In Which Strahd Must Die!

 Last Halloween I ran Death House for my party and some guests, including offspring.  Went VERY well.  I enjoyed it.  The party enjoyed it.  The kids enjoyed it.  So to continue the theme, THIS season I'm gonna run Strahd as a one-shot.  There is a SLEW of info out there to assist and I don't like ANY of it.  But I do like a little of ALL of it.  So I'm taking all of what I found and throwing it into my candy bowl, mixing it up and coming up with a fun, playable one night timed adventure.  I'm writing this BEFORE the session because I have the opportunity to.  I'll add the recap in the morning.

So what are my sources?  Let's start with The Count, The Castle and The Curse.  Trims the size of the facility.  Provides a good map.  And some interesting mechanics.  Stress level is AWSOME.  The escalating encounters seem like a good idea.  Time will tell.  The ticking real-time clock is perfect.  Not a fan of the "escape" goal, the start up nor the encroaching vampirism mechanic.  Trinkets might work out too.  We'll see.

Back in the Before Times Tim Bannock wrote some great notes for Strahd as a One-Shot.His goal posts are good.  His Ireena story is solid and playable.  His tomb descriptions are spot on.  And his resource citations are as well.  

Playing Curse of Strahd as a One Shot via James Introcaso’s Worldbuilder.  Step 3 and Step 4 are good, although I'm skipping the placement of an ally.

James Haeck’s articles at D&D Beyond: Strahd Must Die Tonight! and Strahd Must Die Again (And Again And Again)  These are both quite helpful, including the info on how party size and level.

Sly Flourish touched on it both in a video and in writing.  His approach includes an interesting "game" for the life of Ireena.  

Also using the three-step Strahd from Reddit

11/5 - Remember, remember!  It's been a week.  A week of Halloween, scary movies, football and session prep.  But I promised session notes so here we go.  

The party comprised Dakora (Wizard 9), Serynah (Sorceress 6), Thorn (Bard 6), Kaj (Paladin 6) and Rudolph van Richeten (Ranger 9.)

We started with the reading of the Tarroka during the carriage ride.  Unfortunately all three artifacts were to be located in the catacombs.  Strahd delivered his speech at the gate and the party entered the castle, suitably cautious and dare I say frightened.  Stone gargoyle's accompanied by REAL ones in the foyer kept them cautious and alert.  Down to the mess hall, through the larder (sighting a black cat which put them off their feed for a bit,) and into the cauldron room to which they assigned great weight.  Sarynah took the pointy hat.  It WAS Halloween after all.

Back to the larder.  Then down to the torture chamber.  Much caution in the flooded rooms.  And an encounter with Strahd.  He displayed his power, setting the stage for how bad the final battle would be without the artifacts.  Jail cell examined but the gargoyle at the end of the hallway was skipped.  Back up the trough the mess hall and into the organ room.  Another sighting/confrontation with Strahd.  Tension builds as the realization they're being toyed with sets in.

To the chapel.  Strahd watches from the balcony.  Party realizes they have only a little over an hour left and they pick up the pace, triggering encounters and missing clues.  Audience chamber.  The balcony. Up to the reception hall.  The study - which was, especially since van Richten was being played by a DM who'd run the entire campaign and was tickled with how the one-shot was bringing the legends together.  Serynah was finally recognized as Ireenah.  Sergei's story was shaping up.  Strahd was now more than just the BBG.  He'd "done things" that were brought home to the party.  The defaced paintings.  The hanged woman.  The aging child was discovered and presented quite a conundrum as the party was becoming quite flustered and pressed for time.  

They realized they needed to go down so I cut out the Hall of Heroes and allowed them to find the long spiral staircase down to the crypt.  Wanted to run the 30+ catacombs but instead went with a small eight tomb offering.  They found the three artifacts with two minutes to go and dashed to the chapel (which is where they'd been told they'd find Strahd.  BEST decision they'd made was to approach from the balcony.

(Note: they kept wanting to go back to the cauldron room and I meta'd them out of it.)

The two spell-casters stayed up whil the other three went down the stairs to face Strahd.  Battle took over an hour.  Lots of close rolls.  Very good use of feats and spells.  Well-timed healing.  Using the three-part Strahd I was changing him every 1/4 of his HP: physical changes and varied attacks.  My only regret was when he wnet into his final quarter I  opted for him to retreat to his casket (with his three wives.)  I changed him into a bat and he damned near made it until Serynah cast Web and he failed his ST.  My error in not allowing him to auto-save.  He then changed into a wolf but was unable to flee before the Paladin sued the Sun Sword to deal the final blow.  

"How do you want to do this?"  

"As I stab the blade into his heart I think of Sergie and whisper .... 'Good morning.'"

Thought it would take 4 hours.  Took 5.  And everyone left happy.  Will DEFINITELY run it again next year.  Stricter.

Questions?

 

In which we count to three

 Hercules' third task was to catch the hind of Artemis.  In OUR setting the hind has been wounded.  She must still be caught .... and healed ... and the miscreants made to pay.  This task involves a skill check which is a pleasant change of pace.  Survival and Nature checks are used to track/locate the beast.  Once found Stealth might lead to a successful apprehension or calming.  Failure leads to the skill challenge of a chase: five successes needed before three failures.  Failure means you've lost the trail and need to start over the next day.  

PC's lose hp on a failure albeit not many considering their level, and before each new round of skill checks they must make a CON check or suffer a level of exhaustion.  This seems kinda silly.  IF we assume most parties will comprise 3-6 PCs that means there would be, at MOST two rounds and most of the time only one.  My party scored one success and three failures, then retired for the day.  They rolled HORRIBLY.  Next day they scored the three successes right off the bat and the task continued.  

They have a druid skilled with an herbalist kit who has done some potion concocting work.  This, combined with our cleric's knowledge of wild beasts, including the ettercap, gave them the insight they needed to make the potion.  They'd been studiously avoiding them during their pursuit of the hind but knew where to find them now that they needed them.  This woulda been a medium difficulty encounter but the ettercaps got lucky.  TWO of them managed to restrain two party members, making it a hard fight.  One of the E'caps was quickly put to flight making it a 3 on two combat for a couple rounds until the druid and wizard got free of the webs.  Two more rounds of combat vanquished the foe with the Battle Master being reduced 50%.

Poison sack harvested (on second try - the party has a new appreciation for their missing Ranger) and anti-venom salve prepared.  Trained falcon earned as a reward, as well as all living expenses for the month being covered.  Party returns to the real world next session but will revisit the village of Kalogeros in a month when another party member steps away from the table for a few weeks.

All in all the party is enjoying these diversions and appreciates the variety provided so far.  Next task is another combat pillar with a little social interaction.  Task #5 will present some outstanding problem solving opportunities.  Still recommend if you need an interesting drop-in or wanna play a dozen or so session campaign running from 5th to 8th level. 

The Cycle of Cerberus

In which we review another product

 No session this week.  We were s'posed to get Biblical Destruction type weather.  Didn't happen.  But

rather than having my party (one of which was oot anyway) drive through Revelations we cancelled.  And then the weather didn't happen.  

But I DID have something worthy of comment and I'm trying to get a bit more regular around here so there's this.  I'm not a fan of the dScryb product.  I don't really feel the need for someone else to give me box texts for stuff.  Interesting idea and likely fills a niche (as evidenced by its continued existence) but not for me.  Then they added MORE stuff I don't really need.  Maps.  Ability to REQUEST descriptions and maps.  Then they went and did it.  They added a sound library.  I tinkered but it was never to the point that for ME it was going to replace Syrinscape or Soundpad.  And then they added "Opus."  And several of the youtubers I watch did promos. And a free 30 day trial was offered.  So I wandered by again.  Signed up for it.  Spent a little time with it and confirmed my priors and forgot about it.  Until the bill came for the FULL YEAR at the TOP TIER!   

I IMMEDIATELY email the company to beg and plead to have the charge backed off.  This was less than 15 minutes after the charge went on.  Within another 15 minutes I'd heard back from the FOUNDER of the company!  The charge had been backed off immediately but he also wanted to open up a dialogue.  What didn't I like, etc.  He walked me through some stuff, gave me another 2 weeks free, answered questions and carried on an email correspondence for about ten days.  And won me over.  Helped along by BobWorldBuilder's video.  After another two weeks of conquering the learning curve (realizing how to build playlists and blocks and stuff .... figuring out that the sound effects were likely useless) I agreed to sign up.  

Reviewed the pricing.  I'm taking the "Composer" option as it provides JUST the sound stuff, which is all I really need.  The BIGGEST reason I'm paying for it over free Soundpad is the personal service from the freakin' FOUNDER .... and the fact that it has perhaps a crap-ton more options.  That might also be the biggest hurdle here.  Too many choices can be as big an issue as not enough but we'll see.  I've put together two blocks to use next week and will likely assemble one or two more.  And I'll be back with an after-action report.  But for now?  Not bad.

In which we playtest

 Welcome to 2024.

First session of the year went pretty well.  The relief column was played quickly with some nice flavor.  Our ranger who began as a bombastic embellisher has caught a lot of flak from our high elf fighter.  This column is partly mounted and our three heroes have been given horses for the task.  Only the ranger HAS horsemanship as a skill.  The wizard wisely led her animal or allowed it to be led but the steed of the haughty fighter kept wandering off the trail and onto the side of the road to graze, only to be retrieved by the ranger, who is now leading her like a kids pony ride.  Sweet.

Meanwhile back at the keep the newbies spent an hour trying to figure out how to get a lit torch through an arrow slit without being seen.  Was a GREAT example of the adage "when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail."  They insisted on trying to physically relocating the torch then lighting it with magic (fire bolt.)  Eventually they realized they could LIGHT it first (with their tinder box) then transport it via Mage Hand.  Even then it didn't work as the bandits merely threw it back out, but it killed a fun hour.

So what got playtested?  I'm using the Open Multiple Files app again, which was helpful.  My magic and encumbrance sheet came in handy.  And I'm still learning the in's and out's of my own combat sheet and improving it's use.  Unbeknownst to the party I've been using Tracy & Curtis Hickman's combat damage table from XDM.  Mooks were going down with relative ease until the player rolled max damage but the table only gave them 50%.  They were shocked and panicked and they realized they were facing "Mongo" and not EVERY bandit was a pushover.  Nice moment.  The Players/DMs Handbooks I assembled worked as designed as well.

Which bring us to Nimble.  LOTS of good ideas but many aren't worth the walk: the solutions they offer to several problems are no more elegant than the problem they solve AND they're a step to far in some instances.  Attacking is FAR too simplified. Exhaustion is what many tables are already using.  Dying rules are too forgiving.  Our resting rules are better but they do have some interesting mechanics to use on the backside.  Mana is nice but our current spell slot system is "better."  And by better I mean my players like it, have bought into it and I don't wanna throw ANOTHER system at them.  

But their brew for Action Points is simple, elegant, makes sense, provides more player agency and got pretty quick buy in from my players.  Instead of move, action, bonus action and reaction you get three (or more) Action Points.  Almost everything costs 1 AP.  Exceptions are leveled spells that take 1 action to cast, which cost 2 AP, and special abilities or features that allow bonus actions (eg. step of the wind, action flurry) cost 0 and may only be done once per round.  Doing anything a second or third time adds stacking disadvantage (so you COULD attack three times but the second would be 2d20 and the third would be 3d20.)  The exception to THIS is ST spells.  The target would instead get advantage on the ST.  Done.  Almost.  High WIS gives a bonus to the #of AP's you have in the first round, improving not how EARLY you act but rather how OFTEN.  Might peel this one off.

And there's some "heroic" stuff as well.  PC may use 1 AP to block (reduce damage by your AC modifier.)  Opportunity attacks are now made at disadvantage and mooks don't have them.  Should make the battle field a little more fluid.  Also added a called shot critical.  On any attack you decide what a critical hit is (up to +10) (rolled with disadvantage) but a critical miss becomes just as big.  Essentially you can take a 50/50 shot with amplified failure.  This one needs more work.

 So how did all of this go in actual play?  Meh.  I had three casters fighting bowmen at range most of the time so a lot of this stuff didn't matter.  Until members of the party got close to 0 hp.  Blocking prevented a death.  There was a discussion while the party was pinned down about using the Called Shot Crit and the more I've thought about it the more I don't like it.  But here's a fix.  You can still do it BUT it's limited to 1 point (5%) per level AND there's a critical miss with multiple effects (ie roll twice on the critical hit table and double the results .... or triple .... etc.) 

A good session but further testing needed for the AP change.  AND the Called Shot Critical. 

<edit 1/12 to add> also got a chance to use "our new" fumble table.  Druid defending a section of keep wall.  Lizardfolk breeched the wall and melee ensued.  Druid Nat1's her first attack.  Rolled a 6 for a CHA ST - her penultimate state.  Failed ... and the free attack misses.  Was quite dramatic.  Player actually insisted on acting out her botched feint.  And the party agreed this (so far) was a GREAT mechanic!

In which cults take shape

A few months ago I grabbed a product called Game of Shields from drag-n-drop games which was a "system" to run factions.  Great idea.  Easy to implement.  But had a couple "rules" that made it virtually unimplementable in real life.

So I was a little reluctant to take on another similar product but then I stumbled across Gods, Cults and religions made by Stefano Scordo contact: worldofhyr@gmail.com.  My table is currently in a struggle between two cults whose "ideals" aren't well defined, nor did they NEED to be.  

The stated purpose of this product is to simulate the story of a cult starting from its origins.  With a series of simple ideas, you will be able to decide its evolution over time, to create a cult and see if it survives the course of history or if it is destined to disappear.  It uses a simple deck of 52 cards to provide the randomness and leaves a lot of basic decisions up to you, like dogmas, organization and structure, symbols, art, architecture, rites and practices.

Took me about 20 minutes to design the two cults in question and move them through a few developments which can then be used to motivate and direct them through the flow of this adventure - and beyond if needed.

This small pdf isn't for everyone but I really like the crunch.  It adds some nice flavor easily and helps maintain that verisimilitude that my table appreciates.  No more bland people in gray/black/red robes burning candles around a pentagram for no other apparent reason than that they they're evil.  GOOD cults exist too, y'know.

In which we move Factions to the "front"

 They party has spoken.  No more sweeping 20-level story arcs.  More "bounty/treasure/monster hunter" arcs.  But I can't just sit back and throw 3rd party adventures at them.  I want the world to MOVE.  To change as they respond to it.  And as it responds to them.  I've made efforts to do this in the past and I keep improving but I ALSO like crunchy mechanics.  I don't trust my instincts so I prefer some bounded guidance.

So I'm incorporating a few things that I touched on last campaign but that I feel can be kicked up a notch in this one.  I'm stealing bits and pieces from several RPG's and stitching them together to form a Frankenstein's Monster of a crunchy system.  

First, I had good luck LAST campaign incorporating "Aftermath" from the good folks at Worldspinner.  Party indicated they might like a little more political intrigue so I'm overlaying and adapting "700 Lordly Houses."  We'll see how it goes.

Second, I did a little incorporating of Fronts from Dungeon World.  Tried a LITTLE of this last time but not full blown.  The structure of 700 LH really lends itself to this mechanic and it can REALLY make for a dynamic world. 

Third, Blades in the Dark is often credited with the innovative incorporation of countdown clocks.  Tie THOSE into the dooms and portents from your Fronts and you've automated the running of a lot of "behind the curtain" stuff.

Fourth,  Night's Black Agents (which I SERIOUSLY heard as Nice Black Asians!)  has a nice escalating response logarithm called the Vampyramid.  Active and re-active missions/operations provide some interesting guidelines and suggestions for fronts as well.

I've long used Sly Flourish's Lazy DM checklist and kept it on Notion but I'm leaning away from that for this campaign.  I've looked at World Anvil and Scabard.  Neither of them seems quite right but I COULD be swayed.  Looking for something better.  All the inputting seems to be a duplication of effort without enough savings.  "The view isn't worth the climb."

In which we answer questions, add to and improve a product review

 Ok so in the post immediately before this one I reviewed some products from Infinium Game Studios.  I grabbed my copies from here because they were on sale and I'm a cheap bastard.frugal.  I liked the products for the most part but had a couple caveats/concerns/questions.  A few short days later their product that ANSWERED some of those questions and addressed some of those concerns.  

It's their Solo Adventuring Tool Kit!  It's great for those looking for a little "lonely fun" as we used to call it.  It's also great for playing out "off screen" stories.  That was my first use of it.  I had a NPC paladin who needed a quest.  Some dice rolls generated most of the story.  I filled in details based on our current ongoing main narrative.  I then put the facts of the final battle into ChatGPT and let it write a nice synopsis of the final batle.  Tweaked the narrative to get a little more Tolkien and Poe into it.  Will present to the party when they meet back up with the paladin.

As I usually do with IGS products I'm setting up their tables on a spreadsheet so rather than taking space and rolling dice for everything and chewing up a lot of time I can use a simple F9 command, generate the needed random numbers AND give me all of the results in one place.  Do NOT like flipping from page to pade or scrolling up and down to find stuff.  

Nine types of quests - and they hit pretty much everything you can imagine.  Covers about 160 pages.  Tables for urgency, stakes, pace, suggested rewards, consequences (of success OR failure.)  Graphic templates for every variety of quest (albeit a bit simplistic, they CAN help a DM keep plot lines straight.)  

This product is NOT for every table.  If you're playing pre-packaged adventures or campaigns you might not benefit as much.  Monster of the week?  It'll be helpful.  My current game is a vast garden style game and if I need a quick plotline - to be played or just talked about, it takes me (spreadsheet in hand) less than a minuted to come up with the overview of a vast quest - or one that might be reolsved in 15 minutes of game time.

Good product. Can confirm.

In which we actually review a product, kinda sorta

 

I use a LOT of sources to build a world and to run my weekly (?) game. Roughly two years ago I stumbled onto the products of a company called Infinium Game Studio. Their product is called FlexTale. My first work was with their combat tactics. The product was DEEP and a good idea, but you need to know the “role” for every critter and it wasn't somerhing I didn't wanna fidle with. Next up was their Social Choice product. Went DEEP into that one which is where I'll start.

You as the DM assign the role that the interlocutor plays, selects the conditions under which the interaction occurs and the player decides what approach they're taking in the interaction. Find the right chart, roll the right dice, and adjudicate the result. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy. But I HATE tables and charts and turning pages. So I took a few hours, converted the WHOLE thing onto a spreadsheet. Then when I'm playing I can use a simple filter, input the player's dice role and have my result in nothing flat. VERY happy with THAT product.

So a year later they come out with their environmental encounters product. A crapton of information. Again I converted to a spreadsheet. Since a party rarely changes environments (at least at my table) us is even faster. Again: filter, input players role, adjudicate result. Smooth. Working out REALLY well. I'm even taking steps to automate the secondary dice rolls, of which there can be many, so that the entire encounter is presented to me in one place again without having to flip through scores of pages. My party has no idea of the level of detail I'm drawing from.

Which brings me to THIS years acquisition. Their Adventure Omnibus. MY interest was in the hundreds of Places of Interest (POI) generated. From the companies text:

What is This Thing?

FlexTale Infinite Adventures is a concept that applies the Infinium Game Studio approach to points of interest on a fantasy TTRPG map.  Detailed descriptions, endless permutations of things to keep things fresh, easy-to-use tables and resources, and plenty of ideas and inspiration.

This book is the first in a series describing the various Points of Interest (POI) in the Western Realm of Aquilae.  Though it was created with this setting in mind, everything in this book was designed to be system- and setting-agnostic.

Inside, you'll find:

• Discovery, including read-aloud text, "Why You Might Come Here", "So You Find Yourself Here", Hooks, and more.

• Activities, including Adventure Snippets, Quests, Secrets, Threats, and more.

• Location information, including a heatmap / location guide for the POI's presence in the Realm of Aquilae.

• Rumors & Lore table with true, partially true, and false stories about the POI.

• Events and Quirks, describing unique phenomena that might occur as you explore.

More interesting for players.  Easier to run for D/GMs.  Full, out of the box support for solo players.

And above all: NOT BORING!

Contents

Inside, you'll find:

• 668 tables, 129 FlexTables (each one four tables in one), and 150 full-color maps

• Dozens of Utility Tables: quickly and dynamically generate entire dungeon maps, traps, poisons, diseases, curses, treasure, and spells.

• "Jump Right In" introduciton describing exactly how to use this book based on your needs as a G/DM

• Dedicated discussion on how to use this book as a solo adventurer

• Creature Modifiers to quickly make even the most ho-hum, boring common monster more interesting and unique

• Much, much more!

So here's how I'm using it: every week during my game prep I RNG a POI. I read up on it. If it can fit into my immediate location I will. If NOT I'll add it to my list of rumors and perhaps add it to my library research system, in case the parties interest is piqued and they wanna go poking around. Example? I have a paladin NPC who needs a quest for his plate armor. Rolled up a castle, used the provided table for a simple quest

On the downside:

1. Their complete quest engine is apparently in a different product.

2. Each book seems to include more or less the same first 2-3 dozen pages – necissary perhaps but a PITA nonetheless.

In conclusion if you're a GM who just needs an occasional jump-start or a little extra seasoning in your world building soup, these products are for you.