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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8284573" data-attributes="member: 6785785">Yeah, for sure. The game was not without any tests of player skill. I'd just say the focus was more about the conflict between the PCs and Strahd and how that played out. Any tactical decisions made were made to better the chances the PCs had against Strahd, but that still fed into the central focus of play.Horror mechanics were not something I really worried about all too much. I don't think we used them at all, looking back. I mean, Ravenloft is spooky thematically, but we were still playing D&D. So for me, the idea of Horror as it mattered to our game was the idea of an incredibly capable foe with significant resources at his disposal, and the PCs only being able to improve their chances so much.Okay, gotcha. I'd say that's a bit more prep than you implied.....but I suppose some of these kinds of details may simply come up in play, in which case then it's honored as established fiction, and so isn't exactly prep. But I do want to point out that I don't think that what I did was being inconsistent, or that we didn't establish Strahd's resources beforehand. They very much knew the situation. There's not really any conceivable way for four people...even powerful people....to eliminate all his resources ahead of time, especially since they were operating with time constraints. I think this is just the kind of gray area that is built in where the GM can influence things however they like in order to produce their desired effect. I think that the rules are largely structured this way, as well. It is designed to give the GM leeway to influence things as play progresses, and not just before hand.Yeah, I don't really want to present any absolutes here. I'm speaking generally. Skilled play can take different forms, certainly. And preparing ahead of time doesn't prevent the focus from becoming one of story curation. And so on. I honestly just see story curation as so baked in to 5E that it takes real effort to minimize it, and I don't think it can be eliminated without pretty severe house rules or changes.</blockquote>

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