D&D (2024) Do you plan to adopt D&D5.5One2024Redux?

Plan to adopt the new core rules?

  • Yep

    Votes: 262 53.0%
  • Nope

    Votes: 232 47.0%

tetrasodium

Legend
Supporter
Epic
From what I've seen posted in this thread, it's not as unquestionable as you seem to think.
"There are a great many times when a player's background feature would be absolutely bonkers to apply." was pretty critical to that, I don't know what you are trying to refute.
Why should the DM be the one to decide? When you draw upon reliable personal connections, do you have to ask someone else, or do you get to decide if they're relevant?
Are you asking why the GM should get to decide how the NPCs & world elements that the GM is running respond to players? The answer is simply because the GM is the one in charge of those things.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Hriston

Dungeon Master of Middle-earth (He/him)
and passing through the mists gets them to the plane your Criminal is from, and they know how to get word to their contact? I don’t think so….
Again, why not? The PCs came through the mists to get to Barovia, so it makes sense that passing back through them would get you back to where they're from. And of course they know how to find your criminal's contact. Your criminal tells them when giving them the message to deliver.
 

mamba

Legend
Again, why not? The PCs came through the mists to get to Barovia, so it makes sense that passing back through them would get you back to where they're from.
no it doesn’t, not in Ravenloft / Barovia

And of course they know how to find your criminal's contact. Your criminal tells them when giving them the message to deliver.
that is not much better than the first part of your answer. Why would any Barovian criminal / resident care to go to a different plane (assuming they could…) and maybe have a months long journey to relay a message to some unknown person just because someone they do not know asked them to
 

The vistani travel to and from ravenloft all the time, I'm sure a Criminal can find a shady vistani to pass a message on to their criminal contact.

Why you'd want to is another question, it's not like the contact can help you while you're in barovia. But that's really not so different from any other time you're adventuring away from your home city. Criminal Contact is a pretty pointless feature most of the time.
 

Greg K

Legend
The vistani travel to and from ravenloft all the time, I'm sure a Criminal can find a shady vistani to pass a message on to their criminal contact.
I don't own more recent editions of Ravenloft, but, in the original box set, it was my understanding that they could only travel to domains within the Mist (it has been a long time since I have looked at/ran the box set). So, if I were to use Ravenloft, that is how I would run it rather using newer changes (similar to how I would not adapt the lore changes to certain domains over editions).
 
Last edited:

I don't own more recent editions of Ravenloft, but, in the original box set, it was my understanding that they could only travel to domains within the Mist (it has been a long time since I have looked at/ran the box set). So, if I were to use Ravenloft, that is how I would run it rather using newer changes.
Better inform your players of your house rule before anyone picks the Criminal background!
 

Greg K

Legend
Better inform your players of your house rule before anyone picks the Criminal background!
If the campaign doesn't start with them going to Ravenloft and, instead they found themselves in Barovia later in the campaign, I would not (unlike my normal informing of house rules prior to character gen). It would just be consequences of traveling to a different plane
Best that I would do is to tell players, if they find themselves going to another plane, don't expect things everything to work exactly as described under the current edition of the rules.
 
Last edited:

tetrasodium

Legend
Supporter
Epic
Better inform your players of your house rule before anyone picks the Criminal background!
It's not clear if you are trying to say that the mists should be even more impassible than he suggested or if you are suiggesting that a background feature can override them unless the gm adds some houserule. What would @Greg K be informing them of?
MISTS OF RAVENLOFT
A deadly fog surrounds the land of Barovia and engulfs
any creature that tries to leave. Even flying creatures are
subject to the fog's effects, which are as follows:
A creature that starts its turn in the fog must succeed
on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or gain one
level of exhaustion (see appendix A in the Player's
Handbook). This exhaustion can't be removed while
the creature is in the fog.
No matter how far a creature travels in the fog, or in
which direction it goes, it gets turned around so that it
eventually finds itself back in Barovia.

, The area within the fog is heavily obscured (see "Vi
sion and Light" in chapter 8 of the Player's Handbook).
NATURE OF RAVENLOFT
Nothing one might assume about any world on the
Material Plane is necessarily true in the Domains
of Dread. The following sections detail how the
Dark Powers manipulate the Land of the Mists, and
what domain inhabitants accept as the ways of their
world (or desperately avoid pondering).
THE M I STS
The Mists can always be found at a domain's bor
ders but can also appear in dense banks that rise
wherever adventures demand. Such banks might
veil strangers or hidden foes, or they can trans
port those who enter them to distant lands, other
domains, or even beyond the Domains of Dread.
The Mists are inscrutable, but they ever serve the
schemes of the Dark Powers, delivering creatures
wherever these wicked forces desire.
The Dark Powers also grant Darklords limited
ability to manipulate the Mists surrounding their
domains, allowing most to open or close their do
mains' borders to others on a whim. If a domain's
borders are closed, supernatural agitation is obvi
ous to any who approach the Mists. This takes the
form of roiling disturbances within the haze, menac
ing silhouettes, threatening sounds, or other activity
themed to the Darklord or domain. Creatures that
enter the Mists at this time, including flying crea
tures, are subject to the following effects:
• A creature that starts its turn in the Mists must
succeed on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or
gain 1 level of exhaustion. This exhaustion can't
be removed while the creature is in the Mists.
• No matter how far a creature travels in the Mists,
or which direction it goes, it gets turned around
so that it eventually ends up back in the do-
main it left.

• The area within the Mists is heavily obscured (see
the Player's Handbook for details).
Most Darklords can keep their domains' borders
closed indefinitely and can reopen them at will. For
some Darklords, slightly varied effects manifest
when they close their domains. Others are limited
in their ability to affect their borders. For each do
main, specifics appear in the "Closing the Borders"
portion of the section on that domain's Darklord.
If a domain's borders are open, the domain is still
not easy to escape from. The area within the Mists
remains heavily obscured, but the Mists don't cause
creatures to gain levels of exhaustion. Characters
intent on passing through the Mists travel for ld6
hours, then roll on the Wandering the Mists table to
determine what happens.
WA N D E R I N G TH E M I STS
dlOO Effect
01 -20 Characters emerge in a domain of your choosing.
21-40 Characters wander the M ists for another ld6
hours, then roll on this table again.
41-65 Characters emerge from the M ists on stable
ground ldlOO feet away from where they entered.
66-75 Characters emerge on stable ground a mile from
where they entered the M ists at midnight of the
night after they entered the M ists.
76-85 Characters emerge from the M ists inside a struc-
ture somewhere within the domain they tried to
leave, perhaps a cave, crypt, shed, or closet.
86-95 Other creatures appear within the M ists. Roll any
die. If you roll an even number, a lost and terrified
commoner appears. If you roll an odd number,
2d6 skeletons or 1 unspeakable horror (see chap-
ter 5) appears. After the encounter, another ld6
hours pass, then roll on this table again.
96-99 Characters emerge from the M ists where they en-
tered to find the domain changed. Perhaps some-
one the characters knew is gone, and no one has
any knowledge of them ever existing.
1 00 Characters emerge from the M ists on a world on
the Material Plane. After 1 d6 hours, the Mists rise
around them once more. Roll again on this table.
It seems as if the mists are far more restrictive than he described, are you aware if the rules or just claiming it's a houserule if it contradicts a background feature?

2024 really needs to get away from this kind of stop the game and prove to me that you as the GM are even allowed to do this thing you didn't bring up as a house rule in sessionzero expectation so many players resort to over actual knowledge of the rules
 

Hriston

Dungeon Master of Middle-earth (He/him)
I think background features as written in the PHB were a bad idea. The new ones they've come out with recently are better. Not sure what else to say and there's nothing new here I haven't already answered multiple times.
Well, now it seems they're being done away with entirely, so I'm not sure what relevance it has that those made recently.have been getting better in your opinion.
 

mamba

Legend
The vistani travel to and from ravenloft all the time, I'm sure a Criminal can find a shady vistani to pass a message on to their criminal contact.
Don’t they just travel between the different domains?

Even if they did not, why would they go on a potentially months long and dangerous journey to get some info to someone they do not know just because someone else they barely know asked them to? Seems pretty implausible to me
 

Remove ads

Top