Let's make CARNIVAL in 5e!
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- Опубликовано: 23 июл 2024
- By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes... yet this is no ordinary feast of fools! It's the Ravenloft Carnival, borne by Shadowfell Mists and heralded by eldritch flyers, driven to exactly where you thought you were safest! Let's explore this classic Domain of Dread, and its Darklord Nepenthe, who puppets Isolde, and also come up with an adventure!
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I’m running my own carnival campaign and am marrying the lore from “Carnival of Fear” the carnival module for 2e, and the new lore for 5e as one big timeline
I've just discovered and absolutely love this series! I really appreciate your love of the Ravenloft setting and knowledge of other literature relevant to developing it. I have a love-hate relationship with horror. I have real difficulty consuming horror media, because of the nightmares I get. But I love horror tropes for D&D monsters! I'm currently running a campaign in my homebrew world that will shortly take an extended jaunt into the Shadowfell and I plan on borrowing a lot of these ideas. I've been playing D&D since 2nd edition, but always ignored Ravenloft because I don't particularly care for Strahd and my players are too familiar with him. But I got Van Richten's Guide, and started reading about the other domains, and found a ton of ideas I liked. I've been really excited about using the content, but while VRG has tons of ideas, those ideas do require some dedicated DM development to get to a runnable state for group, and this channel has become the single most useful additional resource for me! I would especially love and hope to see your take on Falkovnia and its zombie apocalypse vibe!
Ah, thank you so much for watching, and a long-overdue welcome to the channel! As you might have seen, I've put out a few more Ravenloft videos since this one came out. For some reason, however, I'm only recently seeing the comments on this one!
I'm very glad that my videos have been entertaining and useful, alongside your use of VGR. Did you see the Falkovnia video from January?
Best wishes, and cheers! Welcome once again!
This is absolutely perfect. This is the sort of adventure I was looking for in order to break up a the Wild Beyond The a Witchlight. My players are progressing too quickly and need a diversion. I wanted to explore what happened to Isolde and the other carnival.
I can’t thank you enough for all of this.
Thank you so much! Yes, I received a lot of requests for this one, especially around the time TWBTW came out. I was hoping it would therefore be well-received and useful, and your glowing praise confirms exactly this! Thank you so much for watching, and for such lovely comments. Best wishes, and cheers!
It's an interesting take on the Carnival; I recently played a game of Bluebeard's Bride with an old-Carnival setting, full of creepy horrors, sideshow freaks, and pickled punks. I think I might channel more of that early-style carnival, instead of just reskinning Witchlight, to make a Carnival that's seen through a Ravenloft lens. I'll have to think on this one a bit more to determine exactly what changes I want to make. I've got players who are very familiar with tWbtW, which is mostly what makes me hesitant to just reskin. Otherwise I love the video, and can't wait for your big announcement!
Oh, Bluebeard's Bride is one of my favorite games! It would be awesome to set it in a haunted Carnival!
The big announcement concerns my new RPG, "5 Acts: The King in Yellow RPG." Did you see?
ruclips.net/video/NF8YfQUSBAw/видео.html
Thanks very much for watching and for supporting the channel! Best wishes, and cheers!
love that you got to the carnival. I had my ravenloft game start with a couple of the players wandering into the carnival, getting a trinket, and getting out, but not before some npcs were lost. A year later, they got back to find that the npcs had been magically fused together by pacali into it's own show. So worth the wait.
Ah, that's such an awesome set-up, too! I love it when a campaign includes a payoff to something that was foreshadowed earlier. I bet your players enjoyed it, no?
Thanks very much for watching, and for supporting the channel with your comments! For some reason, I"m just recently seeing the comments on this video, specifically, so I apologize for the delay in responding. Best wishes, and cheers!
@@phdnd-drbowers no worries! yeah it was a good payoff. It was one of the player's bandmates, and they heard their old band, rushed off, just to see them fused together into a monstrosity, with a sign called "The One-Man Band." Probably the longest gap of thing in my notes to when it happened.
I am definitely using this one!
My first thought for the carnival was to lean in the idea of the people working there as victims, trapped as much as the PCs. I would go with the evil fey that hound the carnival being the source of the dangers, abducting carnival goers, only for a mob to form to exact revenge on the carnies.
Ah, excellent idea! This would especially work well for a prolonged campaign, where the PCs must find more allies, participate in social intrigue, and the like. Let me know if you bring those elements to this adventure, if and when you run it!
Thanks very much for watching; sorry it took me a while to see all the comments on this video! Best wishes, and cheers!
Leaving everything behind to headdive right into this video!
Update: it did not go well. Nobody really died and all the players basically beat em up dancing to California Girls
I'm just seeing this. Sorry to hear that! I wonder what could have been done to make it more challenging? Any details? Best wishes, and cheers.
I've been waiting for this one. It's been really fun to see these ideas. I recently had my players visit the Carnival during their adventures in Barovia; they played a couple of horrifying games to get some loot. I haven't yet dropped the total horror of the Carnival on them yet, so this is going to be a good source of inspiration. Nice work. Looking forward to what you come up with next
Thanks very much for commenting, and thanks for supporting the channel! For some reason, I didn't see any of the comments on this video until quite recently; there have been a few Ravenloft videos since then! Best wishes, and cheers!
Nice video! Love all the references.
I love this! I’m incorporating Isolde into my Witchlight campaign because my players wanted more challenge and more creepiness. (Moderate Spoilers Ahead) It’s surprising to me that she wasn’t included when she has major connections to Mister Witch and Mister Light and Zybilba.
Oh that's delightful! Please let me know how it goes! Thanks so much for checking out this video and for giving some of its ideas a spin at your table. Best wishes, and cheers!
Great Video! Another source I would mention is the horror movie Freaks, the X-files episode Humbug, and the American Horror Story: Freak Show [season 4]. Love the Carnival from Ad&d, but not the version from 5e. It seems to mix the old carnival with the darklord Ebonbane [the evil corrupting sword]. Your ideas for an adventure and the rides are amazing, as always.
Thanks very much! I loved your recent video on Timor! Best wishes and cheers!
I love this video. Carnival is one of the Dread Domains I've been looking forward to hearing about from you.
Overall this is one of my favorite series on RUclips. It's changed how I run games nowadays.
I would love to see a Lamordia adventure from you. Mad scientists are my favorite characters, and I would love to hear your spin on it for 5e.
Ah, I did Lamordia not too long ago! I hope it didn't disappoint!
Thanks very much for watching this series, and for your glowing praise! I apologize that I did not see this comment until recently. For some reason, the comments on the Carnival video were not visible (or not entirely visible) to me until recently.
Now that Lamordia's done, have you any other recommendations or requests? Best wishes, and cheers!
damn it Dr. Bowers how dare you release this when I'm about to run a Silver Lake one shot in like, 2 hours! (My players are psyched!)
Ah, that's lovely to hear, however! How did it go? Any feedback for the future?
Thanks for watching and supporting this channel. I received so many comments over a few weeks that a number of Carnival video comments slipped my attention. I'm just seeing them now; my apologies! Best wishes, and cheers!
Really enjoying the adventure making series, very inspiring. Great job!
Thank you so much for watching! I'm glad you're enjoying the adventure series; it's a favorite of mine to work on, for sure!
You may have seen that there have been a few Ravenloft videos since this one. Any suggestions for more in the future? Any requests?
Thanks very much for watching, and for supporting the channel with your comments! I apologize for such a late reply; for some reason the comments on the Carnival video, in particular, were not visible to me until recently.
Best wishes, and cheers!
Man this was great! Especially love your movie/book recommendations, I'll make sure to check out nightmare carnival! I was just curious if you had any media recommendations for Forlorn on the top of your head? Ghost Stories/Scary Forests/Time travel horror
Ah, good question! Sorry I missed it! Forlorn is on my list of Domains to do in the near future, so I'll have some recommendations then! I guess I would look into ghost stories or films that focused on traveling to the past or reliving the past. Maybe "Haunter" or "The Murmuring?" I'll figure it out and post it, hopefully soon! In the meantime, thanks for watching, and best wishes! Cheers!
So pleased to see you back with another excellent video. Excited for what domains we will visit in the mists in the future and glad to see more Ravenloft content.
You are perfect, this arrives just in time as inspiration for my campaign (session is tonight!). My players have to convince Isolde to let them stay long enough to get from Lamordia to Darkon. Tonight they will get to the Litwick Market and visit it, there will be a couple of NPCs from the past and new ones too, the Carnival will actually arrive in 2 days in game.
I had a couple of ideas of how they could convince Isolde to let them stay long enough for them to arrive there, but this is going to be way better than whatever I had in mind. Thanks for the fantastic work, keep it up! I love your content very much, it's always spectacular.
Thank you very much for watching, and for commenting! I'm delighted that these videos are of use to your campaign. My apologies for missing this comment until now; for some reason, the comments on the Carnival video, specifically, are just now becoming visible to me.
How is that campaign going? Best wishes, and cheers!
Oh man, you might have made this just for me -- I've been running Witchlight, having just ended on a finished confrontation with the hag coven and whisked the players off to the Palace of Heart's Desire, breaking for the Halloween game later this week and coming back to the palace. I injected Isolde's story with the Caller and Zybilna into Witchlight, a mysterious, staunch ally of the PCs who has mysterious loving letters from Zybilna in her possession, but doesn't know who she was. Anyways, between the disguised Caller and the hags, she recently separated from the PCs to get to the palace at their urging to uncover the mystery between her and Zybilna, setting the PCs up for a showdown with her and the Caller at the end as they learn the backstory details at the palace.
The real question is if I run a variation of this as the Halloween one shot game this week, and tie it into Witchlight with her leaving and eventually meeting the Witchlight PCs as a little mid credits scene. (Main reason she and Nepenthe can leave is frozen Zybilna has caused the walls betwen Domains of Delight and Dread to weaken or whatever)
Ah, which one did you end up running? If either?
You're right; this adventure in particular would be fun to run as a Halloween adventure. Maybe I'll do that this year!
Thanks very much for watching and commenting; for some reason the comments on this video were not visible to me for a while, which is why there was a delay. More recent videos don't seem to have this problem, fortunately! Best wishes, and cheers!
Glad to see you back! Waiting for the "big announcement"!
Thank you very much! I've been quite busy on the channel, as I'm sure you've seen! The big announcement in particular concerns my independent horror-based TTRPG, "5 Acts: The King in Yellow." Check out my reason for making it, along with one of its core mechanics, here!
ruclips.net/video/NF8YfQUSBAw/видео.html
Best wishes, thank you once again, and cheers!
Not sure if you have a Reddit or X account. So here is how the session went. i had the party start in rivington, Passed out flyers and told three flyers describing where they would have found 2 of them, i then asked where you suppose your flyer is to the remaining players. I also had the party members receive free tickets for entry into the carnival, more incentive to go. while the parade the watchers received honey treats and party members received toys, my encounter was a living doll, a pumpkin, a brain in a jar, animated marionette and the withering horror except adapted into a honey monster. The encounter went relatively well minus some mistakes by me, completely forgetting my flashdrive at home and quickly googling my monsters, they had a real sense of fear that toys were going to kick their rears.
Oh, that sounds excellent! Personally, I love close calls in my combats. If it seems like there are too many, you can always throw an easier combat their way--or even an empty area--for an upward story beat. How are things going now? How did they go? Best wishes, and cheers!
@@phdnd-drbowers we are on bi-weekly schedule, So far so good in my opinion, Amelia's blood-river, and her miniature village playing its small world, the honey treats of sustenance i added. They angered the bees and bee swarms attacked. The illuminated man tattoo'd riding, one member decided to distract him, which broke concentration, and pcs in the air took some falling damage. They got some gear and i think they are scheming to go back to the lost and found. 2 member failed their performance but succeeded in the saving throw for the curse from Mark. The death race which i changed to enlarged intellect devourers and followed the witch light changing mushroom to viscera, and the 3 losers being attacked by the devourers. they liked it. lastly, they were heading to wooden man they decided to long rest and they decided to long rest due to the rules of the fight. I changed the long rest to a phantom of the opera, in which i had a surprise solo performance the Phantom performed music of the night with Stradh, taking the phantoms 2 "christines". then asking for anyone to mentor under him. I had a small trap room that gave them a violin of scribing. I did my best to make Stradh menacing yet mysterious. The phantom acts much like he does when Christine leaves him. due to early risers, we ended the session here. In 2 weeks, there will be the wooden man, the big top show with telling Dad Jokes, which starts the big top battle. This will be the end of this ending with vampire thralls and spawns attacking and Isolde giving them a way to escape the attack and enter Barovia. Thank you for the great starter into Barovia. I did have to reduce the DCs from 16 to 12.
Im starting with witchlight, segwaying into the Baba Yaga's dancing hut, then finishing with Carnival. The group sets out to save an archfey, they learn her past from her teacher, struggle with moral dillemmas in the feywild, then finish at the Dark Carnival with a big choice. Do they help isolde? Do they help the archfey? Or do they screw both of them over and work for the Baba Yaga?
Ah, that's a fun idea! I'm actually reading through "The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga" for another Ravenloft video now! Great minds think alike, I guess, huh? Thanks so much for watching and for giving these ideas a try at your table; please do let me know how it goes. Best wishes, and cheers!
I was kinda sad Trapped in the Circus of Fear by R.L Stine wasn't mentioned by nostia might be talk
Ah, that's a nice source that I indeed missed. Thank you for catching that, and thank you as well for watching! My apologies for missing this comment for so long; a lot of the comments on this Carnival video were not immediately visible to me, and I'm just now seeing them. Any requests for future content? Best wishes, and cheers!
Hey, you're back! Awesome!
I dont know if this big announcement (!!!) Is something that means you're not taking requests right now, but I would love if you vould explore the Shadowlands!
Noted! They're on the list, now, and thank you!
The big announcement concerned my upcoming TTRPG based on the King in Yellow! Did you see?
ruclips.net/video/NF8YfQUSBAw/видео.html
Thanks so much for watching! Sorry it took me a while to get to these comments. Best wishes, and cheers!
@@phdnd-drbowers I did see, been keeping an eye on it. You mentioning it having similarities to Bluebeard's Bride piqued my interest
can you please share the map you made, i can make banners, tickets posters, maps are my weak point. i changed the fire show to the gothic opera, why because my daughter loves phantom of the opera. gave backstage passes, springing a room trap a death chandelier coming down. answering 3 riddles and play a song to escape. receiving a magic item upon completion. It is a short rest and a trap at the end. dick move on my part i think
Thanks for asking. I'll look for it! I have since acquired a new computer, however, so I might need to make it anew. Either way, I'll post back here! Thanks for watching, and best wishes. Cheers!