D&D 5E CoS Ideal Tarokka Reading Storywise

Rils · Dec 17, 2016

Remathilis said:
For what its worth, my first completely random draw was awful; (snip)

The bummer with all the artifacts being in the castle was the group kinda felt like they were exploring places to level-grind up to going into the Castle rather than looking for these items.

And THAT is why you stack the deck but don't tell them.

ad_hoc · Dec 17, 2016

Rils said:
And THAT is why you stack the deck but don't tell them.

I make it a point not to lie to people, especially my friends. And especially over a game of all things.

pukunui · Dec 17, 2016

ad_hoc said:
I make it a point not to lie to people, especially my friends. And especially over a game of all things.

I wouldn't consider it lying to simply not mention that the deck is stacked. That's what I did for my group. No one was any the wiser. And I doubt they'd hold it against me, either, were they ever to find out.

I'm A Banana · Dec 17, 2016

For what it's worth, I did mine rando, and got the following results:

Ally: Arabelle
Sword: Berez
Holy Symbol: Blue Water Inn
Strahd's Book of Emo Poetry: in his castle
Last Stand: MISTS (????)

I'm honing in on the idea of Strahd looking for an heir. It's implied a bit that Arabelle might not be a "normal" Vistani child, and the idea is that she's god von Zarovich blood in her, allowing her to bypass Strahd's "blood ties" guards and wards. He's seeking her out to make her his true heir, and isn't interested in harming her, but in using her. The party has a chance to turn her against him instead. At which point maybe he won't be that interested in raising her to power.

The sword worked fine - they stumbled on the statue and dug it up.

The holy symbol worked super great: the Martikovs have become rather important NPC's in my game, since they gave the PC's the quest to the Wizard of Wines to prove their worth before they rewarded the symbol. A big arc of the campaign was about this.

I'm using the Last Stand card as a way to work a bit more Ezmerelda into the story - she's a Vistani, so she can draw again and "pierce the mists." Until she does, Strahd won't stand and fight the characters anywhere.

They may not end up using the Ally, and they have been desperately trying to figure out what the other card is before they go to the castle (hehehe), but they're following other leads at the moment.

CapnZapp · Dec 17, 2016

ad_hoc said:
I make it a point not to lie to people, especially my friends. And especially over a game of all things.

A magician technically "lies" to his audience, but this is a completely unconstructive way of looking at dungeon mastering.

You're not telling lies. You're just not telling the truth.

You will learn in time that using illusion, misdirection and, yes, avoidance of fact, will make you a better DM.

Sammael · Dec 17, 2016

I did random readings. The first reading (before Madame Eva) was a bit crappy:

Tome - Den of Wolves
Holy Symbol - Crypt 31
Sunsword - Blue Water Inn
Ally - Casimir
Strahd - Study

Only one item was in the castle, but the location of Sunsword and the Tome meant that a large portion of Barovia could be ignored (if the party chose to pursue the items and ignore other hooks). Furthermore, the Den is not something I envisioned PCs visiting early on, so the Tome's usefulness would be a bit diminished.

The second reading (Madame Eva) was much more to my liking:

Tome - Kasimir
Holy Symbol - Krezk Abbey garden
Sunsword - Wachterhaus
Ally - Piddlewick II
Strahd - Study

So, they got the Tome early on in exchange for a promise that they would visit the temple with Kasimir. Holy Symbol guarantees they will go to Krezk and encounter the Abbot, and the Sunsword necessitates involvement with Vallaki politics. If they pick Piddlewick II up and retreat from the castle, I plan on allowing Blinsky to "upgrade" him (provided the party is friendly to him).

I don't think I'd ever stack the deck or cheat, but I would definitively tailor other parts of the campaign to support the readings. If all the items ended up in the castle, I'd make sure the PCs would want to go to the castle early on, get them, and then leave to come up with a plan.

Additionally, I plan on allowing them to recruit more allies to ensure storming the castle in the end is a bit more epic (though all except Piddlewick will be absent from the final battle - betrayal, otherwise engaged, eliminated offscreen, etc). Candidates include:

Ezmerelda, Ismark, Sasha, Kasimir, Muriel, Zuleika, Vasilka, Victor, Donavich, Arrigal

Of course, some of those candidates aren't exactly compatible...

pukunui · Dec 17, 2016

FWIW: I did about 20 random readings just for the fun of it. Didn't really like any of them, so I went through and made lists of cards for locations that were acceptable to me for each item, and tried again. That worked better but was too time-consuming as I had to basically make a new deck for each draw. This is partly why I ultimately decided to just pick the cards I wanted to use and stack the deck.

evilbob · Dec 19, 2016

pukunui said:
I was sold by [MENTION=9789]evilbob[/MENTION]'s argument for a few of the above.

I convinced someone of something on the internet, yay! First time for everything.

pukunui said:
I'm also going to make it so the skull Baba Lysaga rides around in is Argynvost's skull rather than a hill giant's skull.

Ooo, now that is a very cool idea. I'll have to ponder that as well. I feel like it overall lowers the difficulty (since they'll likely be able to get the skull sooner) but it also makes logical sense and ties these areas in together better.

I'm A Banana said:
Strahd's Book of Emo Poetry

HAHA!

CapnZapp · Mar 27, 2017

pukunui said:
That worked better but was too time-consuming as I had to basically make a new deck for each draw. This is partly why I ultimately decided to just pick the cards I wanted to use and stack the deck.

Yeah, the end analysis is that there really are only two reasonably easy solutions:

Prestack the deck, don't tell your players, and get a good if unsurprising experience. This is what WotC should have provided for us.

Or...

Randomize the deck, and play the campaign more than once, so the consequences of that randomness actually are experienced by the players.

The option where you remove some of the cards is mostly just a lot of work, and STILL you can get a bad combination...

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

Gwaihir · Mar 28, 2017

I'm A Banana said:
since they gave the PC's the quest to the Wizard of Wines to prove their worth before they rewarded the symbol. A big arc of the campaign was about this.

Im strongly considering placing something in the Wizard of the Wines, since the whole Bring us Wine before we let you in the town plot, seems like a bad WOW quest to me.

G