D&D 5E Curse of Strahd Luck Blade use.

[jayoungr]

My party would wish for a portal back to their home world to get the F out of there!

The adventure specifically says that if they use the luck blade for that, the spell will fail.

It's also quite unlikely that the luck blade will be found, since it's in a pretty obscure location that not all parties will visit.

 

[ccs]

The adventure specifically says that if they use the luck blade for that, the spell will fail.

It's also quite unlikely that the luck blade will be found, since it's in a pretty obscure location that not all parties will visit.

Well, if my players found the Luck Blade & used the Wish to escape?
I'd read that as the players not enjoying the adventure, it'd work, & that'd be their ending of CoS. I mean, if they really don't want to continue the adventure they could also just stop showing up for the game....

 

[Mistwell]

Yea, yea you would be in for some nasty surprise at every table the DM is worth his salt.
That is one of the examples of what I love not about modern players assumptions and expectations.

You see, @Mistwell well you are trolling, you are in this forum since 2002 aren't you? Have you ever played in a Ravenloft campaign? If not then I beg your pardon, but I give you a slight example as a hint so not to spoil other players:

If someone e.g. no matter what edition would cast the mage spell vampiric touch or the cleric inflict wounds
in a Ravenloft campaign with me as the DM, there are good chances he gets a scaly arm, or a claw like hand or some similar body modification. Repetition of such things, or other morally questionable behavior e.g. torturing innocents for info, might make an interesting NPC out of a player character quite fast, in 2e there were very explicit rules for that, and a real Ravenloft campaign is bland without adaption of these rules to whatever edition you are playing.

Raise dead obviously also might have drawbacks of all kinds etc.

What the heck are you talking about. I absolutely am not trolling. I am PLAYING IN CURSE OF STAHD RIGHT NOW AND THAT IS IN FACT WHAT MY PARTY DESPERATELY WANTS TO DO, IS GET THE F OUT OF THERE AND BACK TO THE REGULAR PRIME MATERIAL PLANE!

How am I a "modern player" when I, and all the other players in that game, have been playing since AD&D 1e? I've been playing since 1978 you snob.

I also don't understand the rest of your post. Vampiric Touch, Inflict Wounds, morally questionable behavior, Raise Dead, what does ANY of that have to do with using a luck blade wish to open a portal to get out of Ravenloft and back home?

I don't know, did you mis-read my post or...?

 

[Mistwell]

The adventure specifically says that if they use the luck blade for that, the spell will fail.

It's also quite unlikely that the luck blade will be found, since it's in a pretty obscure location that not all parties will visit.

Well thanks for that spoiler! It was asked what my party would try to use the wish for, and that is in fact what my part would try to use the wish for. If it fails, it fails, but it was an honest answer. Not sure why I am getting flack for it, or why we're not spoiling the adventure in this thread?

 

[Mistwell]

Well, if my players found the Luck Blade & used the Wish to escape?
I'd read that as the players not enjoying the adventure, it'd work, & that'd be their ending of CoS. I mean, if they really don't want to continue the adventure they could also just stop showing up for the game....

Escaping Ravenloft is an explicit goal of the adventure for the PCs. It's not a sign of lack of enjoyment for the Players. It's a sign that it's a horrifying abysmal place that the PCs are trapped in and they actively want to get out of there with everything at their disposal focused on that goal.

 

[Coroc]

What the heck are you talking about. I absolutely am not trolling. I am PLAYING IN CURSE OF STAHD RIGHT NOW AND THAT IS IN FACT WHAT MY PARTY DESPERATELY WANTS TO DO, IS GET THE F OUT OF THERE AND BACK TO THE REGULAR PRIME MATERIAL PLANE!

How am I a "modern player" when I, and all the other players in that game, have been playing since AD&D 1e? I've been playing since 1978 you snob.

I also don't understand the rest of your post. Vampiric Touch, Inflict Wounds, morally questionable behavior, Raise Dead, what does ANY of that have to do with using a luck blade wish to open a portal to get out of Ravenloft and back home?

I don't know, did you mis-read my post or...?

Whew, whew, no offense meant, but you and I as well as @Sabathius42 seem to have totally different expectations for a ravenloft D&D campaign than me.

Most of the 2e adventures for ravenloft are some of the best stuff to be run (content wise not mechanically) out of the book. The 1e/2e ruleset does in no way apply to 5e RAW, still it had some eerie quirks when it comes to ravenloft, and it is worth to integrate some of the stuff.
One of the intentions back then tried to deal with the same basic assumptions you two seem to have today.

E.g. Imagine a group of players doing standard campaigning. The following scenario would not cause much trouble to the players: PCs encounter a Werewolf e.g. in FR, level appropriate, they obliterate it with a balanced fight.
So just another monster vanqished, everything fine. Ravenloft was meant to be different:
It was expected from the players that they act out and RP like you and I IRL would, if we encountered such a monster, even if we were battle hardened trained soldiers.
So the in the same situation the players should not react like: "Oh another mob ah it might be a werewolf (The DM was expected not to communicate the exact name of the mob), let us kill it and see if it gives XP and drops treasure, I can rember a werewolf from my FR campaign it is a tough fight but doable."

So ideally for that Ravenloft encounter the party should have no magic or silver weapons on them when they meet the werewolf the first time, so they can hurt it, but it seems to regenerate and they cannot kill it. The DM had fear-, horror- and insanity checks in his arsenal, so he could enforce consequences, e.g. a player confronted with this encounter not even trying to act on the severity of the situation, namely the party getting attacked by something they cannot handle (yet) and might TPK.
Of course this example scenario has to have some means included for the party to escape it, fighting just isn't an option here. So they might flee, with one of them sacrificing himself (just to return and haunt the party as some kind of undead the next night) or in this situation some pseudo- deus ex machina e.g. some nobleman appears and the werewolf unexplainably flees. Later of course it turns out that this nobleman is the real nemesis and in truth is a vampire etc. etc.

In ravenloft many things are twisted and different from normal D&D, but communicating most of that instead of letting the players find them out the hard way (e.g. spells which in former editions had the "evil " denominator, or enable planeshift), spoils part of the fun.

Yes you can play ravenloft any way you like, with everything functioning quite normal and no quirks, but there are other adventures which are suited far better for that.

Ravenloft in fact is D&D s try on Cthullu , just that the players are not expected to die for sure, but only eventually.

 

[Coroc]

Escaping Ravenloft is an explicit goal of the adventure for the PCs. It's not a sign of lack of enjoyment for the Players. It's a sign that it's a horrifying abysmal place that the PCs are trapped in and they actively want to get out of there with everything at their disposal focused on that goal.

Yes and it is so abysmal that even wish sometimes does not function like it should.

 

[Mistwell]

Yes and it is so abysmal that even wish sometimes does not function like it should.

Yes, apparently in the 5e version as well using a wish to leave would fail. But as a player, I didn't know that. And it's the wish we'd make, as players in the game.

 

[Coroc]

Yes, apparently in the 5e version as well using a wish to leave would fail. But as a player, I didn't know that. And it's the wish we'd make, as players in the game.

Wel li would give everybody an inspiration to compensate a bit for the loss of the wish, as a player "waisting" a wish - which could give you all sorts of goodies - on some simple travel task would eventually bugger m to

 

[ccs]

Escaping Ravenloft is an explicit goal of the adventure for the PCs. It's not a sign of lack of enjoyment for the Players. It's a sign that it's a horrifying abysmal place that the PCs are trapped in and they actively want to get out of there with everything at their disposal focused on that goal.

(shrugs) Sure, you can look at it that way.
Or you can look at it as wanting to play through a cool adventure where the goal is to stake the vampire, save the girl/land & be heroes. Escape being the reward.

But if you wish yourselves out? Clearly you didn't want to finish this adventure by going on the advertised Vampire hunt....