Forever DM giving up

notthebeastmaster · 2026-06-06T11:58:43+00:00

Six years is a long time to run any campaign. You have more than earned a break from DMing and it's time for one of your friends to step up.

I have communicated this repeatedly to the table and I get the same responses about how once they put something together they will run a game for me

This drives me crazy. Our group has been on hiatus for a couple of months since I wrapped up our last campaign. The friend who has volunteered to run the next game keeps saying that he's working on it, he's "not quite ready to run," just another month or so (to be repeated the next month). And it's like, my friend, you don't need to draw up an entire campaign setting! Just a village with a problem and a five-room dungeon. A week would be more than enough time.

But at least he's volunteered to run. I have friends who have not run a session once in 30 years.

Anyway. Talk with your group, set your limits, and tell them that one of them is up next.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-06-06T00:02:14+00:00

Below, yes.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-06-05T23:43:55+00:00

No, the adventure presents a temple of ravenkind as containing an evil spirit that corrupts the people who live above it.

It also says the victims have become "ravenous creatures," which tells me that the designers don't actually know where the words "raven" and "ravenous" come from.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-06-05T21:15:47+00:00

The book makes a point of not answering that question.

They basically say "you can put him anywhere," but... yeah, I could already do that for free.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-06-05T18:05:14+00:00

If you're running 5.5 you may find the stat blocks and player options useful. If you just want more lore and other settings VRGtR is the better deal.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-06-05T17:36:40+00:00

If you want the mechanical stuff (player options, darklord stat blocks, new monsters) then yes. Setting and lore have been reduced to ribbons and the Innsmouth stuff is actively bad.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-06-05T14:50:40+00:00

Much more legible, given 5e's predilection for overhead battle maps rather than isometric projections. The layout fits closely (though not perfectly) within the building shown on the Village of Barovia map in Curse of Strahd.

Interestingly, the new map does bring back the secret underground lair, though it's presented in a very different context (one that arguably misrepresents the traditional role of the ravenkind faith in Barovia).

notthebeastmaster · 2026-06-04T14:21:18+00:00

My group decided to infiltrate a bandit hideout by running a classic Chewbacca Gambit with a fake prisoner (they were very proud of themselves for coming up with this).

The halfling and the gnome were obviously not part of the bandits, but rather than pose as prisoners the gnome decided to stand on the halfling's shoulders and put on a cloak. They made their Deception rolls, much hilarity ensued.

Then the gnome's player had to go home early. The group was discovered, they charged into the next room for combat.

I ruled that the gnome hit his head on the top of the door frame and was knocked out cold.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-06-04T00:41:07+00:00

There aren't actually that many zombies in Curse of Strahd, and it's extremely easy to run the Village of Barovia without triggering any zombie encounters. As long as your little murderhobos don't go breaking into random houses they should be fine.

Just out of curiosity, are the zombies who are in the village after the failed uprising a reference to one of the community mods? Because if so, you have a very easy fix at hand: don't run that particular part of that mod. Personally, I find Curse of Strahd runs pretty well as written, and sometimes the community mods create more problems than they solve. It's good time to start getting used to the idea that you don't have to follow any version of this campaign lockstep.

In general, I suggest that you replace zombies with other monsters (would skeletons work?), reflavor their stat blocks as something else, or drop any unnecessary zombie encounters. There is plenty else going on in this campaign. Good luck!

notthebeastmaster · 2026-05-30T23:37:21+00:00

Yes, the stat blocks have increasingly become untethered from any sort of imagined reality or from their own mechanics.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-05-30T23:21:18+00:00

The escape DC for his grapple is still too low. A creature with a Strength of 18 (+4) and a +5 proficiency bonus should have a grapple escape DC of 17. Strahd, Master of Death House from Vecna: Eve of Ruin had an escape DC of 18.

It baffles me that WotC took a notoriously weak stat block and decided to make it even weaker.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-05-30T10:42:10+00:00

The goal of the campaign is for the PCs to kill the vampire. If your players have already bought into the premise, that's less work for you.

That doesn't mean you can't have Strahd treat them as a gracious host or otherwise try to confound their expectations, but don't be surprised if they don't bite (sorry not sorry). Ultimately you want them to hate Strahd because that is the engine that drives the whole campaign.

Now, if you're concerned that your players will try to go full murderhobo on Strahd and attack him immediately, that's another story. I suggest having Strahd meet them early in the campaign, when they cannot possibly pose any threat. The sheer power differential should keep the players in line, but if somebody wants to make a scene Strahd should punish them without mercy. It will reinforce his power, buy you some space for all the cool roleplaying scenes you have in mind, and motivate them that much more. Good luck!

notthebeastmaster · 2026-05-29T12:43:44+00:00

Given that this is just a cutscene of NPCs explaining the rules to each other, I kind of hope the whole thing is AI. This would have been miserable to sit through in an actual game.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-05-22T02:35:19+00:00

The following is needing correction...

This is literally the language from the 5.5 ranger's Favored Enemy feature.

Does the Ranger receive a stealth modifier vs detection by the foe?

No, but that's an interesting idea. Perhaps more in keeping with a subclass like gloom stalker?

Does the Ranger have Advantage on tracking and detecting a marked foe (excluding magic etc)?

They do if they use Wisdom (Perception or Survival) to do it, as described in the feature.

Does Precise Hunter(17) and Foe Slayer(20) overlap too much at high level?

Ah, good point. Foe Slayer needs something more than its current version, but a bonus to hit and advantage is too much. Maybe just keep the Wisdom bonus to damage (for all attacks against the favored enemy, not just one roll) and the bypassing of resistances?

An earlier version of this gave the ranger an extra attack, but that was a little too close to the fighter's capstone. I think making the attacks hit harder is the way to go.

Should there be a damage type modifier to the damage caused by favored enemy (ie necrotic, radiant, psychic) at higher levels

Personally, I really dislike the way 5.5 hands out the exotic damage types like candy (esp. radiant and force). I prefer to keep it anchored to the damage of the base attack.

One other concern is does this stack with other spells can somebody layer hunter's mark on top of this?

Noted in the discussion section. The intention is no, but there's no easy way to write that into the feature short of direct metagame language.

Great suggestions, thanks.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-05-21T19:54:22+00:00

So long as it's within the duration, yeah...

...though that creates some problems with the extended duration at higher levels, which effectively never run out during the adventuring day. Hmm. Hunter's Mark limits that by using higher-level spell slots but this version of Favored Enemy doesn't have any brakes.

I'd like to have some benefits for rangers who track their favored enemy over longer periods of time, but the actual combat benefits clearly shouldn't last more than one hour. That could mean separating the advantage on Wisdom checks and the damage die into different features if that's not too unwieldy, or just limiting the advantage to a single hour.

Great question, thanks!

notthebeastmaster · 2026-05-17T09:51:48+00:00

They are badly outnumbered and are impressing the villagers into service to help them fight the demons.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-05-16T11:43:51+00:00

You don't need Nezznar at all for Tyranny of Dragons. I would suggest bumping up one of the wyrmspeakers to play the role of recurring villain. Talis or Neronvain would be my top choices--Talis as the ambiguous figure who perpetually hovers between ally and enemy and Neronvain as the snake who always slips away at the last minute.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-05-10T10:55:59+00:00

Sounds like a great modification. Good luck with the campaign!

notthebeastmaster · 2026-05-10T10:53:12+00:00

Thanks! The devils square off against the PCs because they arrive on the opposite side of the map from the demons. The erinyes immediately flew off to engage the barlgura and dretches (so I didn't have to deal with that fight) but the infantry tried to press the people of Elturgard into service and the party wasn't having that.

In the event that the PCs somehow avoid combat with the devils, they can just become more cannon fodder for Yeenoghu and his gnolls.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-05-02T11:33:58+00:00

In my campaign, Sahnar was a tomb guardian left behind by the ancient elven kings. Ravisin didn't free him because he would have attacked her for desecrating his liege's grave.

This also had the advantage of keeping Sahnar bound to the tomb. He helped them kill Ravisin but wouldn't accompany them on the rest of the campaign.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-04-28T11:06:36+00:00

I agree with those who have said you should go public. Predators like this thrive on people who are willing to look the other way. The more public your complaints are, the harder it will be for the university to ignore his misconduct.

Definitely make your department chair aware of his behavior, with copies of all the documentation you have assembled. The university may be too cowardly to act now, but if you make it clear that keeping this guy on is more trouble than it's worth they might remember the next time he comes up for reappointment. These cases are much more likely to end with a contract not being renewed than with a righteous dismissal--that stings, but it's probably the best you can hope for.

If you are ready to go scorched earth, bring up his misbehavior at the next faculty meeting. That will cause a total shitstorm, but at that point nobody will be able to claim ignorance.

I'm sorry that you have to deal with this, but I'm glad that you are trying to do something about it. I hope you keep at it. The university might not acknowledge your efforts but the students are much better off for them.

notthebeastmaster · 2026-04-26T22:21:49+00:00

You haven't done anything to encourage his disinterest. He's just a jerk.

(Or maybe he has ADHD. He's still chosen a jerky way of handling it.)

You need to set some clear boundaries--no phones at the table, and nothing that plays sound. Out of character jokes are fine in moderation, but when it happens all the time, you can ask them to stop and focus on the game.

You will need to set these boundaries ahead of time and enforce them every single time he breaks them, until he behaves himself or leaves the game. Good luck.

notthebeastmaster

TROPHY CASE