#c; curse of strahd

[thelostbarovianroyals]

My players managed to survive the interactive Tome of Strahd but my god - are their characters TRAUMATIZED. Deeply so... Then they all had to pretend like they did not just see the fall of Ravenloft and watch a sad, baby hand man try to light a wicker sun. 

Oh. They also found the reincarnation of Sergei and it was chaos.

[secretdazedragon]

quick doodle bc i have to make scenarios until next session

[mincemeat-the-warforged]

Family Portait

(artfight attack for @eeriethacus of their dnd character in our curse of strahd campaign, antares kolyanovich)

[thelostbarovianroyals]

I got Scout which honestly - is probably the least surprising thing. Did I mean to make her the nearly burnt out older sister who is determined to get shit done? No. Is she? Yeeeahh. 

And the campaign I run!

[agent-gladhand]

Local adventurer in Barovia annoyed with the lord of the land's pretentious vocabulary

[elviragrey]

I realized every Victor in the tag is insanely different in vibes so I tried sketching a few I've seen around because I'm obsessed with them.... @pigeon-princess | @bardicblast | @tantaliax | @vanhelsingapologist

[gothoctopus]

Yes Escher betrayed us, drained and killed one of our Player Characters, murdered my Player Character's ex husband right in front of them, and held an entire village hostage. Yes he's still my backup character's favorite person and I think they should kiss, thank you very much.

[krzaku-art]

Barovia's (least) favorite menace~ 🥰

[systemendeavors]

As the game’s gone on, there’s been a small ship forming between @wintert-ide’s character Bell and Solomon. It’s a VERY unconventional one, but one that fits the very strange place they’re in and the very strange people they are.

Heavily inspired by the song “Meet Me in the Woods” by Lord Huron

[theundeadgospel]

Very excited to use the COS Tarokka as my main tarot deck because there’s a way to read these cards as if you were reading normal divination tarot decks — my friend knows how to decipher and read them, he sent me a guide!!

And this is the first fucking card I draw.

[thelostbarovianroyals]

Look - I know it is probably on a million playlists but - 

Strahd & Sergei. 

[aadoppelganger]

Making the best in a bad situation.

Our Curse of Strahd D&D party entered the Amber Temple this past weekend and it’s not great.

My druid Iljós is really not enjoying all this arcane magic and darkness. He’s been super creeped out by all the nothics skittering around. Finding out how they come about did not help. Made it worse in fact.

Since he’s doesn’t have dark vision like everyone else he relies on his spores to help him see, and sometimes he likes to connect the dots and make shapes. Recently those shapes have started to take more solid forms.

The party wizard and our newly adopted nothic are very impressed.

[mincemeat-the-warforged]

Rough turnaround of my CoS PC

[thelostbarovianroyals]

I got Keres - which is about 0% surprising to me. If Keres doesn’t end up starting some kind of Governess Teacher-ish Union when she gets back to Daggerford, I will be 100% surprised. 

Each character has a little synopsis written about them. I'll probably do my OG Saturday game, too.

[m0nkz]

The Crelmers enjoy the weekend.  [picrew]

[dexadin]

If you're still doing Strahd help (please still be doing Strahd help 😰) Can you give a baby GM some advice on romancing the icky vampire man? I made one of my players the new Tatiana and she has really good roleplay with him, so I want to go for that (obviously with her permission) but this is only my second game and I've never done PC on NPC romance

I'm always down for talking about the ivky vampire man <:3c I think it's important when you're letting a player romance Strahd to really think about what you as a storyteller are hoping to get out of it.

I imagine if you're running CoS, your player knows that Strahd is the BBEG and is accepting, if not expecting, the fact that Strahd may betray them. I'd argue that's a good thing--let your players stay on their toes. Strahd is cursed to an eternal existence of misery--forever locked in a cycle of finding and losing Tatyana through her reincarnations.

It's your choice as a DM to decide what Strahd's motivation for pursuing Tatyana is. Does Strahd actually love Tatyana? Did he ever? Or is Tatyana just a prize to be won, something to claim over his brother? Most importantly, how does he feel about your PC!Tatyana? Does he have any interest her beyond being a reincarnation, or does his interest end there?

Despite being a beyond-hopeless romantic, Strahd is still very evil and villainous. Obviously, he's lured your party here to Barovia in one way or another and trapped them there. While your PC!Tatyana might have loyalties to her party, Strahd probably won't. When push comes to shove, Strahd is going to prioritize Tatyana over her companions, in a way that can be really interesting to roleplay, especially if your PC!Tatyana finds herself genuinely charmed by hus advances. There are ways to play a forceful, intimidating Strahd while romancing a PC without entering the Freak Zone that can be super triggering.

Putting the rest under a readmore so ATSBB players can't peep!

In my game, Strahd showered the entire party with gifts and dinners to earn his the approval of PC!Tatyana (who is very loyal to the party) but took every chance to isolate her whenever possible. He wants to genuinely win over this new reincarnation, rather than using magic, force, or vampire charm.

Think of some traits that you think are particularly insidious and lean into those while playing. My Strahd likes to play with his food before eating, likening himself physically to a sadistic predator with every unnecessary bite. He calls PC!Tatyana "my treasure," a constant reminder of his desire to possess. Strahd can be romantic and charming--the moments of sweetness might be more terrifying to your party than constant aggression because they know he's acting "off script". He's not a wolf in sheep's clothing, he's a shark in dark water. You know the danger is present, but there isn't much you can do about it but play along and bide time until he strikes.

I hope this was helpful, and feel free to ask again if I missed anything!