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Wage WAR like Strahd!
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- Опубликовано: 12 авг 2024
- Propaganda. Shock & Awe. Terrorism. Discord. Strahd's arsenal of psychological warfare techniques is now yours to wield against the party!
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In today's video I'll be going over the psychological warfare techniques that Strahd von Zarovich can use against your Dungeons & Dragons players in Curse of Strahd. This includes propaganda to shape their opinions, shock & awe to dissuade them from conflict, terrorism to scare them, and ways to turn the party members against each other.
#rpg #dnd #dungeonsanddragons
How has YOUR Strahd used psychological warfare to give your PCs hell?
He uses every bit of info he learns. He uses that to have minions craft very personal haunts for them. On more than one occasion he has saved them and portrayed his rule as a shepherd protecting his herd. He has even given them work as well as capturing one of them and releasing her unharmed after a short sidequest that furthered their campaign against the hags.
The have no illusions, but they are encountering everything else actually reinforcing Strahds rule in places by killing would be enemies.
I did a couple of things.
- One of my players ( a half-elf Vengeance Paladin) wanted to have a parent from Barovia. I turned the drowned Elf bard in the dungeons into his father. They found him.
- Same Paladin took a liking to the white puppy you recommended they sacrifice to the Flesh mound. Strahd kidnapped it.
- My players saved the two children from the hags. Had the little boy want to grow up to be a paladin just like the aforementioned Paladin. Had the little girl bond with our Sorcerer and would always ask him to read her stories. He didn't/couldn't one day and she wandered off into the woods. Players panicked, chased after her, and found her in a clearing being read a story while she say in the lap of Strahd. He bit her.
- Shortly after Strahd kidnapped the kids.
- Made the Paladin dream the puppy (unfortunately named Hope) brought him the head of the little boy out from under a bed in Strahd's castle.
- Made our Ranger with a grudge against werewolves think he was slowly turning into one.
- Had them decide whether to kill the Strahd baby flesh golem in Baba's house.
- My personal favorites involved Vasili von Holtz. I had the party keep running into him. I made them suspicious of him, but never enough to be hostile. They just thought he had a twisted sense of humor/was an asshole. For example: The dusk elves fled to Krezk after von Ricthen released the tiger on the Vistani. I made Kasamir a musician who after Strahd butchered his ears couldn't play as well anymore. Vasili was also in Krezk with the players and when Kasamir finished playing some tune. Vasili told Kasamir "You were too modest my friend, you have quite the ear for music."
- Much later the players found Vasili in the dungeons and he agreed to help fight with them. So when they went into the crypt looking to find Strahd, I had Vasili stab Mordenkainen (their Tarokka ally) in the back and reveal himself. Then we rolled for initiative.
*sigh* Good times.
Yeah Vasili trickled them completely 😂
In my current game Strahd was successfully able to convince the party that the Abbot was far more of a threat than he was... This was done through many contacts with the party designed to have them surrender Irena to Strahd for protection. It ALMOST had the desired effect, yet they didn't prevent the Abbot from stripping Irena from her skin and sewing it onto Lady Wachter, because hey, why wouldn't Strahd love someone who loved him back?
Strahd is now fluctuating between raging and a deep depression. He has used his loss as a way to punish the players. While they don't know it YET, he has now convinced Ismark (whom the party had convinced to return to his village after they delivered Irena to "safety") that this was the party's fault... and Ismark has become a Vampire Spawn that I'll pull out at the right moment, flying at them screaming "I trusted you!!! I trusted you!!!" - I can't wait for that to occur. It may be the straw that breaks them emotionally.
I have this strategy that flipped my party against each other (not to the point of pvp)
I had this fire genasi paladin, fallen aasimar fighter, bard aasimar, and sorcerer/warlock tiefling. The paladin would take action without thinking it properly and the start of the campaign, I showed them how barovia is dull and made each NPC matter to them, like Father Lucian giving them a place to rest and pray then giving them the quest of the bones. They didn't do it so he died, the tiefling was the only who went to the church after some civilian running from there screamed it was under attack, the rest of the party tried to calm the raging angry crowd who wanted to burn the baron alive. The tiefling enters the church and sees a slaughter and sees Ludmilla in the center with the corpse of Father Lucian in a ritual to corrupt the sacred bones. Ludmilla got away before the rest of the party rushed to the church.
Now going to Krezk in the early morning mist, the players were about to reunite Tatyana and Sergei, but then lightning strikes the pool and everyone gets caught off guard and Rahadin grabs Ireena and drags her as quick as he can to the side of Strahd on his high horse. Strahd goes melee on them to just test them to see if they still fear him, with anger on each character they tried to rush him but Strahd retreated away back to his horse. The mist slowly clears and they see silhouettes of a crowd behind strahd and thought it was vampire spawn but then they saw the faces of terrified villagers and even the Baron and the Baroness was in the crowd, there was another crowd blocking the southern road, Mordenkainen with his hands raised in surrender, and a beaten up Van Richten thrown and bleeding on the snow. Behind the crowds were werewolves and vampire spawn. Strahd loudly says "If you go near either of the crowds then they will die. All of them! But I offer you a choice! One of them will be set free! The mage? The hunter? The people of Krezk? Or Ireena? Your choice" after he says this, he uses telepathy to tell them that if they choose Ireena then all will die but if they choose one of the others, then all will live. But the paladin grew sick of playing Strahd's game so he takes ones step to the southern crowd. Strahd is suprised and grins and raises his hand to hold, then the paladin takes another step and Strahd lowers his hand. The slaughter has begun and the paladin starts running and Strahd just says "this? This is what you called heroes? Those who would let people die! Because they cannot make a choice! ". The werewolves and vampire spawn retreat as the paladin gets 10ft of the crowd. Rahadin runs to the carriage, knocks her out, and throw her in. As the paladin reaches the slaughter zone, he sees fear in the eyes of that remaining people in the crowd towards him, he heals a man but he crawls away from him terrified. Strahd laughs and speaks "one choice would have killed all, but the others could have saved everyone but now? I think there would have none to save on that choice", he leaves laughing triumphantly as he rides off on his horse victorious by making 1 village lose thier faith in heroes. This to Mordenkainen saying "that was his plan all along! I couldn't say sh*t cause he could've all kill everyone!". Earlier Mordenkainen was signalling to them to just make one choice (it's just doctor strange raising one finger) but the paladin didn't see it and then party noticed the paladin marching to the southern crowd. After that Mordenkainen heals Van Richten a bit and helps him up to walk away together. Same with the people of Krezk. This lead to a punching match between the Fighter and Paladin (no dmg cause it was roleplaying but if I gave it dmg then they just punched each other 3 times so like both takes 4 to 8 bludgeoning).
“For a good time, call Rahadin.” I cracked up
omg same!
My players have really taken a liking to Blinsky. The Paladin has been leading the charge, and for the most part solves his problems with violence.
During the Feast of Saint Andral I’m going to have Strahd challenge the Paladin to a duel.
The stakes? He’ll call off his spawn and leave the congregation be. But Strahd will not be fighting the Paladin, oh no. It’ll be his champion: Blinksy.
Will the Paladin kill their friend to save the lives of many? Stay tuned.
and what happened??
Come on man don't leave us hanging
The paladin reluctantly murdered their friend Blinsky, who with sword in trembling hand begged the paladin to do it. He didn’t want any more people to die. It was quick and decisive.
After it was done the paladin said to Strahd:
“I’ve done it. I’ve bested your ‘champion’. Now honor your end, you monster.”
To which Strahd replied:
“No you haven’t. Not yet.”
Strahd then proceeds to resurrect Blinsky as a vampire spawn and the real fight began.
Strahd made the virtuous paladin murder their friend. Twice.
Needless to say, the paladin has a big chip on his shoulder and is fully committed to destroying everyone’s favorite vampire daddy. Lol
@@jordanpickthall0619 you're so cruel I love it.
Stealing this for sure
@@theblaze5530 I’m glad you like it!
One of my PCs has a wife who she is looking for in Barovia. I had been heavily hinting that the wife was somewhere near Krezk and that she had found some allies, leading to an eventual reveal that she had joined up with Zuleika and Emil and the "good werewolves". My plan was to have the PC's wife have been kidnapped with Emil and in the Castle Ravenloft dungeons.
Immediately prior to heading to Krezk, the party had dinner at Castle Ravenloft and the PC's wife was brought up. At that point behind the scenes, Strahd scryed on the wife & uncovered the rebel werewolves. He beat the party to Krezk, ambushed the rebel pack & took Emil and the PC's wife hostage while setting his psychological trap by telling Zuleika something like "you can thank PC for how I uncovered your location". The PCs get to Krezk & follow the wife's trail to the rebel werewolf camp which is in disarray from Strahd's attack. After the PC in question introduced herself, Zuleika turned hostile to the party. My hope was that they would maybe try to talk her down & discover Strahd's treachery but, no. The PCs slaughtered the rebel wolf pack, who fought to the death in despair of their now lost cause & to retain their wolf honor.
At that point, I had Strahd emerge from the shadows of the woods. "Congratulations to you all. Not only did you lead me to this pack of rebel werewolves, you've just killed the very people your wife worked so hard to help. I have her now-- if you want her back, you know where my castle is."
In our CoS campaign Strahd broke our party's resolve by making us part of a made-up prophecy. "When Vallaki will burn, and neighbor will kill neighbor, blood of outsiders will be spilled upon stones of the city. And Sun will bloom in the sky fiery and magnificent. And the carnage will stop."
Obviously, he spread that "prophecy" to Izek's thick-skulled head and the lot of his armed men (Izek is played by a guest player, so decision to believe prophecy was on him). In the end of the chase we hid in the church, our cleric stepped out and cut her wrists to prove that prohecy is a ruse. Obviously, Strahd was waiting, and turned on the sun for an hour. Prophecy fulfilled, and whole Vallaki population is now eager to hunt us all down for more sun.
Cleric is broken and exhausted to level 5 exhaustion, my bloodhunter lost faith in barovians and wants to do nothing with them even though he saved many of them previously and even grew fond of some, druid thinks whole Barovia is a plague that needs cleansing, barbarian wants to cave Izek's skull in and obviously can't do it now.
My characters woke up to find that Strahd left a Phylactery as a gift. Inside the Phylactery was a note addressing one of the party specifically. The gift signified that Strahd knew exactly where the party was hiding. The gift showed that Strahd (presumably) defeated a Lich, making the party believe more in Strahd's power. Finally, and most fun for me, it had the party doing insight checks on the one that Strahd had addressed. bwah hah hah hah
I started running CoS two weeks ago. You’re videos have helped me out a lot. I’ve made a lot of changes from the book like starting my players at the Black carriage instead of the East gate. Their characters think that Strahd is a gracious host that will help them return to their realms if they help him reunite with his one true love…
oh my gosh that is amazing
@@lilpyu7012 they figured it out about 4 sessions later but I was really pulling on the Dracula inspirations by opening with the dinner and letting them explore the castle a bit
My favorite spell that Strahd casts in my games, is magic jar. Since the people of Barovia most often have no souls, there isn’t a soul to displace, so no save vs it. He then possesses a child or similar vulnerable person and puts them in danger or uses their form as a blind to work his wiles from.
Great video.
Several of my players are old enough to have a pre-existing knowledge of VanRichten from earlier iterations and thus came in with a favorable bias. So naturally, I preyed upon that.
Strahd has popped up in disguise, if you will, calling himself "VanRichtus" and letting the players jump to the wrong conclusions.
I used Vasilli to a great extend. The party never suspected him, and he gave them loads and loads of magical presents. All of these where tainted in some way (spied for strahd, or at the end-fight turned against the party), so that was fun :)
also at the dinner strahd thanked the party, because there where already 2 of them working with him (of course none did)
Honestly, this has been the hardest part for me even running CoS, so this helps a ton. Thanks for the great video!
What I have done is have used the player's background as psychological attacks against them. Durst Manor had only 3 whole actual combats in my game, The rest was psychological in nature where scenes from their background kept replaying and steadily getting worse as they progressed till the final chamber it became debilitating to the point it nearly killed a player who to psych damage when he failed a save three times in a row. This sets them up for the dream pastry addition to help them sleep since the nightmares that now plague the party of repressed memories are now to the forefront of their minds. This all on top of whatever else is going on and I haven't even started with Strahd yet.
New lighting setup is amazing! And great video as always! Your stuff has been a big positive influence on my Strahd campaign :D
Seconded. The lighting is seasonally excellent.
Finally got to listen to the video. New lighting looks great. One of my favorite Strahd psychological warfare episodes ended with my party saying "Wow, Strahd is a really bad guy"
Just after Ireena revealed to the party that she was engaged to their good friend Vasili, she left the room to discuss wedding preparations with a friend.
Strahd then revealed himself to the characters and said, “she’ll never believe you.”
She walked back in the room just as the party was killing “Vasili.” She never forgave them.
Diabolical...I love it
I had something similar happen to my character just a few sessions ago. We were at Van Richten's tower when we heard a knock at the door. When we opened the door the "new king of Barovia" showed up and claimed that he was there to help us and that he was my characters fiancé in an arranged marriage to establish a political alliance. He also explained how he was closely watching the party in order to protect me. We had previously met this man and for a while it seemed that he wanted our party dead. Therefore, my character didn't trust him and outwardly argued with him until he left the tower. To make things weirder he told us where the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind was and met us back at the tower after finding it. Five minutes later rumors around Vallaki suggest Strahd killed this man. As we were trying to investigate Strahd shows up in Vallaki and says "I look forward to seeing you all again soon." This series of events left my character in a mental breakdown and the rest of the party was on edge. It didn't help that we are currently down two fighters and one of them has the Sunsword.
I did try "Shock and Awe" and it didn't go quite as planned. I had established that the only safe places for a Long Rest were the stone circles I peppered around, even having Strahd show up and walk around one as if he couldn't cross. Then when the players were just about to hit lvl 7 and had set up camp after a hard day of fighting the druids at the vineyard I had Strahd show up at the Circle and demand they hand over his Tome. My players felt confident enough to mock him at that point only for Strahd to cross the circle and one-shot the wizard holding the Tome. I wanted to show off how powerful he was and expected my players to back down, a bad call on my part as they put up a fight, and two rounds later all but 2 were rolling death saves. We took a cliffhanger there and by the next session had agreed for the party to be saved by bending the knee to Strahd. We used the Transformation rules from Grim Hollow to turn them into Werewolfs, a Fiends, a Vampire and a Reavenant (this was a few months before Van Richtens Guide to Ravenloft came out) and have them try to take down Strahd from within. Was lots of fun in the end but I really overestimated how "Awed" my players would be.
Wow, I love the lighting!
I absolutely love your videos about CoS, they're so good, with tons of helpful tips and insights (and since they are "lunch-break-format" perfect for a walk to work
Haven’t finished the video yet but love the background lighting!
For the aspect of manipulation i had a near tpk when i was dming and only the warrior survive, stradh come and offert him some magical scroll of résurrection for each party member -1 so he had to decide which character would die. just after the character made his chose and resurect the party stradh take another scroll and tell the one who was abandoned what just happened and it was a really cool roleplay moment.
Nice!
Fantastic vid, thank you! So many ideas brewing for my poor party (mwahaha).
I had Vasili and Ireena develop quite the relationship after my party encountered him on the road delivering Ireena to Vallaki. He offered to show her around while she stayed in town and ended up wooing her while the party was off doing all sorts of things. He endeared himself to the party greatly, giving information and help. However, the feast of St. Andral took a turn (had them fight in the church actually - gave Ireena a full character sheet; she joined as an ally against the vampires) and when things were looking dire Vasili came in and helped the party out. But Anastasia whispered something incriminating to Ireena right before fleeing. Ireena was crushed that the man she had been falling for was the man who had been terrorizing her. Strahd decided not to lie and admitted to the truth but was hoping they would all accept an invitation to his castle whenever they were so inclined. He left after asking Ireena to consider his offer.
Now my party thinks that every ally they have is Strahd, haha. Just a little psychological warfare as they feel tricked but he really wasn't that bad... they're all sorts of confused now!
"My Grandpappy Saw it with his own eyes!"
"Poppycock! Strahd gouged out his eyes when he caught 'im peaping in on 'is brides whiles they was taking a bath! Everyone knows that."
I have been doing this from day one, and even have replaced some physical combat with psychological attacks.
For some reason my character is being hated on the most in Barovia. As a player this makes me feel as though my character is significant in some way to Strahd. My dm says it is because of my role as a cleric but I think there is more to the story. My friend suggested that I was like the perfect victim and that there is a good chance that I will be as such in the future because of my noble status, clerical power or beauty and charisma.
My party full on believes that Strahd can be redeemed, and his curse broken. All of that because they found out the Abbot is a Celestial and He believes this. Oh those poor players
Brilliant! The villain appearing to give a gift or talk alone with a hero is a fantastic idea.
Even if I'm not running CoS, I'm going to be using a private voice channel in my next game for just that reason.
Your videos are improving EXPONENTIALLY! So happy to see the guide is published! Congrats!
I've been using mind games with my party which has been super entertaining. Two of the party members have been bitten by Strahd himself already, turning them into dhampirs. Strahd has visited these two characters in dreams, inviting them to let him turn them into full vampires to escape the endless hunger they feel (but really he's planning on making them vampire spawn under his control). Within the conversations, Strahd has made it clear that he knows about their pasts, which has unnerved both of the players. As well, since those players are playing up their dhampirs really nicely, the rest of the party is freaking out because they have no idea what to think. Have the bitten players turned against them? Has Strahd gotten control? What's going to happen if the players get bit again? And so on and so forth. The paranoia level is high, and Strahd is pleased that he's getting to the party :)
Also I had a very specific and sinister object from one of the players' pasts pop up randomly by a roadside grave - the party's reactions were GOLDEN :)
I've been trying to get my players suspicious of each other. Strahd met them outside of a haunted mansion I threw into the module. Fuster Cluck of dismal role-playing later they didn't want anything to do with their gracious host, or what he could offer them. Anyway
Strahd modified and deleted the memory of the barbarian's encountered with him when he had the barb cornered alone.
Strahd met the bloodhunter incognito and said he knew the barb. Tried to get that thread going of secrets being kept.
Players kinda huh, neated that thread away. Bloodhunter dropped from the campaign.
Next trying to get the paladin suspicious of the ranger. Telling paladin the ranger is carrying the banner of one of Strahd's old allies from his conquering days. (Random trinket rolled from a quick pre-COS adventure.)
And that the ranger shouldn't be so quick to want to leave barovia with the thing that is waiting for the eager in the "real world." (Backstory stuff)
Gosh i wish this had come out a year ago when i started running CoS
Great idea about having Strahd move an item to another PC... Or to Ireena.
Loved the strahd tips it’s been fantastic help. Any chance you will do a Adventure someday, Dungeon of the Mad Mage is built to be modified ha
My players are planning on buying a home and hiding in it, as vampires need permission to enter a home.
_Here's hoping they don't read the fine print._
The real estate market in Barovia is murder.
I've got one I'm going to do, one of my party members is a druid who cast animal friendship on a smart raven who is revealed as Muriel (young firebrand version). Who has a soft spot for the old ways and thus the druid.
I did roll natural 1 (an improvised rule on the spot), but I could always have Strahd plant the seed that "lycanthropes are not immune to magic that affects lesser beasts. Some have been driven mad by such machinations."
And then watch PC and NPC go mad from paranoia that their own feelings are only the product of magic gone wrong, just a little existential horror.
Great Scott! I loved it so much! It's like Among Us in D&D!
these videos are perfect in time for halloween!
I loves this. Gonna use it for sure
Amazing vid as always 💙
Thank you! 😁
Te amo LBH alv :v
Saludos desde México!
Hacen falta más guías como estás en DMGuild
Great stuff. This kinda stuff would work great for most smart villians.
I'll be running a new CoS game soon. I'm adding two extra PCs (family members) who will help me set the tone of the adventure while the party is in Death House. One of the planted party members will betray the group by killing the other planted party member as a sacrifice, and then bolt out of the house. When the party escapes they will find the traitor in a cart on the street, his heart ripped from his chest and the blood drained from his body. A note attached to the cart reads....
"Dear guests, I am impressed with your actions and thank you for removing this perversion from my land. As a reward I have dealt with your heartless traitor. I abhore traitors, having been gravely hurt by several in the past. I would be grateful if you would deliver this body to Father Donavich at the Chapel. Please hurry, as there are many wolves near the village that would love a feast. Your loyal host, and perhaps someday, your friend, Lord Strahd von Zarovich."
Do you have a recommended order for watching Strahd vids for somebody starting to prep the campaign now?
Watching your videos i can learn a bit of english and also learn how to run a Ravenloft campaign, that's pretty awesome :)
Happy to help!
I had the party meet another pc in Barovia. I had him playing the elf who rahadin cut the ears off of. The pc believed that his sister was magically charmed by Strahd which is why he killed his sister to stop her from becoming Strahds wife. To cut a long story short the pc was kidnapped and at dinner with Strahd, Strahd brought him out and had the parties cleric cast zone of truth which Strahd willingly failed. He then said that the pc sister came to him of her own free will. He then had the party judge if the pc was innocent or guilty of killing his sister. They had to concede that he was guilty. It was delicious 😈
Off Topic: The Curse Of Strahd should be a big movie, maybe a Netflix series like The Witcher, but who would you cast as the leads?
Strahd = Nicholas Cage? or the guy who plays "Lucifer"?
Van Richten = obviously Anthony Hopkins.
Rahadin= Gary Oldman.
Strahd is Idris Elba, Van Richten is Samuel L. Jackson, Rahadin is Lena Headey
Epic video
Good video. Thanks for sharing.
However... the "Raising the Stakes" link says the product is unavailable. Is there another way to get it?
Head to lunchbreakheroes.com and sign up to receive a free copy! Lemme know if it you don’t get it.
Nice
The heart of sorrow thing only works if you improve the heart of darkness a bit. As it is the heart is easily broken in the first round.
I give the heart 100hp and resistance to damage not caused by a direct thunder or bludgeoning attack. It is also itself immune to direct radiant attacks as I figured a crystal heart would not be effected. Like any object it is immune to poison and psychic damage unless it's damage transfered by strahd. While in his castle strahds takes only half damage from Divine abilities while attuned to the heart. This makes strahd actually difficult to defeat without first destroying the heart itself. While withing the room of the Fated Card reading the hearts connection is broken (GM should have something miraculous happen to explain this). Lastly if strahd is withing the light of either the holy symbol or ravenkind or the sun sword the hearts effect of divine magic is suppressed. That's my heart of darkness let me know what you guys think
Oh forgot it's vulnerable to direct bludgeoning and thunder attacks
Aren't you Edward Current?
Tô bem truth, now that it ended, I never played Strahd very well... But Rahadin, man my party hated that guy! At his final battle, he tortured and kill Danka Dorakorva, ( I took your suggestions and put her body on the dungeons) man, couldn't work better!
But the hearth of sorrows worked way too well, my party delayed the fight for 4 sessions because of this move!
The gifts also word very well, i made him come to great my party at the death house exit, and gave her his pact tome.
To make things better, my player, even being completely surprised by the move, didn't spill a single word about it, so they carried some conflicts for a long time!
The dinner was also a great moment, but it went kind of south, because after that my party sat down and worked on their "relationship", so it was the end of my game of distrust
Is raising the stakes printable?
There is a print-friendly version available. Head on over to lunchbreakheroes.com/ to snag your free copy!
This is a great video in general, don't get me wrong, but the LIGHTING is incredible
👍👍👍👏😁
First!
I feel like I wouldn't have fun if I was playing with people who actually fell for any of this.