So a player in my Curse of Strahd Campain has chosen the haunted one background where a hag had kidnaped him as a child. He escaped thanks to wild magic, but the hag still has a magical hold of him, whispering bad suggestions now and then. I was thinking it might be cool to make one of the hags from the old bonegrinder the hag that, and then maybe have her haunt his dream through nightmare haunting. What I am worried about is whether or not this will overstep the boundaries of the DMs power over the PCs character, and if they defeat the hag, would it ruin his background story with the hounted one..? This is my first time as a DM, so I am askin you for advice.
Off-hand, this seems like a great idea. Players like having their backgrounds come up in play. It makes them feel like the star of their own (highly-dysfunctional) movie.
Foreshadowing the meeting with the hag and making the character have worse symptoms the closer they get to the hag could actually accentuate the background features rather than detract from it (this could be mechanical or just RP, depending on your preference)
If they defeat the hag, maybe the player feels some relief.... for a time. After all, this is Ravenloft and stories rarely end well. And evil is never truly defeated. Alternatively, maybe the hag escapes and THAT adds to the haunted feel because now she has more reason to go after the character
In terms of the general question, when dealing with player backgrounds it doesn't hurt to discuss some items with the player. Depending on the nature of the question, you could be specific (what if the family member who died was your sister? Is that cool) or general (How do you feel about coming across your nemesis at some point or would you really prefer to never have them interact with the game). Generality means that you can work something in and still surprise the player (which they will probably appreciate), but they've agreed in advance that you can interfere on that point.
Overall, the backgrounds are there to use as hooks and your idea sounds like a great use of that hook. But if you are really worried about how the character would react, talking to them is always a reasonable option. Just don't give away too many details and spoil the surprise :)
Cool, thanks for your reply! :) I will talk to the player more about his background, make sure he won't mind me using it. If he dosent, he will be the first to ever have left Barovia! :) (in my campain that is:P)
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So a player in my Curse of Strahd Campain has chosen the haunted one background where a hag had kidnaped him as a child. He escaped thanks to wild magic, but the hag still has a magical hold of him, whispering bad suggestions now and then. I was thinking it might be cool to make one of the hags from the old bonegrinder the hag that, and then maybe have her haunt his dream through nightmare haunting. What I am worried about is whether or not this will overstep the boundaries of the DMs power over the PCs character, and if they defeat the hag, would it ruin his background story with the hounted one..? This is my first time as a DM, so I am askin you for advice.
Some thoughts:
In terms of the general question, when dealing with player backgrounds it doesn't hurt to discuss some items with the player. Depending on the nature of the question, you could be specific (what if the family member who died was your sister? Is that cool) or general (How do you feel about coming across your nemesis at some point or would you really prefer to never have them interact with the game). Generality means that you can work something in and still surprise the player (which they will probably appreciate), but they've agreed in advance that you can interfere on that point.
Overall, the backgrounds are there to use as hooks and your idea sounds like a great use of that hook. But if you are really worried about how the character would react, talking to them is always a reasonable option. Just don't give away too many details and spoil the surprise :)
Cool, thanks for your reply! :) I will talk to the player more about his background, make sure he won't mind me using it. If he dosent, he will be the first to ever have left Barovia! :) (in my campain that is:P)