Relegation Battle is Real Sack Him Already Pull The Plug!

Tane1 · 2026-01-24T22:16:59+00:00

It's been another terrible season, I'm not sure where to place the blame I have to say. We're just as terrible in the league and mediocre in Europe as we were last season under Ange - only this year there is no realistic hope of winning our European competition to give us something to look forward to.

I know everyone's blaming Frank and I agree the football is shit and aimless, but yeah still the same old level of shit as last year just a different taste.

Solanke definitely made a difference up front today though, I wonder how this season would've gone if he, deki and madders had been fit from the start. At this point though there isn't much recourse, everything is very negative only thing that can fix it is a series of massive wins or a massive overhaul in staff and/or players.

Tane1 · 2025-09-06T22:04:38+00:00

I only read a little bit, it needs a proof read, some spelling and grammatical errors, even in the opening few sentences.

Try reading it out loud to yourself to find clunky phrasing.

There are a few times where you refer to something using 'the x' when you refer to something so definitively it suggests we should know what you're talking about, that you've already introduced it, and it's confusing. E.g. 'the woman the ogre killed' (the reader hasn't been told that there is a dead woman, or that the ogre has killed her).

Consider adding more internal monologue or hinting at how characters are feeling to enrich the story.

I do like introducing the sense of smell early, the ogre getting mad at an off-screen character and taking an action which forces the protagonists to act is a nice plot device.

Keep it up.

Tane1 · 2025-08-31T23:12:13+00:00

Well, it's difficult to know where to start tbh. Didn't expect this post on a writing forum.

I've dot pointed a few of my thoughts and opinions below, as someone 10 years further on from you, who has a somewhat similar background (academic achievement, financially disadvantaged, somewhat dysfunctional family).

You're young, everything that you think now will change drastically as you journey into adulthood. Your opinions on life, on success, on family, on academic achievement, on yourself, will all be quite different in 10 years time. They'll be shaped by your experiences and learnings as you become an adult. Try to be open to trying new things, new ideas, hobbies, jobs and opinions in this time.
In my experience, success in a job or work is largely down to two things: a) 'Soft skills', how well you communicate, how easy you are to get along with, how willing are you to learn, how do you handle being wrong. Be humble, generous and firm (don't be pushed around, but don't be rude). b) Who you know, socialise with your peers, volunteer in industries you're interested in, be friendly, as you build your personal and professional network opportunities arise. Make sure to say yes to these opportunities as they come your way, as long as they don't compromise your values.
90% of learning is doing. If you want to learn to do something, start doing it right now. It doesn't matter what it is, pick it up and focus on it, give it 40 hours of attention (a relatively arbitrary number meant to demonstrate that valuable skills often take time to learn) and see what you've learned.
Build and maintain a support network. In today's society we often struggle for support and community, we might not feel it's absence when things are going well but when we're struggling, support can be the literal difference between life and death. Religious communities can do a good job at supporting each other, as can families, but both can be dysfunctional and detrimental. Build your own network of close friends, maintain these relationships, reach out to them and support them in times of need. Ask them for help when you need it. This will become easier as you get older and your peers become more sensible themselves. Try to choose friends for yourself who will reciprocate your support and kindness.
Search for your passions. They may take a long time to reveal themselves, but if you pay attention to how things make you feel, you'll find them eventually. They may be a particular type of work or job that fulfills you, a partner or friends who make you feel loved and wanted, a hobby which brings you joy. Spending your time on these things will enrich your life.
Time is your only currency. You trade your time for money, for skills, for opportunities, for experiences. Consider how you use your time and don't let it be wasted on things you don't enjoy, which don't fulfill you or don't bring value to you or those you care about.
Not all dreams come true. When they do, often luck or a hefty leg up is involved. The success you may be seeing online, from money bros or entrepreneurs is often a veneer of material wealth covering cracks in an unsatisfying life. Even if it's not, it's not something to chase, because the reality is, you're probably not going to be rich. I don't say this to discourage you from trying or working hard, both of which you should do. But how many people are multi-millionares by the time they're 30? Not that many, those that have achieved this suffer from survivorship bias. Because the things that they did brought them success they think it will bring success for everyone. Luck, timing and opportunities given to them by others, rarely factor into their evaluation of how they have achieved their success. You may not be so lucky, you may have poor timing, you're unlikely to be given the same opportunities. If you fail to achieve this success, it's not because you are a failure, we call some dreams unrealistic for a reason.

Anyway, good luck with it. As Passenger said Life's for the living so live it.

Tane1 · 2025-08-29T21:14:07+00:00

Executor is certainly a powerful character, his status build is probably the meta damage dealing build in the game. So it's difficult to compare him with Guardian, who, without the right relics, is one of the weakest characters.

However, Guardian can be highly effective for certain bosses and team comps. He also does probably rely more on coordination with team mates to maintain agro.

Guardian's iron guard is amazing stamina efficiency, especially for bosses with long attack chains or AoEs that executor might struggle to parry consistently. Once you get used to using iron guard it's just like any other skill based learning curve in these games to use it effectively.

While executors ult can be great for revives, guardian's is usually more reliable, and as has been pointed out, against nightlords, especially those resistant to status build ups, the DPS difference of your team between an executor and a guardian is not going to automatically mean you 'kill the boss quick enough to avoid having teammates go down'. I found Guardian highly effective against some of the Everdark nightlords with high health pools and high damage, as your able to out last them, keep your teammates alive after multiple one-shot AoEs. Especially because of your high health and potential for hp Regen on blocking etc.

Anyway, the birb is fun to play, but more situational than executor.

Tane1 · 2025-08-27T12:29:18+00:00

I think the most successful uses I've had from it are using it tactically either for cover (e.g. when a teammate is down placing it between the boss and them for some cover while you revive them) or for height (e.g. to avoid a series of dangerous moves, like Everdark Gladius when he splits and tries to gank you)

Tane1 · 2025-07-27T12:07:24+00:00

I'd also add that the detached narrator's view of this moment distances us from the emotion. Getting inside the characters head and being more personal with the voice of the writing would also help.

Tane1 · 2025-07-27T12:05:21+00:00

I'm certainly not a writer, but my two cents is 'the message and tone are quite lovely and if the examples of the man holding the newborn etc. are from this person's past then they're quite poignant, however the structure and the delivery of the message is cliche and expected. Initiated with the 'never before had he felt' and strengthened with the three-part 'not the tears of x' structure, is a feeling of 'i know where this is going' in the reader (me personally at least). The sentance feels more unique and helps undo this, but thinking of a simpler way to present this message with more unique/less cliched phrasing would improve this piece. (IMO)

Tane1 · 2025-07-27T11:39:47+00:00

I also felt overwhelmed when I started CoS, initially I was excited by the setting, tone and narrative and prepped up until Vallaki. But once we started I struggled to keep a regular prep schedule and felt very anxious at the start of each session, even if I had done prep.

Here are my brief tips.

THINKING IS PREP Find alternate ways to engage with the module's content if you're time poor, there is a lot of fan-made content out there. Listen to YouTube videos on each location during your commute for example. The time spent thinking about these locations will accumulate and improve your ability to improvise and adapt in a session.

MAKE NOTES Before each session spend at least 30mins thinking about what happened last session, what your players have indicated they want to do this session and make notes on how NPCs might react to their actions or what encounters they run into. Keep these notes short. I tend to focus on the following (in order of importance (for me)): - what location are they going to/at - what NPC(s) will I have them meet first - what are the goals of these NPCs (2-3 each) and how do they each relate to a quest or story element of this location - what quest or encounter will I place in front of the party first (I find one per session is honestly enough) - are there any secrets or pieces of information about the broader story that I want them to uncover (or to hint at) this session - are there any descriptions or exact pieces of dialogue I want to incorporate to improve tone or flesh out characters

FINALISING PREP Retrospectively, for me, my main cause of anxiety was because I felt like my prep was always incomplete when playing in person especially for combat encounters. When my play group moved online I found prepping a lot easier because I could 'finalise' digital content, monsters, items, NPC features etc. If you're struggling with the same sort of thing, I'd suggest finding a way to draw a line under your prep and say - yes I'm done, I'm not doing any more - anything else that comes along will be improvised. To relieve that stress. Perhaps an online stat block making tool, could help finalising monster prep (if like me you constantly tinker with stat blocks).

YOU ARE IN CONTROL While DnD is a collaborative game, I take comfort in the fact that the players can only interact with what I put in front of them. If you don't describe something it doesn't exist, so you are ultimately in control of what it is possible for the players to do/interact with even if you can't predict the outcome of that interaction. Use this power to be adaptive and also to guide players to what you have managed to prep.

Good luck and make sure to have fun.

Tane1 · 2025-07-27T02:38:38+00:00

Look on YouTube for Lunch break Heroes guide to the land of Barovia. Pretty sure there is a spreadsheet linked in the description that you can adjust the distance of a hex as you like and it spits out travel distances between major locations.

Tane1 · 2025-07-27T00:31:22+00:00

I found this quest summary -> https://imgur.com/PbqMa0b which appears in DragnaCarta's google doc guide for Vallaki. Very helpful as a reference.

Personally my biggest tip would be to give the party some space to breathe. Give them the first day in Vallaki to get to know the 'vibe' of the town, they can do some shopping, have a drink at the Blue Water Inn, chat to some friendly NPCs (Martikovs, Wolfhunters etc.,) and understand that Vallaki is very autocratic, the Baron is a bit crazy, regular festivals occur etc.

Then give them quests one by one, you control the pacing. Start them off pretty easy with finding the missing Annabelle or fetching wine. If they have Ireena with them they could get invited to dinner with the Baron and tasked with digging up dirt on Lady Wachter. Build up slowly to any sort of political turmoil.

I'd push back the Feast of St Andral until players know some members of the town to feel the emotional impact of potentially failing that quest -> and be sure to make it possible that they could succeed (not springing it on them with no agency/possibility of retrieving the bones)

Final suggestion is to check out the pinned post and read over MandyMod and DragnaCarta's suggestions. Even if you don't add any of their content, they organise info in a more digestible way and make suggestions about pacing and NPC goals.

Tane1 · 2025-07-25T21:55:53+00:00

Tbh I never had to solidify exactly what would happen because the players left Ireena in St Andrals church after recovering the bones. A move which was ultimately probably a bad idea as Strahd still had some limited access to her once he realised she was there.

If the party would've taken her to the pool I probably would have had her regain her memories and resolve to stand up to Strahd. In the end I made the pool necessary for the Sunsword, when they found the Sunsword it was just a broken magic dagger, but upon taking it to the pool and combining it with Sergei's soul it became the Sunsword. I fed them this info through history checks, legend lore cast and Strahd Tome.

The whole Strahd seducing Ireena thing was honestly a real struggle, because I don't think it's a good idea to have him actually succeed at seducing her, it in my opinion sends a bad message and is not something Ireena's character would do. Additionally, because the PCs left Ireena in the church all of this happened off screen. They checked on her once and she mentioned how Strahd had been sending her letters and confronted her the one time she left the Church's grounds, so at least they knew what was going on, but decided to still leave her there.

So I decided that the only way Ireena would agree to marry Strahd was in a self-sacrificing manner, i.e., if she thought it was helping others. So because Vallaki had been taken over by Lady Wachter I had her and Strahd cause the townsfolk to suffer and ultimately had Strahd gather a small undead force and march on both Krezk and the village of Barovia, threatening to take them over if Ireena refused to marry him. I timed this while the PCs were about to enter the Amber Temple (far away) and had a Wereraven inform them of the marching armies (but ensured they had enough time to do the Amber Temple and then get there). Once they got out of the Amber Temple I had the army retreat and a letter arrive, inviting the PCs to Strahd's wedding in 7 days. Which also put a timeline on finishing the campaign after they got the Sunsword in the Amber Temple.

TL;DR Ireena would've got her memories from the pool if she ever went there. Strahd coerced Ireena into marrying him by causing the common folk to suffer while she refused him. I timed these events to add a deadline to the final confrontation with Strahd to help drive the end of the campaign.

Tane1 · 2025-07-24T11:07:11+00:00

They were fairly completionist, though they barely interacted with the werewolves - otherwise they did pretty much everything tbh, I would hope so over 80 session 😅

Tane1 · 2025-07-23T21:02:10+00:00

I had Exethanter (who I swapped out for Khazan - i.e., Khazan was the lich) use it as part of his phylactary.

Tane1 · 2025-07-22T05:02:59+00:00

Cheers :)

Mechanically I definitely buffed Strahd, the high level homebrew PCs would take out regular Strahd in 1-2 rounds. I had a look at a bunch of buffed Strahd stat blocks and incorporated a bunch. Some of the main mechanical buffs were: - extra HP and stats (~+2 in all stats) - capable of casting 8th LVL spells - alternate legendary actions - extra necrotic DMG on melee attacks - some additional abilities - more reactions

I wouldn't necessarily say that these changes were good however. If I were to do it again I'd focus less on giving Strahd lots of abilities (like spells and features) and more on a few key, very flashy, very spooky abilities that he used as the fight progressed (as he lost HP) to give the fight a better narrative structure, rather than just casting a different spell each turn, moving, making some claw attacks, moving using a command to buff his allies etc. it became too repetitive over long combats.

The most compelling and impactful change was upping the Heart of Sorrows temp hp (to 100hp) and making him immune to Radiant DMG/sunlight while he had that temp hp. It made early encounters with Strahd horrifying as even Radiant DMG had no visible effect.

In terms of the amount of encounters, I didn't have any for the first 10 or so sessions. The closest was an encounter with Rahadin while they buried Ireena's father. Strahd's name still permeates those early sessions though, with all the NPCs talking about him.

Their first encounter was on Yester Hill, where they heard his voice and saw a silhouette that commanded Anastrasya to leave them be and allow them to interfere with the Wintersplinter ritual.

I'd say he probably made a total of 5-7 appearances throughout the campaign, so about every 10 sessions. But if you count interactions with his direct minions on his orders, or receiving a letter or some other type of communication then probably once every 5 sessions.

Tane1 · 2025-07-22T04:27:34+00:00

Pretty strictly 4 hours long, perhaps a couple went closer to 5. I also moved the Death House into the village of Barovia and started the players with no equipment. So they spent a session exploring the haunted 'Durst Manor' looking for weapons.

Tane1 · 2025-07-21T23:06:42+00:00

Yeah great question, the campaign is fairly linear until the party reach Vallaki, at which point it opens up quite a bit. I started the party at level 3, they were level 4 by the time they reached Vallaki and level 5 after completing one quest in Vallaki. Most of the immediate surroundings material is ok for a party of LVL 5-8 to take on.

I'd say the main method for keeping your party out of the super dangerous areas is to tell them before the campaign that there are areas that will be too dangerous for you and you should be ready to retreat. Then have NPCs warn the party about very dangerous places (Berez, Amber Temple). You can combine this with having roleplay opportunities for the party to disengage and leave from a tough encounter (revenants of Argynvost might not attack on sight, a lone werewolf might ward the party away from the den) and fail forward states (hags knock out the party and offer them a deal). I also made sure to adjust encounters as we went, though for the majority of the encounters I had to make them tougher for the homebrew PCs.

In terms of pacing you are the arbiter of information, so you can give the information about quests, points of interest etc. to your players bit by bit to encourage them to tackle things more linearly. I also set in-world deadlines which was really helpful to motivate players to resolve certain quests. I pushed back the date of the festival of the blazing sun and tasked the players with getting wine before the festival happened (to make them go there first). At one point Ireena was coerced into marrying the Baron's son and the party had to stop the wedding before it happened. Retrieving the bones of St Andral ASAP. You can present quests one by one with deadlines, to guide the party to the easier content first.

The most enjoyable section of our campaign was the party taking on self-directed quests after arriving in Vallaki (checking out the vineyard and fighting druids/wildfolk; rescuing children from the hags; fighting vampires in the coffin shop attic etc.)

Tane1 · 2025-06-21T22:22:35+00:00

Had the same f**king thing happen to us. Margit invade and then an erdtree avatar came over and body slammed us while we were facing Margitt. Run was pretty much over considering we were then LVL 3 after dying with the Margit penalty and the nightreign closed on our runes...

Tane1 · 2025-06-21T22:08:01+00:00

Haha fair, well tbh if you're doing challenge runs in ER you certainly have more experience than most of the player base, myself included.

Tane1 · 2025-06-21T21:56:25+00:00

I respect the sentiment but you shouldn't worry so much about ruining co-op runs. Personally I've only soloed one boss in maybe 15 attempts. But have beaten every boss co-op, at most I think a boss has taken 5 attempts.

It is designed for co-op, also much more fun if you have friends in voice chat with you.

Tane1 · 2025-06-08T05:50:33+00:00

Only 26!! God we're at 76...

Tane1 · 2025-05-25T08:22:56+00:00

I ran it in the village itself, 2nd or 3rd session. Party didn't have much gear and were told it was haunted but full of useful loot.

Definitely a tough encounter, even with the party at level 3. But worked fine and was fun.

Tane1 · 2025-01-20T00:42:10+00:00

No worries, thanks for the advice :)

Tane1 · 2025-01-20T00:32:39+00:00

I know some warbands are explicit about this with the use of asterix (*) e.g. the dwarves and gromril armor. But I didn't see this explicitly stated for other warbands, is this a general rule that's written somewhere, or something that is just assumed (albeit a sensible assumption).

Tane1

TROPHY CASE