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

[Gradine]

Here's the official Curse of Strahd errata: https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/CoS-Errata.pdf

You'll see they have made an attempt to "fix" the Vistani.

They tried, but it's not nearly enough. Frankly, "fixing" the Vistani involves removing them entirely, Roma stereotypes and all, which WotC would frankly, depressingly, never get away with. That the "Roma" are part in parcel with the Gothic Horror genre is depressing enough, the fact that they're so inextricably linked with the setting is worse.

 

[Faolyn]

I've mostly ignored the Vistani, except for the initial tarroka reading. I've never liked them much, even before I realized how they're problematic. I haven't gotten to the dusk elves and would probably just make them either humans or fey, because I run Ravenloft as humans only. I don't have a problem with dead kids, as long as there's nothing sexual about it.

 

[Charlaquin]

Here's the official Curse of Strahd errata: https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/CoS-Errata.pdf

You'll see they have made an attempt to "fix" the Vistani.

Like i said, they changed a few sentences but didn’t fundamentally change the Vistani’s depiction.

 

[Azzy]

To summarize, the dusk elves (and really, one dusk elf in particular) earned Strahd’s wrath, so in retribution he set out to exterminate the entire race. But he wanted to extend their torment, so he had all of the female dusk elves killed, but left all the men alive. With their long elven life spans, they were stuck slowly going extinct over hundreds of years, knowing that with no women, they couldn’t reproduce.

Personally I don’t find that particularly upsetting, though I could see it meriting a content warning for sure. Mostly it shows Strahd’s cruelty and misogyny, which I don’t think is a bad thing as long as your players are ok with the subjects of genocide and violence against women being broached in the game.

Where it does get kind of icky for me though is that the particular dusk elf who pissed Strahd off so much is an NPC in the adventure, and one of the player’s potential prophesied allies against Strahd. His goal is to go to the amber temple, where a bunch of ancient evil vestiges are trapped, so that he can make a deal with one of them to resurrect his sister, to save his race. And since their doom is caused by the inability to reproduce... the implication is that the dude wants to resurrect his sister to become a literal baby factory. Also, if you succeed in resurrecting the sister, it turns out she’s evil and in love with Strahd.

Yeah, that's rather ick. Thanks for answering my question, though.

 

[Zardnaar]

Dusk elve can go the half elf solution.

I'm fine with most of the ick although you want to communicate that.

Vista I need fixed, the other adult stuff is fine as it's the villains being villains. Ymmv though.

I own the adventure, never liked the Vistani even in the 90s.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

In our Curse of Strahd West Marches game, I've flipped the dream pastry dynamic on its head. The children will be selling out their parents.

For the Vistani, I'm playing them as a group which just prefers to roam and not settle in the towns/villages in the valley. Some of them work as merchants alongside Barovians. Some of them are evil, just as some of the Barovians are evil. But most are just living their lives - I like the "joyous revelry" angle. Only a few work for Strahd (along with a few Barovians). The Vistani, however, have no involvement with bringing unsuspecting adventurers into Barovia. They do maintain their special powers, though, including the curses and fortune telling.

Haven't figured out the dusk elf issue yet. Yikes, I totally had missed the implication that she was going to be the Eve of the new Dusk Elf population. As Alexis would say: Ew David. We've already come up with an idea that an ancient elven city lies buried under what is now Barovia, so perhaps more Dusk Elves are trapped down there in stasis or something... need to think about that one more.

I like that the "Revamped" Ezmerelda takes pride in her prosthetic leg rather than hiding it.

Looking forward to reading more suggestions in this thread. Thanks for starting it @Gradine!

 

[Davies]

Reviewing the Dusk Elf story, I'd agree that cursing them with childlessness -- with neither elves nor half-elves as possible offspring -- and then killing all the elders of their people, denying them both their past and their future, is an honestly grimmer fate than just killing half of their kind; I'd also revise Patrina so that she's Kasimir's loved one rather than his sister, and stress that he believes she has repented of her wicked ways and can help against Strahd, possibly undoing the curse through magic, rather than having some disturbing plan for her. Sadly, he's wrong about her motivations.

 

[Khelon Testudo]

I'd make saving Patrina (as Kasimir's partner, not sister) somehow magically linked to restoring the fertility of the dusk elves. That way Kasimir isn't looking at her becoming a baby factory.

 

[Iry]

I sanitized the dream pastries by making children (but not adults) who eat them slowly fall asleep and begin to have bad dreams. Then the hags whisk them away back to their home, and begin to feed on the fear of the children. But they treat the children really well, caring and feeding them lovingly, and even claim to be "saving" them from the dangers of Strahd and Barovia.

So the kids are in a bad spot because they can't wake up and escape the bad dreams. But they are physically just fine and in no danger. If the party saves them, they don't really remember the dreams except that they were bad, so no long term emotional trauma. That might not be far enough for you, since it does mean frightened children, but it might work?

 

[ccs]

I think a whole lot of these problems would be fixed by just jettisoning about 75% of the theme-park-of-horror content TSR & now WoTC have packed onto the classic I6 adventure.

Almost all of this crap? Exists in the adventure for the sole purpose of dragging a relatively straight forward vampire hunt though a haunted castle out & turning what should be several good sessions worth of play into an entire lv 1-10+(?) campaign. Ugh. It doesn't need to be this complicated.

So just drop most of the content, scatter the plot mcguffins throughout the castle, & run what remains as a Lv.10(?) adventure.
Your players will thank you {even if they don't outright say it} as they can just get on with what they really signed up to do - go fight the vampire - without wasting months & months of real time.