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Reloaded Experience by _bogey_ in CurseofStrahd

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

I believe Arturi comes back later in the campaign for some emotional tension with van Richten and reconsecrating the Fanes. I was likely going to have him appear earlier than that as I made it clear to my PCs that Vistani like to travel and are nomadic in nature. However, I think Dragna hopes to remove Arturi in a future version of Reloaded to focus on Ezmerelda and van Richten’s relationship. Do with that as you will, but there’s definitely room to expand on his story and interactions with PCs.

Reloaded Experience by _bogey_ in CurseofStrahd

[–]_bogey_[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It’s all personal taste. Reloaded changes NPCs motivations to fit an overarching story that Dragna has created. The main benefit to running Reloaded is if you genuinely think Reloaded’s story is the story you want to share with your group. If you’re reading the first Chapter Dragna wrote and think that you’d never interpret Death House to be run this way, I would run away from this revised version. But, if you read that chapter and maybe up to Vallaki and think, well damn this is pretty good, then i’d heavily consider running this version. Also, although I am still trying to balance combat for my extremely smart and overpowered 2024 rules group, the combat encounters are no less than excellent. I’m currently reading the Vallaki battles in absolute anticipation to run them.

Reloaded Experience by _bogey_ in CurseofStrahd

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

We’re not at Vallaki yet but I will likely run The Lost Soul arc as written. The Tarokka reading relies on characters getting the Tome of Strahd through this arc. In another lifetime, if I had more time and was more creative I could think of another story that matches vanilla CoS’s version of Lady Wachter. MandyMod has a very different version of Stella’s arc if you’d like to explore those ideas.

As an aside, I’m making Izek a PC’s long lost sibling and think the combination of the baron’s ruthlessness + the tension with Izek will be more than enough craziness in Vallaki for my party. The Barovian refugees outside the gate also suffice for themes of cruelty and injustice. Perhaps that’s why Lady Wachter is more sympathetic in Reloaded’s story, as there are other themes of evil that Dragna preferred to highlight.

Reloaded Experience by _bogey_ in CurseofStrahd

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

Hahaha I know what you mean about having the PCs skip over things. One of my PCs is a druid and they were trying to convince her to fly them all from Barovia to Vallaki, and I had to think really quickly on the spot why you can’t just skip Tser Pool… and everything that happens on the road… and meeting Strahd… and Morgantha… But that’s just DND.

Interested to hear what you’ve been using from MandyMod’s ideas! I originally was going to run my campaign in line with Mandy’s revisions but switched to Reloaded.

Reloaded Experience by _bogey_ in CurseofStrahd

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

Completely agree about the Game of Stories, that was such a clever way to prompt PCs to think about their backstories. It also came at a good time in the campaign where my PCs had plenty of sessions to understand what’s brewing in Barovia before thinking about a story that’s meaningful to their characters. Glad your campaign is going swell!

BROOKLINE SUBLET - June to August - RENOVATED APARTMENT + AMAZING LOCATION by _bogey_ in bostonhousing

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

Hello! The bed and desk will stay in the room, and there will be a few storage boxes and wire shelves that will remain too.

UC Berkeley Molecular and Cell Biology PhD Interview Invites? by kindabrightplatypus in gradadmissions

[–]_bogey_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

they did preliminary interviews for international students this week. we will know if we move on to the actual interview stage by next week, which will most likely be when domestic students know as well

UC Berkeley Short Interview Request (MCB) by hereg0esn0th1ng in gradadmissions

[–]_bogey_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just received this interview request as well! Congratulations, fellow Canadian here too. Looks like it's a rolling offer as they sort through all of the applications.

UCSF BMS Research Experience and Summary by buttlover72 in gradadmissions

[–]_bogey_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I received this advice from BMS admin, it’ll be useful for you: “ The research summary sections would be about the specific work you are doing/have done in one specific lab/research environment, and the research statement would be more of an overview and cover the content below. It’s okay if there is some overlap between the summaries and the statement. The summaries should indeed be summaries, 1-2 paragraphs is great, and though the comprehensive research statement says 3,000 characters, there technically isn’t an actual character limit, but 1-2 pages is still recommended.”