For 'CurseofStrahd,' I noticed that in the 'AdventureHooks' area that Player's can be offered any number of starting benefits, such as Spell Scrolls of Remove Curse, Spell Scrolls of Magic Weapon, 1 Silvered Weapon, and 1 Potion of Heroism, per party member. Obviously not all of these together (though I'm not sure how my level 1 PC would feel if the Quest Giver said, "Here's your scroll of remove curse, scroll of magic weapon, 1 silvered longsword, and your potion of heroism. G'luck!") but the idea is interesting in having those protections as Curses will happen, be they from Monsters and Spells, or Magic Items; PC's can run into Werewolves relatively early and that damage IMMUNITY to nonmagical attacks that aren't silvered is something to take note of.
Simultaneously, they can just encounter a random guy in a cloak who gives them a letter and says "Seeya" right after. The Mists might just grab them while they camp by the road.
So. How do people feel about these starting options? For myself, my current plan is to have them separately do the 'House of Lament' from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, and then be ushered in by a lone dark rider (Arrigal) that hands them the letter (Seeya).
Also, what kind of warning should I offer insofar as goes the Adventures very stingy approach to Loot? It was pointed out to me that Ranged Characters like Archers without the ability to create a magical bow of their own will just be up a creek. Similarly, if I hew true to both the RAW Adventure plus enforce the Spell Component rules, Spell Casters are going to find themselves in a similar pinch. Do I mention that Player's should take these things into consideration? Or just "seeya" ? Thanks in advance.
Well I'm currently running CoS for the first time and we are not far along in the campaign so while Character option concerns are still current in my mind there's no experience to speak of. As you said reading around and through CoS concerns regarding spell components and usable magical weapons are aplenty.
Personally I never run a campaign as RAW I always end up changing things, so I'm thinking unless you expressly intend to run it as RAW or your players expressly want you to, can't you just plop in spell components, a clutch of silver arrow heads anything that circumvents some massive impasse in the campaign simply because of players character choice?
If it has to be RAW then I think you should tell the players which character choices would be tough.
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“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Yah, I never have run any adventure not made by myself - including Curse of Strshd - that I didn't heavily modify. But I'm considering if I can do that with CoS, and really trying to put in a lot of thought on what would happen for a lot of character choices if I did. A fighter crossbow specialist sounds amazing but I'm pretty sure not for CoS RAW, since resistance and even outright immunity would render all the advantages outright meaningless.
I was thinking about some of the other questions you posed specifically adventure hook starting equipment, as you intend to run The House of Lament (a adventure I have run before and thoroughly enjoyed) it seems opportune to have those items scattered throughout the house.
Also regarding The House of Lament you wouldn't want to run it with either pairs of Rudolph (and Erasmus) van Richten or Ireena Kolyana and Ez d’Avenir as allies unless you intend to do quite a bit of modification to CoS. I'm guessing as your using The House of Lament you intend to skip the Death House as both are supposed to serve the level up to level 3 for the start of CoS function otherwise I think that might be to much haunted house in a row, apologies if both those points seem obvious and condescending it's certainly not intended to be.
You also mention the invitation having Arrigal deliver it at the end of The House of Lament, personally I didn't like the invitation adventure hook I didn't want my players to feel quite so "special" that they warranted invitation or perk their suspicion as it soon turns out to be a fake but thats my personal take on things. You could very easily just have them leave the The House of Lament enter the mist and have them find the Gates of Barovia further enhancing the doom they face lost in the mist traveling from one demi-plane of dread to the next.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
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For 'Curse of Strahd,' I noticed that in the 'Adventure Hooks' area that Player's can be offered any number of starting benefits, such as Spell Scrolls of Remove Curse, Spell Scrolls of Magic Weapon, 1 Silvered Weapon, and 1 Potion of Heroism, per party member. Obviously not all of these together (though I'm not sure how my level 1 PC would feel if the Quest Giver said, "Here's your scroll of remove curse, scroll of magic weapon, 1 silvered longsword, and your potion of heroism. G'luck!") but the idea is interesting in having those protections as Curses will happen, be they from Monsters and Spells, or Magic Items; PC's can run into Werewolves relatively early and that damage IMMUNITY to nonmagical attacks that aren't silvered is something to take note of.
Simultaneously, they can just encounter a random guy in a cloak who gives them a letter and says "Seeya" right after. The Mists might just grab them while they camp by the road.
So. How do people feel about these starting options? For myself, my current plan is to have them separately do the 'House of Lament' from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, and then be ushered in by a lone dark rider (Arrigal) that hands them the letter (Seeya).
Also, what kind of warning should I offer insofar as goes the Adventures very stingy approach to Loot? It was pointed out to me that Ranged Characters like Archers without the ability to create a magical bow of their own will just be up a creek. Similarly, if I hew true to both the RAW Adventure plus enforce the Spell Component rules, Spell Casters are going to find themselves in a similar pinch. Do I mention that Player's should take these things into consideration? Or just "seeya" ? Thanks in advance.
Well I'm currently running CoS for the first time and we are not far along in the campaign so while Character option concerns are still current in my mind there's no experience to speak of.
As you said reading around and through CoS concerns regarding spell components and usable magical weapons are aplenty.
Personally I never run a campaign as RAW I always end up changing things, so I'm thinking unless you expressly intend to run it as RAW or your players expressly want you to, can't you just plop in spell components, a clutch of silver arrow heads anything that circumvents some massive impasse in the campaign simply because of players character choice?
If it has to be RAW then I think you should tell the players which character choices would be tough.
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Yah, I never have run any adventure not made by myself - including Curse of Strshd - that I didn't heavily modify. But I'm considering if I can do that with CoS, and really trying to put in a lot of thought on what would happen for a lot of character choices if I did. A fighter crossbow specialist sounds amazing but I'm pretty sure not for CoS RAW, since resistance and even outright immunity would render all the advantages outright meaningless.
I was thinking about some of the other questions you posed specifically adventure hook starting equipment, as you intend to run The House of Lament (a adventure I have run before and thoroughly enjoyed) it seems opportune to have those items scattered throughout the house.
Also regarding The House of Lament you wouldn't want to run it with either pairs of Rudolph (and Erasmus) van Richten or Ireena Kolyana and Ez d’Avenir as allies unless you intend to do quite a bit of modification to CoS.
I'm guessing as your using The House of Lament you intend to skip the Death House as both are supposed to serve the level up to level 3 for the start of CoS function otherwise I think that might be to much haunted house in a row, apologies if both those points seem obvious and condescending it's certainly not intended to be.
You also mention the invitation having Arrigal deliver it at the end of The House of Lament, personally I didn't like the invitation adventure hook I didn't want my players to feel quite so "special" that they warranted invitation or perk their suspicion as it soon turns out to be a fake but thats my personal take on things.
You could very easily just have them leave the The House of Lament enter the mist and have them find the Gates of Barovia further enhancing the doom they face lost in the mist traveling from one demi-plane of dread to the next.
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again