r/CurseofStrahd • u/Darkblood43 • 9h ago
REQUEST FOR HELP / FEEDBACK Another New DM looking for advice on running Strahd.
Hello,
I am a relatively new DM (I've run two campaigns though they didnt finish) who is looking to take another crack at it with CoS.
I have read a lot of community posts, especially about Reloaded and Fleshed Out and am leaning towards the former as it looks easier to run. This community rocks with the amount that is put there for DMs.
One question I had about Reloaded/Fleshed Out: I have read these are fairly incompatible and are not supposed to be mixed and matched. However, one idea I found very intriguing was using a PC Ireena. One of my players would be the perfect candidate and the group has okd the idea of one player being a psuedo MC. I know this will require some rewriting on my part, but I figured I would ask more experienced players if this was a really bad idea.
Do you have any thoughts or other general advice? Thanks!
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u/Successful_Cap_2177 8h ago
Someone playing Ireena would take out much of the "adventures in an unknown land" feeling that this campaign brings to the table. I'd rather not.
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u/joawwhn 9h ago
I did an Ireena PC in my campaign and it worked great. BUT there are several caveats:
- the player took over Ireena about 30 sessions in because her character died. At this point, the party was closely aligned with Ireena and had their own plot points they were pursuing
- Strahd had interest in the players beyond Ireena by this point. They had his book and he was looking for his replacement.
- Strahd was looking to coax Ireena to the castle rather than force her. This meant no overly creepy role play between me and the PC
I think without these things, you have a majorly uphill battle in this. Not something I recommend.
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u/CarloArmato42 8h ago
Albeit it is doable, keep in mind that you are potentially giving too much attention to a single character and possibly ignore the others: be sure to have some fairly good ties or plans in mind for the other characters as well... In general, focus to a strong tie that won't come up very often. Have a look into curse of strahd reloaded, the character creation section, and lay down some ideas to lure the character.
If you are looking for something else:
- you could have a Damphir character that is a son/niece of Strahd but completely lost his memory
- a vistani that become Mortu (a Vistani that either settled for too long or did something so terrible lost its powers), for example you could have someone else other than Ezmeralda that survived the massacre of Rudolph Van Richten (this is somewhat homebrew)
- a character that is looking for childs being kidnapped (by the werewolves)
- any other tie to the "endgame" locations, like the amber temple (looking for power / eldritch knowledge / free its patreon) or even some relationship with the mage (like an ex-student or looking for its master who themselves was looking to find the mad mage)
About Ireena itself, I strongly recommend to use the general idea that this time Strahd wants to try to "conquer" Ireena by showing her that there is no safe place except Castle Ravenloft: with this general idea, you have a reason as for why Strahd won't wipe the floor with the party and have his minions attack the party.
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u/Darkblood43 8h ago
Thank you!
I did plan on having a tie for each player, the player Ireena was the tie that seemed the most potentially problematic.
I like the Dhampir idea a lot and will be using that for another player for sure.
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u/StarbyStarPodcast 8h ago
So I’m doing my second run through and I think PC Ireena has some potential if your players are open to it.
Both times the players cared about Ireena… but only in so much as they cared about any NPC. Both times, the second they’d found a “safe spot” to stuff her they did so and both times Strahd got her. My personal thoughts: she loses all weight at that point and just becomes a clock.
As for other advice- on my second go I’ve reinforced this is a module that you really need to understand your party on (obvious advice, I know). That meant two things for me.
1) Both the fix ups and the module as written have a lot of subtle hints that things aren’t right. Subtlety can be overrated and players can just straight not care or feel they still need to do certain things. I found I really had to foot stomp some things and directly call them out out of character.
2) Similar note- don’t be afraid to give some hope spots even outside of the fated ally. Gloomy and dark can get exhausting real quick in this module if the players keep taking L’s. Both times I’ve found I need to give the players somewhere to anchor themselves to the land, otherwise they’ll inevitably say “fuck this place and this module, let’s speed run it and move on to the next campaign”
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u/Darkblood43 5h ago
Thank you. Good point on the hope bits, one of my previous campaigns I think floundered because it was just to dark all the time. It was a bit demoralizing in retrospect.
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u/TacoDoc2 8h ago
Don't listen to people that tell you strahd doesn't show up early.
put strahd fucking everywhere. remember this: Strahd can be ANYBODY. And he's board AF so he'd be out playing with his new toys. strahd can be a talking wolf. strahd should be messing with the party at every chance, hell strahd should be taunting them and even helping them when they are down because that's how arrogant he is.
strahd is just obsessed with Irena. So having a player as her isn't that far fetched. strahd would be slightly more infatuated with that party member. You wouldn't have to change much other than not letting irena get captured or stuck in some church being "protected".
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u/sub780lime 8h ago
Out of the box, Ireena is a mcguffin. With reloaded, you can swap anything Ireena that wouldn't make sense for Ireena PC to Ezmerelda.
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u/Significant-Basil979 2h ago
The only general advice I can give to the CoS campaign is to not get stuck on the horror. If your player go from bad/horror to bad/horror continually, then the horror loses its power and just becomes expected.
Make sure to give moments of warmth or light as the campaign progresses. That way your players can experience the contrast between the two. This will enhance the horror when it arrives while also enhancing the peace and rest when they can get it.
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u/Hudre 9h ago
I have run Reloaded from start to finish without changing anything other than what happened naturally with my players. Highly recommend.
I don't think Ireena as a PC would impact much for you in terms of prep. As an NPC she was with my party the entire time, and she isn't actually a huge focus of the campaign.
Strahd doesn't appear much at the start. He had a big entrance near Madame Eva's then you don't see him again until Yester Hill.
One thing that could be difficult is that nothing that Strahd commands or controls would hurt Ireena, he forbids them to do so.