You can steal power from your "patron" as an option. As a playtest, i made a Warlock: Old One pact(The King in Yellow) where i took what i needed without him noticing.
@@alecioffi3173 instead of living a life in service to one being, I offer my services at anyone and collect my powers piecemeal instead of one package. Offers less security, but at least they are their own agent.
@@bluehero-96 yeah, but it's not really railroading when it's a consequence of the player's decisions. I mean, they were informed the weapons might be cursed. Usually cursed means there's a consequence for using it. And that's the consequence, I don't see any problem there
I remember watching a story video where they threw the hag (the same one, from curse of strahd) into her own oven until she died and another of the hags got pushed out the window. The last one was the only hag they bothered to fight and they cheesed it quite a bit knocking her down the stairs first.
Don't you just hate how it must feel when some vampire wants to kidnap you as a bride. At least Bowser's kind enough to give you a nice room, but this guy wants your blood like some creep. P.S.: IMP: Okay, I'm waiting for something to take the rains on all of this chaos...... I'M WAITING.
His GM railroaded him into keeping his character. He was suppoed to only OFFER an OPTION. Die or keep playing through some way. Yeah, kinda funny as a gag from this perspective though.
@Maximilian L There's also the character he's trying to switch in... I would reject "Stan Velsing" if a player tried to bring it to Curse of Strahd specifically. Mainly because there's already a Van Helsing expy _in the story_ and it would be really weird.
OK, when we did Strahd; we fought the hags, stole the kid; ran away; and lost a Pally in the process. But you guys....you guys..... are serving canabilistic pastries for them?!?!?
when we played Strahd, we almost killed the Hag in Barovia when she was going house to house. I smited her like a boss. she got away but we faced her with her sisters at the windmill. we destroyed them but also burned down the windmill, killing the kids.
everyone but my warlock were put to sleep by the hag in Barovia. i talked my way out of her killing us by buying some pastries that i feed to my Imp (real imp not just spirit). later in the town our CG cleric who made a deal with my imp had to find the hag a child to be able to get enough pastries for the imp. when we ran back into the hags later i bought more because said imp was addicted and they let us sleep the night in their place as long as we kept buying them and did not go into any other part of the tower. we became friends with those hags.
When I played we had perfect 20 barbarian rage with a belt of giant strength with a spell casted on to double his height. He smashed the hags with trees.
"I guess you could say we have a bone to pick with them!" Continuing to rib the party by making these puns in the face of their hostility really takes a lot of spine, no bones about it. Skeleton.
"The module beat me to the punch with Stan Velsing." Not necessarily, just have Stan be his apprentice. He's going to be "The world's GREATEST vampire hunter"...with 18 int to start.
In the CoS game I play in, I'm a Kenku rogue who is one of the apprentices of Van Richten. I know the module because I DM it with other players also, and asked the DM of this one if we could built something around it. He added another apprentice for fun so there were three now and I asked him later if it was okay if it was okay if my character could have a big crush on the main apprentice of Van Richten and sees the old man as a father figure and yup it worked until now and it's damn fun XD
1:46: "Treat this as a warning." 21:18: Once we entered in through the gates, the portcullis slammed down behind us, and we were surrounded by about 10 guards. Defective sword: I waaaaarned y-- Night Hag: Aww shaddup! *I* warned them this time!
The move to longer format, less animation is slotting in nicely with my need for stuff to listen too as I'm working from home. This and Zee Bashew's Cold Road series are putting in work. Thank you.
Just watch critical role or the adventure zone. I know both seasons of critical role are fantastic and fun and I have heard good things and the advice zone
It'd be funnier if the DM got tired of him constantly trying to swap out, so they brought in an NPC Stan Velsing and immediately kill him off in some sudden and over the top manner.
@@stanklepoot sounds like a DM that I used to play with. *Stan crashes thru and window only to be skewed immediately on a gothic/bdsm spiked dining room chair*
The cleric is cursed as bad things keep happening to him without allowing him to feel the sweet embrace of death to let a vampire hunter step onto the stage.
Oh man... that whole lake scene went SO differently in my game... Me (a 5'1" Aasimar Paladin of Heironeous) and the half-elf Rogue saw the fishermen (two of them) throw the girl overboard. In a panic, I managed to row us over at bizarre speed. The rogue leapt in to save the girl while I tried to intimidate what happened out of the fishermen, who broke down into tears and confessed what they'd done. The rogue reached the girl, but she was dying quickly at nearly 100ft down. I start panicking... until I come up with the most unorthodox plan. See, we'd managed to get our hands on a set of necklaces that can cause someone to teleport to the person holding the 'master' necklace if they are wearing a 'slave' necklace, but only up to a range of 120ft. I quickly empty out my waterskin, flex it open and stopper it tight. I then take a huge breath and activate the necklace, putting me right next to the rogue. The girl is a little below him and my chain mail drags me down to her quickly. I unstopper the waterskin and make her take a deep breath from the air in the bag as I do the completely (not impossible) improbably thing of swimming up 100ft in chain mail. We make it to the surface and I cure wounds on her. Nothing happens for a moment... then she coughs. She's fine. James, the rogue, is all for killing the fishermen. The girl can't remember being kidnapped or who by. The fishermen look like they're going to die and are terrified. My paladin, ever the merciful sort, thinks it over for a little bit and talks to the fishermen. It turns out that fishing hasn't been good and their families are starving. My paladin hands over her rations, along with a good sum of money. She then intimidates the men into agreeing to go home and feed their familes, then present themselves to the blacksmith in the morning to learn a new trade, one that will see them through the leaner months as well as committing to serving as a mentor and supporter of the local orphanage that my paladin had helped rebuild and fund. They almost cry at this new lease on life and race off. The rogue was all for throwing them under the bus, but my paladin pointed out that hope in Borovia was rare and that the more people they armed with it, the more dangerous the populace would become to Strahd. ... to be fair, though, my paladin does call Strahd "Von Zaro-b*tch". No-one's perfect.
3:12 love how the paldin went "which one?" I'm noticing a pattern, I'm late, but the DM seems hesitant to kill players so the spirits appear. Maybe I'm wrong, I haven't run curse of strahd.
The book does have means to keep players around by making pacts with the dark ones or lingering as a spirit. I think the DM spun it his own way though.
@@kendrickrochelanzot2053 Lots of APs and Modules have ways to avoid death. Skull and Shackles for Pathfinder 1e has a chart that instead of death you roll a dice and see what sort of permanent injury you get and the repercussions of it, or you can choose to die XD.
When my party got to Vallaki, we investigated for about 2 sessions, but then I, the only lawful good character, had to miss a session. When i got back, I was told that Vallaki was burned down and turned into a monstrous apocalyptic wasteland. Long story short, some new players were joining and the DM introduced them as prisoners about to be executed. His thought process was, "Well, the party is trying to mount a rebellion against Strahd, surely they will help these innocents." No one in the party cared, saying that they weren't going to risk their lives for strangers, so the two new characters had to break themselves out, somehow leading to a fire spreading through Vallaki and the Sorcerer destroying the gate to Vallaki, which was up specifically to keep monsters out. Without the gate, monsters invaded the town. All the survivors were holed up in the inn, and we ended up in Vallaki for another 5 sessions, trying to finish our investigation while holding off constant monsters like Manticores, Perytons, Displacer beasts, and (for some reason) a Goddamn BONE DEVIL( too be fair, one of the coolest fights of that campaign). It was a flustercluck.
"He makes me create these life sized dolls for him. He tells me give them gigantic breasts. I've created hundreds of them for him. I have no idea what he does with them." - Blinski
This really makes me want to play Curse of Strahd! I started several months ago but sadly our group fell apart shortly after we got through the Death house...
@@forlorndream Thanks! I'm currently playing in Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I'll probably ask our DM if he has any interest in running Curse of Strahd when we're done.
Today I searched with my father through his collection of old Systems and Modules and i discovered he has a copy of Curse of Strahd(in a German version) Quite fun to read through. Also great storytelling Puffin.
I got my own curse of strahd book on friday as a birthday gift And i couldn't be happier. I'm 26 now and apparently i was smiling from ear to ear when i left the store the book in hand I am SO looking forward to playing this one.. got the gm screen for it, too Aaaaaaahhhhhh, so awesome
I really like this method for long format RPG content. I struggle to sit through the live streams and edited down recordings of actual plays on other channels. This has just the right amount of on-screen content but doesn't force you to keep your eyes locked on the screen for its entire run time. Love all your videos. Thank you for all the excellent content 😄
Thank you so very much Ben. I don't know whether you actually take the time to read comments or just study the numbers, but I for one absolutely love love love these longer videos, and we all love the stories you have to tell. PLEASE keep them coming.
The hags were so non-specific. I would've taken the the cookies straight to the count that refused them entrance in the first place, explained the situation and handed the cookies to him and his guards with full knowledge of what the cookies were, what they did, and what they should do with them. I would also tell them where the hags were so they could send their entire guard to kill them.
Clever thinking, though you would have to do a few persuasion checks to get that if I were DMing. A reasonable thought, provided everybody is acting reasonable themselves.
@@sircharlesninefingers4170 This is true, but I'd rather chance that than actually help the hags. Most likely my character would've been killed by the hags for refusing and I'd be out there with Stan Velsing!
Fun fact, as per the DMG (pg 139) the Identify spell does not actually tell you if a weapon is cursed. My DM pulled a similar thing to us when guards tried to get us to disarm peacefully.
Omg I can’t believe this! So Saturday I was playing DnD with my group and we ended up in a village in the woods after saving a child from a NIGHT HAG. She came and attacked us and my teifling rogue was the only one who knew what she was saying since she spoke in infernal. So she wanted to eat the child and my character was really mad about it. I rolled highest initiative and threw my enchanted sickle at her. Nat 20 to hit 3D6 plus one D6 of holy damage. X3 critical plus my weapon bonus I wound up doing I think 80 damage. My DM and the whole party just STARRED at me for a solid two minutes. Usually I don’t roll too well xD so my DM just said. “Please explain to me how you just one shot murdered this night hag?!” I was like “Uuuuuuuh Kalliska was super mad she wanted to eat a child?” She looks back to the party and says “You see a weapon wizz past you. It hits the hag in the face, her nose falls off, and she dies. You turn to see a VERY angry rogue, arm still extended.” They all just laughed and my DM was like “yeah that was a WHOLE plot. Gone. Thanks.”
Curse of Strahd was my first ever dnd campaign and I loved it but we got tpk'd at just late enough in the campaign that we felt we could get to the end and take on strahd soon. This series is really making me wanna go back to it but I'm in so many campaigns.
Ah I remember our group walking into the amber temple underleveled. I, the healer, got hit with 3 fireballs, failed all my dex saves and almost died. Good times.
Your campaign is soo totally different than what how the campaign I'm running is going. I think it's crazy how much different it is, it just goes to show how amazing dungeon and dragons really is.
Guh. Vallaki is a crazy time bomb just waiting for ignition. I love it. Also I like having the players work for the hags. Puts a brutal twist on an already-sad story of dead children.
Digging the text story. Probably one of the reasons why I watch your videos is because your story telling style works for me. I'm for one for more of these kinds of videos.
The Curse of Strahd sounds both interesting and very frustrating. I am surprised it is so popular. I have found that you have to often keep the level of frustration low or I have a player revolt.
I've found it's all about how you set the mood. If you're up front about this being a tough and harsh horror style campaign and be sure to double down on the hammy and campy horror cliches then everybody will usually have a good time.
Well, it depends if low level PC's go in CoS they'll get demolished. A party of least Lvl 4 has a better chance of going around. Funny thing, since they have the Paladin and Cleric, they are basically walking beacons for Strahd as he can easily pinpoint their location just because of these two and that's not getting into a possible Death Knight encounter.
There is a whole section at the start of the module talking about this very issue. You are in a gothic horror, its gonna be dark, gothic, and horror filled. It talks about how to keep players engaged and not beaten down. How you have to sprinkle in tiny rays of light here and there that shine in the darkness and give them a reason to go on, to show them they can do good. I found it a very hard balance, and made sure to read that very section basically before every session I DMed to remind me of that fact and try to interweave those moments.
No to beat a dead horse or anything. But this could be the perfect time to pick up disaster squad again. What with the whole quarantine thing going on. I’m just, yah know, putting that into the universe.
"You can't back a Hag into a corner and beat her to death." *Laughs in having cleaved Morgantha in half before she could even take the child* (Yeah, we got lucky, REALLY lucky... Someone else died)
Protection From Good and Evil works on Night Hags, if I recall (stops them from draining your life force while you sleep, at least). So the whole convo after 4:00 just shows the party doesn't know enough about Night Hags.
So, the TL;DR of this series is "Party goes from one asskicking to the next in an everlong stream of losing fights"... Oh, and the DM might have invented "the gift system" to keep Ben from pulling out that ranger.
but he changed it so he couldnt die, normally you have the option to ben also stated in a video few years back that pc deaths were taboo aaaaand Ben has made an annoying backup character so the DM has no choice to keep him alive
@@ZZ10000 Right! That's what I was getting at. The DM was "Oh, shit! Ben just died... And he's rolling up a new character... How can I stop this? What if I have some fey creature bring him back? And give him permanent barkskin?" Then the DM had to deal with a second character death and was, "Oh, shit! Do I admit to ben I just screwed him??? Uh... quick! What do I do... Why did I do this? Now I'm beholden to this mistake... wait... Beholder! Yes, that's it!"
Ben: *literally anything happens to his character* Also Ben: Guess it's time for STAN VELSING!!! Seriously though, he really just wanted to play Stan Velsing.
I also have social anxiety. And playing DND with that is like a huge hill you have to get over. But once you find some people and get over that hill. It gets so much better and actually gets really fun. I know you can do it! Just go out there and try.
Not sure if this would help but there are websites that allow you to play TTRPGs so doing dnd online might be something you could try. The slight separation due to the screen might be enough
Ah, cursed items are so fun, they’re even more fun when your players decide to combine their curses and figure out a way to create magical living explosives
I changed the dolls to weekly, that makes much more sense to me. 1 per month = 12 per year. So to have “over 100” that was mean at least 9 years, implied to be even more.
“I will not let anyone have power over me!”
-Warlock
My Warlock is a free lancer.
How does that even work?
Ale Cioffi Well, if the DM allows a pact to an idea/ideal (like clerics and paladins can draw from, or druids for that matter).
You can steal power from your "patron" as an option. As a playtest, i made a Warlock: Old One pact(The King in Yellow) where i took what i needed without him noticing.
@@alecioffi3173 instead of living a life in service to one being, I offer my services at anyone and collect my powers piecemeal instead of one package. Offers less security, but at least they are their own agent.
I love how the Cleric and the Warlock agrees about upper managment problems
3:32
@@FridayBiology lol thx
I've played a few characters who would agree. Cleric and ranger most of all.
Makes sense. They'd have the most XP in dealing with it.
Relatable
Players: "We're going to surrender."
DM: "No, you're not."
That's what I don't like about this story. The railroading. I like the new format though.
@@bluehero-96 I think he said that because it being cursed and not being able to let go leads into combat with the aggressive guards
@@r.r815
Obviously. However, it's then probable that the weapons were a setup for the encounter in the first place.
@@bluehero-96 speaking as someone who has dm'd this module before, there is a reason. its not the dm railroading
@@bluehero-96 yeah, but it's not really railroading when it's a consequence of the player's decisions. I mean, they were informed the weapons might be cursed. Usually cursed means there's a consequence for using it. And that's the consequence, I don't see any problem there
Warlock: Distributes pastries like a boss
Hag: "I waaarrrnnned youuuu!"
The hag of warning
@@corradoalamanni179 The defective hag of warning
Fun fact: our party *did* try and cook a Hag in a giant oven. She did not die.
It had to be a magic oven, man. A powerful magical oven built to contain hags.
I don't know why not? At least in Hansel and Gretel, the Oven was magical. So it would have counted as a magic weapon.
Is a microwave oven classed as magical?!
I remember watching a story video where they threw the hag (the same one, from curse of strahd) into her own oven until she died and another of the hags got pushed out the window. The last one was the only hag they bothered to fight and they cheesed it quite a bit knocking her down the stairs first.
@@TheMightyBattleSquid XP to Level 3 did that video
I love how the character named Gouda is the one with the cheesy lines.
It wouldn't brie so satisfying otherwise. Its a part of her personality you really mozzarellish.
Yeah, doesn't Ben normally fill the "Bad Pun" quota?
Apparently she isn't the only one. ;)
Are you.... a monster????
Makes sense. “Gouda Cheese” 😜
"welp its time for Stan Hellsing!"
"NOOO BEN!"
makes me lol every time he is denied
boshak being a man-eating lizardman i expected to just eat all the pastries himself
Boshak- maneatinglizardman
There’s a difference between eating grown adults and children. Boshak has standards
@@darkteentitan2699 More like a difference between eating children and pastries.
@@Mad_Dog_of_the_Regime Ba dumm psssh
Don't you just hate how it must feel when some vampire wants to kidnap you as a bride. At least Bowser's kind enough to give you a nice room, but this guy wants your blood like some creep.
P.S.: IMP: Okay, I'm waiting for something to take the rains on all of this chaos...... I'M WAITING.
I feel like Ben is just really desperate to get rid of his cleric.
zakuraRabbit he did make a video about being forced to keep a cleric... different game tho
His GM railroaded him into keeping his character. He was suppoed to only OFFER an OPTION. Die or keep playing through some way.
Yeah, kinda funny as a gag from this perspective though.
@Maximilian L There's also the character he's trying to switch in... I would reject "Stan Velsing" if a player tried to bring it to Curse of Strahd specifically. Mainly because there's already a Van Helsing expy _in the story_ and it would be really weird.
th-cam.com/video/HT9HgcufRQk/w-d-xo.html dejavu here is an other video of him playing cleric
@Maximilian L I see that your device autocorrected 'in case' to 'Incase'. I know what that means, fellow man of culture.
OK, when we did Strahd; we fought the hags, stole the kid; ran away; and lost a Pally in the process. But you guys....you guys..... are serving canabilistic pastries for them?!?!?
when we played Strahd, we almost killed the Hag in Barovia when she was going house to house. I smited her like a boss. she got away but we faced her with her sisters at the windmill. we destroyed them but also burned down the windmill, killing the kids.
everyone but my warlock were put to sleep by the hag in Barovia. i talked my way out of her killing us by buying some pastries that i feed to my Imp (real imp not just spirit). later in the town our CG cleric who made a deal with my imp had to find the hag a child to be able to get enough pastries for the imp. when we ran back into the hags later i bought more because said imp was addicted and they let us sleep the night in their place as long as we kept buying them and did not go into any other part of the tower. we became friends with those hags.
@@ericpeterson8732 ok beating the night hags at the start is actually impressive.
We killed one of them earlier, and then attacked the two(maybe one) remaining at the windmill. We were level Seven, so it didn't go well for them.
When I played we had perfect 20 barbarian rage with a belt of giant strength with a spell casted on to double his height. He smashed the hags with trees.
"I guess you could say we have a bone to pick with them!"
Continuing to rib the party by making these puns in the face of their hostility really takes a lot of spine, no bones about it.
Skeleton.
They're constantly training to become strong enough to learn the scroll of the Omega Pun.
I think all of these puns are very humerus.
@The Toast With the most Sorry, didn't mean to get your blood up.
*megalovania intensifies*
Sans a Joke (English Pun, Sans as in without, I know, it's a bit of an Under used Tale)
"The module beat me to the punch with Stan Velsing."
Not necessarily, just have Stan be his apprentice. He's going to be "The world's GREATEST vampire hunter"...with 18 int to start.
"Stan Velsing: World's Greatest Vampire Hunter!" *winks* *ding*
Nah he already has one he could be the apprentice’s apprentice though
@@gamingman2720 apprentice TO the apprentice
In the CoS game I play in, I'm a Kenku rogue who is one of the apprentices of Van Richten. I know the module because I DM it with other players also, and asked the DM of this one if we could built something around it. He added another apprentice for fun so there were three now and I asked him later if it was okay if it was okay if my character could have a big crush on the main apprentice of Van Richten and sees the old man as a father figure and yup it worked until now and it's damn fun XD
@@gamingman2720 but the rule of 2
1:46: "Treat this as a warning."
21:18: Once we entered in through the gates, the portcullis slammed down behind us, and we were surrounded by about 10 guards.
Defective sword: I waaaaarned y--
Night Hag: Aww shaddup! *I* warned them this time!
The move to longer format, less animation is slotting in nicely with my need for stuff to listen too as I'm working from home. This and Zee Bashew's Cold Road series are putting in work.
Thank you.
Just watch critical role or the adventure zone. I know both seasons of critical role are fantastic and fun and I have heard good things and the advice zone
@@DancingCabal I know I'm 3 years late but don't do this
@@AlSneed-l7nAnd now I'm seven months late, but why not?
I love your pitches for Stan Velsing. It's like he's the newest sitcom on Fox.
One day we will see Stan velsing and he’ll be great
It'd be funnier if the DM got tired of him constantly trying to swap out, so they brought in an NPC Stan Velsing and immediately kill him off in some sudden and over the top manner.
@@stanklepoot
That would be tragic.
@@stanklepoot It could happen if they ever work out who Van Richten is.
@@stanklepoot sounds like a DM that I used to play with.
*Stan crashes thru and window only to be skewed immediately on a gothic/bdsm spiked dining room chair*
But not as amazing as... CHADWICK STRONGPANTS!
The cleric is cursed as bad things keep happening to him without allowing him to feel the sweet embrace of death to let a vampire hunter step onto the stage.
Oh man... that whole lake scene went SO differently in my game...
Me (a 5'1" Aasimar Paladin of Heironeous) and the half-elf Rogue saw the fishermen (two of them) throw the girl overboard. In a panic, I managed to row us over at bizarre speed. The rogue leapt in to save the girl while I tried to intimidate what happened out of the fishermen, who broke down into tears and confessed what they'd done.
The rogue reached the girl, but she was dying quickly at nearly 100ft down. I start panicking... until I come up with the most unorthodox plan. See, we'd managed to get our hands on a set of necklaces that can cause someone to teleport to the person holding the 'master' necklace if they are wearing a 'slave' necklace, but only up to a range of 120ft. I quickly empty out my waterskin, flex it open and stopper it tight. I then take a huge breath and activate the necklace, putting me right next to the rogue. The girl is a little below him and my chain mail drags me down to her quickly. I unstopper the waterskin and make her take a deep breath from the air in the bag as I do the completely (not impossible) improbably thing of swimming up 100ft in chain mail. We make it to the surface and I cure wounds on her. Nothing happens for a moment... then she coughs. She's fine.
James, the rogue, is all for killing the fishermen. The girl can't remember being kidnapped or who by. The fishermen look like they're going to die and are terrified. My paladin, ever the merciful sort, thinks it over for a little bit and talks to the fishermen. It turns out that fishing hasn't been good and their families are starving. My paladin hands over her rations, along with a good sum of money. She then intimidates the men into agreeing to go home and feed their familes, then present themselves to the blacksmith in the morning to learn a new trade, one that will see them through the leaner months as well as committing to serving as a mentor and supporter of the local orphanage that my paladin had helped rebuild and fund. They almost cry at this new lease on life and race off.
The rogue was all for throwing them under the bus, but my paladin pointed out that hope in Borovia was rare and that the more people they armed with it, the more dangerous the populace would become to Strahd.
... to be fair, though, my paladin does call Strahd "Von Zaro-b*tch". No-one's perfect.
I think I like this Pally. XD
I love how each CoS game is juuuust different enough to make things interesting!
That's the great thing about this and most other modules, they provide enough options to change things up and of course DMs can change what they want.
And Stan Velsing.
3:12 love how the paldin went "which one?"
I'm noticing a pattern, I'm late, but the DM seems hesitant to kill players so the spirits appear. Maybe I'm wrong, I haven't run curse of strahd.
The book does have means to keep players around by making pacts with the dark ones or lingering as a spirit. I think the DM spun it his own way though.
Yeah i was given an option to revive, OR accept death
@@Blitzwaffen oh ok! I was unaware of that part. Thanks
@@kendrickrochelanzot2053 Lots of APs and Modules have ways to avoid death. Skull and Shackles for Pathfinder 1e has a chart that instead of death you roll a dice and see what sort of permanent injury you get and the repercussions of it, or you can choose to die XD.
@@Cragified oh ok, that is good too. But I kinda wanna see stan velsin
If she has multiple eyes does she always have advantage on perception
that's a gouda eyedea
She can't say she didn't see the problem coming.
Or disadvantage, not being used to having extra eyes.
@@nvfury13 Do they have eyes everywhere? Everywhere? How does going to the bathroom work?
@@jackielinde7568 you close your butt eyes and carefully sit down.
When my party got to Vallaki, we investigated for about 2 sessions, but then I, the only lawful good character, had to miss a session. When i got back, I was told that Vallaki was burned down and turned into a monstrous apocalyptic wasteland.
Long story short, some new players were joining and the DM introduced them as prisoners about to be executed. His thought process was, "Well, the party is trying to mount a rebellion against Strahd, surely they will help these innocents." No one in the party cared, saying that they weren't going to risk their lives for strangers, so the two new characters had to break themselves out, somehow leading to a fire spreading through Vallaki and the Sorcerer destroying the gate to Vallaki, which was up specifically to keep monsters out. Without the gate, monsters invaded the town.
All the survivors were holed up in the inn, and we ended up in Vallaki for another 5 sessions, trying to finish our investigation while holding off constant monsters like Manticores, Perytons, Displacer beasts, and (for some reason) a Goddamn BONE DEVIL( too be fair, one of the coolest fights of that campaign). It was a flustercluck.
Sounds like fun lol
You shouldn't have missed THE FUCKING SESSION! Shame on You!
The GM really screwed up in setup. The players really made only sensible decision in Barovia. That is not to get involved if not forced...
"You _could_ say that...if you're a MONSTER."
I mean, she *does* have a bunch of eyes now.
Forget the quest for that elf. I'm starting to think the party isn't a high enough level to step out the front door.
I look forward to these Puffin, thanks for making these during these trying times!
After gettin more deeply invested into this series, coming back and rewatching is amazing ❤
"He makes me create these life sized dolls for him. He tells me give them gigantic breasts. I've created hundreds of them for him. I have no idea what he does with them." - Blinski
“Apparently you can’t go 10 feet in Barovia without another missing child”
Yep
This really makes me want to play Curse of Strahd! I started several months ago but sadly our group fell apart shortly after we got through the Death house...
Hey im a Dm currently playing the strahd campaign I started right before puffin started posting. But you must get a good group together! It's amazing
@@forlorndream Thanks! I'm currently playing in Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I'll probably ask our DM if he has any interest in running Curse of Strahd when we're done.
Today I searched with my father through his collection of old Systems and Modules and i discovered he has a copy of Curse of Strahd(in a German version) Quite fun to read through. Also great storytelling Puffin.
I got my own curse of strahd book on friday as a birthday gift
And i couldn't be happier. I'm 26 now and apparently i was smiling from ear to ear when i left the store the book in hand
I am SO looking forward to playing this one.. got the gm screen for it, too
Aaaaaaahhhhhh, so awesome
I love this! Our group ran The Curse of Strahd a few months ago. Cool to see what someone else’s experience was like
I really like this method for long format RPG content. I struggle to sit through the live streams and edited down recordings of actual plays on other channels. This has just the right amount of on-screen content but doesn't force you to keep your eyes locked on the screen for its entire run time.
Love all your videos. Thank you for all the excellent content 😄
okay i think my new favorite thing is the idea of a Warlock and a Priest complaining to each other about how difficult working with a deity is 😂
Whats great is that Im running this and this actually helped give insight into whatll happen
Thank you so very much Ben. I don't know whether you actually take the time to read comments or just study the numbers, but I for one absolutely love love love these longer videos, and we all love the stories you have to tell. PLEASE keep them coming.
The hags were so non-specific. I would've taken the the cookies straight to the count that refused them entrance in the first place, explained the situation and handed the cookies to him and his guards with full knowledge of what the cookies were, what they did, and what they should do with them. I would also tell them where the hags were so they could send their entire guard to kill them.
Clever thinking, though you would have to do a few persuasion checks to get that if I were DMing. A reasonable thought, provided everybody is acting reasonable themselves.
@@sircharlesninefingers4170 This is true, but I'd rather chance that than actually help the hags. Most likely my character would've been killed by the hags for refusing and I'd be out there with Stan Velsing!
Gouda's alignment is evil but only because of her puns, I am sure of it.
Fun fact, as per the DMG (pg 139) the Identify spell does not actually tell you if a weapon is cursed. My DM pulled a similar thing to us when guards tried to get us to disarm peacefully.
Damn you Ben. I am now emotionally invested in these characters.
I love your content, it helps remind me that Dungeons and Dragons is about having fun, and allows me to loosen up before a session.
Omg I can’t believe this! So Saturday I was playing DnD with my group and we ended up in a village in the woods after saving a child from a NIGHT HAG. She came and attacked us and my teifling rogue was the only one who knew what she was saying since she spoke in infernal. So she wanted to eat the child and my character was really mad about it. I rolled highest initiative and threw my enchanted sickle at her. Nat 20 to hit 3D6 plus one D6 of holy damage. X3 critical plus my weapon bonus I wound up doing I think 80 damage. My DM and the whole party just STARRED at me for a solid two minutes. Usually I don’t roll too well xD so my DM just said. “Please explain to me how you just one shot murdered this night hag?!” I was like “Uuuuuuuh Kalliska was super mad she wanted to eat a child?” She looks back to the party and says “You see a weapon wizz past you. It hits the hag in the face, her nose falls off, and she dies. You turn to see a VERY angry rogue, arm still extended.” They all just laughed and my DM was like “yeah that was a WHOLE plot. Gone. Thanks.”
This is such a great series! I love your work man.
Really enjoying this format and the story puffin. Thanks for entertaining us during the end days
I love watching these, it's fulfilling my desire for gaming while we're locked away.
Curse of Strahd was my first ever dnd campaign and I loved it but we got tpk'd at just late enough in the campaign that we felt we could get to the end and take on strahd soon. This series is really making me wanna go back to it but I'm in so many campaigns.
Ah I remember our group walking into the amber temple underleveled. I, the healer, got hit with 3 fireballs, failed all my dex saves and almost died. Good times.
I love how every chapter he has a chance to bring out Stan Vel Sing
Your campaign is soo totally different than what how the campaign I'm running is going. I think it's crazy how much different it is, it just goes to show how amazing dungeon and dragons really is.
Guh. Vallaki is a crazy time bomb just waiting for ignition.
I love it.
Also I like having the players work for the hags. Puts a brutal twist on an already-sad story of dead children.
YES! YES! YES! I'm getting so excited when I see you upload these long stories.
I love these. Every time I hear about another groups adventures in Barovia I get to see the content our group missed.
This series is awesome please do more of these for players like me who may not get to play often but want to see the module played out!
I'm starting to like these more than your regular videos and find myself getting emotionally invested. 10/10
hey man, i am from Greece and we are in quarantine for quite a while now, you realy made my day, huge fun
I love this series. Curse of strahd is a model I have been wanting to run for a while and i love seeing and hear about people’s play Throughs.
I like how Ben just wants to play his new character but the DM is just having none of it. Perfect torture.
My god i love this series! I hope you'll consider making more of these longer sessions in the future
"I will not let anyone have power over me"
-boshak the WARLOCK
I love how much puffin wants to bring out Stan Velsing, but is denied every opportunity :P
Digging the text story. Probably one of the reasons why I watch your videos is because your story telling style works for me. I'm for one for more of these kinds of videos.
Seeing those new episodes fills me with excitement! Can’t wait for the next one!
The Curse of Strahd sounds both interesting and very frustrating. I am surprised it is so popular. I have found that you have to often keep the level of frustration low or I have a player revolt.
I've found it's all about how you set the mood. If you're up front about this being a tough and harsh horror style campaign and be sure to double down on the hammy and campy horror cliches then everybody will usually have a good time.
Well, it depends if low level PC's go in CoS they'll get demolished. A party of least Lvl 4 has a better chance of going around. Funny thing, since they have the Paladin and Cleric, they are basically walking beacons for Strahd as he can easily pinpoint their location just because of these two and that's not getting into a possible Death Knight encounter.
There is a whole section at the start of the module talking about this very issue. You are in a gothic horror, its gonna be dark, gothic, and horror filled. It talks about how to keep players engaged and not beaten down. How you have to sprinkle in tiny rays of light here and there that shine in the darkness and give them a reason to go on, to show them they can do good. I found it a very hard balance, and made sure to read that very section basically before every session I DMed to remind me of that fact and try to interweave those moments.
Hags = all seeing eye of pastries
No to beat a dead horse or anything.
But this could be the perfect time to pick up disaster squad again. What with the whole quarantine thing going on. I’m just, yah know, putting that into the universe.
I did really enjoy this series and really hope you do another for the next module you decide to play
So, you finally had a session that didn't end with a party member making a pact with a higher being. Nice.
"You can't back a Hag into a corner and beat her to death."
*Laughs in having cleaved Morgantha in half before she could even take the child*
(Yeah, we got lucky, REALLY lucky... Someone else died)
Thanks for putting these out so quick. Since being stuck at home I look forward to these.
We NEED more Granola Girl moments...
Swear you said we need granola girl cookies....
I've never been this early. Super excited with this series!
Really liking this story so far Ben! 😊
I'm looking forward to the next chapter!
Gouda is my favorite. You can't not love her appreciation of puns.
Okay, you have me invested in these videos now. This is getting pretty good, man!
I've always enjoyed your content, but I especially enjoy this series that takes a longer form. Can't wait for the next episode.
22:36 "Ehm let go now, okay, goodbye quaterstaff! - Man your lines are so good
I’m really enjoying the new story style! Great job Ben!
Puffin I love this series. Its amazing.
Thx à lot, your video are a breath of fresh air during this harsh time.
Great episode. So fun to see how you ran into things that my group didn't even come close to.
Protection From Good and Evil works on Night Hags, if I recall (stops them from draining your life force while you sleep, at least). So the whole convo after 4:00 just shows the party doesn't know enough about Night Hags.
So, the TL;DR of this series is "Party goes from one asskicking to the next in an everlong stream of losing fights"... Oh, and the DM might have invented "the gift system" to keep Ben from pulling out that ranger.
Nah, the gift system is a apart of the curse of strahd modula.
but he changed it so he couldnt die, normally you have the option to
ben also stated in a video few years back that pc deaths were taboo
aaaaand Ben has made an annoying backup character so the DM has no choice to keep him alive
@@ZZ10000 Right! That's what I was getting at. The DM was "Oh, shit! Ben just died... And he's rolling up a new character... How can I stop this? What if I have some fey creature bring him back? And give him permanent barkskin?"
Then the DM had to deal with a second character death and was, "Oh, shit! Do I admit to ben I just screwed him??? Uh... quick! What do I do... Why did I do this? Now I'm beholden to this mistake... wait... Beholder! Yes, that's it!"
Thx for this awesome series, always brightening up the day :D
This is an amazing telling of the game! Please do more campaigns like this.
Ben: *literally anything happens to his character*
Also Ben: Guess it's time for STAN VELSING!!!
Seriously though, he really just wanted to play Stan Velsing.
Yo this is surprisingly sating my crit roll addiction.
And now they are
DISTRUBUTED
MWAHAHAHAHAAH
Dice Funk, Dimension 20, and TFS At the Table are some of my personal favourites.
I would try highrollers. They have a curse of strad mini sereis starting soon
Crit roll sucks.
I hope the warlock rips off the demonic arm and attahces it to himself
I like hearing stories narrated by you. 24 minutes flew by
Thank you! This is amazing, and you are awesome for allowing us to enjoy your adventures 😊
Kinda glad he doing these always like his D&D tales one cause I can't play D&D do to my social anxiety
I also have social anxiety. And playing DND with that is like a huge hill you have to get over. But once you find some people and get over that hill. It gets so much better and actually gets really fun. I know you can do it! Just go out there and try.
Not sure if this would help but there are websites that allow you to play TTRPGs so doing dnd online might be something you could try. The slight separation due to the screen might be enough
Ah, cursed items are so fun, they’re even more fun when your players decide to combine their curses and figure out a way to create magical living explosives
Your horror stories are a reprieve from this world. Keep them coming.
I love the Stan Velsing running gag.
Puffin I'm really digging this format.
You're spoiling us, PF. Love having more of your stories more often.
"The module beat me to the punch", well, I mean, Van Richten has been in the D&D canon for like 30 years, so...
Through a series of machinations in our campaign, we managed to make Blinsky into the mayor...
I changed the dolls to weekly, that makes much more sense to me.
1 per month = 12 per year.
So to have “over 100” that was mean at least 9 years, implied to be even more.
I have seen enough of your videos to be able to envision some of the animations that could be.
I enjoy the occasional picture change though.
Yay I love these replays!