I have been itching to run a Ravenloft game for a while, but my players have been bugging me to run a war campaign for some time as well (it may have something to do with promising them a war campaign for ohh...five years or so). So I figured, why not do both?
Now technically, this isn't a Ravenloft game, but more of an origins story for Strahd, Barovia, and how they entered the in the Dread Domain. I intend to start the campaign just before the Terg Invasion of 320. The PCs will be in one of the first villages to fall, watching their friends and family be slaughtered, while they flee for their lives. They will be hounded for days until they reach the safety of a Barovian military camp. Hopefully they will want revenge, and join up. If not, well....the boyars are going to need conscripts, and they will be pressed into service. The PCs will be on the receiving end of a few defeats, but will gain a repuation as great warriors (they are, after all, PCs). The Barovian army will be demoralized from the defeat, and all will seem lost, until the arrival of a man...Count Strahd von Zarovich.
I intend to make Strahd an idealistic young man, who wants nothing but to save his people from the horrors of the Terg...at least at first. He will take a special interest in the PCs, who will become his go-to men for special assignments (aka adventures). As the campaign progresses over the course of the war (nearly 30 years), the PCs, and Strahd himself, will begin to sink to greater acts of depravity and evil to accomplish their goals. What starts out as justification for the invasion of their homeland will slowly become more sinister. For example, they may be sent to kill stragglers at the ends of the Terg army, mutilating their bodies to strike fear into their ranks. Or perhaps they will sneak into a camp, silently killing those that sleep to be discovered by their horrified comrades. But later it can become spiking live enemies to trees, or whole sale slaughter of Terg villages or Barovian sympathizers. Again, the theme will be that the PCs will not really consider their slow decline into evil acts to be evil, but the necessary actions of patriots defending their homes. The mutilation of the invaders will make them think twice about traversing the woods of Barovia…the rape of an enemy camp follower is just the boys letting off some steam, and they ARE they enemy, are they not? This slow fall will also be evident in Strahd, who will use more and more cruel methods to achieve his aims.
This campaign will cover the entirety of the Terg Occupation, so it will cover 27 years. It will culminate at the wedding of Sergei and Tatyana, with the PCs acting as honor guard for Strahd (perhaps some adventures thrown in to see who is trying to assassinate him before this), and securing their place in the Mists of Ravenloft alongside their beloved commander.
So, does anyone have any thoughts? I will definitely need some maps, so historical maps of, say, Romania and the surrounding countryside, and where I can get them, would be appreciated. The Tergs seem to be, according to most of the posts I’ve seen, reminiscent of the Ottoman Turks, so if anyone could recommend some good reading material for them. Any thoughts on the adventures or “war stories” would apprieciated too, as I’ve never done a war campaign before. And of course, if anyone could think of some dastardly cruel things for the PCs to be forced to do, or Strahd to order, would be cool too
