I am currently running a CoS campaign. My players latched onto the aspect of the lore of Barovia that the Morninglord and the Nightmother are worshipped, but their presence is no longer felt. After some clever planning and lucky rolls they have managed to convince most in the town of Valaki that two party members are the Morninglord and the Nightmother returned to the town.
I want to encourage the creativity, but also add consequences for such a big scheme. I am thinking about two major potential outcomes:
A) An NPC cleric of the Morninglord offers to assist the party, but betrays them at an unexpected moment as revenge for their trickery
B) The town leaders encourage the party to enter a far too high level area (party is level 5). This will cause the party real danger and reveal that they do not have the power of gods.
Any advice on rewarding my players' creativity while creating consequences that keep them in check? Thoughts on these potential outcomes? We are definitely making CoS our own, but I also want to bring Strahd back in as a threat. I tried to thwart their plan initially by using Strahd, but the rolls were in the players' favor that day.
I imagine a lot of townspeople would be upset about all their unanswered prayers over the years. Angry about loved ones who died, or a bad harvest three years ago. Just because they’re a god doesn’t mean everyone is happy with them. And people would be expecting lots of miracles on demand. Everything from healing a blind person, to making it rain to making the bengals win the super bowl, to finding a lost toy.
Um... that actually sounds like the sort of thing the Dark Powers would find interesting, which might get them in serious trouble. I'd be tempted to start forcing them to make saves to avoid indefinite madness. Aside from that, the big risk of pretending to be a god is people expecting you to prove it.
I would note that it's not necessary to give in-game rewards for creativity. The reward is an entertaining session, even if the actual scheme turns into an utter train wreck.
In a normal game I'd just have Lathander and Shar turn up and slap the PCs into next week. But in Barovia…
Full marks to the players. That is a cunning idea.
The Dark Powers will also think so, seeing a great opportunity to break the PCs. Set up a situation where the PCs have to perform a miracle and can't, and watch the expression on the PCs faces as they see the townsfolk who genuinely trusted them being crushed by the truth. What is worse than having no hope? Having hope and having it ripped away.
This is also a great opportunity for the Devil to reinforce his rule on the valley. "Pay attention, people of Barovia,! There. is. no. hope. The gods you worship are just charletans. Powerless to affect your fate. There is only Me."
Full marks to the players. That is a cunning idea.
I was really impressed with them! They really listened to the lore and talked to people in the town before executing their plan. It was a great session!
This is also a great opportunity for the Devil to reinforce his rule on the valley. "Pay attention, people of Barovia,! There. is. no. hope. The gods you worship are just charletans. Powerless to affect your fate. There is only Me."
I LOVE this. Thank you for the idea! A lot to play with here...
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I am currently running a CoS campaign. My players latched onto the aspect of the lore of Barovia that the Morninglord and the Nightmother are worshipped, but their presence is no longer felt. After some clever planning and lucky rolls they have managed to convince most in the town of Valaki that two party members are the Morninglord and the Nightmother returned to the town.
I want to encourage the creativity, but also add consequences for such a big scheme. I am thinking about two major potential outcomes:
A) An NPC cleric of the Morninglord offers to assist the party, but betrays them at an unexpected moment as revenge for their trickery
B) The town leaders encourage the party to enter a far too high level area (party is level 5). This will cause the party real danger and reveal that they do not have the power of gods.
Any advice on rewarding my players' creativity while creating consequences that keep them in check? Thoughts on these potential outcomes? We are definitely making CoS our own, but I also want to bring Strahd back in as a threat. I tried to thwart their plan initially by using Strahd, but the rolls were in the players' favor that day.
I imagine a lot of townspeople would be upset about all their unanswered prayers over the years. Angry about loved ones who died, or a bad harvest three years ago. Just because they’re a god doesn’t mean everyone is happy with them.
And people would be expecting lots of miracles on demand. Everything from healing a blind person, to making it rain to making the bengals win the super bowl, to finding a lost toy.
Um... that actually sounds like the sort of thing the Dark Powers would find interesting, which might get them in serious trouble. I'd be tempted to start forcing them to make saves to avoid indefinite madness. Aside from that, the big risk of pretending to be a god is people expecting you to prove it.
I would note that it's not necessary to give in-game rewards for creativity. The reward is an entertaining session, even if the actual scheme turns into an utter train wreck.
In a normal game I'd just have Lathander and Shar turn up and slap the PCs into next week. But in Barovia…
Full marks to the players. That is a cunning idea.
The Dark Powers will also think so, seeing a great opportunity to break the PCs. Set up a situation where the PCs have to perform a miracle and can't, and watch the expression on the PCs faces as they see the townsfolk who genuinely trusted them being crushed by the truth. What is worse than having no hope? Having hope and having it ripped away.
This is also a great opportunity for the Devil to reinforce his rule on the valley. "Pay attention, people of Barovia,! There. is. no. hope. The gods you worship are just charletans. Powerless to affect your fate. There is only Me."
Thank you all! I love the idea of them encountering pressure from the townsfolk and drawing attention from the Dark Powers.
I was really impressed with them! They really listened to the lore and talked to people in the town before executing their plan. It was a great session!
I LOVE this. Thank you for the idea! A lot to play with here...