I'm a brand new DM running Curse of Strahd and wanted to ask about ideas for part of one of my player's backstories. The player in question is a bard, named Pravo, who is the apprentice of a professor, named Dr. Malerie Trestrum, and was transported to an unknown plane of existence via a mirror for training years before when my campaign takes place. Here's the exact excerpt from my player about the plane:
"Trestrum decided to show Pravo an extraordinary discovery: a 6-foot tall mirror made from the wood of an enchanted willow tree. She gave him very specific instructions in order to attune to it and obtain its knowledge, to which he followed to the absolute letter. The ritual was a success, and Pravo was transported to a separate plane of existence, filled with unexplainable shapes, forms, and energies. Immediate fascination turned to horror as the mystical imagery melted away into something far more perverse. Voices began to whisper into his head, hundreds of lifetime's worth of experience rushed through his mind and became his own."
I was looking on the Forgotten Realms wiki for ideas on what this plane could be but nothing seems to fit the exact description of where my player was transported to in his backstory. I'd like to figure something out since I'm playing CoS and want to bring this up when the players talk to Madam Eva. Any possible tips would be greatly appreciated!
Backstories aren't meant to fit perfectly, but give you ideas on how to interpret and how to use that information. You're playing a horror game and the premise of that game is that the Dark Powers have imprisoned Strahd in one of their Domains of Dread, where he rules it but will never get what he actually wants. Doomed to repeat that cycle forever.
You can twist those visions the player described as other Dark Lords and their memories, various inhabitants of the realm of Barovia, a memory from Strahd himself? A lot of great possibilities there.
Does your party know they are playing strahd? The campaign is great but, it makes it hard to allow players to resolve back stories that are off plane ( and for that matter on plane as the adventure is pretty full on dealing just with Strahd).
If you haven’t I would let the party know you are playing strahd and explain that you may find it hard or impossible to provide a deep character backstory driven experience in parallel with the campaign. There can sometimes be nothing more disappointing to a player then creating a great backstory they are looking forward to exploring, and then finding out very quickly that it actually won’t be possible in this campaign.
I have run out of the Abyss before and had a similar situation, a player came with a pre created character concept that involve family intrigue, potential relations to a king and a sister who was missing, it was a brilliant idea that gave me plenty of scope to define loads and surprise him, just not for a campaign that starts with a prison break and continues through the underdark escaping the denizens of the abyss. He shelved that character concept and created another equally good one that actually did fit and allowed me some scope for brining his characters story into the game.
Hello to anyone who reads this,
I'm a brand new DM running Curse of Strahd and wanted to ask about ideas for part of one of my player's backstories. The player in question is a bard, named Pravo, who is the apprentice of a professor, named Dr. Malerie Trestrum, and was transported to an unknown plane of existence via a mirror for training years before when my campaign takes place. Here's the exact excerpt from my player about the plane:
"Trestrum decided to show Pravo an extraordinary discovery: a 6-foot tall mirror made from the wood of an enchanted willow tree. She gave him very specific instructions in order to attune to it and obtain its knowledge, to which he followed to the absolute letter. The ritual was a success, and Pravo was transported to a separate plane of existence, filled with unexplainable shapes, forms, and energies. Immediate fascination turned to horror as the mystical imagery melted away into something far more perverse. Voices began to whisper into his head, hundreds of lifetime's worth of experience rushed through his mind and became his own."
I was looking on the Forgotten Realms wiki for ideas on what this plane could be but nothing seems to fit the exact description of where my player was transported to in his backstory. I'd like to figure something out since I'm playing CoS and want to bring this up when the players talk to Madam Eva. Any possible tips would be greatly appreciated!
Honestly?
This is 100% the "Dark Powers".
https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/3084/what-are-the-dark-powers
Backstories aren't meant to fit perfectly, but give you ideas on how to interpret and how to use that information. You're playing a horror game and the premise of that game is that the Dark Powers have imprisoned Strahd in one of their Domains of Dread, where he rules it but will never get what he actually wants. Doomed to repeat that cycle forever.
You can twist those visions the player described as other Dark Lords and their memories, various inhabitants of the realm of Barovia, a memory from Strahd himself? A lot of great possibilities there.
This really helps with the backstory and how the party got transported to Barovia. Thanks!
This could also be the Far Realm
Does your party know they are playing strahd? The campaign is great but, it makes it hard to allow players to resolve back stories that are off plane ( and for that matter on plane as the adventure is pretty full on dealing just with Strahd).
If you haven’t I would let the party know you are playing strahd and explain that you may find it hard or impossible to provide a deep character backstory driven experience in parallel with the campaign. There can sometimes be nothing more disappointing to a player then creating a great backstory they are looking forward to exploring, and then finding out very quickly that it actually won’t be possible in this campaign.
I have run out of the Abyss before and had a similar situation, a player came with a pre created character concept that involve family intrigue, potential relations to a king and a sister who was missing, it was a brilliant idea that gave me plenty of scope to define loads and surprise him, just not for a campaign that starts with a prison break and continues through the underdark escaping the denizens of the abyss. He shelved that character concept and created another equally good one that actually did fit and allowed me some scope for brining his characters story into the game.