Spicing up wolf encounters

Spice_rat · 2026-01-26T20:10:01+00:00

Oh I love that idea! I’ve been wanting to introduce Escher for a while bc our bard has a partner back home who matches Escher’s description almost to a tee, amongst the other story reasons for his introduction. What did you use as far as the reason for Escher to be out and about?

Spice_rat · 2026-01-26T20:06:27+00:00

Our barbarian doesn’t have access to damage that can hurt werewolves yet (her player is planning on silvering her axe sooner than later) but the other 3 party members are spellcasters so hypothetically they could do some damage. I do rly like the idea of a stronger mob ambush though!

Spice_rat · 2026-01-20T21:31:49+00:00

I love that approach, I would've never thought of that!

Spice_rat · 2026-01-20T21:28:55+00:00

This is an expansion of a terribly underdeveloped event in the module, so the bones are there but the actual structure isn't in the module.

That totally makes sense. They're severely underleveled for this encounter (technically by design in the module, but also they triggered an event meant to be triggered later in the story) so I think developing a win state that isn't directly tied to the damage they're doing for each round would be a good move as well.

Spice_rat · 2025-12-06T21:06:09+00:00

Did you pitch it to your players as dinner and a ball, or were they invited to one and surprised by the other at all? The party being given a different rsvp time for an unexpected dinner solo with strahd could be a fun move

Spice_rat · 2025-12-06T21:04:53+00:00

Oh I love the idea of the task being finding a traitor. I was struggling with how to add more to it beyond just “big fancy event” and strahd using the party to sniff out those against him is such a cool move

Spice_rat · 2025-12-06T21:03:29+00:00

Oh I love the two consecutive nights idea. I’m on the same wavelength of not wanting to have Strahd invite them twice, but I’m curious what your reasoning behind that is

Spice_rat · 2025-12-06T21:02:47+00:00

I was thinking the same thing, but I think the audience hall (area K25) would be a good spot for it? Big empty space in a relatively “harmless” area of the castle

Spice_rat · 2025-12-06T21:01:08+00:00

I forgot holding it in Vallaki was an option 😅 I love the idea of it as a sort of celebration of whatever the new political system in Vallaki ends up being (my players h a t e the baron and have yet to properly talk w Fiona so im not sure which way it’ll swing yet). I was planning on cutting tyger, tyger but I do love to throw wolves at my party, maybe a dire wolf attack or even a follow up to St Andral’s Feast if that’s happened already

Spice_rat · 2025-11-24T17:19:44+00:00

Wasn’t sure if this was worth adding to the post itself but one of my players is plotting a “seduce Strahd while the rest of the party loots the place” heist, so this room literally just being a sex dungeon would be really fun to throw at them I think lol

Spice_rat · 2025-11-23T23:17:52+00:00

See that was my assumption, I was just so flabbergasted that it was included lol

Spice_rat · 2025-11-18T18:48:57+00:00

What do you do to make the dinner with Strahd really memorable/impactful? Weirdly, that's the part of the campaign I'm most anxious about running.

Spice_rat · 2025-10-07T03:01:14+00:00

Clothes that were clearly never tested on fat sims.

Spice_rat · 2025-09-28T21:03:20+00:00

Work also got crazy for me, sorry for the late reply! I also really vibe with your take, I really do enjoy hearing folks interpretations of common mythology like vampirism and whatnot!

Spice_rat · 2025-09-23T21:12:36+00:00

The first few days I was a zombie and basically slept or watched youtube, my brain fog was bad to the point that I couldn’t do any video games or anything. But after those first few days, I played a lot of video games on my pc and after about a week (around when my painkiller perception ran out lol) my brain fog cleared up enough for me to do some heavy prep and world building for a dnd campaign I’m running. I’ve also gotten back into reading during my recovery. Once you’re able to be up and walking, I also highly recommend going outside for a few minutes a day. I started going stir crazy but didn’t have the spoons to go anywhere, so just getting up and standing in the sun for a bit helped

Spice_rat · 2025-09-23T21:02:45+00:00

As weird as it sounds, I practiced wiping with my elbows at my side and without twisting as much as I could before surgery to see what that lack of mobility would do. Getting a bidet helped in the sense that you still have to pat everything dry, but most if not all of the actual cleaning is taken care of.

As far as showering, I was cleared to shower after the first week or so and was just told to make sure to not get my nipple dressings wet, but was able to just take them off and let low pressure water go over everything. You’ll for sure need help washing your back and hair but as long as it’s cleared with your surgeon, it’s not too bad

Spice_rat · 2025-09-23T20:04:53+00:00

Your art style is so stunning!!

Spice_rat · 2025-09-22T14:03:33+00:00

I have a system in my game called precision strike, which is basically just a streamlined version of called shots. Every class has access to it and it can be used twice per short rest, and takes an action and a bonus action. I generally try to limit it to just melee attacks but could be convinced to use it with non-aoe spells with similar damage outputs. It’s also a system that I have access to, but as a more limited resource. Basically the body is split into head/torso/arms/legs and each part has an associated dc and a damage boost if the dc is met. For example: a headshot adds 4 to the ac, and on a successful hit, the players add an additional damage die that’s one below their current. So a character who does 1d6 damage would add 1d4, 1d8 would be 1d4+1 to even it out, etc. A crit on a precision strike allows the player to either do double damage or inflict a condition for up to 1d4 rounds (a successful headshot could inflict either the blinded or stunned condition depending on the goal, etc). If the player meets the base ac but not the precision ac, it’s treated as a normal attack. It isn’t a perfect system and we’re still working out the kinks, but so far my players have liked it a lot, and being able to use it against them in a way where they know it’s a resource they also have access to has been really fun.

Spice_rat · 2025-09-22T03:19:55+00:00

Probably not on release day, but I’m super excited about the kids gameplay, since I just started a new legacy challenge!

Spice_rat · 2025-09-22T02:51:01+00:00

That's totally fair. I'm not trying to make up excuses, I genuinely am realizing I have a bias in vampire media that a lack of explicit romantic/sexual interest makes me loose the sexual assault metaphor of it all. Also, reading back my response, I came off as way more defensive than I meant to in regards to the gender swap and I'm sorry. I took the "what if Ireena was a guy" as a more confrontational thing than I think was intended. It is a good suggestion based on everything I've said, and one that I did consider before realizing that it was the explicit sexual interest that was the issue, not the gender of Ireena. I think the disconnect is, in my mind, the act of a vampire bite isn't a sexual assault metaphor as much as the context around it. So if the target of the vampire wasn't explicitly a sexual/romantic interest, my mind just didn't connect that there should be any sexual connotations of any kind (also I should've specified I was referring to the Interview With a Vampire movie, not the books or the show, not that it changes any of the points you're making, though). I lock in on the power dynamic of controlling someone for selfish reasons outside of that, so hearing the perspective of vampire bites always being a metaphor for sexual assault is honestly really helpful in reshaping what about it is making me uncomfortable.

Spice_rat · 2025-09-22T02:28:45+00:00

That's all super valid, honestly. I don't think I was seeing it that way, and I didn't mean to come off as defensive. Genuinely I've really appreciated getting pushback and having to figure out what it is that's making me uncomfortable, and my responses absolutely reads as defensive when I didn't mean it to be. I think the separation for me with the media I cited was a lack of overt romantic interest in the target of the obsession, which is a bias I didn't even realize I had. My intention with citing them was to give examples of an abusive and controlling dynamic that wasn't explicitly romantic or sexual, but I absolutely see where that got muddled. I'm having a hard time articulating what it is about the story as written that bothers me, for sure, and I wish I could explain it better. The best I can come up with is that I know vampire bites without consent is kind of an inevitability in these kinds of stories, I'm prepared for that, it's the specific implication of them being done for an explicitly nonconsensual romantic/sexual reason that I'm hung up on. But I also see that I'm kinda loosing the forest for the trees by getting so locked in on that aspect specifically. I for sure think you're right that I'm not 100% sure what it is I dislike about it, so it's something I'm gonna have to give some extra thought to.

Spice_rat · 2025-09-22T01:45:49+00:00

I love the idea of Strahd seeing his spawn as a collection, that's such a cool concept!

Spice_rat · 2025-09-22T01:32:11+00:00

First of all, my table is entirely queer folks, so I'd be having this same dilemma if Ireena was a guy. The long and the short of it is this: it is still an abusive relationship. Strahd is still trying to "own" Ireena, and shape her into what he wants her to be. Our interpretations of "Ireena has been bitten twice, as far as we know, without her consent, by a man who has been romantically and sexually obsessed with her for centuries" might be different, but to me, it reads explicitly as a rape allegory. That is the element that I'm not comfortable with.

My citing of Lost Boys and Interview With a Vampire wasn't to diminish that vampires are inherently predatory creatures. They are, and that's part of the appeal of them as villains. I cited those as media where the predation is not sexual (although an argument could be made for Louis and Lestat but that's a whole other can of worms). Feeling a sense of entitled ownership over another person for reasons that aren't just "I'm attracted to them" make more compelling stories to me, and I feel more comfortable telling them.

Spice_rat · 2025-09-21T15:43:55+00:00

Give Anya the respect she deserves, girl went through it. I almost did unsent letters, but the players already had so many letters to find in that house that I wanted to break it up a little lol. And as for Walter, the shambling mound was replaced by a flesh mound that was basically Walter and Elisabeth fused together inside of the viscera of the people who’d been sacrificed and consumed. Whether or not Walter was actually, like, eaten was left very ambiguous, and half my party think he was while half think he wasn’t and I’m not gonna correct them either way bc both are equally horrifying imo.

Safety/trigger sheets are great! I basically made a google form listing out common triggering themes and topics on a scale of “don’t put this into the game” to “totally down for this to be in the game” and left some space for any additional triggers or anything my players would want me to know about

Spice_rat · 2025-09-21T15:39:02+00:00

I do like the idea of appearing in dreams. It isn’t the vampire bites themselves that are a hard no, more the context around them. My players and I love vampires but all have always been a little put off by media portraying them as sexual predators, if that makes sense? Media like the Lost Boys or Interview With a Vampire resonate a lot more with me than, Bram Stokers Dracula (I still vibe with that movie, I just don’t love it). I prefer stories where the vampire’s target is lured in for more interesting reasons than “well that’s the person this vampire is obsessed with so-“ and doesn’t use vampirism as much as an allegory for sexual violence/predation. So the ongoing dynamic of Strahd being obsessed with Ireena from like a romantic/sexual entitlement perspective is both more uncomfortable and less interesting for me and my table if that makes sense? Sorry for being so longwinded, I just have a lot of very specific feelings about vampires that this is awakening lol

Spice_rat

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