I have been using Ravenloft piecemeal for a bit with a new DM who's had me run a few side adventures to world build.
So far we used Argonvyst to let the party find and establish their own base.
For the Amber Temple the DM has a split world where a lot of the bad stuff was locked in one. Said temple was repurposed as said lock. Going through the place discovered that the vestiges were instead prisons and making the wrong choices lead to their release.
Went well, only really had to redo the vestiges descriptions and be ready in case the player's let things out.
I think that if you remove the vestiges, there are a few questions you have to answer to make the location work for what you want.
1) Why would the party come to the temple? Within the context of CoS the players will usually go there trying to find out how Strahd came to be OR to help a dusk elf with reviving his long lost sister. Both of these story elements require the vestiges to be in place.
2) What is the purpose of the temple? Again, the dark powers and the vestiges trapped within are a fairly integral part of the temple's backstory. If not to hide and guard these dark gifts from those who would abuse them, why was the temple built and how were the original inhabitants corrupted?
3) Is the Lich still part of the temple? In the module, the Lich Exethantur is granted his power of Lichdom by one of the dark vestiges present there.
4) What do you do with all the rooms that are dedicated solely to housing the amber sarcophagi? These make up a large portion of the lower level of the temple. If there are no vestiges, there's no point in exploring these areas.
Questions 2&3 could be easily dealt with by saying that the vestiges are present, but for some reason will not offer power to the players. Even in that case, however, the more important question is what the group's motivation to go to and explore this temple?
If you can find a way to answers these questions which fit's your campaign, then you could definitely reflavor certain things to fit it into what you are doing.
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Does anyone have any ideas on how to use the Amber Temple without the whole Vestiges-thing? Within Barovia or elsewhere?
I have been using Ravenloft piecemeal for a bit with a new DM who's had me run a few side adventures to world build.
So far we used Argonvyst to let the party find and establish their own base.
For the Amber Temple the DM has a split world where a lot of the bad stuff was locked in one. Said temple was repurposed as said lock. Going through the place discovered that the vestiges were instead prisons and making the wrong choices lead to their release.
Went well, only really had to redo the vestiges descriptions and be ready in case the player's let things out.
I think that if you remove the vestiges, there are a few questions you have to answer to make the location work for what you want.
1) Why would the party come to the temple? Within the context of CoS the players will usually go there trying to find out how Strahd came to be OR to help a dusk elf with reviving his long lost sister. Both of these story elements require the vestiges to be in place.
2) What is the purpose of the temple? Again, the dark powers and the vestiges trapped within are a fairly integral part of the temple's backstory. If not to hide and guard these dark gifts from those who would abuse them, why was the temple built and how were the original inhabitants corrupted?
3) Is the Lich still part of the temple? In the module, the Lich Exethantur is granted his power of Lichdom by one of the dark vestiges present there.
4) What do you do with all the rooms that are dedicated solely to housing the amber sarcophagi? These make up a large portion of the lower level of the temple. If there are no vestiges, there's no point in exploring these areas.
Questions 2&3 could be easily dealt with by saying that the vestiges are present, but for some reason will not offer power to the players. Even in that case, however, the more important question is what the group's motivation to go to and explore this temple?
If you can find a way to answers these questions which fit's your campaign, then you could definitely reflavor certain things to fit it into what you are doing.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!