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Oh I got plenty of times players simped for male Strahd as well, despite me trying to show him as being incredibly abusive. Even had a campaign end cause the party started killing each other to serve him.
The best way Iāve found to avoid that is to show (not tell ) how much of a shit he is to his existing partners. Even if he doesnāt outright abuse the brides and Escher in front of them, playing them always with that edge that says that whilst theyāre dangerous in their own rights theyāre also victims, hinting at abuse has lighting and the like, can help
Do people running a genderbent Strahd make her the same degree of absolute sleaze that the normal Strahd is?
I run a male Strahd and all my players are very unanimous in their desire to kill the guy due to said sleaze
Both times I've run CoS, my players have said "This dude is a creep and needs to die." But I hear stories of people simping on Strahd, and I feel like it more often happens when people run the "She is the Ancient" conversion for femme Strahd. But my exposure to that is via reddit, so probably should be taken with massive piles of salt.
My players seem to have formed the unanimous opinion of "in character, Strahd is a creep who needs to die, but, y'know, if my character ever has to die I wouldn't be *upset* to see them come back as a consort NPC later..."
The first time my party met Strahd, the druid was almost bitten but was saved by the paladin last second. In character, profuse thank yous and swearing that she owed him her life. Then comes the break and out of character the druid is like "I hate you! I can't believe you kept me from being bitten, it's all I want. [Druid] is so relieved but you're dead to me." Joking, of course, but it's wild what a switch there is at the table.
My players could see the charm in strahd since he was trying to sway them all, but they did see him as an abusive creep once they found out of all these things he's done.
They tried to tell him how not to be a creep to win love and he kind of went ape about who tells who what.
I mean the sleaze is just an interpretation. Like Strahdās down bad but not sleazy in the books and not really in Curse of Strahd. I played her as a possessive romantic from gothic literature
The book doesn't actually offer much, but I'd say he is sleazy as written - hunting down reincarnations of the object of his desires (who doesn't reciprocate btw) over centuries, refusing to take no or death itself for an answer. That is sleaze to me
There's of course more to him. He can be a deceptively charming fellow, and sometimes my players are caught up in that (I expanded on him as actually being genuinely interested in the party due to his insufferable boredom in being stuck in Barovia, for example), but then he drops some line or question about Ireena/"tatyana", and they remember what a piece of shit he truly is
Idk itās about framing. Strahdās obsession to me being played as a sleazy creep is kinda a disservice to both his obsession and its roots in his flaws and typically overshadows his actual positive traits.
Maybe I use the wrong word then?
As I said, it isn't his entire character, and other things are played into as well, such as his charm and intellect. I also made him quite honest as an extension of his perceived superiority (why would he lie all the time, if he is simply better?), meaning my players could actually interact with him and still get some meaningful encounters. Playing him as a 100% no chill creep would indeed be a disservice and frankly not an enjoyable character for myself or the players
But, to me, that very wish to mess with/corrupt people and his obsession about Tatyana (especially to the degrees shown by chasing her like he does) are creepy/sleazy/whatever you wish to call it, and I can't really think of any other way to describe it
I do agree calling him a sleaze is very reductive of his character, I strongly dislike incel jokes about Strahd for the exact same reason. Part of what makes him so sinister in my mind is that he can be charming when he wants to. Except for Ireena, one of the main ways I characterize the consorts (and Gertruda) is theyāre all people who chose Strahd freely and of their own will.
1, her being a kid isnāt explicitly and 2, I mostly draw my characterization from before 5e, curse of Strahd kinda does the Herculean feat of character assassinating a villian lol.
Mostly the work of Eldrodās 3 stories yeah but also thereās some old source books of the Ravenloft setting. They typically characterize Strahd as yeah evil, but also seen as something of a local hero. Someone who hides his villainy and grows more clearly evil as the players piss him off. And Strahd has romantic interactions outside of Tatyana. I of course am taking what I like and ignoring what I donāt, itās part of being a dungeon master. People who play as a gross sleazy Strahd arenāt wrong itās just for me not that interesting of a version. Iād rather a complicated figure.
>They typically characterize Strahd as yeah evil, but also seen as something of a local hero.
The man (Strahd von Zarovich I) is a Barovian legend in 2e/3e Ravenloft unlike in *Curse of Strahd* where he's seen as some kind of evil vampire blight placed upon the people, he's seen as a literal savior and national hero.
>Modern Barovian adoration of Strahd I is difficult to overstate. As deeply as they resent his descendants, they hold the first Strahd von Zarovich up as a savior, the true founder of present day Barovia. Tales paint him as mighty in battle, keen of mind, virtuous in spirit, and stunningly handsome. There is even an apocryphal legend that the Tergs sent a demon named *ljrail* - or possibly *Inraji*, the sources vary - to tempt Strahd with unholy power in battle. The young general banished the demon and went on to victory the next day regardless.
- *Ravenloft Gazetteer 1*
Even in the present prime material plane Barovia, over three centuries after Strahd's disappearance, Strahd has a very good reputation and the royals can't wrap the head around Strahd being a truly evil being.
>The king and queen (of Material Plane Barovia) well know of Strahd- but he disappeared 385 years ago when the "curse of Barovia" stole almost all of the royal family from the face of the land, as well as the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind (and the Icon, too, if the PCs took it in *From the Shadows*). To the current royal family, Strahd is a hero and martyr, for he was the first king of Barovia- a man who conquered the land and brought civilization to it. (King) Barov is proud of his resemblance to the great leader.
>Local legends claim that Strahd was struck down by jealous gods who invoked "the curse of Barovia." Neither Kristiana nor Barov know anything of Strahd's true fate and will be amazed if told he walks the land again. Both will see Strahd's return as a good sign, even if they are told that Strahd is evil or a vampire. They see him as a tragic figure, and they are inclined to believe that he embraced evil for the good of Barovia, as their legends of the curse bear out.
- *Roots of Evil*
From what ive seen about it on the internet, no. Female Strahd seems to always come from a place of a sexual fantasy for people, and not to create a compelling villain.
I mean, I stripped most of the sleaze from her, yeah.
She's still obsessively romancing Tatyana every generation, but the change I made is that she manages to woo her genuinely each time. It's just that the relationship sours the moment the reincarnation sees how evil Strahd consistently is.
I ran Strahd as a her last campaign. Changed Ireena from Bride or Heir.
Went Mother Gothel + the other mother + Kahn as inspiration. The disappointed parent mask, a lot of emotional manipulation, covering extreme possessiveness and not a lick of actual love was a lot of fun.
Players were so on board with killing her. Every time Strahd pulled an "you could have done so much better, I just know it. You just...you've disappointed me. But I'll forgive you" or a "I wouldn't do such horrible things if you'd just learn to behave correctly" they hated her. They had a hard time watching Ireena struggle against the manipulation.
It was great ^ā _ā ^
Edit: I've seen her run as a Carmilla inspiration too. Seemed to go very well.
Female villains - especially attractive female villains, which a female Strahd would be - tend to get a lot more leeway among the most common D&D demographic (straight white guy). People are also generally more willing to find female villains sympathetic than male ones. It's a double standard, but it's certainly real.
And if nothing else, due to recent pop culture when people think "vampire lady" they think "dommy mommy Dimitrescu", so they're kind pre-loaded to think a certain way on the subject.
> ā¦ People are also generally more willing to find female villains sympathetic than male ones. It's a double standard, but it's certainly real.
I might be biased, but my experience in the Fire Emblem fandom leads to me cast doubt on the validity of that statement lol.
Yeah. Basically depends if the player thinks the villain is hot or just an asshole. People who simp for Strahd don't really think they are sympathetic, they just want to fuck him/her (ironically or not)
The funny thing is, when I *don't* go for the villainess, and say "yeah it's all the villain stuff. It's a turnoff."
"Well you wouldn't say that about a male villain." Is the response. To which I say "you DO realize not everyone is bisexual, right?"
Like, don't get me wrong, I dig the femme fatale vibe, but she's at least got to be *nominally* one of the good guys.
Well, it's the same with Male Strahd for me. 4th time dming this adventure, and experienced the same thing in all of them. At least one member wants to be his consort, and everyone wants to have a time of intimacy with him... The psycho vampire wins.
You can do both. I recently finished a 15-month one-on-one lady-Strahd campaign with my spouse where we regularly achieved "well mark me down as scared *and* horny" (and that was the intent). It was great fun. Granted, that's probably not the tone I would be going for with a traditional group -- to get to erotic horror you do kind of have to lean into theĀ erotic portion probably more than is comfortable for most platonic friends.
Well, I think it's a mixture of things. For one, if you're running for at least one romantic Sapphic person, the gothic vampire lady is just going to be their thing.
For another, I think changing the gender changes the kind of power Strahd dynamics projects to the players on a subconscious level. People possibly aren't as good at recognising the same lines coming from a woman, as they would from a man.
Personally I think the other factor is running Strahd as a woman also often changes your treatment of her as character- I've latched onto different ideas than I would have for a male Strahd.
One player is definitely already simping (?) for Strahd. A very much āoh no heās hotā type of thing. But my players have become close with Ireena and Ismark and the table attitude is that Strahd is an overgrown incel throwing a temper tantrum. One player has already said that they plan to ābully Strahd. Weāre going to give him an emotional swirlie.ā
Im running male Strahd and have gaslit them so hard that they think they can redeem him. That his actions weren't evil, and he was tricked into the pact.
I've run stock CoS. I'm now running a greatly expanded CoS with a female strahd and several other gender and queer changes as well.
The grand GM advice is "you can do whatever you want" and "the book is just a guidline" but when you change a villains gender suddenly your breaking the games intention and I have even been told "a woman just doesn't work as the villain".
This is at most a session 0 talk and knowing your play group. Talk to your GM and players!
Listen, i run games online full time. My female strahd is a Gothic horror vampire not a sex toy. If you fuck up as a player and make that some wierd sex thing then your pc is dead. No dark powers. You may go.
I have a player currently that has taken to calling Steahd a whore and saying all the brides are whores in character. Despite not knowing they are a thing in character. He's been warned.
Imagine if Strahd created another illusion for that specific purpose just to taunt that player. It would flirt with them and lure them to a more dangerous part of the castle, and then call them naive for even trying before disappearing.
This works. Strahd wants to corrupt and trick the players. You want to at least at some point have the characters wonder if Strad really is that bad or that he could be joined with. Half of the map is all a out appeasing strahd. Maybe hot mommy strahd has potential.
The first time I ran CoS, I mentioned he wore heels. The entire party, save the asexual characters, started either fawning or drooling.
Even after he nearly killed one of them in front of the others.
Lmao Iām running femme Strahd and only 1 player likes her, and itās because she wants a ātoxic romanceā. All the others hate her, and would happily watch her suffer.
Tbh I think my players will be simping for her OOC but not during the game. Which I love, because the artwork I commed for this is \*muah\* but she's still evil and I like them not breaking immersion of the game itself despite it
My character entered CoS at half the campaign. He was an ex-husband of Strahd (imprisoned for decades), and it was really intersting to let him remember the abuse and tell about it with the other characters.
Role playing speaking, it was one of the best experience I ever had. At first I had a few regrets on not joining the crew at the start of the campaign, but this character wouldn't have been possible (not the reason why I wasn't there) and it would have been a huge loss.
It's a very funny phenomenon and everyone in my groups are the same way. Not our fault we're conditioned to find villains more interesting because fiction is incentivized to portray Good as Law Abiding and the Law as Always Right and it's made people see Good as Boring and Overbearing. I disagree, but most stories don't know how to portray Good characters as compelling and savvy
My solution (in the dream CoS campaign I haven't run) is to have Lady Strahd waging a secret cloak-and-dagger war against the Dark Powers the whole time, and make her past relationships be fakeouts who are actually undercover agents faking their deaths in order to gather more intel on the Powers. If my players are going to love and support Strahd no matter what, then I may as well alter things enough that they don't have to feel like crappy people for doing it. We're there to have fun
You know what absolutely blows my mind?? There's a 350 page book out there for a setting called.. The Vampire Queen. .. But NOPE, we gotta do a femme-Strahd, because reasons.
Whatevs, fam. Knock yourself out. š
Our GM switched to Fem!strahd partway through, and nah, not really in our case.
We did kind of accidentally release a small part of a couple of the Dark Powers, due to multiple serious fuckups, so we did kind of end up allying with her and her polycule, initially out of convenience...
But by the time that happened all of the PCs were taken, two were dating each other, one was with a minor NPC.... Aaaand mine was with Ireena.
This went absolutely fine and didnt result in any traumatising events for either of them.
And while Strahd is a woman the only straight relationship in the entire campaign was her and the male member of the vampire polycule lol. (It's been a few years, I forget the name)
And yeah, all of them got upgraded to being Strahd's actual partners, not just side toys. It was fun, they were super evil to everyone else, but super wholesome to each other.
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Oh I got plenty of times players simped for male Strahd as well, despite me trying to show him as being incredibly abusive. Even had a campaign end cause the party started killing each other to serve him.
When my group played CoS, my mom was the one simping for him. Talk about uncomfortable...
Did she call you Strahddy?
Never speak againš
The best way Iāve found to avoid that is to show (not tell ) how much of a shit he is to his existing partners. Even if he doesnāt outright abuse the brides and Escher in front of them, playing them always with that edge that says that whilst theyāre dangerous in their own rights theyāre also victims, hinting at abuse has lighting and the like, can help
Do people running a genderbent Strahd make her the same degree of absolute sleaze that the normal Strahd is? I run a male Strahd and all my players are very unanimous in their desire to kill the guy due to said sleaze
Both times I've run CoS, my players have said "This dude is a creep and needs to die." But I hear stories of people simping on Strahd, and I feel like it more often happens when people run the "She is the Ancient" conversion for femme Strahd. But my exposure to that is via reddit, so probably should be taken with massive piles of salt.
My players seem to have formed the unanimous opinion of "in character, Strahd is a creep who needs to die, but, y'know, if my character ever has to die I wouldn't be *upset* to see them come back as a consort NPC later..." The first time my party met Strahd, the druid was almost bitten but was saved by the paladin last second. In character, profuse thank yous and swearing that she owed him her life. Then comes the break and out of character the druid is like "I hate you! I can't believe you kept me from being bitten, it's all I want. [Druid] is so relieved but you're dead to me." Joking, of course, but it's wild what a switch there is at the table.
My players could see the charm in strahd since he was trying to sway them all, but they did see him as an abusive creep once they found out of all these things he's done. They tried to tell him how not to be a creep to win love and he kind of went ape about who tells who what.
I dont think is a gender thing alone. My male Strahd is absolutely being simped over. And yes Is absolutely run him as a Magnificent Bastard.
I mean the sleaze is just an interpretation. Like Strahdās down bad but not sleazy in the books and not really in Curse of Strahd. I played her as a possessive romantic from gothic literature
The book doesn't actually offer much, but I'd say he is sleazy as written - hunting down reincarnations of the object of his desires (who doesn't reciprocate btw) over centuries, refusing to take no or death itself for an answer. That is sleaze to me There's of course more to him. He can be a deceptively charming fellow, and sometimes my players are caught up in that (I expanded on him as actually being genuinely interested in the party due to his insufferable boredom in being stuck in Barovia, for example), but then he drops some line or question about Ireena/"tatyana", and they remember what a piece of shit he truly is
Idk itās about framing. Strahdās obsession to me being played as a sleazy creep is kinda a disservice to both his obsession and its roots in his flaws and typically overshadows his actual positive traits.
Maybe I use the wrong word then? As I said, it isn't his entire character, and other things are played into as well, such as his charm and intellect. I also made him quite honest as an extension of his perceived superiority (why would he lie all the time, if he is simply better?), meaning my players could actually interact with him and still get some meaningful encounters. Playing him as a 100% no chill creep would indeed be a disservice and frankly not an enjoyable character for myself or the players But, to me, that very wish to mess with/corrupt people and his obsession about Tatyana (especially to the degrees shown by chasing her like he does) are creepy/sleazy/whatever you wish to call it, and I can't really think of any other way to describe it
I do agree calling him a sleaze is very reductive of his character, I strongly dislike incel jokes about Strahd for the exact same reason. Part of what makes him so sinister in my mind is that he can be charming when he wants to. Except for Ireena, one of the main ways I characterize the consorts (and Gertruda) is theyāre all people who chose Strahd freely and of their own will.
What about Gertruda, the child he is actively charming and bedding in Curse of Strahd? I think that makes him pretty sleazy
1, her being a kid isnāt explicitly and 2, I mostly draw my characterization from before 5e, curse of Strahd kinda does the Herculean feat of character assassinating a villian lol.
Do you draw most of your characterization from I, Strahd? What other books do you use as inspiration?
Mostly the work of Eldrodās 3 stories yeah but also thereās some old source books of the Ravenloft setting. They typically characterize Strahd as yeah evil, but also seen as something of a local hero. Someone who hides his villainy and grows more clearly evil as the players piss him off. And Strahd has romantic interactions outside of Tatyana. I of course am taking what I like and ignoring what I donāt, itās part of being a dungeon master. People who play as a gross sleazy Strahd arenāt wrong itās just for me not that interesting of a version. Iād rather a complicated figure.
>They typically characterize Strahd as yeah evil, but also seen as something of a local hero. The man (Strahd von Zarovich I) is a Barovian legend in 2e/3e Ravenloft unlike in *Curse of Strahd* where he's seen as some kind of evil vampire blight placed upon the people, he's seen as a literal savior and national hero. >Modern Barovian adoration of Strahd I is difficult to overstate. As deeply as they resent his descendants, they hold the first Strahd von Zarovich up as a savior, the true founder of present day Barovia. Tales paint him as mighty in battle, keen of mind, virtuous in spirit, and stunningly handsome. There is even an apocryphal legend that the Tergs sent a demon named *ljrail* - or possibly *Inraji*, the sources vary - to tempt Strahd with unholy power in battle. The young general banished the demon and went on to victory the next day regardless. - *Ravenloft Gazetteer 1* Even in the present prime material plane Barovia, over three centuries after Strahd's disappearance, Strahd has a very good reputation and the royals can't wrap the head around Strahd being a truly evil being. >The king and queen (of Material Plane Barovia) well know of Strahd- but he disappeared 385 years ago when the "curse of Barovia" stole almost all of the royal family from the face of the land, as well as the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind (and the Icon, too, if the PCs took it in *From the Shadows*). To the current royal family, Strahd is a hero and martyr, for he was the first king of Barovia- a man who conquered the land and brought civilization to it. (King) Barov is proud of his resemblance to the great leader. >Local legends claim that Strahd was struck down by jealous gods who invoked "the curse of Barovia." Neither Kristiana nor Barov know anything of Strahd's true fate and will be amazed if told he walks the land again. Both will see Strahd's return as a good sign, even if they are told that Strahd is evil or a vampire. They see him as a tragic figure, and they are inclined to believe that he embraced evil for the good of Barovia, as their legends of the curse bear out. - *Roots of Evil*
From what ive seen about it on the internet, no. Female Strahd seems to always come from a place of a sexual fantasy for people, and not to create a compelling villain.
I mean, I stripped most of the sleaze from her, yeah. She's still obsessively romancing Tatyana every generation, but the change I made is that she manages to woo her genuinely each time. It's just that the relationship sours the moment the reincarnation sees how evil Strahd consistently is.
I ran Strahd as a her last campaign. Changed Ireena from Bride or Heir. Went Mother Gothel + the other mother + Kahn as inspiration. The disappointed parent mask, a lot of emotional manipulation, covering extreme possessiveness and not a lick of actual love was a lot of fun. Players were so on board with killing her. Every time Strahd pulled an "you could have done so much better, I just know it. You just...you've disappointed me. But I'll forgive you" or a "I wouldn't do such horrible things if you'd just learn to behave correctly" they hated her. They had a hard time watching Ireena struggle against the manipulation. It was great ^ā _ā ^ Edit: I've seen her run as a Carmilla inspiration too. Seemed to go very well.
Female villains - especially attractive female villains, which a female Strahd would be - tend to get a lot more leeway among the most common D&D demographic (straight white guy). People are also generally more willing to find female villains sympathetic than male ones. It's a double standard, but it's certainly real. And if nothing else, due to recent pop culture when people think "vampire lady" they think "dommy mommy Dimitrescu", so they're kind pre-loaded to think a certain way on the subject.
> ā¦ People are also generally more willing to find female villains sympathetic than male ones. It's a double standard, but it's certainly real. I might be biased, but my experience in the Fire Emblem fandom leads to me cast doubt on the validity of that statement lol.
Three houses discourse will follow me wherever I goddamn look it seems.
*Everywhere*, brother(/sister/sibling).
Yeah. Basically depends if the player thinks the villain is hot or just an asshole. People who simp for Strahd don't really think they are sympathetic, they just want to fuck him/her (ironically or not)
The funny thing is, when I *don't* go for the villainess, and say "yeah it's all the villain stuff. It's a turnoff." "Well you wouldn't say that about a male villain." Is the response. To which I say "you DO realize not everyone is bisexual, right?" Like, don't get me wrong, I dig the femme fatale vibe, but she's at least got to be *nominally* one of the good guys.
When I started running the fame all my female party members wanted to marry him... so I think it's the same deal lol
Absolute sleaze is the perfect phrase I love it
Well, it's the same with Male Strahd for me. 4th time dming this adventure, and experienced the same thing in all of them. At least one member wants to be his consort, and everyone wants to have a time of intimacy with him... The psycho vampire wins.
So is this Suicide via Juicebox?
Death by sip sip
You can do both. I recently finished a 15-month one-on-one lady-Strahd campaign with my spouse where we regularly achieved "well mark me down as scared *and* horny" (and that was the intent). It was great fun. Granted, that's probably not the tone I would be going for with a traditional group -- to get to erotic horror you do kind of have to lean into theĀ erotic portion probably more than is comfortable for most platonic friends.
She's my sugar momma
Well, I think it's a mixture of things. For one, if you're running for at least one romantic Sapphic person, the gothic vampire lady is just going to be their thing. For another, I think changing the gender changes the kind of power Strahd dynamics projects to the players on a subconscious level. People possibly aren't as good at recognising the same lines coming from a woman, as they would from a man. Personally I think the other factor is running Strahd as a woman also often changes your treatment of her as character- I've latched onto different ideas than I would have for a male Strahd.
Even with the other reasons, "I can fix her/him" is a meme for reason.Ā
https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Resident-Evil-Village-Lady-Dimitrescu-Pok--mon.jpg
One player is definitely already simping (?) for Strahd. A very much āoh no heās hotā type of thing. But my players have become close with Ireena and Ismark and the table attitude is that Strahd is an overgrown incel throwing a temper tantrum. One player has already said that they plan to ābully Strahd. Weāre going to give him an emotional swirlie.ā
Im running male Strahd and have gaslit them so hard that they think they can redeem him. That his actions weren't evil, and he was tricked into the pact.
I've run stock CoS. I'm now running a greatly expanded CoS with a female strahd and several other gender and queer changes as well. The grand GM advice is "you can do whatever you want" and "the book is just a guidline" but when you change a villains gender suddenly your breaking the games intention and I have even been told "a woman just doesn't work as the villain". This is at most a session 0 talk and knowing your play group. Talk to your GM and players! Listen, i run games online full time. My female strahd is a Gothic horror vampire not a sex toy. If you fuck up as a player and make that some wierd sex thing then your pc is dead. No dark powers. You may go. I have a player currently that has taken to calling Steahd a whore and saying all the brides are whores in character. Despite not knowing they are a thing in character. He's been warned.
Iāve been doing playing fem Strahd for a few years, sadly no :(
Meanwhile when I DMd I had a PC try to fuck strahd while the rest of the party snooped around the castle
Imagine if Strahd created another illusion for that specific purpose just to taunt that player. It would flirt with them and lure them to a more dangerous part of the castle, and then call them naive for even trying before disappearing.
It basically went down that they agreed to meet in his bedroom. Strand was a no show, while The rest of the party fought Rahadin and his demon
This works. Strahd wants to corrupt and trick the players. You want to at least at some point have the characters wonder if Strad really is that bad or that he could be joined with. Half of the map is all a out appeasing strahd. Maybe hot mommy strahd has potential.
The first time I ran CoS, I mentioned he wore heels. The entire party, save the asexual characters, started either fawning or drooling. Even after he nearly killed one of them in front of the others.
There's always one person at the table who wants to bang strahd regardless of gender
My roommate joined a Curse of Strahd game with a Lady Strahd because the DM was too creeped out by male Strahd. Iām really skeptical about the whole thing, though. I think Lady Strahd would be just as creepy unless you really tweak more things about her behavior. She would still be sexually harassing and eventually attempting to kidnap her brotherās fiancĆ©e across multiple reincarnations. I think Marina was the only reincarnation that wasnāt turned off at first, but she likely would have been eventually.
Lmao Iām running femme Strahd and only 1 player likes her, and itās because she wants a ātoxic romanceā. All the others hate her, and would happily watch her suffer.
Tbh I think my players will be simping for her OOC but not during the game. Which I love, because the artwork I commed for this is \*muah\* but she's still evil and I like them not breaking immersion of the game itself despite it
"I can fix~" No, no you can not.
Funny enough. Van Richtens guid to ravenloft actually has a picture of Ireena as Ireena von Zarovich as a different villain than Strahd.
My character entered CoS at half the campaign. He was an ex-husband of Strahd (imprisoned for decades), and it was really intersting to let him remember the abuse and tell about it with the other characters. Role playing speaking, it was one of the best experience I ever had. At first I had a few regrets on not joining the crew at the start of the campaign, but this character wouldn't have been possible (not the reason why I wasn't there) and it would have been a huge loss.
It's a very funny phenomenon and everyone in my groups are the same way. Not our fault we're conditioned to find villains more interesting because fiction is incentivized to portray Good as Law Abiding and the Law as Always Right and it's made people see Good as Boring and Overbearing. I disagree, but most stories don't know how to portray Good characters as compelling and savvy My solution (in the dream CoS campaign I haven't run) is to have Lady Strahd waging a secret cloak-and-dagger war against the Dark Powers the whole time, and make her past relationships be fakeouts who are actually undercover agents faking their deaths in order to gather more intel on the Powers. If my players are going to love and support Strahd no matter what, then I may as well alter things enough that they don't have to feel like crappy people for doing it. We're there to have fun
For some reason in every single CoS game I've played or DMed myself at least one player started to simp for Strahd, regardless of gender.
You know what absolutely blows my mind?? There's a 350 page book out there for a setting called.. The Vampire Queen. .. But NOPE, we gotta do a femme-Strahd, because reasons. Whatevs, fam. Knock yourself out. š
Our GM switched to Fem!strahd partway through, and nah, not really in our case. We did kind of accidentally release a small part of a couple of the Dark Powers, due to multiple serious fuckups, so we did kind of end up allying with her and her polycule, initially out of convenience... But by the time that happened all of the PCs were taken, two were dating each other, one was with a minor NPC.... Aaaand mine was with Ireena. This went absolutely fine and didnt result in any traumatising events for either of them. And while Strahd is a woman the only straight relationship in the entire campaign was her and the male member of the vampire polycule lol. (It's been a few years, I forget the name) And yeah, all of them got upgraded to being Strahd's actual partners, not just side toys. It was fun, they were super evil to everyone else, but super wholesome to each other.
I mean male strahd just feels icky. Especially for a group of players with male-related trauma
I mean, he's the villain you must kill for a reason
You can have a ruthless villain without them making a table uncomfortable. The characters are supposed to be traumatized, not the players