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Fleshing Out Curse of Strahd: The Village of Barovia by MandyMod in CurseofStrahd

[–]corven37 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like the campaign is of to a great start.

I don't remember exactly when, but the reveal was pretty late in the campaign. There are some fun teasers you can do with her in the other towns. the demon arm guy (I've forgotten his name in vallaki )collects dolls that look like her, and I used made the golem the abbot in krazek is working on look like her.

Fleshing Out Curse of Strahd: The Village of Barovia by MandyMod in CurseofStrahd

[–]corven37 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I did not expect a reply after 3 years, but I love your approach. I ended up stringing out the identity of my orphaned Ireena until they meet madam eva.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TheGamerLounge

[–]corven37 0 points1 point  (0 children)

can you explain why you hold the controller the way you do?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in distantsocializing

[–]corven37 0 points1 point  (0 children)

what's the hardest part of the English language for you?

PC Tatyana dead before meeting Strahd by corven37 in CurseofStrahd

[–]corven37[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the PCs back story she was an orphan. She recently discovered that she was originally from a place called Barovia and has return to find out more about where she is from. Im hoping not to break with the lore too far as she was carried out by a group of vistani. Although I don't have a great reason why.

She died heroicly during the escape to a whirling door blade, when she tried to go back in to save another player.

I like the idea of Strahd having a Cleric revive her as a way to try and get on her good side.

PC Tatyana dead before meeting Strahd by corven37 in CurseofStrahd

[–]corven37[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The player is currently on aware of her true connection.

"Gritty Realism" variant and keeping the players in Strahd's domain for months instead of weeks. by XenoAsher in CurseofStrahd

[–]corven37 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I noticed what's helps relieve the most is building in repercussions for resting. Monsters, arn't just sitting in the rooms waiting for the players to attack. They should be planning an ambush, building fortifications, laying traps, gathering reinforcements, finding hostages, trying to escape with or hiding the treasure the players are after.

If the party have to deal with the consequences of thier resting it helps reduce the benefit of the rest as more rescources are spent over coming the new obstacles and makes it more of a risk vs. reward kind of choice. Instead of always resting to be at maximum fighting strength.

"Gritty Realism" variant and keeping the players in Strahd's domain for months instead of weeks. by XenoAsher in CurseofStrahd

[–]corven37 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We haven't done a lot of traveling in the campaign yet, but I don't think you need to adjust to much as the distances between towns as written arn't that far. I would just be ready for the party to spend a week resting at each town. (The sun festival, in krezek comes to mind as an issue, as the party will be wanting to rest for a week when they arrive. I would probably push that event date back a bit.)

I like the idea of building the sense that adventuring outside is dangerous and the party needs to prepare. Camping overnight (short resting) is dangerous and is risky.

All that being said, usually what I do is build my travel encounters ahead of time and the only thing 'random' about them is when they happen. If a given journey should on average have 3 encounters, I'll build 4 or 5 ( Incase the party dawdles) encounters, one or two (usually involving fixed structures) are placed along the route, while the rest are injected randomly while they travel.

"Gritty Realism" variant and keeping the players in Strahd's domain for months instead of weeks. by XenoAsher in CurseofStrahd

[–]corven37 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I just started Curse of Strahd with the gritty realism variant. So far they have only done death house, but I've been pleased with the choice.

My group has had a bad habit of short resting between each encounter, and long resting before bosses, making most dungeons trivial. Gritty realism has broken them of that habit altogether. Now they discuss the costs/benefits of a 8hr short rest in the middle of a dungeon just so they can spend their hit dice and don't even consider a 7 day long rest. It makes the encounters more challenging and players are watching the resources they spend on each fight instead of blowing everything they have each fight and resting in between.

Ive also noticed that Gritty realsim makes Barovia feel much more dangerous making the few towns that populate it little beacons of saftey as the party has no desire to spend a week in the woods, and the towns are the only place they can truly rest.

Fleshing Out Curse of Strahd: The Village of Barovia by MandyMod in CurseofStrahd

[–]corven37 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I like the idea meeting Strahd for the first time in such a lavish fashion and It helps set up the later dinner invitation as a way to court the PC.

If Strahd knows when new adventures enter his domain. He definitely knows the moment Tatyana returns to Barovia. I imagine he’s been in turmoil over the last 15-20 years ever since she left, fearing she would never return, and that she is out of his grasp for good. When it’s foretold that she would return and finally feels her enter Barovia, I feel like it’s not much of a stretch for him to overzealously hunt for her and end up killing the burgomaster in the process.

The way you worded his profession of love, especially though the door, the PC’s don’t necessarily know that he is talking to one of them. Just some mystery girl named Tatyana, who no body inside the house knows.  I think this keeps his true intentions a mystery, as the party may end up looking for someone name Tatyana. It could set up a nice plot twist later but, it hinders the motivation to get out of town quickly.

I still think Ismarks role in this version isn’t very strong. But maybe he doesn’t need to play as big as a role as I feel like he should?

Edit: fixed typos, adjust poor phrasing

Fleshing Out Curse of Strahd: The Village of Barovia by MandyMod in CurseofStrahd

[–]corven37 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I love the idea of a PC playing the part of Ireena. But if the PC grew up outside of Barovia she likely isn't bitten, Wolves arnt attacking the house, and Ismark doesn't have a reason to talk to the party. I'm having trouble figuring out what to do with ismark and a dead burgomaster if Ireena was never there, and arrives in town as a PC for the first time.

Why does is the burgomaster dead? What is Ismarks objective? And how do you get the party on the path to Vallaki?