>>93917848
It's a shittier retread of an older module. No shit it's bad.

>>93917848
>Modern DnD
>Absolute shit

Checks out. You can play games besides DnD, you know. You won't, because DnD fanboys never do, but you CAN.

>>93917886
If I'm forced to choose between D&D and Pathfinder, I'll take Pathfinder... and just hate it less.
Trust me, I'm actually VERY enthusiastic to play other games, especially some of the old-school sort. It's just a matter of convincing groups of people that those other games, you know, exist. Because it isn't on Stranger Things or Critical Role.
I try, fren. I really do.

>>93917848
Most DnD 5e players don't actually play the game. They just use it as a prompt for improv theater. This is why 5e fans are so casually able to ignore that so many things for their game (and the system itself) are so bad they're basically unplayable when played as written.

If you want an actual GAME instead of theater-kid circlejerking, you have to play a pre-WotC edition of DnD. Or, ideally, a non-DnD system altogether.

>>93917901
I still have most of my 2e stuff- though sadly it was improperly stored in a tropical region and some of the material is... well, humidity and books go together like furries and actual human beings that want to enjoy something decent.

There are things to complain about, you didn't indentify any of them.

>>93917848
Just play the 1E version...

>>93918154
the 1e version was a worse railroad, this version takes some stuff from 2e. But the main reasson why it had staying power is that it included general DM advice that was helpful instead of giving you a railroad and telling you to do whatever and make it work.

>>93918113
Chatgpt doesnt have much memory please understand

>>93917848
First off: "best of the official WotC modules" is not a high bar.
Secondly it's a retread of an older module, like others have said, and "you all meet in a tavern" has to come from somewhere, right?
Thirdly: it sticks to theme. For a system as much averse to horror as D&D it does sell the bleakness well enough.
Lastly: Strahd is just a cool, charismatic villain and the fact that he pops up from time to time to harass the party adds a lot to his charm. Much more characterful than Orcus the Fat Fuck gripping his bony rod in the Abyss all day.
But it does require a lot from the DM. There's a ton of important info and no described way of delivering it to the players. Like what's the point of explaining the backstory for Wizard of Wines in the DM only text?

>>93918113
I could make a list, but I'd be here for a while and I'd be embarrassed- because it'd be obvious I sat through more than 1/3 of this before the DM said "Fuck it, we're not using this any more" and started improvising.
Because that's the way it usually goes.
What's more embarrassing is that I've tried to do this more than once.
>>93918190
I didn't feel like it did 'horror' well. It seems more like someone had all the ingredients and elements of horror, and the closest comparison I have-
It's like your girly little sister playing with your GI Joes.
Except she's 30 and fat.

>>93918335
I see you trying to be funy, but I don't see you bringing up any real gripe. Adress something and we can talk about it, what module did it better, who is publishing better shit on other systems, and so on. Or rserve a spot at an open mic.

>>93918562
So, hear me out: Let's just say I did that.
It wouldn't matter because you are one of three things:
>1: Someone who only plays 5e
>2: Nogames
>3: A faggot and also 1 or 2.
But let's start with the fact that I did, in fact, point out some gripes in the original statement. If you weren't nogames you would know those specific gripes.

>>93918335
>It's like your girly little sister playing with your GI Joes.
>Except she's 30 and fat.
The 40k general is next door.

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>>93917848
Being the best 5e module is like being
>most improved
at the retard convention.

>>93917848
Sounds like a skill issue, OP. My group made it through Death House with our only casualty being a paladin dying to a door mimic, mostly by just exploring the house first.

>>93918726
Calm down, 5etard. 40k may be a shit-show...
But it's not a three-ring 5e shit-show yet.
>Yet.

>>93918815
Stop lying, you don't have a group- you bought a book, nogames.

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>>93917848

>>93917892
Do you have a stable, permanent group? Because in our case the switch was very easy - we played our local not!D&D for years, then the GM got a severe case of burnout and the campaign turned to shit, and when it became obvious no-one enjoys it anymore I offered to run a different system and we never looked back.

>>93917848
It's not I liked it.

>>93919272
Sort of a mix and match situation. I have 2-3 in one group, another 2 in another group, etc.
The problem really isn't that people aren't interested in the other game- it's more like everyone's grown, they have kids, they're giving up a huge chunk of what little free time they have and making a drive- so going and learning a completely new system sort of feels like more work than just playing what they know.
At the very least, I'm going to see if I can get them interested in Grim Hollow or something that's still 5e, and maybe slowly steer them towards OSR (even though my experience there is limited outside 2e D&D, if that even counts).
Best I've managed is to get three people to start playing Five Leagues from the Borderlands.
>>93919312
Anon you just have low standards, making you no different than my wife.

>>93917848
>It genuinely starts out with "you're all sitting in a tavern"
Nothing wrong with that. Nobody cares about your snowflake backstory, you drama queen.

People who bitch about 5e:
>It's impossible to actually die in this, combat is never threatening, nothing ever threatens, Death Saves means no one ever dies!

Also people who hate 5e:
>WTF Curse of Strahd is likely to wipe your entire party throughout the entire damn thing!

Ah, the duality of morons.

>>93919383
>Nobody cares about your backstory
Good because it's like three sentences. I'd prefer to know what the fuck I'm doing in a tavern and have a much more creative segue into a campaign.
You know, like having all of the characters get the request for aid personally- that brings them to the tavern in the first place, and letting them sort of work through all getting a similar invitation and that being the 'bond' that puts them together as a group.
Just a thought, and it's one that works a lot better than the slop you consoom.

>>93917848
>You're likely to get half your party wiped out in any given random combat encounter before you get to the first fucking destination.

You have been waylaid by enemies, and must defend yourself.
"So I kicked 'em in the head until he was dead! Nyeh hah hah!"

>>93919407
You do realize that poorly-balanced content made by people who don't play the game can be exactly that, right?
I mean, assuming you've played something besides 5e.

>>93919421
>I'd prefer to know what the fuck I'm doing in a tavern
You were thirsty and had some spare coin? Is it really genuinely unbelievable that your character might have just been in a tavern getting an ale?

>>93919436
Nah, it's just dry and lazy.
>Sitting and having a beer
>Some fucking weirdo comes in screaming about heroes needed in Borovia
>No idea who this obnoxious faggot is
>Won't answer any questions
>Shrug
>Go back to drinking
>It's D&D, legendary heroes are more common than fat chicks, someone else can fall for that scam
>Roll to fuck fat chick at tavern

>>93919407
So the game shifts between so fucking kiddie and easy that there's threat... or so absurdly difficult that you just insta-die over one little mistake.

I'm not sure your "argument" or calling people morons is the slam-dunk you think it is. In either case, 5e struggles to find a difficulty level that is actually fun.

>>93919421
>>93919451
>I need a personal invitation because I'm a really important special snowflake
Definitively a (you) problem.

>>93919451
Up until that last line I wanted to like you.

>>93919354
>Anon you just have low standards
It's an excellent adventure. You're wrong. Your party sounds retarded.

>"I hate 5e" is his personality
>all he does is playing 5e
Legit mental illness.

>>93919458
Also don't forget that the little 'death house' bullshit that's supposed to bring your characters from level 1 to level 3?
Yeah, there's no way to present that hook that doesn't make it look like an obvious trap. Only a legitimately stupid person wouldn't press those two little shits on the matter, and only an even stupider person wouldn't immediately realize that it's waaaaay to weird to not be a trap.
The average player- and I mean absolutely anyone with a degree of common sense is going to 'nope' that shit and walk on, and call it a win for not taking the obvious bait trap.

>>93919432
2e, 3e, Pathfinder 1e, and 5e, for D&D editions, of which 5e has unironically been my favorite.
Also SpyCraft 1.0, d20 Modern, Star Wars Revised, and Star Wars Saga, for broader d20 stuff.
Also Vampire: the Masquerade Revised, Cypher System, Maximum Apocalypse, New World of Darkness 1e, and FFG Star Wars for non-D&D-derived stuff
Also in the process of setting up an Essence20 Transformers game I'll be running next year and learning 7e Call of Cthulhu for a CoC game I'll be in once that's done.

>poorly-balanced
I got into D&D through the first Baldur's Gate, where it was possible to die in the tutorial if Carbos and Shank rolled well enough, though it was unlikely. It was also possible to die immediately once the game begins due to a wolf and not knowing how to kite it, pissing off a bear that'll mind its own business as long as you don't get too close, or - when moving from the first proper map to the second - being ambushed by any number of random encounters, including something like 8 bandits who all have shortbows and arrows and can kill your 1st-level ass faster than you can say "wait, what the Hell?"

The lesson I took from this, which I've held throughout my RPG career for 25 or so years now?
The world is a big place, and not all of it is level appropriate. Sometimes you're gonna be in over your head. And when that happens, do you bitch, moan, whine or complain? No. You rolls your dice and you takes your chances. You push on. And if you die, well, even in 5e it doesn't take THAT long to make a new character.

>>93919466
No, I need a competent game master because I'm a special snowflake. Hard to find with 5e tourists.
>>93919470
Me too, anon. Me too. Spoiler:
Crit success is crit fail, and vice versa.
>>93919479
Wrong. It's obviously imbalanced, and even a midwit like me can see it. Hell, even tourists can see it. It's just the 'best' 5e module, and you're too afraid to admit it.

>>93919496
>Also in the process of setting up an Essence20 Transformers game
Not for nothing but the GI Joe Essence20 game has been great. I'm an old-school GI Joe fan, but when I played it last year we were just 'Covert Ops' guys. I never got around to finding out if there was other Essence20 sourcebooks that were more 'generic' and not tied to an IP- stuff like monsters, etc.

>>93919501
5e doesn't have "tourists", the regulars are just THAT retarded.

>>93919501
Everything you have to say boils down to
>My opinion is that I'm angry!
Nice blog, faggot.

>>93919532
Yes, that is my opinion.
What is 'fact' is that I am correct.
Dilate.

>>93919501
>It's obviously imbalanced
How so? The whole of Death House is available online for free from WotC, so this can be stress-tested and easily examined by everyone.

https://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/Curse%20of%20Strahd%20Introductory%20Adventure.pdf

>>93919518
I'm calling the upcoming campaign "Transformers '91". It's supposed to be more-or-less in-continuity with the original '80s show, and take place during the timeskip between Seasons 2 and 3, though I'm not too concerned with maintaining canon (after all, it's not like the cartoon itself was) and will be freely lifting stuff that I just like from other sources - for example, I plan to have Terrorsaur and Scorponok break free from their lava imprisonment in Transmetal bodies, mostly because I will be able to legitimately have them explain their backstory by opening with the phrase "long ago in the distant future".

The players are all gonna be Decepticons, too, only recently arrived on Earth, because I'm trying to push them to be more proactive generally. And also because I want at one point for them to be in the middle of doing some evil scheme and then from the darkness a giant metal T-rex arrives and the crew gets to meet the Dinobots for the first time.
>New Objective:
>>Survive

>can't explain why is bad
>only "argument" is "I don't like 5e" and tourist buzzwords
Sad retard trying to fit.

>>93919559
Ah yes, I love having to do out-of-character research on my fucking roleplaying campaign so my character magically knows what mistakes to avoid somehow. Really fucking immersive.

>>93919559
>How so? The whole of Death House is available online for free from WotC, so this can be stress-tested and easily examined by everyone.
And it has, there's no shortage of gripes about it. I genuinely think it's one of the few things that most people actually agree on.
>>93919598
You're way more knowledgeable on TF than I am, but I think it'd be cool to run variations of it- like Transformers during WW2, or Post-Apoc transformers, etc.
>>93919611
Did that in the first post, but you got buttsore and won't acknowledge it. I have spoken to you, you're welcome.

>>93919643
Wait I'm confused. You said you'd already played Death House and felt it was "obviously imbalanced", so I just want you to go through and tell me what parts you thought were imbalanced so I can ridicule you for being bad at RPGs.

But now you're talking about this being out-of-character research like you haven't actually played it yet.

Have you played Death House yet, or haven't you?

>>93919643
Yeah, that exact link is what my current DM used before running CoS, thank God. Because of that he kept the bare bones of the campaign and basically re-wrote most of it.
His biggest gripe was how much of the campaign relies on railroading. And that baffles me because I've always heard people calling it a 'sandbox'.
It's more like a sandbox, but they expect you to make sandcastles and not play with the dump truck and ignore the cat turds.

>>93917848
>It genuinely starts out with "you're all sitting in a tavern" with a straight face.
A cliche is just a trope that's popular, and sometimes they're popular for a reason. No reason to change what works.

>>93919673
You're confusing two posters, dickweed.
But off the top of my head- let's go with the obvious: The 'end boss'. You know, the one they expect you to make a sacrifice to avoid fighting (which even I gotta admit is kinda fucked up).
A CR5 creature vs. a standard party of level 2 characters.

>>93919673
Not the same Anon, but my point still stands. It's retarded as fuck that I as a player need to have specific metaknowledge experience with a module because I will insta-die if my character isn't acting on said metaknowledge.

>>93919354
>The problem really isn't that people aren't interested in the other game- it's more like everyone's grown, they have kids, they're giving up a huge chunk of what little free time they have and making a drive- so going and learning a completely new system sort of feels like more work than just playing what they know.
Why do people think that every player needs to learn the whole system before they play? You can teach them as you go.

>>93919702
>I need to have specific metaknowledge experience with a module to avoid obvious traps

>>93919695
You're correct, I'll take that. It's a generic enough placeholder, and I assume the trope's obvious enough that a smart GM will see that for what it is and modify it:
>"Your monastery has requested you answer this plea for aid, monk"
>"Your warrior brotherhood is stretched thin, and your Marshal has confidence in your ability to see to this matter in the letter"
>"Warlock you don't get to suck cocks anymore until you go see what this junk mail is all about"

>>93919481
most people that spend too much time complaining about 5e are people who feel force to plat it.
If you just try it, don't like it, and move on; you wouldn't develop a hate so deep you need to show everyone.

>>93919711
>everybody receives a mysterious letter (at level 1)
Literally leagues worse than just chilling in a tavern.

>>93919706
So obvious that you're literally recommending people go download and read the module beforehand.

Peak DnD 5e mental gymnastics.

>>93919656
>You're way more knowledgeable on TF than I am, but I think it'd be cool to run variations of it
Maybe, but I personally want to run a game set in the not-to-distant future year of 1991. Though keep in mind this means that it's a version of Earth that has had Cybertronians running around on it for the past 6 years or so, so the 1991 that the players come to will not be our 1991.

It's also intended as something of a "breather". The last 5e campaign I ran got kind of dark and ended with a TPK at 20th level in what was supposed to be the big climax, and the following and current 5e campaign a friend is running is going fine, but it's set in an evil carnival of horribleness and madness and so on. And of course, after Transformers we'll be playing CoC and all the madness that entails.

So I'm intending the Transformers game to be deliberately lighthearted and Saturday Morning Cartoony, to give us a mental/emotional break from the darkness and insanity and so on, and instead just kick back and have fun with ridiculous plots and dialogue and so on.

>>93919703
A few of these were 3e players, for them 5e is just 'easy enough to do without stressing'. Look, I feel you. But I guess that's what happens when you have kids and don't know how to arrange a hunting accident and free yourself of the burden.

>>93919719
So a bunch of strangers forced you to play 5e at gunpoint?

>>93917892
No, you aren't.

ACKS has a whole discord of people who want to play and are looking for a GM as well as a couple of GMs who are looking to run something. Hell, I might end up doing so in the near future because I'll need to playtest my dark elf book.

If you want to run, I will play any of the following: Fantasycraft, Earthdawn (3rd or 4th) if we're talking Fantasy. If you want to run non-fantasy, Conspiracy X 2.0, Shadowrun 4E, Fabula Ultima, Ryuutama, most of the nWoDs.

Except you're not going to run shit. You're just gonna whine and complain.

>>93919721
Except that serves to place the characters that have just met together.
Look, maybe I'm a weirdo but I don't go running off with people I don't know on adventures. That's how you learn there's no real treehouse in the forest and butt stuff happens.

>>93919736
>Discord roleplaying
Sorry anon I like to be around people, not do discord half-assery.

>>93919748
>"you already know each other and are chilling in a tavern"
That sure was hard.

>>93919732
you read
>feel forced
and you assumed they were literally forced? How can your reading comprehension get this bad?

>>93919699
>the one they expect you to make a sacrifice to avoid fighting
How do you not take one look at it and realize that you're supposed to run, not fight? My group instantly realized that we should book it.

>>93919702
What "metaknowledge" do you need to take a look at a betantacled monstrosity and think "maybe running would be a good idea"?

>>93919736
>ACK discord
You can't make this shit up.

>>93919757
Got it, you're a nogames faggot.

>>93919772
rent free

>>93919778
NTA but you sounds like a "no friends" faggot. For obvious reasons.

>>93919721
Level 1 PCs are not shit-covered peasants, they're still meant to be competent people.
>>93919778
>someone who isn't playing with strangers online must not be playing at all
Weird cope.

>>93919783
lmao, that's rich coming from a KHV

>>93919762
I'm obviously hyperbolic. How can your reading comprehension get this bad?

>>93919807
Are you some underagefag who's desperate to fit in here and just spouting off buzzwords you've seen in an attempt to do that?

>>93919807
>that's rich coming from a koi herpesvirus
OK.

>>93919830
I've been here since grey area, boy. Take your hat off when you speak to me.

>>93919806
>strangers
I keep forgetting that the board is overrun with ESLs and double-digit IQ retards.

>>93919778
No, I just like being around actual people when I play games. I like knowing that I can do that, and make actual friends.
You see, when you actually shower and do laundry- it's easy. You don't have to hide behind a screen.
But then again, who am I to judge you? I sit in a group of people and pretend to be a hero with a straight face. You sit in front of a computer and pretend you're not jerking off with another guy when you 'roleplay'.
Both of those take dedication, but I assure you I smell better.

>>93919847
No, boy. You sit up when I speak. And you are welcome, I have spoken to you.
Now be quiet, the men are talking.

>>93919847
Oh, so you're old and stupid. That's much worse than being young and stupid, guess I was being too charitable.

>>93919726
The rest of this thread is dog shit, please continue talking about your Transformers game. Any idea for plots and schemes, events, etc?

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My friends have loved it so far, saying the setting is great and the environment is particularly dreadful.
Of course, I made a few tweaks and adjustments here and there, but that's what you're supposed to do when you're the DM.
That's what you do, right?
You wouldn't be a little loser baby nogaems trying to get board cred on an anonymous forum, right?

>>93917848
Did anybody else notice there is a suspicious lack of detail about any actual games this nerd has tried running with this module?

>>93919984
As far as plot goes, I mostly want the players to do that - I want them to be proactive, with Autobots, humans, other Decepticons, Sub-Atlanticans (I’m statting out the Seacons to be robots that Nergill built), and so on showing up to mess with their plans

But that being said just in case that doesn’t work out I do have a plot involving Starscream building up resources needed to turn an Air Force boneyard into an army of Seekers loyal to him so he can finally overthrow Megatron. If he can repair a bunch of WWII-era vehicles that had been stuck in the sands of Iwo Jima well enough to make the Combaticons then I figure he can work wonders in a boneyard. Of course Megatron has no idea what he’s up to and the PCs might even be told by Megatron to report back to him on Starscream’s activities.

The specific series of adventures along those lines will be:

1. Train robbery. Astrotrain and Blitzwing want the newbie ’bots to go rob a train full of energon. It’s the introductory adventure from the Decepticon Directive book, but I’ll be adding in that Starscream additionally wants them to nab a train car that turns out to be full of old US cash that’s bound for destruction (a parallel to one of the most famous train robberies in British history, in the 1970s).

2. Starscream doesn’t care about human currency…but Cobra Commander does. He’ll have the PCs work with Cobra to go to a black market weapons auction (1991 is the year the Soviets fell, remember) using the cash to covertly acquire a human nuclear missile. Of course Cobra intends to betray the Decepticons.

Cont’d…

>>93920401
Cont’d…

3. Starscream sends the PCs to Cybertron via space bridge to infiltrator an Autobot prison and break various personality cores out and bring them back to him. All of them will be G1/G2 Decepticon planes who never made it into the cartoon, in particular Dreadwing and Smokescreen.

4. Starscream’s having some trouble with the boneyard’s decommissioned planes so he needs help from a human - Dr. Fujiyama the Famous Scientist. The PCs are sent to kidnap him, but in the process either Dr. Fujiyama intentionally or the PCs accidentally reactivate Nightbird, who wants revenge on Starscream. She’ll talk entirely in lines recorded from “Enter the Nightbird”. The PC’s job will be to protect Starscream from Nightbird while also securing Dr. Fujiyama.

5. Starscream’s plans are complete, and he heads to the boneyard to get his army. Of course this being Starscream there’s even-odds of the new Seekers, lead by Dreadwing, turning on Starscream immediately. The PCs can side with Starscream, Dreadwing, Megatron, or just try to sit the whole thing out. They might even be able to team up with the Autobots.

>>93919924
keke, wtf is this character?
it reads like a dom in a romance novel aimed at 40y/o housewives

Bait used to be believable

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OP you forgot to mention the best part!
>Spend 1 year+ on this shitheap of a campaign
>Ending is literally "Strahd Comes Back... BECAUSE HE JUST DOES OKAY?"
Curse of Strahd fucking sucks and is a power fantasy for DMs who want to be sadistic le 4d chess masterminds.
Its pure fucking hogwash.
Anyone who praises Curse of Strahd outs themselves to me as a literary brainlet.

>>93919984
Completely off topic and unrelated, but I can't fathom why Hasbro hasn't tried to create a Transformers miniatures game. Basically each 'bot is 2x models (or more if you're a tripletard like Blitzwing), and the vehicle and bot mode would have their own stat lines.
If Hasbro won't do it, I would be stoked to see someone make a 'not transformers but robots that change into vehicles' game.

>>93920512
> Strahd Comes Back... BECAUSE HE JUST DOES
He comes back because we’ll-established beings vastly more powerful than him specifically make it happen. Quite aside front that, the point isn’t to beat Strahd, it’s to escape Barovia, a thing that Strahd himself can’t do. He’s in his own personal Hell, and there he will stay. Forever.

>>93920457
Nonsense, I'm aiming for the over 50 mark. That way I can breed me a Downie to do manual labor.

>>93919354
I see. It's a bit different then, we kept the weekly game we started in our late 20s going with people dropping out for a few years and rejoining when the kids were big enough (we do birthday, dinners so that everyone can get together even when they're not actively playing). That said, you might warm the crew up with a few one-shots with pregens to make the perspective of switching system less daunting. 1shotadventures got about two dozen excellent ones, each for multiple systems, I highly recommend them.

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>>93920512
5e Ravenloft is trash

>>93920512
>You encounter Strahd
I'm going to shoot that faggot
>You cannot move
Why not?
>Strahd's power compels you to freeze in place
Is there a saving throw?
>No it just happens
OK, no saving throw- not even a 'nearly impossible unless you crit twice' save?
>No it doesn't work that way you just freeze
OK fuck I guess I'll eat the food
>So the meal is delicious
I'm gonna stab that faggot with my fork
>You can't, Strahd's power stops you
How does he know I'm gonna do that?
>He just does
Fine I'm going to clean my plate and have seconds, then lick the plate clean
>Strahd is upset because you think he'd poison you
No because i ate it all it was actually fantastic, it's free food to boot
>But Strahd is mad
Why?
>He's just mad now you're kicked out, go find the sword that can kill him like he told you to
Why would he want his enemy to find the sword that can kill him and give it to him? He has like a hundred dudes
>YOU ARE NOT PLAYING THE GAME AS THE WRITER INTENDED THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION
I'm going to actually help him and maybe convince him to be a better guy
>You can't do that
I can try
>No
This is literally just a story with my character's name ad-libbed into it.
>IT IS THE BEST OFFICIAL MODULE MADE TO DATE
Let's play Pathfinder instead

>>93920565
Fuck off with this apologist bullshit.
I understand 100% the forces at play, but it doesn't make it any less retarded or unfulfilling, no matter how much "Um Ackhsyually" exposition you throw at me.
Youre roping people into a year long game and then at its conclusion youre expected to look them in the eye and tell them they essentially accomplished nothing suffering that all that edgy grimdark bullshit.
Its not just bad, the book canonically tells you you wasted your fucking time.
I wrote better shit as a preteen

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>>93917848
I'm very familiar with I6. I've intentionally never read through CoS but I've played all the way through it twice, the first time I redeemed Strahd and the second time I usurped him. I can't really see anything wrong with the product. It establishes the borders of the domain at basically the exact ideal size to be manageable but still fully described. It has like six additional dungeons, tons of NPCs, a nonlinear narrative track that's not required just gains the macguffins and allows the parties to level up as much or as little as they choose. The only complaint I had both times is that there's so much to it that the final dungeon crawl in the castle isn't particularly climactic but DMs seem to suffer from fatigue by the time the party gets there. I'm not sure what Players could objectively want out if an adventure that isn't provided by CoS.

>>93920620
>YOU ARE NOT PLAYING THE GAME AS THE WRITER INTENDED THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION
This is my biggest fucking problem with CoS. Its a shitty railroad that punished or straight up tells the DM to squash any and all attempts of creativity or smallest deviations from the edgy grimdark power fantasy the book demands you follow to the letter.
No matter what you do, your choices dont matter unless theyre lockstep with the module.

>>93920620
you're just a bad DM

>>93920626
you missunderstood the goal of the campaign.
maybe you have poor reading comprehension or you had a DM that didn't pressent things right.

>>93920650
>play the edgy grimdark power fantasy setting
>there is edgy grimdark power fantasy stuff
Whoa!

>>93920634
>There's a whole bunch of shit added! That makes it GOOD
You see you can heap a bunch of things together in a pile, but if they're of low quality and poorly balanced or lacks real playtesting (or more accurately, refined based on playtesting feedback)- you just have a heap of unusable shit that needs to be sorted through for hours before it's remotely usable- and at that point, the poor bastard DM is just better off getting out his notebook and homebrewing his own CoS.

>>93919728
In my experience if you're enthusiastic enough about a game and you have a tight enough group, people are mostly willing to take the leap. Most OSR games are not that different from whatever edition of D&D, the d20 mechanics will carry you through.

>>93920620
The Hell DM has Strahd’s power just “force” the PCs to stay in place? He has oodles of hit points, legendary resistance, regeneration, and the ability to turn invisible. There is zero reason for him to not just let the PCs hit him, laugh it off, disappear, and then come back seconds later no worse for wear.

I think you just had, or you just are, a shit DM.

>>93920662
I'm not the DM, faggot. I wouldn't run this shit as it is.
Maybe you're just a nogames and the only things you know are 5e and the disgusted gaze of your poor single mother

>>93920678
>I read the book alone and never really actually played through it
Wrong, faggot. Try again, nogames.

>>93920662
>You misunderstood the goal of the campaign
I understood it plenty. I just dont have patience for apologists who refuse to call put dogshit for what it is.
>Um ACKSYUALLY Anon its about escaping Barovia and now Strahd cant! Its the Curse of Strahd! Like tbe title! You just dont get it!

>>93920679
oh, that makes sense, you don't know how to DM so you don't understand how to use a module. Thanks for letting us know.

>>93920689
do you get mad whenever you don't get to kill a king in a game?

>I'll repeat "you only know 5e" and "no games" again and again
You will never fit, zoomie.

>>93920692
Oh, no- I know how to DM. I just also know how to interact with people, I brush my teeth, and I've felt the inside of a woman with my penis before.
Sit up straight when I speak to you. You have been spoken to. You're welcome.
"Sir" will be the last word you use if I allow you to address me again. Next time you have an opinion, ask me what it should be and I will inform you.

>>93920709
>You will never fit, zoomie.
That's what your wife said.

>>93920727
>being mad
To close to home, right?

>>93920695
Anon Im not upset I dont get to murder hobo Im mad that the writers couldnt take 30 fucking seconds to write an ending that is in the least bit fulfilling.
There are so many characters or ways you can have Strahd return in a narrative way that doesnt rob the players of their sense of success and accomplishment.
Have his spirit take over somebody like Ismarck.
Lich King his ass because "Barovia Must Always Have a Lord"
Have that one Dark Elf girlfriend take his throne.
Fucking. ANYTHING is better than "He comes back uhhhh just cause le spooky ass Dark Powers haha."
It comes across as Strahd being one of those 2Cool4u Villains that cringey DMs dont let you beat because its their edgy self insert and they always have to win.
Its garbage writing.
I understand 100% the themes of the campaign.
Its still shit.
The ending still sucks ass.

>>93917886
SPBP
If you had balls and dignity you would stop playing anything made by WOTC.

>>93920740
Zoomie was the dog. But joke's on him, they moved to Springfield.

>>93920716
cringe

>>93920766
opinion disregarded, you're welcome.

>>93920668
I mean, like I said I've intentionally not studied the product directly but both times I've played it the DMs were fairly inexperienced (one was a full on noob) and the adventure tracks felt scaled correctly. Maybe on the Hard side but never outright Deadly and the available XPs put a large party comfortably in the over-leveled range for the Castle. Maybe its a Player skill issue.

>>93920741
>Lich King his ass because "Barovia Must Always Have a Lord"
that's what happens
Barovia exists entirely for him, you are trapped in someone else's nightmare. It has always been the concept of the setting.

>>93920777
Nah, I think it's more like you read through the book and pretended you played it.
Don't take that as an insult- that's not as low as the people who go and read through the book and then try to play through it with a group of people
>"I'm so good at RPG!"

>>93920780
Hence why it has no real value. Call me a weirdo, but as a player it kinda sucks to play through something only to find out it doesn't matter at all, it was all a waste of time.
It's a midwit's writing that is designed for lackwits, defended by fuckwits.

>>93920780
My brother in christ Arthats Menethil does not randomly come back 5 years later because "The Dark Powers."
I swear you Strahd apologists always have the same song and dance.
Its the most retarded subgroup of the 5e playerbase which is in and of itself filled with retards.

>>93920797
>Stahd murdered his brother over jealousy
>This is obviously an extremely significant thing that no one else has ever done and this one time it has ever happened it warrants an entire pocket dimension to fuck with the guy
>Also it sucks random innocent people inside and they suffer and die
>Because justice
>Just play the goddamned module like you're supposed to and follow the instructions

Holy shit, the projection level of this retard is off the charts.

>>93920828
You might want to properly reply to the retard before you start calling someone a retard, retard.
That's called projecting, too.

>>93917848
>You cannot convince me this shit was playtested.
Knowing how WotC has been operating for the last few decades: It likely wasn't at all. At least, not in a way where the feedback would actually change the final product, which was the case when they playtested "D&D NEXT"/5e for years and then threw everything out at the last second and slapped together some bullshit watered down version of 3.5 instead.

>>93920564
Word is that Hasbro isn't doing so good financially, and if they go under then maybe someone competent will get the license. We can all hope, right?

>>93920795
It's like complaining you can't destroy a dungeon.

>>93920797
It's not a 5e issue, this was always how Ravenloft worked. It's obviously reassonable you won't like it, but it's not a new development or anything. The people who liked it were always okay with this aspect.

>>93920811
yes, same as Dracula. It's a regular thing in the genre. You're just saying you don't like the genre, which is fine but it's not an objective argument of value.

>>93920838
>you'll better feed the troll
Retard.

>That's called projecting, too.
No it's not, tardo.

>>93920840
I'm starting to believe their 'playtesting' is basically the same as GW 'playtesting'
>Offer Youtuber 'influencer' faggot a free copy of the game to playtest
>He gets to review it before anyone else after a certain date because he has an advanced copy
>If he complains about it too much we'll not give him free toys any more
>Surprise all the feedback is positive

>>93920784
This couldn't be more exactly the opposite of what I'm talking about. Are you off your meds?

>>93920797
Guess food analogies are more your speed:
>go to mcdonalds
>complaint about burgers

>>93918190
>Thirdly: it sticks to theme. For a system as much averse to horror as D&D it does sell the bleakness well enough.
There's a fundamental problem there and it's that D&D 5e does not do bleakness. The investment is too high and the only outcomes allowed are win or die. Strahd attempts to be bleak by making the odds of dying extremely high, and since there are so few meaningful ways to mitigate risk or danger, dying is the outcome most likely to happen with the DM constantly intervening and pulling punches.

>>93920856
No, but you can actually do something meaningful in a dungeon. You know, because putting in effort to do something but getting nothing out of it is a waste of time.
>Surprise you played a campaign over 6 months
>Nothing changed it's all the same as it was before
>Because reasons
I swear the 5etards never cease to amaze me with their staggering levels of stupidity.

>>93920869
I know what you said. I just don't believe you. And I know that bothers you.

>>93920688
lol. lmao, even.
Been so long that you’ve played a game that you forgot how they worked, didn’t you?

>>93920885
>5etards
The setting and its "rules" are from AD&D, nogames zoomie.

>>93920856
>yes, same as Dracula.
Dracula is not permanently trapped in a pocket dimension with several towns worth of innocent people to torment for a timeless eternity because of some bad thing he did.

>>93920885
>>Nothing changed it's all the same as it was before
nothing chages in the world after a dungeon.
You get some treassure and level up, which is meaningless if that's the end of the campagin. In Barsovia you get to escape, which is also meaningless if that's the end of the campaign. The goal is always escaping, it's like a prison break module. You get to murder the warden but someone else will take his place and keep everything the same, you get to murder Stradh but he comes back like Dracule in a Hammer movie.

I do understand that it's super easy to set the wrong expectations and get a shitty ending, but it's not because the general concept is by design wrong. People liked Ravenloft since forever.

>>93920906
>"I-i-i-it's the same as the original! It said so on D&Donenextnow!
>>93920902
I know it's generally poor form to read a book and pretend you played a game, I just don't believe you.

>>93920913
he pretty much is, just not explicity because you don't watch a 6 month long movie that has to develop justifications for its tropes.

>>93920919
>It basically resets for the next guy to come along and play, like a video game
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the 5e target audience.

>>93920862
It's exactly what they just did with "2024 Revised Edition" by releasing preview material and early drafts of the Player's Handbook for people to skim over and then sending preview copies to youtubers, even though the books were already being printed and produced. They never even previewed or publicly playtested any of the new DMG or MM material at all and those are in production right now.

>>93919736
I will never play ACKS and anyone who does is gay

>>93917848
All the people bitching in this thread kind of miss the point. As someone who has tried to run CoS, the big problem is the opening of the game is really, really shit. There aren't really any good hooks in the village of barovia, so the first act of the thing feels really meandering. If I were to run it again, I'd start them off in the fortified village in the north that actually has shit going on.

Also, like every 5e campaign, the gimmick is bad. It would have been better if the artifacts and ally had specific places they were, instead of the randomizer. I get why they have the randomizer, it was in I6, but it just means the campaign gets to be super vague about shit and offload that work on the GM because all of these critical stuff could be anywhere. It's the same as the fucking four seasons shit in Dragon heist, it's a bad gimmick that actively makes the campaign worse and adds absolutely nothing.

>>93920855
I seriously doubt that the people who could afford the IP would be any better stewards than Hasbro.

>>93920927
That's objectively false. The book and the movie do not establish any sort of dark powers or pocket dimension where Dracula is forced to suffer for eternity. That's literally not how it ever worked, you lying faggot.

>Discussing about D&D "lore" in 2024
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

>>93920950
Sounds familiar, they said the same thing whenever 4th came around and Pathfinder was starting up.
No, it's not the 'same'- but Pathfinder isn't 'nothing', it serves as proof you don't have to have the rainbowfaggot stripe Ampersand D&D corpologo to be successful, and there's clearly a market for more options.
D&D is not tabletop roleplaying. No more than 40k is tabletop wargaming.
There are options out there. They are less popular. That doesn't mean they're not as good, that just means corporations do everything in their power to press their brand name to smother everything else out.
(And they actually do have methods to do exactly that- do you think 'D&D night' and 'Warhammer Night' or 'Friday Night Magic' are just coincidentally a thing at every FLGS and no other games can be played on those nights because it was a 'cool idea'?

>>93920970
I'm not entirely sure what your point is? I'm just saying that there are a lot of people who seem to be under the assumption that "oh, if only another company would buy D&d from big mean Hasbro, it would be fixed and better" and I just think that's incredibly unlikely.

By all means, play other games, support other, smaller devs, there are a bunch that are incredibly deserving.

I also think >but Pathfinder isn't 'nothing', it serves as proof you don't have to have the rainbowfaggot stripe Ampersand D&D corpologo to be successful, and there's clearly a market for more options.

Isn't that exactly what Pathfinder*is* though?

>>93920913
No, I suppose not, although…

> with several towns worth of innocent people
Most of them aren’t even really “people”, they don’t have souls, they’re pretty much just meat robots living out a parody of life to torment Strahd further. And the ones that do have souls are not necessarily good or innocent people.

But over and above that, at what point did you think that a group of entities known as “The Dark Powers” were the *good* guys? They mig it get their jollies off of tormenting particularly evil and vile individuals but they’re not good. Strahd isn’t even the big bad of his own setting.

He’s already BEEN defeated. He’s already IN his own person Hell. He’s a noble lord who doesn’t even rule over real people; he’s a talented wizard with no ability to access new magic; he’s a great conqueror who’s stuck in a valley so small that you can walk from one end to the other in a couple hours; and he lists after a woman he will never, ever, ever have.

Strahd dying *and staying dead* would be a mercy for him. So you REALLY want to do that? Because if so you either had or are a shit DM, because a DM is supposed to make you hate Strahd and want him to suffer.

>>93920993
Oh, I got you. My bad, I misunderstood- my dumb ass thought you were insinuating Hasbro was the best hands for the IP to be in.
I stand corrected.
And yes, Pathfinder is basically just another flavor of faggotry.
But it *is* another flavor, at least.

>>93921003
You may think you're writing a really compelling argument for why it works and why it makes sense, but all you're doing is describing why CoS is a contrived, stupid waste of everyone's time.

>>93921003
No, but I don't really want to play through this entire campaign- and let's pretend it's a fantastic story that just absolutely rocks, the stakes (lol get it) are high, and we have to struggle and fight and journey together and-
LOL doesn't matter, it resets and happens all over again
You literally just wasted the characters' time on a trivial, meaningless 'game' within a game.

>>93920938
It adds replayability. No matter how meta you get or how familiar you are with it you still have to go engage with the adventure to find the artifacts.

Starting in Valachai is a reasonable thing to do though.

>>93917848
>It genuinely starts out with "you're all sitting in a tavern" with a straight face.
Why is this bad?

>>93921091
It's not bad if you're DM and need to pull something out of your ass to get your homebrew rolling.
It's bad if you're working on the household name of tabletop RPG's and are supposedly one of the 'best' writers making the 'best' module for the 'best' RPG

>>93921091
It's not, unless your character is a pretty pretty princess or an edgy demon from hell etc who wouldn't be in a tavern.

>>93921117
My character is, in fact, a pretty pretty princess.
And the idea is you're going to make a 'starting from level 1, right from scratch' it would have taken just bit of effort to create some sort of scenario that brought the characters together.
But why bother arguing? Hasbro bends over, spreads its ass, and your mouth is eagerly opening to eat ever sloppy turd that you can get from their ass- and you're holding out your money for them.
Maybe, just *maybe* people expect a bit more 'creativity' and a bit less 'generic'- especially considering the price tags of these 'products'.
But you'd have to have experience outside of 5e to know what that looks like, tourist.

>>93921091
OP is a faggot (who would have thought?) who need a special backstory and epic closure for his snowflake character. He also tries really hard to fit here.

At least that's what I got skimming the thread, it might be worse.

>>93921144
You've also made this same post in several ways pretending to be different people, faggot.
We get it, you're buttsore because someone said mean things about the only game you know.
Be happy, enjoy your product. Hogs slop in shit, so slop away piggy.

>>93921151
Yeah dude, you totally got me. No way different people called your bullshit.

Also holy crap, you've been here being a passive-aggressive faggot for 9 hours straight so it's, indeed, way worse that I assumed at first.

>>93921164
Cry about it harder, faggot- you've been here as long as I have.
Tell me about all your great game sessions on Discord with trannies, I'm eager to hear.

>>93921142
Or, you know - the Players could come up with a completely original collaborative narrative backstory together. Maybe all their characters met gangbanging your princess character! That could work!

>>93921164
>Same ESL style posting as the other whinging bitch that totally wasn't the other whinging bitch
OK son.

>>93921174
Sounds great. And like I said before- I almost think that may have been implied, but maybe it should have been more clear.
Hey, look- I can take this as me being nitpicky. In fact of all the other concerns I have with it, this one is probably the least important (but admittedly made me facepalm).
The way we did it was that it was more like one of those 'we've beet set up' sort of things that drew us all to a location together, a sort of weird Hateful Eight scenario with just as many slurs.

>>93921142
So you expect a complex backstory that fits any possible race/class combination of 4-6 lvl 1 characters?

>>93921170
>>93921179
>replying twice on CD
Thanks for proving my point.

>>93921023
> with several towns worth of innocent people
The 2e module Night Below revolves around a bunch of aboleths trying to build a magic tower that’ll let them mind control everyone for hundreds of miles around. Defeating them involves destroying the tower. Does this mean that no aboleths can ever build the tower again? Does the knowledge that some aboleths could build it again ruin your victory?

Well, tough tiddies. If a thing can be done once, it can be done again and again. Strahd’s entire backstory involves him coming back from the dead once already and he’s nothing more than the Dark Powers’ play thing. If it really pisses you off, well, the campaign ends at level 10, so there’s 10 entire levels where you can continue your adventure to try and take the fight to the Dark Powers.

> You literally just wasted the characters' time on a trivial, meaningless 'game' within a game.
You escaped Hell, Anon. Even if it wasn’t your personal Hell, it’s still Hell. Is Descent into Avernus shit because you can’t permanently defeat Asmodeus?

>>93921192
I expect a few alternate suggestions, at least- something other than 'you're all just sitting in a tavern'. That works, sure- but only enough to make the DM and players come up with something better. I think that's it's actual purpose, to be honest.

>>93921206
>An entire pocket dimension and villain essentially resetting all over again in spite of everything the characters have done, and having no impact on the world is the same as an asshole moving into another asshole's old apartment
Once again, the target audience.

>>93921206
Avernus is shit for plenty of other reasons.

>>93921208
Guess they could add a short list of generic samey "you know someone there" but it would be the same. A good DM could tailor one for his group since is impossible to take every possibility into account but its a non-issue solved in the first minute of play.

>>93920634
didnt this artist make another picture of the tomb of horror?

>>93921254
Yeah he has quite a few ranging from "great" to "the best thing I ever saw". That I6 one is pretty hilarious especially if you've played it.

>>93921253
Totally 100% agree, but that's the entire problem with CoS. It's a module that requires constant 'DM adjustment' to the point where the actual module itself isn't very useful outside of the most basic structure.
The one time I've managed to get through it with a group of people successfully, the DM was basically modifying and changing pretty much everything. Gotta give the guy credit- as cheesy as the 'Castlevania Strahd second form' thing was, it was more satistfying than 'You leave the place but it goes back to exactly the way it was before you got here, it sucks and people suffer, good job faggot'.

>>93921281
>It's a module that requires constant 'DM adjustment' to the point where the actual module itself isn't very useful outside of the most basic structure
Isn't that every module? I can't really remember any long module being good. Sort stories? Sure, but every long campaign is usually too railroaded for my taste.

>>93921303
You're.... not entirely wrong, but it has been a while since I've thumbed through any 3e stuff. I just remember a lot of 3e feeling 'bland'? Once again, been a while.
But- I'd be fine with the 'skeletal outline' system, somewhat like the campaign stuff you'd find in the back of the Fantasy Flight games like Dark Heresy- a very 'general checkpoint' layout- the GM was expected to fill in the gaps as he saw fit, with whatever encounters made the most sense.
And- I'll concede this point: NuD&D has very much spawned a generation of DM's that actually don't know what to do unless it's written right in front of them, to the point where some campaign modules feel like you could just pick it up and play without a DM since all the work is done for him (for better or worse).
So- yeah. Shit module, but good DM's are hard to find and the current 5e sludge doesn't cultivate that. Maybe I'm wearing rose-colored glasses when I look at the past.

>>93921339
So, again, what's your rambling? Most long modules suck? That's a given. Raveloft sucks? Yeah is a crappy setting loved by edgy teens. 5e sucks? No shit.

>>93919421
At least be fucking honest, then. "You're in a tavern" is just one of four listed hooks, and even then, it's aimed directly at the group, because the adventure expects the characters to already be a group, not a bunch of edgelords each sitting in their own corner. Other hooks are "Local lord (female) hires you to deal with gypsies, because the guards can't get the job done", "You're hunting werewolves and the tracks lead you to Barovia" and "You're traveling wherever, suddenly, fog! Welcome to Barovia, motherfuckers!".

>>93921402
Well when you put it like that, I don't need to add to it

>>93921461
I'd be more upset I couldn't actually exterminate the Gypsies and got shoved into doing some bullshit vampire horse-shit instead of the Lord's work.
The latter one is probably the funnies, throw them in the most generic campaign 'homebrew possible' and just slowly hint at it and suddenly- Ravenloft fuckery.

>>93919723
Well, his mistake is assuming you aren't nogames retard and can read. He's recommending people to download and run the thing to see how imbalanced it is in practice, instead of repeating some claims you've seen on the internet.

>>93921469
It's OK, I remember rambling a couple weeks IRL about how shitty that "Rise of the Runelords" module is despite allegedly being one of the best.

>>93920856
Why can't you destroy a dungeon? I've got 20 niggers with pickaxes, sledges, and shovels. Why can't we destroy the dungeon?

>>93921478
You're supposed to just tell them to fuck off, not exterminate them, because of course WotC won't let you do that (and their leader is CR6 mage with mind control magic). That being said, if you do what you're supposed to and talk to them, you get the most informations about what's going on in Barovia, and you're led without random encounters to madam Eva who tells you what you have to do.
And if you want to murder the gypsies, hey, Barovia's their central, and Strahd is their protector, so you still have to deal with him.

>>93919723
That is fucking well not what I recommended *at all*. An Anon said it was badly designed, which implies that they’d *already played it*, which is why I pulled it up so we could go over it and they could point out to me what they found problematic, so that I could point and laugh at them for being an idiot.

The entire scenario was premised on the idea that they HAD already plays it, not that they hadn’t and were looking for an official strategy guide or something.

Because as near as I can tell the only “metaknowledge” needed to beat Death House is “you know you can run away from things, right?” It worked fine when I played it.

>>93921787
See, that works. I kinda like that one, or the general theme of it- getting 'tipped off' to lead you down the path. That works quite a bit better than the standard generic one.
It's still kind of generic, but it's got a bit more of a hook. Especially since the fog will make us hate the fuck out of them because we've been duped.
I mean, more so than normal.

>>93921031
I don't buy the replayability argument. If I was a player, the placement of the sunsword being in a different spot isn't going to somehow make it a totally different experience. And as a GM, the replayability would come from playing with a different group, not randomly placing shit. It's a bad reason for a terrible design choice.

>>93921254
>>93921277
He's also got a comic adaptation of Lovecraft's Dreamquest that's fucking incredible. Mockman is good shit.

>>93921796
Disregarded
>You can just like 'take the bait' on an obvious trap, duh
That's the first problem. I know the kids are an illusion of the house- but even if you didn't, and had no way to confirm that... the way they're supposed to act is so weird, you can't help but think there's fuckery afoot if you're a player and know nothing about the Death House.
The clear answer for any player that doesn't know he's intended to be a gullible idiot is to say "No, this is a trap, I'm going to walk away" and that'll be the end of it.
That's the first part. I'd have to go through the entire module with you, and pretend your DM didn't fudge rolls (or that you actually played it).
Personally, I don't care whether you did or not. I'm clearly not the only person with this opinion, nor am I in a small minority.

>>93921754
because that's not the appeal of it.
People write Mario and Sonic fanfiction where they fuck, but the appeal of those games isn't inter-company hook ups.

>>93921828
>It's a bad reason for a terrible design choice.
It's literally video game design. Something that you'll use for a randomized dungeon crawler or something.

>>93921967
Video game design doesn't work well for a tabletop RPG. Players generally don't want to go retrace their steps like Elden Ring to go and maybe get a good loot item, they want a new adventure altogether.
...however, I'd say it could be interesting if you play with the 'time is different in Borovia' where the players return and it's been a long time since Strahd's fall, and the place is completely different now, with new threats and power structures. For the players, it's been a few years at most, but for Borovia it may have been decades.

>>93921967
>It's literally video game design.
it predates videogames

>>93921992
>Video game design doesn't work well for a tabletop RPG
Indeed. I was agreeing with you.

>>93922106
>rogue released in 1980
>I6 released in 1983
Good job, zoomie.

>>93921857
> problem. I know the kids are an illusion of the house
Wrong “run away” moment, Anon, which you’d know if you actually were reading the thread since I talked about it already. The shambling mound at the end of the adventure, the “final boss”. A CR 5 against a bunch of 2nd level PCs who might not be at full health. But did you consider not fighting it? Did you consider running away?

>>93921887
Fuck you, who are you tell me what the appeal is. I want to demolish the dungeon. I have access to the tools in-game and I want to use them. What's the point of having them otherwise?

>>93922171
The real bullshit comes if you run away or kill it (which isn't that hard: It's stupid, slow (20' movement) and melee only, though it explicitly fits into 5' corridors despite being large; so it's it's not a problem if you have ranged attacks and have cleared the rest of the dungeon), when the house itself will try to kill you.
I'd say the two ghasts who ambush you when you loot the chest (and who aren't telegraphed in any way) are more dangerous. Or the shadows if you're stupid enough to touch the orb.

>>93922246
The bullshit starts right at the beginning of death house. The PCs are funneled I to the house by fucking poison fog. No good hook or compelling reason, if you don't go in the house the fog gets you.

>>93917848
Because it's a pre-made adventure, and those are always shit, regardless of system, and only lazy faggot GMs who should not be GMs run them.

>>93921828
If you know where the artifacts are you'll just go straight to them, grab them and go kill Strahd.

>>93922776
Yeah, it's almost like replaying a campaign that you've already played is a fucking stupid idea, huh?

>>93922776
You're missing the point. Who replays modules like that? And, aside from the placement of those items at who the ally is, literally every single other thing is exactly the same. How would replaying that be engaging at all? How would running that for the same group be fun? It's bad game design.

>>93922776
>namefag is retarded
Every time.

>>93922829
Well, some people like it, though the “replayability” might be intended to be more DM-side than player-side. These days it isn’t terribly uncommon for a DM to move between multiple groups. The DM who ran CoS for me (as part of our general gaming group that’s been together since 2005) also ran it for two other unrelated, new-to-D&D groups, for example, because he wanted to DM at the LGS and said store preferred DMs to run premade adventures over original campaigns, for marketing reasons.

Fun fact: all three groups ignored the “KEEP OUT” sign on the wagon, but each of us in different ways and for different reasons. All three groups had the wagon blow up and all three of nearly suffered a TPK as a result. But most notably it blew up a long-standing theory I had, which was that magical traps and arcane doors and whatnot basically serve as a “I’m rich, rob me” sign to thieves and a sturdy lock and “KEEP OUT” sign would work better. Boy was I wrong.

>>93922818
>>93922829
>>93922850
You do realize this adventure is over 40 years old right? As I said before I personally have played through even this 5e version twice. DMs like it (because it is, in fact, a good adventure).

Additionally there are players out there who read the adventure they're playing. It seems to have died down a bit from the peak of that shit in the mid 00s though. Probably because Players don't read period anymore not even the PHB

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>>93920401
>>93920407
Goddamn, that sounds awesome. Can I play in your game? What system are you using for this?

>>93923589
>DMs like it (because it is, in fact, a good adventure)
5e DMs like it because it does all the work for them. It doesn't have to be good for it to be liked.

>>93923757
It's an Essence20 game, and overall they're not bad- just sort of lacking in content outside their individual core books.

>>93920588
For the love of God tell me that this isn't an image from the actual Wotc module.
Are the OSR and Todd rants real?

>>93923589
I've never encountered a DM that liked it. I've encountered DM's that liked the end result after they *salvaged* it.
The popularity of anything in 5e is suspect, considering the quality of most of its players and diehard supporters.
I'll shit on that module, but at the same time shit on the average 5e player- including the DM's: Most of them are lazy, stupid, incapable of figuring out how to do something unless the book explicitly tells them how to do it, and even with the Baby's First RPG 5e system they still fuck up the most basic rules.
Playing with a group of 5e fans isn't something a decent human does with the expectations that it'll be a great experience, it's more like you're hoping it's a tolerable one with as few faggots and trannies stinking it up (literally and figuratively) as possible.
Your 'popularity' metric also pertains to that faggot rainbow banner all over D&D shit, too, you know.

>>93924722
I mean, I did get autobanned from Reddit for suggesting that the "horrible ritual that could turn humans into elves" for this guy's setting should be gay sex "since that's about the elfiest thing there could be" but it got reversed on human review.

I actually play D&D in real life with members of my community though and I live in a red state so... it's not hard for me to keep it adequately minimized in my own games.

>>93924712
I think it's from the Ravenloft splatbook that turns it into a D&D horror themepark sort of thing. One area is zombie land. One area has werewolves. One area is lovecraft-ish. The wheelchair guy features in several of the art pieces, if I'm remembering correctly.

The book also sucks and not even diehard 5e fans talk about it ever.

>>93924926
Demiplane of Dread is a 2e setting but 5e definitely woke it up by 5-10% or so.

>>93924973
All of 5e's campaigns and settings are based on older or existing material, because WotC is devoid of originality.

>>93917901
>Most DnD 5e players don't actually play the game
...which you wouldn't know about, because you proudly don't play 5e and look down on people who do... and even if you're performatively lying about that fact in a juvenile attempt to gain approval, you cannot claim to speak for all 13.7 MILLION players.

This is some real self-deluded, source: trust me bro, "marriage counselling from a Catholic priest" level bullshit.

>>93925017
Out of the Abyss?
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight?
Descent into Avernus?
Rime of the Frostmaiden?

I mean I'll agree that, for example, Storm King's Thunder is very clearly meant to be a take on Against the Giants; Princes of the Apocalypse is just Temple of Elemental Evil; Tomb of Annihilation is just the Tomb of Horrors (or at least the Tomb itself is; the adventure across Chult and Omu itself aren't really based on anything).

But what about those other campaigns I mentioned? What are they based on? Wild Beyond the Witchlight particularly stands out because as far as I'm aware it's the only TSR or WotC published D&D campaign module, ever, where it's possible (though difficult) to go through the entire thing without any kind of combat encounter.

>>93917937
>I'm not a sexual deviant, honest, those people are!
...sure.

Kind of awkward, just bringing that up for no reason.

Anyway, shame about the 2e stuff. That must be heartbreaking... I've had to adjust to the 2nd hand market accelerating beyond anything I can possibly afford, especially those beautiful box sets.

>>93918778
Yeah, or being divorced / single the longest among 4chan users.

>>93919451
You're falling into the trap of modern thinking. Taverns used to be a public meeting place where it was perfectly reasonable to discuss business or seek hirelings for odd jobs. It's why we still call them "pubs".

>>93919501
Yes, yes, you hate everything, you think that makes you cool, moving on.

>>93919538
>Rent free, every day
Are you going to cry about 5e doing "modern day California shit" and then play it anyway?

>>93919757
Same. Discord roleplaying - and for that matter, Virtual Tabletops and online tools - are and always will be absolute dogshit.

>Set game for 5 PM, allocate 4 hours like a normal tabletop session
>grand_and_intoxicating_,innocence.xml
>Barely get past the setup and first encounter because it takes 5-10 minutes to type what could be said in 30 seconds and have to take turns with asking questions and declaring actions
>By the time Player A has finished typing about checking the crack under the doorway for movement or noises, Player B already typed "I kick the door in"
>Internet speeds and services in most advanced countries are spotty and prone to failure - no coverage = no game and no way to reschedule
>Internet failure means you can't even access your character sheet on the shitty online service
>"Oh, you bought the sourcebooks, anon? Now you need to buy a subscription to keep them... plus more for minis and tokens... plus more for dice "skins"... You're also limited in how many character sheets you can have unless you upgrade... you want maps? Click here for the online shop!" **Rubs nipples**
>Blackouts
>Distractions
>Equipment failure

Real gamers do it old school, face to face with pencil, paper, a handful of dice and real fucking books.
>>93919778
Is this some kind of weird cope over people not wanting to be in the same room as you?

>>93919807
>King Henry the Fifth

>>93919847
So you have friends who don't want to spend time with you in real life, and will only play with you over Discord? That's a pretty massive self report, old timer.

>>93920588
>Durr hurr le 5e is trash meme
>Posts decent piece of full colour, full page artwork to "prove" it's point.

Is it trying to be funny by posting this?

>>93920620
>From the makers of "the wokies are why my wife left me" and "why don't the kids speak to me anymore" comes...
>SKILL ISSUE: THE POST

>>93920689
"I understood it plenty"
>reiterates how he missed the point

>>93920716
My god, you really are an insecure little bitch. You sound like the guy who got a threesome in college and then won't stop mentioning it for 30 years.

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>>93919917
>implying I ERP
>implying I haven't visited the friends I made on Discord
>implying I don't keep in touch with my IRL buddies on Discord
>implying you play games

Jesus Christ, boy. You have a heck of an imagination.

>>93925259
I wish I saved that image about making up lies to be offended about.

>roleplay with adults who understand the value of time
>why the fuck are you TYPING in something that has a voice channel you weirdo?
>Internet in the Anglosphere is fantastic, the only time I have an outage is when the entire East Coast has an outage, which only happened back in... what, 2012? When we had the hurricane that knocked out power to all of NY?
>who the fuck buys books or dice? nigger have you even seen a Roll20 page? Also being able to search a PDF for a ruling is faster than flipping through a book.

Like yeah I know a lot of people talk about people not showing up. The answer is "respect." If people respect you, like they do me, they're not going to miss sessions, or tell you in advance, because all my peers are working adults, not thirdie NEETs. Honestly, you sound completely deranged and weird. Try interacting with real people, I dunno.

>>93920811
>Strahd murdered his brother over jealousy
>Something that never happens

...you left out the part where he made a pact with death itself (something that also happened to T'Laan in Spelljammer) and got screwed by the fine print. Also, the fact that when he took over Barovia he committed a ritual where he was ceremonially and magically "married" to the land - guaranteeing that just as he was damned, so was Barovia.
>because justice
...it's not about justice, it's about malice. Strahd broke the obligations of his station, betrayed family and guests (something once considered so fucked that people are STILL distrustful of people named Campbell after the Glencoe Massacre of 1692) and all for craven lust; so the Dark Powers dragged him and his land into the mists to torment him forever. That's all they care about, they literally do not care about random people caught in the crossfire because they either can't perceive them, condemn them by association, or don't give a shit.

I've actually read "I, Strahd" - you're just a fucking cunt tourist who doesn't get it.

>>93920855
Yay... Dubai buying D&D... sounds... great.

If that happens, the next edition will be so shit, with so many cut corners, you'll be begging for 5e reprints.

>>93925081
>The Underdark
>The Feywild
>Baldur's Gate
>Icewind Dale
>All of 5e's campaigns and settings are based on older or existing material
Literally none of these are original settings, my friend.

>>93920885
Other people are stupid, but you don't understand how Hammer Horror movies work?

Ok fuckwit. Door is that way ---->

>>93925413
CoS is not a Hammer Horror film and the people who wrote it never watched one, and neither have you, clearly.

>>93920934
>Doesn't understand Hammer Horror
I hate to shit on young people, but you really had to open your mouth and prove your ignorance, didn't you?

>>93920937
Why is ACKS so bad?

>>93925449
Are you the retarded? Are you THAT fucking stupid you goddamn mongrel waste of space? Curse of Strahd IS a Hammer Horror film with Strahd being Dracula played by Christopher Lee. It's got all the same set-pieces, the same melodrama, and the same themes. The fact that you're dumb enough to actually show how fucking stupid you are is... well, okay it's not surprising because you're an retarded thirdie but still.

>>93920959
I bet you think Christopher Lee was Brandon Lee's son, you ignorant cunt

>>93925460
It isn't. It's actually really good.

>>93920970
>do you think 'D&D night' and 'Warhammer Night' or 'Friday Night Magic' are just coincidentally a thing at every FLGS and no other games can be played on those nights because it was a 'cool idea'?

Wow, you're right - since chewing the lead siding and taking multiple head injuries, I can think of absolutely no reason why a game shop, a place that specifically sells games, a place whose continued existence depends on sales, would want to promote two of the most popular, most supported, best recognised and best selling games currently on the market that they currently have in stock, instead of giving valuable table space to games of FATAL and "Barbary Coast War".

You're a genius. I bet you get out of the bath to take a shit and everything.

>>93921020
>>93921023
Just admit you two dumb cunts have never seen any Christopher Lee Dracula movies and fuck off.

>>93921109
It's almost as if it's a module from 30+ years ago with updated mechanics or something

>>93921142
>Goes magical realm out of nowhere

>>93921224
Yeah, because horror movie villains NEVER come back for a sequel, do they? Freddy, Jason, Pinhead, Jigsaw, all of them were replaced in subsequent films by a series of Latino heartthrobs after happy endings where the good guys won and everybody clapped.

>>93921402
>I'm a miserable cunt
Oh, we know

>>93922776
Where does it say in the book you can't change things around? Or are you just bereft of creativity?

>>93924722
>I don't like it because it's popular and I'm a faggot hipster
>It's the LGBT's fault no-one will play with me, not my poor hygiene or shitty personality or lack of filter

The absolute cope.

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>>93925360
You don't know me, cunt. I've been running fortnightly games face to face with the same group for 5 years now because unlike you, people can stand to be around me.

The rest of your post is just 24 karat pathetic bullshit.
>Has almost unlimited time to sit around online while his ass expands in all directions like a cloud of gas
>Thinks everyone is comfortable hearing their voices compressed through 128k audio
>Thinks everyone is sitting in fucking New York
>Doesn't know most of rural America is still on fucking dialup, Australia neutered it's NBN, all British traffic is routed through a single location, etc.
>Cuck for corporations, so buckbroken he doesn't even own fucking DICE
>Completely ignored my comment about blackouts
>Friends keep him at arm's length; thinks this makes him "respected"
>"No one could possibly have children or responsibilities I don't have, they must be NEETs"

>>93925449
Holy fucking Christ you're a moron. Hammer Horror inspired everything in Ravenloft, right down to the artwork in 2e.

>>93925468
THANK you. FINALLY someone who knows the original inspiration and can think of Dracula without imagining Keanu Reeves mangling a British accent.

>>93925569
That's a movie. Not a tabletop roleplaying game. A movie is a story designed to entertain an audience, a tabletop roleplaying game is a game system designed around a story where players attempt to overcome challenges in order to achieve something- whether it be a sense of accomplishment or some in-game reward that will assist them in the future.
When you effectively push them through an entire series of challenges and the only 'payoff' they get is "You get to go home now, but the bad guy is just going to reset because REASONS!"- that's shit writing, probably from someone whose only ''game" experience was World of Warcraft and not tabletop games.
>>93925629
>You don't like my favorite pretendy-time game, and I have low standards, that makes you stinky and homophobic
Please assure me that your mother didn't let the same man father another error after you, and someone managed to put something worthwhile in her gut before her eggs rotted.

>>93925536
A movie is not a game, you dumb son of a six-fingered whore.
The only people who think like this don't play games, they have drama club with dice collections.

>>93923026
>though the “replayability” might be intended to be more DM-side than player-side. These days it isn’t terribly uncommon for a DM to move between multiple groups.
If you're running it for different groups, the randomizer absolutely doesn't matter, and it would be better to have a more strongly written module instead of one written in a hyper vague way to make room for the randomizer. That's my point. It actively makes the module worse, for zero benefit.

>>93925386
>I read pretendy-time story book
I don't even believe you.

>>93925334
You whine like your wife was part of it.

>>93923589
We aren't talking about I6 you fucking mong. I don't give a single fuck about I6, but I will give the credit that, in the eighties with a lot of open tables and con games, and the fact that the whole module just takes place in the castle,the randomizer makes more sense. In Curse of Strahd, the 5e adventure that the op is talking about, the randomizer is fucking terrible design that's only there because of legacy bullshit.

>>93920588
5e ravenloft and 5e everything is absolutely a pile of shit. Even this art is moronic. An elf in a wheelchair accosted by green undead and covered by 3 black africans partly or fully racially....This is just propaganda for morons.

The people involved with 5e and current D&D have nothing but pure hatred for the game in general and for GOTHIC HORROR in particular.

This is not a game, its a propaganda pamphlet you pay for

>>93925106
You're not wrong about the secondhand market. Some slob running a game store in a closet between a jackshack and a nail salon will get a warped, ripped-up 2e book and slap a price tag on it like it's worth its weight in uncut cocaine.
>>93925296
>hurrdurr skill issue
I don't believe you play tabletop games and I don't think you got past Undead Burg in Dark Souls, either.

>>93925816
God I fucking hate that wheelchair bullshit so much. The lengths faggots will go to in order to justify someone using it doesn't even pass the sniff test. Absolutely everything it would take in order to get that wheelchair to function is just exponentially more difficult than getting yourself healed with a proper Greater Restoration.
If a legitimate cripple in a wheelchair showed up at my table and wanted to do a wheelchair dude, I'd say
>"yeah, sure, but we'll just assume movement and all that stuff is otherwise normal so we don't have to overcompliate it, and handle any oddities on a case-by-case basis"
I'm not going to be a dick to some cripple. However if it's some faggot/tranny/noodle-armed weirdo that just wants to do it for representation/bait purposes, the very first thing that happens in a campaign
>An ass-naked man with a radiant halo jumps out of the bushes, lays his hands on you, casts greater restoration, waggles his penis, and runs away
>You can walk now and are totally fine
>Why would you want to keep the wheelchair, you can walk, give it to some kid that needs it you selfish asshole

>>93924973
>5e definitely woke it up by 5-10% or so.
It definitely went more than 10%, they turned a bunch of darklords into women or blacks even when it makes little sense like
>the Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins being black in an England inspired domain
>pushed the Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins to the forefront without even showing their more esteemed uncle and made them girlbosses that SAVED George and Van Richten rather than the otherway around
>Ireena being black in her current incarnation when Tatyana was originally a pale redhead
>Lyssa being black despite being Strahd's grandniece
>turned Alanik and Arthur gay, made Alanik wheelchair bound and Arthur black

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>>93917848

They keep selling these massive books because they sell despite being overly long unplayable garbage. Short, modular, adventures are far superior but don't make the numbers go big.

>>93925990
>Implying there aren't black people in Britain
>Muh girlbosses whining noises
>Muh redhead erasure meme
>Doesn't know grandparents only contribute 1/8th of a grandchild's genes unless they're as inbred as he is
>NOOOOO YOU CANT HAVE A DISABLED CHARACTER, THERE HAS TO BE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE IN A LITERAL HELL DIMENSION
>NOOOOO YOU CAN'T MAKE A CHARACTER GAY, I HAVE TO FANTASIZE ABOUT FICTIONAL CHARACTERS POUNDING PUSSY
>NOOOOO YOU CAN'T MAKE A BLACK CHARACTER OPENLY GAY, HE HAS TO LIVE ON THE DOWN LOW AND JUST SUCK OFF HIS MATES IN SECRET LIKE I DO, GUYS DO CRAZY THINGS AFTER SIX BEERS, GET OFF MY BACK, THE RASH WILL GO AWAY ON IT'S OWN

Whining like this is why Whizz-snorters of the Coast don't bother listening to your bullshit opinions.

>>93925863
Wow, so Ravenloft is a setting with heaps of good clerics randomly healing people with major and expensive magic that works perfectly fine, out of the goodness of their hearts?

>>93925832
>don't believe you play tabletop games
Copium, 500mg, nocte.
>and I don't think you got past Undead Burg in Dark Souls, either
I don't listen to death metal.

>>93925816
>Thinks black people don't play D&D
>Thinks black people don't want to people who like them
>NOOOOO YOU CAN'T HAVE CHARACTERS WITH THAT GUY'S SKIN COLOUR, IT HAS TO BE MINE

Pale, pasty, fragile. Like porcelain.

>>93925800
What, my ex wife? Impossible, unless you were also fucking an Alsatian. Although given this website, I wouldn't put it past you.

>>93925794
So you haven't read it, and can't disprove what I said. Got it.

>>93925784
Let's see if I can use small enough words for your tiny, oxygen starved, simian brain to process.

>"Da People who make pretendy game need ideas. Dey get BIG ideas for da pretendy game from da BIG BOOKS, da GROWNUP BOOKS with noooo pictures, and da GROWNUP movies... Like Paw Patrol, but with scaaary monsters."

Get your carer to read it to you, Downie


Anyone who didn't come down in the last rainstorm knows game designers drew inspiration from a variety of sources, from films to novels to myth and legend. Anyone disputing this can be immediately dismissed as an absolute shit for brains.

>>93925771
>Alexa - what does "fidelity to the source material" mean?

>>93925771
>Shits on gay people
>"How does that make ME homophobic????"
>"Hurr durr your mother." (Wow, I'm so clever and original... I better write that down)
Wow, SOMEBODY'S grandfather was part of the atoll nuclear testing

>>93924973
>>93925990
>50%, easily.

>Lady Isolde turned from a badass pale goth angel waifu into a black bossgirl* fairy
*there's an obvious difference in demeanor shown in the artwork

>speaking of, the Gentleman Caller turned from an incubus into the Genderneutral Caller

>the SKALD Harkon Lukas is obviously now black, along with his european style domain

>the obvious Vlad Dracula stand in is now a woman

>obviously the Dr. Frankenstein, too

>Vistani are no longer well detailed Gypsy tribes

The Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins "saving" two of the biggest hunters in Ravenloft when they were kids instead of Gennifer nearly fucking dying was legit one of the biggest gayest stupid retcons in the story, though.

>>93926607
Oh yeah, also near everything about Von Kharkov and his domain that got changed.

>>93922171
What, was I supposed to know its CR before I fought it?

>>93926607
>Lady Isolde turned from a badass pale goth angel waifu into a black bossgirl* fairy
They could have at least made her a hot black lady, like damn, she was supposed to be a literal celestial eladrin.
>the obvious Vlad Dracula stand in is now a woman
They also water-downed the whole domain from a fascist patriarchal human-supremacist military state ruled by a bloodthristy tyrant who everyone around regarded as a warmongering madman (and thus had an alliance against) to lol zombie apocalypse. Not only butchering Falkovnia's relationship with its neighbors, his rivalry with Gondegal, but also Vlad's whole deal being the likely grandfather of Malocchio and the "father" of Vigo Drakov.
>The Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins "saving" two of the biggest hunters in Ravenloft when they were kids instead of Gennifer nearly fucking dying was legit one of the biggest gayest stupid retcons in the story, though.
Yeah this is absolutely retarded, especially what their actual 3e stats were and the fact they basically always needed allies when hunting considering their low level.

>>93926689
>the fact they basically always needed allies when hunting considering their low level
Yeah basically like Doc Van Richten, they had to hunt smart.

Imagine the scene from Guide to the Walking Dead where Alanik Ray cornered the main zombie of a hivemind and called them to interrogate him... but now he's in a wheelchair, and gay.
Or when he somehow tracked a hag and shot her, but now in a wheelchair. And gay.

>his rivalry with Gondegal
Oh right, Gondegal picked him as his nemesis, right?

>Vlad's whole deal being the likely grandfather of Malocchio
That part I didn't recall. Also not a fan of how they implied the Gentleman Caller turned into a straight up rapist in 3e. Doesn't fit the incubus modus operandi.

>>93926723
>Oh right, Gondegal picked him as his nemesis, right?
Yeah Gondegal was basically Vlad's foil; a former mercenary with kingly ambitions, but chose to become a lord knight errant instead of a tyrant. Of course in 5e, they make Gondegal a literal who and gender bend him because they can't have a old heroic white guy leading a honorable knight order that protects the weak and innocent.
>That part I didn't recall. Also not a fan of how they implied the Gentleman Caller turned into a straight up rapist in 3e. Doesn't fit the incubus modus operandi.
It was mainly for White Wolf's whole plot behind the Gazetteers, each one was Azalin scouting out the Gentleman Caller's kids so he could hijack the Caller's plan; which was creating a (or enough) half-vistani cambion capable of getting him out of Ravenloft so he could leave Isolde behind.

>>93925403
So? What are they actually based on that makes them unoriginal? Telling a story in an existing setting doesn’t automatically make it unoriginal. If I write a novel set in Chicago it doesn’t mean that it’s based off of The Dresden Files or something.

>>93925771
>that's shit writing
Evidently not, because that basic premise was popular enough to become the basis of an entire campaign setting where it turned out Barovia was just one Darkrealm and Strahd just one Darklord in an entire plane made up of these personal Hells. And you are literally the first person I’ve ever met who complained about the Domains of Dread as a concept. Individual Darkrealms, sure, but never the fundamental idea of them.

Maybe the problem is you, Anon.

>>93920588
post more of this emetic "art", if anyone can

>>93920588
the fucking Weathermay-Foxgrove twins became black africans....another black guy in a suit fit even for the modern era. Alaniik fucking Ray in a wheelchair...

you cannot move in a wheelchair almost anywhere in a fantasy world and even the modern world is a difficult place to navigate in a wheelchair.

above everything this is STUPID. All of it/

>>93917848
>Curse of Strahd such a heap of shit
when people writing it as huge asses, then you get heaps of shit.

>>93925863
>than getting yourself healed with a proper Greater Restoration.
Depending on why their legs won’t work, Greater Restoration won’t necessarily work either.

>>93926664
No, you’re supposed to take one look at a massive betentacled monstrosity and react like a normal human being. Or a cowardly cunt of a human being, in my character’s case. Or a gay crippled tabaxi, in your character’s case.

The point being that by the time you’ve reached it your character would have had to deal with various undead and animated armors and stuff which probably taxed your health and resources and your parties’ health and resources pretty severely, and then a giant evil plant that ghostly cultists are chanting over rises up?

Yeah. Turn and run. How is that not your official “fuck this shit!” moment? Or alternatively, stand and fight it. “It’s what my character would do”. Which means that what your character would do, is die. Congrats, you are the person who dies five minutes into the story to prove that the situation is serious.

>>93925125
Is this your first day on 4chan anon? You're trying way too hard

>>93927139
>by the time you’ve reached it your character would have had to deal with various undead and animated armors and stuff
Oh so I was just supposed to know to run from that one particular monster, but not from all these other ones?

>>93927171
if you ran before then you wouldn't meet this enemy and fighting or escaping from it wouldn't be an issue to discuss. Same as if you died before getting there.

>>93927193
So in other words, you admit that there is no logical reasoning at work here, you were just supposed to metagame.

>>93926460
Fucking kill yourself

>>93925691
What a retarded post full of assumptions and terrible reading comprehension. I don't even know what the fuck you're arguing about, but you seem like a complete retard

>>93927171
The other monsters are powerful for the level you encounter them at, which you don’t need meta-knowledge to know because they would have kicked your party’s ass and left you pretty badly injured and with depleted resources, which is definitely something you know in-character on account of the bruises and lack of leveled spells and the fact that Kyle has spent most of Death House paralyzed. And then you encounter a giant betentacled monstrosity, your character thinks “nah, I’ve got this”?

>>93927275
My party was fine though.

>>93927292
Then what are you complaining about the shambling mound for? Congrats, your party is badass enough to defeat Death House without dying. Go have a cookie.

>>93925808
Legacy is not bullshit. It's basically the only thing holding this crapshow together.

>>93917848
>Why is Curse of Strahd such a heap of shit?
because they did not do a woke revision to make Strahd what he was always meant to be;

a pansexual super-morbidly obese chinegro (yes black + chinese) transexual woman of color....

this is the only acceptable Strahd

>>93917848
Curse of Strahd was the first ever game I DM'd, so I have a soft spot for it because of that. I recognize that the main adventure is very flawed and doesn't work that well if ran RAW, but I feel Death House is a pretty well done one shot module and certainly the thing I'm most fond of from CoS; I still have fond memories of how that adventure went, my group of players slamming the door shut in the Banshee's face, using the nearby furniture (bookshelves, chairs, a couch) to blockade the stairs leading to the second floor and crush a bunch of animated armors slowly advancing upon them. I remember them getting to the basement with the ritual altar, realizing just too late that there was a rat in the room they could've used as a sacrifice, and panicking about whether or not to sacrifice one of their own or try to fight when the Shambling Mound woke up. It was one of the few moments where the Thief's Item Interaction as a bonus action feature was legitimately useful, with them managing to turn the wheel that opened up the gate to the ritual chamber, then keep the wheel in place with a crowbar jammed into the nearby wall, which let everyone escape the basement without anyone being consumed by the shambling mound. There was a really hectic moment of everyone running through the chambers of the house, the shambling mound getting closer and closer and everyone eventually being cornered on a balcony. Everyone successfully jumped to safety, except for the Rogue who biffed their roll and wound up impaled on a nearby iron fence. When the unholy powers of Ravenloft offered them a second chance at life, they refused, knowing it would cost them dearly. Just had a fantastic time all around, really endeared me to DMing. Unfortunately the rest of the campaign wasn't as great, and while I'd like to blame it on somewhat bad players (with one really egregious example) I think it mostly came down to me being an inexperienced DM.

>>93920588
I just realized it must be really fun getting around in that wheelchair on the average spiral staircase. I'm almost sure Castle Ravenloft had a couple of those.
Is he gonna take Strahd to court on Ravenloft, California over this?

>>93927596
where and how does he piss and shit? is he going around with an aura of stinking cloud because of all the urine and crap? Do they wipe his ass? Change his diapers?

Life in a wheelchair is hellish.

>>93927474
>this is the only acceptable Strahd
historically speaking, too

>>93922171
>>93922220
Here's the proper answer for a good adventure. If your final boss is bullshit, you give the PCs the proper tools to defeat it by demolishing the dungeon and getting out just in time. Running away is underwhelming.

>>93925691
Okay Flyover Freddie, then your opinion doesn't matter at all. Talk to me when you live in a state that matters.

>>93917848
Curse of Strahd: Revamped....eleased with the publisher's new focus on diversity and inclusion

without a 600lbs chinegro female transexual Strahd how could this revision truly be inclusive?

And how could it be diverse if all white characters have not been eliminated and replaced with proud obese women of color?

Strahdisha, the new and real name of Strahd, would be in love with a mystery-meat obese but not super morbidly transexual hairy pig (we have to pander to the animal-rapist crowd)-human hybrid (cover the transhuman "community") and many other changes.

And of course a revision and revamping of the Touch of Death adventure, where the plot will be around the fact that Cleopatra (greek) and the egyptians (egyptian copts in modern day) were all black as the night itself black subsaharan africans....

>>93917848
>Why is Curse of Strahd such a heap of shit?
imagine the inclusive diverse glory of another revamping

Curse of Strahdisha

we are talking about great stuff. Wow.

How proud and strong a woman like Stradisha is. Wow.

Of course Stradisha will be Muslim and her enemies white blonde and red haired paladins and clerics. Inverting the Vlad Dracul vs the ottoman turks.

>Curse of Strahd: Revamped
>Strahd isn't a double vampire
Wasted opportunity.

>>93917848
>You cannot convince me this shit was playtested.
:) my man, if you think that was not play-tested you have to read this thread and the "Thoughts of darkness" adventure.
https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/91669877

https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/search/subject/ravenloft/

>>93927968
>Where are my virgins, Eva?
>You said there would be virgins, you old wench

>They're RIGHT FUCKING THERE! Just fucking take them, you... you DOUBLE VAMPIRE

>>93917848
>'best' of the official 5e modules, and it's just fucking awful
1.they are unable to improve upon pre-existing material
2. they are unable to produce adventures that are new or ANY GOOD PRODUCTS WHATSOEVER

5th edition, March 15, 2016 we get Curse of "Stradisha" and now its 2024 September 18th

It is 3109 days
Or 8 years, 6 months, 3 days
Or 102 months, 3 days

in all this time we have not gotten 20 ravenloft new adventures. If they did 1 adventure per 5,1 months we would have gotten 20 new ones.
If it took them 1 year, we would have 8 new ones and half-way for a 9th.

They are all trash. The entire company stuff and structure.

1 adventure does not require 5,1 months it takes much less. Much less.

>>93925712
>in 2e.
We're talking about 5e, retard.

>>93920913
Castlevania Dracula pretty much is.

>>93917848
>Why is Curse of Strahd such a heap of shit?
I think its time for me to write a fan edition of "Curse of Stradisha" and show those wotc crypt-fascists what true diversity and inclusivity is.

now with all deviant -philias and every psychopathy known to man, and beast.

Frankly if i do this, it will be better than anything they have ever put out.

>>93928226
5e ravenloft is not gothic horror its not horror and its not gothic. Its not even pseudo-something, its useless junk.

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>>93928231
I6 predates Akumajō Dracula by three years and very obviously inspired it.

>>93925536
>>93925471
>>93925468
>IT'S JUST LIKE DA MOVIES
Have you fuckers actually watched those movies and played through 5e Curse of Strahd? Superficial and surface level similarities do not make them identical stories. Trying to invoke older and better things is not how you prove that Curse of Strahd is actually good and well written. Neither the book, nor the Hammer movies are that close to the source material. Inspired by it, no doubt, but not identical in story or execution. There's no dark powers. There's no pocket hell dimension. There's no endless cycle of eternal suffering, chasing the same woman, reincarnated forever in the Hammer films nor the source material. Dracula fucking dies and stays dead at the end of both.

>>93928315
>but not identical in story or execution. There's no dark powers. There's no pocket hell dimension. There's no endless cycle of eternal suffering, chasing the same woman, reincarnated forever in the Hammer films nor the source material. Dracula fucking dies and stays dead at the end of both.
yes, not identical but the purpose is to have the atmosphere

dark powers suck as a concept, we already have deities in the settings and we do not need generic whateverness evil deity or deities in Ravenloft called DP

pocket hell dimension was pretty good but the "endless cycle of eternal suffering, chasing the same woman, reincarnated forever" makes defeating Dracula.... Strahd pointless. As well as many other darklords. This needed more thinking. Since he is already dead/undead then he cannot reincarnate, ok its just a term, but his re-emergence indeed demonstrates this can only be a hell dimension and not anything else.

Dracula died or was rather destroyed and it was good, and so should Strahd.

>>93928315
Yeah no shit they're not identical. It's a derivative work but it has the same themes. Jesus Christ, people with autism need to be isolated away from the world.

>>93917848
>Why is Curse of Strahd such a heap of shit?
Strahd's white privilege is to blame. Its the patriarchy's fault.

>>93917848
>the DM would be better off just writing his own Ravenloft campaign from scratch
sadly yes, though the best would be to do the above and have a series of officially published adventures that were actually good.

>>93928391
>this can only be a hell dimension and not anything else.
Correct. However if you're a cool enough dude it IS possible to permanently defeat Darklords using this rad thing called The Grand Conjunction or something similar if that's cashed out in your 5e Ravenloft.

>>93928391
The people claiming that Strahd works as a story, as a character, because it's just like the Hammer Horror movies, a thing which happened in this thread, are trying to excuse the problems with the writing of CoS as a campaign. Because the reasons Strahd doesn't work and fucking sucks, outside of the poorly designed encounters, boring adventure, video gamey randomization, etc, is that the story is fucking dumb and deviates excessively from the things that makes the classic gothic horror story work.

>>93928446
It does not have the same themes, though. It has superficial similarities and little else. Curse of Strahd is aggressively nihilistic and pointless. Dracula, the novel and the classic movie, is about destroying evil to save an innocent and protect the land. And also that Gypsies are evil.

>>93917848
>Why is Curse of Strahd such a heap of shit?
it needed more vistani interactions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bcZ_pKcIEI

>>93928313
Or at the very least, the cover art for Castlevania 2.

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>>93927087

>>93928540
>classic gothic horror story work.
the adventure and all ravenloft adventures have to be seen through the above and restructured so they can indeed be fun and work.

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>>93928606

>>93928594
5e Vistani aren't even real Vistani anyway. It's almost like they're a commentary on the 5e fandom.

>>93927654
The shambling mound isn't a "final boss". It's a shambling mound that can't even leave the basement it's stuck in. The final boss is Strahd, and the module is literally all about getting the tools needed to defeat him.

>>93928628
A person in a wheelchair has no chance of survival. Daily life is struggle and its horrendous. This is emetic exploitation and a mockery of suffering. Its not heroic. It is insulting and exploitative in very petty way. Living in a wheelchair is a nightmare 24/7. When one plays fantasy games he does not want to be a cripple anymore he wants to be fully capable of motion. Fuck wotc.

The other jackass with the suit has zero chance of survival as well. Where is he going dressed like that? to a walk at the park?