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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 9758217" data-attributes="member: 7006">With the expansion of the location/setting in Curse of Strahd (as opposed to the much shorter/quicker plotline in the original I6 Ravenloft module) the Ireena storyline can actually end up being minimized for a lot of groups and their playthroughs just based on what the players end up focusing on.  I know in my two campaigns I ran, one of the groups became so enamored with the results of the tarroka reading and the gathering of the items from it, that the whole Ireena plotline was barely touched upon and then fell by the wayside completely.  And if the party didn't care about it... I wasn't about to force them to care just because it's the "baseline" Strahd thread in I6 and potentially that one in CoS.So I do not see anything wrong with changing the Ireena plot thread a bit from the "baseline" by having her already a Strahd thrall from the start.  If nothing else... it potentially changes the dynamic of the relationship between the party and Strahd.  Now, instead of being anti-Strahd from the beginning as they have to do their best to keep Ireena safe from the Vampire Lord... they either might never even interact with her, Strahd might be more friendly with the party right now because he "has" what he wants (although of course he will eventually lose her because that is his curse), or the party might become more focused on "rescuing" her and all the other victims of Strahd and the party becomes focused on storming Strahd and the Castle rather than trying to avoid him early in the campaign.This is one of the many things I love about Curse of Strahd... in that there's no singular way you need to run the campaign, nor the players to play the campaign.  Every single playthrough can and will be different.  Heck, I know that if/when I run the game again I'm going to start with the party arriving from the western valley gate and come upon Kresk as their first village to hit, rather than Barovia.  That simple change (and the plotlines of the Wizard of the Wines and then the "Bride of Strahd" happening immediately from the beginning) will alter how the players embrace the setting.  Because they won't be interacting with Ireena from the start, they won't get sent right to Madam Eva to get their tarroka reading that tells them Strahd is a bad dude, they won't go traipsing around the Baratok Valley merely to find the objects that the reading tells them to find.  Instead... the reveals of Lord Von Zarovich as a character and how the players feel about him could be quite a bit different.  And that's something I'm really looking forward to.</blockquote>

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