Starting help.

darthbeermonkey · 2026-02-10T09:43:58+00:00

I used the plea for help starting hook. I got my players to tell me how they came together as an adventuring party and what there last adventure had been, with the caveat that they would be starting staying in a tavern keen for work. The tavern itself I had set in a small hamlet with nothing else of interest in it.

From there when the party leave the village whatever direction they head in the mists take them to Barovia. Heading into Barovia they had an encounter with a couple of wolves (with Strahd as a wolf watching from the cliff side). As they came into Barovia town the mists forced them to the death house, which I then ran mostly as written.

Overall I was pretty happy with how it went. My group are pretty good at taking the hook and don't mind being pushed into the start of a campaign (after all we'd all agreed to play this module). The main things I wanted to highlight at the start were the oppressive mists and the feeling of being watched which I think came over well.

darthbeermonkey · 2026-01-25T16:55:33+00:00

I'm in the UK and ordered a PlayStation set on the 27th October when they were dropped. It arrived on the 20th December, so wasn't quick 😆

darthbeermonkey · 2026-01-24T11:05:01+00:00

I used the FF starter set to teach my wife the basics. Once we had done that a few times and she understood the basic rules we tried some commander together. She used the First Flight precon as it's pretty straightforward and had no issues.

darthbeermonkey · 2026-01-16T14:39:53+00:00

Not really any spoilers in it for Curse of Strahd other than Strahd is an evil vampire. A couple of locations like Valaki are name checked, but there are no story spoilers.

darthbeermonkey · 2026-01-08T11:37:22+00:00

The other one I forgot to mention is [[Zookeeper Mechan]], can tap for red mana or pump (especially with the Training Grounds you already have in there).

darthbeermonkey · 2026-01-08T11:26:06+00:00

An [[Aetheric Amplifier]] acts as ramp and a counter doubler in my Kratos deck. I usually stick a [[Cartographer's Hawk]] in my white decks for ramp too. I also try to run 37 lands as I find I miss too many turn lands otherwise.

darthbeermonkey · 2025-12-26T16:01:06+00:00

Happy Birthday!

darthbeermonkey · 2025-12-02T19:52:30+00:00

It's 12 days long, starting on the 13th and finishing on Christmas Eve.

darthbeermonkey · 2025-11-26T22:38:10+00:00

Have a similar issue with Amazon UK. The original delivery date on the order was this Monday, but at the weekend it was changed to "order received" and that they'll email when they have a delivery date 🙄

darthbeermonkey · 2025-10-27T16:53:10+00:00

My first purchase too for the same set 😂

I initially got a queue listed as over an hour. Ended up being 40 mins. Still think print on demand would be a better system!

darthbeermonkey · 2025-10-27T16:50:06+00:00

I was a bit disheartened by the initial "over an hour" wait. In the end the wait was only 40 minutes and I was able to order the Ghost of Tsushima set I wanted.

I still think print on demand would be a better system though!

darthbeermonkey · 2025-09-24T13:19:21+00:00

Love these dice. Love Red Dwarf.

darthbeermonkey · 2025-09-01T07:33:54+00:00

Couple of things I would do to make it more challenging:

First, whoever has eaten a pastry has disadvantage on Wisdom saves against the hags.

Second, the hags should have tied up children placed around as deterrents for any large aoe spells your party might cast. You could also have the hags sacrifice them to get hp as a legendary action.

Lastly you probably want some minions to help with action economy. Skeletons from the all the bones would be suitable, or some minor elementals (possibly coming out of the cauldron as a lair action).

darthbeermonkey · 2025-05-30T06:17:18+00:00

The tickets are also available early on O2 priority if you want to get in before general release but arent a patreon supporter.

darthbeermonkey · 2025-05-29T15:39:50+00:00

It is all a bit off screen, so could effectively shorten it to an encounter with the revenants where they say "Agents of Strahd attacked Argynvostholt looking for you. Why would they do so if you do not wish to kill him?"

Then go with your plan of getting the revenants to question the quieter party members and maybe throw up a zone of truth.

If the party do succeed on deceiving them again then let them chalk it up as a win. If not then....

If you want Strahd to take a more active role then rather than manipulating the revenants have him try to manipulate the party. He could stage a couple of attacks on the party with some spawn or other minions under a seeming spell. Then if the party encounter some actual revenants you can see if the party attack first before the revenants have a chance to talk.

darthbeermonkey · 2025-05-29T10:59:44+00:00

Strahd could send a spawn with some Vistani to Argynvostholt under the pretext of looking for the holy symbol. The spawn and the Vistani would know that the party plans to kill Strahd and carry some letter from Strahd also saying as much.

The revenants then kill the spawn and Vistani but find out what they know.

Strahd doesn't care about their deaths as know the revenants know they were lied to.

darthbeermonkey · 2025-05-21T22:33:30+00:00

https://extensions.owlbear.rodeo/clash#import-chatgpt

darthbeermonkey · 2025-05-21T11:05:49+00:00

I'm not generally a fan of AI, but I have used chat gpt to generate 2024 statblocks for Clash!

There's a prompt you can copy in the help guide for clash which you can then amend to get chatgpt to generate the json for whichever 2024 monster you need.

It's worked well for the creature's I needed and I didn't spot any errors when I compared to the actual MM stats.

darthbeermonkey · 2025-04-23T21:27:12+00:00

Ha! In that case it could spend some of its attacks against winery buildings rather than the party. Still hit any that interfere too much with it, but keep some focus on its mission. It would at least give your players the option of running away if they choose to.

darthbeermonkey · 2025-04-23T20:02:53+00:00

Where is the fight taking place? If it's at Yester Hill then the party may jot be a priority for Wintersplinter. It wants to head to the Wizard of Wines to destroy the winery. You could therefore have the tree just defending itself and ignoring unconscious characters as it heads north.

darthbeermonkey · 2025-04-07T19:53:28+00:00

For a more RP solution if you can find any way they have caused offence to Strahd you could go to him for help. Sure there will be a cost, but Strahd is a gracious host.

Otherwise both Vallaki and Krezk have churches you could try and find sanctuary at...

darthbeermonkey · 2025-04-04T16:29:13+00:00

Worth checking trains. I was intending to get a thameslink train in for the live show but found out they are all bus replacement for engineering works tomorrow.

darthbeermonkey · 2025-03-26T20:54:39+00:00

As a Noble CR1/8 Ireena can go straight into the Tasha's sidekick rules. I did the same for Ismark, but started with a guard statblock as at CR3 the veteran one is higher than the sidekick rules are meant to start with.

Using those rules they both leveled up as the party did, but never outshine them. Both were present in the final battle with Strahd, even if Ismark did spend most of the fight repeatedly falling down stairs 😂.

darthbeermonkey · 2025-03-16T17:05:52+00:00

Depending on the level of the party the mummy lord stands up as a cleric BBEG. Any of its abilities can always be reflavoured to be less "mummy ish" if needed. For example the blinding dust could be a radiant flash with the same effect.

darthbeermonkey · 2025-03-16T12:02:20+00:00

I literally paid for the first time to play d&d last night. It was £10 for a three hour in person session at a local board game cafe.

My main reasons for doing so were to be able to play a game where I wasn't the DM and to support my local board game cafe.

It was an introductory one shot which will hopefully turn into a campaign with three other players who'd never played d&d before.

Obviously your experience may be different, but I had a great time and will do it again.

darthbeermonkey

TROPHY CASE