D&D 5E Curse of Strahd: Determining your Ally

[evilbob]

If Strahd or his spies were to get word that they actually have the sword, Strahd would stop at nothing to get it back.

Fair enough!

 

[Savage Wombat]

OK - finally got the Tarokka reading done for my players' party. The ally they rolled is Victor Vallakovich (handy because they don't have a wizard). He's the eccentric son of the burgomaster of Vallaki.

Any suggestions for tying his story more directly to the plot are welcome.

 

[CapnZapp]

I think it depends on whether you plan to play through the scenario again. If you do, then you want the results to vary each time as wildly as possible. If not, you want the most epic story you can get.

I've never understood the fascination with these rules. The possibility my group would ever run one and the same scenario more than once isn't to none.

It just seems such a waste to spend space on rules that essentially add a risk the adventure won't provide the maximum impact. Having rules that add a risk of item placement that short-circuits other parts of the adventure seems contra-productive to me...

 

[evilbob]

OK - finally got the Tarokka reading done for my players' party. The ally they rolled is Victor Vallakovich (handy because they don't have a wizard). He's the eccentric son of the burgomaster of Vallaki.

Any suggestions for tying his story more directly to the plot are welcome.

If you want to stick to the existing characterization of Victor, I'd play up the rumors about the purple lights in the Burgomaster's home for one (give them early and often). Maybe also calm the current Burgomaster down a notch or two, and have him at least pretend to be friendly for longer... long enough to invite the PCs to his home for dinner and introduce his family - which would also be an easy way to introduce the lack of servants and start that side quest. He could personally ask them to help find the missing people, which would give them a great reason to be exploring the house.

You could also tie Victor in with other sideplots: maybe Izek actually bullies him mercilessly and you could bring that up a few times. It would explain his desperation level to escape and make him more sympathetic (as-written he's basically just a sociopathic murderer); once Izek gets killed (because you know that's going to happen at some point) maybe the kid even comes clean to the characters (but not to his father). He could even offer to spy for them on his dad until that whole plot is resolved: I don't think he cares about his family very much. That would give him some ties to the PCs and make them trust him more and make it easier for them to convince him to come with them when they leave. Of course, I don't think it would take hardly anything to convince him to go with the PCs: he wants to leave so badly anyone who isn't obviously going to murder him immediately would likely do.

If none of that is working for you and you don't like him being a murderer you could just ignore the purple lights rumor and the servant side quest and once the tiger (or whatever) event happens, the kid takes that opportunity to escape the town: the PCs are either sent to find him or they get kicked out of the town and run into him on the road, and he's desperate to stick with them because they're his best chance to survive and get out of this land. He could probably convince the PCs not to take him back by giving up anything he knows about his dad and Izek and proving that he's not useless (also they should know they need him anyway for the fortunes). The rest of the game could have an interesting side plot of how far he has to go before he reveals to his parents that he's been traveling with the PCs, or how he takes it once his parents' house is burned down by the cult, or whatever ends up happening.

 

[vongarr]

It's fun to draw cards from a deck and make cryptic statements about them. Anything beyond that, for me as a GM, is icing.

Also, how is the maximum impact determined? One perfect ally for one group is next to useless for another. For example, consider a particular magic user that needs greater restoration to be cast to be useful. That would be the maximum choice for many groups, but it's useless for those without a cleric.

Considering the tournament roots of D&D and the age of the original module, the re-playable nature might be linked to that, too. Not sure though.

 

[jayoungr]

The possibility my group would ever run one and the same scenario more than once isn't to none.

I've heard of groups that run Ravenloft every Halloween, though.

If you're only going to run it once, then just stack the deck to get whatever result you think will be the most exciting. Your players won't care.

 

[MrHotter]

I decided to do a manual card reading for my first time playing. I made Esmeralda the ally because that just sounded like the best fit for my game. I'm also changing her stats to make sure she is not more powerful than the players. I've not figured out her stats yet. I'm not sure what CR would be a good fit for an NPC that is a bit less powerful than a level 10 player character.

Another idea that I had was to remove Esmerelda from the adventure and make Ireena the ally, but have her become a vampire hunter (that will rejoin the party later) if she is left at the inn in Vallaki. I'd also make Rictavio be a good source for lore, but too old to be helpful in a fight. I'll have to see how I feel when it comes time to draw the cards (on my stacked deck).

 

[evilbob]

Also, how is the maximum impact determined? One perfect ally for one group is next to useless for another.

I don't think it's really hard. A six year old girl is probably not as powerful as a CR 8 creature. And yes, if you have no way to remove curse, you're going to miss quite a bit of the game. I think CoS assumes "cleric or paladin" for a large chunk. One of the relics is a cleric/paly item, for example.

Replayability is also probably linked to the Adventure League-ness of the campaign as well: it ensures that very few campaigns will run the same or have the same objectives - not that they really would anyway, but it gives even more variance.

 

[Ganymede81]

Fair enough!

As it happens, I am now in super-secret talks with the player possessing the Sunsword involving a possible betrayal in a future session. It wasn't my idea, it had more to do with an offhand comment he made from an earlier session.

That has the potential to create a new memorable villain for this adventure.

 

[vongarr]

I don't think it's really hard. A six year old girl is probably not as powerful as a CR 8 creature. And yes, if you have no way to remove curse, you're going to miss quite a bit of the game. I think CoS assumes "cleric or paladin" for a large chunk. One of the relics is a cleric/paly item, for example.

Replayability is also probably linked to the Adventure League-ness of the campaign as well: it ensures that very few campaigns will run the same or have the same objectives - not that they really would anyway, but it gives even more variance.

My question was more of a rhetorical one. NPC's, such as a certain wizard, are obviously the best choice in raw mechanical terms. But this is a roleplaying game. A character/player could take a liking to one of the possible NPC's, and their story can then become more important than anything mechanical.

It would be nice if there was more consideration given to actual in game use, though. And I don't mean just combat. A clockwork jester can give a map, a simple merchants boy could reveal a cache of magical items, a little girl could rally other villagers, to name a few. The "benefit" of the rather uninspired inspiration is pretty lame. My thought on seeing an ally was, wow, this character must be important to success. Not so.