Wizards of the Coast launches official Dungeons & Dragons Actual Play show

Bravesteel25 · Thursday at 7:06 PM

Zaukrie said:
They really have not figured out how bad these maps look/play on a VTT either.......I just don't get it.

I looked at the provided map and basically went "Yup, I'll have to rebuild/draw this myself if I want to use this." I don't understad it either. I don't think anyone is saying that every map needs to be a work of art, but it certainly needs to be more usable than this one is.

Weiley31 · Thursday at 9:36 PM

What is the unreleased content that they were advertising? Just the new stuff?

Clint_L · Thursday at 10:02 PM

GarrettKP said:
For those that preordered (like me) you also have access to the Gremishka encounter pack.

Hmmm....I preordered. I'll have to check this stuff out. Thanks!

Juomari Veren · Thursday at 10:30 PM

Paul Farquhar said:
The accompanying DLC is “zombie clot encounter” so it will have to include the stat block (you won’t need VGR to use it). Of course there may not be any significant changes apart from the layout.

Circling back on this; The statblock is available now and not only is the Zombie Clot mostly a cut and paste of the one from VRGR (with the necessary formatting updates to things like its aura of poison damage to match the templating of 2024 monsters), it's actually worse because its garden-variety slam attack does less damage on a hit.

This is not instilling high confidence in Horrors Within as a good product. I already think Ravenloft is overhyped after 10 years of Curse of Strahd, and to know that some amount of the statblocks are just re-dos of what was in VRGR does not a good product make, Cthulhu mythos or no. I can't say every statblock in VRGR was perfect but that product came out after they'd shifted their philosophy towards 5.5e, meaning they're closer than not, and if they weren't close enough then I don't think making any monsters they port over weaker when the enduring sentiment was that 5e monsters were too weak helps their cause.

The "new" zombie clot could've been exclusive to this free D&D Beyond product and an actual new statblock or one that needed the attention more from VRGR could have taken its place.

mattymoron · 2026-04-24T01:08:57+0100

Watching the first episode with my wife. She's just recently gotten into D&D and likes BG3, so she was happy to see the VA's and generally likes the tone and the teaching tips so far. The only thing I'm curious about is how the cast/format will change with the seasonal structure of future releases. I prefer some longer term continuity, so it'll be interesting to see how much space any of these seasons of the show have to breathe, how episodic it is, etc.

Mirrorrorrim · 2026-04-24T01:18:55+0100

Juomari Veren said:
Circling back on this; The statblock is available now and not only is the Zombie Clot mostly a cut and paste of the one from VRGR (with the necessary formatting updates to things like its aura of poison damage to match the templating of 2024 monsters), it's actually worse because its garden-variety slam attack does less damage on a hit.

This is not instilling high confidence in Horrors Within as a good product. I already think Ravenloft is overhyped after 10 years of Curse of Strahd, and to know that some amount of the statblocks are just re-dos of what was in VRGR does not a good product make, Cthulhu mythos or no. I can't say every statblock in VRGR was perfect but that product came out after they'd shifted their philosophy towards 5.5e, meaning they're closer than not, and if they weren't close enough then I don't think making any monsters they port over weaker when the enduring sentiment was that 5e monsters were too weak helps their cause.

The "new" zombie clot could've been exclusive to this free D&D Beyond product and an actual new statblock or one that needed the attention more from VRGR could have taken its place.

Well, if the plan was to make sure that all updated 5.5e monsters have to be modified to match the new CR paradigm for 5.5e, maybe they thought that was the right damage shift?

So the changes for the new Zombie Clot are that its slam damage drops from 3d8+5 to 3d6+5 and it loses Unusual Nature, and instead it gets immunity to the Prone condition, and the flesh tomb becomes additionally immune to Necrotic damage.

That's fine to me. I didn't expect much change.

Selas · 2026-04-24T01:29:34+0100

The Gremishka stat block was also combined with the swarm--making it a CR2, so the latter probably got replaced by a new monster

Knaves Quill · 2026-04-24T03:11:57+0100

It was a fun watch; the first two eps. It's a slick enough showcase for the new book. It was a bit darker than I'd expected. Win, in my book.

Paul Farquhar · 2026-04-24T08:39:27+0100

Bravesteel25 said:
I looked at the provided map and basically went "Yup, I'll have to rebuild/draw this myself if I want to use this." I don't understad it either. I don't think anyone is saying that every map needs to be a work of art, but it certainly needs to be more usable than this one is.

I take my colouring pencils to my own had drawn maps for tabletop (you can see a glimpse in my profile pic). It makes details easier to pick out,

Paul Farquhar · 2026-04-24T08:50:50+0100

Bravesteel25 said:
The map is nice but really doesn't give much information. I can't tell where the gallows are supposed to be and I certainly can't tell where they intend the Fog Gas patches to be either.

The text says the gallows are beside the bridge, which I assume is the one crossing the river rather than one of the two connecting raised areas. It's not marked though. I would put it on the north bank where there is a clear spot to the left of the track. The three patches of Larian gas don't appear to be marked. There is no given start location for the clot either. I would have the monsters approaching from the SW.

For VTT, there are better maps available, including one of Roll20's default maps.