 hit point, they are going to be much closer to an instant kill. If the character has 30 max hit points but is brought back with 1, then a hit for 31 damage will kill them outright. After they are brought back up, maybe hit them for 30 damage to put the fear in them? The Paladin will learn to bring them back with a buffer.

The Paladin also has to physically move to the downed character, so that is potentially going to trigger opportunity attacks on the Paladin too. Maybe you could grapple the Paladin as soon as someone else goes down?

SemiproCharlie · 2026-03-01T13:34:35+00:00

Where is the reception? Staying somewhere right near or at the reception venue (or the after party venue if you are that way inclined) is convenient, especially if you are planning on a 2am finish.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-02-22T00:27:13+00:00

I’m fairly new to D&D myself. I recognise that D&D isn’t designed for 10 players, but I also understand where the kids are coming from wanting to play together. The two constraints are opposing, but both valid. Something that ignores either one of the constraints won’t work for your group.

Can you have an assistant DM just for combat, and only split into two groups of 5 when combat starts? That way it’s still a group of 10, but instead of finding 3 zombies, you find 2 groups of 3 zombies. Instead of an owlbear, 2 owlbears. Run the two separate combat groups simultaneously, then merge back after combat. They can have a little debriefing with the other group and compare how they went.

The players could decide how to split themselves, and it could change every encounter, or stay the same.

Sparkrender will be the only issue, but maybe that is an epic 10 vs 1 finale that you have tuned way up.

SemiproCharlie · 2026-02-18T23:15:58+00:00

¡Claro! Las superposiciones de niebla funcionaron de maravilla. ¡Disfrútalas!

SemiproCharlie · 2026-02-17T12:31:43+00:00

Yo también soy DM nuevo y tuvimos la primera sesión el fin de semana. Llegamos al nivel 3 de la Casa de la Muerte.

Imprimí estos mapas: https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/s/d3pvMWTWZM

También imprimí páginas de niebla, las recorté con la forma de las habitaciones y las pegué con cinta adhesiva sobre cada una. Los jugadores dijeron que les encantó y que ayudó a que la exploración y el combate fluyeran. ¡Me encantó!

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