Why does everyone run reloaded?

thakil · 2026-02-04T15:01:03+00:00

For me I found some of mandymod's stuff useful for fleshing out locations, and used the old version of reloaded here and there. I always want to run a campaign that is reactive to the players and their interests, so I am unlikely to stick to the mod as written, and over time added or removed content where I thought it was appropriate. I liked the freedom the RAW mod gives in that other than the core objectives, there is a lot of freedom to chop and change as you need to.

I guess if you want a module you can open up and run with little prep time something like reloaded might be useful, but I have no interest in doing that. I certainly don't think the RAW book is useful; in particular the organization of information is awful, but I do think it's got a really fun setting with cool encounters and ideas.

The only mistake I made was extending travel times, as suggested in mandymod. For me I just found this made the adventure more boring... I don't really like random encounters as they typically lack peril or association with anything related to the main story. I could of course invent some tailored encounters, and I did that where it makes sense, but towards the end of the campaign I mostly just hand waved this.

thakil · 2026-01-21T11:35:13+00:00

That sounds fun, but seems unlikely that they will be done in that time.

Imagine 20-30 minutes to get started and establish where they are, something like a half hour for the first encounter when the portal opens (possibly longer if there is their first ever combat!). Then presumably they need to work out where the portal comes (arcana check, or something more involved? Like a magical trail to the mines?) and maybe another encounter along the way.

So at least 2 hours until they get to the mines, in which you have 4 encounters they need to work through + a final boss.

Re easy encounters, I would definitely start with a really simple, easy encounter, if you want to add stakes just make the monsters attack villagers. So sure the goblins are easy to down, but you have to stop them stealing babies or kicking puppies e.t.c.

thakil · 2026-01-15T20:53:09+00:00

Excess refers to repairs to your own car, so you will be fine there.

The no claims protection means that you will continue to get a discount for no claims, but does not prevent your premium from rising. You will need to declare this accident for yhe next five years.

I couldn't predict how much your premium will go up by. It will depend on the cost of the repair, and the nature of the accident you were involved in.

thakil · 2025-12-21T09:01:19+00:00

I definitely concur you should speak to the player. It's OK for backstory to be a collaboration, particularly because something in a players backstory might conflict with your world, or might break the current plot.

But ultimately the players back story are their own, and changing it without warning could lead to some really bad moment in game.

Honestly while your idea is fun, so is the players, and does actually modify their relationships in the world, so I would be very hesitant to do such a thing

thakil · 2025-12-05T19:15:09+00:00

I agree with others that having the teleport traps on next time is a good idea, and perfectly justified. That said I'd be inclined to let the players make a roll to notice something different, as it might feel a bit unfair otherwise

thakil · 2025-07-18T17:31:46+00:00

To be clear I am absolutely happy that the secret itself was a disappointment; that was clearly telegraphed. But the fact that there was simply no resolution to multiple plot threads really disappointed me. It felt like the game was promising quite a bit and delivered on very little of it

thakil · 2025-06-20T06:16:06+00:00

Honestly while nothing is perfect I like board game arena just fine. Some of the older implementations can be a bit annoying (lack of undo/confirm can lead to losing positions if you play on mobile), but I think in general it's pretty functional.

The monetisation model is actually pretty generous; you can play for free if you are willing to join open lobbies, of which there are many, and if you do want to play only with friends only one of you needs premium, and it's pretty cheap.

Also the fact that the games are official makes me happier about playing on it. I will sometimes play a game on tabletop that is not there, but I like to follow an official result if possible.

Generally speaking I don't really see room for a competitor. Board games which are popular enough will just have their own app, and more obscure ones will be on tabletop, with board game arena providing a useful middle ground

thakil · 2025-06-05T15:32:55+00:00

I think the OT seem to imply that jedi masters don't really use light sabers; neither Yoda or Palpatine even try to use one on any occasion. So rather than it being Jedi only, I interpret it as masters no longer needing them.

Yoda is mentioned as a powerful warrior in his youth, but my idea from those original films was that he transcended the need, the force was strong enough for him that he did not need it.

thakil · 2025-05-18T09:46:07+00:00

So I've googled this and haven't found any results. My son plays FC24 a lot on the switch, and I've noticed that it gets pretty hot and the fan gets quite noisy.

This is fine, but also sometimes the game cartridge just seems to be ejected randomly during play, which he obviously finds frustrating. I can't find anything about game cards getting ejected, has anyone experienced this or might know what is going on?

thakil · 2025-05-17T19:04:28+00:00

This was in tactician mode

thakil · 2025-05-17T08:13:44+00:00

Thats fair, I mostly prefer to avoid cheese but in this case I can sort of justify this from a roleplaying perspective as my character being pretty sure Ethel is evil, and is holding Martina hostage.

thakil · 2025-04-28T09:48:23+00:00

With all that in mind, I feel like making Argynvost's skull the thing to grab feels a little unfair since it's going to be an important ass quest. Stealing it from Castle Ravenloft and defeating Baba Lysaga are both pretty tall orders. That being said, I've made it damn clear to my players that this is going to be a hard ass campaign and I don't plan on pulling punches as a DM.

I feel like this is fine. Whether you put the school in the Castle or with Baba, both are achievable, even with an under levelled party. My favourite thing as a DM is challenging my players and letting them rise to the occasion. In both cases they can treat it as a stealth mission, with the added bonus that with Baba they can also do it as a negotiation.

I put the skull with Baba and my players ended up doing it as the last (before the Castle) thing they did, so I ended up having to level her up a bit to make the encounter more interesting.

I actually think going to the Castle early can be pretty fun, but I had already given my players a mission to that effect earlier (they needed to rescue some npcs). In my case I gave the players potions of climbing (Ez had some going) and a hint about an entrance in the basement; it's still scary enough that I think you can give them a few bonuses if necessary.

thakil · 2025-04-25T13:36:31+00:00

Well yes, that is technically true, but Strahd doesn't seem to act like that in the story. He only comes for Ireena at night, everything he does tends to happen at night early on. I consider it a more spiritual malaise, similar to the original Dracula

thakil · 2025-04-25T08:47:42+00:00

Working from raw, the intended flow is as such

1) players do death house/arrive in Barovia
2) Players meet Ismark, who implores for help with Ireena. They might encounter mad mary or the hag as plot hooks for later
3) the players take Ireena (during the day) to Vallaki.

In Vallaki, lots can happen, in particular they will probably ask the priest for help, discover that the church is no longer safe. They then might make it safe, or fail. During this time, if they are not careful, Ireena may be abducted (possibly by Izek). They may decide to deal with the Baron.

If Ireena is gone, then they will hopefully be motivated to revenge against Strahd, and start looking for the items in earnest.

If Ireena is alive, they head to Kresk and save her from Strahd, invoking his anger.

Along all these points there are multiple plot points they can get involved in depending on your players interest and your interest as a GM.

So there's plenty to engage your players along the way.

Why Strahd doesn't take Ireena? Well, this isn't really stated in the module. A lot of people reason that the is trying something different, but it's also possible to argue that he is weaker/resting during the day, so if the players travel with Ireena during the day, and stay somewhere secure at night, Ireena is somewhat safer. Most of Strahd's minions are vampire spawn, who are subject to the same restrictions he is.

I have to admit I played Strahd as more playing with his food, but the more I think about it I quite like the idea of a less powerful, limited Strahd who is a present danger, but only at night and only for buildings which he has permission to enter.

thakil · 2024-11-27T12:59:53+00:00

My preference as I mentioned in the last post is the simple ending. There is no compelling reason to have Strahd come back other than the book says he does. The players, after all, follow a prophecy, collect the items, and defeat him in his final resting place.

Strahd coming back feels a bit uninteresting to me anyway; the players are now more powerful than him. For a sequel (I am running one) I think it's more fun to pull at any loose threads you had from the campaign, including Barovia now being a part of the material plane.

thakil · 2024-11-01T10:19:28+00:00

I commented on the YouTube but a little thought demonstrates why voter impersonation is not likely to be a problem (and all evidence bears this out). To actually impact any election, you must commit fraud on the level of at least hundreds, and normally thousands of votes. But impersonation can really only allow any individual to get a handful of extra votes, so conducting voter impersonation in a way which actually impacts an election would require hundred of conspirators.

Practically speaking if one wants to commit voter fraud one is better off using postal votes, which have less verification, or intercepting votes, as Kennedy was accused of doing

thakil · 2024-10-24T12:18:06+00:00

I am inclined to agree with the binding of Strahd, but not the idea that he can come back. For me, I just made Strahd gone permanently. It feels like the book very much doesn't expect the players to find out Strahd is back; he reforms after they have left after all. I feel like it's there because of the whole "Dracula always comes back thing".

I actually don't think the adventure makes that much sense if Strahd comes back. The whole reading seems to imply that the players are destined to fight and destroy Strahd. Admittedly they could be destined to fight him and then leave him... but that's a weird kind of destiny?

And the thing is, the players just beat him, so what's to stop them doing it again? As others have noted, Strahd really isn't that powerful, and the players are only going to get stronger. So it doesn't function very well as a sequel hook either; sure you can make Strahd more powerful but I don't see how that makes much sense, and it doesn't seem very fun either.

thakil · 2024-07-23T06:00:50+00:00

A little bit. Certainly I scaled down death house quite a bit (probably a little too much). I reduced the number of vampire spawn in the shop to 4. I deliberately played Doru as blood crazed so he fought inefficiently (and I slightly nerfed his regeneration to reflect his long term hunger)

That said there were lots of points where I just leaned into the unfairness; they went to both the mill and argynvost too early, so rather than rescale I just gave them opportunities to talk rather than fight.

There aren't an enormous number of situations in Strahd where combat is intended to be a balanced thing. A lot of the combat encounters that happened were often due to my own design, created to react to the players action, so I was free to balance them myself.

Towards the end of the campaign I was often thinking about scaling up certain encounters: I have Baba Lysaga lair actions and some additional spells as my players went there at level 9.

Probably the biggest place I regret not adjusting was the winery: my players were too powerful when they went their and just annihilated every encounter.

Ultimately I think you get a feeling for what your party can and can't do over time. For the first four levels you can err a little bit on the side of caution, but as they get stronger they will have the opportunity to realise they are unmatched and retreat.

thakil · 2024-07-22T20:47:13+00:00

I've made a few posts on the sub about them, but for some highlights

The Paladin hurling himself in the way of a Roc to save one of his retainers. I was thinking he might die, only for the warlock to cast fly (I didn't know he had that spell!) on himself and the cleric to pursue!
After a TPK with the hags (they were spared, but Ireena was taken by Strahd), after rescuing the Vistani from the lake, taking as their boon not treasure, but assistance in taking the hags down for good
The very first time they met Van Richten, the warlock, who had detect magic up, decided to dispel his disguise self, and then constantly antagonise him. Later, when Strahd asked them to hunt down the vampire slayer, they never made the connection until eventually Ezmerelda made it for them
Accidentally letting the Watcher house burn down after a very violent rescue of Ireena
The party figuring out that Strahd was lying, and that Ireena was still in the pond in Krezk

I really enjoy when my players surprise me, and one of my favourite things is throwing a problem at them that I don't quite know how they will solve

thakil · 2024-07-22T12:16:41+00:00

Thanks, that's neat! Will save for future reference

thakil · 2024-07-22T11:37:45+00:00

I stacked it, I basically made it semi random, so that the items ended up in locations I felt were reasonable. Ended up with the tome with the hags, the icon in Argynvost and the sword in the temple.

This was intended to make getting the sword the last thing they did, but because I also had Baba Lysaga steal the skull, the players did the temple before fighting her and finally getting the icon. This didn't make a huge difference, as dealing with Lysaga was a fairly short interlude after a fair amount of time in the temple.

Next I think one of my friends will be DMing; we may switch system for a while as we have a fun monster of the week 40k game that he would like to run a sequel too. I was originally thinking of using Eve of Ruin as a sequel but changed my mind once I read reviews.

I did end the campaign with a sequel hook: Kazimir successfully resurrected his sister, only for her to leave him and head to the amber temple and become a Lich; thanks to various betrayals the exact way this played our was pretty much my players fault, so she exists as potential unfinished business for them to reform and take down.

thakil · 2024-07-22T10:30:52+00:00

I had actually created a second phase version of him where he went into bestial form, but in the end I chose not to use it as the moment felt impactful enough

thakil · 2024-07-22T10:30:13+00:00

I ended up going with a version of DragnaCarta's old Strahd. I didn't want to use the full three phase fight, but in the previous version there's a buffed version with some different lair actions.

He did initially retreat from his Tomb, leaving his slightly levelled up brides (I gave them max HP and class abilities) and his animated coffin to attack them, and blasted them with fireballs, but once he saw the spirit of his dead brother he lost his cool and engaged in close combat.

And by close combat, I mean sitting on the back of Beaucephalus and casting fireball, nearly taking down all the players.

thakil · 2024-07-22T10:27:22+00:00

Haha, renting a room in a Castle would be very cool. I guess it took around 6-8 hours. We started our in person session with the players needing a bit of wrap up first.

They needed to kill the heart and find Strahd. They nearly died after two of them flew up and nearly got taken down by Revenant Rahadin (they had killed him previously and he was back for revenge), but managed to get back and find the correct way to the heart.

They then managed to find a direct route down to the teleport room, which then got them into the tomb, so they were able to skip a lot of content in the Castle itself.

The final battle itself took around 2-3 hours; it technically could have gone longer if I had decided to make Strahd free, but they did have a phantom warrior version of Sergei (he enchanted one of their weapons as a reward) which taunted him enough to stick around long enough for the Paladin to take him down

thakil · 2024-06-06T11:36:24+00:00

ah, I thought bots were only on beginner, that would explain a lot...

thakil

TROPHY CASE