My question to all of you that have ran CoS is then, what do you think would be an ideal tarokka reading to tell the best story?
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.
For the pre-stacking, my choices for a fair but even campaign are:
Tome: Master of Glyphs -
Castle Chapel
Holy Symbol: 8 of Coins -
Vistani treasure wagon in Vallaki
Sunsword: 2 of Glyphs -
in the garden at the Abbey
Ally: Mists -
Ezmerelda
Final fight: Broken One -
Sergei's Tomb
Here is my reasoning:
The
tome being in the castle makes sense (why would he have lost it somewhere else?). It also has no practical value to the characters so finding it late isn't a big deal, especially since they'll know 90% of the story in it anyway. The chapel is an easy, early location in the castle with another powerful artifact as well so it makes sense that Strahd has ignored this area for centuries and didn't think his book might be there. Also, the tome is really more of a cursed item than a boon: once they have it and Strahd knows, he'll track them down relentlessly - so they might as well find it late-game.
The
Holy Symbol is really, really good, but I still rank it below the Sunsword - but it's especially good for some tough undead encounters, so I want them to find it earlier. Vallaki makes sense; it's early, but they need to go through an entire quest to procure it. It seemed like a good reward at this time. Also, you can involve Arrigal if you think they got off too easy (he is DEADLY). It also seems like the type of thing that would be stored in a room full of "this is probably valuable but otherwise junk" stuff - the Vistani don't know exactly what it does or how it can be used since they aren't clerics or paladins, but they know it's worthwhile and they probably traded for it at some point. Or maybe they're keeping it so it can't be used against Strahd, but Luvash was so drunk and happy to see his daughter he forgot it was in there, and of course that's the one thing the party picked... Anyway it opens up interesting narrative reasons why they might have had it.
The
Sunsword is better found later, but not too late - and well before the castle. The gardens in the Abbey is a nice spot out of the way of the main villain in that area, so it gives them a chance to deal with it separately but still they won't find it until they're well into the plot. Also, this spot unleashes a pack of wraiths when you find the item there - and they are weakened substantially by sunlight, thus making this item immediately useful in a practical way to show its importance. Finally, it ties in a bit better to the deva storyline in my opinion: maybe the deva or some helpful adventurers with him had already used the Sunsword once against Strahd and lost, and so it's still nearby, but hidden for another group to find - like the deva cast it aside in the garden when he realized the futility of his fight against Strahd and went deeper into madness. (This works better with the re-write of the deva's motivations in another thread.)
Ezmerelda is both the best
companion and the worst: she's indisputably one of the two strongest and one of the easiest to acquire since you almost can't avoid her, BUT she's also sort of the worst companion because she'd likely join the party anyway! So it's sort of a double-edge: you get one of the best choices for sure, but you also don't get her AND another character. Still though, her advantages outweigh her negatives and she's such an interesting character it's worth intentionally highlighting her, and given her alignment she's going to both fit in better with most parties and be an easy "DM needs to suggest this course of action" mouthpiece. She also positively boosts the characters' potential interactions with other Vistani. And it cuts down on the total number of NPCs following you, which can get to be a LOT.
Final fight: Sergei's tomb is a naked attempt to make the characters have an easier time defeating Strahd at the end of the game. The tomb itself isn't difficult (there aren't other enemies or traps that will also kill the players - like Strahd's tomb, which is the worst place to fight him), but most importantly it's just a hop, skip, and a jump away from where the players MUST go in order to kill Strahd completely: his tomb. Having run this before, it's sort of anti-climactic to have the characters defeat Strahd in the "fated place" only to lose track of him when he mists back to his coffin: this is "final showdown" territory, narratively speaking, and while defeating him and having him escape other times is fine, THIS is when they need to finish it. They'll likely throw everything they have at him and just to lose him and have to find him again is beyond frustrating. Strahd's parents' tomb works equally as well to this purpose (and might even be better since they will unfortunately miss the treasure in Sergei's tomb), but I like his brother's tomb better for narrative purposes. It also makes Strahd a teensie bit more sympathetic at the worst possible time, which is interesting to me.
SO! What happens if my players choose instead to allow their own luck to determine their fate? (Which I put 9 to 10 odds they will.) Well, a lot of the other locations and companions also suck for a variety of reasons so
I have further removed over 1/3rd of the total cards from the 54 card deck (I took out 21 and replaced one, for 22 changes) in order to guide the randomness in a way that still makes the game enjoyable. And also to account for the things I've cut because I personally didn't feel like including them.
First,
things I've cut: all the dark elves (including Kasimir), Amber Temple, Tsolenka Pass, and the nursery in the Abbey (fewer dead children references). I made other changes but those are the main ones that affect cards. This means I removed:
- 3 of Swords (T-pass)
- 7 of Swords (Temple)
- 5 of Stars (Temple)
- 2 of Coins (nursery in the Abbey)
- 6 of Coins (Kasimir)
- 8 of Glyphs (Temple)*
* I then put the 8 of Glyphs back into the deck and changed it to be the Barovia church's undercroft as a location (listed in the book but not an actual fortune option). This adds an "easy" location so keep that in mind.
I also
removed all the locations in the crypts of the castle which just suck because it is one of the last areas they're going to go. I also took out Baba Lysaga's hut because it already has a big quest and it's really difficult.
- 2 of Swords (Sergei's tomb)
- 4 of Swords (crypt)
- 6 of Swords (crypt)
- Master of Swords (Strahd's tomb)
- 6 of Stars (crypt)
- 9 of Stars (Baba Lysaga's hut)
- 1 of Coins (crypt)
- 5 of Coins (crypt)
- 4 of Glyphs (parents' crypt)
If you don't like "
easy" locations, you could also remove these:
- 2 of Stars (the Tser Pool encampment)
- 7 of Coins (the river Ivlis Crossroads - also very close by)
Finally, I removed half of the "high" deck as well, just to get rid of crappy or uninteresting or especially weak companions, and remove Strahd's tomb as a possible final fight location:
-
Darklord (no helper / Strahd's tomb - this is the worst possible card for either draw)
-
Seer (Kasimir / study - cut due to the cuts I made earlier, also an encounter in the study means they will likely skip the treasury which I don't want them to)
-
Horseman (assassin or dead guy / Strahd's tomb - terrible companions, including one who wants to kill you, and Strahd's tomb; the 2nd worst card for either draw)
-
Innocent (Parriwimple or Ireena / Sergei's tomb - not a bad one but I didn't want Ireena to be the entire adventure, plus there's a chance she gets taken away!)
-
Donjon (watcher boy or watcher daughter / hall of bones - just really off-putting and weak companions, although the potential is there)
-
Marionette (Pidlwick II or Clovin Belview / north tower peak - I actually like Clovin but I like the other options better)
-
Raven (old wereraven guy / parents' tomb - also not bad but sort of an uninteresting companion)
Notes:
The
Tempter card has an option to give you a young girl or a flesh golem. The golem was an interesting enough choice that I left it, but some might want to ditch this card, too. (I think the young girl as a companion also has a lot of potential.)
The
Ghost card also gets you a literal ghost as a choice, who is NOT easy to recruit and you have to visit the castle first in order to get him. The story was cool enough to me but this is definitely a "difficult" companion and could be skipped. (On the other hand, having someone with you who can move through walls is great! But having someone with you who can also get turned is not...)
The
Mists gives you easily the best companion or lets you choose the exact spot for Strahd; if you really don't like "easy" you could ditch this one as well.
So who's left? (Besides the three above)
- Rictavio: very strong and highly thematically appropriate
- werewolf: ditto
- Mad Mage: extremely difficult to recruit but insanely strong (you could also choose the priest in Barovia which is a terrible idea)
- Ismark: weak but also thematically appropriate (could be leveled up a bit)
Also be aware: just removing the crypts doesn't remove all the hard locations!
There are others that are particularly difficult, such as:
- 1 of Swords (Vladimir in the silver dragon area - have to solve that quest first, which involves going to the castle, or killing him, which is insanely hard)
- 5 of Swords (werewolf den - cursed!)
- 4 of Stars (silver dragon's beacon - same as 1 of Swords without a combat option!)
- 4 of Coins (the wine cellar is deep in the castle, plus it has some nasty hazards)
- 9 of Coins (castle treasury - difficult and dangerous to find)
- 5 of Glyphs (Gulthias tree - going to have to fight for it, possibly through some deadly encounters)
- 7 of Glyphs (windmill - a known death trap, especially for low-level parties who just found out the item is there!)
I didn't remove these but others might consider it.
Hope that overly-long answer helps ...anyone!
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