D&D General The DM Shortage

[James Gasik]

Maybe do a little research first? Like, you know, every monster-hunting story?

Ah, but...the DM is encouraged to surprise players with the unknown. Consider this example of a Ravenloft encounter:

An observant reader with note that the word

 

[James Gasik]

Sure. Of course, back then, Ravenloft was literally a "weekend in hell." You played an adventure there and then went back home. You'll note that nearly every single spell that "doesn't work" is one that allows you to teleport or scry outside of Ravenloft, and "screws you over" is a 1-2% chance of having the Dark Powers notice you.

Also? Many of the spells that worked weirdly in the Black Box set were removed from the altered spells list in Domains of Dread--because by that time, the game had changed from weekend in hell to a setting you could be native to and have an entire campaign in.


I hadn't read Feast of Goblyns before because I generally don't use pre-written adventures (I have rewritten the heck out of CoS, which is the only RL adventure I've ever bought). So I'm not going to defend it if it was a badly-written module. That being said...

This is, indeed, all bad DM stuff. It's bad DM stuff that may be written into the game because there wasn't much in the way of balancing encounters back them, but a sensible DM would read this and realize that it was OP. Of course, since there wasn't much balance back then, it's quite likely that these level 4-7 players have several magic items. There was no magic item budget then, only warnings about not going Monty Haul.

Also, as a note, I looked up the adventure. Wolfweres and a greater wolfweres were on an optional encounter table with a note saying that the encounters weren't necessary and were to be used primarily for flavor:

In fact, the adventure goes on to say that they are optional encounters and not random encounters. A DM has to actively choose to put one in the game. They can't hide behind "it's a random encounter table, I had to roll on it."

FoG also has this note:

Emphasis mine. So right away, the game makes it pretty easy to let the PCs be properly armed against wolfweres. The DM has to make the conscious decision to have the PCs be useless against wolfweres.

The game also states that if your PCs are weak/low-level, then you can use werewolves in place of wolfweres and standard wolves in place of dire wolves (and conversely, if your PCs are higher level, to substitute loup-garou and greater wolfweres in place of regular werewolves and wolfweres). There are a lot of examples like that in the book. "Your PCs encounter the master of the wolves. He can be a werewolf or wolfwere if you desire." Or he can be a normal person.

What this means is, if you played in this game and were killed or almost killed by an OP random encounter, then that indicates that the DM wanted to put you through a meat grinder, rather than actually produce a horror game.

Perhaps this will surprise you, but in the close to two decades I've run Ravenloft, I've had three PC deaths, and two of them were because the players wanted their character to die (one person had to leave the game entirely; another player didn't like her character). Only one of the deaths was in combat--and it was a boss fight, in 5e.

But this just goes back to what I've been saying. It doesn't take a bad DM to make Ravenloft a miserable experience for the players. It takes a very good DM not to, which is why the setting has the reputation it does.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Ah, but...the DM is encouraged to surprise players with the unknown. Consider this example of a Ravenloft encounter:
View attachment 269341
An observant reader with note that the word
View attachment 269342

You face the creature, maybe get your butt kicked a little, then fall back and do that research I mentioned. Again, this well-established in the genre, and should be part of a good session 0.

 

[James Gasik]

You face the creature, maybe get your butt kicked a little, then fall back and do that research I mentioned. Again, this well-established in the genre, and should be part of a good session 0.

Uh, except, how do you not die to the Greater Wolfwere and his 4d6 wolves/2d6 dire wolves again? And please don't say run away, they're faster than most PC's.

 

[Faolyn]

But this just goes back to what I've been saying. It doesn't take a bad DM to make Ravenloft a miserable experience for the players. It takes a very good DM not to, which is why the setting has the reputation it does.

Y'know, I have never heard of Ravenloft having a bad reputation. Not even once.

And it doesn't take a "very good" DM to play it right. It just takes one who reads the actual adventure and isn't a jerk, which are both bare minimums for DMs.

 

[James Gasik]

Y'know, I have never heard of Ravenloft having a bad reputation. Not even once.

And it doesn't take a "very good" DM to play it right. It just takes one who reads the actual adventure and isn't a jerk, which are both bare minimums for DMs.

From 1d4Chan:

What is Ravenloft like?

The setting has been described (by Noah Antwiler) as "Hell, but not for you".

The first rule of Ravenloft is not to touch anything, ever. Assume everything is cursed unless you saw someone pick it up and put it down without becoming a zombie, and even then that's no guarantee. Second, alignment-detecting magic can only say if something is lawful or chaotic, so you can't use those spells to check if anything is safe. Third, beware of curses, as they're especially powerful and anyone can place them if they're angry enough and get the Dark Powers' notice when they speak the curse. Any deed that could be considered "evil," like unprovoked assault, murder (especially of family), oath-breaking, or using specific naughty spells (usually necromantic) pings the Dark Powers' attention and calls for a "Powers check," a percentile roll against a number determined by the act committed and the victim. Roll above the number and you're safe (for now). Roll below and the Dark Powers like what they see, "gifting" you with something that seems beneficial, but pushes you to commit more nefarious deeds, which prompt further Powers checks. Soon, the Dark Powers' gifts come with obvious curses and debilitating drawbacks that end in either your death, transformation into something inhuman, or "ascension" to the rank of Darklord.

Also, you can't leave unless the Dark Powers let you. There are rumors of other ways out, but they are always unclear and extremely dangerous to attempt. Attempting to use plane shift or other dimensional magic never get you out of Ravenloft; each domain is treated like its own plane, so you'll likely end up in a different domain instead. 3.5 allows to get in and out via OP1's World Serpent Inn, which shows up in the Demiplane of Dread at certain set intervals. The WSI fistula pisses the Dark Powers off to no end to the point they immediately threaten and scare anyone away from the door that leads to the inn as and when it appears in their domains. This whole "You can't get out unless we let you" schtick gave birth to so called "Weekend in Hell" adventures, where the players act like the unwitting pawns of the Dark Powers to torment a Darklord and are magnanimously granted a ticket out if they succeed without being corrupted themselves.

At the hands of a bad DM, 3.5's security-breach allows spells and powers unique to the plane to seep elsewhere, like into the Forgotten Realms. One of the prime reasons that make the Demiplane of Dread so dangerous is that it's home to spells so broken and dangerous that if they became planes-wide knowledge, everything could get screwed in a mere matter of days. A good example of this would be Strahd's unkillable zombies in the hands of a Necromancer with the right feats, resulting in zombies that never die, endlessly heal if limbs are severed, only to turn into more undead that also explode and heal other undead in an endless cycle. But the seepage problem wasn't a new one; it's long been known to any worldbuilder, since Pizarro first stepped into Peru. DMs with three neurons to rub together can rule that the spell or ability in question simply ceases to function anywhere outside its domain of origin - so restraining Strahd's super-groovy zombies, in our example, to Strahd's prison.

Incidentally, as a result of the "no one can leave" thing, using conjuration magic is an extremely bad idea, as most summoned entities will be quite upset when they realize they can't go back home when the spell expires - and they will usually take their anger out on the conjurer with lethal results.

 

[Faolyn]

From 1d4Chan:

1d4chan exaggerates everything for humor purposes. It's certainly doesn't reflect actual play.

 

[tetrasodium]

Uh, except, how do you not die to the Greater Wolfwere and his 4d6 wolves/2d6 dire wolves again? And please don't say run away, they're faster than most PC's.

Spoiler: like this

Killing the heroes is not always the goal of monsters that apply pressure klike silent hill's triangle head.

 

[James Gasik]

Spoiler: like this

Killing the heroes is not always the goal of monsters that apply pressure klike silent hill's triangle head.

Well, I know I didn't get to survive the encounter, lol.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Uh, except, how do you not die to the Greater Wolfwere and his 4d6 wolves/2d6 dire wolves again? And please don't say run away, they're faster than most PC's.

Well, unlike many on this forum, I don't assume the DM is being a jerk.