We are currently playing CoS. I read the module at one point, when I didn’t know my friend wanted to run it. He adores the setting and thetheme of the campaign. I am now playing in his campaign and try hard not to metagame, which works pretty well and generally I am having a good time. The problem: we got to a part of the campaign campaign which is heavily intrigue-based. I am playing a dumb character and I let the others take plot-relevant decisions. But now that we are in this intrigue portion, I am a bit bored. I try hard not to act on my meta-knowledge, but that means I can’t theorize with the others and I have to let them do all the talking and figuring-out. I am not impatient or something like that and it brings me joy to see the others figuring out who is trustworthy and who isn’t, etc. I just have a bit too little to do. Any ideas on how I could spice up things for me dn my character?
Does your DM know that you're already familiar with the module? If they know that you already know the answers to some of the mysteries in the story, they could just change them or alter how they work. There's always room to homebrew even in official adventures, and that's probably the simplest way from someone using their out-of-game knowledge in a way that might make the game less fun.
The reason that spoilers lessen the shine of an adventure is that you've already "resolved" the major driving force in your mind. As TransmorpherDDS said, the first solution is to give your DM an opportunity to mix up the published intrigue. The second solution is to integrate your character into the setting more deeply. Perhaps your character lost a sibling in Barovia years before, and you have begun to see clues that they may still be alive, or they may have turned into a monster. At that point, defeating the big bad is merely a necessary step toward freedom, whereas rescuing/redeeming your sibling becomes your primary driving force. Give your DM strings to pull on to personalize the adventure. With enough participation from the players, a DM can turn a 2 month adventure into a multi-year campaign.
Treat CoS as a bardic retelling of a classic epic. Everyone already knows the major plot points, but what happens afterward, and how did it tie into the more obscure parts of the heroes story? What kind of relationships did the heroes form? What about interparty conflict? Let it be about the journey, rather than the destination.
We are currently playing CoS. I read the module at one point, when I didn’t know my friend wanted to run it. He adores the setting and thetheme of the campaign. I am now playing in his campaign and try hard not to metagame, which works pretty well and generally I am having a good time. The problem: we got to a part of the campaign campaign which is heavily intrigue-based. I am playing a dumb character and I let the others take plot-relevant decisions. But now that we are in this intrigue portion, I am a bit bored. I try hard not to act on my meta-knowledge, but that means I can’t theorize with the others and I have to let them do all the talking and figuring-out. I am not impatient or something like that and it brings me joy to see the others figuring out who is trustworthy and who isn’t, etc. I just have a bit too little to do. Any ideas on how I could spice up things for me dn my character?
Another way to spice it up ... talk to the DM and see if perhaps in-between you can find a magic amulet that gives your character insight or visions, and then the DM can use YOU to help steer the rest of the party to stay "on rails" or avoid really bad decisions. Call it super intuition, but the DM can tell you what / when, and then you can be forced to roleplay how you convince the others you are on the right path.
This works so easily if you have a spell caster, cleric, or rogue ... either via an artifact, patron, or deity, your character has some extra knowledge that the group does not.
Though I do not know the adventure my group is in, my cleric (low INT, decent WIS) has an amulet to commune with Selune ... the messages allow the DM to foreshadow something, but what we don't really know the full context.
My group has a mix of alignments ... or so I think. I just know that one of our fighters is quick to slit throats of captives and my character's older brother is a rogue that rationalizes it to me ... and the way we've written our characters, mine was a child when our parents were murdered and my brother bartered with pirates to sail us far away.
Anyhow there are lots of options, but I like the seeing visions option.
(In a totally different party, our barbarian has a telepathic helm and the DM never let me know what it really can do other than "Twig tell me exactly what you are thinking now". My gnome rogue is now paranoid that the barbarian is reading his every thought. Last session, "Twig tell me exactly what is you are thinking now" when he was wading through swamp reeds about to pop out his warlock friend from a magic ring who would rain fireballs on a gnoll encampment --> Twig: "I'm hungry, I'm wet, and I really feel we'd be far better off with me climbing the chimney of some well off jeweler back in Waterdeep and redistributing his excess gems to this annoying fence-friend of mine minus a finders / collectors fee, which could then be used to buy me warm socks and berries."
Anyhow breaking the fourth wall can be a fun part of the game! Enjoy and share your approach to keeping is entertaining for your group, including you! :)
Hey guys, thanks so much for all of your suggestions! Those are some good ideas! I will talk to my DM and see if we can work something out. I will let you know what we end up doing 😁
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We are currently playing CoS. I read the module at one point, when I didn’t know my friend wanted to run it. He adores the setting and thetheme of the campaign. I am now playing in his campaign and try hard not to metagame, which works pretty well and generally I am having a good time. The problem: we got to a part of the campaign campaign which is heavily intrigue-based. I am playing a dumb character and I let the others take plot-relevant decisions. But now that we are in this intrigue portion, I am a bit bored. I try hard not to act on my meta-knowledge, but that means I can’t theorize with the others and I have to let them do all the talking and figuring-out. I am not impatient or something like that and it brings me joy to see the others figuring out who is trustworthy and who isn’t, etc. I just have a bit too little to do. Any ideas on how I could spice up things for me dn my character?
Does your DM know that you're already familiar with the module? If they know that you already know the answers to some of the mysteries in the story, they could just change them or alter how they work. There's always room to homebrew even in official adventures, and that's probably the simplest way from someone using their out-of-game knowledge in a way that might make the game less fun.
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The reason that spoilers lessen the shine of an adventure is that you've already "resolved" the major driving force in your mind. As TransmorpherDDS said, the first solution is to give your DM an opportunity to mix up the published intrigue. The second solution is to integrate your character into the setting more deeply. Perhaps your character lost a sibling in Barovia years before, and you have begun to see clues that they may still be alive, or they may have turned into a monster. At that point, defeating the big bad is merely a necessary step toward freedom, whereas rescuing/redeeming your sibling becomes your primary driving force. Give your DM strings to pull on to personalize the adventure. With enough participation from the players, a DM can turn a 2 month adventure into a multi-year campaign.
Treat CoS as a bardic retelling of a classic epic. Everyone already knows the major plot points, but what happens afterward, and how did it tie into the more obscure parts of the heroes story? What kind of relationships did the heroes form? What about interparty conflict? Let it be about the journey, rather than the destination.
Another way to spice it up ... talk to the DM and see if perhaps in-between you can find a magic amulet that gives your character insight or visions, and then the DM can use YOU to help steer the rest of the party to stay "on rails" or avoid really bad decisions. Call it super intuition, but the DM can tell you what / when, and then you can be forced to roleplay how you convince the others you are on the right path.
This works so easily if you have a spell caster, cleric, or rogue ... either via an artifact, patron, or deity, your character has some extra knowledge that the group does not.
Though I do not know the adventure my group is in, my cleric (low INT, decent WIS) has an amulet to commune with Selune ... the messages allow the DM to foreshadow something, but what we don't really know the full context.
My group has a mix of alignments ... or so I think. I just know that one of our fighters is quick to slit throats of captives and my character's older brother is a rogue that rationalizes it to me ... and the way we've written our characters, mine was a child when our parents were murdered and my brother bartered with pirates to sail us far away.
Anyhow there are lots of options, but I like the seeing visions option.
(In a totally different party, our barbarian has a telepathic helm and the DM never let me know what it really can do other than "Twig tell me exactly what you are thinking now". My gnome rogue is now paranoid that the barbarian is reading his every thought. Last session, "Twig tell me exactly what is you are thinking now" when he was wading through swamp reeds about to pop out his warlock friend from a magic ring who would rain fireballs on a gnoll encampment --> Twig: "I'm hungry, I'm wet, and I really feel we'd be far better off with me climbing the chimney of some well off jeweler back in Waterdeep and redistributing his excess gems to this annoying fence-friend of mine minus a finders / collectors fee, which could then be used to buy me warm socks and berries."
Anyhow breaking the fourth wall can be a fun part of the game! Enjoy and share your approach to keeping is entertaining for your group, including you! :)
Hey guys, thanks so much for all of your suggestions! Those are some good ideas! I will talk to my DM and see if we can work something out. I will let you know what we end up doing 😁