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Curse of Strahd (and limitations on 1st level play)
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<blockquote data-quote="TheLibrarian" data-source="post: 8999920" data-attributes="member: 7027009"><p>I like all the ideas above. ESPECIALLY "I you won't come to it, the Mists will come to you" as well as the idea that there is a certain level of dissociation that happens between D&D characters and players. And its worse with experienced players. They've seen <em>soooo much</em> in D&D, film, books, video games, etc. that I think hooking them is really a task.</p><p></p><p>haha. I feel like 75% of the prep that I do is coming up with a reasonable reason for the <em>players</em> to engage with the story. </p><p></p><p>A couple more ideas that haven't been mentioned...</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Maybe drive the characters in to action via their personal backgrounds and motivations. (I've also been known to pull on the personal backgrounds and motivations of the <em>players</em> in a similar way to get them moving. Because: I'm an @$$hole.) Character (or player) really likes dogs? I heard those weirdos at The Durst Manor really like to do bad things to dogs. Looks there's a mutilated Golden Retriever dragging its way toward you now. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Leverage the legendary monster hunter Van Richten as a protector and mentor. He rescues the heroes and then ends up mentoring them. Show them that the night is defeatable. Then have him die horribly at some point in front of them by Strahd's hands. (Van Richten as Rictavio was a waste of the character in my opinion.)</li> </ul><p>For my part, when I ran Death House, it turned it into Van Richten's Manor, which was situated in Baldur's Gate. As his former students, they were inextricably drawn to the manor (geased) only to find their mentor had disappeared. Clues were scattered throughout the manor pointing to where he had gone and that he needed help. As others above have said, I felt this eased the players into the scenario. </p><p></p><p>/Soapbox</p><p>Something else that I think a lot of DMs face in CoS is dealing with bad writing. <em>Curse of Strahd </em>engaged in some incredibly sloppy writing tropes, that almost warn the heroes (and their players) off. The worst of which has to be... The Death House. Follow a couple creepy kids into someplace called "The Death House?" That sounds like a great idea! It smacked of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYae3ZAAbLc" target="_blank">GEICO commercial</a> where the group of teens says "Let's not go get in the car and leave, but instead go hide in that shed full of chainsaws." There's a lot of this type of writing, which makes a lot of extra work for the DM to provide a realistic hook into engaging in the scene.</p><p>/EndSoapbox</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TheLibrarian, post: 8999920, member: 7027009"] I like all the ideas above. ESPECIALLY "I you won't come to it, the Mists will come to you" as well as the idea that there is a certain level of dissociation that happens between D&D characters and players. And its worse with experienced players. They've seen [I]soooo much[/I] in D&D, film, books, video games, etc. that I think hooking them is really a task. haha. I feel like 75% of the prep that I do is coming up with a reasonable reason for the [I]players[/I] to engage with the story. A couple more ideas that haven't been mentioned... [LIST] [*]Maybe drive the characters in to action via their personal backgrounds and motivations. (I've also been known to pull on the personal backgrounds and motivations of the [I]players[/I] in a similar way to get them moving. Because: I'm an @$$hole.) Character (or player) really likes dogs? I heard those weirdos at The Durst Manor really like to do bad things to dogs. Looks there's a mutilated Golden Retriever dragging its way toward you now. [*]Leverage the legendary monster hunter Van Richten as a protector and mentor. He rescues the heroes and then ends up mentoring them. Show them that the night is defeatable. Then have him die horribly at some point in front of them by Strahd's hands. (Van Richten as Rictavio was a waste of the character in my opinion.) [/LIST] For my part, when I ran Death House, it turned it into Van Richten's Manor, which was situated in Baldur's Gate. As his former students, they were inextricably drawn to the manor (geased) only to find their mentor had disappeared. Clues were scattered throughout the manor pointing to where he had gone and that he needed help. As others above have said, I felt this eased the players into the scenario. /Soapbox Something else that I think a lot of DMs face in CoS is dealing with bad writing. [I]Curse of Strahd [/I]engaged in some incredibly sloppy writing tropes, that almost warn the heroes (and their players) off. The worst of which has to be... The Death House. Follow a couple creepy kids into someplace called "The Death House?" That sounds like a great idea! It smacked of the [URL='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYae3ZAAbLc']GEICO commercial[/URL] where the group of teens says "Let's not go get in the car and leave, but instead go hide in that shed full of chainsaws." There's a lot of this type of writing, which makes a lot of extra work for the DM to provide a realistic hook into engaging in the scene. /EndSoapbox [/QUOTE]
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