Thoughts on running Death House

P

Pauper

That guy, who does that thing.

• Mar 16, 2016

• #41

Anthraxus said:

Seems like the only real way to play both Suits and Death House. Maybe get in a couple of the 4-1 missions- still level one, and get to enjoy some Suits of the Mists(and get sent to Barovia from Toril)... come upon Death House in Barovia, and then move on to 4-2 or CoS hardcover?

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You could certainly do this if your players weren't terribly interested in running all 5 of the Suits missions (though they are interrelated, so it makes sense for the party to do all 5 if possible); having them head into the Mists early to encounter the Death House would be do-able. As an added bonus, if the party was already level 2 when entering the House, you as DM have less of an incentive to allow a long rest to be successful until the end of the module.

The characters could even transition back and forth between season 4 AL missions and the CoS hard-cover, though as noted, if they level out of the tier 1 story before completing it, they'll miss some story info. Likewise, since each chapter in CoS has a recommended level, characters who bounce back and forth may not get to encounter all of the hard-cover adventure.

The recommendation is to do one or the other -- pick CoS or season 4 AL adventures -- but if you're willing to do the work and your players are OK with possibly missing some content, you could certainly make it work for them to do both with the same group of characters.

--
Pauper

 

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Steve_MND

First Post

• Mar 16, 2016

• #42

kalani said:

Robert made one comment on FB that Death House and 4-1 were mutually exclusive. I forget which of the many AL groups I am a member of he made the comment in, and it would be a lot of work to find as it was said a good week ago approximately?

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This is a good example of why things need to be laid out in a single official spot in an OP campaign, and not scattered across umpteen different FB groups and forums. If an Admin randomly mentions something "official" on one of the nigh-infinite social media sites out there that is catering to AL, there's a good chance that a good chunk of players (and DMs) will never hear about it. Until it goes into an actual official doc of some sort for folks (such as the FAQ on dndadventurersleague.org ), then it really shouldn't be expected to be considered any more 'official' than, say, Sage Advice columns -- not binding, but strongly recommended to operate off of.

"So and so said it was this, on another group somewhere," is just so much hearsay. It may be accurate (I am confident that Kalani is correct that she saw it somewhere) but the very fact that there are supposedly any official rulings out there that "would be a lot of work to find" means something needs to be revisited.

Again, not commenting on this specific ruling -- the starting points for the two scenarios makes playing both awkward except in certain convoluted orders, regardless of any ruling to reinforce it -- but more a general comment on how spread out and decentralized things are in the campaign currently.

 

kalani

First Post

• Mar 16, 2016

• #43

We are in the process of overhauling the FAQ. I will suggest adding something like that there.

In respect to these kinds of quotes though - I usually take a screen capture of the quote and repost it here in any related threads. In this case though, this happened a week ago and no similar threads were happening at the time (and I was probably very busy at the time) and so didn't take a screen cap. Its not a major issue IMO. Unless I can provide verifiable proof - I am perfectly fine with people simply taking these kinds of things as a strong recommendation (rather than a hard rule). Without being able to go back and re-read the quote myself (in complete context), it may very well have been intended as a recommendation anyway.

I am not in the habit of making things up however (and falsely claiming the admins said something they didn't), but won't discount the possibility of faulty memory and/or misunderstandings creeping in. It happens. Still, I make every effort to verify anything I can. I just know that given all the discussion on FB since the launch of the DM Quests - it would be a daunting task to achieve. During quieter periods however, I can usually find something after ~5 minutes of searching and take a screencap if needed.

 

Last edited: Mar 16, 2016

C

cr1ms0n

Villager

• Mar 16, 2016

• #44

Considering that both DH/CoS and the AL adventures have strong, continuing plots (from what I have heard about season 4 AL adventures). If a player wants to do both, their best option is to have two characters. Going back and forth they will miss out on the story of both lines.

 

T

Tyranthraxus

Explorer

• Mar 17, 2016

• #45

THats not my intention. I originally was going to run Suits in the Mist and Bypass the Launch event (because Im not in a position to run Curse of Strahd Hardback as Im still not even half way through Out of the Abyss). However sadly Suits was pushed back which forced me to change tack and I ran a 4.5 hour run of Death House at two locations over 2 saturdays as the 'launch' event. I was cocky and I thought 'Hey.. I can let them simply take their characters on to 4-1 considering they are level 2, not realising about the mutual exclusivity until just recently. So Ive unscheduled Suits to run the Beast instead. It comes out on the 1st of April and Im running it on the 2nd so Ill be cutting it fine.

Now hopefully there is no Delay to the Beast or Ill be back in the pickle!

 

kalani

First Post

• Mar 17, 2016

• #46

It should be released on time. The decision to delay 4-1 was deliberate (for the explicit purpose of allowing Death House to have a few weeks of exclusivity without competition from 4-1)

 

B

Byakugan

First Post

• Mar 17, 2016

• #47

My players got up to the 3rd floor and explored most of it already. They just killed the specter in the nursery, but they still think they are trying to save the baby. Half the party thinks the baby is going to be a monster that they will have to kill(they think rose and thorn are vampires). I think about 3 more hours and I can get them to the end. I'm pretty sure they will skip the detailed searches now since they already found the secret stairs to the attic and the letter. They will get to 2nd level soon and the fights downstairs should be pretty tough.

One of the players is playing a Order of the Gauntlet Paladin with the flaw 'i always do the right thing for the greater good'. So I am pretty sure I know what his fate will be. Otherwise I am pretty sure the house and shamblet will eat the majority of the party before they can escape.

Has anyone played a table where a character made the sacrifice? How did it work for you? Did the character kill themselves or did they draw straws or what? There are 3
teens at my table that are all buddies and I can totally imagine them just turning and going after one of the others. I am a little anxious about it since I usually strictly quash attempts at pvp. It seems clear such an outcome is intended to be a distinct possibility.

 

T

Tyranthraxus

Explorer

• Mar 18, 2016

• #48

Has anyone else found that many of their players are going with Factionless characters this season? Ive got 2 guys who ALWAYS create factionless characters but on my second running of Death House I had a single Zhentarim and everyone else was Factionless.

 

Steve_MND

First Post

• Apr 13, 2016

• #49

Quick question, as I thought I had seen this answered elsewhere, but cannot for the life of me seem to find it again. At the end of Death House, are the players automatically stuck in Barovia, or do they have a choice (since/if it's being run as a store "launch event") of not continuing on with the character and returning to Faerun? At the end of the mod, it mentions a situation where "Strahd is pleased, and the mists recede," by which I initially read as meaning the mists recede fully and the players are back in the Realms, but I'm not sure, actually. Thanks in advance.

 

kalani

First Post

• Apr 14, 2016

• #50

As stated in the ALPG and ALDMG - any character who plays Death House, Curse of Strahd or a DDAL4-X adventure (with the exception of parts 1-4 of DDAL4-1) is trapped in Ravenloft.