If Strahd is dead, then being as powerful as he is, then it is very possible it is a temporary thing. As such he could come back with full force, which would be extraordinarily hard for the PC's to fight against. This could happen in days/months/years/etc.
If Strahd is dead, and I mean DEAD, then the land of Barovia is either going to to 1) absorbed by neighbors; 2) taken from the Lands of Mist 3) Seek a new darklord. For the sake of preserving the balance of the Core, I would suggest the third option. Pending on the PC's one of them may make for a good one, but I'm thinking that is more than likely not a good idea, so you might want to make a new one to take over the now Darklordless Barovia. A good idea may be another vampire or someone who fills in the role of a personification of Barovia.
The people in either event will be greatly happy that "The Devil Strahd" has been taken from their lands (even if temp.) and praise them for their efforts. They would more than likely be seen as heroes of the land and treated as such. However Barovia is a place where evil is behind every corner and now that the center of it all is gone, most of that evil would like to take it's place. So maybe now the things that go bumb in the night are ready to step forward and take their claim to the throne, so to speak. So the PC's are more than likely going to have to battle to keep their position, or protect the land they just got.
I faced the same problem preparing a game a while ago.
http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1995
http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2033
http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2033
The first lesson they'll need to learn is that no good deed goes unpunished.
They can brag all they want to the locals that they killed the "devil Strahd", the natives won't believe them right away.
Strahd can't be killed that easily as he is the proverbial "corner stone" of RL. The Dark Powers won't permit it. His essence will be secreted away to a hidden corner of Barovia where he will start regenerating. While he does, his realm will appear to be defenseless. Key word here: "appear".
PC with above-average Int score should notice things that might just cast a shadow of doubt over their victory. For one thing, have the ring of poisonous fog around the village slowly reappear at the next full moon. Worgs will still prowl the forests. Vampire "pets" of Strahd will continue to plague natives and travelers alike. Of course, things won't look as bad as when Strahd was around but enough to prove that killing him didn't solve all problems at once.
And then there are the neighbors...
Goblyns from Forlorn could start to invade since they would meet less opposition and Strahd would be unable to "seal" the border while he is regenerating. Same thing with troops from Hazlan carrying off natives for Hazlik's experiments. Soldiers from Nova Vaasa could attempt to seize large areas of the north-east. Etc...
Pretty soon, the Barovians would start complaining (as commoners always do) that it's all the fault of the PC since Count Strahd was always there to protect them in the past (funny how you remember only the good things about a dictator once someone worse replaces him..). Knowing RL, things will get ugly fast. Your PC may be 9th level but unless they are cold-blooded killers, fighting repeatedly a mob isn't going to be their cup of tea. Thus, they'll try to move to another domain. That's when the fun begins...
And, some time later, have them learn that Strahd reappeared to "save Barovia" and that their names are now cursed there as villains who attempted to bring doom to the place. Second lesson learnt: fame is fleeting.
The two most important lessons my players learned early on in RL was that any action WILL have consequences, and that no matter how bad the situation is, it can always get worse...
That said, your remark reminds me of something all RL DM should avoid like the plague: the killer-DM syndrome.
Players will tolerate being in RL only as long as they can get some fun out of it. If they ever come to believe that the DM is using that setting only as an excuse to **** them up royally, they'll walk off the table and the game will be over. DM must resist very hard the urge to keep bad things happening to the PC all the time.
It's like a good horror movie. If you are shown scary things all the time, after a while you won't be able to tell the difference. Give the "heroes" a break. Allow them to score a small victory here and there. It will be that much more horrible when the awful truth catch up on them...
As for the replacement Darklord, I would probably put Strahd in hibernation for a decade and have him return. But if that seems cheap, go with Lyssa. She's evil, she's a vampire, she's a Von Zarovich, and she lives in Barovia already. She's probably the noble with the best claim on the throne.
Eh, thanks Raf.. I guess :P
Players will tolerate being in RL only as long as they can get some fun out of it. If they ever come to believe that the DM is using that setting only as an excuse to **** them up royally, they'll walk off the table and the game will be over. DM must resist very hard the urge to keep bad things happening to the PC all the time.
My own RL campaign died because of that...
I am sorry to say this but it's the killer-DM out there that ruined the setting for the rest of us
) or Invidia (more Vistani for Mallochio to slaughter!), neither of which is a good thing. First, the people of Barovia may hate Strahd, but most of them believed him to be an incredibly evil human necromancer. Unless the PCs go around with Strahd's body, there is no proof that he was a vamp. Regicides are never looked at well in the immediate aftermath. Assuming they survive getting lynched, the Vistani will want a word with them, especially if they are now in Invidia or Sithicus, two domains where the Darklord hates Vistani with a passion. See the Vistani had a love/hate relationship with Strahd. He protected them, and now they need a new protector. Guess who they blame? Good luck not getting cursed.Next there is the problem of old Sherriff Potato. He is now out of a job as Strahd's professional serial killer. Now if he had been written up as something other than a total cipher in CoD, he might have gotten to rule Barovia in his master's absence. Instead he will want to kill lots of innocent people and turn them into lebentodt.
Inajira may want a word with them. They ruined his plot to steal Strahd's soul for his book of keeping. To get on his good side, he may want them to help him get more souls for the book.
Azalin might commend the PCs for removing his enemy, but he'd just as soon recognize them for a threat to his well being, and send Kargat vampires after them, to make sure they stay away from Darkon.
In any event, here are some candidates for replacing Strahd as Darklord of Barovia, if you decide to keep the place intact:
Lyssa von Zarovich, Strahd's spoiled neice, also an ancient vampire.
Jacqueline Montarri, a woman who is cursed to live forever, so long as she can aquire new heads to wear.
Ardonk Szerieza, the Gundarakite revolutionary, who is tainted from his association with the witch Gabrielle Aderre.
Ryven. What's that? Ryven's not dead! He's just resting! Besides what a fine Darklord he might be!
Hope these ideas for a post-Strahd Barovia help. If all else fails, just take the stake out!
as for bad ravenloft experiences...i've only found that fear/horror/madness fails make crappy ways to lose a character...as in, ran screaming and got killed without much of a chance(paladin, 2e swashbuckler). the swashbuckler type i had in 3.5 almost died from a madness save, but not from the check itself, from role-playing afterwards (thought i was dead, so i figured i was unkillable...so being at 2 hit points and deathly afraid of healing magic almost offed me a few times...but that one was fun). so just be careful with the check effects, and everything is fine.
I am not surprised. Too many DM I know used RL as an excuse to blow up some steam at their players' expense. The end result is invariably that those same players now run away or laugh out loud whenever you tell them you would like to start a RL campaign. Then you have to spend days trying to make them understand RL isn't a world where you're cursed from the moment you are born and making promises about giving them a fair chance of winning. Most DM quit in frustration just for that.
I am sorry to say this but it's the killer-DM out there that ruined the setting for the rest of us
You described pretty much my case. Traditional high fantasy munchkinism and RL don't really fit together. Players just don't like the feeling of being weak...
You described pretty much my case. Traditional high fantasy munchkinism and RL don't really fit together. Players just don't like the feeling of being weak...
Ah but it's all in the way you describe the setting. Many players have heard about it from players who suffered through it. Thus, they have the wrong picture. Try telling them this:
a) the big bad guys (aka Darklords) won't make an apparition 99.9% of the time (the PC wouldn't stand a chance if they did)
b) this setting isn't so different from Midnight. Simply understand that you'll be playing in a world where Evil is dominant.
c) IF you are cursed/turned into a lycanthrope/etc.. , you WILL have a FAIR chance of getting "cured"
Once those three things sink in, players are usually more receptive to the idea of playing in RL.
Oh, and insist on native PC. Characters "brought in" by the mist usually don't fare so well.
Thank you for the tips, Morte!In my special case, it was more that the players were just a bit too dull for a *whodunit* adventure... They found their hometown deserted and full of signs of a great magic battle.. Now, they decided to search the the town for survivors, got locked and nearly butchered in a dungeon, and then departed with the survivors to another city... *Would have been Il-Aluk, hehehe*
We played the adventure out for about six months, but in the end, they told me that they would prefer something *lighter* and for new characters... Knowing that another attempt to RL would maybe be too much for them, I decided to let them step out of the mists right into my Gaxmoor game...
I am not unsatisfied with the Darkon game, nor were my players. Still, I would have liked to have them see the light and the end of the tunnel...
Although I still want to do a BIG Strahd campaign in the Mists, apart from the Staunton Bluffs game over at the FoS, my next games take place in Blackmoor and the Wilderlands, to give my players the Elric/Grey Mouser/Conan feeling they demanded...
I think it was mostly the horror element that scared them away, because the campaign itself would have been considerably harmless...