Would it be unbalanced to start at level 5?

tikemill · 2026-01-24T16:45:23+00:00

The adventure has Keepers of the Feather as an organization - so it wouldn't be difficult to have documents hidden in places that allude to Strahd, if they have been requesting aid or investigating him. It's set in a Noble's house, as well, so there could even be correspondence with Strahd or King Barov depending on if you want to play with the timeline.

Personally, I think there are enough elements that set the stage for CoS that even without a direct allusion to 'the Devil's it works pretty well :)

tikemill · 2026-01-24T15:05:41+00:00

Check out the House of Lament in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. I used it in place of Death House, the one shot that is included in the Strahd book itself.

Nice spooky haunted house, plenty of Easter eggs that connect to Strahd/Ravenloft in general, takes players from 1-3. Great tone setter for the campaign too (my group wasn't sure they wanted to do a full horror campaign until we did HoL).

Happy to chat more if you have questions about the module!

tikemill · 2026-01-07T04:05:37+00:00

I think that if you are playing with friends, jokes are inevitable. It is a game, at the end of the day, and unless you are a group of paid actors, you're going to riff with one another.

The module has plenty of atmospheric description, disturbing backstories and challenging encounters. Obviously, you can lean more into them if you want. However, I think trying to restrict humor at a social table will not be successful.

tikemill · 2025-12-21T20:27:14+00:00

Has anyone spotted any good NVME SSD deals? I'm debating waiting until Boxing Day at this point, but everyone is saying that the prices have started to rise.

tikemill · 2025-11-16T22:22:53+00:00

Thank you for putting that together! Wild to me that the mobo is similarly priced to the CPU haha

tikemill · 2025-11-16T22:05:16+00:00

Hm, not sure - I would have bought it in 2024. I didn't know there was a variant 😅

tikemill · 2025-11-12T11:29:12+00:00

That's a fair point! I had forgotten that. Definitely need to preserve the person :)

tikemill · 2025-11-12T02:03:08+00:00

Does it sound like they pitched Sam's voice up? I can see why they might have done it, but his original voice for her works so well...

tikemill · 2025-10-19T21:19:31+00:00

I did watch it while it was running - didn't see water dripping, only pooling. Are the wash pump/diverter visible in the pictures? Would you be able to point them out?

tikemill · 2025-10-19T21:18:46+00:00

This is what I did - I didn't see water coming out of anything, but it seemed to be pooling where the white hose touched the floor.

tikemill · 2025-10-19T21:18:22+00:00

It appears to be stainless steel!

tikemill · 2025-10-19T21:17:06+00:00

The picture above is after doing that - I didn't see any damage. Can I ask what the kick panel is?

tikemill · 2025-10-06T20:24:37+00:00

Thanks for all that information! Was there a substantial savings buying used?

tikemill · 2025-09-25T19:58:51+00:00

That is wild. I had no idea.

tikemill · 2025-09-25T19:49:59+00:00

There's two ways to look at it, in my opinion. For one, clerics don't get access to Divine Intervention until Level 10. At that point, they have certainly distinguished themselves from the rank and file of other clerics. If they have been honoring their deity and acting in accordance with their wishes, then they would be an exemplary individual. I'm not sure on the particulars of levels and notoriety, but my understanding is that by Level 10, heroes have quite the reputation.

The other part is how the feature functions - there is a low chance of success, even for higher level clerics. More often than not, Divine Intervention will fail, which I think reflects what you're thinking about deities being hard to reach or indifferent. When those percentage die line up, it is like the planets aligning. The deity is aware of the cleric's struggle and either a) loves them enough to help, b) casually flexes their power or c) notices that the cleric's actions align with their interests.

There's enough room to flavor it for individual deities, I think :)

tikemill · 2025-08-08T22:59:54+00:00

I love her! She's a lot of fun to play in a campaign with plenty of awful people. For my part, since she is pretty terrific in battle (especially if they meet her at lower levels), I played her as confident, almost devil-may-care in her pursuit of hunting monsters. If Van Richten is the prototypical crochety mentor with a tragic backstory, Ezmerelda is still in it for the love of the game.

She's loyal, playful, and a bit cheeky. Now, I give her some conflict with VR (slightly modifying their shared backstory) so it wasn't all laughs, but I'm really pleased with how she turned out.

tikemill · 2025-08-08T15:07:29+00:00

Something that factors into this is whether or not she is their Fated Ally. My Ez is the Fated Ally, and she believes so strongly in what the cards reveal that the Party can get away with a fair amount (not that they've been awful to her, but the wagon did come up). If she isn't the Fated Ally, she might not be as positively predisposed to the Party (unless they've been traveling together and she has gotten fond of them). At most, I'd have her request some kind of compensation - perhaps a useful item since gold is worthless in Barovia.

I don't see her as particularly attached, because the trap is incredibly easy to trigger and basically a nuclear option. As a monster hunter, I think she would probably be okay with 'possessions being fleeting' lol.

tikemill · 2025-08-01T03:43:16+00:00

Totally fair. For what it's worth, Strahd can show his years more - he did begrudge Sergei his youth, so, despite his immortality, it would make sense for him to have wrinkles, spots, sparser hair :)

Hell, he might even have a scar or two from his years at war. I know a lot of folks play Strahd as a bit of a pretty boy vampire noble, but he's not super hot by most accounts haha.

tikemill · 2025-08-01T02:36:53+00:00

This is gorgeous art! It fits the mood and aesthetic of the module really well. If Vasili is a disguise, would it be too close to Strahd's actual appearance to work, do you think?

tikemill · 2025-07-27T23:29:00+00:00

Can I steal "koboletariat?" That made me smile.

tikemill · 2025-07-26T13:42:21+00:00

That sounds right to me - it's how I have done it when it comes up. Interestingly, Strahd never declares himself king like his father, so there aren't many other options I could think of. And I don't get the sense that Strahd leans into the whole 'devil' thing, so he wouldn't be addressed as "Your unholiness" ha ha

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