A tale that is perpetually dark in tone becomes tiresome very quickly. It needs to feature the occasional ray of light for contrast and to create a sense of hope. Monsters and other terrors must be offset with creatures that are kind and lovable, giving the characters even more reasons to stand against the darkness. Here are a couple of ways to add glimmers of light to a tragic tale:
- In a land as dreary as Barovia, take the time to describe the occasional scene of beauty, such as a pretty flower growing atop a grave.
- Make sure that the heroes have contact with NPCs who are honest, friendly, and helpful, such as the Martikovs in Vallaki or the Krezkovs in Krezk.
-Curse of Strahd, Introduction. Marks of Horror. 2016.
Most of that is being fixed by dilating the amount of damage output that players can output in 5e in a variety of changes in OneD&D.
My playtests have had really gripping & close fights, even with people optimizing their hearts out.
Thanks! They look quite slick and have a lot going on. Particularly the void dragons you sent my way.
Each would be more or less perfect for a single-monster encounter, as they are dense with fairly novel mechanics.
Many people think that the WotC statblocks are a bit too boring, but I consider them a good entry point for new GMs. This is clearly a nice way to up your game.
Cheers!
Can someone give a good example if what makes these books good? I’d love to see a single great example of the level of quality that these books bring.
For the people who have a lot of hours on this game, how well does it play for co-op?
My spouse and I actually dated doing Star Wars the Old Republic co-op, where we could play two different characters going through bespoke personal quest lines while being able to help each other out on their journies.
How easily could we get that experience with this game?
The way to find that middle ground by default is to do three phases to your worldbuilding and campaign prep.
edit: I wrote up so much that I decided to make it into its own post!
https://ttrpg.network/post/173371