Viktorovich

Allows us to do so much as players. The world is open, the decisions are limitless, and the creativity is fantastic! Every session is a blast and its always fun to take part in them.

Fantastic opportunity to learn the ropes of 5e. Provides a woven, layered narrative that's rich with intrigue, suspense, and riveting combat that gives you plenty of opportunities to both plan and strategize as well as make hair-splitting decisions which alter events and outcomes. Always a blast to take part in!

This is an experience unlike any other. The depth and span of Carson's narrative flows in a fashion that transcends what you can come to expect from most tabletop games, so much so that you might question if you are still playing 5e or, rather, are taking an active role in a book instead. The worlds are rich in their substance, the characters are lifelike, and the interactions are pragmatic to a fault. It's breathtakingly magnificent and it was an absolute honor to be witness to all of it over the span of five hours. I highly recommend that you take the time to integrate yourself into the atmosphere and setting of the planned game well in advance of its start time by joining the Discord and discussing with him and the other players. I personally made the mistake of getting ready at the last second and it is not the way to approach it from my opinion. Carson and his players are captivating in their voice work and how they play their characters, to the point where it feels like an art of awe-inspiring theatre. It's still an open, welcoming, and safe environment. If you're looking for a captivating, serious, and narrative-driven adventure, this is it.

A great opportunity to jump into the experience of DnD. Smooth combat, fun interactions, plenty of chances to play out a character, and a fantastic assortment of sidequests to take part in. It's everything you would want from the virtual tabletop.

Let me preface this review by stating that Dawid is a great GM for both beginning and experienced DnD players. I've learned so much in just one of his campaigns as a beginner that I feel ready to take on my future 5e adventures with a steeled mind. Even the experienced members of the crew had challenges to triumph over during the journey. However, 'The greatest teacher is an eternal student'. I will be brutally dissecting the tropes that will be encountered in Dawid's campaigns, starting with my subjective view on bits that can very likely be improved and making my way up to what he does best. Let's get this discourse rolling! The Ugly - Body Horror: DnD is heavily rooted in the periodic theme of horror. Justifiably so, being the high-magic, medieval-themed tabletop that it is with monsters and baddies of all shapes and vileness. Dawid stays true to this category with horrors of his own in his game world and he evidently does a good job of incorporating them. Too good of a job, sometimes. Mutilation, mutilated entities, and horrific beings dot a sizeable portion of the creatures that make up quite a few sessions and encounters. If body horror is a theme that easily makes you squeamish or comes across as disturbing, you definitely want to ask for warnings beforehand (I've seen quite a lot of nasty in person within the medical field but Dawid somehow managed surpass that with some of the creatures and their actions in the game, faint of heart beware). The 5x5 elephant in the room - Giant Monsters: Slaying a giant monster in a fantasy game is nothing short of gratifying. A lot of people like Monster Hunter, God of War, Dark Souls, and Devil May Cry for that very reason. Dawid loves his giant monsters and crafts them intrinsically well. The first several times you see one is going to be a shocker and an epic experience during combat. But then you see another one. Then another. Then two in a row. And then some. At which point, you'll question if its a level design choice or "we've gone two sessions without the mere mention of a giant enemy? Let's change that". Trust me, I love giant monsters as well. But this goes against everything in moderation. So many were encountered so frequently that the effect of seeing a new one lessened the overall effect of the encounter. Pair that with how DnD 5e rolls for the hitpoints of creatures based on their size and you get a recipe for meaty enemies, let alone the number of times I heard “legendary resistance/action” being mentioned. I cast fist - Beefy Mages: If the end boss of a session or over multiple sessions isn't a giant monster or the rare group of swarm enemies, it's a high level spellcaster. Normally this wouldn't be an issue but these enemies almost always manage to have, simultaneously, a high Constitution stat, a high level, good hitdice rolls as a wizard class, a high spellcasting modifier, at least one high level spell, and teleportation/displacement spells. These guys make great challenges. Like, REALLY challenging challenges. So much so, that encountering an odd spellcaster without one of these attributes turned them into a cakewalk due to the experience of fighting the dangerous ones. Giant monster that is also a high level spellcaster? Was working on that one, never came to fruition. The only way to effectively fight these recurring spellcasters was to have our own spellcasters, despite consistently being a lower level than the enemies. Which leads to... No time to rest - Long Rest or Bust: Early on, there was always an opportunity for a short rest. Soon enough, the temptation of taking a short rest was either you get punished or you don't get punished. Taking a short rest after a certain point led to getting punished because either the bad guys got one step ahead during that hour of respite or you missed an opportunity that would've been there if you hadn't tried to recover your health, spells, or abilities. We eventually stopped taking short rests altogether because the session design benefited long rest spellcasters with a deep arsenal of spell slots rather than fighters or warlocks who burned their two dynamic actions and never got a chance to replenish them. Classes with frequent access to a lot of Shield, Counterspell, and healing spell casts carried combat and world interaction a lot more than those that didn't. If those weren't in the party, a lot of encounters may as well have been unsurvivable. We had to use every single thing we had at our disposal for some of these situations. Makes for great learning experiences but it does get stressful after a while. Life is a curse - Curses: Sometimes a single action or an unlucky dice roll leads to a world of hurt. It's to be expected in DnD and curses are a prime example of this. With a narrative purpose, these aspects of the game can really become a significant feature of a character or plot event. However, in a fit of sympathy, I can't help but feel for the players in the group who got their character completely messed up for several sessions because of an unassuming action that they took weeks prior. Some curses are intended as lighthearted or as comic relief. Dawid's curses and ailments inflicted on player characters are usually ruthless. Don't die on me - Near-Death Experiences: Nothing is more nerve-wracking than surviving an encounter in the single digits of hitpoints thanks to a few lucky rolls. This rush is a climactic burst of adrenaline during a particularly tense combat scenario, which is awesome. Dawid managed to perfect combat calculations to a point where nearly every major combat situation takes everything from you to make it out in one piece with satisfying results. Sometimes, it just feels too... perfect. Not necessarily an issue but it occurs just as often as dealing with a giant monster or high level spellcaster. After all, some of my personally favorite encounters were ones with a diverse enemy composition that nearly mirrored our own. Nothing beats the feeling of dueling a rival adventuring party in an arena. Insufferable antics - No Response: I know for certain that Dawid has a busy schedule due to the frequency of how many sessions he plans and runs for a plethora of campaigns. I also know that I attempt to make silly jokes to lighten the mood. Not everything I say is a joke. It does sometimes hurt if I make an inquiry or character decision during downtime and no response is had. It simply happens too often and became part of the reason why I no longer intended to "identify" certain acquired items or discovered lore during the adventure. Secretly, I hoped it was just to me and not to anyone else. I can manage with it. Playing your character - Free Will: Dawid, with extensive experience in the realm of theatre, does a stellar job of creating and playing the characters we encounter in his narrative. These guys are lifelike, diverse, captivating, and inspiring to listen to and interact with thanks to how much effort he puts into them. It might be my personal qualm over preferring to have control over my one character in the story but Dawid can get caught up in the vigour of the moment and control some of the roleplaying of your character during their actions that you say out loud during your turn or moment to speak. It's what you said but he'll say it better, usually noticeable when he asks you how you want to slay an enemy you got a final blow on. It just doesn't let you practice getting better at impromptu decision-making, stylized speech, and playing out your character response to the consequences of a dice roll or event. Sure, it may be idealistic and initially difficult to coordinate effectively but it gives you a better hold on your individual extension into his narrative. The GM already controls the near entirety of the narrative that they concocted, they shouldn’t be tempted to control parts of your character unless you want them to. My units are better – Powerful NPCs: My personally favorite locations and spots are areas like city streets, buildings, town gates, shop stops, and commoner-busy locales that come across as alive and thriving without the direct presence of player characters. Dawid crafts these maps extremely well, so much so that it is always a pleasure to meet the local hoi polloi populace of a new town. When the denizens aren’t 1d8 hitpoint commoners though, they’re sometimes these incomprehensibly powerful characters that blend into the casual population. You know something’s up when you use Know Your Enemy on a character that sticks out and one of their stats is beyond 20 or they have a +3 weapon laying around in their inventory. I still don’t know if these guys are there as red herrings or just to make sure that we don’t even get the barest of temptations to become murderhobos and potentially sideslip the narrative. Written to remember - The Story: Speaking of narrative, it's fantastic. Dawid puts a lot, lot, lot of effort into developing the story before, during, and after decisions are made. Usually these are group decisions but he seems to account for everything that could possibly occur. It's a deep level of dedication to creating the sessions and planning out their contents to make a worthwhile experience. These are very memorable in the long run and fascinating in the moment to become a part of. That's awesomely broken - Rewarding Creativity: Dawid always rewards your creativity in making your plans and character actions. Finding an opportune time to align the pieces and make a solid call leads to a result of epic proportions in addition to the feel-good sensation of playing a pivotal role in the storytelling. There's always opportunities for this. A good build, item combination, or player decision, in the spirit of DnD, gets rewarded justly. Made by hand – Homebrew: Homebrew concepts and ideas are one of Dawid’s many fortes. He’s got something for every occasion and always more along the way. Door’s open, come right in – Inclusion: Dawid provides a warm, welcoming environment at the virtual table. Everyone is treated with the inherent and deserved respect that they are entitled to as human beings, which is wonderful. Lookin’ good – Visuals and Music: He does a great job with both designing his own maps and using map resources for GMs. Music is always provided and curated for the experience. How do you want to kill it? - Final Blows: As a GM of combat scenarios, Dawid offers the highly enticing opportunity to describe how you want to slay an enemy that you dealt a lethal blow to. This is awesome and he puts a lot of emotion into the prose of slaying. I certainly feel like there is room for growth here as he effectively takes the lead in your character actions and it would nice if he gave you the opportunity to practice your own improv skills. We need to go deeper – Dungeons: Dawid makes really impressive dungeons. Dangers and mysteries lurk around every corner, puzzles are captivating and mentally stimulating, and there is a lot to interact with as you’re making your way as a party through one of his dungeons. Expect these to be a rich cornerstone of what he offers as a GM. This AI is lifelike – Motivated enemies: NPCs, creatures, and enemies are motivated by pragmatic reasons in Dawid’s plot. They’ll respond, make decisions, and take actions that are highly appropriate based on their personalities and ideals. They also make fantastic challenges during combat thanks to how they behave and the hurdles he puts forth make you critically think about what your next move should be at any turn in the middle of a fight. Sunbeams peak through the tree tops – Descriptions: Mentioned before, what I think Dawid does best is his descriptions for new places, items, and characters that you come across. These are bold, flavorful details for an already savory platter of spoken features. Which is why the reoccurring theme of body horror in the story is so ghastly, since he does too good of a job of describing the disturbing bits, to the point where it feels like it belongs more in Call of Cthulhu than the journey of DnD. Besides that, the time spent on building up a mental image of a place described through word is on par with an expertly written audio book. Dawid is well-versed in catering to the imagination of the tabletop. The descriptions are downright impressive and how he pitches them is even more spectacular. Bravo! Regardless, expect a fun and welcoming session. Certainly a great place to learn the odds and ends of DnD 5e as a beginning player and the one-shots offer a remarkable experience. If you like Magic the Gathering, you’ll get along with him great. Would I do another campaign with Dawid as the GM? Likely not as I’ve already drunk deep of the drink that he has to offer through his sessions but I would recommend having at least one session with him to get a taste of the magnificent play. There are other stomping grounds for me to tend to, so I shall see what the future entails. Yet, this journey will be a dear memory of my time with DnD and I feel plenty trained for the rest from taking part in it. Thanks for GMing!