Below is a collection of homebrew material I made for Curse of Strahd. They vary a bit in subject matter, from reinterpretations of NPC backstories to adapting the adventure into various settings.
Altering Rudolph Van Richten's Backstory
Art by Miles-Johnson of Deviantart.
Ravenloft has had a rather troubled relationship in its portrayal of the Vistani, who explicitly borrow elements of real-world Roma people. Van Richten's backstory and motivating factor in becoming a monster hunter unfortunately repeats the common antiziganist talking points of Roma being kidnappers of children.
The 2020 revision of Curse of Strahd sought to rectify this by making Ezmerelda's family a group of criminals who were pretending to be Vistani to throw people off their trail. But this opened up some plot holes between it and Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, and also had the unfortunate effect of making an iconic Fantasy Counterpart Romani character of the setting who departs from common stereotypes (fortune-tellers and seers in Madam Eva and Arabelle's case, criminal thieves and killers in Luvash and Arrigal's case) not actually Romani-adjacent.
I had some partial inspiration from Gall of the Spider Crone, a Kobold Press adventure that had some similar themes (spider-themed monsters and parasites menacing a fantasy Roma people) although even that adventure had some problematic portrayals. I was once considering adopting it as a "flashback adventure" for an eventual Curse of Strahd campaign, but made further alterations to the point that only those aforementioned spider-like elements are really present, and at this point in my work is just pure backstory. In this revision I'm still keeping Van Richten's Vistani relations as a motivating factor in becoming a monster hunter, but shift the inciting antagonists to be purely monstrous while also tying Ezmerelda's backstory more directly to Van Richten.
Background:
Rudolph Van Richten was once a humble doctor in Mordent. His son, Erasmus Van Richten, was a bombardier in the army, a veteran of their nation’s invasion by Falkovnian fascists. The Van Richtens regularly purchased goods from the Vatraskas, a traveling Vistani clan, who passed through their town seasonally and helped restock his clinic with needed supplies. One day, the Vistani came with an urgent request: several of their people fell victim to parasites of the Spider Empress, a dread monster of the nearby woods. Those so inflicted were doomed to incubate growing spiders within their body who would one day burst out and devour everything within sight. Entire villages have been slain by such fates, and even killing the host would only accelerate their doom.
The only cure was that of a venom gland from the mother, that of the Spider Empress herself. Knowing that the entire clan was at risk, Van Richten sought to do the unthinkable and embark into the forest to kill the monster and harvest its glands. His son as well as one of the Vistani’s finest mages accompanied him, and deep in the woodland they found a tiny village who had long suffered under the Spider Empress’ depredations. The monster regularly demanded sacrifice, and simply hiding in their homes was no relief, for the Spider Empress’ great legs could pierce through the roofs, picking up people like food on a fork to carry off and eat.
It seemed unthinkable that mere humans, only one of whom was a trained soldier, could fight this creature. But Rudolph Van Richten was nothing if not canny, a trait that would serve him well in his future career as monster hunter. That night when the Empress came for her sacrifice, the Van Richtens and the Vatraska mage laid several traps in the village: houses that the locals could afford to lose were filled with pitch and gunpowder so that when it stabbed a leg in it would catch fire. And when the monster sought to roll over to put out the flames, part of its body would get stuck in a pit full of spikes, exposing its soft underbelly. Rudolph and Erasmus would fire down on it from concealed positions in the trees as the village druid bid the beasts of the woods to pick at its limbs and eyes. It was a brilliant plan, but the Spider Empress didn’t die without taking many with it; it recovered, rampaging through the village, grievously wounding Erasmus and the Vistani mage in the process. As Rudolph came to tend to Erasmus’ wounds, he found him beyond saving. Tear-stricken, Erasmus bid him to get the gland and return, so that their efforts would not be in vain.
As Rudolph came to the Spider Empress’ dying form to cut the glands out, she coughed and sputtered in her final words, laughing as she laid a curse down on the doctor:
“Live you always among monsters, and see everyone you love die beneath their claws.”
“You took my son, beast,” Rudolph said back to her. “I have nothing left, but I will not let others suffer for your evils.”
The Spider Empress laughed in pain as her body was cut open. “Guard your heart all you want, you can’t deny your feelings. There is always someone to love, always someone to take…”
Back at camp, one of the Vatraskas grew desperate, fearing that they would all die under a sea of spiders. Taking a knife, the man sought to fix the problem himself by digging the spiders out of his own body. When Rudolph Van Richten returned, he found the Vatraska clan dead, their corpses lying among an uncountable mass of monstrous spiders eating their flesh. The only survivor was a little girl, Ezmerelda. Vowing to save who he could, Rudolph Van Richten adopted her, setting fire to the camp and reducing the spiders and Ezmerelda’s past to ashes.
Fearing the curse and wracked with survivor’s guilt, Van Richten sought to find the Zarovans, another group of Vistani, to adopt Ezmerelda. They agreed in principle, but feared the curse that lay upon the man and thought him to be responsible for the death of Ezmerelda’s clan. When some among their number sought to avenge the Vatraskas by capturing him for an intended execution, Ezmerelda defended Van Richten by speaking of his deeds. Madam Eva saw the truth of her words, and bid her and her adoptive father their leave.
“The man already lost everything, there was nothing left to take,” Eva said. “Let them both be; I sense the two will strengthen each other in the coming years.”
And so Rudolph Van Richten dedicated his life to studying monsters so as to better protect the people of the world against them. He would also teach Ezmerelda what he knew, if only to ensure her safety in dangerous lands, but even then he still treated her like a child to be kept out of danger. Fearing that the curse would take her, too, he abandoned her, telling him not to look for him and he regretted ever taking her under his wing and teaching her what he knew. The triggering incident was her losing a leg at the hands of Scharfrichter, Strahd’s chief executioner,* during a disastrous expedition into Barovia. After retreating to safer lands, Van Richten decided that his business in the Von Zarovich’s kingdom would be best done alone.
As for Ezmerelda, she carries the Vatraska surname. Although she will never truly learn of their ways should she have fully grown up among them, bearing that name ensures their legacy lives on and is not forgotten.
*An NPC from Strahd's Dark Servants, a third party product on the Dungeon Master's Guild.
Artwork by SereneElysium of Reddit.
How to use this in Curse of Strahd: Several changes to Van Richten’s behavior and personal journal will need to be changed. Notably his goals in Vallaki and the purpose of his saber-toothed tiger.
Van Richten and Ezmerelda’s relationship can be foreshadowed by Alenka, Mirabel, and Sorvia, the three Vistani in the Blood of the Vine tavern. They can tell the PCs that their people have a deal of sorts with Strahd that allows them free travel through the domain. But this deal is two ways, for Vistani who act against him are treated as any other foe. Sorvia will bring up what happened to Ezmerelda when she lost her leg, insisting that she was acting on her own initiative. "Only the truly mad would dare challenge Strahd in such an open way.”* If asked about Ezmerelda's clan and/or background, Alenka will say that “they're not around anymore, she's the last one” and to discuss something else given that it's "an unhappy topic."
*They consider Baron Vallakovich of Vallaki to be equally mad.
As for Van Richten in his Rictavio disguise, his mission still remains the same, albeit he has expanded his investigation to the Wachter family. The monster hunter is vaguely aware that undead may be afoot in town due to the bones of St. Andral going missing. He is thus training the saber-toothed tiger to hunt undead, particularly vampires and vampire spawn, using chopped-off pieces of necrotic flesh he keeps preserved in his wagon for such training.
To better avoid the infamous coffin shop TPK, the six vampire spawn may scatter to wreak havoc in Vallaki if the PCs come upon them, splitting off into three pairs. One pair will stay to fight the PCs, one will escape with the bones of St. Andral, and one will go on to wreak havoc in Vallaki. If Van Richten hasn’t left town by then, he and his tiger will kill two of the vampires. Otherwise the Martikovs will have taken care of them in wereraven form. It is suggested that they go after the ones that don’t have the bones, or at the very least join the party mid-fight when the PCs are attacking that pair. This is so as not to rob them of the victory of retrieving the bones themselves. I borrowed the "spawn splitting up to take the bones" idea from the Barovia Gazetteer, to give credit where it's due.
Alternatively, Van Richten and/or the wereravens can help aid the PCs during St. Andral’s Feast before mysteriously retreating. This is to help show that the other accomplished “good guy” NPCs in the adventure aren’t uselessly waiting around, but can be reliable and active characters in the domain.
The pasts of Van Richten and Ezmerelda are quite traumatic, and both would be loathe to share it casually with the PCs unless they take means to earn their trust. Finding the contents of the journey or reuniting the two can let the PCs hear the full story directly from them.
The Journal of Rudolph Van Richten will have to be changed to reflect his new backstory:
For around two decades now, I have undertaken to investigate and expose creatures of darkness to the purifying light of truth and knowledge. “Hero” I am named in some circles; “sage” and “master hunter” I am called in others. That I have survived countless supernatural assaults is seen as a marvel among my peers; my name is spoken with fear and loathing among my foes.
In truth, this “virtuous” calling began in the fires of failure, and it has become for me a tedious and bleak career. Even as my life of hunting monsters began, I felt the weight of time on my weary shoulders. Today I am a man who has simply lived too long. Like a regretful lich, I find myself inexorably bound to an existence I sought out of madness and, seemingly, must now endure for all eternity. Of course I shall die, but whether I shall ever rest in my grave haunts my idle thoughts, and torments me in my dreams.
I expect that those who think me a hero will have their opinions unchanged. Or think of me as selfish, that if I could go back in time I would have never embarked on this dreaded path. Mistake me not! I do not merely feel sorry for myself. Rather, I come to grips with a devastating realization: nevertheless, I must reveal, here and now, that through my own actions I may very well have spelled the true doom of Clan Vatraska. More tragically, my very own attempts to have thwarted the disaster have merely hastened it along!
I have related the story of how my only child Erasmus perished before my very eyes at the hands of the Spider Empress. I explained how her spawn threatened to overwhelm the Vatraska Vistani, and how I was only able to save a single girl. A girl who, in my own paternal desire to protect and as responsibility for my failure, I had raised and taught her the many dangers of the world so that she would be strong against the horrors of the night.
When I penned my Guide to Vampires, she had read the first copy so much that the spine became worn and frayed. When one of the village children at a house she was sleeping over sobbed about finding a monster in his closet, she charged into his room with a silverware knife in hand. Ezmerelda is a smart and courageous woman, and perhaps it was inevitable that she’d follow a similar path after losing her people to monsters. I’d like to think that I helped provide a solid foundation, but she’s still too brash and reckless, not weighted with the patience of years. I always had a fear that the next hunt would be her last, but it was easy enough to suppress. After that disastrous expedition into Barovia, I see her prosthetic leg as a lasting reminder of those words the Spider Empress had spoken all those years ago. A reminder I have now come to realize is a curse:
“Live you always among monsters, and see everyone you love die beneath their claws.”
It is too late to dissuade Ezmerelda from this; the last time I tried harsh words were exchanged, and I left on my own expedition to Barovia. Maybe it is for the best; if the final memories she has of me are bitter, the curse can be averted and my daughter’s life be spared.