Ladies' Night, Curse of Strahd: Player Materials
I'm going to field a few questions that have come up here and I'll separately post a session summary. You'll also find links to some useful stuff in here that have come up. I've printed out documents on my end for an upcoming session, so no need to do that for you all, I just want to share your characters with you. First, the Dropbox folder for character sheets. I haven't modified Cindy's as she has been managing her own, but you'll find the rest updated here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mlykyndxx0z38k6/AADzHzdLIaviHtCPOUK5BlKGa?dl=0 Jenna's character uses the homebrew document: Monk, Way of the Four Elements Remastered. This is a very playtested community document so you won't find it in the Player's Handbook or Xanathar's Guide. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1pdYIcfHauwNDM2My1XeWFYSDA/view?usp=sharing You'll notice that this document uses the Elemental Evil supplement which provides a ton of elemental-themed material. The spells in here are also available for spellcasters, too! I have the spell cards for those who wish to use them. https://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/EE_PlayersCompanion.pdf You'll also find in the Dropbox folder some extra documents: Danu the Druid gets a Wild Shape sheet and Urdes the Monk has an Additional Details sheet. I've gone ahead and added these documents, but they're not necessary unless you want a bit more space. And Heather, Brigid's abilities are non-spell based and not overly complicated, so she doesn't have these. A blank Additional Details can be really helpful for tracking other elements of the game like treasure, locations, and relationships. ... Okay, now I want to mention a few things: What do your characters know about this campaign? Not much! They're stepping into a strange, dark world and they'll learn things there. There will be homages to classic monsters of the real world, but these will be surprising, ghastly, and mysterious to your characters. As happened in the prelude session, werewolves exist. What do you know about werewolves? Well, you fought some and had some struggles, but they take hits and they fall like any other. The wolves also seem to be more malicious than you're used to. You're going to come to conclusions as a group. I recommend writing this stuff down so you can refer to past sessions. Why is this Curse of Strahd: Redux? I've run this campaign twice already. Cindy has played it once. I want it to feel fresh for everyone. I've also felt out many of its limitations and want to respond to those. This is loosely a a sequel some years after a previous band of adventurers has come through Barovia, so you'll hear about them and they've definitely left an impression on the land. Also, your characters are strong and well-equipped, so you'll avoid many of the frustrations that lower level parties deal with. The land you're in isn't massive, but there's lots to do. Other agents are moving, too, so your actions (and lack of action) will ripple out and come rushing back. Do we have to be goody goods to succeed? I've often seen players feel like they have to be good characters. With the redux, I'm challenging the typical good/evil, lawful/chaotic expectation and setting those expectations aside. Play your characters and make choices. You can disagree with one another and make different choices. That's okay if not down right encouraged. What significant changes are out there? I don't want to give away spoilers, but I've tried to make many of the major players (so to speak) in the game world feel more fleshed out and have their own reasoning for their actions. Narratively, you're going to see some of the younger characters grown so I don't "break" the original characters. This is, I hope, a more dynamic setting than Curse of Strahd is originally. What I mean is you'll be able to work with different allies than the core campaign. Also, I'm tweaking a key element so that there is not, "The Prophecy foretold" business that predetermines your tale. In some ways, the world is darker, so don't assume baddies won't be interested in aiding you. Everyone has an enemy, a rival, that they're eager to get the upper hand against. That is a tool for you all. So... What do we do? First, explore. You're cutting your own path and meeting people along the way. They'll have request for you (quests), and you'll have choices to make. Second, investigate. Things are not always what they appear to be in Barovia. Third, decide. The world will be shaped by your decisions. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with and where we go!
G+ Comments
Kelly:
Sounds interesting. It probably wouldn't be feasible, but either have one of the competing parties come to the table to interfere or compete or have the shades of the past party come to give grief, advice or whatever with real players as opposed to NPC's. Or, not to go too old school Star Trek, have another group show up that are the alter egos of the current party.
Kelly:
Still thinking about this. It would be cool, if probably a nightmare for a DM, to hold tandem sessions on the same campaign pos likely different nights where the real players didn't know about the other party. THEN have the groups meet at some point in the campaign where they have to deal, negotiate, fight or a combination in terms of achieving whatever the goal is.
Caleb:
+Kelly this is a really fun idea that I’ve played with before. Given how I’m running/building this campaign, I think it would work. It just so happens that our Friday game takes place at a 20 years before point! I’m thinking more and more about doing a campaign guide for this and I could include an appendix to this effect.
