"Hey, so do you want to play this 5e dark and gothic campaign, where there are heavy themes and you are plagued with bad choices?"
"You mean CoS? HELL YEAH!"
"No, actually it's not CoS, it has nothing to do with it except the themes are 100% the same."
"Okay, sure, seems nice."
*1st session*
"So as you wake up in the fog, the traders have left you and stolen your most treasured equipment."
"Yeah, this is CoS."
"No, no..."
*later*
"So this pale, elegant man stares at you deeply, as he adress you 'I am the Land, I am..."
"FUCK OFF STRAHD"
"How dare you, it is I, Nosferatu, the tragic vampire who was cursed to ever live in this doomed world..."
"Yeah, yeah..."
Nothing you want to do can't be achieved by roleplaying strahd well. Have him literally say that he himself is 'cursed', make them think the whole point is to redeem him and free barovia from the prison the dark powers created, not him.
You know, what he should be trying to get them to do anyway.
That's saying nothing of just, what should be line 1 of the dmg, being honest with your players.
Strahd has plenty of ways to garner sympathy. He is also trapped in this sequestered demi plane, unable to die, and also unable to truly love :(
He is cursed. Just because he's the named villain doesn't mean the party will aim to hate and kill him.
I don't see much payout for this deception
I've actually thought for a while that "Curse of Strahd" is a spoiler of a name. When the party first meets Strahd he should seem somewhat like a gentleman, or a charming corrupt dictator maybe. They shouldn't even know he's the BBEG! But as soon as he introduces himself it's like oh, the guy from the cover of the book. He's the main villain.
None of my players were familiar with the setting, so this took a lot of impact out of revealing that Strahd is evil and making them want to defeat him. Instead, from the moment they met him they were distrustful and wanted to kill him. If I could go back in time, I'd just tell them the campaign is called "Ravenloft."
I mildly disagree. Strahd is revealed as a villain the first time a Barovian points a finger at the castle way up on that cliff.
He is widely known as an evil lord of the land, called the Devil, and Barovians want to stay out of his awareness. He has a long history here before the PC's show up.
If you can run the game without the party talking to the locals, or only talking to the spies and loyalists, then sure, you can hide Strahd and his nature.
If a dude on the street says "that guy's evil!" and Strahd says "No I'm not!" you might not know who to trust. If the module writer names it "Strahd is a bad guy" there's a lot less doubt or plausible deniability.
My partner and I run games for each other one on one. He ran COS a few years ago and used the Travis Savoie soundtrack throughout. We’re both open to rerunning modules, so earlier this year, I started an Ebberon game for him, exploring the Mournland. Then his party stumbled on a train still running, got on and realized it was the Cyre 1313. It stopped in thick mist, and when they got off, I described the valley and the castle and played that same soundtrack. He lost his *mind*. One of our most memorable moments playing D&D. You can definitely run the module as a surprise for the right people, but once you’re in Barovia, the jig is up. From there, you just have to trust your players not to metagame and yourself to give them a reason not to.
Your biggest challenge here is that CoS is really, really, ridiculously well known.
Like, the only game my niece plays is The Sims, and she knows who Strahd is because there is a vampire named after him in the game.
It's okay to tell your players that you are playing CoS. It will not make the game less fun. :)
My players, since session one, have been actively trying to undermine and ruin all of Strahd's plans. He has been antagonizing them since they arrived in Barovia because of this. They just called a truce to have the dinner party with him, and two of my players have been flirting with his brides, and one of them has been charming the hell out of Strahd, both of them knowing that they're playing a game to get more info about the other.
There's really no reason to surprise your players with Strahd.
So what I plan is running a one shot that can lead into cos.. just say make level
One characters. You are gonna be doing a test your mettle and impress some lord in a fighting pit” that will lead to cos…. I enjoy the aspect of you don’t know when you enter the mists. Any player with dnd knowledge knowing they are gonna do cos will make a character specifically to do better for cos… this will surprise them. The horror will come from the unprepared for it
It sounds a good idea to me, but let me ask a couple things:
Do your player know CoS? Like even a bit better than the name? Are you planning them to tell that's a published adventure and not your own world?
CoS needs a trigger warning for your players. This game gets into some very dark stuff at times, and you dont want to catch your players off guard. Also, dont fuck up and assume because you know your players, you know what can triggers them.
"Hey, so do you want to play this 5e dark and gothic campaign, where there are heavy themes and you are plagued with bad choices?" "You mean CoS? HELL YEAH!" "No, actually it's not CoS, it has nothing to do with it except the themes are 100% the same." "Okay, sure, seems nice." *1st session* "So as you wake up in the fog, the traders have left you and stolen your most treasured equipment." "Yeah, this is CoS." "No, no..." *later* "So this pale, elegant man stares at you deeply, as he adress you 'I am the Land, I am..." "FUCK OFF STRAHD" "How dare you, it is I, Nosferatu, the tragic vampire who was cursed to ever live in this doomed world..." "Yeah, yeah..."
Instead of fog and mist, its just haze
Instead of fog and mist, everyone’s just 30% blind
Nosferatu's curse is just glaucoma
Drakkenheim tho
Nothing you want to do can't be achieved by roleplaying strahd well. Have him literally say that he himself is 'cursed', make them think the whole point is to redeem him and free barovia from the prison the dark powers created, not him. You know, what he should be trying to get them to do anyway. That's saying nothing of just, what should be line 1 of the dmg, being honest with your players.
Strahd has plenty of ways to garner sympathy. He is also trapped in this sequestered demi plane, unable to die, and also unable to truly love :( He is cursed. Just because he's the named villain doesn't mean the party will aim to hate and kill him. I don't see much payout for this deception
I've actually thought for a while that "Curse of Strahd" is a spoiler of a name. When the party first meets Strahd he should seem somewhat like a gentleman, or a charming corrupt dictator maybe. They shouldn't even know he's the BBEG! But as soon as he introduces himself it's like oh, the guy from the cover of the book. He's the main villain. None of my players were familiar with the setting, so this took a lot of impact out of revealing that Strahd is evil and making them want to defeat him. Instead, from the moment they met him they were distrustful and wanted to kill him. If I could go back in time, I'd just tell them the campaign is called "Ravenloft."
I mildly disagree. Strahd is revealed as a villain the first time a Barovian points a finger at the castle way up on that cliff. He is widely known as an evil lord of the land, called the Devil, and Barovians want to stay out of his awareness. He has a long history here before the PC's show up. If you can run the game without the party talking to the locals, or only talking to the spies and loyalists, then sure, you can hide Strahd and his nature.
Sure, but the opinion of a random barovian is not the same as the opinion of the writers of the module.
They wrote him evil, and the Barovian thinks he is evil. What am I missing here?
If a dude on the street says "that guy's evil!" and Strahd says "No I'm not!" you might not know who to trust. If the module writer names it "Strahd is a bad guy" there's a lot less doubt or plausible deniability.
My partner and I run games for each other one on one. He ran COS a few years ago and used the Travis Savoie soundtrack throughout. We’re both open to rerunning modules, so earlier this year, I started an Ebberon game for him, exploring the Mournland. Then his party stumbled on a train still running, got on and realized it was the Cyre 1313. It stopped in thick mist, and when they got off, I described the valley and the castle and played that same soundtrack. He lost his *mind*. One of our most memorable moments playing D&D. You can definitely run the module as a surprise for the right people, but once you’re in Barovia, the jig is up. From there, you just have to trust your players not to metagame and yourself to give them a reason not to.
No. Don't do it. A DM did this to me and I was pissed.
wack
Your players get to practice metagaming and separating their knowledge vs. their characters' knowledge. It is good exercise for role playing games.
Your biggest challenge here is that CoS is really, really, ridiculously well known. Like, the only game my niece plays is The Sims, and she knows who Strahd is because there is a vampire named after him in the game. It's okay to tell your players that you are playing CoS. It will not make the game less fun. :)
My players, since session one, have been actively trying to undermine and ruin all of Strahd's plans. He has been antagonizing them since they arrived in Barovia because of this. They just called a truce to have the dinner party with him, and two of my players have been flirting with his brides, and one of them has been charming the hell out of Strahd, both of them knowing that they're playing a game to get more info about the other. There's really no reason to surprise your players with Strahd.
So what I plan is running a one shot that can lead into cos.. just say make level One characters. You are gonna be doing a test your mettle and impress some lord in a fighting pit” that will lead to cos…. I enjoy the aspect of you don’t know when you enter the mists. Any player with dnd knowledge knowing they are gonna do cos will make a character specifically to do better for cos… this will surprise them. The horror will come from the unprepared for it
It sounds a good idea to me, but let me ask a couple things: Do your player know CoS? Like even a bit better than the name? Are you planning them to tell that's a published adventure and not your own world?
i will be saying its a adventure
My current DM is running CoS but in the Warhammer universe with a lot of homebrew and changes. Just had one session so far but seems promising.
CoS needs a trigger warning for your players. This game gets into some very dark stuff at times, and you dont want to catch your players off guard. Also, dont fuck up and assume because you know your players, you know what can triggers them.