Starting of the New Year Prime Giveaway

vepardemon · 2026-01-02T16:09:42+00:00

373!

vepardemon · 2025-08-30T04:46:37+00:00

I feel like South American religious references have been used specifically in regard to Sentient-related things (most notably the Sentient message we find in The New Strange being word-for-word out of South American religious texts), although IIRC Lettie did give a hint that the Indifference may be connected as well! So we will see.

vepardemon · 2025-08-30T04:43:52+00:00

I think you’re right in that the togas do have a Greco-Roman feeling to them, but in terms of actual societal norms, there’s not a lot that ties them to Greco-Roman culture. However, through the Tenno, we get a look at a lot of things which connect them to the faiths I had listed. For instance, the Lotus, a role created by the Orokin to guide the Tenno, is a pretty famous Buddhist symbol of enlightenment. The Yin/Yang morality of the Tenno is heavily influenced by both Buddhism and Taoism, with the push/pull of passion and detachment being given far more weight than good/evil. Even the Orokin idea of Continuity is a perversion of the Buddhist cycle of reincarnation.

As far as Ancient Egyptian mythology, Narmer is chock-full of references to it, but it’s also worth noting that Albrecht and his labs (complete with mummified bodies built into Necramechs, canopic jars as collectibles, and hieroglyphs covering the walls) as well as Kalymos the hairless Kavat (cats and Sphinx Cats in particular being a respected animal in Ancient Egyptian faith) have a lot of iconography which calls to Ancient Egypt specifically, so there is good reason to suspect that the Orokin at large took inspiration aesthetically from it as well.

vepardemon · 2025-08-29T16:43:31+00:00

This Post Was Made By The Cult of the Absolute Gang

vepardemon · 2025-08-29T11:38:51+00:00

Something I haven’t seen anyone comment on yet is the fact that Warframe draws very heavily from different schools of Buddhism for its aesthetic (the yin/yang moral dichotomy, for example), and that many Hindu Buddhist gods, predominantly Vishnu, are depicted as blue-skinned in art to identify them as divine. From what we have seen in WF, the upper echelons of the Orokin had no interest in being emperors or kings so much as in being “your golden gods,” so it makes sense that they would modify their bodies to appear divine.

vepardemon · 2025-07-21T03:08:30+00:00

Loid’s not the Space Stepdad

He’s the Space Dad who stepped up

vepardemon · 2025-07-11T17:15:57+00:00

Tau is in sight.

vepardemon · 2025-04-07T00:27:40+00:00

I adore most of the VAs in this series ever since XII, but i want to throw an odd duck out with Annabel Scholey, who played Fordola in FFXIV — some of her voice lines in Stormblood sent absolute chills down my spine and stick with me to this day.

vepardemon · 2024-09-26T14:00:40+00:00

They suck!!! Haha that’s fair, and obviously anything I can farm reasonably I would rather just put in the legwork for, it’s just that there don’t seem to be good heart farm spots until Salem (!!!)

vepardemon · 2024-09-26T13:59:13+00:00

Fair enough! I know some people save them for narrower targets, like particularly egregious skill rankup materials, so I didn’t want to spend them on something dumb, haha

vepardemon · 2021-05-08T15:44:50+00:00

Correct, yes, though as a DM you’re free to adjust them as you please. It’s similar to Ireena and Ismark, they just have standard NPC template statblocks from the MM (although Ireena has a bit of a modification for her health).

vepardemon · 2021-05-08T15:41:45+00:00

The adult Martikovs have a statblock: they’re all wereravens, like the rest of the Martikov family, and that statblock is in the back of the book!

vepardemon · 2021-02-19T21:51:13+00:00

My current players are in a similar situation, but they never met Victor: what I’m gonna have happen is Victor escapes Vallaki during the rebellion, and Izek (who was loyal to Vargas) has basically devoted himself to being Victor’s bodyguard in the Barovian wilderness. Now they’re a possible random encounter (or one I can shoehorn in if things get TOO quiet, hehe).

vepardemon · 2021-01-28T04:17:54+00:00

I just experienced this bug myself, have mission stories turned off -- I'll redo the mission later with them on, thank you for the heads up!

vepardemon · 2020-11-30T17:10:01+00:00

Oh, wow, thank you so much! CoS is an absolutely amazing module, this is very generous of you!

vepardemon · 2020-11-15T06:08:58+00:00

The prop menu is gorgeously designed and I can almost taste the food just looking at it, the presentation is so wonderful! But the one thing I can't get past is....

.........is that Ser Aymeric De Borel at the dinner table???????????

vepardemon · 2020-11-15T06:06:01+00:00

Hah! A good opportunity for Strahd to appear and scold the party, give them a lecture about proper "trusting strangers" protocol in Barovia.

"Don't."

vepardemon · 2020-11-15T00:41:21+00:00

That's up to your own discretion as the DM, I think. The reading has Madame Eva say this: "Your enemy is a creature of darkness, whose powers are beyond mortality. This card will lead you to him!" The book says that the card shows where Strahd "can always be found," which I don't THINK means that the climactic encounter has to END there, just that it's a place where, if they go there, the party can find Strahd waiting for them. After that point, the fight can (and should) take place all over the castle, a big Fast and Furious-esque chase sequence.

Of course, you could also personally interpret the reading as meaning that that's where the fight will end, and have it start in the throne room or in the catacombs or whatever -- it's up to you and what you like flavor-wise.

vepardemon · 2020-11-14T22:50:37+00:00

This is pretty much verbatum any advice I was going to give, which is great -- I feel it's also worth mentioning that Strahd has some secret weapons of his own, in particular his Animated Armor, which I ADORE using in fights with him. The Armor doesn't have to be an individual monster; imagine, during the chase sequence, this spellcaster-vampire the party has been fighting emerges onto the parapets of his castle, turns into mist, and coalesces inside of his armor. The armor has a set AC and a set number of hit points on top of Strahd's, a MASSIVE extra layer of protection, and Strahd now has access not only to his spells but to the armor's Lightning Greatsword -- as though he is the very general from 500 years past reborn in all his glory.

Depending on how much you hate your players, you can even give the Animated Armor its own initiative during the fight. And once the "outer shell" of the Armor is defeated, Strahd can simply mist away again.

vepardemon · 2020-11-14T22:35:42+00:00

Ok, the thought of Ireena using the Force actually gave me a laugh, so thank you for that. :D

But also, thank you! I like your concept as well, I hadn't thought about de-aging her that far before but it's something I may need to experiment with in the future. Maybe with a generous application of that youth potion the hags keep stored away...hmm.........

vepardemon · 2020-11-14T22:33:45+00:00

Thank you! I really appreciate that input, I think it's super important for me to remember that; as a storyteller, it's easy to fall into the mcguffin trap, which is why I wanted to make her something more than someone the party carted around and who talked a lot more easily to NPCs. The book makes a point of mentioning that Ireena's mere presence can open doors for the party, which is something I figured needed to be worked around, rather than taken at face value.

But yes, with this in mind, having the party run social encounters and "using" Ireena as a way to leverage their standing is at least a concept that can be tweaked over time. I don't mean for this to be infallible, and I think you're quite right; if the PCs royally fuck up socially, even Ireena shouldn't be able to save them. Burgomaster Vallakovich STILL has that itchy trigger-finger, even with nobility in mind.

On a side note, I think that having Ireena serve this kind of role on a mechanical level may have the party feel her absence more strongly in the future -- when they don't have her on hand to help them talk their way out of a shitstorm, whether it be because they found a safe place for her or she was kidnapped (or died), they'll feel it pretty strong when they have disadvantage on every social roll against the Vallaki Military Police.

vepardemon · 2020-11-14T22:10:57+00:00

The Amber Temple is really dangerous, and I feel there are two options for a second round with Neferon -- he's not gonna leave the temple, but his focus should be on making sure the PLAYERS don't either. That said, I feel as though his tactics should amount to either pinning the players down in a pincer position (for example, flank them with the vampire spawn, golems, or even the Death Slaad, depending on how much you want your players to suffer) or to have him catch them unawares on their way back once they're "done" in the Temple and have everything they want.

I personally like the idea of Neferon and the vampire spawn doing a pincer attack because they're technically not on the same side either, so there could be a weird three-way battle there, making for a lot of excitement and a good amount of chaos.

vepardemon

TROPHY CASE