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<blockquote data-quote="evilbob" data-source="post: 6848833" data-attributes="member: 9789">Spoiler alert.TL;not gonna R:&nbsp; Suggestions for rewriting Death House to remove all the dead children?Our group loves Ravenloft; we've played multiple multi-year campaigns in the setting in different systems.&nbsp; We are excited to go back and start again.&nbsp; Looking over Death House, the (free online) intro adventure, I love the setting and the atmosphere.&nbsp; But.&nbsp; Our group is not going to play a game with dead children.&nbsp; (Lots of good reasons; immaterial.)&nbsp; Everything else is something I can dial back as necessary to suit our tastes - demon worship, ritual murder, torture, etc. are all really window dressing that can be adjusted - but the dead children are central to the plot.&nbsp; Anyone have suggestions to salvage this otherwise atmospheric adventure?More spoilers ahead.Best I've come up with is to make the starting encounter with a young adult, maybe someone who stayed for the night?&nbsp; But what is their motivation to stay in the house?&nbsp; (Were they never allowed to leave?&nbsp; Then why do they want to go back in?)&nbsp; Unless they are related to the owners, but it would be weird to have a young adult living at home in this era.&nbsp; It also ruins entirely the reason for the nanny to be there - who is also central to the plot.&nbsp; Unless the young adult from the first encounter was merged with the nanny character and got involved that way?&nbsp; But then why would they have such an amazingly ornate room so close to the master bedroom?&nbsp; What was the original purpose of that room?Second, what do you do with the attic?&nbsp; I can change the contents of the rooms easily enough, but the railroading that happens up there forces the plot along a certain path that might otherwise be trickier to move along.&nbsp; The story is sort of overly linear (fine for an intro) and if you want to hit all the set pieces the party needs to follow the path.&nbsp; Do you just leave the pieces where they are and hope they stumble into the right places?&nbsp; Do you have other inhabitants who are not dead children push them along?I can always wing it but I'd like a few good ideas to a) get them started, b) move it along.&nbsp; Once you get to the basement the rest of the adventure needs little modification (the tombs can easily be changed).&nbsp; The adventure also provides so much backstory that I'd like something I can hang onto that is similarly thought-out but obviously omits that one key feature.&nbsp; Ideas welcome.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="evilbob, post: 6848833, member: 9789"] Spoiler alert. TL;not gonna R: Suggestions for rewriting Death House to remove all the dead children? Our group loves Ravenloft; we've played multiple multi-year campaigns in the setting in different systems. We are excited to go back and start again. Looking over Death House, the (free online) intro adventure, I love the setting and the atmosphere. But. Our group is not going to play a game with dead children. (Lots of good reasons; immaterial.) Everything else is something I can dial back as necessary to suit our tastes - demon worship, ritual murder, torture, etc. are all really window dressing that can be adjusted - but the dead children are central to the plot. Anyone have suggestions to salvage this otherwise atmospheric adventure? More spoilers ahead. Best I've come up with is to make the starting encounter with a young adult, maybe someone who stayed for the night? But what is their motivation to stay in the house? (Were they never allowed to leave? Then why do they want to go back in?) Unless they are related to the owners, but it would be weird to have a young adult living at home in this era. It also ruins entirely the reason for the nanny to be there - who is also central to the plot. Unless the young adult from the first encounter was merged with the nanny character and got involved that way? But then why would they have such an amazingly ornate room so close to the master bedroom? What was the original purpose of that room? Second, what do you do with the attic? I can change the contents of the rooms easily enough, but the railroading that happens up there forces the plot along a certain path that might otherwise be trickier to move along. The story is sort of overly linear (fine for an intro) and if you want to hit all the set pieces the party needs to follow the path. Do you just leave the pieces where they are and hope they stumble into the right places? Do you have other inhabitants who are not dead children push them along? I can always wing it but I'd like a few good ideas to a) get them started, b) move it along. Once you get to the basement the rest of the adventure needs little modification (the tombs can easily be changed). The adventure also provides so much backstory that I'd like something I can hang onto that is similarly thought-out but obviously omits that one key feature. Ideas welcome. [/QUOTE]

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