I'll be running Strahd for a party that's a mix of experienced and newer players - all have at least SOME experience, but some more than others.
At the request of the party, I'm going to lean into the gothic horror theme fairly strongly- spending a fair amount of time finding some seriously creepy visuals for handouts to set the mood, as well as music (using R20)- but for those who have played and run the game before, I'd like some advice. I find that horror is at its keenest when it's judiciously applied, adding relief, comic or otherwise, to make the horror bits more- horrific. Like, put the characters in a creepy dungeon, no problem, they're armed and ready. For horror to have real impact, it needs to be juxtaposed with light, even funny moments- turns out that weird noise that made us all tense was just a loud goddamn frog or something, we were all startled for nothing.
For those who've run it- what tips would you suggest to make the horror of Strahd really shine? Thanks!
Your biggest avenue for injecting levity or dark humor into CoS is definitely going to be the townsfolk of Barovia, Vallaki and Krezk. In my own games Blinsky the toymaker and Lady Fiona's drunkard sons were big hits. The bard in one of my groups also managed to charm one of the Vistani barkeeps, so I turned her into a gushing fangirl while the other two remained dry and sarcastic towards to party.
The people of Barovia will be potential good sources of humor yeah. Maybe the occasional homebrew creature that's horriffic, but also kind of funny, like a B movie comedy horror kind of way, but maybe that'd be sapping too much from the horror. Think Gremlins/Critters etc.
My DM when we ran a very heavily homebrewed/altered version also had some stuff like a comically edgelordy vampire minion of Strahd's. But if you don't want to inject humor into the threats themselves, the commoners are probably your best bet. Or give Strahd himself a sense of humor and mess with the party in funny, but stilly creepy/horrific ways. Expecially early on before he starts to take the party seriously as potential threats.
Your biggest avenue for injecting levity or dark humor into CoS is definitely going to be the townsfolk of Barovia, Vallaki and Krezk.
I would definitely agree with using some of the various NPCs to inject some levity into some of the situations. For one of my CoS campaigns, I really played up on the Baron Vallakovich's "All will be well!" approach. Party had to travel to and from Vallaki multiple times, so they had multiple encounters with the Baron, and he was constantly trying to prepare the next festival while actively living in denial (despite whatever the party had uncovered or accomplished).
In fact, it’s been a couple years since that group finish the campaign, and they still have the running joke that “All will be well!” when their characters/campaign is in a rough situation.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hey all,
I'll be running Strahd for a party that's a mix of experienced and newer players - all have at least SOME experience, but some more than others.
At the request of the party, I'm going to lean into the gothic horror theme fairly strongly- spending a fair amount of time finding some seriously creepy visuals for handouts to set the mood, as well as music (using R20)- but for those who have played and run the game before, I'd like some advice. I find that horror is at its keenest when it's judiciously applied, adding relief, comic or otherwise, to make the horror bits more- horrific. Like, put the characters in a creepy dungeon, no problem, they're armed and ready. For horror to have real impact, it needs to be juxtaposed with light, even funny moments- turns out that weird noise that made us all tense was just a loud goddamn frog or something, we were all startled for nothing.
For those who've run it- what tips would you suggest to make the horror of Strahd really shine? Thanks!
Your biggest avenue for injecting levity or dark humor into CoS is definitely going to be the townsfolk of Barovia, Vallaki and Krezk. In my own games Blinsky the toymaker and Lady Fiona's drunkard sons were big hits. The bard in one of my groups also managed to charm one of the Vistani barkeeps, so I turned her into a gushing fangirl while the other two remained dry and sarcastic towards to party.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
The people of Barovia will be potential good sources of humor yeah. Maybe the occasional homebrew creature that's horriffic, but also kind of funny, like a B movie comedy horror kind of way, but maybe that'd be sapping too much from the horror. Think Gremlins/Critters etc.
My DM when we ran a very heavily homebrewed/altered version also had some stuff like a comically edgelordy vampire minion of Strahd's. But if you don't want to inject humor into the threats themselves, the commoners are probably your best bet. Or give Strahd himself a sense of humor and mess with the party in funny, but stilly creepy/horrific ways. Expecially early on before he starts to take the party seriously as potential threats.
I would definitely agree with using some of the various NPCs to inject some levity into some of the situations. For one of my CoS campaigns, I really played up on the Baron Vallakovich's "All will be well!" approach. Party had to travel to and from Vallaki multiple times, so they had multiple encounters with the Baron, and he was constantly trying to prepare the next festival while actively living in denial (despite whatever the party had uncovered or accomplished).
In fact, it’s been a couple years since that group finish the campaign, and they still have the running joke that “All will be well!” when their characters/campaign is in a rough situation.