How do you portray Strahd?

[Lovecraftforever]

This question is for dungeon masters but everyone should chime in. When and if your players meet Strahd how do you portray him?

Based on the Ravenloft fiction he seems to have multiple personalities.

In KNIGHT OF THE BLACK ROSE he is written as scheming and coy (and a little like Lestat with a subtle ambiguous sexuality).

In VAMPIRE OF THE MISTS he is a psychotic fiend and kind of idiotic. You begin to wonder how he was a effective leader.

In I, STRAHD and the sequel he is a tyrant but thoughtful and alert of his own limitations and somewhat regretful.

Thoughts?

[Lost Heretic]

In VAMPIRE OF THE MISTS he is a psychotic fiend and kind of idiotic. You begin to wonder how he was a effective leader.

I thought of him more as a very lonely fiend with thinly veiled psychosis. I never saw any problems with how his intelligence was portrayed.

[Isabella]

Well, he's been around for a while. I'm sure his personality has shifted over the years.

[Lost Heretic]

Sure, Isabella, but classic vampires are typically portrayed as inherently static creatures.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

It is quite possible that Strahd shows different facets of himself, depending on the circumstances.

Remember that the I, Strahd stories are written as drawn from Strahd's personal journal, i.e., 'The Tome of Strahd'. Expect him to show himself in the best possible light. He may be an efficient administrator and skilled at both swordplay and magic, but he is more than likely less benevolent than he portrays himself.

I think that that is a central aspect of Strahd. He will show only that aspect of himself that he wants other people to see, unless he really loses control for some reason. Jander got under his skin a few times, for instance when they were making music together, so he may have seen more than most other people -- with the added advantage that they were both vampires, which may have inspired Strahd to lower his personal walls a little -- at least initially.
Strahd has learned enough over the centuries not to be absolutely static. He prefers to keep his country an isolated backwater, but he is strategist enough to stay flexible himself, I think. As a high-level Wizard, he has to be open for new knowledge and techniques; as a warrior, he has to stay aware of new tactics and weaponry.

When facing new people, I would expect Strahd to initially portray himself as a gentleman of the world. He can be urbane and charming, is aware of the world beyond Barovia and capable of talking to people on their own level. He will make himself look good by not displaying the Barovian insular nature, by being curious about his 'new acquaintances' (this despite the fact that he has probably been aware of and spying on them for a while now, courtesy of the Vistani, other spies and his magic). He will maintain an aristocratic demanor, maintaining a certain level of 'propriety', but will be as pleasant as is needed to lull people into a false sense of security.

Of course once he has people fully under his thumb, he is a general. He will give orders and expect them to be obeyed without question or hesitation. If you have made yourself his servant, he will show you the face of a harsh master.

And if you're his enemy... Then you're hosed. o_o He can trap you in Barovia and chip away at your existence for as long as he likes, if he's in the mood to be cruel, or he can just come for you and obliterate you. He will show you the face of a vampire, an apex undead predator, and you are his prey.

[d'Ysmaul]

It's going to depend a lot on where the group's from, and what's going on at the time, because I try to slightly skew how things are presented to reinforce the biases that the characters would have.

In my current continuity, with an all-Darkonian party set in BC 851, I'm playing up Strahd as a despot. He's "one of the good ones," in that he keeps his hands to himself and doesn't cause international problems, but he's basically dismissed as the tin-pot dictator of a backwater southern state.

If and when the PCs actually visit Barovia, I'm gonna try and play up the many ways it parallels Darkon. Not explicitly comparing the two, but playing up little details so the two characters who were alive during the 750s can reminisce about how they remember Azalin being like that.

[HuManBing]

Strahd in I, Strahd struck me as being far too lawful for how I'd imagined him to be. He's even arguably non-evil, though for an autobiography you'd expect that sort of skew.

I found the actual writing of Vampire of the Mists to be most interesting of all the stories about Strahd, so that colors my preference somewhat. I think of him as a being falling steadily deeper into despair and psychosis, but roused to action and forced to reconstruct his psychology every time he must deal with humans. Oddly enough, this also means as far as his civilized rationality is concerned, he has something of a symbiotic dependence on people. Without them, he'll fall further into atavistic barbarism. With them (and all their petty distractions) he regains a measure of his noble worth as a ruler.

[Korsahrath]

It seems as though depending on the situation and what he is thinking is the personality that is being reflected. if he is at home he maybe depressed and constantly in his thoughts which probably terrorizes him more and more. As you stated scheming, when he wants something done he knows how to take the right actions. When it comes to interaction with others he does not know, I see the coy side of him taking part; If hostile that is up for you to determine.

I don't know much about Zarovich, but based on what I know and what you guys said, this is what I interpret.

[Korsahrath]

One question if I may. How does he obtain such attire during medieval time? Is it beyond the era for what he is wearing? Can someone answer this because I am quite puzzled with this one?

[Lovecraftforever]

One question if I may. How does he obtain such attire during medieval time? Is it beyond the era for what he is wearing? Can someone answer this because I am quite puzzled with this one?

Depends on what "history" you follow. TSR, WOTC, and WW are notorious for ret-coning Ravenloft history.

Some say Barovia came from Forgotten Realms. However Barovians are completely astounded and afraid of magic and non humans. This leads me to believe the world Strahd came from was probably more like the Victorian age of our world. Not the middle ages.

Or, Ravenloft has a Hot Topic.

[Sareau]

Strahd is the boss fight in an old module-there was no thought given to continuity whatsoever, and it was a one-shot thing with multiple possible plots, so Strahd initially had multiple personalities depending on his current scheme.

I generally play Strahd like Barnabus Collins in Dark Shadows, at least in Barnabus's early, villain days: his first impulse is to kill his opponents, even nuisances-the "Devil Strahd" is more than a translation of Dracula's nickname, after all-and Strahd has a personality quirk in that if a woman interests him at all, he thinks she is a duplicate of Tatyana. (Barnabus did this with various cast members and his lady love, Josette, as actresses left the show and new ones brought in and had to be worked into the story)

Strahd is a brilliant schemer when he applies himself, but most issues don't require that much scheming-the old Montgomery Burns:"I could crush him like a grape-but that would be too easy-instead, I'll let him dangle, twist in the wind until...ah, to Hell with it-I'll crush him like a grape."

Strahd really depends on the needs and comfort level of the campaign. For a more mature group, I once had Strahd collecting women in his dungeons-he'd think they were Tatyana, drag them up to the castle, then when he either tired of them or they proved they weren't Tatyana, tortured and mutilated them horribly for lying to him.

Strahd is a nobleman, with rarified tastes-I've had him collect up entertainment for soirees on occasion, winnowing through the talent pool of Barovia, forcing endless rehearsals to get everything just right, and had the party burst into a roomful of broken musicians, mindlessly playing damaged instruments from overuse as they croaked out such songs as they could-that was not a pretty climax.

Strahd as vampire has about a century and a half of literature and film to fall back on-pick a vampire "type" you are comfortable with and run with it. My Strahd is a strong-willed slightly mad noble with the cunning of the centuries and all the casual brutality of being an autocrat the whole time can muster.

[Garudos Celestar]

In VAMPIRE OF THE MISTS he is a psychotic fiend and kind of idiotic. You begin to wonder how he was a effective leader.

Well, he's been around for a while. I'm sure his personality has shifted over the years.

If we reference Van Richten's Guide to Vampires on that particular topic, that's one of the main reasons vampires need to go into hibernation periodically; immortality (at least in the form of vampirism, although the VRGs also note similar phenomena with liches, ghosts, and mummies) takes a psychological toll. Perhaps Strahd's need to heal at the end of VotM was a blessing in disguise for him: it gave him a chance to rest mentally as well.

[HuManBing]

Liches apparently are one of the few undead that don't suffer particularly much from the whole "staring eternity in the eye" sanity issue. I seem to recall Van Richten's Guide stating that they remain about as sane as they ever were, even after many centuries of unlife.

[Garudos Celestar]

Liches apparently are one of the few undead that don't suffer particularly much from the whole "staring eternity in the eye" sanity issue. I seem to recall Van Richten's Guide stating that they remain about as sane as they ever were, even after many centuries of unlife.

van Richten qualifies that statement: they all go through it, but those who become liches almost always successfully progress.

"Nevertheless, they all seem to recover. Some aspect of the lich's mind is able to undergo these torments and weather them out. It may take a few months or a century - but all liches eventually become accustomed to their existance and function comfortably."
~ VRMHC Volume II, pg 131

van Richten hypothesizes that there may be examples that don't make it and disappear/commit suicide/self-destruct, but he's never heard of a specific example.

[Zettaijin]

Given the efforts necessary to become a Lich, it would make sense that they don't suffer from the same melancholy as Vampires, as they were already rather monomaniacal in a way and should be a better adapted to the rigours of endless repetition.