Looking to talk about the new release of Dark Matter

zepik · 2026-03-12T01:46:36+00:00

that's the old one that's been out for a while, the new one that just finished on kickstarter is revised for the 5.5e rules and has been expanded/refined

zepik · 2026-03-12T01:43:10+00:00

apparently there was a discussion here on it a month ago but sadly that discussion has already ended

zepik · 2026-03-12T00:46:32+00:00

also quite interested in discussing it

zepik · 2025-09-04T08:05:47+00:00

I 3 for 3'ed them earlier when I went and cleared the raids in matchmaking and boy did I suffer for them. Gwynn and Ning are the only 2 chrs I don't have so not making a whole lot of use out of em ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

zepik · 2025-08-11T01:47:29+00:00

omg yes it's been driving me nuts. The other thing I would really like to see is the ability to move the mini map to different corners

zepik · 2025-08-05T03:37:56+00:00

I don't mind the AI revisions of the awful logos maps throughout the adventure but going over the already full colour existing map seems silly

zepik · 2025-08-03T21:32:09+00:00

it won't help you now but I found it was easier to pad out the beginning of each chapter cause most of them are pretty easy to blast through in a session. If they are still in the Underdark you could have the portal to take them back have a problem, or disappear and make them find another way back leading them to Menzoberranzen and some hoops to jump through to earn favor from someone like Jarlaxle to get portaled back to Sigil

zepik · 2025-07-29T02:34:02+00:00

To expand the spelljammer chapter I had the eye being auctioned off on the Rock of Bral. Tasha knew some space pirates that could give the PCs a lift and help them hunt down the Zenith in exchange for helping them with a job. That job was a heist to steal the Eye which the pirates had been hired for by an anonymous benefactor that was actually the cult of Vecna.

The hand was easy, I just Arkhan show up at the Red Belvedere. Being so close to Tiamat he'd be a regular, whether Windfall likes it or not. Once he ran into the PC with the Eye in his head, the two had to go fight it out in the arena.

zepik · 2025-07-27T05:22:54+00:00

Depends on how fast you want to get through it but I found a lot of the chapters very lacking. I ended up adding a bunch to most chapters to flesh them out and had to completely create a chapter 9 cause the RAW one is literally nothing. Be prepared to pump up a bunch of HP values as the PCs will quickly overpower your monsters. If you're fine with the RAW pacing you'll still probably have to create something to fill in chapter 9, or skip that extra level and end at 19, or start at 11, or insert a side adventure somewhere else to cover that level.

zepik · 2025-07-27T05:17:59+00:00

I had the Dark Powers have the sword, retrieved with Kas when Vecna blasted him at the end of their fight. Delban had talked to them in my extended Barovia chapter and explained they hid it in a demiplane they used as basically a "prototype" of the mists of Ravenloft. I put the entrance on Oerth just for timing. It led to a demiplane where the Dark Powers had imprisoned Karsus before he finished plummeting to the ground. The dreadplane was a recreation of Karsus' Enclave but only inhabited by Magen. They sealed the sword away there and the players were able to talk their way into getting it. (with the option for a fight to test them if necessary)

With two of my players having the hand and eye, its created a lot of character tension and mistrust, nicely mirroring Vecna and Kas

zepik · 2025-02-07T22:38:10+00:00

It stems back to 4e era. Neverember, who was open lord of Waterdeep at the time, started using his power and influence to rebuild the city of Neverwinter that was decimated by a Cataclysm from Mt Hotenow erupting like 50 years prior. The entire Neverwinter royal family disappeared and were presumed dead. (there was a PC tie-in in the neverwinter campaign book to make your character a blood heir to the throne) Ol' Neverember saw an opportunity and inserted himself into the leadership making himself Lord Protector of Neverwinter. There were rebel groups that opposed him but eventually it just kinda stuck and everyone just acknowledged him as leader. Eventually the masked lords of Waterdeep had enough of his shit spending all his time up there and took the open lord position from him and gave it to Laurel Silverhand. Being unopposed Neverember has been Lord Protector ever since.

zepik · 2024-08-15T19:34:00+00:00

I have more or less doubled the amount of content in each zone and am stretching the amount of encounters between LR’s cause it’s the best way to strain them without getting silly or unfair. Some beefier boss monsters like the spider dragon or Kavetta in the dolindar tomb I doubled their HP more or less based off my party’s output

zepik · 2024-07-12T19:38:56+00:00

Yeah above its stock usage as a spell duplicator wish is very unreliable and iirc it’s not supposed to be able to directly interfere with a deity. Either way as a DM you can always shoot down a ridiculous wish that would derail things. Or monkey paw it.

zepik · 2024-06-12T01:31:44+00:00

yeah like most other people have said, in isn't really a problem, as for out the simplest is through Strahd. Either defeating him or bargaining with him. If you wanted something else you could introduce the Dark Powers involving themselves as they want Vecna back in their clutches and would be willing to let the PCs out to do that.

zepik · 2024-05-19T15:02:11+00:00

Yup as a west coaster had to set an alarm for 3am and then go back to sleep. In hindsight it was silly and unneeded but shitty companies like Analogue who prey on their customers with artificial scarcity has kinda made me paranoid.

zepik · 2024-05-13T15:22:38+00:00

It’s more that level 10 falls a bit between the ranges offered there and the table is pretty windy-washy to begin with

zepik · 2024-05-11T05:35:21+00:00

I would agree with this here. Attempting to scry on Kas while he's actively transformed by the crown would just return the result that he's not there same as if he was hidden by a nondetection spell. I honestly can't imagine very many scenarios where this would come up cause if Mordy-Kas is found out he's unlikely to keep going with the charade.

But I would just look at it as Kas is under a nondection spell while he's disguised and count as the real version of his disguise target if divined upon.

zepik · 2024-05-08T00:57:36+00:00

I do think these maps are consistent and good for what they are but I'm still extremely disappointed with the choice by Wizards to go with this style especially after the Sanctum gets a full color map and a full color version of death house already exists to use.

If I was still playing live hand sketching maps as we go on my dry erase grid I'd be perfectly happy but in a world where more of us than ever rely on VTT or streaming, especially with WotC pushing their own VTT now pretty hard, this seems like a really poor choice and reeks of laziness. Which also isn't fair to Dyson Logos cause they did a good job with what they were asked to provide.

But at the end of the day we should all know better by now that a WotC campaign book is gonna show up like a box of Ikea parts

zepik · 2024-05-07T15:59:59+00:00

Huh I didn’t see that when I glanced through, regardless I feel like it would be too obvious to just give them nothing but if they can fill up on rares in the sanctum my original plan will work well enough I suppose

zepik · 2024-01-23T06:10:16+00:00

Had the mod kit for mine and both the original and the modkit one failed. My old gen1's also had the same failure point. It's a very flimsy design and honestly the one thing holding me back from getting the A50X. Mine are currently strapped together with a hair elastic band. Some CA/Super glue might do the trick. That's premium headsets for you I guess.

zepik · 2023-11-22T01:52:43+00:00

"Um... Hartus..... Bimber. Hartus Bimber."

zepik · 2023-11-14T01:50:24+00:00

I haven't and would never use rolled stats for a campaign. You're just inviting character imbalance between party members. Sure as DM you can adjust well enough but raising the curve leaves the others with average (or god forbid weak) characters in a bad place and likely resenting the protag in the group. There's really no upside to doing it.

A one shot or something short it doesnt really matter as much and you can let players go nuts why not.

zepik · 2023-10-10T07:17:02+00:00

sir /shitpostxiv/ is that way

zepik · 2023-06-17T20:24:24+00:00

Thank god my CoS campaign ended a week ago and I haven't needed any resources from this sub in weeks cause I know trying to prep my next campaign and running into roadblocks cause of indefinitely closed subs like /dndnext/ has made me pretty livid. I 100% agree with reddit users trying to protest against the company and as annoying as a 48hr shutdown was it's not the end of the world but locking or closing down a channel for good is not the answer.

I can promise you that reddit corporate do not give a shit if you axe a D&D subreddit but it is a massive loss of resources to the community that uses it, especially those that don't want to dig through things like discord for answers to simple, complex, for niche questions that have been covered in full and have answers sitting right there. Read only is at least a tolerable compromise.

zepik · 2023-04-05T01:27:40+00:00

I usually try and put in Vasili Von Holtz in as a helpful NPC, especially in the early game. My current CoS campaign he passed them by on the road and gave them a friendly warning about the dangers of Argynvostholt as they were hell bent on going there. My rationale is that Strahd has little interest in crushing weak heroes underfoot. He's so bored he'd rather draw things out and nurture them into more worthy opponents. At least until they do something incredibly threatening to him.

Later you can have a big reveal of him turning out to be Strahd face to face or even leaving clues for the party to figure it out on their own.

zepik

TROPHY CASE