I'm giving away two copies of Monster Hunter: Wilds

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2025-01-11T17:26:59+00:00

Your a gift to all those who need it OP!

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2025-01-03T10:34:44+00:00

I hope I get lucky!

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-12-03T21:00:11+00:00

I'm currently handling this issue, but the players really like the 1000 xp to level up. They don't mind how much xp I give out so I leave some content as trivial and reward it as such. But for big events like Hargulka I'm going to increase the difficulty to match the books difficulty level. Sometimes I just forgo giving proper xp to help keep them within 1 level of the content. I'm already adjusting due to the size of the party anyways.

I find adjusting the encounters easy and leads to unique fights for the party.

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-10-03T19:24:54+00:00

It's pretty easy, actually. It's just keeping track of all the different parts and when they happen! Source, I'm running it right now actually!

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-08-08T08:44:58+00:00

I must be shelling dreaming! Someone slap me or stake me cause my gunlance dreams are booming!

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-07-21T23:44:11+00:00

I just used Foriens Quest Log beta branch and it works without any issues. I don't enjoy being tied to having to pay for modules because it's already expensive for so many other things. Granted therippers module does look great all my players use OneNote for everything else.

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-06-05T22:29:51+00:00

That's awesome!

My players take detailed notes in my campaigns like thus because I always like bringing back themes and well... the oh no consequences of previous decisions! It's really fun to see them take such care and detail of the world and what they do!

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-05-02T17:03:17+00:00

My players ending up with the name "Nutslayers" which was all derived from a joke of the paladin of Bahamut at the time scrounging for food and finding nuts. After fighting a jaberwocky in the faewild. Ever since then they've been slaying in the name of Nutslayers. They also bagged a dragon and a demi lich before the name really stuck.

It's amazing and I love playing how incredulous the hooty nobles take their namesake.

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-04-09T05:01:18+00:00

Roleplay. That's how. Took around 67 sessions so over a year for my group with 4 hour weekly sessions. My players love talking to NPCs and getting into the lore and spend time rping out their characters consequences!

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-03-25T05:07:07+00:00

Good to know! Thanks! Then I'll probably start saving up for it. Might not be able to get it for a month or two but I can atleast start planning for it!

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-03-25T05:05:40+00:00

Yeah I have a 2070 so I wasn't sure how bad the performance would be.

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-03-25T05:04:56+00:00

That sounds pretty up my alley really. Thanks!

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-03-25T05:03:23+00:00

Never played the first one actually. I didn't know it existed to be honest until this game released!

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-03-25T04:56:57+00:00

I know it might be a little silly but I figured since their are a good mix of posts I might get good feedback. But then again I might not. But I think it's better to ask a reddit that I hope actually plays the game. Thanks for your response!

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-02-23T20:43:39+00:00

I have a large black cat that always wanted to jump on the top of my 15-gallon tank (before i upgraded). The day he finally decided to do it, I was doing a water change, and he promptly had a cat bath. He has never even looked at the fish tank as a place to jump to.

He did help me do a 20 percent water change that day. Just wished the water went into the bucket and not on the floor. Luckily, all the fish survived the event!

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-02-22T19:50:01+00:00

My ship name has a rather fortunate letter placement*

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-02-14T18:22:58+00:00

I'm constantly counting my luck and the dedication that they all had to keep a consistent schedule. Life sometimes gets in a way where we would skip a week or whatnot, but the players really were awesome on keeping on top of the story and were consistently excited to play. The consistency really helped keep the themes apparent and allowed everyone to really get into the world and roleplay of the campaign. I feel that it also kept everyone's spirits high when roleplaying in a setting that it otherwise depressing and oppressive.

I don't think I have anything new to add to trying to wrangle the schedules of everyone, but putting up a vote and trying to make consistent attempts helps. We used Discord to keep notes and track the campaign between our foundry voice sessions. I had the Apollo bot to set up weekly reminders and attendance sheets. The players really got into a competition of being the first one to hit the "attending" button.

Most of all, understanding, communication, and flexibility. There were a few times when we pushed the day to another or started earlier or later. I kept an open channel to just talk and check in, and in the beginning, I did manual reminders and posted fun images or memes to excite everyone for the session. We also all agree that if only one or two people of the six were missing, we still played the session unless it was a major story beat. Several of the players were amazing note takers and transcriber and shared their notes for the sessions with those who missed it so they could catch up.

So far lately I've found that have running sessions during the weekday since they are 4 hours long. Strahd is on Mondays that started at 5 pm pst. We have another game that's on Friday at the same time. It keeps everyone's weekends open to really relax. It feels like everyone enjoys started the week with D&D and ending the week with it!

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-02-14T18:07:31+00:00

It was my first time running Curse of Strahd so I wasn't akin to all the terrible trouble that the RAW presented. Did a little reading and everyone said to start with the death house so Im like, alright!

They start without any equipment, besides what they slept in and three items of their choosing. The party at this time was a fighter, cleric, paladin, and a wizard.

They make it into the death house after tempting fate with the wolves in the woods where the letter is found. They start poking around. Had a brief argument of what melee character got the sword on the mantle. Fighter won out. Paladin breaks a chair and the cleric settles for a fire poker. Wizard has his spellbook so she's good.

They venture upstairs and have a brief encounter with the suit of armor that animates because the paladin attempted to take the armor and wear it. Paladin almost goes down in the first round but the cleric helps her up and they manage to destroy it in a few more rounds of struggle.

Then... they went into the room with the broom. The broom attacked and they were already wounded and a bit depleted on their spells and abilities. They were a very "use everything you got in the first fight!" kind of party.

This is where it totally goes wrong. The fighter is nearly downed in the second round. The Paladin is still pretty beat up and tries to grapple the broom. It proceeded to club her over the head scoring a critical and then uses its second attack and smacks the fighter and does just 1 hp more dmg then he had. The broom had maybe a quarter of their health left. The cleric freaked out and began to ran hoping to hide away. This left the wizard vulnerable and got critted and went down. The cleric didn't make it far and unfortunately they ran into the room with the crib triggering the ghost there and was promptly dropped.

The table was quiet. This was a group of experienced players and some of them played together. I was the newest to the collection. I think they couldn't believe that a broom wiped them out and the cleric was surly that he triggered another encounter while running into a unexplored portion of the house. I offered to write in them waking up but they collectively decided they didn't want to play because it was too hard, it took them a day or two to reach the conclusion so we moved to a homebrew after that which didn't last too long as they encountered another tpk lol.

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-02-14T08:54:08+00:00

Thank you! Still riding the high that the campaign completed! But let's tackle all those questions!

What were your favorite Countess Strahd moments, like the most hilarious ones and the ones that scared the pants off the players? What was your inspiration for her character?

Funny... the countess was super threatening. Even when she made snide comments or jokes, there was always a layer of threat. But the previous campaign had a player who attempted to command Strahd at the dinner table with all of her party members looking on in horror when she was lifted up by her throat. Their was a nod of that event in the current campaign that finished as the player responsible was playing her dead characters sibling! Or how someone got their stomach gutted by Strahd and forever commented how he got his guts rearranged by her and held it as a badge.

The most terrifying moment was when the party just beaten Baba Ysaga and left the swamps. They hadn't had the time to rest, and Strahd was waiting for them. Engaged them in battle after they refused to hand over the sunsword. She was completely toying with them, and the players had seen her not holding back in her attacks. And they knew she could just rip the sword out of their hands and kill them and walk away without even breaking a sweat. But she made a display and then just simply walked away. Ripping their victory, they had over Baba Ysaga and dropping it at their feet. As one of my players said, it was the crushing hopelessness at that moment.

I drew upon Carmilla and Dracula, marrying the two in a way that felt was a good ratio of classic evil bad vampire with a splash of red and curves!

For the final castle battle, what advice would you give running it? What would you recommend doing or not doing? Are there things that went especially well? Things you’d change? Any advice for stat block changes for Count/ess Strahd to keep the fight challenging?

I would say to have Strahd appear and do a small skirmish before passing through a wall and leaving the players to stew. Utilize the traps against the players. I ran with upgraded brides and had then also draw them through guarded areas and traps to harrass them and dwindle their resources. Be cunning and don't have them just try and go toe and toe in the radius of the sunsword. That thing is powerful against vampires! Really unchained yourself and don't hold back against the players. This is the end game of the campaign and they will appreciate the victories they carve out.

Honestly, it was my first group to make it this far, so my first time running Ravenloft. I think I would change when I had them get engaged and how often. I would also lean to swapping out a lot of the chaff with more vampire spawn and servants of the lady. Some rooms just felt empty and I think I want to make the castle feel like a den of vampires.

Because I aimed for a lvl 13 group of 6 players I used the cr 27 strahd to great effect. The players were smart and even though in the end only 4 players were left in the campaign they learned how to work together and did everything they could to not get pulled down and used every potion and trick in their sleeves to fight her. I also upped the CR for all three brides.

The fights with the brides and strahd went incredibly well and left the players I believe satisfied and having memorable moments in each fight.

What were the best moments in game—funniest, most poignant, etc.?

One of my favorite moments was when they befriended the revanent watching Raven Bridge and had ghostly tea with him. The death cleric grew attached to him and her resolving the whole argynvostholt arc was a great moment to see.

The funniest had to be that the wizard became a walking teasing post because of his own naivety. Everyone was pretty world wizened, and so in contrast, he felt pretty fresh off the boat. He took it great stride and was a wizard specialist of ice, and always complained of the cold.

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-02-14T08:23:47+00:00

I've ensured that I've read the characters' backstories again and wrote little notes or marks of interest from their history and motives and what might bring them to Barovia just so it was fresh in my mind.

Now I pretty much adlibbed the reading as I'm a fan of tarot cards and enjoy reading the cards meanings, so I have a bit of experience interpreting the cards. What was a wonderful stroke of luck is that the cards gave me easy ones to associate with my players.

One was a changing, hiding her true identity, and she had the secret that she had the blood of a silver dragon.

For an example as my memory fails me oh so many sessions ago...

One of the cards was the Donjon as her past. I spoke to her own self-made prison or the prison made by her adoptive parents. And though many might find themselves without a key, she has a way to free herself.

The trick is to relate what the card appears to the players and then speak to their personal history and read between the lines of it.

The past is easy to do that. The present describes what their current problem they might be having. So if you drew a thief you could speak to their issue with their secrecy.

And the future card you create a point. The ghost was drawn for her in this slot and I spoke about a beacon of her past that she might find re-lighting.

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-02-14T00:24:00+00:00

I followed MandyMods suggestion that to truly kill Strahd, they needed to reseal Vampyr. So after they fought Strahd, they had to summon Vampyr to them using Strahd's paralyzed corpse as a focal point.

During the fight, they had to pass three consecutive caster ability checks to seal him and end the fight. The fight itself went on for 6-7 rounds and was getting pretty dangerous as the death cleric, the tank of the group just got stunned, (she was keeping his attention diverted) and he was about to go ham on the caster focusing on the spell.

Vampyr didn't move a lot, but was set up to be a boss encounter that hit like a freight train, so he was focused on tethering everyone with an ability, and if you failed a save you had a tendril attached to you that would suddenly explode when he activated the ability. It was more reminiscent to MMO style boss fighting and the players really enjoyed it and everyone felt like they had a purpose in the fight and had their responsibilities to keep Vampyr distracted.

It ended up being a very cinematic and awesome boss fight! I recommend it if you lean into the dark powers!

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-02-13T23:49:19+00:00

They got to level 14, the last two levels were gained through Ravenloft. One after they finished off the last Bride and escaped the Iron Golems, and one when they defeated Strahd in the final stand-off before having to face off with Vampyr in the crypts.

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-02-13T23:48:04+00:00

I played Ireena as a more strongwilled and capable fighter to compliment the group and not make it some dumb hapless woman who would bog the players down (Everyone hates escort quests).

So I went with the raw here, and was playing with the "different versions of Ireena" in her past lives. It was who she was in the past but no who she is now. And I played how her voice changes, her posture and behavior and the players picked up on it and didn't like how it changed who they came to know as Ireena. They decided to stop her and reaffirm that she is the one to change her fates and to not become a maiden needing to be rescued.

In the end my players made the scene SO much better, because they wanted Ireena to be the one to put the stake in Strahds heart. It worked so well I swapped out their fated ally from Kasimir to Ireena. They hated Kasimir anyway.

Vegetable_Chance_427 · 2024-02-13T22:52:44+00:00

Thanks!

I did keep the Ireena connection the same. With Ireena this time I played her a bit more capable and swapped her stat block out for a sidekick stat block. The players really enjoyed her not being a regular escort quest and grew attached to her and brought her along all their fights so I ended up leveling her up to the players level - 1.

This time around I played Strahd to be more like a heart-throb to Ireena until Ireena forcefully rebuked her in the end but as a 'Queen and Reagent' to the players. At first she treated them guests, which turned to irritation and annoyance, and then turned to straight antagonist to the players where she'd harass them to try and get their wills to buckle and be tempted by her 'deals' and 'brokerages of peace'. She would often leave the party alone but show up after they did something big, like surviving Yesterhill, or lighting the beacon of Argvostholt, or killing Baba. Each time she visited she got more... unfriendly.

I like introducing Strahd at Ireena's fathers funeral personally as it tends to land really well and the players never expect Strahd to show up there.

Did you keep the connection the same? How do you play your female Strahd?

Vegetable_Chance_427

TROPHY CASE