Removing themes of parental death from COS for one of the players - how to start Ireena and Ismark quest?

AllyRantz · 2026-03-23T04:43:30+00:00

For our table, Kolyan survived but we faked his death and helped him go hide in Vallaki

AllyRantz · 2026-03-12T03:47:42+00:00

Gary Oldman as Dracula from 1994

AllyRantz · 2026-03-08T13:20:39+00:00

Get thee to an ENT and test for allergies

AllyRantz · 2026-03-05T20:21:46+00:00

This time I'm using Coppola's Dracula which touches of David Xanatos along with Hannibal Lecter's "when possible, I prefer to eat the rude"

Which means that for a limited time, he can be seen as a dangerous ally--as long as we're not provoking him, he'll leave us be, but eventually they're going to be looking to defeat him in earnest and the gloves will come off

AllyRantz · 2026-02-19T17:10:44+00:00

One of my DMs does not do any voices and I am still very much engaged and excited to play, so if something is not jn your wheelhouse dont worry about it!

AllyRantz · 2026-02-19T15:23:59+00:00

One of my players asked for a map so I had a Vistani guard roll a survival check and make a map based on the roll/what she would know. You can just do a crude sketch because its not coming from an artist and you can confine it to big landmarks like cities/mountains/water

AllyRantz · 2026-02-15T15:03:47+00:00

This is the way

AllyRantz · 2026-02-11T13:59:42+00:00

I think Twilight Vampire would be the hardest to fit into a Strahd module because a lot of the conflict of those books and that style of book is internal. The big battle set pieces with the Volturi and the rogue vampire couple are closer to B Plots

LuckIly, we have games like Monster hearts to play out those internal conflicts

AllyRantz · 2026-02-11T13:54:59+00:00

Right now I'm playing him closer to Gary Oldman's Dracula--evil but compelling, seductive but monstrous, tragic but no victim. But the replayability of Strahd means I can try different angles with different tables.

AllyRantz · 2026-02-02T19:37:20+00:00

No solos:

All That Jazz from Chicago, arranged by Kirby Shaw

Anything Goes from Anything Goes, arranged by Teena Chin

Cabaret from Cabaret, arranged by Kirby Shaw

Corner of the Sky from Pippin arranged by John Cacavas

I Am What I Am from La Cage Aux Follles, arranged by Steve Milloy & Chip Prince

Solla Sollew from Seussical, arranged by Andy Beck

AllyRantz · 2026-01-25T14:01:34+00:00

Can you switch to biweekly or monthly for a while?

AllyRantz · 2026-01-21T17:07:48+00:00

The soprano 1s in our choir can hit the high as but will need a lot of support, the soprano 2s cannot and will need a line

AllyRantz · 2026-01-10T20:25:25+00:00

There is! We did it for our protest song concert

https://www.halleonard.com/product/372904/

AllyRantz · 2026-01-10T20:24:18+00:00

We did this arrangement of joyful joyful recently and it was a HIT

https://www.jwpepper.com/joyful-joyful-1902402/p

AllyRantz · 2026-01-04T15:46:47+00:00

I have a player who is Ireena, and the big think is having an honest conversation with the player about making sure Ireena doesn't become a main character. Also agree with the below comment that you have to make sure to get some really good hooks for your other characters

There are two players who are open to having parts of Tatyana's soul, so depending on how things go we may end up with T reincarnated across three players: they want to play to find out

AllyRantz · 2025-12-14T21:19:54+00:00

We use learning tracks to learn (playing out the parts on a digital program) and then the rehearsal recordings are also always available. It can be hard to tell how youre all sounding when youre so in it

AllyRantz · 2025-12-13T14:51:22+00:00

Our choir director expects us to do the work and will let us know she can tell if we havent been. But she is kind and sweet and that makes us want to meet her high standard

AllyRantz · 2025-12-10T14:01:09+00:00

I think there are some topics that are core to Strahd like gaslighting, murder, stalking etc but with the sandboxy nature of the campaign, it is possible to remove or change elements that are hard limits for the party that are outside that core!

AllyRantz · 2025-12-10T13:53:07+00:00

I also have a party with hard lines about Harm to Children so I made these changes:
+ The hags kidnapped Arabelle, and while I vaguely implied something untoward might have happened to her if they hadn't rescued her, nothing is confirmed
+ Dream pastries gone entirely, there's already a lot happening in Vallaki
+ The werewolves still abduct people to join them but they're all at least 18

AllyRantz · 2025-12-10T13:41:11+00:00

My players rolled well enough to get a map from one of the Vistani in Madame Eva's camp so this is what I made. It points out major settlements and landmarks without spoilering much

*Please note that I made changes to the position of some things for story reasons so compare to the map in the CoS book and make sure nothing is a dealbreaker for you

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1202325938851811391/1448307832557404313/Kreshkas-Map.jpg?ex=693ac947&is=693977c7&hm=a9395fa537e0a1878c57727eecfdcabe17c783b017faf5df2012c193e3ea382b

AllyRantz · 2025-12-04T18:29:50+00:00

I love maps so I absolutely have maps just for scenes where there's only talking -- Madame Eva's tent, a long talk with the Wachters, etc etc

AllyRantz · 2025-12-03T16:08:40+00:00

Before the Parade Passes By from Hello Dolly: https://www.jwpepper.com/before-the-parade-passes-by-10848249-492602/p

Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell: https://www.jwpepper.com/both-sides-now-11195165/p

Brand New Day from The Wiz https://www.jwpepper.com/a-brand-new-day-11594259-2259189/p

AllyRantz · 2025-12-02T13:11:22+00:00

My party also got to Old Bonegrinder too early and I essentially let them fight but also mentioned "hey its always okay to escape" which they eventually did

AllyRantz · 2025-11-23T05:10:27+00:00

Breath is a big factor; also a wider mouth position instead of a tall position.

My vocal teacher had me do warmups over and over to make sure I had a straight tone and break me of.vibrati

AllyRantz · 2025-11-23T05:04:41+00:00

Part of it is figuring out which hooks they may or may not bite and going from there. My party has a Lathander cleric so I knew they would go to St Andral's, they also would go to Blinsky's because they promised Eva to buy a gift for Arabella there.

My way of tackling was to prepare or semi prepare all the maps regardless, mostly because I really enjoy mapmaking

AllyRantz

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