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Curse of Strahd help
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<blockquote data-quote="hastur_nz" data-source="post: 7064691" data-attributes="member: 40592"><p>"sucker for a pretty face" is a great hook that could be used to good effect a number of times. Like straight away, with Lady Wachter - don't show the picture on page 112, describe her as mature but in good condition, alluring... give the new player the chance to help counter the murder-hobo tendencies that seem to be there with other player(s), and see if it can create some interesting role-play. Gertruda in the Castle is another obvious one, but pretty much all the female NPC's are easily usable as "pretty face" candidates, not just the female vampire spawn.</p><p></p><p>Adventurers are drawn into Barovia "all the time", so adding new PC's is easy. Personally I'd introduce the new PC already *in* Vallaki - they have been drawn into the mists and outside Vallaki in as you describe, but already they have wandered into town, found the local church, got a little bit of background info about what's gone on lately, and eventually they find the other PC's. A "vision" or suchlike that hints at their destiny being to defeat Strahd, or something similar - personally, not to my taste, too heavy-handed in terms of trying to force future story/plot; by all means the PC might suspect that his God has sent him to Barovia as some kind of Test of Faith or suchlike, but personally I'd leave the actual reason unstated. As for the fate of his/her old companions, we'll never know (unless you need a new PC, in which case yes a new one is miraculously found wandering nearby).</p><p></p><p>I don't know that you need too much other back-story - the 'default' set-up is really simple - you are trapped, and have to kill Strahd in order to escape. So unless there's some majorly elaborate set-up that's been added for the existing PC's, I think adding a new PC is really simple for the DM; anything the player wants to add (prior and/or during play) is up to them. In our game, the PC's backgrounds varied from elaborate and/or weird, to virtually non-existent, and they were all completely fine; some of the background stuff gave me opportunities to enhance the adventure, others fell by the wayside; either way the bulk of the story was what played out around the table. </p><p></p><p>Especially if you are entering a campaign half way through, I've found that a minimal amount of back-story is actually best - you really just want the new PC to get on with helping out the already-established P's and their story lines, not suddenly change the whole dynamic and/or bog it down with new exposition.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="hastur_nz, post: 7064691, member: 40592"] "sucker for a pretty face" is a great hook that could be used to good effect a number of times. Like straight away, with Lady Wachter - don't show the picture on page 112, describe her as mature but in good condition, alluring... give the new player the chance to help counter the murder-hobo tendencies that seem to be there with other player(s), and see if it can create some interesting role-play. Gertruda in the Castle is another obvious one, but pretty much all the female NPC's are easily usable as "pretty face" candidates, not just the female vampire spawn. Adventurers are drawn into Barovia "all the time", so adding new PC's is easy. Personally I'd introduce the new PC already *in* Vallaki - they have been drawn into the mists and outside Vallaki in as you describe, but already they have wandered into town, found the local church, got a little bit of background info about what's gone on lately, and eventually they find the other PC's. A "vision" or suchlike that hints at their destiny being to defeat Strahd, or something similar - personally, not to my taste, too heavy-handed in terms of trying to force future story/plot; by all means the PC might suspect that his God has sent him to Barovia as some kind of Test of Faith or suchlike, but personally I'd leave the actual reason unstated. As for the fate of his/her old companions, we'll never know (unless you need a new PC, in which case yes a new one is miraculously found wandering nearby). I don't know that you need too much other back-story - the 'default' set-up is really simple - you are trapped, and have to kill Strahd in order to escape. So unless there's some majorly elaborate set-up that's been added for the existing PC's, I think adding a new PC is really simple for the DM; anything the player wants to add (prior and/or during play) is up to them. In our game, the PC's backgrounds varied from elaborate and/or weird, to virtually non-existent, and they were all completely fine; some of the background stuff gave me opportunities to enhance the adventure, others fell by the wayside; either way the bulk of the story was what played out around the table. Especially if you are entering a campaign half way through, I've found that a minimal amount of back-story is actually best - you really just want the new PC to get on with helping out the already-established P's and their story lines, not suddenly change the whole dynamic and/or bog it down with new exposition. [/QUOTE]
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