Hello everyone again.
I plan on running House of Strahd with Castles & crusades rules this weekend. I've never actually ran this (weird considering all the ravenloft modules i ran when i was younger, even roots of evil and from the shadows). I was wondering If any of you could give me some ideas or input that might help out (Ravenloft DM's are always full of good ideas!).
Info:
Gonna be 3 players, one of which is playing a NE assassin - any interesting ideas on how to incorporate that? Trying to give her a good reason to be going to barovia. I think she became an assassin because her family was murdered and she wants revenge. Is there an assassins guild in darkon? Maybe the midnight slasher murdered her family?
What would be a good level? I was thinking about 7th.
This could be a one shot but I want to leave the possibility open to continue. How should I handle character death? I was thinking of having backup characters being kept prisoner in the castle should someone's pc die. That way, I can kill the pc's mercillessly and still have the player be able to play and I won't feel so bad!
Any other characters, monsters or encounters in ravenloft that I can easily throw in here? I'd love to make sure the PC's encounter a rust monster & carrion crawler if I can find a good place to put them in the lower catacombs of the castle.
Anyway, I love to hear all your ideas and thanks in advance.
Tips for House of Strahd
-
Zilfer
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 4230
- Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:14 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location: WA (Land of lots of trees)
- Contact:
Re: Tips for House of Strahd
Alright i haven't played house of strahd, but i can give you some ideas and repeat some things that have been said on this site before for tips. I'm still learning myself.
So there is a kind of assassin's guild in Darkon called the Kargatane?(sp?) But they are more like Azalin's minions, most of the higher ups are undead. This might work if someone from Barovia or a relative of Strahd killed the PC's family so she joined Darkon's lord Azalin rex to go against one of his immortal enemies (Strahd). If you wanted to further twist that plot it could even be that Azalin Rex was actually responsible for the character's families death and framed the Von Zaroviches.
Regardless, I don't think you should kill NPC's ruthlessly unless they don't make an attempt at all to figure out weaknesses of monsters. Furthermore on the subject of monsters, never describe the thing by name and try to describe it with obscure references that don't betray what it is. Carrier thing? If i remember right that kind of looks like a slug with multiple tentacles around it's mouth. So try and describe it without using obvious things.
An example that gives away what a monster is for example is "it looks like a large wolf." (<.< that most people will assume is a werewolf.)
Now if you describe it as a Darkhaired humaniod that stands two man heights tall, drool hanging down from an elongated face. (yeah still a little obviuos bad choice for a monster but aw well. I think you get what i mean though.)
(that's all for now i may check back later)
So there is a kind of assassin's guild in Darkon called the Kargatane?(sp?) But they are more like Azalin's minions, most of the higher ups are undead. This might work if someone from Barovia or a relative of Strahd killed the PC's family so she joined Darkon's lord Azalin rex to go against one of his immortal enemies (Strahd). If you wanted to further twist that plot it could even be that Azalin Rex was actually responsible for the character's families death and framed the Von Zaroviches.
Regardless, I don't think you should kill NPC's ruthlessly unless they don't make an attempt at all to figure out weaknesses of monsters. Furthermore on the subject of monsters, never describe the thing by name and try to describe it with obscure references that don't betray what it is. Carrier thing? If i remember right that kind of looks like a slug with multiple tentacles around it's mouth. So try and describe it without using obvious things.
An example that gives away what a monster is for example is "it looks like a large wolf." (<.< that most people will assume is a werewolf.)
Now if you describe it as a Darkhaired humaniod that stands two man heights tall, drool hanging down from an elongated face. (yeah still a little obviuos bad choice for a monster but aw well. I think you get what i mean though.)
(that's all for now i may check back later)