Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[Alabama Gamer]

I've run the numbers, and my cleric character has (entirely unintentionally) completed the Cycle of Weird Uncledom. Except for that point in the cycle, but the GM has made it clear that any mentions of Folca in his game will result in the spontaneous generation of very large rocks.

He started out as Priest Uncle, since I like to play characters who are well-adjusted and have loving families. Getting dragged on continent-spanning adventures with little opportunity to write home made him Distant Uncle. Events transpired which led to the party being accused of being demon cultists, so he turned into Felon Uncle. Then the party got itself stranded in the First World for what turned out to be more than a year of normal time, so he became Disappeared Uncle. Then there was the whole secession movement the party was involved in, which would probably make him Extremist Uncle. After that was resolved he became a landed noble, so he was now Incredibly Rich Uncle. The party then set off to explore a strange new continent, which either makes him Traveling Uncle or Expat Uncle depending on whether we permanently set up there. Finally, after a very recent crisis of faith (crises of faith hit very differently when you're a 15th-level cleric and have the wherewithal to lodge complaints with the management in person), he got a job offer from Cayden Cailean, god of drink and adventure. He has achieved his final form: Alcoholic Uncle.

 

[Brain Problems]

it is in general. need a map quick? prompt it. need a fitting npc image? prompt it. want darth vader narrate your magic realm? prompt it.
the faster and more convenient it gets to use, there more people and even normies are gonna use it.

Do you have a list of the sites/resources you use for these kind of things? My experience in AI generated content is very minimal and it seems difficult to separate signal from noise with regard to shit that actually works.

 

[Tactical Wizard]

Do you have a list of the sites/resources you use for these kind of things? My experience in AI generated content is very minimal and it seems difficult to separate signal from noise with regard to shit that actually works.

Use midjourney. It is easily the most impressive art generator that there is on the market right now. Just write “in the style of Frank Frazetta” at the end and let it roll in.

 

[Ghostse]

Use midjourney. It is easily the most impressive art generator that there is on the market right now. Just write “in the style of Frank Frazetta” at the end and let it roll in.

He's saying he needs to know the magic words like that.
I don't use it enough to know all the fun words to make it do what I want, but I know you can call out styles.

 

[Pendulous Dong]

Do you have a list of the sites/resources you use for these kind of things?

I used midjourney for my last WFRP campaign to make art for PCs and also random NPCs the party came across. It's good stuff. Pick an artist you like, pick a style, then just throw words at it until it gives you what you want.

Spoiler

 

[ZMOT]

Do you have a list of the sites/resources you use for these kind of things? My experience in AI generated content is very minimal and it seems difficult to separate signal from noise with regard to shit that actually works.

there are a few threads over in internet & tech, it's not on the "push a button, get perfect result" level without some preparation yet.
it's also heavily memed in the corporate space to commercialize it, which means pozz and other castrations (RIP TAY), which makes things a bit more difficult, but for some stuff it's already great:

https://uploads.kiwifarms.st/data/audio/4367/4367516-e337b37ad161fabb4e206a8b663efa57.mp3

https://uploads.kiwifarms.st/data/audio/4371/4371820-3a871f8528ce35f394df7e9b57b8003b.mp3

https://uploads.kiwifarms.st/data/audio/4372/4372152-40e3dce9c361f46252fa91ec9a733c6b.mp3

from here: https://kiwifarms.st/threads/elevenlabs-io.146552/

 

[Judge Dredd]

I'm going to try and run Ravenloft/Curse of Strahd for Halloween. This crazy and original plan has never been done before and I'm glad I thought of it first.

Jokes aside, I've been asked about running Ravenloft (both the setting and the adventure) for years, but only now do I have the time and inclination to do it. However, I'm running into some problems during my research and wondered if you guys have any advice.


The most obvious one is length. The original module is supposedly quite long, and later editions just made it longer. 5e is a slow game, making this problem worse. From YouTube videos, the common way to shorten the game is to skip the town and start at the castle gates, skip most of the random encounters, and skip the basement levels. Even with those changes the game is about 6 hours. I'm hesitant to do that though because the fog, the town, and the tarot reading are some of the iconic elements of the game and it would be a shame to cut them.

My plan is to run either a simple OSR game, or run 5e with heavy mods for speed. So side based initiative, no to-hit roles, PHB classes only, presets for those who didn't make characters before the session, minimum health for monsters, that kind of thing.


I also want to ask about re-writes and the adventure itself. At present I only know the broad strokes of the adventure and backstory. I know wokists like Tatyana as a DM PC that accompanies the party and is the one to kill Strahd at the end, with the PCs being little more than hired muscle. I don't know if this is the original module, but I'm not a fan of that version. However, another common rewrite I see is to have PCs be reincarnations or decedents of Tatyana and other important NPCs. I'm not sure about this version, but the idea of Strahd prioritizing certain PCs, or messing with them in certain ways, sounds fun.


Edit: I will be running the game via VTT (Foundry specifically) but I think the board game is available in TableTop Simulator. I played it once during release, but I don't know it or another board game like Descent is a viable replacement for the DnD version.

 

[Ghostse]

I'm going to try and run Ravenloft/Curse of Strahd for Halloween. This crazy and original plan has never been done before and I'm glad I thought of it first.

I have not run Ravenloft, I own curse of Strahd and leafed through it. But I have done similar "you need the intro to appreciate the material" adventures.

You've already done the first thing I'd do - drop 5e. Go OSR. Do 3.5 before you do 5e. The only system more of a time suck would be 4e.

While you're doing that, why run Curse of Strahd when you can run the original un-woke version?

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17527/I6-Ravenloft-1e

Note on quality: DTRPG uses 3rd party print on demand, the quality varies. My 1e books I am not happy with given what they changed, my 1e soft covers I'm meh on, but my 2e PHB softcover I'm pretty happy with all things considered.

First piece of advice:
As you mention, its long but there's a lot of atmosphere you lose not doing the intro. I would advise doing two things.
Firstly, make it two sessions not one. Maybe do a CYOA sort of thing with players via email (maybe have the party be split up before they meet at the gates; you could also have some fun by insinuating one of the others is a Strahd double-agent) if that's going to be too much gaming for you/your players.

Secondly, I'd advise you make the castle crawl an all day affair with meal break and snack/smoke breaks. Provided of course you're still able to go all day/night. Related to this, anything you can do to reduce mental burden on you - or the party - will pay dividends. Trackers, handouts, cards for notable items... people's minds will get slippery by the end of the night, and anything that helps keep everything from running together will be appreciated.

the board game is available in TableTop Simulator.

You need to be careful with Ravenloft in TTS.
As I remember, there is a great version for playing the modules with shifting rooms etc in a quasi-3D layout for the floors. I've only heard it mentioned a few times but only good things.

The other Ravenloft game is an Adventure System game and other than gothic theming and some name-drops/Featuring Strahd as the 'final boss' has nothing to do with Ravenloft module. Its completely different, and takes place in the catacombs under the Castle. I like the adventure system games as something easy to play with 2-5 THREE. EXACTLY THREE players that's cooperative and less RNG-Fucked than Pandemic.

 

[Mango Cobra]

So I decided I'll be running a Curse of Stahd campaign, and I was wondering if anybody had experience using the Adventurer's League stuff to fluff out the game a bit more? I know that 5e made Barovia fucking tiny compared to what it used to be, so I'd like to add in the old settlements and even the city that 5e removed.

 

[Ghostse]

Also forgot to add: another thing that can help move the game along if you do away with Random encounters is instead of rolling for in-game time, have random encounters happen every 60/90/120 minutes of real world time. Have the timer visible for the players - it will encourage them to not dawdle.

 

[Mango Cobra]

Maybe I'm an outlier but I hate the "Gotta rush through a campaign" mentality.

 

[Ghostse]

Maybe I'm an outlier but I hate the "Gotta rush through a campaign" mentality.

He's trying to do ravenloft in a single session. You gonna need to have a definite sense of urgency.

 

[Mango Cobra]

He's trying to do ravenloft in a single session. You gonna need to have a definite sense of urgency.

Oh jesus christ. Just run Murder House, not all of CoS.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

Pathfinder's Hangman's Noose is pretty Halloween-appropriate too.

 

[Judge Dredd]

So I decided I'll be running a Curse of Stahd campaign, and I was wondering if anybody had experience using the Adventurer's League stuff to fluff out the game a bit more? I know that 5e made Barovia fucking tiny compared to what it used to be, so I'd like to add in the old settlements and even the city that 5e removed.

Not played myself. From what I've been able to gather, Barovia is both bigger and smaller than what it used to be.

The 1e module is just the road, town, and castle. Very small. For autism sake, let's say it's an episode of a TV show.
It was then expanded into a campaign setting with multiple lords and the like. So many seasons of a TV show, each season having a different villain.
The 5e version is a 1-10 campaign, but it's all built as an extended version of the Ravenloft module. This is a single season of the show, the Strahd season.

I guess the question is what do you want to do with the campaign?
If you're just doing the Strahd stuff, then keeping Barovia small might be a benefit, since you want players to focus on their goal (defeating Strahd) and keep as much stuff focused on that goal. I don't know how the adventures league stuff plays out, but I'd try to tie it into the "kill Strahd" plot as much as possible.
If you're doing all the lords, then I assume the hook is already provided?

why run Curse of Strahd when you can run the original un-woke version?

I likely will, it's just "Ravenloft" now tends to refer to the setting, not the adventure. I wanted to make what I was doing clear.

I might borrow monster stat blocks if I do run 5e.

Oh jesus christ. Just run Murder House, not all of CoS.

I could do. Thing is, Ravenloft is a classic adventure, whereas murder house is just a generic haunted house adventure with a cheap shot boss fight.

If I was going to run Murder House, I'd run better haunted house adventures like Paper Chase or The Haunting. I could even run other fantasy one shots like PathFinder 2s zombie apocalypse adventure "Shoot Them In The Head". I'd run Murder House if I was doing a full campaign, but as a one shot for spooky month, there are better options.

 

[Mango Cobra]

Not played myself. From what I've been able to gather, Barovia is both bigger and smaller than what it used to be.

The 1e module is just the road, town, and castle. Very small. For autism sake, let's say it's an episode of a TV show.
It was then expanded into a campaign setting with multiple lords and the like. So many seasons of a TV show, each season having a different villain.
The 5e version is a 1-10 campaign, but it's all built as an extended version of the Ravenloft module. This is a single season of the show, the Strahd season.

I guess the question is what do you want to do with the campaign?
If you're just doing the Strahd stuff, then keeping Barovia small might be a benefit, since you want players to focus on their goal (defeating Strahd) and keep as much stuff focused on that goal. I don't know how the adventures league stuff plays out, but I'd try to tie it into the "kill Strahd" plot as much as possible.
If you're doing all the lords, then I assume the hook is already provided?

The problem is that over the expansions, Barovia itself included three more settlements, and a city. 5e shrank barovia down to the point where each settlement is a leisurely day's walk between them, and I've seen recommendations to quadruple the size of Barovia valley itself so that you don't get the whole "Wait the town is like 8 hours away by walking distance? Dude just take ireena to Kresk yourself."
From what I've read, the AL stuff does tie into the "kill strahd" plotline.

As for Murder House: Fair enough. I deeply enjoyed playing it as a player on Halloween, personally.

 

[Mango Cobra]

I could do.

Actually I'd like to shill two of my favorite 3rd party modules -
Mistress of Blood Tower (Vampire in a tower was corrupted by an artifact)
And
Dragon's Breath Tavern - Werewolves lure people to a tavern and then attack and convert them once they are drunk. Just edit the final boss to not be some weird white half dragon and the story is great.

I'll gladly share the PDFs if you'd like.

 

[BlazikenLover]

They released kineticist right now and they're recently trying to errata EVERYTHING because of the OGL shit so everything is a bit wonky in the nethys wiki and pathbuilder.

Also kineticist has a hard time interacting with ANYTHING since technically nothing they do is a strike or magic, so runes don't work at all. So no sneeak attack, no panache, etc. But the module it came in did explicitly add something that turns all your kineticists concentrations into a rage trait. So you can be some sort of bloodrager.

Also it's kit is p decent as is, since you have a base class feature that ignores immunities. Not just resistances, immunities.

I have heard that kineticist is the first true blaster for PF2E. Sucks they are doing a revamp of the system since I bought a handful of books between early last year and march of this year but oh well at least the rules and the errata are all free.
Haven't fully dedicated to learn more of the system but again, I like what I have seen so far; the more "unusual" classes all appear to have solid and well defined themes with little overlap between them, which is surprising with that many classes in just a few years, a contrast to D&D 5e's ranger, one of the core classes, having "no identity" (at least according to the community at the time)

 

[ZMOT]

I have heard that kineticist is the first true blaster for PF2E. Sucks they are doing a revamp of the system since I bought a handful of books between early last year and march of this year but oh well at least the rules and the errata are all free.
Haven't fully dedicated to learn more of the system but again, I like what I have seen so far; the more "unusual" classes all appear to have solid and well defined themes with little overlap between them, which is surprising with that many classes in just a few years, a contrast to D&D 5e's ranger, one of the core classes, having "no identity" (at least according to the community at the time)

there isn't changing that much, mostly some cleanup/errata (which was already done with reprints anyway) and removal of schools due to purging the lore of anything that could give a wotc lawyer a stiffy for possible copyright infringement:
https://paizo.com/pathfinder/corepreview

also @Ghostse got his wish and they're splitting player and GM into their own books. that's pretty much it.

Edit: I will be running the game via VTT (Foundry specifically) but I think the board game is available in TableTop Simulator. I played it once during release, but I don't know it or another board game like Descent is a viable replacement for the DnD version.

there are plenty of horror coop boardgames these days, however those are mostly done via kickstarter so they can sell fancy looking plastic, which means less likely to end up on TTS sadly. even a few I already forgot the name of (and cba to look up). heck kingdom death monster is probably the most notorious and expensive one in that regard. however a boardgame is probably never a good replacement for a TTRPG proper (depending what you look for ofc), despite all the CYOA books and apps that exist for boardgames. their advantage is they don't need a GM to handle things tho.

if you're not focused on TTRPG and strahd for halloween might as well run some eldritch horror or even KDM (both are up on TTS, but you might have to chase a backup depending how much has been purged or has linkrot). eldritch horror can be done in an afternoon, KDM would probably take a while to play properly.
otherwise for co-op in general there's folklore by the guys that did descent 2e. you could try descent not!3e aka legends of the dark for some proper cringe (and the app is a bit a fucky by disabling sound when tabbed out). journeys in middleearth is also app-driven, and very unique in it's design having both an "overworld" and "battle map" which can be anything from a campsite to a bar brawl. there are more but usually more on the dungeoncrawler-side with some narrative tacked on (which basically the DND boardgames are, and not even that great in comparison imho).

or just go basic: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2496340151

EDIT: something I forgot which might be worth checking out:

just like KDM you usually play a longer campaign, meaning your character grows with you via their deck (and what you put in it makes it "your" character). no running around on a grid rolling dice, just deck building and pulling tokens out of a back - it's still arkham horror. which makes it a bit more freeform. still not the total freedom pnp gives you, but might be worth checking out.

 

[derpherp2]

I have heard that kineticist is the first true blaster for PF2E. Sucks they are doing a revamp of the system since I bought a handful of books between early last year and march of this year but oh well at least the rules and the errata are all free.
Haven't fully dedicated to learn more of the system but again, I like what I have seen so far; the more "unusual" classes all appear to have solid and well defined themes with little overlap between them, which is surprising with that many classes in just a few years, a contrast to D&D 5e's ranger, one of the core classes, having "no identity" (at least according to the community at the time)

Yeah kineticist is the ranged blaster to monk's melee blaster. Both can even dip their toes in a little bit of range/melee so they're not fully gimped when someone presses their weakness. Biggest difference between other caster classes is that they essentially have infinite spell slots, since their spell-like abilities aren't limited by a resource. Which is insane.