Ravenloft - Castle of Strahd von Zarovich

[milojaggerson]

It is finished.  That is the basic construction of the castle proper, at least.  All ten levels of this beauty are now cut out and assembled (pics below for levels 6 through 10).  Now it is on to the doors and important furnishings.  Primer and paint work should commence soon.
























The level 6 pics (below) add the chimney structure.  I thought it was worth posting for comparison to the earlier pics without the chimney. 









As stated, I'm now on the doors, portculli (?), and important furnishing of the castle.  Knocked out 30 of the 40 crypt doors last night.  Planning to make some single wooden doors for the upper levels, along with the double doors for the various rooms.  Hopefully I should be priming, painting, and doing floor coverings within a month.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

[Akrid]

Seeing the level with the roofs......It's so perfect, every level looks amazing, but the roof one kind of brought it all together in my head.

[milojaggerson]

Sept 9, 2015 16:49:16 GMT Akrid said:

Seeing the level with the roofs......It's so perfect, every level looks amazing, but the roof one kind of brought it all together in my head.

When I got to level 6, that decision really weighed upon my mind.  On the one hand, it is not likely that the players will get out on the roof, while on the other hand - players will always do the unexpected.  

There is the outer walls of the castle that should be done, too.  I want to do them, but I am getting on towards ten months on this project.  I am contemplating making the corner towers of the out walls, fabricating them to be dice towers.  I've done some Google SketchUp work towards that end.  Those towers would make for very functional and exciting pieces that could be kept out in play "anchoring" the players in the castle regardless of the level they would happen to be in.  Fully realized, I would even produce the town at the foot of the castle's mountain.  I think the village deserves similar treatment - with the added bonus that it could serve as a setting for other fantasy towns.

I am having an immense amount of fun building I6 out and really wanting to play this thing.   From a GM's perspective, the production of the castle really helps tie together how everything is related and how the castle should work.  It should greatly increase the challenge for the players for the GM to have an detailed understanding of how all the rooms relate to each other.  Which is to say that Strahd should be that much more familiar with his "crib".

[michka]

This is an inspiring project. The top floors are terrific. It's rather satisfying to see such an ambitious project coming to completion. Can't wait to see more.

[milojaggerson]

Sept 10, 2015 5:18:17 GMT michka said:

This is an inspiring project. The top floors are terrific. It's rather satisfying to see such an ambitious project coming to completion. Can't wait to see more.

Thank you, Michka! Reaching this stage has re-invigorated me.  I'm going to enjoy working on some of the finer detail parts.  The more that gets completed, the more ideas keep occurring to me.  There is a definite progression in the work, so much so that I almost (almost, but it isn't going to happen) want to go back and rework the first and second levels - but there are many other projects.  I want to do the Fat Dragon tile sets that AJ worked up on the Mighty Glue Stick - that's been one of my goals for the last several months that I just haven't been able to get to yet.  If done well, a complete set would make a really cool Christmas present.  Too bad that this passion doesn't provide a paycheck!

[milojaggerson]

Forty crypt doors fabbed and four wooden single room doors partally constucted. I need to work out a way to construct a hinge system for the wooden doors. I should have that worked out by this weekend. Pics soon, I promise!

[Jayzhee]

Those spiral staircases are amazing! I'll have to build one myself. Maybe it's time for another mad wizard's tower...

Do you plan on running this adventure more than once? A setup this amazing deserves to be used over and over!

[bluecloud2k2]

Can't wait to see it painted up!

[milojaggerson]

Sept 14, 2015 4:07:35 GMT bluecloud2k2 said:

Can't wait to see it painted up!

Thank you, bluecloud2k2.  I plan to start painting after building doors and furnishings.  I'm getting antsy to put paint to the project, but everything in time.  

I need to do some roofing work on the sixth level, and am considering various techniques for floor covering and brick works.  Painting would be the most expedient way to do it, but I'm thinking about fitting some colored card-stock tiles on the floor.  Depends on how well I can discipline my desire to finish against the look I want to achieve.  Perfection on a first project isn't too much for which to ask, is it?  

[DnDPaladin]

would be bad if say the players ends up not going in ! XD

[bluecloud2k2]

Can you say campaign derailment? I knew you could!

[m3talslime]

You have taken the single biggest influence in my roleplaying career and breathed full-on life into it. I cannot tell you how happy this makes me. You Sir, are an absolute amazing individual, crafter, and Game Master! I cannot wait to see more! Thank you for what you have done, and shown us up to this point! Don't think for a moment that your efforts are only locally appreciated. Roll on, my friend!!! Can't wait to see your finished product!!!!

[milojaggerson]

It's a slog-fest, but we're slowly taking the castle a room at a time! I go from crafting doors (single, double, portcullis) to tables and beds to feature pieces. I'll post pictures of Strahd's grand organ soon. Meant to have them up Monday, but you know life...

My daughter wants to go as Captain America to the local sci-fi convention the first weekend of October, so I have to put the castle aside to craft a helmet for her.  A friend at work lent the shield, and my wife and daughter are working on the rest of the costume.  I think my girl is going to have fun at the convention, even if I'm not cranking on the castle.

[michka]

If there was ever a good excuse to stall a crafting project, it's helping your daughter be Captain America. You get extra Dad points for this.

[bluecloud2k2]

Dad points and Exalt!

[milojaggerson]

All of you are most kind.

I'll take some photos of the helmet tonight, before and after applying PVA glue to it, and post them under another heading soon. I get to play with sprayable Plasti-Dip for this project - a first for me. Hopefully I'll be spraying the 'dip this weekend.

[milojaggerson]

Sept 16, 2015 5:28:28 GMT DnDPaladin said:

would be bad if say the players ends up not going in ! XD

From the outset, the party received a letter inviting them to Barovia to rescue a damsel in distress.   Once one has passed into Barovia the time to refuse to enter the castle is long past gone.  Really, there is no way to avoid the castle if people have come together for an evening's entertainment of role playing.  Let us assume that the party crossed the boarder into Barovia, passed through the Svalich woods, entered into the town proper, and encountered the truth that it was a ruse that brought them thus far.  Further, let us suppose that one of the characters is a cowardly knave who manages, but only too late, to infect the group with his inherent aversion to adventure.    What to do?  

In that case, they would become Strahd's "guests"...  

Some would cry, "Deus ex machina" as if it is always a bad thing, yet unless you and your players want a no-structure story, every campaign, if not every adventure and each game session, is going to contain some degree of "coercion".  Of course you don't want to play the players' characters; you don't want to tell them what they are doing.  Let them do that.  Yet there has to be a compelling reason to hazard their characters' lives. Why play an adventure game if you don't want adventure? Gaming philosophy aside, something must lead or drive the players forward into danger and reward.

There are numerous factors already woven into the module's story compelling the party to enter into the castle: the ever-present choking mists denying egress from the province; regular nightly attacks; a terrified populace demanding action from the capable; an impassioned plea from Donavich, the town's beleaguered priest; Ismark Kolyana's intense desire to protect his sister Ireena from the vampire's power; the direction provided by the Tser matriarch, Madam Eva...

In addition to these inducements, there could be another (possible several other) reason to adventure into the cursed castle of Ravenloft. I think this would be an interesting interlude for the reluctant. This enticement would arise by starting out in the dungeon area of the second basement, sans equipment.

Imagine a hardhearted group turning away from the wearied priest, Donavich.  Though he pleaded with them for aid, through his eyes tear-stained, they refused and walked past the graves lying in the church yard surrounding the dilapidated chapel. A soupy fog rolls across the resting plots of the dead, stone markers make strange shadows upon the semi-luminous veil as it pulls over the landscape.  There is something peculiar about this haze...

After refusing to enter the castle ("Yeah, ummm... That vampire is not our problem..." -- beside the fact that the attitude expressed by the party is neither very heroic or adventuresome, perhaps Strahd secretly has a death wish, or wants to prove to himself that his is all that...) the party succumbs to a toxic cloud.  They awaken in the water-logged confines of the prison, chained to the walls, torture racks, cages, or iron maidens scattered throughout the prison.  After affecting their escape, but unable to locate any of their precious equipment, they fight bare-handed to their death, through the wight infested stagnant water pooled in the subterranean vault.  To the last adventurer, each falls in life's final defiant and valiant effort.  Their corpses sink beneath the murky water, while the toxic mist-cloud's billowy-thick vapors descend upon the scene and part upon the rancid pool submerging the heroes.  

Each member of the party the party finds him- or herself standing groggily in the area of the first toxic cloud, the mists wafting away from them.  There is a sense that the doom they fear can only be thwarted by a resolute march upon the monster, Strahd.

[bluecloud2k2]

Nice vision or portent.

[DnDPaladin]

i was joking man !
of course you force your players into it. after all you put so much work into this !

[milojaggerson]

Sept 24, 2015 22:31:36 GMT DnDPaladin said:

i was joking man !
of course you force your players into it. after all you put so much work into this !

No problem, DnDPaladin.  I understand the jest, as you employed the emote --> XD

I think that the point raised by your statement really warrants consideration, however.  Sometimes players can be an obstinate, ornery lot.  This is the solution I imagined for the plausible case wherein the players would be ... reluctant ... to enter into the castle.

Your proposition, "would be bad if say the players ends up not going in" proved to be an interesting Gedankenexperiment, and practical, too!  I believe every GM encounters a time with their group when the players simply will *NOT* "go down the rabbit hole" which is integral to the story.  The question becomes one of how to direct the players to explore an area they would otherwise (wisely) remove themselves from.  In the Ravenloft setting this really can be problematic.  Who in their right mind wants to face a magic-powered, semi-omniscient, blood-sucking leech with a god-complex?

You well know, there is a lot of work that goes into constructing game tiles.  Personally, I would hate to prepare all the tiles necessary for running a complete module (professionally published or otherwise), only to have the players refuse do the exploring required to discover them.  I suppose the GM could lay out the entire level of the dungeon before the players even set foot in the arena, but then that defeats part of the fun of exploration (being able to see everything, or at least the basic floor plan, at a glance really ruins the sense of discovery for me).

I believe that a GM has done his (or her) job best when he crafts, bends, and manipulates a story in which the players believe they have chosen the path themselves, done everything by their own free will, and do not realize they have "ridden the rails" that were planned long before they came to the table.  Straight-jacket your players and they will rebel; ultimately the opposite extreme of a completely open world is utter chaos, unenjoyable, and not sustainable (why even use a rule book, then?); establish a world that gives the players freedom-in-a-box, a believable illusion of choice (or even real choice, for that matter) and everyone will be the happier for it.  In crafting a shared-story with your group of players avoid overt "because I said so" moments which force the characters to take an action their players do not control.  Rather, use subtle coercive tactics such as a character's disadvantages, hooks, and goals from their backstory or current present expressed intentions leading the players to decide the course presented their characters is appropriate.  Even employ strokes of (mis-)fortune to induce reluctant players (carrot and stick approach).  Particularly in a fantasy setting, why not use the pantheon or mythos to provide guidance, or use some story device to produce vague feelings of doubt in the players themselves regarding a character's action which is contrary to the story you have planned?  There are many similarities between a GM, a con-man, and a politician. 

Be sure that you have distinguished between player motivation and character motivation.  I think character motivation is an easier problem to handle.  Addressing issues of player motivation may require re-evaluation of why people come together around a table to sit for hours on end that they might roll oddly shaped random number generators at each other.

Failing that, a group could always play Canasta.