D&D 5E Sanitizing Curse of Strahd (+)

[Gradine]

I'm still not sure how or why this thread got resurrected, and I've certainly moved on from this particular concept, but I do still think some of the ideas being presented here are fantastic. To answer a few dangling questions:

1: The (+) means that I wanted to discuss this with likeminded people to find solutions to the problems I presented. What I did not want to do was endlessly debate whether they were problems at all... the point was that they are problems to me and my players and that I was specifically asking about potential solutions for my specific problems. Hence, the (+). Did it work? Well... you tell me?

2: Different folks have different traumas, different anxieties, different triggers, and varying degrees of sensitivity to all of those. This is an undeniable fact of the human condition. For example: after my partner had a child, she was no longer able to at all, in any way, deal with even fictional accounts of children in peril. This is not about whether it's "okay" for cannibal hags to eat children in an adventure, but that it definitely won't fly at my table. This is just one example.

3: If you're trying to be respectful of the above fact, classifying these issues as either a sensitivity "problem" or as an issue of "maturity" is 100% not the way to go about it. It's insulting, demeaning, and also demonstrably false.

 

[Bolares]

Something like, “may no child be born of your blood as long as petrovna sleeps in the earth”?

''While you morn the loss of your blood, no child may be born"?

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm still not sure how or why this thread got resurrected,

It seems @Hugh_the_DM came across the thread while looking for ideas to tone down some potentially triggering elements of the adventure for their own group, and wanted to share some of their own ideas while they were at it.

Myself, I just love Curse of Strahd and enjoy talking about it and ways to tweak it, so I took the opportunity to toss around some of the things I had been thinking about in light of Van Richten’s Guide. I actually have a whole CoS remix brewing, but most of the ideas aren’t relevant to this thread, as they aren’t specifically meant to make the adventure more palatable but rather to incorporate ideas from Van Richten’s and also add a touch of The Magnus Archive (my take on the Dark Powers for this remix is similar to MA’s Fears).

 

[Helldritch]

Compound that with the "My players are mature adults, so..." lead in (which, despite Helldritch's back-pedaling, was of course a clear insult to the OP's players) and it was a bad post to make.

But I'm not a mod and and I'm not here to tell you what you can and can't say. That particular post Helldritch made just rubbed me the wrong way.

1) My backpedaling was because in here, Canada, we have young adults (20+), Adults (30+) and Mature Adults 40+. I did not expected that in this forum it would be seen as having a negative connotation. I hurt you and it was not my intention. Never was it meant as an insult as none were intended. Poor choice of words because we have different levels of adulthood over here. Mature can have more than one meaning.

2) Again I am sorry if my post had rubbed you the wrong way and insulted you. It was not my intention.

3) My pieces of advice on CoS still stand though...

 

[Gradine]

1) My backpedaling was because in here, Canada, we have young adults (20+), Adults (30+) and Mature Adults 40+. I did not expected that in this forum it would be seen as having a negative connotation. I hurt you and it was not my intention. Never was it meant as an insult as none were intended. Poor choice of words because we have different levels of adulthood over here. Mature can have more than one meaning.

2) Again I am sorry if my post had rubbed you the wrong way and insulted you. It was not my intention.

Re-reading, I can see how you were totally talking about age. You were still way off-base, but definitely is more understandable.

Of course, you still also referred to "sensitivity problems" which is still insulting and condescending.

3) My pieces of advice on CoS still stand though...

It was advice offered in contradiction to my specific requests in the OP, in a (+) thread. Again, I don't want to argue over whether me and my tables' personal triggers are valid or not. They are, full stop, and if your advice is to dismiss their concerns and insult my players by insisting that it's their problem, then your advice was not and still is not welcome in this thread.

 

[Helldritch]

Re-reading, I can see how you were totally talking about age. You were still way off-base, but definitely is more understandable.

Thank you. Off base in this forum but right on target in Canada.

Of course, you still also referred to "sensitivity problems" which is still insulting and condescending.

It was advice offered in contradiction to my specific requests in the OP, in a (+) thread. Again, I don't want to argue over whether me and my tables' personal triggers are valid or not. They are, full stop, and if your advice is to dismiss their concerns and insult my players by insisting that it's their problem, then your advice was not and still is not welcome in this thread.

Re read my advices again. Ignore the sensitivity comment part as it is your job as a DM to know where your players stand. Unless you play with strangers (or maybe you are a DM for hire, it seems to be the rage over here. Many forums are asking for DM for hire...) you really should know how far they can go about almost any subject matters. If their sensitivity is such that they can't play Strahd without heavy modification, keep to the castle as it was in the original adventure. I would not touch CoS with a 10' long pole if I were playing with young teenager and with players I do not fully know, I would not take CoS as my first pick as it does have serious sensitivity issues for some. I know I never played the Vistanis as they were described. Even as a teenager. With newer players, I would take time to know them, learn their taste and what they can stomach or not. Once that goal is reached, I will remove anything that might be problematic. Not adapt, simply remove. This is way easier and it will keep within the spirit of the adventure. By the way, did you notice that in every pool of almost every forums CoS is usually at the top? This might mean something...

I have a young woman DM that asked me about the same things you did in this forum but it was in person. She DM young teens and wondered what she should do as she was troubled herself about some aspects (especially the hags eating children). I said, cut that. Do not use that part. And guess what? That is what she did and it worked out. She kept the werewolf part but made it so that it was a recent abduction and villagers had the chance to learn about the intentions of the werewolves. The players had a few days before the full moon and everything went well.

She essentialy did what I told you to do.