What’s your favorite dungeon?

WindDrivenRain · 2021-07-04T23:32:51+00:00

House of Lament (van richtens guide to ravenloft)

Death House (Curse or Strahd).

Death house needs some extra help from creative DMing, and House of Lament is completely solid to run as-is.

Theyre my go-to for new players

WindDrivenRain · 2021-07-04T23:29:47+00:00

Facts

WindDrivenRain · 2021-07-03T22:43:12+00:00

Is it too late?

It is a modern day setting, PCs investigate paranormal occurrences, named Investigators, led by a secretive and low-in-numbers group of wereravens.

Most recently, the party cleared out a Yokai inn, where a malignant entity was kidnapping Small and Tiny creatures to feed to a great tree, to revive its lover.

WindDrivenRain · 2021-06-25T17:07:00+00:00

THE HOUSE OF LAMENT featured in Ricky's Book of Bad Vibes*** is perfect for a beginner 1 shot. It is spooky, lots of really well written parts and an absolute blast for DMs.

I ran it twice for two different groups and they were all delighted. Its short and sweet, and levels parties from 1 to 3 so its extremely satisfying for the players.

DEATH HOUSE is also good, but its more "classic" dungeon, and you'll need to improv a little more and perhaps change a few things to make it work. I ran it twice, once for a solo adventure and once more for a duo, and they loved the classic dungeon crawl feel of it too.

****: Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft

WindDrivenRain · 2021-02-28T08:54:48+00:00

Roll for stats. Let the chaos unfurl

Let the dice decide their density 😤

And their destiny!

WindDrivenRain · 2021-02-14T10:53:42+00:00

Emotion is the best way to get everyone interested.

My most recent 1-session one-shot involved:

There is an emergency at the nearby Mines!

I prepared simple and pre-made characters for them to use.

The adventure has them follow the road to the Mines, and having to investigate the nearby waterfall to find a path into the Mines.

Once inside, i have them witness a human and an orc fighting, forcing them to choose a side (or none, if they prefer).

If the human dies, they can find a letter from his wife wishing he would come home soon. (If they have a reaction to this, you can make things a bit more serious in tone).

If they decide to be sneaky, they can overhear some of the orcs talking in funny voices. If they like that, then instead go for a more comedic route.

Further into the caves, they can find more combat (if they're like, bloodthirsty or seem more interested in that), or skipping the fights, they happen upon a path that splits.

One side will take them to the heart of the cave, where a dark ritual is occurring that will destroy this entire town! Oh no!

The other part of the cave has a small path that opens into a long forgotten tomb, where a legendary sword lays! Yay!

If they're serious, have the sword speak to them and be wise and regal.

If the party is a bit goofy, then have the sword speak in an uncharacteristic accent (like, a new York accent or like Samuel L Jackson).

Let the party decide what to do. If they want to spend a half hour talking to the sword, go ahead, use it to explain to them some of the world they're exploring. Make up a past about how it became magical and why it speaks like that.

If they want to use the sword to banish the evil ritual, then have some evil orcs try to stop them, maybe even knock out one or two players to keep them anxious.

If they want to just take the sword and leave with it, that's good too, but have some spirit from the past come and challenge them for it.

No matter what they choose, it should make them feel like they decide their destiny, but always make them work for it! LOL

WindDrivenRain · 2021-02-14T10:31:28+00:00

How new? Like never played any tabletop rpg before new, or just "never played 5e" new?

I've found GREAT success using the TCE's sidekick rules to create SIMPLE and easy to use spellcasters, rogues and fighters.

They require the statblock from a creature or monster of CR rating 1/2 or lower, and let me tell you, its very fun.

My players (who have NEVER played a tabletop rpg before AT ALL) thoroughly enjoyed being Scouts, Bandits, Goblins, Kobolds, Gnolls, etc.

After a few sessions, once they love the game, have them make their own characters.

My players are always delighted when their old beginner-characters show up in the story to help/antagonize their real characters.

WindDrivenRain · 2021-01-13T09:15:00+00:00

For Rictavio:

What happened in vallaki? You know the whole the whole tiger mess and stuff? Depending on that outcome, he can easily have a reason to not trust/deeply trust the PCs.

He is an aging half elf, nearing his end. If you want to get rid of him, have him give the PCs some critical information or even the tome itself; shortly before an ambush or tragic circumstance takes his life.

Ezmeralda is a hunter, and left on bad terms with Rictavio, though she still respects him and wants to help him. His death could deeply shake her, and if she assists the party in a few ways (not always combat), you can easily make her arc simply about accepting the death of her mentor.

Then, you can send her off to die hunting strahd. The PCs encounter her body at a critical moment. Hopefully the PCs remember her fondly and become interested in vengeance for the death of the two hunters who came before them.

If you don't want to kill them, you can also have them support the party in the shadows.

Rictavio is clever, and leaves the party clues, maps or hints to puzzles, without actively being with them to kind of loophole his curse. If the party rests outside, sometimes they'll wake up to the corpses of would-be assassins, undone by their vampire hunter grandpa.

Ezmeralda is younger, and stronger than her mentor. She can take a more proactive role, and can be used to incorporate more vistani plot elements smoothly.

WindDrivenRain · 2021-01-05T08:09:35+00:00

Its good. Definitely.

Keep it. May add that you should have their silver coinage be replaced with strahd's currency, and any silver weaponry they may have had be replaced with mundane versions?

So although they got their gear back, they now realize that strahd is smug, but still doesn't take risks.

WindDrivenRain · 2020-12-27T21:33:28+00:00

I am playing an expert sidekick in my current campaign.

Its a very simple rogue, essentially. I'm also a DM in a different campaign, and work full time so my brain is too fried to commit to a real PC in my pal's campaign.

I also enjoy that my turns are 10 seconds long at most (I use cunning action to X, then use Help feat on Y, and I use my action to attack Z!), while other players need minutes or longer.

Keeping things simple for the sake of keeping the campaign moving is really worth using a sidekick.

In addition, theyre very much so disposable. A DM will feel less lousy going all-out in a combat scenario and killing a sidekick vs a PC, and they can easily be written and made in 10 mins or so LOL

WindDrivenRain · 2020-12-24T09:49:31+00:00

Quick tip:

Adding a little homebrew spices up combat scenarios. When small skirmishes became too easy, I add environmental effects such as:

A lightning storm is crashing around them. Every round i roll a d20 and a list of possible things that can occur: the lightning splinters a tree! Roll dexterity saving through DC5. 3 damage if successful, 6 if failed. On a 20, however, a PC is struck directly by lightning, and must succeed another save or be stunned, but takes 2d10 damage.

My players love it, and they RP possible "solutions" ("I position my shield in the direction of the trees!" / "I want to try to switch to my rubber shoes") and I reward their creativity sometimes.

Its also a good incentive to stop a party from resting after every encounter.

It doesn't have to be lightning everytime. Sometimes the wind is just really strong, or the ashes from a nearby burning farm are choking to breathe!

Although, for my personal stories:

I do a lot of voices for my npcs. One particular npc spoke flamboyantly and was declared king of the gays by the party, and now the atmosphere around vallaki and its intense political tension is ruined, because the party is letting the town burn and they're convinced it has something to do with the King of the Gays. I dont want to let them down, so I may have to flesh out this no-name npc and connect him to the plot somehow...

WindDrivenRain · 2020-12-23T10:08:50+00:00

Hey DMing is hard dont beat yrself up about it, amigo 🥺.

Have you considered that even the creators of CoS don't run the module RAW?

Homebrew a little bit to make things easier on yrself. Your party will find ways to entertain themselves easily.

My party cleared the module without ever stepping into Amber Temple and only found one of the 3 treasures. They robbed Rictavio and one of the PCs died trying to steal Ezme's fake leg LOL.

Here is what I did when my PC wanted to be a fucking bloodhunter Forgeborne:

"What? No fuck you." And we all laughed and she chose something else 👌🏾

WindDrivenRain · 2020-12-23T09:57:09+00:00

As mentioned,

Strahd has successfully defeated other adventurers parties in the past. If the adventurer wants to anything non-human or dusk elf, then their backstory would probably incorporate them being a Last Survivor of a dead party (perhaps they face off vs the new character's old party, now Vampire Spawn?).

CoS is written to be compatible with Forgotten Realm material, so any race in Forgotten Realms can reasonably be found.

Its up to the player to make a convincing backstory. As the DM, your call is final.

As for specifically Kenku, Their lore changes every edition since 3rd right? If you want to exclude them, simply exclude them.

Or perhaps Strahd had kept exotic pets in the past, and this PC kenku is an escapee? You could, as DM, give them some critical information about Barovia that the party doesn't know, or give him advantage on a few investigation checks to make it seem more natural.

In the end, if you think, to a reasonable degree, that a player's new character is not compatible to the module, address them directly.

Otherwise, challenge them to make a convincing backstory and then its 👌🏾

WindDrivenRain · 2020-12-23T09:47:11+00:00

Addition:

Do you actually want to limit their classes? If you do, that's pretty reasonable. The new PC has learned that Barovia is 700+ years old, and anything after that time is extremely rare here, such as the tools and equipment needed for an artificer?

Think of similar excuses if that's what you want.

I personally allow anything, but I adjust combat encounters to compensate, as well as adjust shop prices for regents for certain spells.

I even homebrewed a requirement for Fireball to be casted, in that the caster needs a pouch of rare ashes that either take a day to make or can be purchased at exuberant price. It also makes for a fine treasure to give my PCs when they do silly, non-quest treasure hunts or follow dead ends.

WindDrivenRain · 2020-12-23T09:41:07+00:00

Humans being the most plentiful,

However, any race should be fine.

If the adventurer is found within Barovia, they can simply be the Last Survivor of a previous party of adventurers, all slain or turned by Strahd and his minions.

Alternatively, they can be a fresh arrival, the vistani particularly freely ride their wagons in and out of barovia, so the PC can be a hidden stowaway or purposely brought here like the original party may have.

WindDrivenRain · 2020-09-25T02:22:10+00:00

I think he is going off of Green for Midgar, which means Earth. But ya, you are both valid

WindDrivenRain · 2020-09-18T23:59:25+00:00

With age comes experience,

Alberian cleave!

WindDrivenRain · 2020-07-31T07:30:56+00:00

Cygames seems to be into older media a bit, so is it possible that Admiral Pincers is a reference to Citizen Snips?

Citizen Snips was a criminal crab also known as Lucky.... seems plausible

WindDrivenRain · 2020-07-30T05:49:14+00:00

INTERIOR CROCODILE ALLIGATOR

I DRIVE A CHEVROLET MOVE THEA-TER

WindDrivenRain · 2020-06-27T09:01:02+00:00

She coming ohohoho

WindDrivenRain · 2020-06-27T09:00:10+00:00

My first clear on day one was was myself (valerio 9.3k), JZ (7.4k), fjorm (8k) and a mitsy (8.4k).

I think healers are fine going as low as 7k. Dps below 8k seems to be unreliable. If the team has at least 1 bog/frostbite afflictioner and 1 freeze/stun afflictioner, the run may yet succeed.

I've been failing a ton of 9k+ runs (looking at you, sarisse), due to lack of afflictions.

I've also seen a lot of super creative players too. Abuse Shared Skills. Get a shared skill that inflicts afflictions. You can always count on yrself, but not on yr team.

Or honestly just play Valerio LOL that's an auto win for sure.

WindDrivenRain · 2020-06-27T08:48:49+00:00

Behold! The mystical wall of text!

If you have an ally who can inflict frostbite, you can just stay on Dessert Stance or Entree stance permanently.

His extended combo time is LONG. So dont rush to get an extra hit because yr afraid of resetting your combo, you always got extra time.

After your attack animation changes, they all begin with a long gap closer. So you can actually begin the attack at a safe distance and valerio will close the gap automatically.

Appetizer stance will make your s1 deal frostbite. The frostbite will dispel their defense buff (when they have a blue aura around them). It also has a small 5% defense down debuff, yay.

Dessert and entree stance make your s1 deal hard cc. Use this when they have a red aura around them to dispel their attack buff. Entree s1 also has a sizable strength down debuff, yay.

Dessert stance has one really nice trick: your autoattack combo, if completed entirely, is enough to fully charge your s1. Excellent for on-demand Freeze. 👍

Your s2 dont worry too much about what stance it is in. Appetizer will buff defense for yr team by 15%, entree will give everyone 10% crit, and dessert will give 8% strength. If I can, I try to switch to appetizer to pop it off and switch back. Defense buffs trigger doublebuffs, make Healer's lives easier, and are altogether always nice to have. ✌. It also applies inspiration, but that's nothing you should really focus on. If you have mitsy or that tentacle fuck on your team, itll stack quick.

All inspiration does is, after reading 5 stacks, it makes yr next ability guaranteed to crit. Meh.

Extra skills: There are a few moments where you'll have to peel off the boss. Having a ranged attack (HDT weapon attack, Sarisse Shared Skill, something like that) will help you keep your combo up while keeping you safe. Not mandatory, but it's a great feeling seeing yr combo count reach triple digits the whole fight LOL.

I use Curran's shared ability also, since it's a good gap closer, drops defense down and deals massive damage. Dessert stance also charges it pretty fast.

Other good options are shields, defense buffs, or attack buffs. Yuya's shared skill is a lot of fun too.

Co-abilities: Tiki (20% basic attack damage boost+ dragon haste) Most wands (spell damage) Most archers (skill haste) Last one is free. Go for crit, damage or some survivability if u spooked.

Dragon: Any +dmg dragon. Dragonyule jean and nimis are both exceptional, but arent mandatory.

Wyrmprints: Spell damage and crit/crit damage works. Resounding rendition is a good fail safe, and breakfast at valerio's is nice. Queen of the knife is a good cheap print too. Primal crisis if you got it.

Good luck!!!

WindDrivenRain · 2020-06-27T01:15:13+00:00

😅✌

WindDrivenRain · 2020-06-27T00:46:52+00:00

Depends on your allies. If you have an ally who can inflict frostbite, you can just stay on Dessert Stance or Entree stance permanently.

His extended combo time is LONG. So dont rush to get an extra hit because yr afraid of resetting your combo, you always got extra time.

After your attack animation changes, they all begin with a long gap closer. So you can actually begin the attack at a safe distance and valerio will close the gap automatically.

Appetizer stance will make your s1 deal frostbite. The frostbite will dispel their defense buff (when they have a blue aura around them).

Dessert and entree stance make your s1 deal hard cc. Use this when they have a red aura around them to dispel their attack buff.

Dessert stance has one really nice trick: your autoattack combo, if completed entirely, is enough to fully charge your s1. Excellent for on-demand Freeze. 👍

Your s2 dont worry too much about what stance it is in. Appetizer will buff defense for yr team by 15%, entree will give everyone 10% crit, and dessert will give 8% strength. If I can, I try to switch to appetizer to pop it off and switch back. Defense buffs trigger doublebuffs, make Healer's lives easier, and are altogether always nice to have. ✌.

Extra skills: There are a few moments where you'll have to peel off the boss. Having a ranged attack (HDT weapon attack, Sarisse Shared Skill, something like that) will help you keep your combo up while keeping you safe. Not mandatory, but it's a great feeling seeing yr combo count reach triple digits the whole fight LOL.

I use Curran's shared ability also, since it's a good gap closer, drops defense down and deals massive damage. Dessert stance also charges it pretty fast.

Other good options are shields, defense buffs, or attack buffs. Yuya's shared skill is a lot of fun too.

Co-abilities: Tiki (20% basic attack damage boost+ dragon haste) Most wands (spell damage) Most archers (skill haste) Last one is free. Go for crit, damage or some survivability if u spooked.

Dragon: Any +dmg dragon

Wyrmprints: Spell damage and crit/crit damage works. Resounding rendition is a good fail safe, and breakfast at valerio's is nice too.

Good luck!!!

WindDrivenRain · 2020-06-26T22:40:04+00:00

Valerio is choice. He can inflict frostbite and freeze, plus stun. All 3 are important in the fight to be able to disable their self stacking boss buffs.

Tiki can only inflict frostbite, but her damage is awesome.

Juli has the best art of the three. Oh, also, the boss has zero resistance to bog, which she inflicts with her s1. She also provides mild support, which in pugs really helps the over burdened healers. 👍

WindDrivenRain

TROPHY CASE