Curse of Strahd as a Sandbox

So, if you've been following me for any decent amount of time, you will have scene by several rants about the Curse of Strahd book. I've complained that Death House as a dungeon didn't have encounters that reinforced the theme of the adventure. I've complained that the Village of Barovia is portrayed as a boring place with nothing interesting going on. But then I had a conversation with someone (I don't remember who, my friend Julia maybe?) about my frustrations, and she was all, "it's a sandbox, Lexi."

That made me take a step back. I've been treating the adventure path like a sandbox. I added a really fun story arc in the Village of Barovia with Ireena. Since she refused to leave before her father was buried, I added in this scene at the church. It was being assaulted by dire wolves as the father worked to dig a grave for Ireena's father. But the deadline for her father's soul to escape Ravenloft was midnight (I've come up with lore that if you aren't buried within three days after dying, your soul belongs to Strahd).

The priest was burying Ireena's father... only, Strahd had made a deal with him. Make sure that soul gets to me, and I will fix your son. So Father Danovich was digging the grave slowly, buying as much time as he had.

Eventually the characters realized what was going on, and has thousands of ravens swarmed in the skies above (raven swarms), they forced him to complete the burial ritual. Then the characters escaped the church and fled from the town as the ravens bit and scratched them to bloody pieces.

But finally they escaped into the fog. Only to come face to face with Strahd himself, and through the vampire lord experience just how horrific Ravenloft is.

It was a super fun adventure, full of tension, intrigue, and suspense. And at the end of it, I was angry that the book hadn't provided something interesting for the players to do like that.

Only, if Curse of Strahd is a sandbox, it sort of did. I didn't make up Ireena, or Father Danovich, or even Danovich's son locked in the basement slowly turning into a vampire. I did add the Direwolves in, but in other chapters of the book it's mentioned that Strahd uses them. The only thing I really added to the setting was some lore about the importance of burial rituals, and that they can only be performed by priests that Strahd has given the duty to. Everything else was there.

I just played with it, twisted it to my own ends, and came out with a really fun couple of sessions.

When the characters escaped Strahd, they badly wanted a town to rest in that wasn't the Village of Barovia. In my mind I thought that Vallaki was much closer to the town than it is on the map, so I introduced it as a place of refuge. And it's themes are perfect. Barovia is a hopeless place of the downtrodden, but on the surface Vallaki is a place of happiness and freedom! I'm so glad that I introduced this town early, because the juxtaposition between the two towns is amazing.

But when I started preparing for Vallaki, I approached it differently. Instead of expecting to find an adventure to run, I just noted down major NPCs. I noted what their motivations were, how much power they had on a scale from 1-3, and what their reputation was with the players. I came up with this:

The list below is a list of factions, a summary of power (rated 1-5), and it's reputation with the players (starting at 0 and progressing from -3 to +3).

Urwin. Innkeeper of the Blue Water Inn. Holding Tomb of Strahd. Quest: Retrieve the wine (award: treasure chest. 140 gp, 70 pp. 2 elixers of health, 3 potions of healing, and 1 grey bag of tricks). Power: 2. Reputation: -1.

Wolf Hunters: Szoldar Szoldarovich and Yevgeni Krushkin. Hunt dire wolves and sell meat and skins for a living. Will work for money. Excellent guides, some information. Know that people are shipped off to Castle Ravenloft, only tell if they are paid 100 gold. Power: 1. Reputation: 0

Rictavio: A half-Avariel bard. Aerie's son, and worshiper of the Gnome God Wildwanderer. His real name is Elaroth, but he has adopted Rictavio after the legendary vampire hunter "Rudolph van Richten." He has heard of the Keepers of the Feather and is trying to get in contact with them. He is also gathering information on the Vistani camped to the north west. They are working for Strahd (taking villagers from the Burgomeister and taking them to Castle Ravenloft). Once he finds out, he plans on attacking them with his saber-toothed tiger. Power: 1. Reputation: 2 (because of Ariane).
Rictavio's Journal: In his room, open on his desk, is a journal Rictavio writes to keep up the illusion that he is an entertainer in search of new acts for his traveling carnival. He makes frequent mention of conversations with Drusilla (his horse, although the journal fails to mention that). He also writes about various oddities he has seen in his travels, including:

• A "werehare" child (a boy who transforms into a rabbit on the full moon)
• A half-orc woman named Gorabacha who could chew through iron chains
• A giant, man-eating plant that has the most beautiful singing voice he's ever heard
• A pair of conjoined goblins
• A small man with no legs named Filmore Stunk who could drink whole casks of wine without getting drunk.

The Valakovich Family: Power 3, Reputation 0

• Baron Vargas Vallakovich: Ruthless. Unhappy. Bent on keeping the city free of Strahd. Festivals to provide hope. Publically the hope "Keeps Strahd at bay," but in reality, when people die of hope, he has their bodies shipped to Castle Ravenloft. Catchphrase: "All will be well" Secrets: Bodies, Almost 200 years old by virtue of Strahd's blood. Always accompanied by two huge mastiffs.
• Izek Strazni: The Baron's servant, and "Hand of the Baron." He is supposed to be in charge of the government's economic well being, but in reality he is the person that the Baron uses to disappear people. All the mimes on the street corners report to Strazni, and are willing to take out whoever he orders.
• Baroness Lydia Petrovna: Vargas' wife. She has desperately picked up her husband's insistence that "all will be well" but at the cost of her sanity, for she does not believe it. She hosts daily high tea ceremonies at the mansion, which is mostly attended by the poor because all the nobles have been put off by her strangeness caused by her desperation. She is the younger sister of Father Lucian Petrovich, who is the leader of the Church of Pelor.
• Baronet Victor Vallakovich: Miserable and depressed, wants nothing but to get away from the city. He is adamantly opposed to the "Tyranny of Happiness" that his father governs with. He found a spell book in the attic, and is trying to build a teleportation circle to escape (give players hope of escaping Ravenloft?)

Watcher Family: Power 2, Reputation 0

• Lady Fiona Watcher: Leader of the Watcher House. She craves to rule the city, and makes no secret of her loyalty to Lord von Zarovich (Strahd's official title). She is the High Priestess at the Temple of Shar, and is allowed some actual divine power by Strahd for her loyalty. However, at most she can cast 2nd level spells, and then only clumsily (all concentration checks made at a disadvantage). However, more than Shar, she is a member of the Cult of Awakening, who believe that the Eternal Sleeper will awaken from his slumber, and the world that is his dream will be destroyed. She has a book of summoning rituals in her private chambers, with the same snake symbol as that at the Death House.
• Nikolai and Karl: Brash Drunkards, always looking for trouble. They don't like talking about their mother, but they would be overjoyed to join a revolution.They love listening to character's tales of adventure, the more harrowing the better. Power: 0. Reputation: 0.
• Ernst Larnak: Fiona's spy. He is a super greedy person who would love to get job with the Baron, however Fiona has seen to it that he would never be welcome there. He knows Fiona's secrets, and would love to sell them to someone who would free him from her power.

Gadolf Blinsky: The toymaker of Vallaki, "Is no fun, without Blinsky!" Used to be a mime in the employee of the Baron's spy. He still feels a great debt to Izek for getting him the store, and makes free dolls for the man every month. The dolls are supposed to represent Ireena, and they are shipped to Strahd along with the shipment of bodies. He adamantly believes in the Baron's "all will be well" slogan, and he has a collection of super weird and creepy toys. Power: 0, Reputation 0, Contacts 2. 

Ivankov Valerianovich - Baker in town. No one leave Ivankov place sad! Power: 0, Reputation 1, Contacts 0

Manqoba's Fashion: Manqoba is a Shadar' Kai fashion maker who was banished from the tribe after trying to challenge for the throne. He somehow maintained his life, but he ran from the city, and the leader would love to have him killed. Luckily it is incredibly rare for Shadar' Kai to leave their village. His status as a tailor for the well to do gives him tons of information, and he is incredibly good at playing the game of intrigue. Power: 1, Reputation: 0, Contacts 4

I love this! If I was publishing it, I'd clean it up some. But it's just a list of NPCs that I can look at in the moment and decide what's going on. For example, the Baron is already pretty upset with two of my players for being unhappy on the streets. He has invited them to dinner at his mansion where he plans on doing away with them.

However, my players don't know that, and are just excited to go to the Baron's. They wanted to shop for proper outfits, and so I introduced Manqoba's Fashions. When Manqoba heard about the invitation he knew what was up, but he knows the game of intrigue. And so just as the players are about to leave, he says, "Oh, wait, I just thought of a perfect thing to go with that dress," and he pulls out an elegant silver Ouroboros (snake eating it's own tail) on a thin chain. It goes great with the dress, but the players have no idea it's the symbol for Lady Marks, and that by wearing it they are showing that they have her backing.

All of this to protect the players, and they don't even know it's happening yet. And although I've added in Manqoba, all the other players in this little intrigue are in the book. I'm just using them.

So, to sum up, I still have some problems with the actual book. But I also think I owe an apology to the book as well. It has some really fantastic situations, NPCs, and events. It's just up to the DM to pull that together. And in the end, as a fan of improvisational Dungeon Mastering, that's all I really want to do anyway.