D&D 5E Curse of Strahd spoiler-filled general discussion

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Not to thread crap, but in terms of the time... does it matter? Really, four years, 40 years, 400 years, why does it matter in a fiction game setting where everything can be adjusted and changed with the wave of a hand. This is not a history test where we have to know what year the German's bombed us at Pearl Harbor. Ravenleft - the entire realm, not the castle - has always had a nightmare/Twilight Zone feel to it in terms of setting, time and history. When I run it, I intent to make things vague for the sake of making the entire place slightly surreal.

I will use an in-game card reading, and I will probably use it before the characters enter Barovia.

 

[Daern]

I like the advice to have some meaningless bluster ready while looking up the actual card. "This card tells you where a great weapon is hidden... not the Trident called Wave, not the Hammer called Whelm but... ah here we go, a sword hidden in..."

There's a bit of page flipping involved in doing one of these readings.

 

[jrowland]

I like the advice to have some meaningless bluster ready while looking up the actual card. "This card tells you where a great weapon is hidden... not the Trident called Wave, not the Hammer called Whelm but... ah here we go, a sword hidden in..."

There's a bit of page flipping involved in doing one of these readings.

"not the silver arm of a magical smith, nor the breath of a fairy. It is neither hairy, nor slimy, and has not a hint of strawberry in it's odor. It does not exist at two places at once, nor does it not exist..."

 

[Mercule]

There's a bit of page flipping involved in doing one of these readings.

Oh, yeah. That was another reason I wanted to stack the deck. Pull all the notes together into one big boxed text (with somatic components).

 

[Mouseferatu]

Oh, yeah. That was another reason I wanted to stack the deck. Pull all the notes together into one big boxed text (with somatic components).

When I ran a Tarokka reading in a Ravenloft campaign ages and ages (and ages and ages and ages *sob* I'm old) ago, I carefully ordered the cards I wanted the PCs to pull. I then hid them behind my books/screen/etc., gave the PCs the rest of the deck, and had them shuffle. Then it was just a matter of sneaking the deck behind the screen for one second so I could put my prepared cards on top.

Just a suggestion, since it makes the stacking less obvious, and makes the reading feel more personal, if you still let the PCs shuffle.

 

[Mercule]

When I ran a Tarokka reading in a Ravenloft campaign ages and ages (and ages and ages and ages *sob* I'm old) ago, I carefully ordered the cards I wanted the PCs to pull. I then hid them behind my books/screen/etc., gave the PCs the rest of the deck, and had them shuffle. Then it was just a matter of sneaking the deck behind the screen for one second so I could put my prepared cards on top.

Just a suggestion, since it makes the stacking less obvious, and makes the reading feel more personal, if you still let the PCs shuffle.

I guess I never really thought about it. Most of my players shuffle like an arthritic hyena while I can actually shuffle a triple deck without issue. No one even thinks twice about it. It's actually probably pretty funny when we play cards; like a bunch of kids where Dad shuffles the cards for everyone.

That's a great idea, though. I might let them shuffle, anyway, just to add to the atmosphere.

 

[Savage Wombat]

When I ran a Tarokka reading in a Ravenloft campaign ages and ages (and ages and ages and ages *sob* I'm old) ago, I carefully ordered the cards I wanted the PCs to pull. I then hid them behind my books/screen/etc., gave the PCs the rest of the deck, and had them shuffle. Then it was just a matter of sneaking the deck behind the screen for one second so I could put my prepared cards on top.

Just a suggestion, since it makes the stacking less obvious, and makes the reading feel more personal, if you still let the PCs shuffle.

I actually pulled this in my first 5e campaign, before I knew CoS was coming. I stacked the cards with the PCs archetype cards and the main villain cards, and did the same force. I wasn't even subtle - just did it while they were talking about something.

One of my players had his mind completely BLOWN. How in GOD'S NAME did the paladin, the evoker, the anarchist and the burglar card come up just like that? Was it MAGIC?

 

[Koren]

Was anyone opening with The Death House adventure?

I'm trying to decide the best way to work the Death House into the mix. If they come up on the town of Barovia as written and investigate the sobbing and then check out the shops then they may not even stumble on the kids in front of the Death House. At this point they'll probably have a few things they want to do and may not want to bother with the kids.

I was thinking about having the party run into the kids while the town is still quiet so they investigate. If I do that I probably won't show them the art of the kids in the book. The creepy kids in the book would probably get magic missiled if that was the first people that the party sees when it goes into the town.

Yep, I'm opening with custom hooks into Ravenloft for each of my player's characters, which will dump them out separately in the woods or around the village as a storm approaches and day is giving way to night, followed by presenting them with the hook for Death House after they unite, but with some changes. I agree with you on the picture in the book. I'm replacing the boy with an identical twin sister for Rose (still nicknamed Thorn, short for Thornwalda), who doesn't speak or respond to characters at all, but screams if touched. My twins will be auburn-haired, pale-skinned, with green eyes and wearing simple gray dresses/cloaks, maybe look a bit old fashioned, but they should seem no stranger than anything else in this strange land.

I'm lifting the "kids aren't deceased, but are in a magical sleep/stasis" plot device from the thread: "challenge: rewrite Death House to avoid a key feature (spoilers)" - search for it - I can't link as I'm a first-time noob poster.

I hate the heavy-handed use of the mists, so the party will be free to leave Death House until they find the secret door to the cellar revealed after they wake up the twins). At that point, the door from the attic back to the third floor slams and is magically sealed by the house, leaving the crawl through the cellar as the only way out.

This could lead to the party deciding to forgo the adventure entirely, but such is the danger of a sandbox. I'd rather have to throw some extra encounters with wolves and zombies at them to get them to the appropriate level than go all deus ex mistica on them at every turn if they don't want to explore the house (cue Eddie Murphy's bit on Haunted houses "Too bad we can't stay, baby").

I did some fudging around with some other spots in the adventure to tie into the sleeping girls plot line.

• The spectre will make a couple of quick "out of the corner of the eye" appearances) but not attack or reveal herself until someone tries to wake up the kids (she's "keeping them safe...for eternity").
• If the girls are with the party when they run into the parents' ghasts down below, the mother attempts to grab Rose and move down the stairs and into the ritual chamber (closing the portcullis behind her) in order to sacrifice her to complete the ritual. Rose wiggles free and runs, giving the party time to follow.
• If that fails, one of the characters will have a vision of themselves sacrificing Thorn while Rose intones creepily "She was too broken to live". I don't expect them to actually go through with it, but it will certainly attract the Dark Powers if someone at my table does!
  

Also making some cosmetic changes to some of the loot to make it more Ravenlofty.

• The cloak of protection has a knife hole and blood stain that returns even if Mending or a similar spell is cast.
• Replacing the alchemist's fire with a vial of blood that never coagulates or dries (and refills the next time it's out of sight if dumped out)

Other than that, no major changes. Assuming they rescue the twins, this should get the party interested in moving on from Barovia to find the girls a home before heading up to knock on the castle front door. No one in the village will want to take in a couple of 200 year old curse-babies, so Vallaki it will have to be! Or maybe those nice old ladies at the mill...

The story of the twins won't end here. At some point before the adventure's conclusion, at least one of the two will make a reappearance.

 

[evilbob]

So, back to the main thread: let's talk about that tiger more. First, it is just a weird situation that a character who is trying to fight vampires has a tiger that is trained to kill humans. It's also not a very lawful good solution to the problem. It seems wildly out of character, and suggests to me that Van Richten is going mad - except he would have been going mad before even getting to Barovia, since tigers aren't exactly native. The writing here just seems scattered and doesn't follow very well. I'm wondering if it's worth trying to re-write the tiger into something else. Maybe a captured vampire? I mean, I get that they are trying to throw something completely out of left field at the party just to shake things up (can't just fight undead every day) but the tiger is completely unbelievable.

Second, there is an entire "special event" dedicated to the tiger - which will never happen. They put in a lot of interesting plot but #1, any players who find a colorful carnival wagon that makes a snarl of "something inhuman" and has dried blood on it are GOING to investigate (likely taking the tiger out of play early), and #2, thanks to the town's layout, this is the first thing they'll come across when they come to the town! The numbering on the map - and the way the plot is laid out - seems to indicate that the game expects them to come from the west, but unless they specifically skip the town on their way to Krezk, of course they'll come from the east. I'm thinking of making the town map flip - or at the very least, swapping the position of N1 and N5 - depending on which direction the characters come from.

(Also, here's the link from the post above: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...Death-House-to-avoid-a-key-feature-(spoilers))

 

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

I took it that the tiger was for dealing with human servants of vampires, similar to how Strahd has a chamberlain, albeit that chamberlain is an elf. Strahd also has an accountant - one of my favorite touches in the book - for the tiger to eat. And a tiger will help Van Richten... negotiate with corrupt mayors and constables.