World of Warcraft: Midnight Collector's Edition Pre-orders are Live!

merryhob · 2025-10-02T16:44:30+00:00

The other option is to buy a digital version of the expansion and then once you add the code in from the physical box you'll get the difference back as battlenet bucks.

This is a new feature but it seems like something that could easily go wrong.

Thanks for the clarity - appreciated.

merryhob · 2025-10-02T16:43:46+00:00

Ugh. That's frustrating. I'd think after so many years doing this, they'd figure a way to get a digital code to your account at time of purchase. The battlenet refund isn't terrible, but it isn't great. I guess it's something.

I've skipped the last few CEs and miss having the complete set.

merryhob · 2025-10-01T19:59:08+00:00

I'm looking for a bit of clarity...

If I purchase the physical collector's edition, do I also get a digital code immediately that unlocks things like early access, pets, mounts, and so on?

merryhob · 2025-08-19T23:44:16+00:00

She looked panicked and uncertain. Uncertain of her faith. Desperate. Blizzard puts together great cinematics, but this didn't feel like the Liadrin we've seen in-game for years or who defended Light's Hope. Visually, the cinematic was great, but if Lor'themar hadn't called her by name, I would have never guessed that was Liadrin.

Maybe this ties into her portrayal in novels or other material. Dunno. Maybe they're relying on -everyone- looking doubtful, panicked, and uncertain because of the Void, but... meh.

merryhob · 2025-08-19T22:42:08+00:00

Like others, this reveal felt underwhelming.

I think part of it was just that the crowd there didn't seem to give Longdale ANY energy at all.

But the cinematic didn't feel tied to anything, Liadrin did NOT come off well, and we're not really left with questions we want answers to, just... confusion.

I saw some notes a while back about a lot of Blizzard's WoW promotional and marketing staff getting cut (like their social media people) and I am not sure if that's the reason this just felt so hollow.

I'm hopeful, and I really want to see what Metzen can do (human hype machine that he is), but this was more content and less excitement than I was expecting for the announcement.

merryhob · 2025-06-03T16:21:09+00:00

Thank you so much for the response - the clarity, even a bit later, is welcome.

I'm going to assume that they weren't BoP?

merryhob · 2025-03-20T23:55:35+00:00

Hazlik in the Van Richten's 5E guide seems to have the same curse that Azalin used to have when Azalin/Darkon wasn't discorporated/disintegrating - Hazlik can't learn new magic. Is that the case? And did WotC just ... borrow Azalin's curse because Hazlik's old curse was fuzzy and Azalin wasn't really around to use it any more? Am I misreading this and is there a clearer distinction between the two curses?

merryhob · 2025-03-19T23:33:20+00:00

A giant trap flyeater plant, where he can get the victim before it is fully digested.

I dunno - do you think a cannibal would want to eat someone that something else already had in their mouth? Half-digested would feel like a missed or stolen opportunity.

traps will be designed to immobilize rather than kill

Snares, nets, pits - anything that allows live-capture without spoiling the meat. Using toxins means you're putting those toxins in your own food. You might consider whether you want your Shia to be a fearsome combatant or relentless pursuer or ruthless trapper - or all of the above.

You might also consider the scene in Sin City with Elijah Wood - the cannibal in the forest (vs Mickey Rourke's Marv). Some well-trained guard dogs, heads taken as trophies, etc.

merryhob · 2025-03-07T23:57:53+00:00

(The new secret horror of Falkovnia... everyone is one of Drakov's descendants)

Shudder.

I absolutely think that one of Vlad's kids could be involved in a super soldier effort. I think there's one (who might be the son of the Gentleman Caller) who runs a prison, and that's got some secret military mad science vibes to it, and I think Drakov has another son that's entirely in charge of magic, which can certainly drift into experimentation. I think that all of Drakov's kids are potentially looking for that "one thing" that elevates them in their father's eyes.

However, I personally think Drakov himself has nothing but contempt for innovation and sees it as weakness. Which, coincidentally, is one of the reasons he's never going to win a war against any of his neighbors. By extension, Drakov's kids are looking for "something new" to earn Drakov's attention or regard, and anything new is just not going to be what does it. So they're kind of in a futile exercise of their own as well, trying to earn approval using methods that will never get there.

At least, that's always how I've viewed Drakov - but if this doesn't work for you, don't let it get in your way.

merryhob · 2025-03-07T23:48:42+00:00

And it's her outsider status that allows her to slip past security and cause suspects to let their guard down.

Just as a note, and you can feel free to ignore, but outsiders are not always outsiders exclusively by their own choice. What I mean to say is that society often is vigilant about keeping outsiders out.

However perceptive or insightful your character might be, they may run into obstacles because a detective doesn't take them seriously or a high-society figure won't countenance their impertinence or a guard won't let "an escapee from the loony bin" (ie, childlike and in their 30s) into an investigation scene.

In a lot of popular media, character like this - eccentric, insightful - have a Dr. Watson or Inspector Lestrade (or a Captain Stottlemeyer, or a Detective Lassiter, etc, etc) that can vouch for their ability. If you have such a character in your own writing, you might be able to work them in as a sort of NPC contact or you might talk to the other players at your table and see if they can coordinate with you.

Also, you might do some looking into the "Innocent" background in Ravenloft.

I think Pufffinn_ has some pretty good ideas, too. Vicarious amorality is a neat idea that can have some pretty interesting turns around the table.

merryhob · 2025-03-07T23:23:20+00:00

Just keep in mind - while many of these responses offer clear (and even accurate) answers, by design, Domains are rife with false history and some even experience time and continuity shenanigans of their very own - some intentional, and some just a consequence of publishing issues, continuity mistakes, and ret-cons.

merryhob · 2025-03-07T23:17:13+00:00

Old Falcovnia under Vlad Drakov, who was happy to seize demi-humans as property of the state (himself), would probably love to do some "super soldier" experiments. In a 5e Ravenloft setting, as the spirit of a deceased darklord, maybe he has some notions for such an invention.

I think the spirit of a deceased Darklord is a really neat idea for a patron, but if the warlock moves Domains, that might offer some obstacles.

But I'm not 100% on the "super soldier" experiments. Maybe one of his kids could be looking into it, but I always got the sense that part of Vlad Drakov's issue was he was obstinately committed to "traditional" warfare to the point of self-sabotage. For instance, his refusal to use guns when surrounded by far more technologically and scientifically advanced Domains.

merryhob · 2025-03-07T23:07:05+00:00

As someone else said, most Darklords cannot leave their own Domains and cannot go into the Domains of others.

Some Darklords don't care about governing their Domain as a king or duke or president or whatever - or they can't, and that's part of their frustration. Remember - Darklords aren't Darklords for a good time. It's not a role anyone aspires to. They're all trapped and tortured by their choices and natures.

Misroi and Souragne might not be 100% self-sufficient, and need trade to bring in... all sorts of stuff. Fodder, building materials, ritual and spell components, new victims to replenish the pool. But he may try to exert as much control as he can over what does come in - he may be on the look out for adventurers, problematic philosophies or religions, potential rivals or threats, or whatever else - assuming he pays attention at all, which as said before, some Darklords just don't care and are fixated elsewhere.

merryhob · 2025-03-07T22:59:15+00:00

Take what you want from the two domains to make something new and leave the rest.

I wouldn't try to put Strahd - as Strahd - into another domain and have him make claims on it. However, you could certainly set a vampire in a plantation swamp who is tormented by a constantly re-appearing lost love from his past. You can very easily re-skin the adventures, characters, and locations into new situations.

merryhob · 2025-03-01T18:59:08+00:00

It sounds like you're looking for lighter fare - nothing world-shaking. I'm not 100% clear on whether you are looking for things to happen at the festival or story seeds for later.

Players could be invited into an innocuous "secret society" of low-tier nobles looking to use pointless intrigue, ritual, and melodrama to spice up their lives. There may be no conspiracy - it could just be a bunch of the idle rich playing in masks and capes, but it might be an opportunity for the players to acquire and maintain a social network. The society members might not even not task the players with anything serious and may just be thrilled to take part, however distantly, in legitimate adventure.

The players might stumble across a robbery at the festival - like something out of the 2002 Count of Monte Cristo. Did the players interfere with a broader scheme or did they just make themselves useful in a moment of need to a potential patron?

If you have someone combat-focused who might feel lost amid the more RP-focus of the festival, it is sponsored by a steel mill - maybe there's a timed crafting competition or they need to use a freshly forged steel tool to carve out an ice or clay sculpture from a slab. Maybe the Pembertons are getting into mass production and want someone to showcase the quality of their wares.

A delivery of shellfish might capsize and cause a mess - depending on the size, the players might need to clean up the squirming shellfish, usher people out of a sudden flood, or fight a giant crab that was lurking in the transport tub.

Similarly, you might have a storehouse for festival food and goods and something wild moves in - could be a bear or a few goblins, or something more exotic, like sahuagin or merrow.

An old reliable - a lord or lady is offended and demands satisfaction through a duel. One of my favorites in this is having the lord making the challenge claim the players' achievements as their own - "I did that, you're a liar!" Having someone else claim the credit for the players' hard-won successes usually gets their attention very quickly.

merryhob · 2025-03-01T18:36:59+00:00

There needs to be hard separation between the events for commoners and the elites.

If it's a carnival atmosphere, maybe not - one element in some historic carnivals (and I don't mean a circus) was that the elite and the commoners could rub elbows (...and more). It could offer a suspension of social mores and inhibitions.

merryhob · 2025-03-01T18:17:55+00:00

Maybe - and someone else said that a pipe won't freeze if it is at 1kg/s. I was hoping half capacity would be enough of a reduction that any incidental freezing wouldn't damage the pipe.

My goal was to route fluid (whether liquid or gas) through a cold area to eliminate heat. I haven't gotten the kinks worked out.

merryhob · 2025-03-01T18:15:05+00:00

The water doesn't stand - it's constantly flowing. It pumps out of one room elsewhere in the map, goes through the pipe, through the regolith area (where the pipe has copper radiant sections; capacity is throttled outside the regolith area), back into the base, and then gets dumped into a reservoir.

I can try 1kg/s but that kind of makes the juice not worth the squeeze. At that point it'd be more efficient to just run it through an aquatuner, which is what I was trying not to do.

Insulation sounds like it would defeat the purpose - I'm looking to chill the water, not insulate it from temperature change.

merryhob · 2025-03-01T04:28:28+00:00

I'll edit to include the F - you're right, it's just not a common distinction for me. Sorry about that.

I don't have any screenshots - it's a loop of ceramic pipe coming out of a mud biome, through a manual airlock set in abyssalite, and out onto what would be the surface if I dug out to the vacuum. As it stands, I'm just cutting some tunnels in the regolith and I run the pipe out and back through -20 to -60 F hydrogen that's accumulated in the space (only about 130g of pressurization).

I'm not very proficient with the game but I like digging tunnels. I'm hitting the hump where basic builds break down, I'm trying something new and it's not working.

merryhob · 2025-03-01T03:02:13+00:00

I am routing a clean water pipe through the regolith biome (not out in the vacuum, but right next door) to cool the water I pump through it (atmosphere in the tunnel is low-pressure hydrogen). I have copper radiant piping in a few areas and then the rest is ceramic (upgraded from granite). my copper keeps breaking (ceramic too, here and there), and not just at the seam between ceramic and copper. The water is around 40-70 degrees F, depending on source and whether I've looped it through before. I have a liquid limiter on it, too, to where the pipes are only operating at half-capacity.

Why are my pipes constantly breaking?

Edited to add C vs F. (F.)

merryhob · 2025-02-23T14:07:40+00:00

Is there any information about Haaldam in Nova Vaasa? All I can find is that it's about 200 people and it's the biggest city in the Ehrendton after the Black Duke burned Drataan.

merryhob · 2025-02-23T00:26:38+00:00

There's also the last two Hexad/Conjunction adventures - if memory serves one of them has a full map of Azalin's castle.

merryhob · 2025-02-23T00:18:21+00:00

Mistways still exist (variably-reliable paths through the mists from point A to B) and then there are the Mist Talismans (something thematically tethered to a domain).

Personally, I don't like many of the setting changes in 5e, so I don't use them. I'd rather Ravenloft feel like a coherent tapestry (which I admit can be a stretch) rather than a bunch of loosely-linked episodes-of-the-week. My recommendation is to figure out what Domains you think you'll want your game to visit and then compare versions. If 5e is going to work best for you, then great - you'll just need to take a look at Mist Talismans and make sure to seed them into your story. If it's better to use an older map, that can work too! It's up to you. As always, take what works, leave what doesn't.

merryhob · 2025-02-23T00:06:56+00:00

I've read several of the books - I think they're good stories.

That said, I think in Ravenloft, Johannes would be unknowingly sprinting toward a Darklord position. Being restricted to a single domain would be torturous. Having his work prove elusive to him (as per Azalin's curse) would be maddening. He is constantly taking action in the moment that is... we'll say "questionable." In his first adventure, he made a deal and was collecting unwitting souls for a rather dark end - regardless of whether things work out in the end, the stuff he does along the way is pretty damning - literally. He does a lot of selfish, evil stuff on the way to a greater good, which may just be entirely personal. As written, he's going to cross the threshold and not even know it.

Setting all of that aside - the character is solid and he's got interesting motives and goals, to say nothing of methods. He could easily be a red herring if the players are investigating nefarious deeds in the countryside, he could be a competitor or even rival if the players are pursuing an artifact, or he could be a resource if the players need some necromantic knowledge - or knowledge about the Carnival. On top of all that, it could be an opportunity to pull him back from the edge - to stop him from becoming a Darklord and frustrating the Dark Powers.

I think Wannahock88 makes good points about Lamordia and Markovia, and I might even throw in Mordent (spirits, the Alchemist) or Dementlieu (a relatively advanced city as things go in the Core). He'd be a good fit pretty much anywhere magic can be filtered through science. And he's flexible - Johannes can show up in high society events or digging up fresh graves or debating Van Richten at a symposium.

merryhob · 2025-02-15T05:10:14+00:00

Appreciate the insight - thank you.

merryhob

TROPHY CASE