The Curse of Strahd Von Zarovich
Locked deep within a sea of howling winds and choking mists lies the small country of Barovia, a valley land kept isolated from the world by its ruling lord, Count Strahd Von Zarovich. A cruel and distant ruler, the Count is often referred to as "the devil Strahd" by the inhabitants from the valley, as they believe he commands the dark horrors tormenting them, casting terror and doom from his clifftop home of Castle Ravenloft.
Unbeknownst to the inhabitants of the Barovia Valley, Strahd Von Zarovich posesses both unearthly powers and forbidden desires, and he will stop at nothing to obtain the wishes of his dark heart, bending the very fabric of his domain to suit his whims. It is this devilish behavior that finds strangers such as yourself captured by the mists seemingly at random, only to be deposited into the foreboding landscape of the Barovia Valley.
Welcome anyone and everyone, to The Curse of Strahd Von Zarovich! This is a more refined and better-presented attempt of a recent interest check of mine, and hopefully the more flashy and clarifying nature of the title and opening post can catch some more attention.
For those unfamiliar with the environment of this story: the land of Barovia and its ruler Strahd Von Zarovich come from an original Dungeons and Dragons adventure module based on gothic horror trappings of tales such as Dracula or Frankenstein, blending them with the fantasy elements of Dungeons and Dragons.
The idea with this RP is that I'm taking a classic Dungeons and Dragons adventure module found in every edition, and converting it into a traditional narrative-first RP, taking away the reliance of D&D on stats, dice rolls and character classes and shifting the focus more onto the collaborative writing nature we all know and love.
As such, characters won't be bound to the strictly-defined abilities of a D&D class but will instead come with the general expectations of self-constricted balance and proper etiquette we're all used to here on the Guild, though the standard fantasy fare of D&D races is to remain the norm. As such, absolutely NO knowledge of D&D, Ravenloft, Strahd Von Zarovich, or tabletop roleplaying games is required!
However, that isn't to say elements from the tabletop RPG depictions of the Ravenloft adventure won't be prevalent. The original adventure incorporated elements of randomization in plot details designed for replayabilitiy, and this will be present within the RP as well to ensure that even veterans of the original versions can find some fun here. Likewise, the nature of Barovia is one such that spellcasters are rare and non-humans are utterly non-native to the land, so the already-wary inhabitants of Barovia will be more than a bit perturbed by possible characters. I, as the GM of this RP, will also not be controlling a single static character alongside the players for this journey, and will instead take a role similar to that of the Dungeon Master found in D&D sessions proper, solely directing the NPCs, monsters, and environments, and describing and explaining their reactions to the PCs: their actions, their behaviors, and their words.
My ultimate goal with this RP is to present a story I deeply enjoy to people who may have little to no knowledge or interest in the gameplay and mechanics of D&D, or simply don't want to devote the time and energy to a proper campaign. My hope is that by running the narrative as a traditional story-first RP, I can make it more accessible to others in the long run.
I'm also not calling for too many players, and can run this with as little as one Player Character if needed, so if anyone out there is even vaguely interested, let me know! And as always, I'm willing to answer any and all questions.
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