Running Curse of Strahd, seeking advice.
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 1:01 am
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.
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.