Welcome to Thunderdome

I always thought DMs rewarded creative play, which is why I think let us survive in the water. Much like Gordon getting to survive a fall from a tower because of a creative plan.

I'm not sure he's had kid gloves on much. A few times I think he allowed some room for us to wiggle, but we had fights where people were one roll away from death. The whole Valaki mess we survived because we bravely ran away. Turns out some dumbass murdered the town guard!

I've thought the fights were pretty balanced keeping in mind that we have spells and abilities that don't regenerate between battles.

In <50 degree water. It wasn't the ability to breath, it was surviving the temps. We should have lasted about 45 minutes.

The time BD should have died to a tree monster. Monster shifted his attack instead of finishing him. I think he had the monster make a couple moves to prevented him from killing us.
Laying on hands at the moment of impact.
Living in water WAY below survival temps AND letting us rest there!

I can't think of others. But I feel like there were more.

Totally GM's discretion. I get that. But I would site those as Kid Gloves examples.

From what I've gathered, I'm AT LEAST in the middle of the imaginary CoS DM harshness scale. I think the lack of character deaths so far is because the party, with some notable exceptions, is very risk adverse. Which is fine, everyone's play style should be organic, and there is no right or wrong.


The first example, was a game changer - Gordon wasn't even there, actively playing his character for that. As I recall, YOU decided to bum rush the druids and tree monster for him.

That event was the reason I'm now very pro "no active person, no active character". Especially not running the owner-not-present PC straight to his death. I didn't realize how fucked up that was until ya'll stepped right in it.


The second two examples are definitely all about helping to reward creative problem solving. I'm pretty happy with how those turned out, because both of those were paid for in ways other than player death.

I predict someone will die tonight.

Stranger wrote: I predict someone will die tonight.

Maybe, but I’m still running the same session I prepped midweek.

Well, nothing goes the way I prepped but still a good session.

Now it’s dark, the party is spread all over, and Strahds mark has appeared over Kresk. See you next week....

Troy, remind me of the stats on that sweet ass blood spear that i got. I'll need to set up my macro's for it.

things pretty much couldn't have went any better for Mordigan last session.

He saved Alex from jumping off the side of a mountain to a certain death, while also making Alex look like a pussy cause he fought the fight that Alex was unwilling to do.

Mordigan slaughtered the champion of the mountain in an easy fight and can now proclaim himself as the champion of the mountain all while wielding a bad ass legendary weapon.

Last but not least, Mordigan gets to walk away with his blood opal still in its place. In his eye socket where it belongs.

What if the champion of the mountain is required to stay there, and take on all challengers?

“Roll for wisdom check to jump off the cliff” is my new favorite.

I’ll try to get a real item write up later today. Headed to airport for a quick job.

"job." at the airport.

GORDON wrote: "job." at the airport.

I'm glad I'm not the only immature person to think of that.

Right? I was going to say mine's usually at the hotel, but I guess his client wants mile high club status.

I like receiving jobs, personally.

Kavan's Blood Spear
Blood Spear



Magical, 2+ (hit and dmg)
1H 1d6, 2H 1d8
20/60 range thrown

Specials:
(1) When a melee attack using the spear causes a creature to be reduced to 0 hp, the chosen gains 2d6 temporary hit-points
(2) As an action, the chosen may inflict 1 damage to themselves to return the spear to the chosen's control, provided it is on the same plane.

Thoughts: The first ability is at the whim of Kavan. If you start murdering chickens or cows, he might not bless you with the HP! The second ability requires an action, so isn't necessarily something you'd want to use in combat.

Troy wrote: “Roll for wisdom check to jump off the cliff” is my new favorite.

I’ll try to get a real item write up later today. Headed to airport for a quick job.

Buncha children. The whole lot of you. This morning I’m in Riverside, ca. Triaged a problem and headed back to the airport.

LMAO! Just read all the posts I needed the laugh. Stuck on site in DC till Thursday.

Troy wrote: Magical, 2+ (hit and dmg)
1H 1d6, 2H 1d8
20/60 range thrown

Specials:
(1) When a melee attack using the spear causes a creature to be reduced to 0 hp, the chosen gains 2d6 temporary hit-points
(2) As an action, the chosen may inflict 1 damage to themselves to return the spear to the chosen's control, provided it is on the same plane.

Thoughts: The first ability is at the whim of Kavan. If you start murdering chickens or cows, he might not bless you with the HP! The second ability requires an action, so isn't necessarily something you'd want to use in combat.

Nice! 1d8 +2 is a little less than my current 2d6 for the greatsword but the extra +2 to hit should increase my DPS because i'll be hitting more often.

Also the healing effect on kills will make Mordigan a beast. Get me to level 7 (power spike for fighters) and i'm ready to fight Strahd!

And the rich get richer.

Live footage of our party going into battle (warning: strong language). I'll let you figure out which one is Koban: