If you're still doing Strahd help (please still be doing Strahd help 😰) Can you give a baby GM some advice on romancing the icky vampire man? I made one of my players the new Tatiana and she has really good roleplay with him, so I want to go for that (obviously with her permission) but this is only my second game and I've never done PC on NPC romance
I'm always down for talking about the ivky vampire man <:3c I think it's important when you're letting a player romance Strahd to really think about what you as a storyteller are hoping to get out of it.
I imagine if you're running CoS, your player knows that Strahd is the BBEG and is accepting, if not expecting, the fact that Strahd may betray them. I'd argue that's a good thing--let your players stay on their toes. Strahd is cursed to an eternal existence of misery--forever locked in a cycle of finding and losing Tatyana through her reincarnations.
It's your choice as a DM to decide what Strahd's motivation for pursuing Tatyana is. Does Strahd actually love Tatyana? Did he ever? Or is Tatyana just a prize to be won, something to claim over his brother? Most importantly, how does he feel about your PC!Tatyana? Does he have any interest her beyond being a reincarnation, or does his interest end there?
Despite being a beyond-hopeless romantic, Strahd is still very evil and villainous. Obviously, he's lured your party here to Barovia in one way or another and trapped them there. While your PC!Tatyana might have loyalties to her party, Strahd probably won't. When push comes to shove, Strahd is going to prioritize Tatyana over her companions, in a way that can be really interesting to roleplay, especially if your PC!Tatyana finds herself genuinely charmed by hus advances. There are ways to play a forceful, intimidating Strahd while romancing a PC without entering the Freak Zone that can be super triggering.
Putting the rest under a readmore so ATSBB players can't peep!















