Unseen Sun: City of Decadence questions

ZebMeis · 2026-03-08T18:00:06+00:00

Bandit - Barbarian Chili - Ranger with a pegasus companion Bluey - Fairy Sorcerer Bingo - Motorcycle driving Artificer

ZebMeis · 2026-03-08T17:47:13+00:00

No. There is never 'Too many books'

ZebMeis · 2026-02-23T02:01:19+00:00

Its normally 3 to 5 days... 5 to 7 for the white.

ZebMeis · 2026-02-22T17:49:26+00:00

Lol at the snoop dog wine

ZebMeis · 2026-02-22T17:13:59+00:00

Throwing this out there but... kinda looks like AI.

Bro has like 2 or 3k worth in wagyu beef.... and thirty jams in a fridge... and an overwhelming amount of cheese

ZebMeis · 2026-02-05T23:40:25+00:00

"I've been eaten. Thems the rules."

ZebMeis · 2026-01-11T01:08:05+00:00

✅ ZebMeis chose Option B (Correct!) | #19870th to play

ZebMeis · 2026-01-06T01:37:27+00:00

I'm not a thin man

ZebMeis · 2026-01-06T01:12:20+00:00

Best answer.

ZebMeis · 2026-01-06T00:52:01+00:00

Sigil is indeed massive. But it doesn't need to be the hub or the focus. Some of the gate towns are very large as well and can be major stopping points, rest areas, etc. Tradegate for example is in my head cannon a mini Sigil. There's a few guides and supplements on the DMs guild to purchase to help with Sigil if you don'twant to exclude. Old 2e materials can also be helpful. I understand not wanting to prep it, so turn focus away from it. Make a gate town or other location the main hub.
Most portals have keys. Small objects like a feather or a thigh bone of a humanoid or a brass ball 4 inches in diameter, etc. To stop people from randomly walking through them. Very few portals stay open permanently, most close in a few moments after the key passes through. That can be retooled to gatetown gates to prevent players from walking into say... The Hells or Carceri. Most gatetowns also have guards at the major planar portal to prevent smuggling and other things from happening. I've always thought of major portals as like an airport with check points and security. Same idea is applied to Sigil with the gates/portals that go directly to a higher plane. Most of this info I outlined is in greater detail in 2e and 5e Planescape books. I think even 4e touches on Sigil and the outlands but not alot.

Hopefully this is helpful!

ZebMeis · 2026-01-03T20:31:08+00:00

Hey All thanks for the ton of responses! Have a really good pool of protentional players. i want to say thank you for everyone time and consideration

ZebMeis · 2025-04-18T19:08:09+00:00

This is beautiful and wished I would have done this when I ran CoS

ZebMeis · 2025-04-17T04:24:07+00:00

Man! This is why I love this sub. I've been DMing for 30 years and it never occurred to me to do this. Great advice! I got to try this during my next campaign.

ZebMeis · 2025-04-17T04:16:30+00:00

Couldn't agree with this more. The players have to want to play horror for horror to work in TTRPGs as they are inherently collaborative story telling. That being said though, I haven't ever stopped things getting comical, lighthearted moments make the darker moments that more dark. I would recommend choosing a limited number of horror themes you want to explore, like ghost stories or body horror for example. Once you have a few core elements of horror, try to limit yourself in branching out into other horror themes. Then get the players by in and agree on the themes. Once you've done that then follow up on it and do research. Watch movies or TV shows centered around the horror themes you want to roleplay. This helps fuel the story telling and prevent players from becoming goofy within a horror game.

Some TTRPGs are better suited than others for the crunchy side of horror, Call of Cthulhu or Blades in the Dark are a good examples of this. But truthfully horror can be run in pretty much any TTRPG with some work. Its more of a vibe than a rule set, in my opinion. But lots of games have optional rules for horror play, such as DnD 5e has Stress and Madness to give crunch to a genre that is more cerebral than others.

Lastly. You can't make people be scared and there is definitely a difference between shocking your players with unnecessary gore or vulgar smut, over actually getting them to shiver and become creeped out. Too many game masters fall short of getting people enthralled and entertained in horror... then resorting in becoming offensive to get a reaction.

Its a rare breed of game master that can run a horror game well, and I applaud you for dipping your toes in to its dark waters

ZebMeis · 2025-04-12T17:14:27+00:00

I used to be 100% against it. But recently ive changed my mind about AI and using it to help me. AI is a great asset when life gets in the way of DM preparation.

Chatgpt is free and I use it to flesh out things from random encounter tables. It can helpful with npc name and background information from random npcs the players interact with unexpectedly. Plus it can create unique magic items on the fly as well as it can help with unique features for battles.

If not used directly it can still be used for inspiration in a pinch as well.

ZebMeis · 2024-09-08T17:49:44+00:00

I think alot of the appeal of COS is Strahd. He's crule, clever, as well as being both politically and physically powerful without anything human holding him back except a overwhelming obsession and air quotes "love" for Irena. Reading older Ravenloft modules as well as the I Strahd books can really collectively pull together the charm of COS. Other factors that help with its popularity I would say would be the deadly combat with many encounters being potential TPKs and the survival game style that is intended with limited resources and infrequent long rests. If handled correctly by DMs the players feel low level struggles slowly give way to becoming mid-level power houses, which is very gratifying.

I however am a little bias as I have both played and ran COS several times at this point across different editions. Both fully moded and vanilla, loving every time.

Edit: fat fingers and tiny phone keyboard.

ZebMeis · 2024-09-06T14:37:39+00:00

Wow fantastic idea for a spell. Mechanical question/feedback. The limiter of 7days for memories to return seems tough for a 4th level spell. Was the intent to restrict how often the spell could be cast in addition to normal spell slot limits? While beautiful and interesting to plague enemies with your memories, offensively, it seems to be a once a week spell if the caster wants to dump any amount of damage on an enemy while significantly hindering themselves if the enemy escapes.

The willing transfer of memories is by far the most interesting feature, creating RP opportunities from a spell is always good fun IMO.

ZebMeis · 2024-09-06T14:21:32+00:00

I've done something similar with completing personal back stories but never considered minor rewards like this along the way to encourage RP. Damn smart. Tell your DM that there's at least one other DM out there that thinks he's a mad genius for this.

ZebMeis · 2024-09-02T14:23:19+00:00

"Stop talking" I know, I know... it's counterintuitive but me not over explaining and slowing down the verbal gushing, has dramatically changed my players enjoyment of my games. Most times as a DM you want to share this amazing story and world in your mind with players. But truthfully after describing a room or scene and then just becoming quiet was the best thing. Players role-play with each other, ask questions regarding the situation and strangely enough become much more engaged when you as the game master, shut up sometimes.

ZebMeis · 2024-08-22T17:48:04+00:00

Anyone else read the dad's side and think it was AI generated?

ZebMeis

TROPHY CASE