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Sounds "toxic"! I like it!

It sounds like you have had some negative experiences with previous DMs. I'm sorry if that is the case. I assure you there are DMs out there that are open to having a player be a non evil vampire, and if that is what you want to do for a character I hope you find them. Happy gaming!

You are so welcome! I'm glad it helped. Welcome to the tabletop RPG community. Good luck running your first session of dread, and I hope you and your friends have a fun time.

That sounds like a cool take on the deck!

You are very welcome! Thank you for the kind words! Pretty much any race can work for the ancestral legacy. It really depends on the backstory the player wants for the character, and the setting your campaign takes place in. In most cases it is best to just use the default 2 skills that you can get from not keeping other racial bonuses unless you choose a race with a unique movement (fly/climb/swim speed). You can still describe the look and feel of the character to be like their race prior to transforming without choosing to keep that races ancestral legacy bonuses. I would ask the player what they want the life of their character to have been like prior to transforming and make a race decision based on the part of the world/type of culture they want to come from. I hope this is helpful. If you need any clarification or have any other questions feel free to ask!

That is sort of what this build is. Do you mean just doing the beast barbarian without being a shifter? If that is what you mean than you could totally do that, but you would not have any very werewolfy abilities until lvl 3.

@@downtimeactivities945 yea without being a shifter and ah thx for the answer ❤️

@@bellomori9944 You got it! As for just doing the beast barbarian without being a shifter, that works great starting at 3rd level. If your campaign starts at 3rd level or higher than you can just roll with that. If it starts at level 1 or 2 I would work with your DM to either make you becoming a werewolf in play happen around the same time as your level up to 3, or I would show signs that something about your character is off from the start and have the reveal they have been a werewolf all along come after 3rd level. Both can work well, it just depends on the story you want for your character. Thank you for the comment!

The Out of the Abyss 5E module has a pretty solid roll table with random encounters/ interesting terrain in underdark travel that you could use as a resource. Doing a full on dungeon map layout of the underdark would be a super daunting task unless you are focused on one particular area. I would recommend mapping the areas with specific encounters and "main story" elements you want and then filling the space in between with the random encounters like the ones in Out of the Abyss. Some advice though; I would not recommend using those roll tables for every day of travel if you plan on having the party travel for long amounts of time (weeks between major underdark locations). The tables are cool, but the constant rolling for long travel times can get a bit redundant and tedious. I have been running a campaign based in the underdark for our channel called Skygate (shameless self plug), and I used an altered version of that table for every day and night of travel at first. I then switched to using it only occasionally when travelling to avoid random encounter burnout. I hope this long winded response was helpful. Thank you for watching!

@@downtimeactivities945 Thanks. I'll take that into consideration. I am actually just roughly mapping out a small part of the underdark. Just a rough draft of what Biomes and enemies can be found in which area, in order to give the travelling some orientation, regional feel and flavor.

@@yced101 I like that idea a lot! Having biomes to give a feel for different parts of the underdark is cool way to set things up. Good luck and have fun in your upcoming adventure!

I'm glad this was helpful for you. If you are planning an epic 6 campaign (which I assume is the case) then good luck, and I hope you have a great time in the game you come up with!

Thank you for the kind words Billy! We are glad you enjoyed it.

No problem! Glad you enjoyed!

A dependent hindrance character with the dependent hindrance... dependent hindranception! In all seriousness that is kind of the point of this video. The dependent hindrance can be very annoying/awkward for the flow of the game, but in the right circumstances with the right story it can be awesome. It is a good hindrance to know about so that it can be deployed in the right game, but it should often times be avoided.

I can see how this could happen with the rules as vague as they are.. There's allies in the game, and they can be assigned stats, hinderances, edges, level ups, etc. as normal (it seems like they are not wild cards, but it's not confirmed.) the players control them, though. They could be basic grunts, but the rules are vague enough they are potentially as game breaking if given the chance. The key difference is that they are for all the players, not one. All this is a long winded way of saying I agree with the basic premise that adding complexity to a character or campaign should be compared against a player (or groups) experience.

Thanks snart! I'm glad you enjoyed the vid!

I think the exact wording is that it's a natural weapon, which counts as a simple melee weapon. That being said I believe RAW you could totally smite with dhampir fangs!

🙂

That is a neat combo. This deck was a bit of a pet project and has a lot of suboptimal cards that I included because I liked them or had nostalgia for them. If you wanted to make it more competitive and/or have a more efficient closer apart from slowly grinding value I would remove some of those cards to include either infinite combos (like the one you suggested), or some of the big black X spells (exsanguinate, torment of hellfire, etc.) to dump your copious black mana into as a closer. I find both of those options a little uninspiring in terms of gameplay for me personally, but they are proven and effective methods to win the game. I enjoy the non infinite recursive loops that grind value and leverage that into a victory, but it is not the most effective or efficient method.

I think a lot of this advice can still be used by the dm. Choose the relative power spike you feel is appropriate for the character at this point and apply the abilities accordingly. Determine whether you are going to allow them to go full vampire or use one of the lesser versions discussed. Then have a conversation with your player and help them adjust their stats. Hope this helps a little. It is hard for me to give more precise advice then that without a lot of context about your campaign.

@@downtimeactivities945 Oh it's alright. I just found it funny because this was the 5th or 6th video with essentially the same advice for players about how to pitch being a vampire PC for different campaigns etc The powers and stats are cake. It's roleplay, setting and party integration that is tricky. I have ideas but they are all untested so i was looking for anyone who has done this before... which is apparently NO ONE haha

Flour is a great tool in the adventuring arsenal. Never underestimate the flammability of flour!

However you want to rule that is totally up to you, but either way it is useful for helping to locate invisible creatures.

That is a fair point. Ball bearings are not all that big, but I still think they have many great uses. Whistles are a super useful piece of mundane kit, especially when combined with Hirelings!

To be honest I am not super familiar with the dramatic tasks rules, and we don't really use them in our game. They seem to me to be the Savage Worlds system's version of group checks/multi-roll checks. The way you describe running it is the way I would probably want to run it as well. Having the building tension and the back and fourth with accruing successes makes for a more engaging narrative.

@@downtimeactivities945 They really are fun, even RAW, but yeah, they can create some really good and fun encounters when everyone is invested. the key I have found in that is creating a situation where multiple Traits can (and should) be used to solve the problem, rather than just the same one, over and over (which as a rule, I enforce that they cannot do, or if they do, it's at -2 on the second attempt).

Dhampir almost work better are NPC minions of the vampire. Like a lower form of spawn that is has only a few abilities and can operate in the dalight

That's great. It is in our rotation of systems we play pretty regularly.

Funnily enough, World of Darkness is actually on my list of systems to try. Any recommendation on which version is best? I like the neo-gothic style, at least in limited doses.

I think you just wrote yourself a campaign concept, right there.

Glad you liked this! High level play has never really been my personal preference (it's fun in short bursts, but I like the problem solving required at lower levels, and the sort of daily grind of always being on your last gold coin), and I've felt like Epic 6 style games have fostered a good blend of making characters feel like they're getting stronger, and becoming powerful forces in the world, without ever turning into Superman. As for the last half of your comment, I think that's a super valid concern. It's hard to figure out when to introduce players' backstories, since you want each of them to have time to shine on their own, but it inevitably means that some characters will have their backstories presented at higher levels, where the stakes, and the enemies involved, have to be much higher just because of how the system is balanced. Matt and I had a short discussion once we saw your comment, and we're gonna try and figure out a video to talk about this. You've raised a very important point here that we want to give some thought to. Sorry about the group not wanting to learn a new system, but I also don't blame them. I call skills by their wrong names all the time since all the systems we play get jumbled up in my head. Hope you get some good use out of an Epic 6 style game. They're a little tough to run at times, but I love how they sort of self-balance themselves a lot.

Thank you! Glad you enjoy them.

Have fun getting started with the system! We here at Downtime Activities love a good physical prop, so I'm sure that will be a nice touch for your game.

Not bad ideas Sam. Thank you for the suggestions. I like the alliteration particularly.

Thank you Christy! We are so glad you like our Dread content. I love coming up with new Dread games, especially around Halloween time.

Thanks Matthew! We are glad you liked our rules. Good catch on the "snake eyes" rule. That is something we missed when making this video.

That is definitely a way you could approach it. Those early sessions might be a little clunky with that many pcs roving around, but if you are planning a pretty dangerous level 0 start this would allow to whittle down the large group into the adventuring party. It would be tricky to do right, but if you did it could be a fun way to start a campaign.

Some good suggestions especially if camping and exploration are a big part of your game. Even mighty heroes ought to stay out of the rain!

Slings are a very useful tool that you can be very creative with. They are also very easy to sneak into places that normally wouldn't allow weapons.

A fighter multiclass at 6th could be a cool way to build the character. Fighting styles are always helpful, and that sweet sweet action surge at 2nd level is a great option to have.

@@downtimeactivities945 i have been trying this build. Its a geniality. I do 4 attacks per turn with everything active. I make even more attacks than the monk

@@reddragon8819 that's awesome! I love to hear it has been fun and affective in play.

You are correct. I believe at the time of making this I used the rules for carrying capacity from the phb which is strength score x 15. Draft horses have a strength of 18 so 18x15=270. I think I missed the capacity section of the animals chart which does specify the 540. Either way the point stands that a wagon and a couple of horses makes moving a lot of stuff very convenient.

I'm really happy to hear it was a good time Josh! Level 0 play really changes the way you view the world and the scale of success. It also really allows you to play out your own backstory. PS Always happy to hear about a DM getting the chance to play!

@@downtimeactivities945 we are rotating some one shots right now so I’ve gotten some time in front of the screen and it’s been wonderful 😭

I think there is a lot of confusion primarily because of older editions. Many people see paladins as holy warriors with divine power, so they attribute it to gods and other powerful beings. In 5e the oath is that power source so the other divine source isn't necessary, but both a deity and an oath or either individually can be used for the source behind a paladin in play to make a cool character. Our point of personifying it in some way in this video is to make a person or thing the player can interact with for cool story moments. You could do this similarly with a druid or ranger by having a spirit of nature or the elements seek the player out and have a cool interaction. Not all magic needs to be personified to work, but it helps to personify some aspect of it so the players can have a very real interaction with it.

I don't personally have a huge problem with players wanting to combine abilities in powerful ways or make builds. My issue is when people make really shallow uninteresting characters as a result of doing that. Story and power level can meet somewhere in the middle. Warlock and paladin have some very powerful early game abilities that people like, so they level a bit into that to get them. I don't have an issue with it as long as it makes sense for the character they are playing, and the story they are trying to tell.

The old diy pole of collapsing.

I can assure you this is totally a thing in 5e as well. The mastiff is a wonderful piece of mundane equipment, but the heartache of watching so many good boys perish might dissuade you from using this all too much.

If you can convince one more very loyal hireling to give the monster in the oil and caltrops a big hug and not let go, then you have quite the death trap.

Not familiar with the Pathfinder Savage Worlds rules specifically, but in both the Explorer Edition and the Adventure Edition, the rules state that a Wild Card (players and important named NPCs) can take three Wounds and still function, while any further damage doesn't cause a Wound but incapacitates them. I don't know if this got changed for the Pathfinder mashup or not, but that's something I'll have to look into.

An incredibly practical use for a shovel! It is a good thing you had one available when you needed it.

BG3 absolutely has a lot of useful concepts to snag for the tabletop. I agree that people tend to wait until they need a specific mundane item and then seek it out instead of outfitting themselves with a variety of things to use creatively. A fun way I've found to help with this is to give players a free 50 gp at character creation that has to all be spent on the equipment table. This gives a nice starting satchel of miscellaneous stuff to use creatively early on.

Some great ideas Luis! I love this list because it shows you don't have to spend much (if any) gold to have some useful kit.