D&D 5E CoS Ideal Tarokka Reading Storywise

[MostlyHarmless42]

I am torn on this as well. On the one hand, I think that the randomness is a big factor of this game and it should be maintained. On the other, I don't want this campaign to be extremely focused on just the castle. Ideally I'd like to feature at least one of the major side stops for the story outside the castle. I did two readings myself for fun, just as a test. The first reading was about the absolute worst I could possibly imagine (No ally, all the items in the crypts of the castle, and the Strahd was in his tomb!). The second reading was quite nice, most of the items seemed themed around the Silver Dragon guys, which would work for a themed story.

One thing I noticed is that each of the suits themselves seems to correspond to different locations. I've thought about possible keeping all the cards, but split the deck into the suits, and make sure I draw one card from each suit. It ensures randomness, but ensures some location variety.

I really like the idea of offering the players the "prebuilt option". I'd suggest if you go that route to suggest in character Madame Eva has 'preshuffled' the deck in anticipation for the players arrival. It gives an in character explanation for the fates being "kind", and fits with the idea that the players opting to shuffle the deck is an alternative way to 'control their fate', even slightly.

 

[CapnZapp]

Since I would only ever expect to play/DM this adventure once, I feel that leaving key elements up to chance is a very poor strategy.

I would very much have preferred if the module preselected one set of outcomes as the default reading. Where the designers lent their thought to good locations for maximum story impact (just like this thread is asking)

And then, for the groups that somehow run it more than once, start randomizing stuff the second running onwards.

"the randomness is important", no for a group that will only ever run it once, it isn't.

 

[CapnZapp]

I've also thought a lot about this.

My solution for my group is that I am going to tell the players: this reading is EXTREMELY random and it can increase or decrease the difficulty of the campaign substantially. I (Madame Eva) will present them with the deck and offer them a choice: if they wish, they can choose to take what the fates have offered to them (in other words, what I pre-picked out as being fair choices and have stacked on the top of the deck); or, if they want luck to be the only master of their fates, they can shuffle the deck.

This is exactly what I would have loved to see WotC supply!

In other words, I'm not trying to take away anyone's randomness. I'm just asking for a recommended setting overworked DMs can default to if they only plan on running the module once and would like to avoid the RNG Gods' bad side.

 

[SwivSnapshot]

Don't assume your players will go to Madam Eva's camp on their own.

Due to the Law of Unintended Consequences, my players bypassed the camp on the way to Vallaki and wound up at Van Richten's Tower after being chased out of Vallaki for burning down the Burgomasters mansion. They were level 5 by the time they made it back to the camp, by which time the card reading would be a waste of time.

Side note: Beware of player driven campaigning....

 

[ad_hoc]

I also agree that the best card reading is a random one. It will literally enable the reading to determine some of their fate in the story. This is great.

It's fine to take out some cards. When I ran it I let the players know that I would be redrawing for any cards which double up on locations. Having 2 things in the same place isn't very fun. Thankfully it didn't happen.

 

[pukunui]

I will confess to stacking the deck for my game. I didn't tell my players either, and they didn't object to me not shuffling it in front of them or anything.

I went with the following setup:

Tome: Traitor (Lady Wachter's bedroom)
Symbol: Tax Collector (Vistani treasure wagon)
Sword: Missionary (abbey garden)
Enemy: Ghost (Sir Godfrey Gwilym)
Strahd: Innocent (Sergei's tomb)


I was sold by [MENTION=9789]evilbob[/MENTION]'s argument for a few of the above. I chose to put the tome in Lady Wachter's possession because it seemed the most fun for me. I also chose Sir Godfrey because a) he seems like a decent choice and b) I wanted them to go to Argynvostholt. I'm going to make it so he won't help them unless they light the beacon, and I'm also going to make it so the skull Baba Lysaga rides around in is Argynvost's skull rather than a hill giant's skull.


This setup means that they'll visit most of the locations in Barovia: Getting into Krezk will most likely result in them going to the winery, which will probably result in them going to Yester Hill, while getting help from Sir Godfrey will require them to go to Berez. They'll have to rescue Anabelle and go to the Vistani camp outside Vallaki. They'll have reason to interact with Lady Wachter (which may entail exploring Vallaki first).

They may skip the werewolf den, which is fine, although I have told one player that his character (who has the Haunted One background) will get inspiration each time they kill a werewolf.

And I'm leaving out the Amber Temple because we ran that as a standalone adventure in our last campaign.

Hopefully it'll end up being lots of fun. The first session certainly was!

 

[CapnZapp]

I also agree that the best card reading is a random one.

I would have thought the thread's take away is saying the best card reading is a lucky random one...?

 

[Wepwawet]

I did a pre reading and then I changed it to make more sense and seem coolest.
I don't remember my initial draw, I only remember that I kept the werewolf as the ally, and switched a place that I didn't like for the Amber Temple (I like it and want to have it in the game).

In the end this will be my reading:
* Druid: Tome (Gulthias Tree)
* Priest: Holy Symbol (Gazedo in Brez? or is it Krezk?)
* Elementalist: Sunsword (Castle Model in the Amber Temple)
* Beast: Ally (Zuleika the werewolf)
* Seer: Strahd's location (Study)

The sites and their treasure weren't originally these ones. For example, having the Holy symbol in the Gulthias tree didn't make much sense... nor the Tome in the gazebo. And I didn't want Strahd to be at the tomb, so I change it to the Study.
Plus, I saw a nice correspondence between the cards and each of my players, 3 of them. So I changed the other ones to fit: Druid (druid), Cleric (priest), Monk of the 4 elements (elementalist), Half Ord Fighter (beast) and Lore Bard (seer)... Unfortunately the Monk decided to go Open Hand in the end

 

[Remathilis]

My "perfect" reading would go like this:

Tome/Holy Symbol: Either the Abbey, the Wizard of Wines, or Argynstvoltholt. These three are really major set pieces and having an artifact at them gives the PCs reason to be there. Technically, if the group tries to complete the "get Ireena to safety" quest, they can end up going to Krezk/Abbey anyway, so in a perfect world, I'd probably put the Tome in Argynsvoltholt and the Holy Symbol in the Wizard of Wines (which would then spin off to Yester Hill and Berez).

Sunsword: Somewhere in Castle Ravenloft that isn't the crypts. The sword is powerful and it can take a bunch of strong battles and make the trivial. Its practically an "I win" card against Strahd in the chosen battle. Putting it IN the Castle gives them a reason to explore, and not putting it in the Crypt forces them to explore more rather than be-lining for Strahd's Tomb

Ally NPC: Ezmerelda. They module REALLY wants you to hook up with her. You can befriend her in several places in the module itself, and she is a solid ally with a lot of useful knowledge. The other NPCs range from utterly useless/liabilities (Stella, Arrabelle) to outright overpowering (Mordenkainen, Van Richten). Worse, a good group will most likely get Ezemerelda to help anyway, meaning TWO NPCs could be involved. (If you have a small group, like 4 players, that might not be a bad choice. If that is the case, I recommend the second NPC be one of the nonevil choices like Ismark or Ireena).

Final Battle: Strahd's Tomb. Assuming the group has reason to explore and not be-line for the crypt, having Strahd harrass the group throughout the castle but make his stand in his home turf seems appropriate. A lot of the other options are either crowded (study) or really hard use (the LG-only gate on Strahd's parent's tomb means there is a good chance some members of the party might not participate without bypass magic).

Never used cards: Unless your gung-ho about using the Amber Temple and making the artifact a late (if ever) gained item, avoid the "Kasimir has it" card as well as any of the Amber Temple cards. I'd also make sure that "Darklord" isn't in the deck; its no fun to not have an ally NPC. Mists hides Strahd's final location, which can be useful if you want to move it unbeknownst to the group (My group drew mists; I originally was going to use Strahd's Tomb but the group headed straight for the crypts to find him. If I had kept it there, they would have done their fated battle in under two hours! Instead, I moved it to the study, which they discovered a game later, allowing them to explore more of the castle). I'd also remove the diviner card; having Madame Eva hand them the sunsword with no effort is like cheating.

So my final "perfect" draw
Tome of Strahd: Avenger or Abjurer (Argynsvoltholt)
Holy Symbol of Ravenkind: Trader (Wizard of Wines)
Sunsword: Anarchist, Miser, Necromancer, or Dictator (Castle Ravenloft)
Ally: Mists (Ezmerelda) or, if the party is small, Executioner, Innocent (either choice), or Artifact (just for the nostalgia sake or if the party lacks a good healer)
Strahd: Darklord/Horseman (both lead to Strahd's tomb).

 

[Remathilis]

For what its worth, my first completely random draw was awful; they tome and sword were in the castle, Kasimir had the holy symbol (which meant a trip to the Amber temple to get it), they had no ally, and Strahd was on the outlook. My group was so bummed, they asked for a redo. I gave it to them when they found Ezmerelda, who re-read their cards (and confessed Eva was "stacking the deck" against them for some reason). In this draw, all THREE artifacts ended up in the Castle, and Strahd's chosen battle was mist-shrouded (unknown) but they got Rictavio as their ally, which delighted my two big Ravenloft fans when they found out who he was.

The bummer with all the artifacts being in the castle was the group kinda felt like they were exploring places to level-grind up to going into the Castle rather than looking for these items.