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Your conclusion is the opposite of what I am saying and you are implying intent without evidence of same. Please don't.

The DMG guidelines are moot. No one designs each individual NPC who appears in a campaign. The vast majority of NPC's likely haven't been statted at all and most of the remaining are taken from the Monster Manual or Volo's as needed.

I thought I would miss them when I started playing 5e, but I was wrong- PC's are the top 1% of the top 1% and are meant to be outside the norm. If that means my halfling ranger can out arm wrestle a goliath barbarian, so be it.

I kind of wish I was running a game so I could play test these.

A simple way to balance the equation- the random encounter table now results in an encounter on a 2 thru a 20 and the DM rolls 2 dice to determine the encounter monsters. If the DM feels like making the point even more obvious, the maximum possible number of monster arrive or the DM can roll...

From the folks at Bacon Battalion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js4RWlqQKCM&list=PLsHhMRkG9uA5_FZ41fGG_ivOPMfQI0cGb&index=5 There are numerous useful videos on character creation and roleplaying you might find useful.

I just ended my COS game a few weeks ago, and while it's too soon to judge, I don't think I would be inclined to run it for a group of veteran players, or at least ones who had played previous versions of Ravenloft. They have too many expectations about what it should be based on what it used to...

One of my co-DM's is going to run the adventures, otherwise I would have gladly spent my money.

In the scenario described, definately approach no. 1.

I'm going to go for the contrarian pick- level 3, or even level 4 if you are running a difficult adventure. Levels 1 and 2 are fragile- I've had players with 30 years of gaming experience go down in the first round of combat, then have sit out the rest of combat because no one was able to heal...

This should be added as an Errata to COS. My PC's treated Strahd as an unwelcome ally while they plotted to get vengeance on the Witch of Berez and Rahadin, while looking for clues on how to survive the Amber Temple.

I would question if the issue is the 5e system or group play style. Our group is chronically unbalanced in favor of squishies, so when I get to be a player, I frequently end up being the tank. When that happens, I specifically build a character to stop our opponents movement (Sentinel and...

I'm completely hopeless with horror movie style tropes (I can't take them seriously), so I used Silence of the Lambs as a guidebook. Strahd was engaging,manipulative and sympathetic to the PC's, while the Barovian commoners were suspicious and unwelcoming to the adventurers. At one point Strahd...

A few thoughts: In gratitude for the PC's finding his skull and interring it in the mausoleum the spirit of Argynvost creates a momentary disruption in the shell that isolates Barovia from the outer world. The Mad Mage, having discovered a terrible plot unleash vampire spawn into the outer...

A close friend of mine owns my FLGS- Planet Chaos in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin- that's a 15 minute drive from home. There are another 2 or 3 within a 30 minute drive, and 3 more in a 45 minute drive. I've heard that Wisconsin has the highest per capita number of game stores in the US, so I...

While laying siege to the Burgomaster's Manor in Barovia, after trapping the party, Ismark and Ireena inside- "I smell dwarf..." Unfortunately, the party escaped before I could have Strahd do a Jack Nicholsonesque "Here's Johnny!"

As a DM, I avoid killing a PC unless I can see a clear way to make a story line better. However, I am not going to stop a player from killing their PC because they didn't pay attention to the clues I gave them. As a Player, I regularly kill off my PC's because it fits the concept I created, or...

This is going to cause me some nightmares tonight.

I was a spectator for the Gary Con celebrity game Mike Mearls ran and it was a fantastic learning experience. If WoTC ever starts doing DM fantasy camps, I'm in.

"The mists of Ravenloft continue to surround Death House until the characters stand atop the dais and either appease or defy the cultists. Strahd is satisfied either way, prompting the mists to recede." "If the [BBEG] dies, the chanting stops and the apparitions vanish forever." My Players...