The Curse of Ravenloft

Once I got wind of the 5th Edition version of Ravenloft, Curse of Strahd. I knew I had to have it. Of course I pre-ordered it from Amazon. Then I waited months and months for it to arrive.  Once it arrived I pored over it and loved it.

I'm not a horror junkie by any means. Maybe it's because I've never really been scared by horror. OK, not true as I remember Poltergeist scaring the hell out of me as a kid. That tree that almost eats the kid? That was my nightmare. The clown wasn't helping either. But once I became a discerning tween and young teen horror did nothing for me. It seemed too ridiculous to be scary. Still scary atmosphere appealed to me. No, I didn't believe in ghosts or monsters. But I did believe that old graveyards were spooky.

Back in the second edition days, the Ravenloft boxed set fulfilled my love of spooky atmosphere with my love of D&D. Vampires, Ghosts, and my fantasy characters? Yes please. Yet somehow, we never went anywhere beyond flirting with the setting back in those days. Maybe we were stuck in our Dragonlance world. Or maybe the Ravenloft boxed set was just too much awesome. After all, there were so many different domains of dread. Where should we start? So we never did play in Ravenloft, though I did go through the campaign book over and over. The interior art was amazing. (Stephen Fabian is so good. He also did the interior illustrations of the Dragonlance Tales series which I also really love) I also picked up a few of the Ravenloft novels. Especially loving the tie-in with Dragonlance where Lord Soth is brought into the Mists.

So when I finally got back into D&D a few years back it was almost inevitable that my mind would go back to that Ravenloft setting. It helped that one of my group members waned to play in it. So, I picked up some of the Ravenloft I missed in the intervening years. Starting with the Swords & Wizardry version for third edition. We were a 3.5 group at the time and I figured if we were ever to play Ravenloft then 3rd edition rules were the way to go. The book was disappointing to say the least. There was nothing evocative about it. Nothing spooky. It had no flavor. Part of the problem is that I wasn't too familiar with 3.5 rules. Yeah, that was what I was playing and I could fumble through, but I couldn't make a sweet spooky campaign while trying to grind through rules that I didn't really know, and I honestly didn't really like. The other problem? No Stephen Fabian art. (Guy is amazing)

Eventually though our group started playing 5th Edition with me as the DM. Unfortunately Curse of Strahd wasn't out yet so  we started playing a mix of Homebrew and and stuff I found on the Internet. There's a certain joy to be found exploring many adventures and tying them together. When Strahd did come out we were mired deep in my campaign and frankly it wasn't interesting me anymore. For a variety of reasons. Mostly from DM burnout

I should have just called it and jumped right into Curse. It would've kept me interested and make life as a DM a little easier. I didn't, and eventually I relinquished the DM duties to another who had wanted to run something. I ached to run Curse but I was okay to let him be the DM.

Then I did a quick fill-in session. So I ran Death House, the Curse of Strahd introductory adventure. I was so excited to tie the new batch of characters into Ravenloft. The session went well. It was great. We could then move into the whole campaign! But, it was just a fill-in session and it didn't look like we would continue for awhile. And by this time I was burnt out on the long nights and time-commitment the group wanted. I had to drop out for my own D&D health.

Again Ravenloft was lost to me. Would I forever be cursed not to play this Setting that I loved so much?

Getting Hot

I think I'm getting burnt out on D&D. For many reasons.

Here's how I usually play:

 I do a weekly game at the Awesome Game/Cafe shop with my Brother near his house. It's a 2 hour session that is ostensibly the D&D Adventures League. I don't think it is that anymore, but I really don't know fully what the official D&D Adventures League is. We are currently mired in the Princes of the Apocalypse campaign.

I also play once or twice a month with friends. I was DM for a few years but I was getting writer's block and was all but done with my campaign. Now we have a new DM and a new campaign. We also finally seemed to nail down a regular group. These sessions usually go well into Saturday nights.

Here's why I am getting burnt out in both groups:

Princes of the Apocalypse is a mess of a book. It's sandbox nature is too sandboxy. We have been at it for nearly a year and we have no idea what we are doing or why plot wise. Basically we show up and run around and fight things wherever we are. I think the DM could do a little better in guiding us, but, I've looked through the book and did some emergency DM sessions here and there and can confirm that this module is a mess.

If that wasn't bad enough, one of the regulars in our group is very annoying. His character name is stolen from Lord of the Rings. One of the main characters from Lord of the Rings. That should tell you enough about him, but there's more. He's loud, insulting, doesn't seem to know the most basic of rules (i.e. Need to roll a 20 to hit before rolling damage) and rarely is paying attention. He was gone most of the Summer and things were decent. We still had no real plot and were aimlessly walking around, but at least the group was fairly happy. But, he has come back in the last few weeks and is slowly but surely getting back to his annoying ways.

If it were me, I'd send him packing. But it's not up to me. Where we play is an establishment and he is a paying customer. Ultimately it is up to either the DM or management to give him the boot. I think they have had a talk with him about paying attention, but how do you have a conversation with someone that goes "Hey buddy, you're annoying?"

Last week I took the night off to watch the World Series. It was refreshing. (Not so much the Outcome)

For my friends group the problem is more time oriented. Usually we will play from 8pm until 2am. I do not want to be up at 2am. I do not really want to spend every other Saturday evening locked into this game. My friends meanwhile do. I have mentioned in the past my reluctance to play until late hours. This has been ignored or been passive-aggressively commented on. I want to play with the gang but I'd much rather have it be at a more decent and manageable time. 2-4 hours is nice. Beyond that I get frustrated and tired.

Not to mention the guilt I sometimes feel and sometime receive from my Wife. I go out to play games and she sits home alone on Saturday nights. She won't join me. I have offered. We can't play at my house, due to the married couple we play with being hosts as they have family too. Well what about me?

I'm also going through a bit of a personal funk. Nothing seems to interest me right now. Socializing in particular is not something I want to do. Thus, D&D burnout.

Game Night

Gaming Tonight!

The party is going to fight an Ettin, or two!

After that it will be re-skin of WoTC's "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" scene 1. Hopefully culminating in a rematch with the on-the-run evil mage of "Lost Mine of Phandelver."

The important thing is that we are playing.

Hopefully every one is in a good mood and ready to play. Hopefully the new guy picks it up really quick and has a good time. Hopefully it is a memorable and fun session!

With the various comings and goings of players we have been jumping systems and campaigns for our sessions in the last year We started as a 3.5 group, but when the players started dropping out we went to the freshly pressed 5th edition. I think it's a good system that just needs to be learned.

With another dropout from 5th we jumped to old-school with a Basic adventure. I like Basic as it instills within me warm senses of nostalgia. I don't like it's out-dated clunkiness. What I should have done is used some updated OSR rules and called it Basic. Same feel, clearer rules. But the one guy really wanted to see Basic and the others didn't care so I went with Basic.

The players, being raised on 3.5 didn't really appreciate the simplicity of Basic. "There's not enough options!" They complained. "What do you mean no skills?!" Because things weren't spelled out in the rules the assumption was that they couldn't be done. Again, Straight Basic is a bit clunky so I agreed with some of their complaints. After all, this is why folks have been House-ruling the game since it's inception. A few well-placed house rules could have eased the burden. If I was a bit less rusty I could have made better executive decisions during play. Though I don't think it would have made the Magic-User happy. "I Only get 1 spell per day?" or the thief, "Wow, the thief skill percentages suck. I guess I'll just stab with my dagger and hope not to be killed."

It finally dawned on me that one of the difference between Basic and 3.5 is the status and progress of the PC's. In Basic, they become heroic and awesome by surviving their adventures. It's the hero's journey in a way. But in 3.5 and later, the PC's start off with great powers and awesomeness. Adventures are just something to do. By already being a cut above regular folk, they are heroes from the get go. In a comic book sense, Basic is the origin story. The first few issues where the character gets their powers and learns to use them and fight. The later editions are every other issue, where the character is established and just does what they do. While I can appreciate the worth of both, I feel like you get more out of play by building up and surviving with the meager character who barely scrape by the goblin encounter.

After a few adventures in Basic to convert the two remaining characters to 5th and try that again. After all, I have the main books, I should probably use them. The more I familiarize myself with them the better they seem. Hopefully with more options we can please these 3.5 players.


What I really should have done was skip Basic and use 2nd edition. The version that I played the most back in the day.

Thinking About Attacks of Opportunity

I get Attacks of Opportunity. I do, though I also think they are ridiculous. The rational part of my brain says “yeah if Olak the orc decides to flee after I walked up to him and gave him a good thwomping I should be able to attack him.” The old schooler in me says “But you already moved this turn when you walked up and thwomped Olak. You can’t move again until next turn” The books describe AofO as reactions Almost as if they are an automatic move, without much thought. OK I see, but if it’s auto without much thought then maybe it’s not as effective as a planned attack. I’m a well trained fighter. When I walked up to Olak I sized him up, I checked out his weapon and anticipated how he would use it, I saw the bits of his armor that I could penetrate. These quick thoughts came in and I used them to thwomp him. It worked, I broke through his defenses and gave him what for. Olak splits because he doesn’t want anymore. I can AofO him but I gotta do it fast. It’s a reaction, I just go in for a quick stab. I am not thinking about where to place the blow for max damage. I’m just thinking hit him! So why should this attack be just as effective as the one where I plan and thought through where to hit Olak? I don’t think it should be.

Or look at it this way Olak and I are engaged in combat. I attack him with a full thought out attack and missed. He decides to stay and fight and attacks me. I’m trying to block him with weapon/shield/armor, etc. My mind is now on how to avoid damage. Meanwhile Urggk  behind me just got thwomped by my Cleric friend Eldyn. Urggk now wants to flee. It’s crowded here due to close walls on one side and hot lava on the other. Urggk has no choice but to run right past me for escape. He does so I get an AoO. But I’m not focusing on Urggk. I’m trying not to get hit by Olak. So I can’t closely see Urggk’s defenses, armor, weapon etc, all the things a fighter would look at to exploit. No, I just see him and look to hit. So I do. Quick reaction hit. Again, I don’t think this should be as effective as a well-planned attack. 

EDIT: It's possible that the second example wouldn't provoke an Attack since I would be engaged in melee with another opponent. Though maybe it would. I'm not super clear on all the different ways AoO are provoked. (Old School Thinking and all.)

12 Pubs and Taverns*

1. The Hornless Unicorn (picture of a white horse on the sign)
2. Mead’s Alehouse (proprietor is Jonen Mead who created  a delicious brew but can’t name it after himself for obvious reasons)
3. The Owlbear’s Nest (Proudly displays an Owlbear head above the bar, though it is rather small and probably just the stuffed head of a regular owl)
4. Sid’s Joyless Brothel (It used to be joyful until the local magistrate started cracking down on prostitution)
5. The Phoenix (was The Soaring Eagle prior to the great fire. Built upon the original foundation)
6. Bigby’s Drinking Hand (the local Mage’s hangout)
7. The Wander Inn (seemingly a franchise as there’s one in every larger Imperial  city, the fact is, the name is not as clever or unique as each proprietor thinks it is)
8. Grog’s Grog (Run by the Half-Orc Grog. The menu is limited to poorly –cooked unidentified meat and the namesake grog.)
9. The Rat Cellar (Plenty of rodents are kept on hand to be released into the basement for up and coming adventurers.)
10. Valtish’s establishment that serves various alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, foodstuffs, etc.  also with a number of bedrooms to rent for travelers and locals alike. (Gnomish names can be so literal.)
11. The Barred From Entry Inn (Sign is of an X through a lute. No Bards allowed!)
12. The Broad Satyr (Sign is a female satyr, located in the heart of the theater district)

*credit to The Dungeon Dozen.

That Escalated Quickly

So the party became Murderhobos. Sort of. Well only one did, but the rest became gruesome corpse desecraters.

Let's backtrack. They came into town and dropped off the goods they were supposed to deliver. The Charismatic Dwarf attempted to flatter the Shopkeeper into giving them some more gold since they had a run-in with some Goblins. Alas he failed his persuasion roll. This is immediately followed by a successful intimidate roll from the Half-Orc barbarian.So, the shopkeeper is coerced/robbed while the party sits idly by. They then continue to try to talk with the shopkeeper who is quite upset at this time. The Half-Orc leaves but the rest stay behind. The Dwarf even tries to persuade the shopkeeper to be more friendly with him. A high roll from the Dwarf convinced the shopkeeper to relax slightly, but he was still upset at everyone else.

So they pissed off one NPC in town. No big deal. He didn't have anything more to offer our group anyways.

So through some further town exploits they learn of the local gang of ruffians who are running the town. The Half-Orc makes a failed attempt to infiltrate their hideout, the dingy bar down the road. Four of the toughs tell him to get lost. He decides to intimidate them. It was a high roll, but I determined that if they were threatened, these guys would draw weapons and fight. After all, they outnumbered the Barbarian. They strike first and do a fair amount of hurting on him. He cuts out of there mighty quick, another round and he would have been toast.

So he regroups back at the nice inn with the rest of the party. Their plan is to rally the town to drive the gang out. I had determined that the town doesn't want a fight, after all, these roughs have been pushing them around for awhile. But the Dwarf gave a nice speech and rolled well, so I allowed 3 tavern patrons to be roused into action.They head out the door only to see five of the bad gang waiting across the street looking to threaten the rest of them away.

The party wastes no time with words and chooses to fight. The Half-Orc and Gnome Monk kill 3 of the gang. The Dwarf Sorcerer put the other 2 to sleep. The Drow Cleric however is felled by their wicked slashes. He makes his rolls though and stabilizes on the ground, still unconscious. The Dwarf decides to take the sleeping thugs into the inn. The innkeeper tells him that there's a perfectly good cell at the town hall. (This is where things get bad)

While they are having their discussion the Player playing the Gnome asks me if she can slit the sleeping bad guys throats.

I tell her, well yeah she can. So she does.

The gaping townsfolk look on aghast at this. The Dwarf then decides to chop off their heads and put them on pikes, while the Half-Orc (angry that he didn't get to kill the baddies) proceeds to club the corpses into pulp. All the while the Drow is still laying unconscious in a pool of his own blood. Needless to say the townsfolk are terrified.

It was late in the real world so I called it for the night. Personally I was a bit disgruntled by their actions. Part of it comes from the fact that the rest of the adventure emanates from this town. Side-quests, info etc all come from the town who now want nothing to do with the party. The other part of it is my own shock at their actions. It being a long time since I was Dungeon Master I wasn't ready to handle a party of amoral bastards. I was taking their antagonism personally, which is something I should try not to do.

Still, I got some thinking to do on how to make this adventure work in lieu of their actions.