If you want to try CoS, which I could understand might be tough, I’d suggest playing through some of the early modules from the original Ravenloft lineup.
Night of the Walking Dead is and can include waves of zombies (that’s where the plot ends up), plus a zombie lord BBEG who is no slouch. Make more waves, a tougher zombie lord, not to mention the serial killer running around. It’s okay to murderhobo, but the dark powers are watching - a curse here, a mutation there, I mean, doing bad things in Ravenloft isn’t helpful.
The Created - creepy murderous toys and marionettes. Add more. Make the BBEG tougher. Who is resting with the potential for these evil toys creeping up on you. Lots of poison…
And have abilities like cantrips not work well in Ravenloft - see, the dark domains are cut off from magic, and while it works, it isn’t like FR. Cantrips can only be cast PB times per day, or per short rest, for example. These things will have the action resource economy slow down substantially, which will make them feel vulnerable. No long rest benefits unless it’s in a safe space - and if you’re muderhoboing, that village is no longer a safe space….Ravenloft has so much to offer in terms of threatening PCs.
*edit. In the Realm of Terror book, they also list the character abilities, spells, and impacts of doing evil in Ravenloft (Powers Checks), in a section titled “reshaping of characters”, p14-17, and a separate section on Fear and Horror checks, and a separate section on how spells are affected. That book, for Ad&d2e from the Realm of Terror boxed set, seriously messes with your characters and what they can do. 5e CoS is fairly bland and unimaginative in comparison. Use the old stuff, and import it.
Night of the Walking Dead is and can include waves of zombies (that’s where the plot ends up), plus a zombie lord BBEG who is no slouch. Make more waves, a tougher zombie lord, not to mention the serial killer running around. It’s okay to murderhobo, but the dark powers are watching - a curse here, a mutation there, I mean, doing bad things in Ravenloft isn’t helpful.
The Created - creepy murderous toys and marionettes. Add more. Make the BBEG tougher. Who is resting with the potential for these evil toys creeping up on you. Lots of poison…
And have abilities like cantrips not work well in Ravenloft - see, the dark domains are cut off from magic, and while it works, it isn’t like FR. Cantrips can only be cast PB times per day, or per short rest, for example. These things will have the action resource economy slow down substantially, which will make them feel vulnerable. No long rest benefits unless it’s in a safe space - and if you’re muderhoboing, that village is no longer a safe space….Ravenloft has so much to offer in terms of threatening PCs.
*edit. In the Realm of Terror book, they also list the character abilities, spells, and impacts of doing evil in Ravenloft (Powers Checks), in a section titled “reshaping of characters”, p14-17, and a separate section on Fear and Horror checks, and a separate section on how spells are affected. That book, for Ad&d2e from the Realm of Terror boxed set, seriously messes with your characters and what they can do. 5e CoS is fairly bland and unimaginative in comparison. Use the old stuff, and import it.
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