I'm planning on running Curse of Strahd for my party of six Level 3 players soon. Personally, I feel like the vampire genre is over-saturated. A vampire often isn't as intriguing as the concept really is, and players already know a lot about vampires and their abilities and weaknesses! I'm worried that once the players learn that Strahd is a vampire, they will already have made up their minds about his intentions and his threat, but I plan on making his motives a bit more sympathetic.
So... how would you go about making Curse of Strahd a bit more toned-down on the vampire tropes?
For starters, I asked myself, would Barovians even know what a vampire is? Surely some might know of his supernatural abilities, but most who witness them would become his spawn or be outright killed, right? Would Barovians even have a word for "vampire" if Strahd is all they know? I'm more inclined to have Barovians think he is literally the devil himself than to believe he is one of a category of undead known as vampires. With the assumption that Strahd is the devil, I think that creates more intrigue for the party. Is he really the devil? What kind of abilities does he have? What does he want? Then over time, by speaking to significant NPCs (like Richten) they can learn that he is not actually the devil, but an undead creature known as a vampire.
Well they can have words for vampires but they might be more descriptive than anything. For example in the movie "The land before time" the carnivores are called "Sharptooth" Little foot´s species is called "long necks", when i play a simplistic caracter/tribal character they occasionally referr to the sun as "The warmth giver". Heck, the town could even know about him beeing a vampire but they belive him to be a god who came to protect or guide them. Thus they refer to him as the god, the good one, the flyer, the benevelant etc. It all dependsa on how one would change things really. Heck, the entire region could have a nightbased religion so only prisoners/slaves are forced to work under the relentless sun. Silver could be associated with devils so there is no silver, instead people use purley gold/copper.
You could also try subverting various Vampire stereotypes. For example, you could give him a strong appetite for garlic and a proclivity for various religious icons and objects. If the people of Barovia do think of him as a devil, you could have him collect all manner of devilish iconography and use them as decorations for his castle. You could also give him a very nuanced relationship with the people of Barovia: on the one hand, he is a brutal dictator and is seen as the Devil, but, on the other, he is also a fierce general who has protected Barovia from various enemy forces and is hailed as a war hero.
You might even try and make him almost sympathetic to the party: have him invite the players to a lavish party where he presents himself as any other wealthy aristocrat with a handful of eccentricities that show up every now and again. Aside from that, he would simply seem like a man with a zest for life and little too much money on his hands. If you have him foster a relationship with the players, it could really add another dimension to the campaign, having seen him at his best and at his worst. If that were to happen, though, you might want to have him introduce himself under an alias, maybe using the name of his brother, Sergei.
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I'm planning on running Curse of Strahd for my party of six Level 3 players soon. Personally, I feel like the vampire genre is over-saturated. A vampire often isn't as intriguing as the concept really is, and players already know a lot about vampires and their abilities and weaknesses! I'm worried that once the players learn that Strahd is a vampire, they will already have made up their minds about his intentions and his threat, but I plan on making his motives a bit more sympathetic.
So... how would you go about making Curse of Strahd a bit more toned-down on the vampire tropes?
For starters, I asked myself, would Barovians even know what a vampire is? Surely some might know of his supernatural abilities, but most who witness them would become his spawn or be outright killed, right? Would Barovians even have a word for "vampire" if Strahd is all they know? I'm more inclined to have Barovians think he is literally the devil himself than to believe he is one of a category of undead known as vampires. With the assumption that Strahd is the devil, I think that creates more intrigue for the party. Is he really the devil? What kind of abilities does he have? What does he want? Then over time, by speaking to significant NPCs (like Richten) they can learn that he is not actually the devil, but an undead creature known as a vampire.
Well they can have words for vampires but they might be more descriptive than anything. For example in the movie "The land before time" the carnivores are called "Sharptooth" Little foot´s species is called "long necks", when i play a simplistic caracter/tribal character they occasionally referr to the sun as "The warmth giver". Heck, the town could even know about him beeing a vampire but they belive him to be a god who came to protect or guide them. Thus they refer to him as the god, the good one, the flyer, the benevelant etc. It all dependsa on how one would change things really. Heck, the entire region could have a nightbased religion so only prisoners/slaves are forced to work under the relentless sun. Silver could be associated with devils so there is no silver, instead people use purley gold/copper.
You could also try subverting various Vampire stereotypes. For example, you could give him a strong appetite for garlic and a proclivity for various religious icons and objects. If the people of Barovia do think of him as a devil, you could have him collect all manner of devilish iconography and use them as decorations for his castle. You could also give him a very nuanced relationship with the people of Barovia: on the one hand, he is a brutal dictator and is seen as the Devil, but, on the other, he is also a fierce general who has protected Barovia from various enemy forces and is hailed as a war hero.
You might even try and make him almost sympathetic to the party: have him invite the players to a lavish party where he presents himself as any other wealthy aristocrat with a handful of eccentricities that show up every now and again. Aside from that, he would simply seem like a man with a zest for life and little too much money on his hands. If you have him foster a relationship with the players, it could really add another dimension to the campaign, having seen him at his best and at his worst. If that were to happen, though, you might want to have him introduce himself under an alias, maybe using the name of his brother, Sergei.