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

[Charlaquin]

I never had any problems with the original Strahd or its more recent incarnation in 5ed. But then again, my players are mature adults so...

I can see that playing CoS with a younger audience might prove more disturbing than necessary. In fact, CoS would not be my choice with a younger audience. Late teens ok, but early teens or younger? No way.

Now with adults with sensitivity problems...
Vistany are fine as long as you do not portray them all as bad. Some are good, some are bad and some are trully corrupted. Have some good Vistani warn the player that some of them are working for the devil Strahd. When asked the question of whom, have them answer:" We do not know, that is why we tell you. We are as much victims as you are in this matter. If you kill the devil Strahd, we will be free. But until then, we are silenced if we want ro survive." This makes the majority of the Vistani victims of Strahd and not collaborators. This is how I have always done it.

For the children deaths...
Keep this. Keep the house, the hags. An horror story does not spare the children. In fact, saving them brings heroism to the fore. The players have a chance to save children and their very souls. Seeing the evil of the hags and fighting it can be very cathartic for people. They are adults, they can manage and understand that evil is evil. I would certainly keep this in the adventure.

For the mongrelmen...
This part of the adventure is reminiscent of the Dr Moreau's Island novel. The grotesque associated with that part of the adventure can be unsettling but again, I would keep them. Especially if you intend to portray the Abbot as the mad angel that he is. Again, the goal is to unsettle your players with maccabre, grotesque and madness. Being witness to that can push the adventure a bit further down a feeling of righteousness in fighting the evil in CoS.

But if you fear that CoS is too hard on your players, why play that adventure in the first place? With so many changes required, the adventure itself is no longer a Gothic horror but a simple hack and slash the vampire. At this point, so many modifications and/or omissions just don't justify playing it. I always agreed on the Vistani as I have never played them as one sided villains, but I acknknowledge (now, at least this forum opened my eyes on that) that it is an easy trap to fall into and modifying that is mandatory. But the rest? Unless you are playing with young children or young teens... I would change nothing.

Not all mature adults have the same comfort levels around the same subjects, and yes, pushing comfort zones is part of the purpose of horror, but it’s also entertainment. It’s ok to set some reasonable limits, and I think violence against children especially is a reasonable one. Especially if any of your players have lost children, or have been victims of abuse as children, it is absolutely reasonable to excise that element from the game rather than risk stirring up serious trauma out of some misguided sense of artistic integrity.

Also, there are plenty of reasons to want to play a softened version of Curse of Strahd. There are plenty of reasons to want to play it with all the edge as well. Different people enjoy different levels of horror, and people shouldn’t be excluded from the game just because they don’t want child murder playing a major role their leisure activities.

 

[Helldritch]

Not all mature adults have the same comfort levels around the same subjects, and yes, pushing comfort zones is part of the purpose of horror, but it’s also entertainment. It’s ok to set some reasonable limits, and I think violence against children especially is a reasonable one. Especially if any of your players have lost children, or have been victims of abuse as children, it is absolutely reasonable to excise that element from the game rather than risk stirring up serious trauma out of some misguided sense of artistic integrity.

Also, there are plenty of reasons to want to play a softened version of Curse of Strahd. There are plenty of reasons to want to play it with all the edge as well. Different people enjoy different levels of horror, and people shouldn’t be excluded from the game just because they don’t want child murder playing a major role their leisure activities.

Part of the job of a DM is to know their players. The adventure itself has a tone that makes it unique in all D&D and that is why it is such a classic that spun its own setting. Not playing it as intended is not the way to do it. If your players can not handle this, then do not make them play such an adventure. It will be respectful to the adventure, but even more respectful to your players. Players deserve a full adventure and it can be very cathartic to wrong the evil found within CoS. If a DM feels that his/her players can not handle the mature content in CoS, then not playing it is way better than playing it. Or just play the castle itself and ignore the rest.

This adventure has a tone. It is gothic horror at its best. If you remove the gothic horror elements in it, why try to play it in the first place?

 

[Charlaquin]

Part of the job of a DM is to know their players. The adventure itself has a tone that makes it unique in all D&D and that is why it is such a classic that spun its own setting. Not playing it as intended is not the way to do it. If your players can not handle this, then do not make them play such an adventure. It will be respectful to the adventure, but even more respectful to your players.

That’s just silly. If the players want to play it but are uncomfortable with the subject of child murder in the game, it isn’t more respectful to them not to run the game they want to play.

Players deserve a full adventure and it can be very cathartic to wrong the evil found within CoS. If a DM feels that his/her players can not handle the mature content in CoS, then not playing it is way better than playing it. Or just play the castle itself and ignore the rest.

Curse of Strahd without child murder is still a full adventure. This isn’t a matter of not being able to handle mature content, it’s a matter of some content happening to aggravate deep personal trauma in some people. There’s nothing wrong with changing elements of the adventure if (as it is indeed the DM’s job to do) you know your players and you know they will enjoy the game generally but will be deeply upset by certain elements of it.

This adventure has a tone. It is gothic horror at its best. If you remove the gothic horror elements in it, why try to play it in the first place?

Nobody said to remove the gothic horror elements from it. Plenty of gothic horror doesn’t involve child murder.

 

[Helldritch]

That’s just silly. If the players want to play it but are uncomfortable with the subject of child murder in the game, it isn’t more respectful to them not to run the game they want to play.

Curse of Strahd without child murder is still a full adventure. This isn’t a matter of not being able to handle mature content, it’s a matter of some content happening to aggravate deep personal trauma in some people. There’s nothing wrong with changing elements of the adventure if (as it is indeed the DM’s job to do) you know your players and you know they will enjoy the game generally but will be deeply upset by certain elements of it.

Nobody said to remove the gothic horror elements from it. Plenty of gothic horror doesn’t involve child murder.

1) If they can't handle it. It is way more respectful not to play the adventure. Both for the players and to the adventure itself.

2) Again, know your players. If you know that they have a trauma and play this adventure, it would be a bad thing to even suggest this adventure. Child murder is in:" The house, the hags and even with the werewolves.". Up to a certain point, the winery is included as members of that familly has been killed. It is not said, but implied. And an other time with the girl at the lake. That is alot to remove. At that point, just keep the castle and make it a hack and slash the vampire.

3) Yes, plenty, but even the mongrelmen seem to be a problem from what is said on this thread. Again, just keep the castle (as in the original adventure) and that will be it.

Modifying the Vistani up to a certain point is a good thing as I have said. But from what I see, it is around half the book that would need to be rewrote. At that point why even bother to play it? Gothic horror implies a lot if distasteful things. If this is not the cup of tea of your audience, then just don't play it. I would never let children or young teenagers play CoS. Never. But adults should be able to handle a lot more. If they're not because of some trauma, respect them and the adventure and play something else or keep the play to the castle itself.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Part of the job of a DM is to know their players. The adventure itself has a tone that makes it unique in all D&D and that is why it is such a classic that spun its own setting. Not playing it as intended is not the way to do it. If your players can not handle this, then do not make them play such an adventure. It will be respectful to the adventure, but even more respectful to your players. Players deserve a full adventure and it can be very cathartic to wrong the evil found within CoS. If a DM feels that his/her players can not handle the mature content in CoS, then not playing it is way better than playing it. Or just play the castle itself and ignore the rest.

This adventure has a tone. It is gothic horror at its best. If you remove the gothic horror elements in it, why try to play it in the first place?

This is some of the nuttiest advice I've ever seen on this forum. (And, really, that's a pretty high bar.)

Ravenloft is indeed "classic" but the child murder element wasn't in the original, so I'm not quite sure where you're coming from.

You can tweak the adventure so that children aren't murdered, and make a few other changes, and still retain the overall theme, and the suspense, and the creepiness.

Also, disliking the theme of children being murdered has nothing whatsoever to do with "maturity". In fact, probably the opposite. I think I would have thought it was awesome when I played AD&D as a teenager. Now that I'm a father I find it disturbing.

 

[Helldritch]

This is some of the nuttiest advice I've ever seen on this forum. (And, really, that's a pretty high bar.)

Ravenloft is indeed "classic" but the child murder element wasn't in the original, so I'm not quite sure where you're coming from.

You can tweak the adventure so that children aren't murdered, and make a few other changes, and still retain the feel of the adventure.

That is why I said to keep the adventure to the castle itself. And no, I am not nuts. Keep your insults to yourself. You can disagree but stay polite please.

Whenver possible, you should always try to keep the adventure as close as possible to the intent of the authors. Yes you will modify a few bits here and there to better your group. But how many pages does this rewritting will involve?

Of course the original did not have these elements. It was what 50 pages long? This new itteration is in line with the box set we had in the 90's. Grotesque, grim and dark. Everything that a gothic horror genre had to have. I see this adventure as much an homage to the I5 adventure as it is to the world of Ravenloft and the domains of dread. A lot was added in the box set and the other supplements. Quite a lot.

And for the last paragraph of your answer. Nope, you can but you will not retain a sliver of the original horror of the adventure. It will be something else entirely. That is why I would keep only the castle if I had such issues. Or not play it at all.

Edit:" And I never said that I liked child muredering. That is quite an accusation you make there."

 

[Burnside]

I never had any problems with the original Strahd or its more recent incarnation in 5ed. But then again, my players are mature adults so...

I can see that playing CoS with a younger audience might prove more disturbing than necessary. In fact, CoS would not be my choice with a younger audience. Late teens ok, but early teens or younger? No way.

Now with adults with sensitivity problems...
Vistany are fine as long as you do not portray them all as bad. Some are good, some are bad and some are trully corrupted. Have some good Vistani warn the player that some of them are working for the devil Strahd. When asked the question of whom, have them answer:" We do not know, that is why we tell you. We are as much victims as you are in this matter. If you kill the devil Strahd, we will be free. But until then, we are silenced if we want ro survive." This makes the majority of the Vistani victims of Strahd and not collaborators. This is how I have always done it.

For the children deaths...
Keep this. Keep the house, the hags. An horror story does not spare the children. In fact, saving them brings heroism to the fore. The players have a chance to save children and their very souls. Seeing the evil of the hags and fighting it can be very cathartic for people. They are adults, they can manage and understand that evil is evil. I would certainly keep this in the adventure.

For the mongrelmen...
This part of the adventure is reminiscent of the Dr Moreau's Island novel. The grotesque associated with that part of the adventure can be unsettling but again, I would keep them. Especially if you intend to portray the Abbot as the mad angel that he is. Again, the goal is to unsettle your players with maccabre, grotesque and madness. Being witness to that can push the adventure a bit further down a feeling of righteousness in fighting the evil in CoS.

But if you fear that CoS is too hard on your players, why play that adventure in the first place? With so many changes required, the adventure itself is no longer a Gothic horror but a simple hack and slash the vampire. At this point, so many modifications and/or omissions just don't justify playing it. I always agreed on the Vistani as I have never played them as one sided villains, but I acknknowledge (now, at least this forum opened my eyes on that) that it is an easy trap to fall into and modifying that is mandatory. But the rest? Unless you are playing with young children or young teens... I would change nothing.

You know, OP stated quite clearly in the opening post that it's fine if you disagree with them, but in that case the thread isn't for you. And yet not only were you unable to resist making this post anyway, you also couldn't resist insulting the OP's players as "immature adults" with "sensitivity problems." Good job.

 

[Burnside]

I think the Vistani are the easiest fix - you can simply replace them with pretty much any group. The last time I ran it, I used nomadic genasi.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

grossness with the dusk elves.

What is the solution with Dusk Elves? I know that Strahd killed all the females. Some other things to know about?

 

[Helldritch]

You know, OP stated quite clearly in the opening post that it's fine if you disagree with them, but in that case the thread isn't for you. And yet not only were you unable to resist making this post anyway, you also couldn't resist insulting the OP's players as "immature adults" with "sensitivity problems." Good job.

I did not insulted anyone. I did not even implied what you are saying. Reread my posts.

And my solution is still the same. Keep to the castle, this would be the best solution short of denaturing the adventure itself.