My Take on Having Van Richten in Curse of Strahd

[jeffreyallendavis]

Since I consider CoS to take place in 528 BC, Van Richten presents a problem for me. After a great deal of thought, I've decided that, when he disappeared in Bleak House, he was just thrown back in time. I'm changing his primary goal to getting back to his time.

Any thoughts?

Jeffrey Allen Davis
http://jeffreyallendavis.wordpress.com

[alhoon]

Works.
Or you could change him to a different vampire hunter with similar background. But yeah, your version works too.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

In one campaign a long time ago, I had Mallochio send a PC far back in time to get rid of him forever. Problem was, the other PC's had enough forbidden lore by then to know that the further back you go, the fewer domains there were. Sure enough, the lost PC had gone to Barovia, back during I6 era. He arranged to have himself turned to stone and placed among the statues in Castle Ravenloft. One of them was like, "I know that scowl."

So if he needs to get back to his own time, just leave lots of clues for the twins, and look for some way to petrify himself.

[Five]

He could just be an ancestor of the man we are all familiar with. Over the centuries the ancestor's deeds and accomplishments have been lost in time, perhaps even intentionally in order to protect loved ones from unholy retribution(s). Where better to run from Barovia (Strahd) than Darkon (Azalin)? The current van Richten has just been swept up in Fate and braided back into an ancient battle of Light in the Black.

But time travel works just as well.

[Joël of the FoS]

Depending on chronology, he could also simply be someone who uses VR's name to get the famous adventurer's aura (like Clint Eastwood by Marty in Back to the Future )?