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Subbing some scrolls in is the easiest and most likely to "equate" to what they would have otherwise gained; it also makes sense story-wise in nearly any situation (wizards could have scrolls, too). I'm wondering if it might be more interesting to let them keep it and maybe trade it to another...

Technically the 4 ghoul encounter is a 2x "deadly" encounter for 4 level 2 PCs. It can also easily be a TPK with a little bad luck, although clerics are so incredibly strong against the encounter (and "having a cleric" is strongly assumed by the writers) that it sort of balances.

I don't think you're wrong, but I do think there's a difference between "PCs make poor choices (like not running)" / "things are dangerous" and... "this is impossible" / "you are going to die if this is played as-written". Death House doesn't have to be one of those things, but there are others...

This was mentioned in the book and I plan to do it as well - I think it's perfect for Barovia for all the reasons you mentioned. I'm doing 5 "milestones" (or "objectives") per level. I actually made a huge list and could only come up with about 45-50, so that should take them from level 3 to...

SPOILERS too Yeah, I agree in theory as well, but this is a bad example. I would be very surprised if any party was willing to stand by for children openly being murdered by monsters - which is part of why this encounter is such a likely TPK: the odds of combat are about 100%. And the odds...

Still random packs: still not interested. At least 3rd party places still carry individual minis.

What a great write-up, thank you! So it looks like all your PCs made it out alive - nicely done. So far that's 2 for ~6 reported sessions where there were no PC casualties. The bait and switch sounds awesome since it sounds like it was done just right. :) At the risk of thread-snatching I'm...

Killing PCs - especially lots of low-level PCs - can certainly ramp up the "horror" vibe but in my mind it mostly ramps up the "frustration" vibe. A lot of work typically goes into character generation and throwing it all away after the first session just feels cruel. This is one of the few...

Using CoS and the party has no wizard; what good is a captured spellbook (other than selling / trading to someone)? You can't make scrolls out of it, right? I'm thinking I may replace the spellbook with different treasure (probably some scrolls).

Our group finally got to start Death House. Hilariously, they are such seasoned players that they saw through the illusions outside in a heartbeat. They still went along with it, though, although again: due to experience, they climbed up and went into the attic first. (I actually made a...

Thanks for the write-up! Of the ones posted on this forum, that makes: (minor spoilers!) 1 - TPK: the party lost one person in the dungeon, then gained two more (different person joined); the final challenge was dropping them like flies and they tried to help each other which doomed them all...

Thanks for all the great replies! Here are some responses. Exact opposite for me. "Degrees of success" are easy - been doing that a long while in other games. (Swimming across a lake, random degrees of success: you get tired, you do it quickly, you get bit by a fish, you find something in...

Agreed. Also agreed that this is both good and bad. This does seem like the best use of it. Excellent summary. Nothing about this UA is particularly gothic in my mind.

Disclaimer: I love D&D, our group loves D&D, D&D is great. (Also I am American. Also this post is long and very system-meta.) Issue: While we've always loved D&D, as long-time vets there are other games that we just love more. Not because they have better systems, but we just have more fun...

Eh, maybe it's just semantics, but what you're calling "canon" I'd call "suggestions." Definitely not anything stronger than "suggestions," since I'm pretty sure I've ignored some or all of those things in every game I've run, and that doesn't invalidate anything. :) Ok, sure, I'm with you...

How can D&D have cannon? Literally everything that happens at my table has nothing to do with whatever happens at your table. And every edition they re-write all the gods, powers, power sources, etc. anyway. Are there novels that people are talking about? Even still, the entire point of D&D...

VTT? What's that? Double the size of all "dungeon" rooms (any space for fighting). Just make the maps 10' on a square instead of 5. (And don't sweat the realism.) I ran a game with about 8 players on average, in 3.5, for quite a while. Scheduling was the absolute biggest problem. I'd...

How strange that they didn't just take more short rests, or even a long rest (especially the guy who committed suicide - that IS a weird response). One thing I'm thinking of emphasizing in Death House is that there's no rush - and no shame in repeatedly resting. There's only one point that...

Wow! Mind to share a summary of what happened? Did they try to fight the mound?

I know, right? The deed and the pastry encounter in Barovia both draw them to the windmill quickly after hitting level 3.