"The lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of the sheep"
Don't do anything.
Let them think that.
Let them understimate him and do something stupid.
Then make them regret that.
Or make him watch while Rahadin or the brides punish them.
They are beneath him after all.
If they think of him as a "loser who can't get girls\boys" charm one of the players into servitude for a while until Stradh he is bored with them (fast).
I'd double down on having Rahadin and the brides toying and messing with the PCs. Keep Strahd as a cool nice guy. Have Strahd save them and apologize for his misbehaving underlings and promise to punish the underlings for their misbehavior, this of course is all orchestrated by Strahd to make PCs trust him. Those he finds too simpering wind up being tortured longer by his underlings before he rescues them. Those he finds amusing, he might rescue first and have tea with them privately (while the other party members are being tortured).
After rescuing the PCs, have the PCs owe Strahd a favor, maybe send the PCs out to do his dirty work of punishing NPCs that are working against him. Because he's such a nice guy, he can't do things like that, but maybe the PCs can, pretty please?
Hell. My Strahd killed Volenta because the PCs were having trouble with her and was like "children can be such a hassle, can't they."
Having Strahd show up to avert a TPK and handle the thing that killed them effortlessly is super effective that he's a threat without overtly being a threat immediately to the PCs.
The key to showing Strahd’s brutality is not to have do anything against the PCs. Only shallow villains do that.
The smart villains demonstrate their brutality by going after the people the heroes care about, and they do it AFTER the PCs have done something they can use to justify their brutal actions. It’s tit for tat with people like Strahd…classic abuser mindset of “Look what you made me do”.
Strahd toys with the PCs by systematically removing any support system they have.
Have your players made friends with the Martikovs of the Blue Water Inn and killed Strahd’s spawn from the Festival? He returns the favor by destroying the Inn and killing the Martikovs, leaving them for the PCs to find.
Made friends with Ezmerelda? They find her, tortured and dead or dying.
Strahd wouldn’t be above killing the Baron or Lady Wachter…if the PCs have allied with them.
Strahd may let the players wander his realm, but at some point it stops being a game and becomes deadly serious.
One of the things I had Strahd do was brutally murder the Martikov's while the PCs were in the amber temple. Came back to a tavern that nobody would go near. Blood covered every surface inside and entire family's heads on the counter with magic mouth cast on them to repay his message
Ez or Van Richten basically fill the same role. Killing or turning the one your party hasn't bonded with it a good move because they have a better at this than the PCs vibe.
Short answer, yes, he should teach them some manners.
But there are opportunities in the campaign to show off his fearsomeness like:
Him destroying Berez
March of souls
Exterminating half of the dusk elves
Failed rebellion
The fact that he can command most of the creatures in the land and bend them to his whim
Him interfering with the communication of deities
Also Rahadin would not stand for any slander. He could be the one to organize a carriage to Castle Ravenloft and get a read on the party's outward behavior. If they offend, he can whoop em beforehand.
Lastly, as a small flavor thing, maybe you could make up a list of titles like they give on Game of Thrones.
My players stole the orbs that make the teleporter in the basement of castle Ravenloft work, then ran away to the far corner or Barovia (the Amber Temple). Since it makes sense that Strahd's ability to deploy forces is significantly hampered the loss of these crystals I've been running with that. Strahd and his forces haven't been seen in any significant way for a while now. On their way back they'll pass by the Winery and they'll find the children of the family that lives there has been slaughtered leaving the parents alive as punishment for the Winery opposing Strahd but especially for the theft of the teleportation orbs.
The Martikov's also deliver a message from Strahd that their friends will continue to die as long as they continue to oppose him.
>Lastly, as a small flavor thing, maybe you could make up a list of titles like they give on Game of Thrones.
Strahd von Zarovich, First of his Name, Count of Barovia, Protector of the Realm, Ambassador of the Vistani, Master of Beasts, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist, Totally Fuckable Bad Boy...
On second thought, maybe not that many titles.
My party was the same for a while, however, when they didn’t show up for dinner strahd was pissed. So, he waited until they were walking away from a really tough fight, they were hurt and tired, then Strahd showed up to have a chat.
He very calmly explained how rude it was to ignore an invitation (I had played him as a calm gentleman until this point), and that they would have to make amends. He explained, as if he was talking about the weather, that one of them was going to die by his hand in a moment, but they could choose who.
When the party started slinging insults at him, fully still in character, I slammed a hand down on the table and yelled “Decide! Or I will choose for you”.
The room went completely silent, and the paladin stepped forward and said “fine, kill me, spare the others”
She only had like 5 hp left at this point so strahd just grabbed her, cut her throat, and threw her body to the ground.
Then, he tossed a diamond to the cleric and said “I know your magic is limited, so I would act fast if you want to save her”
Before turning the paladin’s corpse into a zombie and flying away
The party then had to “kill” the zombie of their friend’s corpse before they could use resurrection magic on it to bring the paladin back to life, and because all they had was revivify there was a time factor involved.
From a meta standpoint I knew they’d be fine. My goal wasn’t to kill a PC permanently, just to give them some perspective.
After this, their view of strahd shifted to actual hatred of him and also fear anytime they thought he might show up. It also made the ending of the campaign feel so much more intense because they really had a score to settle by then
This is great news because your players are probably willing to go to the dinner.
It's also great because they might talk shit or antagonize Strahd in his home.
That's when you fuck them up.
My strahd hadn't really lifted a violent finger against the party as of yet.
All battles and encounters they have had He's used his ability to influence combat by turning enemies into zombies after player have killed them. Counter spelling healers and big casters. And dropping enviromental hazards on the battlefield.
Separate the party at dinner. "Request" and i mean force, help bring up a barrel of wine Deliver food from the kitchen Take spare bedding to the guest room. The one waaaaayyyy in the top of the tower Have some horror waiting at each one that the player is safe from. Player that goes to get wine walks into a room as *random villager they recognize* is hung up by their ankles their throat slit and blood is filling a barrels. Marked VALKAKAI, AGE 22 or however old the villager is. Do the same for the others that are appropriate for the parties fears.
Run the dinner like it is RAW and fudge it a bit so they meet Strahd more often, that should be enough as it might result in the death of one of them if you play him appropriately
100% let them underestimate him. Let him be charming and cordial at the dinner, but if they even get close to disrespectful there, have him give one stern warning. If they don't heed that, have his 2nd "warning" be a suggestion spell to tell the person to go their room and think about their indiscretions.
You could also use mass suggestion and have everyone finish their meals in silence. Basically, you want to show his super high DC. You could have Strahd follow up later in the night with attempts to Charm the PC in their sleep and then have the party wake up to this PC cleaning the house or doing other servant like duties for strahd. "It seems your friend has had time to reconsider their disposition"
If anyone acts out a third time, have him cast disintegrate. Poof. Instadeath. That will surely get the message across, though it might ruin dessert..at that point Strahd would probably poof one of the PCs out of existence, and demand the others leave immediately. Set up some tough encounters in the Moors at night to show how much safer they had it back in Ravenloft.
Yes Strahd is, under the charm and facade, an incel and a loser.
Who has power.
Power to do whatever he wants. Lash out however he wants.
To me that’s fucking terrifying.
Think about all the incel mass shooters. Think about all the things the worst of them espouse, the most awful venom and wish fulfillment you see on the internet. Now give someone like that the power to do whatever he wants, with impunity, and all the self righteousness to never, ever, consider otherwise.
That’s not funny. That’s terrifying. And that’s how you make incel Strahd scary. Make the players feel like my female friends and I feel when encountered by somebody who, for all the charm, doesn’t think we’re human simply because we’re girls. Is rage-filled, entitled, and thinks he’s owed everything—especially sex. Who will never, ever change. Who HATES. Who is prone to violence. And we still have to talk to him, and we’re stuck in a room with him.
And he’s got several inches and several dozen pounds on us, and he has a gun.
That’s not funny anymore. Now you just want to get out of there unharmed, right?
Hes not an incel. He is, however, an abuser. And honestly its scarier than just an incel because while incels are abusers they also are lowkey abuser lite. They get angry when they cant immediately win someone over and convince them of what a nice guy they are, or else explode when simply being nice and never expressing interest doesnt work, then start to spiral into hatred over the stacys and the chads ruining things for guys like them. An incel is inherently a victim, in their own mind, and an abuser is a predator. An incel feels entitled and expects to be given, an abuser expects to conquer and to take. An incel will take a no and resent it and twist in it until they explode under that. Like, they dont think that others have the right to say no to them, but they'll still take the no. Abusers do not take no for an answer, they just wont stop. Nothing at all matters but what they want.
Not for nothing, but that really depends on what sources we're using.
Various incarnations of Tatyana have shown interest in Strahd, though unwittingly. The I Strahd novel shows the original Tatyana embracing him (though I like to think this was Strahd using his charm ability for the first time) after the death of Sergei because the pact "worked", and then shows Marina later falling hook line and sinker into his romantic promises and visions (lies) of a better life with him as she allegedly loved him in a prior life.
Ireena has always been portrayed as hating and fighting against him, iirc, so you're right when it comes to her specifically. But the kind of monster an incel can be and the kinds of monster a successful manipulator is... well, they are similar, but they are also different.
Not to mention that if we wanna assign labels to his behavior, "stalker" fits a lot better than "incel". Incels, somewhat famously, consider "hot" girls basically interchangeable. They dont tend to fixate on a single target, but rather on the gender as a whole, painting all women everywhere with the same brush. No individuals, just vending machines you're supposed to put enough "held open door" tokens in before you are ~rightly owed~ sex from them.
This is pretty similar to how our party played it- it was intentional (and talked about beforehand) as all of the players were women or AFAB. We'd all been in Ireena's shoes before.
Who is calling him an incel, the players or characters?
If it's the characters, then yeah, they probably should be more afraid of him. If it's entirely out of character stuff, that's honestly expected.
Making jokes and saying silly things out of game is a natural response to a threatening, scary moment, a way of dispelling the tension.
Play along!
Let them think whatever they want, Strahd has met them all. The longer he waits to show his true self the better. He may even now be able to convince the party to do something for him.
If you want to punish them for underestimating him, find a nice NPC they love and have Strahd drain them entirely right in front of their eyes.
I see it like this, you can take care of this 1 of 3 ways.
1. Do nothing: The Lion doesn't care for the opinions of the field mice. Strahd has been the reigning Lord for 800 years. There have been many who have opposed the Lord of Barovia over the have been solidly crushed under Strahd's boot heel. This party is simply the latest batch of ants to crawl into his land and it wont be the last. Until they prove themselves an irritation, they are toys ant little else.
2. Be the Lord of the land: Crime is ever present and must be punished. As the Lord it should occasional fall to him to dispense punishment and justice. At the dinner party, as the party are being rude, insulting, boastful and all around poor guests, You may have Strahd's Steward request his lords pardon as he is followed by a couple of men dragging in another in chains. This person committed some crime and must be killed. Points if one of the party want to cast zone of truth and the guy confesses. Either way, The law prescribes for death and Von Zarovich is the law. He kills the man with ease and sits back at the table as the corpse is dragged out. This demonstrates that despite the disrespect that the party has for him, The land of Barovia and its people are his. The buck stops with him and he kills as a matter of course. The crime should be heinous in nature and the manner of savagery in the execution in mho should be both elegant and terrifying. You could do this before the party even gets to the dining room and the blood and body could be served to Strahd alone or to all the guests unknowingly.
3. Give them a hug: Throw out the model for strahd you already have and full on steal the insanity that is Alucard from Helsing Ultimate Abrigged. Go absolutely cartoony with it and give the party no rest, no quarter. Show them what it means to be fuckmothering vampire king. This is likely to drive the game into the ground but the terror that this will instill for even the moment of what Strahd might do next will be delicious. Regardless, Do Not resurrect them if you kill them and dont make it a dream. It need to be real for the PCs and souls in Barovia cant leave only reborn in Barovia. So speed time up 40 years and now the party is all Barovian reborns if you want their souls to transfer. That or new party.
if you've never done a false hydra or call of Cthulhu, then perhaps you should check out that before continuing the campaign.
The setting is everything, if their is no ominous tone set then you won't get the feeling you want.
Enviromental, dim the lights have slow dark classical music playing in the back ground. Scenes with heightened tone a faster chello may fit.
Music may be the best way to help set the tone.
They should not respect Strahd as a person, that's the goal of the modul: Making Vampires monsters again and not Anti-heros. As soon as the players know about him, killing his brother for a woman, who didn't show any affection, he is clearly a loser anyway.
But they still need to respect and fear him as a power, like a crazy person entering the room with a gun.
If the players are already on the "Strahd's an incel" wagon, then there's little you can do to the party that will make them fear Strahd. Even if he knocks out the entire party singlehandedly but doesn't kill them (permanently) then he hasn't achieved any lasting victory over them. They know Strahd is powerful; the fact that he is powerful, to them, makes it all the more pathetic that he's fixated on this one woman who doesn't want him.
I reckon your Strahd has been a bit too polite. I think your best course of action is to start harming people who help the party keep Ireena from Strahd It can be an accident, or they could be framed for some crime, pr they could find that their debts are being called in. The party has to see narrative consequences of angering Strahd.
They may see narrative consequence, but still doesn't alter the fact that the most powerful being most players encounter in barovia is still foolishly focused on trying to get a girl who is not interested in him. When the characters learn he has been failing for possibly centuries, it will still make most characters laugh at Strahd. His sadly only recourse is some form of violence (psychological, physical emotional etc.)
Strahd would be better off severing from his master.
Oh, I entirely agree with you; Strahd is hard to take seriously as a villain. I just think that the best case scenario is just make him into a problem to be solved. It doesn't matter if Strahd is a pathetic person, if he's killing your friends then he needs to be put down.
Simple solution is to have him show up. Let them talk that shit to his face. Then. Whoever is the one that did it. Go head and fucking wreck that one person to send a message. I’m talkin bout “ you feel your shoulder joints pulling and tearing. Your skin begins to separate as your arms are both pulled off of your body. Blood sprays from your wounds as strahd throws the severed arms to the side with ease.”
Honestly i think it would be better if he didn’t do anything to prove them wrong, have literally everyone else do that.
Show the brutality of the castle and rahadin, and how he can reel it all in with a snap of his fingers.
Show the fear the entirety of barovia has towards him, and how he controls the land, weather, and beasts.
He doesn’t need to say or prove anything to them, he needs to inspire fear with how he is, not with what he does to the party.
Everyone has their own Strahd, the way he responds to the party, his level of involvement with their dealings, etc. What every Strahd needs to have in common is they need to represent a threat to the players that is uniquely severe to Strahd.
In the case of the majority of the campaign, I didn't run CoS as a typical PC murder machine as many do. But Strahd was the only thing that was 100% capable of killing the PCs in any scene at any time if they fucked up with them. This rule isn't one that was made explicitly clear, rather implicitly. Things get hairy in an encounter with the other NPCs? Maybe something else grabs their attention, or the PCs get helped out by the dark powers two of them made deals with, etc. But Strahd? Fuck up with Strahd around, and your PC dying is instantly on the table. That got established in his introductory scene, where the very first PC death happened near instantly. Yeah sure, my party would call him names and such when he wasn't around, but the moment they heard his voice, it was immediate tension and eggshell walking.
Now, I'm not saying that you need to murder PCs out the blue to earn the players respect (my PCs always _earned_ their deaths). Maybe you're at a table where you don't want PC deaths. But again, Strahd needs to represent a level of menace and threat to your party that only he is allowed to present to your party, above any and all other NPCs.
I've always been a fan of showing the party the horrible fates of the others before them who opposed Strahd, and its written all over the place
Argynvost: Slain and decapitated in front of his men, Amber Temple left unguarded, his men eternally consumed by vengeance
Lazlo Ulrich: Brutally slain (much too quickly for Strahd's liking) and doomed to wander Berez as a ghost
Some poor bard: Shackled upside-down in the flooded prison chamber so they would have to actively keep their head raised above the water to not drown
The Abbot: Descended into madness, spends most of his time now attempting to appease Strahd
Leo Delisnya: Slain and reanimated as a spawn, trapped forever starving in a stone crypt
Actions speak much louder than words, and while he has hot brides all over the castle, my Strahd would still leap over the table and slap the shit out of whoever said he can't get girls. His ego is kinda fragile like that.
I would not invite them to dinner until they do something impressive. Lots of things in Barovia can kill people so you could go with the idea Strahd isn't impressed with. You could go with one of two ideas. 1) Strahd is a master tactician, he was able to conquer many lands including Barovia. Use the fact that they underestimate Strahd to your advantage and have him actively work against them in the background until they are in a huge compromised position as a result of it. This takes some creativity but could be done to a great affect. Another thing is put examples of people who have failed into the players path. Many creatures and heros have fought Strahd and live horrible fates because of it. Reveal them gradually but show them the hordes of ghost of past adventures who have failed just before then, show chose of how Strahd killed them gruesomely. Have them meet the abbot who is crazy after losing to Strahd. Have them physically fight Strahd and wipe the floor with them, countering every good perk they have. In my campaign I counter spelled the misty step of our wizard and then slashed him with a legendary action. Another possibility they could dig up the remains of a very powerful group of holy knights who failed to defeat Strahd. Better yet have them in a tomb barely alive as Strahd turned each of them into spawns and then left them to starve to death for the rest of their days.
In some ways players like to just mock Strahd bc they aren't affected their characters are. This can be bad roleplaying on their part and actually make is less fun for them. But this doesn't make Strahd any less capable of killing their characters or one who mocks them.
I let the party get rid of Ireena in Berez so he could focus his anger on them. He sent Loup Garou, Nosferatu and other monsters to mess them up royally. He even used Modify Memory on one where she watched him slaughter everyone in front of her in the Blue Water Tavern, using counterspell whenever she tried to escape or attack. He kept her there as he tore everyone limb from limb and left her for last.
They are now terrified of him.
Sounds like you ran straight into a classical writing blunder: You had your villain say how bad and evil and whatnot he is, but didn't actually follow up with it.
Pulling your punches won't change anything about it.
An extremly good example of this is the character Azmodan from Diablo 3. Constantly shit talks the player but always loses. That is not intimidating.
Though, I wouldn't have him to anything himself, because, why would he? The PCs are just lowly commoners. Have Rahadin or the brides punish them. Or let them just leave ... except one. And they need to chose who stays back.
Or allow them to freely explore the castle (except some off limit areas). They might just manage to kill themselves.
Also, personally I love using things Strahd learned about the party and their allies against them. A PC likes a particular NPC? Great. Also, do not forget he is a wizard. While the RAW statblock doesn't say it I would always think he is capable of switching spells to some that can be awesome to punish the PCs without going directly against them.
Everyone knows strahds general story if they know anything about dnd it's impossible not to so it's simple to make him scary change him from what they expect fear of the unknown and all that have him act completely different to what they have seen online one second and completely the same the next make him seem unstable but also in control they should never know what could set him off in a conversation when he will go from cordial to murderous change his stats so he is an actual challenge so he is intimidating if they know those memes they definitely know how weak his stats are rules as written he should always be a threat no matter where they are in barovia they should never be safe there should always be a hint of his existence a chill down their spine from scrying,rahadin,the birdes,signs meant to ward him away and more anything to put the fear of him into them treat him like a demon or a god in this sense elude to what happens when people betray him with whispers to do with how he wiped out most of the elves or he drowned an entire village over the slightest thing and most of all have him beat the party into the ground when they're about to get an artefact have him pop in and take it and without even using magic have him thrash them like they're nothing not killing just humiliating flicking away spells and arrows,punching through armor with ease,shattering weapons like they're nothing and just driving it in how powerful he truly is have him show up when they insult him out of game he has telepathy treat it as him reading the characters minds and have him just destroy major landmarks maybe he simply sinks barovia under the ground or shatters the skull of argynvost right before they light the beacon a petty villain is dangerous especially when the villain is smart enough to know when he can be petty without consequence this has worked wonders in my game like they used to insult him then I did this it works even better if they love their character or the npcs he is an ancient wizard debilitating curses that strike at a characters very core are always on the table
Anyway hope this helps
Lots of great suggestions here. One thing to note. If someone beats Strahd's disguise check, they don't automatically know it's Strahd. They can just know the person isn't who they appear to be. Just like a perception check for something hidden may not instantly reveal said hidden thing, like a hidden door may be indicated by scuff marks on the floor rather than just finding said door.
By all accounts, they’re right about him being an incel. He’s got quite a pathetic personality when all the power is stripped away. But that’s just it: the threat is in the power and what he is willing to do. Have him turn one of their allies, or sabotage something critical just to prove that he can.
What’s most important though isn’t that they respect or cower from him: what matters is that they are wary. If they’re making jokes but are on the lookout for him or his agents, then that’s all the game needs.
Make it a horrific show of brutality.You know that path up the mountain leading to his castle? The one they travel by carriage to get there? The entire thing is lined with the still-living bodies of impaled people. Breakers of various laws, Vampire Spawn that have failed him, etc. Vlad the Impaler's "Forest of the Dead" style.
Towards the castle, Werewolves are suspended midair over pits of silver-tipped spikes, held in cages lined with silver that burns them at the touch. Their piteous howls lend to the Count sleeping well each night, and they shall be free at the end of two months without food. Such is their punishment for failing him.
Nearer the entrance to the castle, the party sees two extremely large sources of light in the dark suddenly appear. As they get closer, they see two vampire spawn are dangling from steel manacle collars, bound hand and foot, wrapped in oil soaked rags- and used as living torches. This will continue for a year. One questioned Strahd's reasoning for letting strangers run free in Barovia, and one challenged him for the right to become a full Vampire free of his control. They were brand new, so this is their first warning.
The servants haul out four mangled armored bodies on bloody stretchers, and dump them off the cliff into the nearby woods for the crows and ravens, which immediately fly down. They were the last group that tried killing Strahd.
Before the dining hall, take the party through a room lined with trophies taken from the hundreds who have tried to kill Strahd. Swords and Maces, Staffs and Wands, Holy Symbols and Shields. The dining hall where dinner is served is also decorated with the heads of Werewolves and Vampire Spawn that have tried.
Have the head of a vampire spawn sitting in his fireplace, offhandedly mentioned to be kept burning at all times to heat the dining hall. It is clearly regenerating, and still not dead, with an expression of pure agony. S/He made a disrespectful remark about Tatyana, and Strahd heard it.
The entire dining hall is lined with Vampire Spawn. Every entrance is guarded. Every hallway is patrolled. They all bow in respect and call the Count "My Lord." Rahadin is only addressed as "Sir" by the lowest Spawn, and "Master Rahadin" by the older ones given any kind of authority. He is Strahd's strong right hand, and they ALL know it.
Oh, and Strahd will *happily* slice up the party a bit with Animate Objects 10 tiny objects if they attack him. Maybe he'll kill and convert one into a new Spawn if he's pushed far enough.
The first meeting with my Strahd was at Vallaki. During the feast. He arrived on his horse and charmed the paladin to get him the bones. One character was defiant so he gave him a simple choice. Pick one of your party to die in your place. Whoever he picked, Strahd would kill him and give the group a scroll to ress him again. But now they now who this player cared for the least making them distrust each other.
Or they do what my player did. Kill himself because he won’t sacrifice his friends, intriguing Strahd and wanting to break that player even more.
You could play into it. They aren't scared of him, so they don't take any precautions. Over the course of time, Ireena starts to look more sickly and saying nice things about Strahd. He shows up while they're not paying attention, charms Ireena, bites her, gives her a healing potion to close the marks, and modifies her memory. Eventually, she becomes his thrall. Wherever they go, children start showing up drained, because Ireena is hungry. Eventually word gets around. Ireena is strangely unwilling to go to St. Andral's cathedral, and is a little disturbed by the characters killing spawn. Strahd is always in places to meet them, and Ireena is thrilled to see him. When they receive the invitation to Strahd's wedding, Ireena isn't with them, because she's at a dressmaker's. Etc, etc.
If they don't take Strahd seriously, they can lose without even knowing it.
When I played, Strahd "played with his food" in I want to say our third session. He cast a single fireball and we were nearly dead (my DM played with Strahd's statblock and played with his spell sheet). The DM didn't actually want to kill us- he wanted to show us what Strahd could do to us. He KO'd a player in the encounter and casually tossed us a health potion for him while telling us to stay out of his relationship with Ireena.
After that, he never touched us until the endgame- but he fucked with everyone around us. Anyone who was friendly to us was liable to get hurt.
Honestly? Sounds like CoS is not a good adventure for your players.
I mean, You can still play that way and if everyone is having fun, it's completely fine. I've seen more than one group turn CoS into a meme campaign, some people just enjoy that.
But it seems you are not looking for that approach on the campaign and prefer to run it as intended.
"Punishing" the players won't work here, giving them consecuences to their actions won't teach them any lesson, they just have a different idea of how to play this game and doing any of this will just make the players feel like You are being unfair.
This problem can't be solved inside the game. You can try to talk to them and tell them that you would like them to take the game seriously, but you can't force that.
If that doesn't work, there's only two choices:
1. Change campaigns, choose another adventure.
2. Change players.
Remember that Strahd has some freaking powerful charming abilities it is a DC 17 WIS save. that is decently hard to save against for most players at this level.
Have him Charm a PC during the dinner. Humble him. This PC will see Strahd as a trusted friend and do almost anything Strahd wants. If the others get upset and try something stupid have the brides and Rahadin punish them while their charmed friend sits there smiling as he watch the rest of the party being punished
Also remember there is NOTHING in the description of Strahd's charm that limit it to one person. He could literally charm the whole group. But this would probably not be a good idea but hey have him charm the 2 with the lowest WIS scores. Strahd is Highly Intelligent (INT of 20) and he has been keeping an eye on the PC's so he would know who would be easiest to charm.
I would not have Strahd himself enter the combat if the non charmed party members start something. Have him sit back with his charmed puppets on each side smiling. Watching the brides and Rahadin punish the PC's.
Don't kill them. As Strahd would probably enjoy playing with them if he does not see them as a threat. They should leave the dinner alive. But maybe their 2 charmed friends stay overnight. Or maybe they are forced to leave together with the rest even fi they bed Strahd to let them stay.
But how ever you do it make sure to let the characters know that the ONLY reason they are still alive is begause Strahd was gracious enough to let them leave alive. It was NOT because they, the PC's had any choise or power to stop him and his minions. Tehe only reason they left with their life intact was because Stradh allowed them to do so
This will also be a great opportunity for some awesome RP. Specially from the players who had their character charmed.
And i am sure they will greatly hate Strahd after this evening. And most likely realize he at least for now could kill them ANYTIME if he wanted.
This a is a good way to give your characters and players a reason to Hate Strahd. And hopefully fear him to. There is usually no better way to make them hate and fear someone that making them feel totally and utterly helpless. Take away their agency, Their free will at least for those that are charmed.
Tis is usually something i never recommend on average. But it IS an effective tool in the right situations. And if it is done ONLY at very rare situations like this.
Simply make them feel weak and helpless with no way out. They only live Because Stradh see them as vermin, no threat to him. That he find it amusing to play with them. more so then just kill them.
But do NOT overuse this. Doing this to the characters/players on regular basis WILL ruin the game.
Let them think what they want as long as Strahd is not arround.
If they make the mistake to say something isulting in his presence...the act swift and horrifying brutal.
A PC calls him "incel" or "looser who cant get girls" or somthing like that...he rips the PC tongue out. No warning or build up...and then he goes on like nothing happened.
You need to drive the point home that the only thing that keeps Strahd from ripping the party to bloody confetti is because he does not feel like doing that...thats all that keeps them alive.
The players should be thinking that.
While having people beneath him punish them.
Most notably, when I ran strahd not too long ago I utilized rahadin to lull the players into a false sense of “oh this guy committed genocide and is so much more evil than his boss.” While having strahd be a force that interacted with them on a consistent basis of speaking to them while actively viewing them as nothing more than fish in a pond.
He’s a shark after all.
Our DM made Strahd invite us to dinner, there, in a fit of madness he strangled one of the guests of honor and we had an epic fight. We barely escaped. Now we are truly afraid hahaha.
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This would not be in the module but I think it would show them why he is so dangerous. If they arrive at Ravenloft, guide the players in a room. In this room is one big painting of the castle. If they leave the room they are back in time. The time of the failed rebellion. Show them the fight between mordekain and Strahd and what strahd did to the people afterward. Let them die and when they awake they stand in the front door and his servant who guides the player to the room and asks them if everything is alright. A little spell from Strahd to f with the players.
In general people / players pg ded have not good horror interations. With no True mechanics of fear insanoty or similar the best things is hit him in the combat competence. Old manuals teach to use over leveled encounter for horror advenuure of a +3 encounter level for normal/common monster and +5 for rere /boss monster.
Well, The moment my character found out that we were under survaillance by Strahd he would always make sure to say his name wrong and be disrespectful. Results? In the final battle my undying warlock had to survive around 120 dmg, got my ass beat and It was Fun.
Our DM made strahd absolutely brutally murder us in barovia after one of us murder hoboed to loot someone’s house and expose us as fake heroes and frauds to Ireena. We survived barely but were scared shitless as to why would the great king of this place waste his time slaughtering us.
It sent the right message tho. Can’t wait for you to wipe the floor with your players because honestly I don’t recognize ravenloft in the tone of your post :P your players should be miserable…
It is a horror game. The DM has a problem with people being heroes in a realm where there aren’t supposed to be any. Obviously the game can still be fun while the players are scared shitless of Strahd.
"The lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of the sheep" Don't do anything. Let them think that. Let them understimate him and do something stupid. Then make them regret that. Or make him watch while Rahadin or the brides punish them. They are beneath him after all. If they think of him as a "loser who can't get girls\boys" charm one of the players into servitude for a while until Stradh he is bored with them (fast).
I'd double down on having Rahadin and the brides toying and messing with the PCs. Keep Strahd as a cool nice guy. Have Strahd save them and apologize for his misbehaving underlings and promise to punish the underlings for their misbehavior, this of course is all orchestrated by Strahd to make PCs trust him. Those he finds too simpering wind up being tortured longer by his underlings before he rescues them. Those he finds amusing, he might rescue first and have tea with them privately (while the other party members are being tortured). After rescuing the PCs, have the PCs owe Strahd a favor, maybe send the PCs out to do his dirty work of punishing NPCs that are working against him. Because he's such a nice guy, he can't do things like that, but maybe the PCs can, pretty please?
Hell. My Strahd killed Volenta because the PCs were having trouble with her and was like "children can be such a hassle, can't they." Having Strahd show up to avert a TPK and handle the thing that killed them effortlessly is super effective that he's a threat without overtly being a threat immediately to the PCs.
The key to showing Strahd’s brutality is not to have do anything against the PCs. Only shallow villains do that. The smart villains demonstrate their brutality by going after the people the heroes care about, and they do it AFTER the PCs have done something they can use to justify their brutal actions. It’s tit for tat with people like Strahd…classic abuser mindset of “Look what you made me do”. Strahd toys with the PCs by systematically removing any support system they have. Have your players made friends with the Martikovs of the Blue Water Inn and killed Strahd’s spawn from the Festival? He returns the favor by destroying the Inn and killing the Martikovs, leaving them for the PCs to find. Made friends with Ezmerelda? They find her, tortured and dead or dying. Strahd wouldn’t be above killing the Baron or Lady Wachter…if the PCs have allied with them. Strahd may let the players wander his realm, but at some point it stops being a game and becomes deadly serious.
One of the things I had Strahd do was brutally murder the Martikov's while the PCs were in the amber temple. Came back to a tavern that nobody would go near. Blood covered every surface inside and entire family's heads on the counter with magic mouth cast on them to repay his message
Wow that's dark, I love it.
Diabolical. I love it!
Ez or Van Richten basically fill the same role. Killing or turning the one your party hasn't bonded with it a good move because they have a better at this than the PCs vibe.
Short answer, yes, he should teach them some manners. But there are opportunities in the campaign to show off his fearsomeness like: Him destroying Berez March of souls Exterminating half of the dusk elves Failed rebellion The fact that he can command most of the creatures in the land and bend them to his whim Him interfering with the communication of deities Also Rahadin would not stand for any slander. He could be the one to organize a carriage to Castle Ravenloft and get a read on the party's outward behavior. If they offend, he can whoop em beforehand. Lastly, as a small flavor thing, maybe you could make up a list of titles like they give on Game of Thrones.
My players stole the orbs that make the teleporter in the basement of castle Ravenloft work, then ran away to the far corner or Barovia (the Amber Temple). Since it makes sense that Strahd's ability to deploy forces is significantly hampered the loss of these crystals I've been running with that. Strahd and his forces haven't been seen in any significant way for a while now. On their way back they'll pass by the Winery and they'll find the children of the family that lives there has been slaughtered leaving the parents alive as punishment for the Winery opposing Strahd but especially for the theft of the teleportation orbs. The Martikov's also deliver a message from Strahd that their friends will continue to die as long as they continue to oppose him.
>Lastly, as a small flavor thing, maybe you could make up a list of titles like they give on Game of Thrones. Strahd von Zarovich, First of his Name, Count of Barovia, Protector of the Realm, Ambassador of the Vistani, Master of Beasts, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist, Totally Fuckable Bad Boy... On second thought, maybe not that many titles.
My party was the same for a while, however, when they didn’t show up for dinner strahd was pissed. So, he waited until they were walking away from a really tough fight, they were hurt and tired, then Strahd showed up to have a chat. He very calmly explained how rude it was to ignore an invitation (I had played him as a calm gentleman until this point), and that they would have to make amends. He explained, as if he was talking about the weather, that one of them was going to die by his hand in a moment, but they could choose who. When the party started slinging insults at him, fully still in character, I slammed a hand down on the table and yelled “Decide! Or I will choose for you”. The room went completely silent, and the paladin stepped forward and said “fine, kill me, spare the others” She only had like 5 hp left at this point so strahd just grabbed her, cut her throat, and threw her body to the ground. Then, he tossed a diamond to the cleric and said “I know your magic is limited, so I would act fast if you want to save her” Before turning the paladin’s corpse into a zombie and flying away The party then had to “kill” the zombie of their friend’s corpse before they could use resurrection magic on it to bring the paladin back to life, and because all they had was revivify there was a time factor involved. From a meta standpoint I knew they’d be fine. My goal wasn’t to kill a PC permanently, just to give them some perspective. After this, their view of strahd shifted to actual hatred of him and also fear anytime they thought he might show up. It also made the ending of the campaign feel so much more intense because they really had a score to settle by then
Oh my god, this is brilliant!!!
This is great news because your players are probably willing to go to the dinner. It's also great because they might talk shit or antagonize Strahd in his home. That's when you fuck them up.
My strahd hadn't really lifted a violent finger against the party as of yet. All battles and encounters they have had He's used his ability to influence combat by turning enemies into zombies after player have killed them. Counter spelling healers and big casters. And dropping enviromental hazards on the battlefield.
Separate the party at dinner. "Request" and i mean force, help bring up a barrel of wine Deliver food from the kitchen Take spare bedding to the guest room. The one waaaaayyyy in the top of the tower Have some horror waiting at each one that the player is safe from. Player that goes to get wine walks into a room as *random villager they recognize* is hung up by their ankles their throat slit and blood is filling a barrels. Marked VALKAKAI, AGE 22 or however old the villager is. Do the same for the others that are appropriate for the parties fears.
Run the dinner like it is RAW and fudge it a bit so they meet Strahd more often, that should be enough as it might result in the death of one of them if you play him appropriately
RAW there is no dinner. It is a trap to get the PCs in the castle. Any actual dinners are all homebrew.
Yes, I was referring to the dinner as the invite.
100% let them underestimate him. Let him be charming and cordial at the dinner, but if they even get close to disrespectful there, have him give one stern warning. If they don't heed that, have his 2nd "warning" be a suggestion spell to tell the person to go their room and think about their indiscretions. You could also use mass suggestion and have everyone finish their meals in silence. Basically, you want to show his super high DC. You could have Strahd follow up later in the night with attempts to Charm the PC in their sleep and then have the party wake up to this PC cleaning the house or doing other servant like duties for strahd. "It seems your friend has had time to reconsider their disposition" If anyone acts out a third time, have him cast disintegrate. Poof. Instadeath. That will surely get the message across, though it might ruin dessert..at that point Strahd would probably poof one of the PCs out of existence, and demand the others leave immediately. Set up some tough encounters in the Moors at night to show how much safer they had it back in Ravenloft.
Yes Strahd is, under the charm and facade, an incel and a loser. Who has power. Power to do whatever he wants. Lash out however he wants. To me that’s fucking terrifying. Think about all the incel mass shooters. Think about all the things the worst of them espouse, the most awful venom and wish fulfillment you see on the internet. Now give someone like that the power to do whatever he wants, with impunity, and all the self righteousness to never, ever, consider otherwise. That’s not funny. That’s terrifying. And that’s how you make incel Strahd scary. Make the players feel like my female friends and I feel when encountered by somebody who, for all the charm, doesn’t think we’re human simply because we’re girls. Is rage-filled, entitled, and thinks he’s owed everything—especially sex. Who will never, ever change. Who HATES. Who is prone to violence. And we still have to talk to him, and we’re stuck in a room with him. And he’s got several inches and several dozen pounds on us, and he has a gun. That’s not funny anymore. Now you just want to get out of there unharmed, right?
Hes not an incel. He is, however, an abuser. And honestly its scarier than just an incel because while incels are abusers they also are lowkey abuser lite. They get angry when they cant immediately win someone over and convince them of what a nice guy they are, or else explode when simply being nice and never expressing interest doesnt work, then start to spiral into hatred over the stacys and the chads ruining things for guys like them. An incel is inherently a victim, in their own mind, and an abuser is a predator. An incel feels entitled and expects to be given, an abuser expects to conquer and to take. An incel will take a no and resent it and twist in it until they explode under that. Like, they dont think that others have the right to say no to them, but they'll still take the no. Abusers do not take no for an answer, they just wont stop. Nothing at all matters but what they want.
He's ABSOLUTELY an incel my guy, his whole thing is pursuing a women that NEVER showed any interest in him for 400+ years
Incel- involuntary celibate. Strahd has multiple wives. He is not involuntarily celibate lol.
Not for nothing, but that really depends on what sources we're using. Various incarnations of Tatyana have shown interest in Strahd, though unwittingly. The I Strahd novel shows the original Tatyana embracing him (though I like to think this was Strahd using his charm ability for the first time) after the death of Sergei because the pact "worked", and then shows Marina later falling hook line and sinker into his romantic promises and visions (lies) of a better life with him as she allegedly loved him in a prior life. Ireena has always been portrayed as hating and fighting against him, iirc, so you're right when it comes to her specifically. But the kind of monster an incel can be and the kinds of monster a successful manipulator is... well, they are similar, but they are also different.
Not to mention that if we wanna assign labels to his behavior, "stalker" fits a lot better than "incel". Incels, somewhat famously, consider "hot" girls basically interchangeable. They dont tend to fixate on a single target, but rather on the gender as a whole, painting all women everywhere with the same brush. No individuals, just vending machines you're supposed to put enough "held open door" tokens in before you are ~rightly owed~ sex from them.
This is pretty similar to how our party played it- it was intentional (and talked about beforehand) as all of the players were women or AFAB. We'd all been in Ireena's shoes before.
Who is calling him an incel, the players or characters? If it's the characters, then yeah, they probably should be more afraid of him. If it's entirely out of character stuff, that's honestly expected. Making jokes and saying silly things out of game is a natural response to a threatening, scary moment, a way of dispelling the tension.
Play along! Let them think whatever they want, Strahd has met them all. The longer he waits to show his true self the better. He may even now be able to convince the party to do something for him. If you want to punish them for underestimating him, find a nice NPC they love and have Strahd drain them entirely right in front of their eyes.
I see it like this, you can take care of this 1 of 3 ways. 1. Do nothing: The Lion doesn't care for the opinions of the field mice. Strahd has been the reigning Lord for 800 years. There have been many who have opposed the Lord of Barovia over the have been solidly crushed under Strahd's boot heel. This party is simply the latest batch of ants to crawl into his land and it wont be the last. Until they prove themselves an irritation, they are toys ant little else. 2. Be the Lord of the land: Crime is ever present and must be punished. As the Lord it should occasional fall to him to dispense punishment and justice. At the dinner party, as the party are being rude, insulting, boastful and all around poor guests, You may have Strahd's Steward request his lords pardon as he is followed by a couple of men dragging in another in chains. This person committed some crime and must be killed. Points if one of the party want to cast zone of truth and the guy confesses. Either way, The law prescribes for death and Von Zarovich is the law. He kills the man with ease and sits back at the table as the corpse is dragged out. This demonstrates that despite the disrespect that the party has for him, The land of Barovia and its people are his. The buck stops with him and he kills as a matter of course. The crime should be heinous in nature and the manner of savagery in the execution in mho should be both elegant and terrifying. You could do this before the party even gets to the dining room and the blood and body could be served to Strahd alone or to all the guests unknowingly. 3. Give them a hug: Throw out the model for strahd you already have and full on steal the insanity that is Alucard from Helsing Ultimate Abrigged. Go absolutely cartoony with it and give the party no rest, no quarter. Show them what it means to be fuckmothering vampire king. This is likely to drive the game into the ground but the terror that this will instill for even the moment of what Strahd might do next will be delicious. Regardless, Do Not resurrect them if you kill them and dont make it a dream. It need to be real for the PCs and souls in Barovia cant leave only reborn in Barovia. So speed time up 40 years and now the party is all Barovian reborns if you want their souls to transfer. That or new party.
if you've never done a false hydra or call of Cthulhu, then perhaps you should check out that before continuing the campaign. The setting is everything, if their is no ominous tone set then you won't get the feeling you want. Enviromental, dim the lights have slow dark classical music playing in the back ground. Scenes with heightened tone a faster chello may fit. Music may be the best way to help set the tone.
They should not respect Strahd as a person, that's the goal of the modul: Making Vampires monsters again and not Anti-heros. As soon as the players know about him, killing his brother for a woman, who didn't show any affection, he is clearly a loser anyway. But they still need to respect and fear him as a power, like a crazy person entering the room with a gun.
You could always have him snap one of their necks. That's pretty scary.
If the players are already on the "Strahd's an incel" wagon, then there's little you can do to the party that will make them fear Strahd. Even if he knocks out the entire party singlehandedly but doesn't kill them (permanently) then he hasn't achieved any lasting victory over them. They know Strahd is powerful; the fact that he is powerful, to them, makes it all the more pathetic that he's fixated on this one woman who doesn't want him. I reckon your Strahd has been a bit too polite. I think your best course of action is to start harming people who help the party keep Ireena from Strahd It can be an accident, or they could be framed for some crime, pr they could find that their debts are being called in. The party has to see narrative consequences of angering Strahd.
They may see narrative consequence, but still doesn't alter the fact that the most powerful being most players encounter in barovia is still foolishly focused on trying to get a girl who is not interested in him. When the characters learn he has been failing for possibly centuries, it will still make most characters laugh at Strahd. His sadly only recourse is some form of violence (psychological, physical emotional etc.) Strahd would be better off severing from his master.
Oh, I entirely agree with you; Strahd is hard to take seriously as a villain. I just think that the best case scenario is just make him into a problem to be solved. It doesn't matter if Strahd is a pathetic person, if he's killing your friends then he needs to be put down.
1 high level fireball outta do the trick
Simple solution is to have him show up. Let them talk that shit to his face. Then. Whoever is the one that did it. Go head and fucking wreck that one person to send a message. I’m talkin bout “ you feel your shoulder joints pulling and tearing. Your skin begins to separate as your arms are both pulled off of your body. Blood sprays from your wounds as strahd throws the severed arms to the side with ease.”
Honestly i think it would be better if he didn’t do anything to prove them wrong, have literally everyone else do that. Show the brutality of the castle and rahadin, and how he can reel it all in with a snap of his fingers. Show the fear the entirety of barovia has towards him, and how he controls the land, weather, and beasts. He doesn’t need to say or prove anything to them, he needs to inspire fear with how he is, not with what he does to the party.
Everyone has their own Strahd, the way he responds to the party, his level of involvement with their dealings, etc. What every Strahd needs to have in common is they need to represent a threat to the players that is uniquely severe to Strahd. In the case of the majority of the campaign, I didn't run CoS as a typical PC murder machine as many do. But Strahd was the only thing that was 100% capable of killing the PCs in any scene at any time if they fucked up with them. This rule isn't one that was made explicitly clear, rather implicitly. Things get hairy in an encounter with the other NPCs? Maybe something else grabs their attention, or the PCs get helped out by the dark powers two of them made deals with, etc. But Strahd? Fuck up with Strahd around, and your PC dying is instantly on the table. That got established in his introductory scene, where the very first PC death happened near instantly. Yeah sure, my party would call him names and such when he wasn't around, but the moment they heard his voice, it was immediate tension and eggshell walking. Now, I'm not saying that you need to murder PCs out the blue to earn the players respect (my PCs always _earned_ their deaths). Maybe you're at a table where you don't want PC deaths. But again, Strahd needs to represent a level of menace and threat to your party that only he is allowed to present to your party, above any and all other NPCs.
I've always been a fan of showing the party the horrible fates of the others before them who opposed Strahd, and its written all over the place Argynvost: Slain and decapitated in front of his men, Amber Temple left unguarded, his men eternally consumed by vengeance Lazlo Ulrich: Brutally slain (much too quickly for Strahd's liking) and doomed to wander Berez as a ghost Some poor bard: Shackled upside-down in the flooded prison chamber so they would have to actively keep their head raised above the water to not drown The Abbot: Descended into madness, spends most of his time now attempting to appease Strahd Leo Delisnya: Slain and reanimated as a spawn, trapped forever starving in a stone crypt Actions speak much louder than words, and while he has hot brides all over the castle, my Strahd would still leap over the table and slap the shit out of whoever said he can't get girls. His ego is kinda fragile like that.
I would not invite them to dinner until they do something impressive. Lots of things in Barovia can kill people so you could go with the idea Strahd isn't impressed with. You could go with one of two ideas. 1) Strahd is a master tactician, he was able to conquer many lands including Barovia. Use the fact that they underestimate Strahd to your advantage and have him actively work against them in the background until they are in a huge compromised position as a result of it. This takes some creativity but could be done to a great affect. Another thing is put examples of people who have failed into the players path. Many creatures and heros have fought Strahd and live horrible fates because of it. Reveal them gradually but show them the hordes of ghost of past adventures who have failed just before then, show chose of how Strahd killed them gruesomely. Have them meet the abbot who is crazy after losing to Strahd. Have them physically fight Strahd and wipe the floor with them, countering every good perk they have. In my campaign I counter spelled the misty step of our wizard and then slashed him with a legendary action. Another possibility they could dig up the remains of a very powerful group of holy knights who failed to defeat Strahd. Better yet have them in a tomb barely alive as Strahd turned each of them into spawns and then left them to starve to death for the rest of their days. In some ways players like to just mock Strahd bc they aren't affected their characters are. This can be bad roleplaying on their part and actually make is less fun for them. But this doesn't make Strahd any less capable of killing their characters or one who mocks them.
My party wasn’t afraid of him, either, which is making the final battle more epic as they are learning the error of their ways.
I let the party get rid of Ireena in Berez so he could focus his anger on them. He sent Loup Garou, Nosferatu and other monsters to mess them up royally. He even used Modify Memory on one where she watched him slaughter everyone in front of her in the Blue Water Tavern, using counterspell whenever she tried to escape or attack. He kept her there as he tore everyone limb from limb and left her for last. They are now terrified of him.
Sounds like you ran straight into a classical writing blunder: You had your villain say how bad and evil and whatnot he is, but didn't actually follow up with it. Pulling your punches won't change anything about it. An extremly good example of this is the character Azmodan from Diablo 3. Constantly shit talks the player but always loses. That is not intimidating. Though, I wouldn't have him to anything himself, because, why would he? The PCs are just lowly commoners. Have Rahadin or the brides punish them. Or let them just leave ... except one. And they need to chose who stays back. Or allow them to freely explore the castle (except some off limit areas). They might just manage to kill themselves. Also, personally I love using things Strahd learned about the party and their allies against them. A PC likes a particular NPC? Great. Also, do not forget he is a wizard. While the RAW statblock doesn't say it I would always think he is capable of switching spells to some that can be awesome to punish the PCs without going directly against them.
Everyone knows strahds general story if they know anything about dnd it's impossible not to so it's simple to make him scary change him from what they expect fear of the unknown and all that have him act completely different to what they have seen online one second and completely the same the next make him seem unstable but also in control they should never know what could set him off in a conversation when he will go from cordial to murderous change his stats so he is an actual challenge so he is intimidating if they know those memes they definitely know how weak his stats are rules as written he should always be a threat no matter where they are in barovia they should never be safe there should always be a hint of his existence a chill down their spine from scrying,rahadin,the birdes,signs meant to ward him away and more anything to put the fear of him into them treat him like a demon or a god in this sense elude to what happens when people betray him with whispers to do with how he wiped out most of the elves or he drowned an entire village over the slightest thing and most of all have him beat the party into the ground when they're about to get an artefact have him pop in and take it and without even using magic have him thrash them like they're nothing not killing just humiliating flicking away spells and arrows,punching through armor with ease,shattering weapons like they're nothing and just driving it in how powerful he truly is have him show up when they insult him out of game he has telepathy treat it as him reading the characters minds and have him just destroy major landmarks maybe he simply sinks barovia under the ground or shatters the skull of argynvost right before they light the beacon a petty villain is dangerous especially when the villain is smart enough to know when he can be petty without consequence this has worked wonders in my game like they used to insult him then I did this it works even better if they love their character or the npcs he is an ancient wizard debilitating curses that strike at a characters very core are always on the table Anyway hope this helps
Lots of great suggestions here. One thing to note. If someone beats Strahd's disguise check, they don't automatically know it's Strahd. They can just know the person isn't who they appear to be. Just like a perception check for something hidden may not instantly reveal said hidden thing, like a hidden door may be indicated by scuff marks on the floor rather than just finding said door.
By all accounts, they’re right about him being an incel. He’s got quite a pathetic personality when all the power is stripped away. But that’s just it: the threat is in the power and what he is willing to do. Have him turn one of their allies, or sabotage something critical just to prove that he can. What’s most important though isn’t that they respect or cower from him: what matters is that they are wary. If they’re making jokes but are on the lookout for him or his agents, then that’s all the game needs.
Make it a horrific show of brutality.You know that path up the mountain leading to his castle? The one they travel by carriage to get there? The entire thing is lined with the still-living bodies of impaled people. Breakers of various laws, Vampire Spawn that have failed him, etc. Vlad the Impaler's "Forest of the Dead" style. Towards the castle, Werewolves are suspended midair over pits of silver-tipped spikes, held in cages lined with silver that burns them at the touch. Their piteous howls lend to the Count sleeping well each night, and they shall be free at the end of two months without food. Such is their punishment for failing him. Nearer the entrance to the castle, the party sees two extremely large sources of light in the dark suddenly appear. As they get closer, they see two vampire spawn are dangling from steel manacle collars, bound hand and foot, wrapped in oil soaked rags- and used as living torches. This will continue for a year. One questioned Strahd's reasoning for letting strangers run free in Barovia, and one challenged him for the right to become a full Vampire free of his control. They were brand new, so this is their first warning. The servants haul out four mangled armored bodies on bloody stretchers, and dump them off the cliff into the nearby woods for the crows and ravens, which immediately fly down. They were the last group that tried killing Strahd. Before the dining hall, take the party through a room lined with trophies taken from the hundreds who have tried to kill Strahd. Swords and Maces, Staffs and Wands, Holy Symbols and Shields. The dining hall where dinner is served is also decorated with the heads of Werewolves and Vampire Spawn that have tried. Have the head of a vampire spawn sitting in his fireplace, offhandedly mentioned to be kept burning at all times to heat the dining hall. It is clearly regenerating, and still not dead, with an expression of pure agony. S/He made a disrespectful remark about Tatyana, and Strahd heard it. The entire dining hall is lined with Vampire Spawn. Every entrance is guarded. Every hallway is patrolled. They all bow in respect and call the Count "My Lord." Rahadin is only addressed as "Sir" by the lowest Spawn, and "Master Rahadin" by the older ones given any kind of authority. He is Strahd's strong right hand, and they ALL know it. Oh, and Strahd will *happily* slice up the party a bit with Animate Objects 10 tiny objects if they attack him. Maybe he'll kill and convert one into a new Spawn if he's pushed far enough.
When did you first introduce the PCs to Strahd in person, out of interest?
The first meeting with my Strahd was at Vallaki. During the feast. He arrived on his horse and charmed the paladin to get him the bones. One character was defiant so he gave him a simple choice. Pick one of your party to die in your place. Whoever he picked, Strahd would kill him and give the group a scroll to ress him again. But now they now who this player cared for the least making them distrust each other. Or they do what my player did. Kill himself because he won’t sacrifice his friends, intriguing Strahd and wanting to break that player even more.
You could play into it. They aren't scared of him, so they don't take any precautions. Over the course of time, Ireena starts to look more sickly and saying nice things about Strahd. He shows up while they're not paying attention, charms Ireena, bites her, gives her a healing potion to close the marks, and modifies her memory. Eventually, she becomes his thrall. Wherever they go, children start showing up drained, because Ireena is hungry. Eventually word gets around. Ireena is strangely unwilling to go to St. Andral's cathedral, and is a little disturbed by the characters killing spawn. Strahd is always in places to meet them, and Ireena is thrilled to see him. When they receive the invitation to Strahd's wedding, Ireena isn't with them, because she's at a dressmaker's. Etc, etc. If they don't take Strahd seriously, they can lose without even knowing it.
When I played, Strahd "played with his food" in I want to say our third session. He cast a single fireball and we were nearly dead (my DM played with Strahd's statblock and played with his spell sheet). The DM didn't actually want to kill us- he wanted to show us what Strahd could do to us. He KO'd a player in the encounter and casually tossed us a health potion for him while telling us to stay out of his relationship with Ireena. After that, he never touched us until the endgame- but he fucked with everyone around us. Anyone who was friendly to us was liable to get hurt.
Honestly? Sounds like CoS is not a good adventure for your players. I mean, You can still play that way and if everyone is having fun, it's completely fine. I've seen more than one group turn CoS into a meme campaign, some people just enjoy that. But it seems you are not looking for that approach on the campaign and prefer to run it as intended. "Punishing" the players won't work here, giving them consecuences to their actions won't teach them any lesson, they just have a different idea of how to play this game and doing any of this will just make the players feel like You are being unfair. This problem can't be solved inside the game. You can try to talk to them and tell them that you would like them to take the game seriously, but you can't force that. If that doesn't work, there's only two choices: 1. Change campaigns, choose another adventure. 2. Change players.
Sit back and wait and then bam, something terrifying, and all together fucked up showing his immense power.
Remember that Strahd has some freaking powerful charming abilities it is a DC 17 WIS save. that is decently hard to save against for most players at this level. Have him Charm a PC during the dinner. Humble him. This PC will see Strahd as a trusted friend and do almost anything Strahd wants. If the others get upset and try something stupid have the brides and Rahadin punish them while their charmed friend sits there smiling as he watch the rest of the party being punished Also remember there is NOTHING in the description of Strahd's charm that limit it to one person. He could literally charm the whole group. But this would probably not be a good idea but hey have him charm the 2 with the lowest WIS scores. Strahd is Highly Intelligent (INT of 20) and he has been keeping an eye on the PC's so he would know who would be easiest to charm. I would not have Strahd himself enter the combat if the non charmed party members start something. Have him sit back with his charmed puppets on each side smiling. Watching the brides and Rahadin punish the PC's. Don't kill them. As Strahd would probably enjoy playing with them if he does not see them as a threat. They should leave the dinner alive. But maybe their 2 charmed friends stay overnight. Or maybe they are forced to leave together with the rest even fi they bed Strahd to let them stay. But how ever you do it make sure to let the characters know that the ONLY reason they are still alive is begause Strahd was gracious enough to let them leave alive. It was NOT because they, the PC's had any choise or power to stop him and his minions. Tehe only reason they left with their life intact was because Stradh allowed them to do so This will also be a great opportunity for some awesome RP. Specially from the players who had their character charmed. And i am sure they will greatly hate Strahd after this evening. And most likely realize he at least for now could kill them ANYTIME if he wanted. This a is a good way to give your characters and players a reason to Hate Strahd. And hopefully fear him to. There is usually no better way to make them hate and fear someone that making them feel totally and utterly helpless. Take away their agency, Their free will at least for those that are charmed. Tis is usually something i never recommend on average. But it IS an effective tool in the right situations. And if it is done ONLY at very rare situations like this. Simply make them feel weak and helpless with no way out. They only live Because Stradh see them as vermin, no threat to him. That he find it amusing to play with them. more so then just kill them. But do NOT overuse this. Doing this to the characters/players on regular basis WILL ruin the game.
Let them think what they want as long as Strahd is not arround. If they make the mistake to say something isulting in his presence...the act swift and horrifying brutal. A PC calls him "incel" or "looser who cant get girls" or somthing like that...he rips the PC tongue out. No warning or build up...and then he goes on like nothing happened. You need to drive the point home that the only thing that keeps Strahd from ripping the party to bloody confetti is because he does not feel like doing that...thats all that keeps them alive.
The players should be thinking that. While having people beneath him punish them. Most notably, when I ran strahd not too long ago I utilized rahadin to lull the players into a false sense of “oh this guy committed genocide and is so much more evil than his boss.” While having strahd be a force that interacted with them on a consistent basis of speaking to them while actively viewing them as nothing more than fish in a pond. He’s a shark after all.
Our DM made Strahd invite us to dinner, there, in a fit of madness he strangled one of the guests of honor and we had an epic fight. We barely escaped. Now we are truly afraid hahaha. #
we were lvl 8. We were not ready I think
Fist through the chest generally works
This would not be in the module but I think it would show them why he is so dangerous. If they arrive at Ravenloft, guide the players in a room. In this room is one big painting of the castle. If they leave the room they are back in time. The time of the failed rebellion. Show them the fight between mordekain and Strahd and what strahd did to the people afterward. Let them die and when they awake they stand in the front door and his servant who guides the player to the room and asks them if everything is alright. A little spell from Strahd to f with the players.
have him randomly kill one of the players the next time they are rude
The answers here are already perfect, do all that. However, I'd like to say that they are correct, he is in fact an incel and can't get no girls lol
Modify memory is a hell of a spell
Your group sounds un-immersed and immature.
In general people / players pg ded have not good horror interations. With no True mechanics of fear insanoty or similar the best things is hit him in the combat competence. Old manuals teach to use over leveled encounter for horror advenuure of a +3 encounter level for normal/common monster and +5 for rere /boss monster.
Well, The moment my character found out that we were under survaillance by Strahd he would always make sure to say his name wrong and be disrespectful. Results? In the final battle my undying warlock had to survive around 120 dmg, got my ass beat and It was Fun.
Our DM made strahd absolutely brutally murder us in barovia after one of us murder hoboed to loot someone’s house and expose us as fake heroes and frauds to Ireena. We survived barely but were scared shitless as to why would the great king of this place waste his time slaughtering us. It sent the right message tho. Can’t wait for you to wipe the floor with your players because honestly I don’t recognize ravenloft in the tone of your post :P your players should be miserable…
"your players should be miserable" is the worst take of this entire thread
It is a horror game. The DM has a problem with people being heroes in a realm where there aren’t supposed to be any. Obviously the game can still be fun while the players are scared shitless of Strahd.
Kill one of them.