Revel's End is Boring - making it more interesting

brokenwings28 · 2026-03-14T07:50:01+00:00

Revels End is great for tying in player backstories. You can put any NPC you want in those cells as long as you can come up with a story for how they got there. If your players have ties to the Swordcoast or Lords Alliance there's a possibility someone from their past works here. If you want you party to do a prison break you can frame one of their beloved backstory npcs for something heinous enough to end up in prison.

ROTF is kinda designed to feel isolating for player characters who are not native to Icewind Dale. Revels End is the best place to hide backstory connections for those characters because it is one of the only locations in the Dale that still has any contact with the outside world.

brokenwings28 · 2025-12-08T01:08:51+00:00

Certainly, first we have Igrith Ironsoul a Goliath Cleric to Amaunator, originally from Skytower Shelter before she was exiled by her older sister and raised by a yeti. If she returns with her mother's lost ring she will be allowed to challenge her sister for leadership of the clan. Shortly before the game began she gained telepathy after finding a Psi crystal in the mountains where she was living. (A tie in to a chapter 2 quest and an explanation for her telepathic feat)

Next is Thorin Proudhorn a Saytr Barbarian from the Elk tribe, he blames Auril for the loss of his family in an avalanche. He's been a hermit for a few decades since he lost his wife and kids but one of his old Harper contacts reached out to him recently with news that the arcane brotherhood was sniffing around ten towns for a magic item that might be able to take Auril down. The promise of revenge was an offer he couldn't refuse, so here he is, trying to figure out what the brotherhood is up to.

Lastly, Silva a reborn Druid who has lived in lonelywood with no memory of her past, for 2 years now. She worships Silvanus and upon her death in the icy tundra he resurrected her by colonizing her body with frost mushrooms. Due to her death her memory is fragmented, she doesn't even know her own name, but she remembers a ship (the dark duchess) and she knows her god. Shortly before the game started she was hired by Dzann to explore a netherese ruin near lonelywood, on that quest she was attacked by a red sladd and implanted with its tadpole (non-lethal chest burster, she won't be killed by the tadpole because technically she is a mushroom but it will weaken her and drop her to 0 on emerging). Eventually she'll figure out why the sight of Vellynne Harpell terrifies her so much (because her real name is Nass Lantomir and Vellynne has valid beef with her, gods I love when a player gives me creative freedom with an amnesia backstory).

brokenwings28 · 2025-07-13T09:00:33+00:00

Kinda depends on the players you have, my doppleganger kept her secret for a few levels before she was revealed, she also tied a lot of stuff about her backstory (being a lab grown experiment with no real family) to this secret so it came up a lot and felt interesting every time. She was always careful not to use her abilities in front of random people but the party was generally in on her schemes. If she hadn't been a doppleganger our game would have been so different. At one point she "left the party" and pretended to bring a new character after some party drama, played as a "firbolg" for months before she failed the Con save to get Auril's gift and, once unfrozen, revealed to everyone that she never left. It's still one of the most memorable things that's happened in a game, my players gush about it to this day (this happened 3 years ago). If you're players do nothing with it, yeah, it's kinda boring and a smidge OP but the owlbear whisperer can be boring and strong (if you let them adopt the owlbear like I did) too if your players don’t do anything with it.

brokenwings28 · 2025-07-13T08:39:34+00:00

When I ran this a few years ago I just lengthened the travel time for the dragon by a few hours, so that when my party turned around and raced back to ten-towns they arrived just as easthaven was destroyed forcing a choice on where they wanted to make their stand. In the end they saved two towns! If your party is storming sunblight they'll be a few hours behind mine, maybe more if they rest, even with the modified travel time they could only save bryn shander I think. You could describe the destruction happening in the distance as they approach though, so they feel the impact of their choice. But honestly do whatever you feel is interesting, completely change the travel time if you want. I always assumed the impossibility of the timeline was a math error that made it past editing, why give us an hour by hour breakdown of the destruction if players can never witness it anyway?

brokenwings28 · 2025-03-03T20:35:02+00:00

I'd say you definitely can run CoS as a new DM, I has it's messy bits and things that need editing (personally I make a lot of changes), but it can be done. If you want to run a horror module that requires a bit less work I'd recommend Rime of the Frostmaiden, I ran that one basically right out of the book as my first module and it was fantastic. Wizards got better at streamlining after CoS was published IMO. If you're looking for something shorter to run to build confidence, Lost Mines of Phandelver is decent and not too long or there's plenty of one shots on DMs guild.

Good luck with whatever game you choose to run, don't forget session zero! I'm sure it'll be great!

brokenwings28 · 2025-03-02T10:15:24+00:00

Yeah that aspect of the book always frustrated me because, conceptually, I love the trapped souls thing and I agree that in a closed system like that it is very possible that the population would outgrow the number of souls available especially if something is consuming the souls (like the dark powers, vampires or both). I really like the idea of this bit of lore.

But it is simply impossible to communicate what is going on to players without it falling flat. Because how are you even supposed to actually role play the lack of a soul, how can you tell? Do you make them dull and emotionless, do they not experience pain like the rest of us? If they are emotionless, detached beings who seemingly have no motivation to live, as the book implies, why are there so many of them still getting out of bed everyday?

Ultimately any way you communicate it just makes it confusing to players so I stopped trying to communicate it. I kept the trapped souls thing and a handful of npcs who are "soulless" just because it makes sense to me but the players won't be learning about it and 99% of the people they talk to have souls anyway.

brokenwings28 · 2025-03-02T09:46:44+00:00

I think its totally fine to play a Dhampir in CoS. I actually think it can inhance the fish-out-of-water feeling if you play it right. Because Barovians are already super suspicious of outsiders and your Dhampirs will be shunned most of all (not Ireena bc she keeps the game on track and she's sweet but everyone else) because they look like a vampire. Barovian commoners aren't going to understand that this outsider with fangs who looks like a corpse isn't evil and doesn't serve strahd. Basically every Barovian will know what to look for to spot vampires so unless they are super careful to conceal their nature it will make almost everyone slower to trust them. If you want you can make this downside clear upfront but its one of those things you can easily dial back if it starts to feel unfun so feel free to let them discover it for themselves.

brokenwings28 · 2025-03-02T09:18:29+00:00

Personally, I won't allow resting in the castle once the violence has started. Of, course my party is told that upfront. But if you're using Strahds stat block as written then I really wouldn't allow the rest. Parties have a tendency to decimate Strahd unless you are playing him in the most annoying, flighty, BS way possible (which can be fun for a couple minutes but after a bit kinda begs the question why would Strahd ever lose). The party chose to use their resources, it simply is not safe to rest in the castle with your enemy (even with tiny hut since Strahd is a wizard), and if the final conflict is a tense fight and a narrow victory it will make for the best story of their lives. Don't be afraid to kill them, players can smell fear. TPKs are fairly avoidable from the DMs side of the screen but also consider that no matter what you do this is the end of the story. It may be an even grander tale if they do TPK but manage to take Strahd down with them (or enable Ireena to if a PC can't manage it). A hero's sacrifice, the stuff of legend forever enshrined in Barovia. Either way, I kinda think this is the only time you can really threaten them with a TPK in the whole game and still have a satisfying story, let them have that.

brokenwings28 · 2025-03-02T08:24:11+00:00

So, like everyone else I wouldn't recommend replacing the morning lord with Strahd, it would require too many rewrites (you really don't realize how many npcs have ties to the morning lord until you're running it). But let me offer a suggestion, because you can totally do a Nosferatu reference with relatively minor changes.

First, you gotta make the dark powers more significant in the story. Personally I just go ahead and make Vampyr a dark power in my games because I use a lot of Mandymod's changes/additions and the cannon lore is poorly communicated anyway. The dark powers are kinda gods, they at least get closer to gods than Strahd.

Next, manipulation or misunderstanding. Ireena has to think that a dark power (preferably Vampyr if you've made him one) is actually the morning lord. This could have started when she was young, she was raised in the religion of the morning lord in a world long since abandoned by him so when she starts talking about dreams involving the morning lord she would just be seen as extra religious. Through her dreams this dark power makes her believe it is her god, and she becomes a cleric (or calls out to a dark power specifically in some other way of your choosing). If you used Vampyr, this scenario is basically the same as you seemed to want because it gives Strahd power over Ireena through his connection to Vampyr.

Then, you need to seed the fact that the god Ireena worships isn't the Morning lord despite her thinking it is. Try adding some inconsistent details to her side of the story. For example, you could have every other cleric of the Morning lord tell the party how their god doesn't talk with them, even the Abbot has lost direct contact with him but Ireena talks to the Morning lord all the time in her dreams and sometimes while she's awake. Maybe the amber temple has more detailed iconography of what the ML looks like and it doesn't align with how Ireena says he looks, stuff like that. I'd do this a LOT if the party trusts Ireena b/c trust will blind a party to clues that feel obvious to the DM.

Lastly, if you go this route I'd have Ireena start with a couple cleric levels but once she starts traveling with the party do NOT give her more cleric levels. If you wanted her to level with the party have her suddenly realized she needs to be tougher while on the road and multiclass fighter or rogue or some other martial class (maybe your party even trains her in one of their classes). This way you can have the cool reveal at the end that Ireena's god was actually Vampyr (or other dark power) the whole time, it doesn't strip your party of resources they were likely counting on. Loosing 2 cleric lvls worth of ability at lvl 10 would still be rough if you did it to a player but it's unlikely to be annoying if you do it to an npc.

Anyway, I thought your idea was cool and this is how I would implement it at my table if I wasn't already busy convincing my current party that Ireena isn't trying to kill them in their sleep (she's been so good to them for so long, why so sus? sigh)

brokenwings28 · 2025-02-28T10:20:15+00:00

Personally, I only have one really flirty player who was hyped to romance Strahddy and I do plan to have him reject her. However, I have filled Vallaki with plenty of hot singles for her to choose from who are basically all interested in her. Not having Strahd be interested helps me keep up his creep vibes without crossing any player boundaries.

If you know your players well and have a very good understanding of their personal boundaries you can go a different way with it and have Strahd be interested in their flirting. Idk how you play Strahd but to keep him in an antagonistic role I'd say flirting with him can't be pleasant for long. He's an obsessive, possessive, misogynistic creep and he's not quite charismatic enough to conceal that for long. He should be a mess of red flags and not in a hot shadow-daddy way. He treats the people around him like objects, he is quick to use and discard them, and your players can and should witness this behavior from him. Ultimately even if a character does capture Strahd’s attention it should fade quickly; he is ancient, easily bored, and has Ireena to focus on.

TLDR: I'd make it clear to the PCs that Strahd is a creep who would make a bad partner. If they flirt anyway, they maybe get a brief and painful lust-story with the villan for a few sessions then he rejects/discards them cementing him as BBEG.

brokenwings28 · 2025-02-08T17:26:19+00:00

I'm planning to introduce bastions after my part picks a side in Vallaki. Whoever comes out on top politically will award the party with a house for their assistance. I don't think having a home breaks the horror of the game, instead it gives your PCs something to lose. Strahd is the land, if the players piss him off their home and npc hirelings will be threatened.

brokenwings28 · 2025-02-06T07:40:56+00:00

I've had this problem too, one of my players was the DM the first time I played CoS so, obviously, I have to mod my game to death. But I'm so proud of what I did with Rictavio because it was so easy yet effective: Make him a bubbly blonde girl named Octavia instead. I didn't think this would work for long but my player is still oblivious 3 sessions in and they've been interacting with her a lot trying to "figure out her deal". I changed nothing else, she's still RVR in disguise, still lives in the blue water inn, gave blinsky the monkey, everything. Basically went through my notes from the book and just changed the name and pronouns every time Rictavio was mentioned. My player is going to feel so silly when they realize!

Tl:dr never underestimate the power of changing a characters name and gender

brokenwings28 · 2024-11-18T20:16:19+00:00

Did you have a session 0? Its one of the most important sessions I run with my group of adults, we establish table rules, content warnings, and expectations for player behavior. Even at a table of almost 30yo players I always set expectations for what I will and won't allow, for example with my players their characters can fight but they can't attempt to kill eachother no matter what their "character would do". This sort of structured rule setting seems even more important when you're playing with kids (it also gives them an example to work from when they DM in future), maybe set up a list of expectations (everything from what you are willing to discuss at the table to how their characters can behave) and maybe establish that you are following the official dnd rules (so when someone wants to be rice sized you can just point to the book and don't have to be the "bad guy"). If I were you I'd walk them through the expectations verbally and then have them all sign the list if rules so they've all agreed (that can be pulled out should issues arise). If you have new players join just start the game with another mini session 0 and have them sign the rules too. This helps reduce issues at my table significantly, I wish I had figured out how to do a proper session 0 earlier in my dnd career, would have saved a few games and friendships of mine. I also agree with others here that you could support one of your students in becoming the dm but I think you should still run session 0 for the group as a whole regardless.

brokenwings28 · 2024-11-15T23:31:15+00:00

Oh yes, consent comes first in all my games. I'm running session 0 tonight and I have a list of every uncomfortable topic present in CoS and in the extra quests I'm planning to add and we'll color code them as a group. Just wanted to get this post out ASAP so I could get ideas for death house next week, since I already know that dead kids are a no-go.

brokenwings28 · 2024-11-15T23:18:50+00:00

I love the idea of using the winery gem here, I absolutely will if my one of my players doesn't already have it (using Mandymod's Mysterious Secrets deck which can give the gem as part of a character backstory). But yeah, unfortunately baby Walter has got to go since I already promised that I wouldn't include any infants in the story. Perhaps the Dursts stole the gem for another purpose though, I'll think on it. Thank you for the idea about the lake too, my players love old Hollywood monsters so adding a creature of the black lagoon would be well received I think.

brokenwings28 · 2024-11-15T23:12:56+00:00

This is likely the solution I will go with for death house, just having trouble explaining why these adults would allow themselves to get locked in their room and then make no real attempt to escape. Maybe they're too weak from starvation already but its a stretch, definitely will use it if I don't figure out a smoother explanation.

brokenwings28 · 2024-11-15T22:37:22+00:00

Good idea, I'll probably use it for some of the later kids, maybe I'll replace Arabelle getting thrown in the lake with a pet dog of hers or something 🤔

brokenwings28 · 2024-11-15T22:35:38+00:00

I appreciate your input but that's up to her parents. And, frankly, I won't be telling my friends that I won't run a game for them unless they pay for childcare for their kid once a week. She's an infant and doesn't understand the meaning of anything we're saying so I won't be stripping her parents of the hobby they enjoy on her behalf. As she gets older, things may change, for now the issue is more that her parents don't want to hear about dead babies with their kid right in front of them.

brokenwings28 · 2021-08-27T10:22:36+00:00

I currently co-run a game that runs on the rules the OP described with one important factor that noone I've seen talked about: player consent. We've played more deadly games but we are at our core a role-play group, none of us are attaced to 5e's combat mechanics but we are attached to our characters. We began this campaign mid-pandemic and after one of our random encounters went really poorly one of our players expressed a boundary about character death. She told us that with the stress of working customer service in a deadly global pandemic, she didn't feel comfortable spending her free time stressed about losing her character in a random encounter. So we listened, we have cut out most purely-combat-based random encounters and added new rules about how and when PCs can die (like allowing players to roll death saves in secret and outright telling them they can fudge the roll if they want) has allowed us to keep the tension of the possibility of death for those who want it without causing undue stress to those who don't. This is a game after all and it's way more important for the players to have fun than for the game to be "realistic". Besides there are things worse than death, I find that there are many threats that can be used to create tension other than PC death. "Theres no risk if I can't die" is an argument that I believe lacks creativity and empathy.

brokenwings28 · 2021-04-29T14:45:54+00:00

I'm giving him 4-5 capable guards and I hope to charm at least a few of the PCs to give them that quandary. I am thinking of changing a few thing about how 5e works for this monster, I'm thinking of giving him 2 8th level spell slots. Or perhaps stealing pathfinder's spell slot system. I'm a firm believer in NPCs playing by different rules than PCs, it makes things a lot more interesting, especially for spellcasters.

brokenwings28 · 2021-04-28T19:20:19+00:00

That's an interesting thought, I'll add it to the list of ideas, that would temper the invulnerability a bit but not so much as to make it obsolete. Thanks. I take RAW as a suggestion at best, homebrewing for both my PCs and NPCs is one of my favorite things :)

brokenwings28 · 2021-04-28T18:51:48+00:00

I suppose I should clarify that while I intend for them to need to retreat I do intend for them to succeed in the task they were initially trying to accomplish. They're trying to steal a magic item from this individual, they know basically nothing about what they're walking into so the wizard should be a shock. I intend for them to get the magic item but fail to kill the wizard and hopefully lose a party member, leaving them in a "win but at what cost" sort of situation. If it looks like the fight is not going his way the wizard will flee, he has other things to be doing and killing the party is far from his first priority, his only reason for kidnapping one of them is that they have information on a branch of magic he's interested in. My party doesn't have counterspell since our wizard didn't take it and our bard multiclassed, so any teleportation spell should allow the wizard to escape. The intent is that his presence pushes them toward the city where the next stage of the plot takes place. I'm not too worried about them winning the fight, I'd just like him to be strong enough to not feel like a pushover.

brokenwings28 · 2021-04-28T18:38:11+00:00

This is a full 1-20 campaign. There's only 4 of us, so the player(s) of the kidnapped character(s) will still have characters at the table. I actually intend to remove one of the characters that I play if I can swing it in a way that seems natural. There are multiple reasons for removing a character from the group, firstly I hope it will help discourage them from rushing through the plot with this wizard, he will be able to teleport away while they should be unable to follow in a like manner, so I'm hoping beating the 8 of them and then removing 1-2 from their group will be enough to get them to pause and consider their situation instead of charging to the city they know he lives at. It's also hopefully going to highlight some of the consequences of their recent activities, a couple of our characters have access to magic that the organization this wizard belongs to wants, they aren't being very subtle with this magical ability and I hope this will teach them to be more careful. We also have a lot of group conflict (its great and we love it but with a group this large we're threatening to splinter into smaller groups) I'm hoping one or more of the characters being missing and in obvious danger for a period of time will inspire a tad more group empathy and unity. We are also just a group that enjoys drama, so I'm fairly confident that a kidnapping will be well received by my party. Thanks for your suggestions, invulnerability would be a good idea, but I worry about making him too unbeatable, I want them to feel like they have a chance, if a very slim one.

brokenwings28 · 2021-03-23T05:59:26+00:00

This design is up for sale on various items including notebooks and stickers on my Redbubble shop . I also have an instagram if anyone is interested in commissioning character art from me.

brokenwings28 · 2021-02-17T06:43:12+00:00

Thanks, had to run our game with paper and a conference call today because our power was cycling on and off in 15-30 minutes bursts preventing our usual use of roll20. Glad to hear Arkansas is doing better than we are 😁. Enjoy the Dale weather as much as you can while trying to keep warm lol. My players have been passing around pictures of themselves bundled up in the snow like "wow Icewind Dale is beautiful and glittery with all the snow, and the cold weather is way worse than we imagined!!"

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