![]() The story never seemed to go anywhere and started to become a little repetitive. However, this book is blurbed as a dystopian love story, not the thriller I was potentially hoping for and I suppose this type of story is just not my thing. The opening page of the children chatting and talking about rumours that 'first it makes you mad, then your eyes bleed' made me very curious. This floor has never been seen by anyone - and children who go there never return. ![]() If they start to become ill they are escorted during the night to the mysterious sanatorium which can only be accessed by a lift. I started off loving this book, the premise of a story involving a ‘Death House’ where children with a 'defective' gene live, after being forcibly taken from their homes and families, sounded very intriguing. If it gets bad I’ll weaken my enemies (usually in increments, like -2 AC etc.This was my first Sarah Pinborough book and with "The Death House" being a win in the Goodreads Giveaways I was most certainly looking forward to reading it. Nobody wants to blow all their spells on one battle unless it’s a chapter Ender or boss battle. Keep in mind that if your party is using all their resources on a few random battles, you might need to lower the enemy HP, AC etc to help make it more fun. Tl dr: I usually fly by the seat of my pants with combat - if it’s fun and exciting we stay at the current encounter level if things seem super o e sided I weaken or lessen my enemies. That said things can also go south fast for the party members in such a fast environment, so keep that in mind. Things like that alter the challenge without making it feel cheap.Įncouraging role playing can also make an encounter more interesting - the skeleton knight random encounter could be an interesting way to drop lore bits of the party doesn’t attack it - the skeleton can tell them something like “ I search these lands for an artifact of great power, a tome penned in Strahd’s own hand…it sleeps near a great pool, one the Devil cannot reach” the party might then learn they can get something interesting / rewarded if they don’t kill everything that moves.Ĭombat is FAST with 2 party members! Initiative zips right by so don’t be surprised that they team up better than most parties! Our party (Tabaxi rogue and Tortle cleric) was really working together with each other - the tortle’s high ac made him hard to hurt in melee, and that melee proximity made the rogues sneak attacks super powerful. They might not see a silvered weapon until they engage, get scared and retreat. ![]() For example, a werewolf stalking the party might misjudge their pounce and end up in difficult terrain, slowing them down. sparingly and feel free to let my enemies make mistakes. Honestly I try to not overly outnumber the party, use special abilities/spells/etc. (End of Stephen King’s ‘Misery,’ anyone?)Įach group is different, and I understand that the death of a party member at such an early stage can do a lot for a party - fix a broken party dynamic, give them purpose to hate Barovia and Strahd, set the tone to ‘you might not all make it out alive’ - and I think that each of these is a tool that fits a specific gaming group, campaign, and/or character. Role playing opens a lot of doors!Īs a DM I want to scare them (their characters are still mortal after all, and these traps remind them of it) AND tell a good story - more excitement and adventure, to me at least, comes from just making it out in the nick of time, with whatever damage or scars they might incur along the way! You don’t have to kill someone to add to the horror - perhaps the house “devours” a players arm or tears off a leg with an animated floorboard - the last thing their left eye might see could be the screeching face of a rat before it blacks out, even! Scary doesn’t always mean dead sometimes it’s scarier to survive. Perhaps Rose and Thorn can gum up a blade trap or the nanny can break down a wall and kill the rats with her ridiculously powerful Life Drain. Since they went out of their way to talk to the ghosts and befriend them (even the nanny!) I would let those ghosts help them escape, I think. I’m personally only running CoS for two people (and they are loving it) and if they defy the cultists and escape, then I’ll probably drop the damage they receive from the myriad of traps and stuff on the way back. Honestly I’m feel like the Death House is a little too good at it’s job.
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