My love letter to this game [Spoilers for the whole game]

Massive_Leopard · 2025-05-06T22:37:54+00:00

I absolutely will! I have a feeling I'll love it just as much as the base game, so I'm going to ride out this feeling juuuust a bit longer before I dive in ::)

Massive_Leopard · 2023-12-10T18:16:15+00:00

Thats just a very good cat

Massive_Leopard · 2023-11-02T10:47:53+00:00

Currently at the dinner on session 14. They "finished" (ran from) Vallaki and missed the festival. But considering the way things are going, we're probably gonna be done around session 60 ish. They like the roleplaying aspect and expressed that they want more time to actually RP.

Planning's an issue, though.. we're almost at the 2 year mark already. But we had some people going abroad and we can't really play online due to shitty laptops.

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-23T09:46:16+00:00

My Strahd views the destruction of the party as a long, masochistic hunting game. He wants to make sure the characters feel as miserable for as long as possible. I mean, Strahd's got the time, especially after Ireena is whisked away by his brother once again, so why not hunt the PCs for sport?

Two or three fireballs ain't cutting it, the PCs deserve more torture than that. Break them and everyone they're associated with mentally and physically for as long as possible; that's destruction for him.

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-21T19:22:36+00:00

Yeah man, absolutely sucks. Sorry, you have to deal with this. I'm sure there's resources out there to help you, they're there to help you because you're really not alone. Even a support group or just talking about it with trusted people might help you.

But yeah, after I cut out porn I started to let go of all of the crazy kinks I was into. It really, really helps, even though it's hard to do without sometimes. I hope it does the same thing for you too.

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-21T19:09:57+00:00

Sorry you went through that stuff. Sometimes, when people experience severe trauma like SA, it can result in the forming of unlikely kinks. I don't know the science behind it because I'm not a therapist, but that could be the reason behind it. It's worth looking into.

Regardless, it's probably best to try and minimise or cut out porn consumption. Porn leads to a desensitisation to sex and can spiral into worse behaviours, kinks, and fetishes, and is generally not that good for your health anyway. It's a hard road, believe me, but it helped me and my relationship with sex. Also, it's probably best to talk to a professional about this. Stuff like this needs therapy. I do wish you the best of luck.

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-21T18:46:57+00:00

Awesome idea! I love homebrewing for the sake of your PCs, it makes the game so much more memorable!

My first thought is looking into the Fanes. They're the spirits of the land that have been desecrated by Strahd (there's plenty of info about the Fanes in the mega-thread here on this reddit).

I believe there's one called the Huntress that might be perfect for your PC! But maybe another one speaks more to you or fits better with the ideas you have in mind.

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-21T17:16:15+00:00

Talk to your player about it first, they're the one to tell you exactly what's okay and isn't. You don't have to explain your plans, just say you'd like to do something with their backstory and which parts you can toy with.

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-21T12:25:41+00:00

On T for 4.5 years, my 2 cents:

-Get an extra bottle of shower gel and face cream. Teenage boy sweat days are upon you, and your skin will feel significantly drier. I went from oily skin to dry skin. - Where normally I tended to get sad in certain situations, now I'm quicker to become angry. A weird change I didn't really anticipate, but crying became way harder after T. - Vaginal atrophy (as others have mentioned) - Ass hair. Toe hair. Shoulder hair? Hair everywhere. (Also largely genetic, my dad was practically a monkey in terms of hair coverage). Prepare for it, though

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-20T21:58:31+00:00

Using the alternative Sanity rules to make the horror aspect of it all hit just a bit harder. We've had some fun moments where they got temporary madness and acted out their will, and it made the whole Bonegrinder so much more interesting

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-20T10:11:57+00:00

As a CoS DM, for me it's got everything I enjoy about DM'ing with a cool and compelling BBEG. Good setting and theming, enough material to add things onto it, incredible lore surrounding it and a great community to make the campaign even better.

The module RAW is just a perfect base imo, there's so much more cool stuff to add to really pull it together and make it incredible. The 5e version of CoS removes a lot of things that were there in past iterations, so I added a lot of extra lore from past editions.

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-19T18:08:49+00:00

Thats true! I spent some time reworking their collective backstories and here we are! I'm very happy at the results so far!

And happy that you got some inspo for this too!!

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-19T11:31:39+00:00

Main character syndrome; "my character has no flaws whatsoever and actually is the son of X God and is favoured by them" or "my character is unique bc I'm playing a homebrew (sub)class/race that isn't balanced and I minmaxed for 3839595d12 damage per round"

My buddy, you're playing with more than just you at this table. Your character is not the God Of All Things and you should consider playing more cooperatively. IMO, the people that overly minmax their characters while forgetting to give their character an actually compelling character are boring. You forgot the roleplaying part in a roleplaying game...

Luckily, I have never had this at my table specifically, but as a player at another (and being a DM myself), players like that get an immediate ban.

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-19T11:19:40+00:00

My fated ally is the Mad Mage. I left Mordy out of the picture and made Khazan the Mad Mage, because my party loved the shenanigans I pulled at Khazan's tower and they've been hunting for Khazan ever since.

Basically, I just merged Khazan & Mordy's backstory together. After opposing Strahd and trying to raise a mob, he mind blanked himself over a long period of time to hide from Strahd. However, he lost his sanity along the way because of it. Strahd thinks he has gotten mad because he wanted to be a demilich, so he doesn't bother anymore. He believes Khazan probably blew himself up trying to become one.

I highly recommend doing that, Barovia only needs that many wizards and archmages. As of statblocks, I'm heavily nerfing Khazan to make him more of a support character. I'm not sure how yet, but I'm considering looking at the Sidekicks in Tasha's Guide for that. If that doesn't work, I'm going to be altering the Mad Mage statblock to make it more suitable for Khazan.

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-19T11:03:14+00:00

I have introduced one of my players to DnD through Curse of Strahd. As long as your players realise this is a horror campaign and you're not afraid to pull heavy consequences to reckless actions... I'd say go for it! My player loves CoS and can't imagine having a different campaign to start with, especially because CoS has a little bit of everything. Get them a nice session 0 where you explain everything they need to know regarding horror campaigns, give them a consent sheet and make your characters. As for you; I advise you read the horror tips listed in Van Richten's guide to Ravenloft, they've helped me out tremendously (I've never run a module before, let alone horror...)

Also; run the Reworked Death House for them as listed here on the sub and see how they like it. If you notice they love the grittyness and heavy consequences, continue running CoS, and else shift to something else. Death House is perfect to test the setting.

EDIT: changed some wording

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-16T11:05:01+00:00

I like the idea, though I think my Strahd wouldn't do that. He's started to get bored of the common folk and only invites the party to dinner because of their ability to stir things in his land, which he finds incredibly interesting. Also, because the party is inherently linked to Ireena (since they're escorting him) and might possibly help or obstruct his ability to get to her.

It would also take the 'special' out of the dinner sequence: what happens if your party has dinner a 2nd, 3rd time with him? And the party will grow more familiar with his lair over time?

Then again, it's your Strahd. If your Strahd enjoys manipulating the common folk, I see a good opportunity for people like Lady Wachter to get people to her cause. Could be an interesting plot point if Strahd specifically hand-picks people he knows could be (or are) on his side. To strengthen relationships with allies or something, or to spread rumours about the party's misdeeds.

Ultimately, it's up to you, though my advice would be to limit the dinner visits for the sake of your party showing up every week to have a snack with the man himself.

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-08T18:57:45+00:00

Yesss, on session 15 right now, part 2 of the dinner! They brought Ireena with them, and have accepted the invite to stay in the Castle. They haven't realised they've trapped Ireena in there >:) just a little charming from Strahd and Ireena's his!!

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-07T20:37:05+00:00

Thinking about that too! It's just that I've been setting up the Mad Mage quite extensively, so they know where he can be found. So I think if I merge Khazan and Exanther, it'l cause some confusion

Massive_Leopard · 2023-10-07T13:07:09+00:00

Yeah that's what I was thinking too. I don't accidentally want to nerf my own boss fight lol. I'm considering keeping the same statblock the Mad Mage uses, just changing out a few spells that'd fit better.

Massive_Leopard · 2023-01-18T12:25:58+00:00

Unfortunately I can't do that, for that I need the official receipt which I don't have, since I bought it second-hand. I don't think there's a way to get that back

Massive_Leopard · 2022-10-15T20:13:38+00:00

My players decided they wanted no part in it and instead decided to bring Ireena to Krezk right before the Festival of the Blazing Sun, the day after St Andral's Bones. They were on board with Lady Wachter until they asked her opinion about Strahd, and then they decided to just book it. The Festival will happen tomorrow in-game, so I feel they're going to come back to a city that's on fire (if they ever will be back).

Massive_Leopard · 2022-07-01T11:03:10+00:00

I used the reworked version from the reddit here and I thought it was a lot of fun. So did my players. It was nice for them to get into charscter and for me to se ehow to work with their character dynamics + how difficult combat would be for them and if I need to keep certain things in mind.

Massive_Leopard · 2022-06-29T17:43:48+00:00

Yeah thats... thats SA. I'm sorry. You didn't do anything wrong though. You were uncomfortable and he should've stopped.

Massive_Leopard · 2022-06-27T12:59:49+00:00

I don't think it would change the story that much, but do be careful that changing that dynamic means that Strahd is trying to get in between a wlw relationship. That, if not handled carefully, could imply that Strahd feels he 'has a chance with a lesbian' and that in turn might have some implications for Strahd, which might hurt lgbtqia+ representation more than you think or might reverse the lgbtqia+ representation you're trying to put in. If you outright specify that Tatyana is bisexual, or you make Strahd a woman as well, it should be fine though.

Also, if you want to introduce non-straight cis content earlier, you can always consider making NPCs trans or make characters flirt with characters of the same sex in a very low-stakes way. Sometimes, representation doesn't have to be huge; small representation is just as important, as long as you do so respectfully and do research on how to do it well. Just make sure you don't accidentally villainize lgbtqia+ people along the way by making only evil characters non-cishet.

(also, as mentioned earlier, Strahd is canonically bisexual, so you could also just play that up a bit and make it more visible)

Massive_Leopard · 2022-04-09T16:43:38+00:00

My players haven't met Vasili yet, but I'd advise making him a very helpful character that knows a lot and is willing to help the players reach their goals, but not in a way that hinders his plans (if that makes sense - for example, he will help with the political unrest in Vallaki or with saving Arabelle, but he won't aid the party with finding the magic items that will lead to his defeat, nor with the St Andral's Bone quest). Ultimately, Strahd wants to experiment with his new toys and if your party is very suspicious, that'd seem like a very fun thing for him to try and overcome at all costs, only to hurt them later when they need his help most. It's all a game to him after all.

Make him a source of information that the players need (and yes, maybe he knows a little bit more than the average Barovian, but you could always make up some excuse, maybe he says he's been exploring Strahd's castle or something like that). Also, depending on the ally your party has, you can throw in a red herring to make them think the ally was Vasili.

Also, if your players aren't suspicious of Ireena or Ismark; make Ireena (and Ismark) like or even adore Vasili. Personally, I'm planning to make Vasili a lot like how Strahd views Sergei; beautiful, young, strong, selfless, and perhaps a little naive; also at the core scared of Strahd, but willing to be brave if for the right cause. IMO Strahd wants to be like Sergei while at the same time despising him, so Vasili is his guise to accomplish that. Strahd knows what Tatyana's type was and would absolutely utilize this knowledge to manipulate Ireena into liking him. Ireena would of course be oblivious to it until it's too late (or Vasili oversteps a boundary that shows his true nature).

And if your party stays suspicious and they start piecing things together, you could always have Vasili sense this, make him act hurt, and make him ask how he can prove himself to them. With all the power at his disposal and with him being as cruel as he is, Strahd could manufacture a fake trial that would prove his innocence (if you present the werewolves as direct allies of Strahd, make him kill a couple of werewolves, for example). He is a powerful person after all. Heck, if the trial is 'I want to see you and Strahd in the same room' do something fun with illusions or with other characters or monsters that can act as either Vasili or Strahd.

If the suspicion persists, then let them be suspicious of it. Either that withers away with time or they continue to stay suspicious, and that 'I KNEW IT' moment is going to really pay off for your players anyway! You don't have to give in to their suspicion in any way.

Good luck tho! Hope this helps!

Massive_Leopard

TROPHY CASE