I'm running a Curse of Strahd game and my party just finished up death house last session and will meet Madam Eva and have their reading either this upcoming session or the one after that.
my question is have you guys had much success with letting fate decide which cards are drawn or "stacking the deck" so to speak with ones I think will be the most fun and thematic for them?
Alternatively, which cards do you guys have success with and which ones seemed not to work out very well. i'd love to hear about how certain allys and placement of items worked in your games.
Cheers!
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Lord of the Dead, Judge of the Damned, Master of the Crystal Spire, the Great Guide.
So I'm a Dm, but I'm a player for this one and I can tell you how she did it and how I feel about it as a player.
I can't remember all the items, but one in particular lets me know for certain the items were random. There is an amulet that is only useful to a cleric/paladin. There is no cleric/paladin in our party. As such, when our bard found the item and had it identified, it was a big let down that this integral piece to the quest was unusable. I'm hoping she can find a way to make it useful to us before the end. I would suggest if you want to leave it to fate, take out anything that is class specific if that class isn't in your party. It IS fun to have the random items. As players, we're loving it.
At the same time though, if you know your players well enough, you might be able to stack the deck how you like and create your own adventure. Doing it this way even allows you to make up some side quests along the way that could play into those items a little more thoroughly. That's what I would do if I were in your position. But again, either one is fun. It just depends on what you feel like playing. :)
I am DMing CoS and I say go for random, it is more fun for the DM as well as the players because then even YOU get to be surprised! 😀
I do, however, recommend that you have your own back up "reading" done ahead of time in case for some reason they never do the Tarokka reading. That way at least you will know where the items will be found. If they end up getting a reading, just discard your backup reading.
@stag_horn actually the amulet is always one of the items, it's just the location it's found that changes with the Tarokka reading. If you don't have party member who can use it, find an NPC cleric to join the group, or convince one of the group to take a level of cleric or paladin at next level.
"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing) You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
Well, in 3.5 I recall Bard's could try Use Magic Device? Why not ask your DM if you can try something similar? Maybe a Knowledge: Religion check with a really high DC (like, 15?). Make the check each time you want to use its powers. Fail, and it deals radiant damage to the player trying to use it.
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"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing) You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
Honestly I did two I did one in advanced and one for the players and then if one location/ person sucked I substituted the one from the previous reading. Not that it will matter. they have found zero items so far and the level 3 witch player almost killed Strahd with the Moonlight spell.
just out of curiosity how in the hell did your witch player almost kill Strahd with moonbeam? it might do radiant damage but its only 2d10 and Strahd has 144 hit points and a +4 to con! and thats assuming they have already eaten through the 50 free hitpoint shield he gets from the heart of sorrow. did he just stand there round after round and take it?
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Lord of the Dead, Judge of the Damned, Master of the Crystal Spire, the Great Guide.
So no he didn't stand still but she managed to move it to hit him every turn and he couldn't regain hit points when he started his turn in the light. He also failed the initial con save. Plus he was taking damage from the other players so it want totally Her she just did the most damage. Also he did use the Heart of Sorrow to absorb some of it but if you let it take the full 50 it destroys it. Which isn't any good. Like they only got him down to half plus the 45 I let the heart take but it wasn't looking good for him. This also took place outside of Castle Ravenloft so he didn't have any Lair actions. Honestly I think it was just bad luck.
Frankly this group was the same one that later( at level 5) was nearly TPK'd by a zombie hoard that shouldn't have been so powerful. So it was really all about the dice.
I'm actually going to deviate and suggest that OP rig the reading- figure out what seems like the most interesting results for your party, the random reading mechanic adds replayability but if you don't care about playing it multiple times (has anyone ever actually done this with the same players?) then it really doesn't matter.
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I'm running a Curse of Strahd game and my party just finished up death house last session and will meet Madam Eva and have their reading either this upcoming session or the one after that.
my question is have you guys had much success with letting fate decide which cards are drawn or "stacking the deck" so to speak with ones I think will be the most fun and thematic for them?
Alternatively, which cards do you guys have success with and which ones seemed not to work out very well. i'd love to hear about how certain allys and placement of items worked in your games.
Cheers!
Lord of the Dead, Judge of the Damned, Master of the Crystal Spire, the Great Guide.
I have the same question, i´m about to do the card reading for my players and wondering how to proceed.
Many thanks!
So I'm a Dm, but I'm a player for this one and I can tell you how she did it and how I feel about it as a player.
I can't remember all the items, but one in particular lets me know for certain the items were random. There is an amulet that is only useful to a cleric/paladin. There is no cleric/paladin in our party. As such, when our bard found the item and had it identified, it was a big let down that this integral piece to the quest was unusable. I'm hoping she can find a way to make it useful to us before the end. I would suggest if you want to leave it to fate, take out anything that is class specific if that class isn't in your party. It IS fun to have the random items. As players, we're loving it.
At the same time though, if you know your players well enough, you might be able to stack the deck how you like and create your own adventure. Doing it this way even allows you to make up some side quests along the way that could play into those items a little more thoroughly. That's what I would do if I were in your position. But again, either one is fun. It just depends on what you feel like playing. :)
I am DMing CoS and I say go for random, it is more fun for the DM as well as the players because then even YOU get to be surprised! 😀
I do, however, recommend that you have your own back up "reading" done ahead of time in case for some reason they never do the Tarokka reading. That way at least you will know where the items will be found. If they end up getting a reading, just discard your backup reading.
@stag_horn actually the amulet is always one of the items, it's just the location it's found that changes with the Tarokka reading. If you don't have party member who can use it, find an NPC cleric to join the group, or convince one of the group to take a level of cleric or paladin at next level.
"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing)
You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
Uh-oh. We're killing him next session....
"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing)
You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
Honestly I did two I did one in advanced and one for the players and then if one location/ person sucked I substituted the one from the previous reading. Not that it will matter. they have found zero items so far and the level 3 witch player almost killed Strahd with the Moonlight spell.
just out of curiosity how in the hell did your witch player almost kill Strahd with moonbeam? it might do radiant damage but its only 2d10 and Strahd has 144 hit points and a +4 to con! and thats assuming they have already eaten through the 50 free hitpoint shield he gets from the heart of sorrow. did he just stand there round after round and take it?
Lord of the Dead, Judge of the Damned, Master of the Crystal Spire, the Great Guide.
So no he didn't stand still but she managed to move it to hit him every turn and he couldn't regain hit points when he started his turn in the light. He also failed the initial con save. Plus he was taking damage from the other players so it want totally Her she just did the most damage. Also he did use the Heart of Sorrow to absorb some of it but if you let it take the full 50 it destroys it. Which isn't any good. Like they only got him down to half plus the 45 I let the heart take but it wasn't looking good for him. This also took place outside of Castle Ravenloft so he didn't have any Lair actions. Honestly I think it was just bad luck.
Frankly this group was the same one that later( at level 5) was nearly TPK'd by a zombie hoard that shouldn't have been so powerful. So it was really all about the dice.
I'm actually going to deviate and suggest that OP rig the reading- figure out what seems like the most interesting results for your party, the random reading mechanic adds replayability but if you don't care about playing it multiple times (has anyone ever actually done this with the same players?) then it really doesn't matter.