u/charrison9313

Question from a non-Star Trek fan (more of just an enjoyer) and somebody who doesn't follow the legal nitty gritty of licensing: Why did they choose Cumber-Khan instead of the classic Khan? I think classic Khan looks way cooler.

Ngl, I ran CoS twice with different vibes. Vasili was the "I didn't fully plan on this" scapegoat, deus ex, and one groups was so cocky to have such a powerful and connected ally in Barovia. XD

Introduce the character to a new NPC that is stopping in at the Vistani, Vasili von Holtz. I love playing this character as one of the few warm and friendly faces in Barovia. Make him strike up a conversation with the PC about fate and how silly little cards can't possibly predict anything. Just have the conversation be about simple topics. You aren't from around here are you? What do you know of these lands? I had him offer a gift of friendship to the PC. In reality, it's Strahd just putting out feelers about the group and worming his way in to their fold. If the PC offers a token of friendship in return, components for Scrying achieved. Have him leave before the card reading is over so the PC is the only one who had an interaction with him.

In Barovia Village, I had the players witness a man being ostracized from the village. One player noticed his arms were covered in strange marks. I had introduced Vasili in Barovia Village as the 1 friendly and helpful (if not quid pro quo) character. He offered to travel with them most the way to Vallaki as he has business with the the local millers (heading to Bonegrinder). Midway, they break for camp at the crossroads to Bonegrinder. (NOTE: I increased the size of Barovia so it is at least 2 days travel between towns so the players have some wild on the road encounters). The players began to talk about Strahd with Ireena, to which Vasili hushed them and told a campfire tale about how "In Barovia, there are always eyes watching and ears listening. You never know if foul or fortune will be brought, nor by who...or what."
Later, during the fight at the coffin makers, the casters burned through spells against the vampires. The warlock felt a presence, but not of his patron. "Ask" was all it conveyed. "Help us. You know I am not against bargaining the unknown." The casters each received whatever level spell slots they wanted, the price was spend 1 hit dice and take that damage per slot levels they wanted. Whoever took the bargain received a debtor's etch per spell slot.

This became the common use, but they did call for bargains in other ways when they were at a loss or to give them the edge in some situations. But when the debt was called on, they could not refuse the request or bad things could happen.

I allowed players to roll an arcana check to cast spells with no slots, but they receive "debtors etches" from the dark powers that took the form of scratches on their skin with runes signifying which power or being answered their call for aid. This could lead to corruption, banes, or being approached for a favor to clear their ledger. Also, roleplaying the townspeople visibly seeing the marks and how they'd react was great.

You look tired in some pics, but as a fellow early 30s goer, who isn't? Overall, you're quite attractive. Giving me the grunge rock vibes I miss.

You not only protected you sanctuary, but prevented destruction of the ecology. You made the right call 100%.

I would swap Strahd's spells out using the Wizard spell list. I made 3 presets: Stock standard (versatile), Charismatic (for charming and manipulation), and those adventurers need to suffer (when he plans to attack).

I also made alternate stat blocks for HOW he was attacking. For example, I had The Victorious General Strahd: mounted upon Beucephalus with heavy armor (living armor or cast-off armor, whichever suits the plan of attack) and a Vorpal Lance (beheading is fun). A few spells, but mostly physical attacks and ally buffs.

Then I also had Champion of Vampyr that leaned more into a feral vampire mixed with all the vampiric tropes.

She broke up with you for staying out longer than her. This has nothing to do with whether you are a good human or not. She's being manipulative and doesn't want the repercussions of her actions to catch up to her.

Give her the hard pass, bro.

I can't remember the canon answer, but I played it that upon Strahd's "defeat", the Dark Powers would reform and reset Barovia. Small hints throughout the world showed this when I ran it, but basically, I sprinkled in minor stuff from previous editions.

I trust Karlach with my life. I trust Lae'zel to make an attempt on it, at least once a week as a minimum. That being said, I identify as a problem and love people who try to be the solution.

I can 100% tell you he is just an A-hole. This is not typically what is associated with orgasm denial. This reads like your BF has a short fuse and just wants an excuse to not put in any effort for you. The other thing is kink is fun, but not for every time and not without clear communication. Dump the loser that's not even willing to listen to you.

Wouldn't have mattered anyway. They were sold out 30 minutes after it went live. Wizards is losing so much money on such limited Secret Lairs.

The art is a blurred image of what one could assume might be a thumb.

Beans. I'll still set it aside for personal table approval, but that sucks.

There are a few now. Has wizards ever rethought an Un- card for legality?

As a man who loves connection, Halsin's feels like a regular progression. You meet him, save him, chat with him. He's not a romance option until later in the game.

The other guys: we meet them, talk about brain worms, and apparently that's enough to get each of them hot-and-bothered.

HEAD CANON for me is that somebody somewhere is using the worms to make all the companions feel strong attraction to each other to force a party to combat the Absolute.

With an absent dad that wanted to build a relationship when I was in my early 20s and dealing with my mom having cancer, the conversation from you should be similar. "You decided to live a life separate of me when I was young. Don't try to pretend like we can have anything close to a normal parent/child relationship."

Politely but firmly remind them of how they treated you and tell them they made their bed by devoting and investing little to none into you and that's the bed they'll have to sleep in. However much connection you want with them is up to you. You are now an adult.

Side note and only my take on it, they are getting older, thus why they put your sister in alternate care. They realized they will have nobody to turn to in old age to help them out. If not this, they just want to make themselves feel better about failing their child who needed them. This feels like it is definitely self-serving.

I do appreciate Hunter for keeping the train on the rails for this week. Their side tangents are fun, but only if they are both having fun. This episode, the side tagents would not have been that.

I like the idea of them being stabilized to be kept fresh. My mind jumped to an escape the mill situation. Everybody has 1hp, whatever spell slots from after the last battle, BUT all their gear is gone and hidden somewhere in the mill. They are only in their underwear.

If you want to give them a clue to help solve the mystery of Von Holtz, let them know he is an undead. In Barovia, there are many an undead and not all are malicious.

If you are worried they will jump him at the information he is undead, replace Strahd in disguise with Rahadin in disguise. I interchanged Strahd and Rahadin in certain situations and it led to Strahd and Vasili being "in the same room" and made the party trust Vasili more.

Religion in general is a good topic for horror, but it does take a level of attention. Religion takes faith, and faith can play into the truly unknown which makes for good horror. BUT when the cornerstone is an established mythos/belief/etc., the attention to detail should be a bit more stringent.

Run. Block. Move along.

Most artists that I've met that react like this aren't as well established as they say they are. It was an innocent question, and a fair one.

At a personal point, be the better man because I know I would research pricing of said materials on my own and return with a report to congratulate her $X profit margin, or critique her business sense if the profit margin is negligible. If anything is said, she missed her shot to inform me of her process so I informed myself.