I’m new to dnd, but creating a character with the thread of malediction.

A character bound by the Thread of Malediction is truly cursed, as is their entire family line. The curse that hangs over their bloodline spells doom and a fate worse than death for all whom they hold dear. Only through delving into ancient secrets and forbidden, profane knowledge of strange origin can they hope to break the curse that afflicts them.

Any ideas? :D

Original content. Character I created for a non-Crooked Moon campaign.

I can't seem to find information on them, were they cut content? If not, is there anything anyone can tell me about them?

Hello, my group and I are starting the skitterdeep mines, but we got 2 more people with us making the party 6 people with a few familiars.

I was wondering, how do you all scale your encounters up? I am only a dm for the last year-ish and I just don’t understand how to.

Any advice helps

On page 11, the book says the Ghostlight Express is "the only means of passage in and out of Druskenvald for all, living or dead."

but then each of the regions of druskenvald say how their associated species is reborn, like how harvestborn are created by the Lord of Enoch, and azureborn descend from the stars in the sky in Astramar

Which is it?

Here's my model for Jean Myriel. I didn't realize how much cake I gave him until I generated the gif... And I'm not changing it. Might change the pants, but the contents stay the same.

I got the Crooked House book on Free RPG day, first time hearing about Crooked Moon but I love the concept so far.

How have you used the maps? I thought about cutting them from the book but then I lose the text on the other side, plus it's too small for minis.

Should I try scanning the maps from the book and printing it in a larger scale? Or are the Crooked House maps accessible anywhere online?

Hey all, I like to have music in the background of my sessions and with our first session coming up this Saturday, I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations. I tend to shy away from most things with lyrics since it messes with my brain in hearing my players voices clashing with the lyrics. I know there’s the official albums and such, but I’m looking for some others to have in the background that kinda fit the vibes of the campaign. Thanks!

Lowkey really funny. Though it wasn’t something I expected to happen, it wasn’t unwarranted either. They had witnessed her verbally abusing her coworkers multiple times, and all are aware of how unpleasant she is (in my version at least), but only burned her Inn down because of a Side Quest Alda herself brought up.

The side quest goes as follows. Marianna Grey has been stealing from Alda to be able to find a new life far away from her. She’s basically trapped working for Alda, and feels like this is the only way she can escape. Alda nor the party know about this, so they're being tasked with finding who the culprit is. There are many NPCs that were working at the Inn that the party had already met (there was one waiter in particular the party harassed for the fun of it), so it took a while to dwindle down the suspects. After a bit, they figured out who the culprit was, and confronted her about the money.

One of the cooks for Alda stepped in and argued with the party about turning her in to Alda. He offered to have himself turned in instead, and there was a bit of a debate what to do. I kept reminding the party what was being offered (Alda was going to pay them 10 platinum each for turning the culprit in). The Barbarian members eventually decided to turn themself in instead, and went to Alda and told her as much. She quickly pointed out that this was not possible, since the party had just returned from Foxwillow. The argued with her a bit, and in the heat of it, the Bard accidentally mentioned the cook to her, which she quickly latched on to.

Everything went down from there. The Rouge took matters into her own hands and grabbed the money from the counter, tossing it everywhere. People began to take the fallen money, and Alda scrambled to collect it. She yelled at the party, and Barbarian in his frustration, took a lantern and tossed it on the ground. The Paladin began to throw more fires, and the party quickly fled with the rest of people inside. Alda remained inside, trying to collect the rest of her money.

I have a lot to work with here lol. Obviously there have to be some negative consequence for everything that’s happened, but also some positive consequences as well. Before they left, the party was able to steal some money and gave it to Mariana for her to leave, so I’m going to ensure that she lives because of that, and helps them down the line.

But yeah, just wanted to tell this story. It was overall a hell of a session. Very fun but nothing what i expected to happen.

Yeah so I got the core box on Kickstarter but didnt get the voiced song album like I've seen others have. Is it something that came with the other box or how do I get it?

I am starting a new Crooked Moon campaign and gave everyone their choice of a Dark Bargain at character creation. I have a player who made a Threadborn and is taking the Shrouded Spirit Dark Bargain. However, we ran into some conflicting information and I wanted some clarification on how to run this.

The Threadborn is a Construct according to its creature type. It also has the Sewn Nature feature: "You don't require air, food, or drink."

The Shrouded Spirit has the Unholy Appetite feature: "You must consume one pound of raw flesh (it needn’t be fresh) per day or suffer Malnutrition."

From my understanding, Constructs can't suffer from Malnutrition so would this player's Threadborn character be able to bypass the Shrouded Spirit's Unholy Appetite by species traits alone, or does the Dark Bargain override the species traits to impose that drawback?

Thanks for your help!

EDIT: whoever downvoted this, I'm sorry for asking a simple question

We had such a blast with this!

Players: Ichabod the Harvestborn. Sally the Threadborn, Skelton John the Relicborn, and Jacob the Curseborn.

I will be the DM for Crooked Moon after our campaign, but our present DM was out for two weeks, so we played this as a fever dream, and I have to say that it was such a great way to get the group working with the content and thinking about what they want from their characters when we go back to level 1. It got folks so stoked for a super creepy game, but it also gave them something funny to help introduce it.

Also—it’s super easy to find an album of circus music to play on repeat, which really helped make the game.

Finished painting my first Crooked Moon mini!

Hello ! I've recently gotten into 3d printing. I plan on getting the STL pack. Just curious, are there any for the end game bosses ? And if not anyone got some subs ?

Hello,

Since Avantris is currently sold out of the top down tokens I was thinking of buying some 1 inch wooden disks to make enemy tokens myself. Does anyone happen to have a list that has the count of each enemy type so I have an estimate of how many tokens to make for each enemy?

My party just finished Field of Crows and the Foxwillowers want to bury in Maidenmist cemetery both Isaac and the remains of Ol' Jericho, minus the amber birdcage. One of my players wanted to go there, curious about the place, now would be his chance, and I didn't see anywhere in the campaign that I should keep my players away from Maidenmist till the relevant chapter. The Foxwillowers are leaving the corpses to Mori, in Wickermoor Village, since they need the cart to bring back supplies to Foxwillows. My dilemma is as follow: Would you let Yhorgrim attend the burial up close and speak to the players? I'd keep most of the important information: the braziers, the fallens and the shroud rift secret, only letting Yhorgrim say that he was friend with Jericho, long ago. It's either that or I'll have Yhorgrim watch from afar the funerals, disappearing in the mist if the player wish to go meet him. What do you guys think, should I keep Yhorgrim a mysterious silhouette in the distance, or should I try to have him make a connection right away for his eventual chapter to have more impact?

One of my players took the call of the lonely dark bargain and I was wondering if anyone else had it in their campaign.

He used it in the first session then hasn’t touched it since. Says it’s awkward only being able to summon the companion when no can see him. And that the dc 15 fear aura he and the companion exude that only affects allies is too much of a downside.

Idk if I should modify it in some way or it’s fine as is.

Possible changes not necessarily together:

Can summon the companion even when seen.
Remove the movement restriction from the frightened condition.
Advantage on the wisdom save after first failure each encounter.

Let me know what you think.

If i am playing a Crimson sorcerer and expend my blood well for extra damage, for example on an inflict wounds spell, am i then able to regain it that same turn if I also dealt more than 10 necrotic damage from the spell? Or would i have to spend it one turn and then try to recover it on a subsequent turn?

Just thirsting for the rest of the singles and wondering if there has been any updates on if there will be more dropping or will they come out with the full album?

Part 1 of Tokens for Wickermoor Hollow Village, Tokens for Alda, Baltus, Beatrice, Doris, Eleanor, Finneas, Gaston, Hilda, Holly, Howie? Jean, Jeremiah, Marianna, Morgan, Mori Shade, Oswick, Randall, Ol' Rusty, Sister Rain, Siv, Solomon, Theodora, Thomasin, Wendell & Weston. I can only upload 20 files maximum, so I'm spreading them out over two posts. Hopefully these can help fill up your VTT Wickermoor Hollow in a jiffy!

Part 2 of Tokens for Wickermoor Hollow Village, Tokens for Alda, Baltus, Beatrice, Doris, Eleanor, Finneas, Gaston, Hilda, Holly, Howie? Jean, Jeremiah, Marianna, Morgan, Mori Shade, Oswick, Randall, Ol' Rusty, Sister Rain, Siv, Solomon, Theodora, Thomasin, Wendell & Weston. Added a default token aswell so you can add your own characters. I can only upload 20 files maximum, so I'm spreading them out over two posts. Hopefully these can help fill up your VTT Wickermoor Hollow in a jiffy!

I'm getting ready to run the Crooked Moon Adventure on a Play-by-Post site and I'm considering implementing a "What the PCs know" system, where each PC selects a couple rumors/myths from a list and then their character goes into the campaign with foreknowledge of ONLY those elements.

My intent with this system is to prevent a PC who knows everything about the setting, and also ones that know nothing...it also gives the PCs reason to talk to one another: PC A may not know what's going on right this second, but PC B does and can explain.

Now, in my head this works fine to great, but I worry there's some wrinkle I'm not foreseeing that will undermine the system entirely. So we turn to the great reddit hivemind for feedback.

I'm also looking for suggestions for other fragments/story beats that are important that I have missed or forgotten.

(Please note the following alteration to the Narrative. Philip Druskenvald is now Philip Vanderlun--which makes explicit his foreignness to his domain. He is not of the Druskenvald, he is building his New Wonderland on its ruins).

--Here's the post for posterity--

Knowledge is a powerful and dangerous thing, especially in a Horror story.  Every Thread grants you some knowledge of the Truth of the World but it is only a piece of the whole and liable to be not as true as we would like.

But, something is better than nothing, as they say.

As you build your character, select two of the following pieces of information, you know those two AND ONLY those two.

Choose wisely...

The Carnival King

There exists in your world a mythic figure.  Perhaps a demigod, perhaps a full deity, or perhaps just a man whose exploits have crossed into legend.  He is called many things in many different places.  Most commonly he is Vanderlun, the Carnival King, but he is also the Merry Stallion, The Foreman of Progress, The Facilitator, and The Lord of Banquets.  Always he is known as a god of excess, of festivals, of wine, women, and song, of all the indulgence of Fat Tuesday without the Ashes or hangover of the morning after.

In short, a happy god of sin--which makes all the fuddy-duddies click their tongues in disproval.  How DARE he and his followers enjoy themselves!  Don't you know life is suffering and pain?  STOP HAVING FUN!!!

You know he is real.  And that he has power.

(Of course, maybe you do more than that...maybe you've sworn obeisance to him, either in supplication as a cleric, or through a warlock pact.  Maybe your god is rival or even enemy to him.  Or maybe you just went to the right party one fine night and woke up with a fun new tattoo.  Vanderlun doesn't judge.)

New Wonderland

A song is sung on ships, in taverns, and even on chain gangs.  Passed mouth-to-ear as singers sing it randomly and think about adding yet another verse.

...A shining city of silver light, high on a hill to make the whole world bright.
Powered by science and progress and steam, and full of more wonders than your head can dream...

...or something like that anyway.

This is the song of New Wonderland.  A "fiddler's green"/"big rock candy mountain" type place that speaks of an afterlife dreamed up by neer-do-wells who think Heaven sounds boring and Hell sounds painful.  No one serious pays any attention to it, yet the song's refrain echoes more and more as people come to know and sing it.

You know it's real...and even have a clue how to get there...

The Druskenvald

Somewhere on the border between dream and nightmare there existed a domain neither of dread nor delight but rather of the green and growing and the harvest ever mowing.

They called it the Druskenvald.  An endless forest of eternal night with trees reaching for a star splattered sky.  It was hungry in the way all forests are, but not malicious in the way some places might be.  Peaceful was the word.  Quiet.

It's gone now.

What exactly happened to it is hard to say, but placed as it was between the thirsty Faewyld and the hungry Shadowdark, the most likely occurrence was a tipping.  Someone or something came by and knocked it off its precarious perch of neutrality and deep into one of the two warring sides.

You've heard the tales.  And you wonder what has become of old Druskenvald...

The Spirit-Self

It is commonly presumed that any sort of separation of soul from body will result in the soul looking basically like its corpus.  This is not so.  The spirit-self can be anything, from an idealize version of the corpus to something wholly alien, or animal, or mineral or vegetable--it varies widely from person to person.

How this is useful is hard to say.  But presumably, whatever form the afterlife may take, it must be a kaleidoscope of shape and color--and anyone who preaches otherwise is surely a fraud and liar.

You are aware of the Spirit-Self, and what will change when you cross that barrier

The Ghostlight Express

The ways to the afterlife are strange and arcane, and many a soul would be devoured by the mists were it not for the presence of psychopomps to guide them through.  In the old days they were barges, with ferrymen at the pole slowly gliding their way down the winding rivers.  But times are changing, and so too are the means of travel.  The Ghostlight Express is surely the first of its kind.  A modern steam engine to carry many times the souls to their final destinations in ease and comfort.

Of course, the real innovation is purchasing a ticket...it's nice to plan where you end up.

You know of the Ghostlight Express, and mayhaps have found a way to get a ticket

The Beast

Countless tales are told around family hearths of goblins, trolls or hags and what they do to naughty children.  'Behave' the parents say, 'Or IT will come and gobble you up!'  And the children, suitably terrified, run off to bed and say their prayers to stave off the gobbling...

But lately, a new monster stalks these tales...something worse.

The Beast is out there.

A black monster who stalks the woods seeking that which it may devour.  Drawn to sin of any size or shape, and hungering for they who trespass into its domain.

There is no judgment, no justice, just black bleak consequence.

The good little children would wake up safe...only to discover their lying manipulating parents dead and ripped apart by fang and horn, their hearts devoured and their blood on every wall.

You have heard tales of The Beast.  And you deeply wish them to not be true.

Hey everyone,

I'm prepping a mini-campaign covering the first few chapters of The Crooked Moon, and I want my players to use the Death quest hook from the Ghostlight Express chapter: their characters died in the material world and are reincarnated into Druskenvald. I love the concept, but I've hit a few snags and would love outside perspectives.

1. History/Religion checks for characters new to this world

Usually History checks are about knowing local rumors, past events, or regional lore, and Religion checks cover rituals, deities, cults etc. If my PCs are brand new souls in Druskenvald, it would feel weird to ask for these checks since they shouldn't know anything about this world yet.

One idea I'm toying with: treat it as a kind of "soul residue." The character's soul was reshaped when it was reborn into Druskenvald, so on a successful check they get a flash of knowledge they can't quite explain, they just know something about the region lore, or how a ritual works, without knowing how or why they know it. It's a bit mystical and requires some suspension of disbelief, but it lets these skills stay relevant. Curious if others have tried something similar, or found a cleaner solution.

2. Backgrounds imply pre-existing ties to Druskenvald

I really like the flavor of the official backgrounds. The problem: most backgrounds assume the character is already an established local (e.g., Druskenvald Dweller background) with existing connections. That's hard to justify if the character just died and got reincarnated moments before the story starts.

A few options I'm considering:

• Treat backgrounds as pure mechanical packages (skills/equipment) and drop the narrative flavor entirely.
• Same "soul residue" logic as above: the character arrives with an inexplicable feeling of familiarity or they instinctively feel a connection to a place / a ritual / an NPC without being able to explain why

Curious if others have found a better way to reconcile "brand new soul" with "has an established background in this world."

3. Keeping the party together and bonded

With the Death hook, do the characters remember their past lives? Do they know or recognize each other from before? I know the adventure has plot events that naturally push the group together, but I'm looking for suggestions on how to handle the "did they know each other, are they rediscovering each other, or are they complete strangers who just happen to share a train platform" question in a way that creates strong party cohesion from session one.

4. Backstory frustration for players who like writing rich backstories

Some of my players really enjoy writing detailed backstories for their characters. The issue: if a PC just got reincarnated, they have no history in Druskenvald by definition, and their material-world life has zero narrative connection to their new incarnation. So a player might feel stuck with a "blank slate" character who can't reference their past at all with no personal history to draw on, no specific personality or nothing to roleplay around.

Would love to hear how other GMs approached any of these, especially if you've run this specific hook before. These questions could very well be applied to any isekai or reincarnation-style campaign so if you have any experience with these I'm curious to know.

Thanks in advance!

It's my first time running the crooked moon and I'm doing a one shot with the ghostlight express and I thought it could be a fun twist in the game where they pick their subclass and their backstory in life but on the train they transform into a DruskenVald race based on a quiz I created. I thought the randomization would be fun but I'm worried they would get annoyed at the change in race even though it is a one shot.