Castlevania Ravenloft

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Nalfien
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Castlevania Ravenloft

Post by Nalfien »

I'm running a Curse of Strahd game over Fantasy Ground for my Castlevania friends. The Belmont player just ate a dream pastry proving that Belmonts will eat anything they find resembling food, not just wall meat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkiEuqX3ExQ
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ewancummins
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Re: Castlevania Ravenloft

Post by ewancummins »

Nalfien wrote:I'm running a Curse of Strahd game over Fantasy Ground for my Castlevania friends. The Belmont player just ate a dream pastry proving that Belmonts will eat anything they find resembling food, not just wall meat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkiEuqX3ExQ
Very cool.

And have you checked out Arksylvania?

EDIT- The author may have taken that one down in order to do more work on it. Not sure.
But Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque is a fun site with some Ravenloft content.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
Nalfien
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Re: Castlevania Ravenloft

Post by Nalfien »

Curse of Strahd spoilers ahead. If by some slim chance you are one of my players stop reading this now.

VIEW CONTENT:
So plot modifications include the following and talking with some fellow DMs might get my creative juices flowing, so please share your thoughts.

This is set in the Castlevania time line after Lament and before CV3. Dracula was "visiting foreign lands" after Lament and didn't start his war on humanity until Lisa, his wife and Alucard's mother, had been wrongly burned at the stake.

Dracula encountered Madam Eva outside of Barovia. (I'm not using the sister of Strahd note.) She fortold to Dracula that he would find the reincarnation of Elisabetha's soul trapped in Barovia, the domain of a powerful vampire lord, Strahd who's power is equal to his own.

Dracula makes a trail of victims for the vampire hunting Belmont clan to follow him into Barovia. His intention is to manipulate them into weakening or slaying Strahd.

He arrives ahead of them in the village of Barovia and finds Lisa (who replaces Irena) is bitten by Strahd. He takes her and hides her away with him somewhere in Barovia. I'm thinking Amber Temple.

The players arive in the village where Castlevania like skeletons and zombies sent by Strahd are punishing the town for hiding Lisa and searching for her. They meet Strahd who has just killed Ismark's father. Strahd leaves on his Nightmare and Ismark explains to the players that his adopted sister who was being visited by Strahd is now missing. Lisa looks strikingly similar to the female player character who is an adopted member of the Belmont clan. (Please brainstorm with me on where I can take that.)

Dracula has informed powerful witches in the land on how to summon a great demon of chaos that will be able to attack Strahd. They wish to over throw Strahd. Once summoned, Dracula will convince the demon to instead possess the heart of the castle. This will change castle Ravenloft into the castle of chaos that is the eternal Castlevania. Please tell me what you think would be good for getting the players involved with the witches and how they can get these details revealed to them.

Here are some things we can discuss I'd like to change.

In Vallaki there is the evil sherif with the demon arm. What can I do with him? Without Irena in the story he seems even more blind and his motivations awkward.

The Abbot is supposed to be the Dr. Frankenstein of this story. I like the mongrel folk, but I don't like the idea that he really believes making a bride of the monster for Strahd will fix Strahd. What can I do with him? I do like that he's a corrupted angel. Frankenstein has always been about making life without God's permission. I'd like this character to be deeper than the hard to believe motivation. I like that Strahd is responsible for his corruption.

Strahd must be motivated to engage the players. Perhaps he becomes infatuated with the character that looked like Lisa? Perhaps he enlists them to find her? Perhaps he sends them after the witches that wish to over throw him?
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Lord_Pruitt
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Re: Castlevania Ravenloft

Post by Lord_Pruitt »

Well, you have a lot of story threads working through your story arc.

Strahd could mistake the female PC as Lisa, and attempt to capture her. You could even have more of the NPCs mistake the female PC as the missing Lisa (Ireena). And perhaps she is a part of Tatyana's fractured soul, and her and Lisa are kinda like soul twins. This could either hinder and/or help with Dracula's plan against Strahd.

I think Strahd might initially mistake the female PC for Lisa, but when he realizes his mistake, he will ask the PCs to find "his" Lisa. While they do this, he would probably decide to try and woo the female PC as well - kinda pull double bride from the "Big Trouble in Little China" deal.

As for the witches, one part of their summoning ritual (which they could contact the PCs to get help with) would be the demonic arm of the sheriff you spoke of. The sheriff could be searching for the missing Lisa (and might mistake the female PC for her as well). The witches could tell the PCs that if they had his demonic arm, they could banish the evil located within the heart of castle ravenloft.

I'm not a big fan of the Frankenstein part of the module, so my suggestion is just to leave it out.

I guess the bigger question that I have is - if Dracula captures Lisa, and converts her into his bride, why would he not choose to try and leave Barovia and take her with him? And, when he sees the female PC that resembles Lisa and Elisabetha, he might pull the same "Big Trouble in Little China" thing as well.

If you wanted, you could make Strahd's tragic back story into a complex love triangle squared ....
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