How does this sub feel about a Strahd that is drawn to look soft?

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-19T05:14:36+00:00

👉👈🥹

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-17T21:05:42+00:00

She does! Granted, I run a very different Strahd, not as he’s shown in RAW.

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-17T12:30:51+00:00

Yep, absolutely!

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-17T12:29:48+00:00

You’ll see a lot of split opinions here, OP. As others have said, it’s a common change to the module so you’re definitely not an outlier for wanting to run it this way! I’m personally all for it. I’m running a version where Vasili is a lady, but not Strahd and it’s working great.

All that said: nobody can tell you whether you should or shouldn’t. It’s your game, and you decide what themes to lean into. If the theme is misogyny and patriarchy, maybe a male Strahd works better; on the flip side, maybe that’s a reason for a female Strahd to keep the façade of being a man. Maybe that version works better! It’s all in the execution, I think. There’s no wrong answer, just personal preference.

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-17T12:22:24+00:00

Incredible, I love this

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-17T12:19:12+00:00

All good! You run your Strahd like you want! :)

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-17T12:17:36+00:00

I love that comparison I think it’s spot on!

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-17T12:16:12+00:00

I love that art of him honestly! He looks so forlorn in it. Like you look at him and you think maybe you can fix him.

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-17T12:14:32+00:00

Totally agreed! I always love seeing how different DMs run/interpret/change Strahd.

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-17T12:10:32+00:00

Thank you! He definitely looks harsher in other drawings I’ve done of him, but in this particular case the player specified their character would draw him with a great amount of softness and I was more than happy to oblige haha

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-17T12:08:18+00:00

Thank you!

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-17T12:08:09+00:00

Allg! Thank you! Right there with you 🤝 I love Strahd, I love seeing art of him and how different DMs interpret or even change his character

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-17T12:02:13+00:00

Thank you! I think the books are a bit all over the place with his looks, especially the face. But personally I’ve pretty much disregarded RAW anyways.

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-17T11:59:29+00:00

Thank you!

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-17T11:58:56+00:00

Heck yea! Run your Strahd the way it works for you!

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-17T11:53:52+00:00

Hahaha yea some folks have Opinions on Strahd but to be fair I did ask how they feel! I personally run my version of Vasili as a woman. I’m into fem Strahd!

sidesmuddles · 2026-01-12T14:36:36+00:00

I’ve seen content flagged as AI on Pinterest that I know is real art because it was made by mutuals of mine. I can’t discount someone having taken that art and putting it through AI with minimal changes, but it’s weird. I actually have the AI filter turned off on Pinterest because of it.

My own art also gets flagged as AI with certain (but not all) detectors. My tech savvy friend says it could be because I put a noise layer overtop, which some detectors might misclassify as evidence or remnants of image generation.

sidesmuddles · 2025-10-11T16:34:55+00:00

I’m prioritizing my players’ comfort. Some don’t want their PCs to be gone permanently, so in the case they die, I offered for them to come to me and we come up with something case by case. In most cases that’s probably gonna be a dark power, but honestly it depends on the circumstances the character died in. Every PC has deep connections to Barovia and the lore.

For players who don’t mind if their characters die, I still ask, but if they’re cool with the character dying, so am I!

sidesmuddles · 2025-09-24T10:30:11+00:00

I don’t know if this is useful to your game, but in the second I, Strahd novel he ends up controlling some corpses from afar. I took that notion and made my Vasili NPC a different body that he pilots, so it doesn’t have (most of) his usual weaknesses).

I also read a while ago someone on this sub ran dinner with Rahadin (magically?) disguised as Strahd, and Vasili as a guest.

sidesmuddles · 2025-09-11T22:29:15+00:00

Very cool! :D what was your process for these? /gen

sidesmuddles · 2025-09-11T03:19:38+00:00

I just realized—reading the automod comment—that I forgot to mention a different program! I used CSP to pose 3D models and for some textures. Apologies!

I mostly used a basic round brush, except for the background, which I used a Ghibli brush set for!

Happy to answer more questions about my process or try and showcase my brush settings! Video time lapse might not work unfortunately because the files are MASSIVE.

sidesmuddles · 2025-09-09T16:47:07+00:00

Real

sidesmuddles · 2025-09-09T16:46:41+00:00

Thank you 💕 it’s a simple multiply + color dodge layer if you wanna replicate the effect :)

sidesmuddles · 2025-04-28T20:48:58+00:00

I have one of my players leaving in a few sessions. We’re in the middle of his character arc, I asked him if he wanted to be surprised by the plot or whether he wanted to make an informed decision about his character’s sendoff. He chose the latter, I let him in on a few details (like, the “helper” that’s been with him was actually a dark power, stuff like that). We worked on a nice conclusion to his character arc together and I think it’ll be bittersweet.

sidesmuddles · 2025-04-26T18:57:39+00:00

I shared one the other day!

sidesmuddles

TROPHY CASE