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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9472042" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/d1yoyvv.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/348639/Strahd-Gives-Me-Goosebumps" target="_blank">Product Link</a>Product Type: DMing ToolsCoS-Required? YesYou know what time it is: another October, another batch of fanmade Ravenloft books to review! For our first one, we’ll cover DMing advice on running Curse of Strahd for 8 to 12 year old players.Many people got their start playing Dungeons & Dragons as kids. With tabletop games being more popular and mainstream than ever, 5th Edition has seen its share of child players and DMs. But that Edition’s most popular adventure is far from age-appropriate. The author, whose wife is a children’s book author, plays Dungeons & Dragons games with family, and it wasn’t long before their son asked to play Curse of Strahd with his friends.Strahd Gives Me Goosebumps is thus an aid to those Dungeon Masters running games for “Middle Grade Readers,” a literary publishing term for 8-12 year olds. Its advice is derived from existing rules for these kinds of stories, and posits three existing popular pieces of media for general “horror levels:” Scooby Doo, where the spooky stuff is purely atmospheric and there’s no real fear of danger or bad endings; Goosebumps, with a bit more moments of danger and a sense that things can end badly; and Coraline, where there’s a persistent sense of peril and horror elements, and is the only level of horror where monsters would specifically target children.The book is split between general advice that is used for horror adventures in general, and specific modifications to Curse of Strahd divided up by chapter. For broad strokes, the general advice includes substituting penalties for loss besides death such as getting trapped/cursed/possessed/etc by villains, giving PCs a chance to fix problems and injustices in Barovia rather than having them be insurmountable, not introduce too many dangling plot hooks and side quests at once (two at maximum), and give players a way to privately signal discomfort if elements in the adventure are getting too much for them, such as nonverbal cues like tapping their nose twice. This last part is because many children are embarrassed of losing face among their peers if they say that they’re scared of something.For specific Chapter modifications, the book doesn’t cover each one, only the ones with themost mature content. For instance, it suggests skipping Death House save for players who want “Coraline” levels of horror, and even then to make it less lethal like removing the “one must die” threat and the shambling mound at the end.For the Village of Barovia and Strahd’s obsession with Ireena, the book says that protecting Ireena from Strahd works fine as is, but instead of having him seduce her or try to win her and the characters over, he’s more of an obviously monstrous threat who wants to kidnap Ireena and turn her into a vampire because she looks like his lost love. The book suggests that it can “actually be a nice teachable moment about healthy relationships and respecting people’s boundaries.”Other expected changes include altering the night hags to be hypnotizing people with magic pies and harvesting the dreams of kidnapped people rather than killing and baking them; changing Strahd’s consorts into his generals or servants; dispensing with much of Vallaki’s political conflict and have it made clear by trusted NPCs that both the Baron and Lady Wachter are wrong in a “both sides” way; to make it so that players who want to find a worthy leader for Vallaki as replacement don’t get robbed of their efforts by having them end up a pawn of Strahd or otherwise keep town in an oppressive status quo; changing the Abbot in Krezk to be a wizard/alchemist who once had good intentions, but also with the caveat that players who learn that he was a “good guy” may thus want to redeem him; changing the Belviews to be animals with “Ninja Turtle” anthro aesthetics rather than insane deformed humans; and having it so that the werewolves kidnap people in general rather than children specifically, and the losers in their forced duels become workers rather than being killed.Wrapping things up, the book notes that Curse of Strahd is a very long module, and that for players who may want a shorter experience it suggests an idea called Two Nights at Strahdy’s. It’s similar to Slyflourish’s <a href="https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/359-strahd-must-die-tonight-how-to-play-ravenloft-in-a" target="_blank">Strahd Must Die Tonight</a> one-shot, where PCs start at level 9 or 10 and the adventure focuses entirely on venturing through Castle Ravenloft to defeat Strahd. Thus, all of the treasures would be in the Castle, and Fated Allies can meet up with the PCs in the Village of Barovia and join them on their way up there.Overall Thoughts: While I don’t run games for children nor am I a parent, the advice looks pretty good and common-sense by my estimation. It covers a lot of the more “R-rated” material of the module, and its general advice can be good for horror adventures besides Curse of Strahd. Its cheap price makes it well worth the cost, and I would definitely recommend it for those running games for young players.Join us next time as we vacation down at Camp Silver Lake, a slasher-themed oneshot!</blockquote>

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