Making Sense of Strahd pt.1
I'm prepping a Curse of Strahd campaign and a problem I have come across is the fact that Strahd is supposed to be this terrifying 'Big Bad' but the game also encourages the DM to make Strahd a presence in the game, with whom players can expect to interact with relatively often.
To combat this, I have come up with a re-skin of the game which I believe solves this problem: Strahd the Eternal Conqueror.
The source book gives Strahd the background of being a once all-powerful conqueror who took the land of Barovia in a bloody war. Rather than having this be part of an ancient history, with current-day Strahd being a strange man in a big tower who sits around moping after his dead brother and long-lost love, I have reskinned Strahd to be stuck in an eternal war to keep the borders of Barovia under his control.
Now, the source book does somewhat help with this, as it does state that if the party travels anywhere or tries to venture outside of Barovia they not only face The Mist but also a catalogue of evil creatures who seek to kill them. In my reimagining of Barovia, these creatures are mindless entities controlled by Vampyre, the dark power under whom Strahd is cursed.
Why does this solve the problem?
It provides reasons for Strahd to leave Ravenloft and interact with the villages outside of 'fucking with the party' purposes
It illuminates Strahd's power without the party fighting him: a military parade can roll through Baravoia village, NPCs can be off-duty soldiers in his vast army, there can be factories building ammunition and arsenals filled to the brim with weaponry, etc.
Vampire Spawn can now be high-ranking officers rather than vaguely sexy people loitering on various pieces of furniture
To explain this last point a little more: Vampire Spawn are used in the source book as random encounters rather than fleshed out characters. Making Vampire Spawn be the officers in Strahd's army provides opportunities to make them more interesting, and less generic. For instance, one Vampire Spawn could be his Chief Engineer who has fun suped-up weaponry. Another could be a Colonel, flanked by soulless Barovian soldiers. A Vampire Spawn who is a Goebbels-esque propagandist could be a fun role-play encounter.
But, you say, doesn't this just make it obvious who the 'bad guys' are? Well, that's where you're wrong! Because as well as Strahd's Vampire Spawn, in my reskinned Barovia, most of the population have been swallowed by this military machine.
For instance, in Barovia Village, there is no Burgomeister (mostly because this is an objectively silly name in what is supposed to be a horror-themed adventure). Instead, Ismark and Ireena's father is the Brigadier General. He still lives in a manor, and still is the de-facto leader of the village.
For me, this reskinning also helps with the problem of one-note NPCs. In the source book it explains about the soulless Barovians being dull-eyed and not having much to say... yeah, that does making role-playing rather difficult. So why not, instead, have them be soldiers, factory workers, nurses, seamstresses, and all of the other jobs that go into keeping an army functioning? It allows for cohesion, while also allowing a little more variation and interest which, as a DM, is helpful to have rather than a population of monotone, monosyllabic soulless NPCs.
Now, I will be keeping the notion of the Barovian population gradually losing their souls, as I believe it's a fun part of the curse. But in the source book, there is a little bit of a plot-hole in terms of why Barovians are still having children, going to work... living, in essence. Whereas, if they all believe that they are constantly under attack, but winning, then it can explain why some would have allegiance to Strahd and if they all have jobs that seem important and worthy, it explains why there is still life in Barovia.
Also: Fun Uniforms! Austro-Hungarian Era Weapons!
In a later post I'll detail about my plan to overhaul the 'Dinner with Strahd' and instead turn it into more of a military ball which I believe is better tooled to happen at the beginning, rather than put the players in a position where there could be a TPK within the first five sessions of the campaign.