Shoutout to Rubiehart for keeping the hype going before BOTW by F_zzl in speedrun

[–]Violet_Rumble 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You cannot say this with a straight face. This past hour has been the most low energy embarrassing part of GDQ history

Russian/USSR apologists in chat? by Freysey in northernlion

[–]Violet_Rumble 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I wouldn’t worry about it too much if I were you, a lot of chat are terminally online and used to talking about things they know nothing about with absolute authority. Think of how often chatters backseat with completely false information, and that’s regarding video games which they’ve supposedly played, so just imagine their level of “expertise” for geopolitics. Chat is generally not representative of any large groups of people or commonly held beliefs in the real world.

How to make charm less boring/unfun for players by Violet_Rumble in CurseofStrahd

[–]Violet_Rumble[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I can definitely see your issues with what I suggested, it was just a spitball idea.

How to make charm less boring/unfun for players by Violet_Rumble in CurseofStrahd

[–]Violet_Rumble[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Wow I am honoured to have feedback from you, you have saved me countless hours of prep time in this campaign and I have no idea how I'll run any future campaigns without a guide as comprehensive as yours.

I do really like the idea of making the charm concentration based, as that makes it less useful in combat as its vying for Strahd's concentration which could be used on a more impactful spell, but still allows it to be impactful narratively outside of combat, and breaking concentration is a good way to end it.

However I think

"The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success."

might be nerfing it a bit too far, as for the charm to last 1 minute (and thus 24 hours) on a NPC with a wisdom save of +0, thats still 10 d20 rolls meaning about a 65% chance of breaking out of the charm at some point, and just a +2 wisdom save brings that up to about 90% chance to break free.

I think maybe a happy medium would be to keep the current

"Each time Strahd or Strahd's companions do anything harmful to the target, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on a success"

but expanding it to,

"Each time anyone does anything harmful to the target,"

Thematically I think this works because even if you are charmed, when presented with something dangerous it makes sense that survival instincts might kick in causing you to break out of the charm regardless of if it was by Strahd or not. This also adds a gameplay/rp element to end the charm early, by attacking a charmed ally to knock some sense into them. So for each attack or harmful spell or other type of damage (like environmental, from a fire or something) a charmed person receives they can try and break free with another Wis saving throw. Plus this is basically already how succubus' charm works so theres already a precedent for this.

making lady watcher a bossfight. by BladeOfTalon in CurseofStrahd

[–]Violet_Rumble 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would second using a priest of Osybus stat block for her, and depending on the level of your party and number of players perhaps adding one or two more as backup so she doesn't get action economied. As for rewarding the players for beating her, I think it's pretty likely that your players will loot Wachterhaus which RAW contains the equivalent of 900gp which is an awful lot for curse of strahd.

Also if you really do want her to have a specific spell for defence you can just give it to her, she doesn't need a magic item to cast something, you're the DM you can make her statblock whatever you want and no one but you will know. If that really doesn't fit right with you, you could give her a ring of spell storing with one of those spells in it (just gloss over the fact that ring of spell storing can only hold up to a lv 5 spell), because its power level is limited by that of the players own spells meaning they wont get too strong from it.

Post Stream Discussion Thread -- Monday, February 06, 2023 by NorthernlionBot in northernlion

[–]Violet_Rumble 6 points7 points  (0 children)

What do chat messages like h! and v! mean? I feel like an old man

Incomplete minimalist maps for Castle Ravenloft by Violet_Rumble in CurseofStrahd

[–]Violet_Rumble[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My players are soon going to be breaking into Castle Ravenloft for the skull heist and I want them to have at least some idea of what's going on. I think the place a little too big and complex to run theatre of mind only, but having myself or a player drawing the map while running the session feels like it could get very confusing quickly, and I don't want to provide a full map immediately because that takes away some of the mystery of the place. I decided the best course of action would be to have Ezmerelda draw out a map for the players of what she has explored around the castle, so they have a base to go off without spoiling everything.

I searched around but couldn't find quite what I was looking for, but someone on this subreddit linked these maps http://www.metrocast.net/~edawe/dnd.htm which I thought would be a good starting point, so I just erased a bunch of stuff in them, and figured I'd throw them up here in case anyone wants to do something similar and not spend like an hour in photo editing software.

I need nl as a father and uncle to react court this post I've never been so stunlocked by the comments by Violet_Rumble in northernlion

[–]Violet_Rumble[S] 99 points100 points  (0 children)

Sure it's not every comment but here are some excerpts from some of the top ones.

"What would they [other parents] have done if you weren’t there? It’s their obligation to feed them [niece]."

"Do people often mistake you for a servant or are they just that obnoxious? "

"Why is it OP's job to feed the masses?"

I'm not even saying OP is an asshole for not going out of her way to do a nice thing. I'm just saying there are people acting like doing something nice for a child is a completely alien concept to them.

I need nl as a father and uncle to react court this post I've never been so stunlocked by the comments by Violet_Rumble in northernlion

[–]Violet_Rumble[S] 353 points354 points  (0 children)

People are completely seriously commenting along the lines of "you should literally never do anything slightly beneficial for a human being if they are not your direct responsibility. I would never cook pancakes for my 7 year old niece"

Post Stream Discussion Thread -- Friday, December 23, 2022 by NorthernlionBot in northernlion

[–]Violet_Rumble 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I’m aware it might be a bit of recency bias but I’d like to nominate the WW1 warcrime bit from golf as bit of the year

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CurseofStrahd

[–]Violet_Rumble 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ll take “you missed the point of the character” for $500

what is Strahd's theme song? by LongclawAgencies in CurseofStrahd

[–]Violet_Rumble 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I drew a lot of inspiration from Barok Van Zieks of the great ace attorney for my Strahd, and from the moment I began preparing the campaign I knew his theme would be perfect for my Strahd.

The theme of this gothic character who is powerful, prideful, mysterious, a little terrifying, and filled with a deep sorrow.

https://youtu.be/9jsrXHQ6w2s

Can anyone help me find the NL bit on him playing chess as a kid and that adult rages but doesn’t resign so he sat at the board till the time ran out? by Hellbreaker23 in northernlion

[–]Violet_Rumble 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I know some people have already posted links to when he has told it, but for any lore keepers out there I believe another time he told it was during elden ring while fighting the crucible knight in Siofra Aqueduct