#sam dms curse of strahd

[iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid]

anyway this particular d&d group doesn't meet often because we're a bunch of busy grad students but i get SO EXCITED every time we do. they're all newbies. they don't see anything coming at all. one of my players found strahd's cursed armor in the wreckage of an attacked wagon and he immediately put it on. he's still wearing it. another character is actively romancing a character who is, quite literally, strahd in disguise. she has no idea. she suspects he's secretly evil but in an "i can fix him" kind of way. i tried to have strahd seduce another player's bard character and she spent the entire scene ripping on him for being a mediocre organ player. i'm having the time of my life

#me #i thought i had a tag for this campaign but i can't remember #sam dms curse of strahd #? #maybe? #luckily none of them are on tumblr #curse of strahd

[fur-claws-and-eyeballs]

The Lost Boys and DnD

First of all, Sam and the Frog brothers are huge freaking nerds. You KNOW they get into DnD at some point. Maybe there's a local group of DnD-ers that use the backroom of the comic store to host their games that gets them into it. Maybe Sam discovers the Players/Monsters/DMs handbooks being sold in the store one day and gets curious.

Maybe the Frog brothers market it as a way for vampire hunters to mentally prepare themselves for the strategies and horror of war. (The Curse of Strahd campaign wasn't released until like 2016, but we can pretend it was released 20 years earlier, lmao...Or it's just a Homebrew campaign, maybe even set in Santa Carla...)

I honestly feel like Edgar would be a really good DM because he would get so into storytelling and character voices. (He also gets frustrated as hell when Sam does something stupid/clever and completely bypasses a big battle or event that he had planned)

They tried having Sam DM, but his campaigns included more puzzles and diplomacy than battle, and having the Frogs just brute force their way through every session was disheartening.

"We clearly need at least one person with a functioning brain in the party," says Sam, retiring from DMing permanently.

But they're only three people so Sam begs Michael to join them. And listen, Michael is VERY aware of how people might perceive him, and he is not about to join his little brother and his dweeb friends in nerdom.

But Lucy, because she's wonderful, lets the boys run their campaign in the kitchen on Saturdays, and Michael, despite his best efforts, finds himself lingering in the doorway. He keeps stopping to look at the board, being drawn into Edgar's storytelling, and Sam's overly complicated plans (plans that fail and inevitably end up with him rolling for bluff, AGAIN), and Alan's insistence that they ignore diplomacy in favor of just killing everyone. (Don't get it twisted though, Alan is a master of the dice, he knows exactly how to stack his advantages and buffs for the maximum amount of damage/success.)

Michael probably can't help but chime in on occasion, "Did it occur to you idiots that the mysterious key that you found in your tavern room has a purpose and that it might go to the padlock that lets you into the Mayor's house?"

"Well, let's see you do better, Mikey!"

So Michael inevitably joins and now it's the four of them. Slaying Vampires and solving mysteries. But then...

"Hey, Michael, me and the Boys are going to a party at the abandoned cannery on Saturday, you in?" asks David one day.

"I, uh, already have plans with my family on Saturday, man, sorry," answers Michael, desperately trying to keep images of miniatures and dice out of his head.

Except, this is the fifth Saturday in a row that Mikey has begged off of hanging out with the gang, and now they're getting a little suspicious...

...

Anyway, time skip and give me Bard Paul trying to fuck the dragon.

Sam: "It would literally kill you."

Paul: "But what a way to go!"

#the lost boys #the lost boys 1987 #DnD #dungeons and dragons #text post #writing #fanfiction #fanfiction ideas #writing prompt #what if

[utilitycaster]

undillar, brusellar, may, october, and january!!

Undillar - I mean I think we all want to see Ashley take on the DM role, and honestly I’ll be happy with anything she wishes to do. I also do want to see Marisha DM D&D since I’ve only seen her GM Honey Heist for Critical Role, and I really liked her DM style when I watched the Descent into Avernus event this past year! One thing I kind of want to see (which might not be possible for legal reasons) is for someone to at least do a one-shot tied to Curse of Strahd, which I actually have been meaning to purchase.

And finally I think we’re all ready for Sam to return to the (Cr)ass Sailor now that things are heating up for the Tharizdun fandom (ie, please let us see Jayne Merriweather again)

Brusellar - not an option...if this is supposed to be Brussendar I kind of don’t get what that question is supposed to be getting at. I mean, I hope the fandom is generally happy and healthy and makes cool artwork and has interesting thoughts, as I would with any group of fans for media I enjoy?

May and January fit together well - my favorite episode this year was episode 72 but like, specifically the back half. I have rewatched the roughly hour-long piece of Fjord throwing away his sword so many times and I’m not tired of it.

I think a big part of it was it was the first episode I watched in my new apartment after a big move and very soon into a new job. The theme of making unknown choices and seeing a group of friends support another through a scary change was really meaningful at that time.

To that end I absolutely loved this art

I think my second choice might be episode 86, which is honestly one of my favorite battle episodes of CR (probably my favorite one of this campaign)

October: YEZA. He’s so weird and sweet and patient. There were some excellent NPCs this year though - Yussa (Episode 48 aired in January y’all), the major players of the Krynn Dynasty (Essek, Bright Queen, Skysibyl Mirrim), the Dust family and Umagorn, and all manner of horrifying arcane shopkeepers. Never stop using minor magical shops as a way to scare Travis, Matt.

#critical role #five kobolds in a trenchcoat #ask meme #faeriefirey

[graciedart]

#2, #5, #24

2. Your favorite character that someone else has played. 

That’s haaard I love everyone so muuuch. I think I’d have to probably say Serikat. “Guy who sold his soul for rock and roll fame now going through the layers of hell to get his soul back” is just still so incredibly good as a character concept. I really like the Lumeria crew too but that might just be a bias of how much time I’ve spent with them! 5. Favorite NPC.

Of the NPCs I’ve created/played either the Abbot from Curse of Strahd, Salazar the enchanter salamander from Lumeria, or Kurush the half-orc leader from Lumeria. I love Ami and the Sovereign too, but they haven’t had a lot of their secrets revealed just yet. Basically anything where the voice is fun to do AND the players have strong feelings towards them (good ... and bad).Of the NPCs I’ve played with ... I really like Jericho in all incarnations he’s just fun when he pops up. I love Fierna, Sam and Lady Death from hellbound- I feel obligated to say Zareem but it feels wrong to steal the fav of @propheticass​. In games I like NPCs that lighten the mood & put the plot aside for a moment to just laugh with friends.24. How much planning/preparation do you do for a game?

A lot! The good things about having clinically diagnosed rushing thoughts is that I think a lot about my games and the majority of it is just getting it down on paper. 

I fiercely avoid & abhor prep that isn’t going to come up in a game though. I never think about population compositions or create every building or things like that- those are fun to come up with as a DM, but relatively useless for your players. 

Most of what I do ends up being an overall plot concept or history, an overview of locations and important people, and then I create secondary pages to flesh out the outline. Everything is a skeleton that players can fill in, but the skeleton is pretty rigid. I think I run more of a “railroaded” game, but I have players that don’t mind & actually appreciate having their choices narrowed down. 

Here’s a screenshot of the various sheets I have:

I have an overarching plot sheet, a place for all their backstories they gave me, future ideas sheet for things I think of in the car and want to remember, a Notes sheet for jotting stuff down mid-game, a sheet for their home base & how it is changing/growing, conjure templates (a necessity with a party druid and ranger lol), and then the various chapters of the story.

This is what an overview page might look like. Some of it is omitted since my party’s on tumblr lol. I put an overall goal for the entire chapter, then come up with a few minor plots that are player centric. Overall structure in the form of “scenes” and then a list of locations & NPCs.

This would be a “scene” page. Grey highlighted text is like box text. 

Whew that was a lot more involved than I thought. 

[nerdyqueerr]

2, 4, 8, 10 for dnd asks?

Damn ok lets go!

2. What class would you be?

I mean its gotta be lore bard, just the right combination of theater kid and magic nerd

4. What has been your favorite d&d character you've played? (NPCs count for DMs)

Man i dont know if i can pick! My old boy Alan had a lot of potential but i feel like i didnt play up to it soo probably my current curse of strahd character, Samaël Volke of the Aureum Luscus (but not for long), my unhinged little werewolf bloodhunter. She has internalised werewolfphobia and a huge crush on that NPC Ireena

8. What is the most memorable natural 20 you've ever experienced?

Ooh tough call bc just last week at Curse of Strahd Sam rolled a nat20 insight on herself to finally become aware of the fact that her childhood was Kinda Bad, Actually and start a journey of self-acceptance, which is rly meaningful character development for her.

But also in this game i DM our cleric got a nat20 on inflict wounds in her first round of combat and rolled max damage on several of the die, dealing so much damage to their main oponent that he immediately called it quits and surrendered (he was a coward anyways). This directly led to the tiefling warlock showing up at the office door of the party patrons who shes trying to romance with a man whod been inflict wounded nearly to death as a "gift". So yk that was a pretty great nat20.

10. What is your favorite class to play?

I played 2 bards in a row and then felt like stepping away from them to play some martial classes which has been like. Fun. But i think im a bard bitch to the core. Theyre just so right for me and theres so many cool subclasses i haven't explored yet. So yeah bard

#whoo thats a lotta questions #which is good bc i love to talk about d&d #theres a few tags i use inconsistantly for this stuff but samaël's tag has been pretty good #Samaël CoS #alan's party was called #0 braincell squad #or smth #that might be a tag #theres always #my d&d #tho i hardly ever use it #and the campaign i run started off as #sexy evil bitches #but has lately been renamed to hot girl shit so idk #there! that should do it tag wise #thanks sm for the ask i always love talking abt blorbos from my brain #asks

[theseagullsarewatching]

After many sessions and battles we must say goodbye to the Curse of Strahd campaign. Thank you for my fellow nerds for playing DnD so enthusiastically and a big thank you for Sam's incredible commitment as a DM. We may not have gotten all the things we wanted done before we had to wrap up but it was amazing. And remarkably: we all survived. Even Otwin, the constantly bleeding out octogenarian reseacher. I'm now DnD free... it's just a matter of time before a new campaign starts. https://www.instagram.com/p/B0Tgpxcpx7P/?igshid=1xu2hnzyx9jf7

[iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid]

honestly my friend has been so gung ho about romancing The Guy Who's Totally Not Strahd that i'm almost considering altering his story a bit and making it so that, like, instead of him just being strahd's secret alter ego from the beginning, this guy is a real actual person who strahd kidnapped and replaced midway through their courtship. like he wasn't a good guy to begin with, he was working for strahd the entire time, but then strahd decided he'd rather cut out the middle man and assume this guy's identity himself

literally the only reason i'm considering this is because "your boyfriend was strahd the whole time" is gonna be a kickass reveal, but "your boyfriend was working for strahd the whole time, he was replaced WEEKS ago, and also he's been somewhere in the castle dungeon being tortured to within an inch of his life since then while you've been making out with strahd on a daily basis" is arguably even better

#hm. DECISIONS #me #sam dms curse of strahd

[iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid]

this one goes out to all the d&d players who take notes during sessions and then share those notes with the dm, you are a blessing on this earth. i hope your pillow is always perfectly cold. i hope every time you microwave your food it gets evenly warm throughout without a single cold pocket. i love you

#finally meeting with a group that hasn't had a session since OCTOBER #and i was like ah yes! the strahd campaign! the strahd campaign that i'm dming! the strahd campaign i've SURELY already written a recap for #(spoiler alert: i had not) #(i opened my doc to find that i'd written about one and a half sentences of a session recap) #(but my friend made a bullet list of events from that session and sent it to be on whatsapp THAT DAY. BLESS) #me #sam dms curse of strahd

[iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid]

im considering dming curse of strahd in the near future, got any tips or warnings? :-)

ABSOLUTELY

so first of all, disclaimer, this strahd campaign is my first ever attempt at dming. you'll hear a lot of people say it's not a good choice for a first time dm, but i disagree! maybe that's because all my players are newbies and don't catch when i mess up, or because i'm playing a very "the rules come second, the story comes first" kind of game, or because i've also done CoS as a player before so i was already familiar. either way, i'm having a blast, and the story is excellent

first tip: read the book. i recommend reading the chapters out of order, though - each chapter is a different location, and they're not in the order your players are likely to come across them (for instance, strahd's castle is chapter 4. literally why) so i looked at the map of barovia, looked at what locations my players were likely hit and when, and read in that order instead.

there are tons of online resources for curse of strahd. TONS. there's a huge community on the CoS subreddit, and it's chock full of tips, tricks, extras, new ideas, add-ons, fanart, you name it. look up maps for locations that aren't given maps in the book, and you'll find like five separate people have already done it and posted it online for anyone to use. speaking of which, i've recently made a powerpoint with a bunch of maps on it so i can hook up my laptop to my TV and project the maps up for my players to see while we're playing (complete with little animations to reveal secret rooms when/if they find them) and that's been working out great so far

there are also lots of videos on CoS, and i highly recommend lunch box heroes on youtube. i've watched every single video in this playlist and it has helped so, so much. i'm using a bunch of deviations from the book in my campaign that this guy specifically gave me the idea to use

my biggest tip: make sure your players all have a good reason to hate strahd. for a lot of them, this will come naturally (for instance, maybe one of your players will try romancing strahd's alter ego and unknowingly set themselves up for the heartbreak of the century 🙃) but for a lot of them, you may have to orchestrate a good reason. throw one of their spouses in the castle dungeon like my dm did to me! it helps so much in getting them invested in the plot if they want to kill that guy in the castle so fucking bad dude let me at him

but yeah, other than that... have fun! don't take what's in the book as gospel, just use it as a guideline for the story. ultimately your players are going to hugely affect how the story goes, so don't get too attached to certain plot hooks that may get turned on their head or may just never happen. roll with the punches, learn to improvise, and practice your best vaguely eastern european accent for the barovian npcs :)

#anon #sam answers stuff #sam dms curse of strahd