Running Curse of Strahd, seeking advice.

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Running Curse of Strahd, seeking advice.

Post by Ember in the Dark »

There will be spoilers for the curse of Strahd below. you have been warned.

Background: When curse of Strahd first came out, I was in a play by post game for it on Mythweavers. It ran until October, when the DM had to quit for IRL issues. As I will be acquiring my very own copy of curse of Strahd in the near future, I have decided to invite my old players, and will be running the campaign once again.

On this note, before I go any further: if you ever played in a party with a Lawful stick in the mud Helm worshiper named Petro Stonarc who was an eldritch knight- then please shoo. This thread will spoil my plans for the campaign.

Moving on....

I am planning on starting the campaign over again. While I really liked how it ran, I kind of want to start over in a way, hopefully improving on some of the pre existing aspects of the module. I don't have the time to post all of my ideas now, and I don't even own the book yet. That said, I might as well begin posting things and looking for some feedback.

Introduction:

First- I'm not using death house. Play by post takes time, and I'm not going to spend time on a dungeon crawl when I can be doing extent rolpelaying instead.

I want to open the campaign in a significantly different way from the books. Namely- the party has no connection to one another, and may very well be from different material planes. Yet for whatever reason, the mists desired to bring them together in the demiplane of dread.

At first, this might seem more forced than the openings from the book (which I have some knowledge of). Instead, I'm hoping this will let the back stories characters create have some impact on the story. The Dark Powers of Ravenloft do not simply drag any random bozo who can swing a sword to the Demiplane of Dread. No- there is something at work here

I plan on giving my players two, and only two, criterium for their backstory.

1. The day the character starsts the campaign is one of great significance for them. This can be nearly anything. The day of asention to a throne. The Night before a wedding. A day before execution. The first day away from home. The sole survivor of a just ended battle. The day of joining a priesthood. The day of killing a parent. Something, that in one way or another, matters to the character, is about to happen, happening, or will happen very soon.

My reasoning for this is several fold.

One- it's always assumed that most characters would rather not be in Barovia to begin with. This might allow for a few characters who find themselves in an improved state of affairs after leaving the mists. Of course, others will be all the more horrified to discover their fate.

Two- It give the players a sense of significance for being in Barovia. This was not an accident. For them to have been taken on this day, of all days, it means something.

Of course, in most cases, it will mean that the dark powers are screwing with them. But hey, that's what they do, right?

Three- I can run a scene with them before they enter Barovia, and make the moment the mists take them away seem all the more important.

Four- What's to say they were the only one the mists dragged back to the Demiplane of dread? I can use some characters of their own design to make the journey through barovia all the more personallly compelling.

Not that these NPC's will help them, or anything. Do you think the dread powers would have been nice to them?

The second criteria is simple:

2. Impress me.

-----------

I'd post more, but it's late and I need to sleep. Any feedback on the above would be appreciated. I'll almost certainly be posting more tomorrow, once I get my hands on the book.
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Re: Running Curse of Strahd, seeking advice.

Post by Zilfer »

Sounds good, and seems like you'll need to wait for the book for the details on a lot of things. In the meantime you could watch Dice, Camera, Action. The first 30 episodes is the 'waffle' crew going through curse of strahd. Starts off a little bit rocky but eventually it hits it's flow. Each episode is about a two hour session and Chris Perkins one of the guys who helped make the module was the DM. He also changed some stuff around. Ireena is supposed to be related to a specific character, and instead he changed this to one of the PC's to give it a different Dynamic. One of the character's turned out to be a Vistani which gave interesting dialog with Strahd who had promised not to hurt Vistani. (The whole 'you should work for me.' thing went on there.)

:) Anyways looks like you are well on your brainstorming for the campaign. Good luck on the PbP, I usually start those and then get burnt out after a few months and it gets hard to consistently continue posting in it. :)
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Re: Running Curse of Strahd, seeking advice.

Post by Ember in the Dark »

I now am a proud owner of Curse of Strahd. Additionally, I took the time yesterday to read "I, Strahd".

Before I go any further, I should probably warn you all that I will likely be committing some low key heresy here, as I plan on altering aspects of the setting and Lore to serve my own purposes. I fully and completely plan on messing with Canon, but all in the aims of delving into the themes of the setting as a whole.

With that in mind, time to share what I have in mind.

How are the player's brought to Ravenloft: I already brought up how I'm going to handle bringing characters to Ravenloft, but I feel like I should expand upon it a little bit more. No matter the specific events leading up to their arrival in the Demiplane of Dread, I plan for each character to have been brought into the mists for one of three reasons.

1. The Dark Powers decided to drag them to the Demiplane of dread.

2. Strahd/the vistani drags them to Ravenloft.

3. Ezra brings them there.


One and two might sound fairly standard, #3 might stand out more than a little bit. The short answer to your likely questions is that I plan on having Ezra's faith appear in the adventure path somewhat heavily. I'll deal with the long answer in a bit.


On the nature of souls:

I am really not a fan of the "only 1 in 10 people have souls" thing, so I'm just outright axing that.

Furthermore, souls can exit and leave the demiplane for all the normal reasons (someone dies, their soul goes to the appropriate outer plane). Of course, this can be hindered by powerful necromancy (ghosts are souls, some undead have their souls still attached, etc).

However, while souls normally work the way they do in any other DND world, the Dark Powers can mess with the process in any way they see fit. Which is exactly what they're doing to Tatyana/Ireena, along with some other select individuals.

On the origins of the Church of Ezra:

As mentioned above- I finished reading I, Strahd yesterday. It gave me an idea. Long after Strahd became a vampire, it's mentioned that High Priestess Lady Ilona died, and not much more information is said on the matter.

In many ways, I'm not changing anything about her from the book- she was a healer of the sick and a pious woman, and while she was horrified and disgusted by what Strahd had become, she also genuinely wished she had some way of curing the curse laied upon him. After she left Ravenloft, she did what she could to preserve what little hope could remain in that land, sealed away from the rest of the world by the mists, now filled with creatures of the Legions of the Night.

(Yeah, you've probably guessed where this is heading by now, and that guess is probably right).

In the end, she died an old woman, filled with regrets with by how little she had managed to do for all the people of Barovia. When she died, she passed on to the outer planes as normal, and was allowed to rest eternally on Mt. Celestia like any other Lawful Good soul.

But she never felt she had earned her rest. It took a while, but she eventually learned the truth of what had happened in Barovia. With permission from her deity, she returned to the mists, now armed with the powers of a low ranking godling (also due to her deity). She was initially repelled, but allowed her form to be destroyed in order to regain entry into Barovia. And so she became "our gaurdian in the mists"

In effect- she's now the same type of entity that the other dark powers are. Individually, she's more powerful than any single dark power, and she's highly skilled in protective abilities, which have allowed her to stay "alive" (if that term can really be applied to the Dark Powers). Beyond that, the rest of the Dark Powers have left her be for their own, inscrutable reasons.

By the time she returned, most Barovians had long since forgotten the name of the god she once served. So, Ilona created the faith of Ezra- getting those lost in the mists to worship her, using a different name and changing much details of her history as to not raise the Ire or suspicion of Strahd. In any case, the tenants of Ezra/Ilona are much the same as the faith she followed in life. Tend to the wounded, heal the sick, protect the weak, live with virtue, convert the impious, and redeem the wicked.

In effect, the now "official" doctrine of the church of Ezra (in this specific game), is more or less the doctrine of the Mordentshire branch.

So, what does this mean for the campaign:

On a more superficial level, replacing references to the morning lord to ones of Ezra. In Barovia, it's very easy to have Donavich mention "the days when the Legions of Night are empty" when talking about trying to save his son. As of yet, I'm still not quite exactly sure how to make the conversion to the other temples/holy places in the game. I haven't done a ton of looking into it just yet, but if there are any major roadblocks I should know about, I'd appreciate being warned in advance.

On a broader level, Ezra being Ilona turns her into an NPC with motivations, and gives the players something of a higher power on their side. This will manifest itself in a few ways.

1. I want at least one of the PC's to have been brought to Barovia by her.

2. She knows Strahd, and will be trying to convince them that Strahd may yet be redeemable. Strahd's redemption is very
unlikely to happen, but I want it to be a potential option.

3. By itself, Curse of Strahd has something of a plot hole- why would the Dark Powers allow the players to even come close to killing their original plaything- Strahd? Throughout the adventure, Ezra's going to be directing their attention elsewhere, allowing the PC's to complete their goals unimpeded by them. When the time comes for them to invade castle Ravenloft for the final confrontation, Ezra/Ilona will sacrafice herself to ward off the rest of the dark powers.

This will manifest itself by the entire castle being surrounded by large, dark clouds of mist that have lightning thundering through them. It should help set the scene for the events that inspire.

Starting off:

Now that that section is done with, I have some questions about some more immediate concerns.

I am considering splitting the party to begin with, having some of them start in the default starting point of the game, and others to start in other areas nearby Barovia. The ultimate goal is for them to have them reach Barovia at around the same time, then have them start into the main quest. On their way to barovia, they might discover some things that help give give hints towards future events.

Any suggestions on how something like that might be pulled off? I'm not sure I want to use this option just yet, but I'd be curious to hear some feedback.
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Re: Running Curse of Strahd, seeking advice.

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Ember in the Dark wrote:Before I go any further, I should probably warn you all that I will likely be committing some low key heresy here,
Heh. You're new here. :)

Heresy is pretty much a constant on the forums. Every DM changes something. Some less than others, but some quite drastically, for example.
I am really not a fan of the "only 1 in 10 people have souls" thing, so I'm just outright axing that.
Not sure what other sources you have access to that you're pulling from (Ezra's not in CoS or I, Strahd at all, is she?) but suffice to say that this is something that was added in Curse of Strahd. Most enthusiasts of the setting as a whole seem content to ignore it.
And so she became "our gaurdian in the mists"
Nice! an Ezra origin story I don't think I've heard before! Make sense, I like it. Here: :cookie:
I am considering splitting the party to begin with, having some of them start in the default starting point of the game, and others to start in other areas nearby Barovia. The ultimate goal is for them to have them reach Barovia at around the same time, then have them start into the main quest.
I would just be concerned in a PbP game that it will be slow going to get to the point where the adventure "starts". If you can do this quickly, go for it. But I've seen too many people lose interest in PbP's that move slowly, and start to wander off. If you know your players and are friends IRL, it's less of an issue, but if they are a bunch of random internet folks, they don't have anything binding them to you. If they've come to play CoS, they want to play CoS, most likely. You've put a lot of effort into this already. I would hate to see it fall apart on you.
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Re: Running Curse of Strahd, seeking advice.

Post by Zilfer »

^To be honest even friends can be hard to push the PbP further along. Best to hand waive a good portion from what I've seen. Though perhaps peeking at the PbP's here might grader some more tips.
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Re: Running Curse of Strahd, seeking advice.

Post by Ember in the Dark »

Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:Heh. You're new here. :)

Heresy is pretty much a constant on the forums. Every DM changes something. Some less than others, but some quite drastically, for example.
I saw that bit earlier. An interesting concept, to be sure :lol:
Not sure what other sources you have access to that you're pulling from (Ezra's not in CoS or I, Strahd at all, is she?) but suffice to say that this is something that was added in Curse of Strahd. Most enthusiasts of the setting as a whole seem content to ignore it.
Only those two, in addition to the stuff I've found online from places like these forums. I found out about Ezra from webcomic set in Ravenloft, but sadly it stopped updating a while ago.
]Nice! an Ezra origin story I don't think I've heard before! Make sense, I like it. Here: :cookie:
Devours cookie ravenously.

Thanks! I did have to bend things around a bit to make it work, but I like how it works for my campaign. Besides, it does make a certain degree of sense.
I would just be concerned in a PbP game that it will be slow going to get to the point where the adventure "starts". If you can do this quickly, go for it. But I've seen too many people lose interest in PbP's that move slowly, and start to wander off. If you know your players and are friends IRL, it's less of an issue, but if they are a bunch of random internet folks, they don't have anything binding them to you. If they've come to play CoS, they want to play CoS, most likely. You've put a lot of effort into this already. I would hate to see it fall apart on you.
Some of the players I was with stuck around with my old CoS game for quite a while, and are itching to return. The others are a bit of a wildcard, admittedly. I will definitely keep this in mind.
Zilfer wrote:^To be honest even friends can be hard to push the PbP further along. Best to hand waive a good portion from what I've seen. Though perhaps peeking at the PbP's here might grader some more tips.
Definitely a valid concern I'll be keeping in mind.

-------------------

With all of this out of the way, time to go onto the other slight modifications I'm planning on making to the campaign.

Barovia in recent history:

I'm keeping the origin of how Ireena wound up in the village the same as it used to be- she has no memory of her past before being adopted by Kolyan Indirovich, the burgomaster of Barovia.

Going off her alignment in the book, and the description of Tatyana from I, Strahd, I feel like it makes sense to role play Ireena as someone with a large sense of gratitude to the village of Barovia, a desire to help others, and a strong sense of right and wrong. Sometime as she grew up, she made the decision to study under Donavich, the village's priest of Ezra, being trained as a healer and a cleric.

This leads us to the point where "the wizard" (more on that later, but for simplicity that's what I'll call him for now) came into town, riled up the villagers, and got them to storm castle Ravenloft. Ireena was one of them, and many people followed the wizard because she was vocally supportive of his plan. At the time, she was much more naive than she was now, but still wanted to save her village from "the Devil". She wanted to be a hero.

That's how Strahd discovered that there was another Tatyana reincarnation wandering around. That was the first time he bit Ireena, as she was surrounded by the corpses of other villagers slain by Strahd.

She was the only one allowed to return to the village- unconscious in a horse's saddle. The horse was pulling a simple cart filled with the bodies of most of the barovian dead- at least those still in one recognizable piece. Cluched in her hand was a note written by Strahd, explaining how he was a generous and forgiving lord and that he wouldn't hold the actions of their friends and family against them. Furthermore, no harm was to befall "his Tatyana", upon penalty of death.

As for why Strahd let her go? Simple. He thought she'd come back to him willingly, if pushed in the right direction.

After the attack, nearly everyone gave Ireena a very wide birdth. Some thought she had already been turned into a monster in disguise, others thought she was still human, but had merely sold out the others, and others still pitied her. At the end of the day, however, everyone avoided her, save for her father and her adopted brother. Even Donavich, her mentor, gave her the cold shoulder, no small part of him blaming her for the state of his son Doru.

The isolation almost worked. It was her father and brother who helped keep her sane, and helped her deal with the guilt she felt for leading her villagers to their deaths. The only times she sees nearly anyone else is when they're brought into the house and need healing, usually from some mundane accident in the field, sometimes from one illness or another. The only alternative for treatment was the church, and it's more than a tad unsettling to listen to Doru call for his father and scream that he's starving. At least Ireena still acts like she used to be, more or less.

Strahd miscalculated- he expected her brother and father would have given her the cold shoulder too, since neither of them were in the first assault on ravenloft by the wizard, and he knew from his spys that both of them had disprove of the entire scenario.

So, Strahd decided to be a bit more direct. At night for the past few month, wolves, undead, and other monsters have prowled the streets at night. By and large, they've been assaulting the manor, but over the past week more than one person has been wounded.

Ireena know that Strahd wants her. So, tonight, she's going to stay outside of the mansion, and move from house to house healing the wounded.

She expects Strahd to come after her. She's at an impasse, and figures that either she confronts Strahd in one way or another, or more villagers get hurt or killed. She dreads the prospect of seeing Strahd again, but she doesn't think she has a choice.

Where the campaign begins:

Regardless if I just start off the party normally or decide to go and do separate paths, I plan for them all to arrive in Barovia at around the same time.

Normally, the players meet Strahd three days after the death of Ireena's adopted father. In this scenario, they arrive in Barovia the night of his death, and the second time Ireena gets bitten. Near the end of two combat encounters, they'll hear a cry of pain from the other side of town- from Kolyana having his heart attack, as he helplessly watches from his manor as Strahd drink's his daughter's blood.

I'm planning on giving them a glimpse of Strahd- it's far too early into the campaign to fully reveal his monstrous nature, even if most players will have NPC's telling them about the Devil.

Ireena, barely conscious and covered in blood, will desperately tell anyone who comes near her to help her father.

Ismark, who had been wandering the town earlier specifically looking for his sister, will arrive to this scene, and rush past the PC's to get them to Ireena. He'll plea to them in two ways- if they want to help, or at least stay safe from anything else out in the world, they should follow him back into the manner.

I'm still working out the details of this. In short, the ultimate goal would be to establish that Strahd is not on their side(his minions fight the players), and point out that Strahd has enemies. If nothing else, this gets an "enemy of my enemy" relationship going. That, and the fact that most PC's will pity Ireena, at least a little bit.

The next day:

Ireena is going to be more than a tad distraught that her father is dead, in addition to being bitten once again. Mostly, she'll ask to be left alone.

Ismark will find out from someone that the PC's had fought against some of Strahd's minions (if he didn't see them fight himself), and views this in the most positive light as he can. While he's going to be fairly morose and somber from the death of his father, he'll ensure the players are fed and have a place to rest. At breakfast, he'll make a proposal to them, begging them to take his sister to Vallaki. He'd be more than willing to provide any sort of compensation that he can.

By dinner, Ireena will have covered enough to be presentable, but still looks more than a little bit disheveled. She brushes off all talk of planing for the future, and cuts straight to burring her father.

On the way to the cemetery, Ismark will be approahed by someone claiming to work for Strahd- not sure which NPC I should use yet. In any case, he will carry a note extending his most sincere regrets for the untimely death of Kolyan Indirovich, extends his condolences for the loss of a good man, a better father, and noble burgomaster, and wishes to invite Ismark to castle Ravenloft to discuss his duties as the new burgomaster.

The burial scene is mostly unchanged, with the players being allowed to take any action they normally could.

No more creatures attack that night.

What happens next will be in part up to the party. Ismak will offer to distract strahd by acception the invitation- fully expecting to die (or worse). Ireena will initially be against the plan, and the last thing she wants is more blood on her hands, regardless if it belongs to her brother or strangers. To prove her point, she'll show them the March of souls that happens at Barovia at midnight, of all the dead adventurers marching from the village up to Ravenloft.

If the players still wish to go with her, she will accept.

----------------------------------

Okay, that was alot. Any thoughts or comments? I know I'm planning out a lot of details, but rest assured I have no inetntion of railroading. I do, however, have the luxury of picking characters who I can be reasonably sure will accept the first main plot hook of the game. After all, Ismark will make it very clear that they aren't trying to overthrow strahd- he just want his sister to be moved to somewhere safer.

If they don't... well, I'm sure I can figure something else.
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Re: Running Curse of Strahd, seeking advice.

Post by Zilfer »

Curiously, do you have any plans for her knowing Gertruda? In another recent topic that was about CoS i suggested they possibly know each other since there doesn't seem to be a lot of people in town their age to have played with when they were younger. Just a thought. She was recently stolen by Strahd in the same town, and a plot hook that usually gets overlooked or downplayed. :)
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Re: Running Curse of Strahd, seeking advice.

Post by Ember in the Dark »

Oh, if that ever comes up, almost certainly.

Let me put it this way: if Strahd ever gets his hands on Ireena, I will probably be steeling most of the suggestions from the "Strahd has Ireena" thread.

Although... I should try and figure out how long ago Gertruda ran away from home.
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Re: Running Curse of Strahd, seeking advice.

Post by Ember in the Dark »

Regarding a certain wizard

The mad mage of Mt. Murbdok (or whatever it's called, I don't have the book with me ATM) is supposed to be Mordinenkin.

IIRC, he's supposed to be some archwizard who believes in preserving the balance of good and evil. The "ballance of good and evil" is a trope I can't stand to see in works of fiction.

As such, I'm not exactly a big fan of Mordinenkin appearing in the game. With this in mind- is there some other iconic character I could have take his place? Story wise, the character would serve the same function- I just don't want it to be Mordinenkin, or however you pronounce his name.
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Re: Running Curse of Strahd, seeking advice.

Post by Zilfer »

I’ve seen on Reddit a few responses to people not wanting it to be him or thinking he is under powered for the actual wizard himself, (because in their opinion the real character could take strahd…. I’m not sure about that but I don’t know the wizard in question very well.)

Anyways more on subject, some people have suggested that the ‘MAD MAGE’ is actually made and believes himself to be Mordenkainen, but is not the real one. He is a potential ally against strahd if they can convince him to help. The simplest way is just to make him homebrew, and make him whoever you think fits your theme best. A mad mage who only partically remembers his spells, and sometimes fumbles them beyond belief? Perhaps a reclusive wise man wizard that points the party in the right direction but after his defeat from strahd is not convinced it is a battle that can be won? Ect.

My group has encountered the wizard in the guise of an Elk, and heard stories about him zapping fish in the water before collecting them up and disappearing back into the forest. I used him just as another potential Event to happen near Lake Baratok, since I wanted more than just the Village Idiot and Vistani Girl event. (Kept vague on purpose.) :P

To the Previous response: Yeah how long ago she was taken might give the party a different sense of urgency. Hell if you wanted the party to make a "small incursion" into the castle early on the mission could be to rescue her. (Place her in the dinning hall which is fairly close to the entrance and I think you could pull off an early showing of the castle.) Along with the moral quandary of forcing a girl who thinks Strahd is her dream prince come to marry her. xD
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