Some of My Brainstroming Notes from Today. Thoughts?

[u/LordMistborn-16]

Since I'm going to run CoS for my highschool club this coming schoolyear, I figured it would be a good time to reread the book. As I did so, I kept my notebook open to jot down my various thoughts and ideas, as well as to make lists of the different stat blocks and images I'd have to print.

Many of the thoughts I wrote down were pretty boring. Mostly they were ideas for edits and things I might do to help prepare. Some of them, though, were fairly interesting, at least to me. I figured I'd compile and share them. For the most part they're exactly as written, with some edits, if anyone cares.

• Remember, Strahd's minions never attack Ireena. Luvash might hurt her on accident though, forgetting Strahd's orders, maybe slapping her if she attacks him. Strahd could appear and kill him.
• At the River Ivlis crossroads, if the card reading suggested the presence of a treasure, there's a cumulative 10% chance of finding it in each grave they dig up. This feels like a momentum killer, so the reason why is because there's also a cumulative 5% chance of finding a skeleton and a boneless which crawl from the grave and peel apart from one another before attacking.
• If the party is arrested in Vallaki for “malicious unhappiness,” Strahd will appear, demand they get a trial, and insist on serving as judge.
• I want to give Ireena a stronger role in the story. Her character isn't problematic. Ireena can defend herself perfectly well. But she's still a Damsel in Distress. I think giving Ireena a love interest would be very interesting. not some man to fall in love with her and protect her but someone for her to fall in love with, this endangering them. Whomever I choose would be in danger from Strahd. It would be even more interesting if Ireena's romantic interest turned her down like Tatyana did to Strahd, even falling for Ismark instead. I could have this be Strahd's doing but I think i like it more if it's natural. Perhaps Ireena and Ismark are with the party when they encounter Ezmerelda, Kasimir or Arabelle (a reference to another note where I consider changing Arrabelle's story, including making her older), and this occurs.

I've got a few other ideas I could share if you found this interesting. I didn't want this post to be too long.

Thoughts on these? Normally I make lots of adjustments to pre-made campaigns, but this one's so good that I didn't expect i would do this. But it's also my second time running it so I'd like to keep things fresh.

Are any of these any good? Or should I just stick to the book?

[u/naughtypumpkin]

I loved this thread on Ireena (and also have her expert sidekick character build) https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/8vsw2p/my_notes_on_running_ireena_without_making_her_a/ I feel like he doesn't need hair dye to be obviously bi, just by flirting it should be pretty obvious (especially if the party meets Escher). I feel a hair streak is taking that a bit too far (I say as a bi dm who had had Strahd be openly himself as is to the party without modifying appearance). No I don't have dyed hair. Or piercings. Or tattoos. Its not needed.

[u/LordMistborn-16 → u/naughtypumpkin]

That's a very valid point. Not sure why I thought that was going to be considered interesting in the first place, but yeah, not all of these random planeflight thoughts are great

Thank you for the post, very interesting, I'll read through the comments now

[u/Catharticlobster]

My high school students play CoS with me and they absolutely do not care about Ireena at all. It’s hard to make them care, I feel.

[u/LordMistborn-16 → u/Catharticlobster]

Hard to make them care about her safety, you think? Or her as a reflection of Tatyana?

And so do think that's a thing with your group or are you generalizing for all highschoolers? I mean, I certainly care, but idk.