Recent content by toucanbuzz

Inspiration. I don't like handing out candy for roleplaying. Before you know the results powers. It's a hassle to pause every d20 roll by the DM to see if the PC with cutting words, etc., wants to do something. We remember sometimes, most we don't. Exact distance in a day. If 3 hexes through...

The Gold Standard: Hommlet. It wasn't just that you had a tavern and a mill. It's that every place you step into, every NPC you encounter, might have a story attached, or a secret, or something unique about them. And, there is a mystery waiting, a place to explore. Perhaps in your starting town...

Femur bone from the lich's own throne. Prior edition (Pathfinder/3.5), so the setup isn't current, but it was an epic 40 round combat involving multiple rooms, ups and downs, and then the finale. Atrophied lich (basically one that has lost a lot of its spellcasting over the years) had...

Total coincidence. Had a party death this last session, player didn't want his character brought back (it's a cultural preference), and he wants to play a halfling. So this thread has become particularly meaningful. We're going old-school hairfoot style.

Totally with @Charlaquin on this one. Barovia isn't a real place; it's a shadow realm created by the Dark Powers for its playthings. Most denizens in Barovia are shadows of people, without souls, and likely Strahd knows this and can be so callous and harsh to them because he knows the nature of...

Who wouldn't want to play this guy... I've spent little time describing them in our campaigns. No one plays them except the Dark Sun cannibal ones, and although they get some mention in my current campaign as popular slaver targets, I haven't been pressed for interaction. I like, however...

Damage is irrelevant when craftsmen in your fledgling barony complain your tax collector charged them double, and your investigation yields that he skimmed a few coins in the past, gave breaks to a few poor folk who had a bad harvest before winter, and made up the difference with what he...

KISS ("Keep it Simple ....") They're curious, so treat this like you're at a convention and someone new to D&D signed up for your table. Pre-fab characters with a simple story to link them to a simple plot, all doable in a 4 hour setting. Personally, I really liked the premise of this beginner...

1. An AD&D Dragonlance mini-adventure had a realm in which time looped every day for a city that an archmage sought to save, but instead condemned to eternal "Groundhog's Day, " albeit a perfect day. If players stayed too long, they'd become part of the loop. The archmage was the only one...

I keep it real. 1. Interesting story with a fixed framework. The DM and players coordinate around being a part of a campaign theme. Current campaign is: "you are empowered to raise a barony." Perhaps you raise a kingdom, or mageocracy, perhaps you rise up against your benefactors, or recruit...

No. Wands explicitly state one "casts" the associated spell. This choice of language is purposeful. The DMG page 141 answers your question. Under Spells: Some magic items allow the user to cast a spell from the item. The section goes on to detail that magic items like Wands change the rules for...

Compendium #2 was NPC monsters, several undead with unique stories of how they came to be. If you're looking for some great material, worth getting your hands on. This Ravenloft wiki summarizes those characters.

Mechanically, mostly. In my pre-TCE 5E conversion most pieces fit without much adjustment. Added rules for defiling, non-metal weapons, survival fixes, monster conversions, a 3rd party psionic book based off 3rd edition, tweaks to classes (like the Cleric) to make them fit, new races rules, and...

If your players are cool enough to run the NPC and play along with their secret, an interesting way to do it!

My monster happens to be alive, so I'm hoping they won't decide to crawl up its nether regions for fun. Since it's a slow behemoth, they'll have a few days to figure something out, but direct combat shouldn't be a viable solution.