A boy witch is commonly known as a warlock. Although the term is often used to refer to a male practitioner of witchcraft, it is important to note that not all male witches identify as warlocks. The term "warlock" originated from the Old English word "wǣrloga," which means "oathbreaker" or "traitor." This derogatory connotation stemmed from the historical association of male witches with dark magic and malicious intent. However, the modern interpretation of the term has evolved to mean a male witch who specializes in dark or forbidden magic. In contemporary witchcraft communities, male witches are often referred to simply as witches, as gender-neutral language is preferred to promote inclusivity.
There’s some other general notes, such as having Strahd showing up at the funeral of Kolyan Indirovich in paying respects to the late burgomaster. This is a good way to introduce him to the party without combat. The last big part of the Village of Barovia section is a suggested optional encounter to better put the party in Ireena’s shoes via a flashback encounter. In this case, the players take control of Ireena, Ismark, and Kolyan as the village’s mansion is assaulted by Strahd’s monstrous minions, and Kolyan risks an ever-more-likely heart attack under certain circumstances (taking the Dash action, any round he takes damage, etc). They must fight off 3 waves of enemies during the siege, although none will target Ireena. It’s also a good opportunity to insert replacement PCs for ones who died during Death House, for they could be present during the siege and thus be tied in to escorting Ireena out of the Village of Barovia.
The last big part of the Village of Barovia section is a suggested optional encounter to better put the party in Ireena s shoes via a flashback encounter. Not only does this show that Ireena knows who to blame, it also illuminates to the party the true stakes of getting her to a safe haven and why Ismark wants to get her out of the village.
In contemporary witchcraft communities, male witches are often referred to simply as witches, as gender-neutral language is preferred to promote inclusivity. It is crucial to recognize that witchcraft is not limited to any specific gender and can be practiced by individuals of any gender identity..
⚖️ Review 📖 Let's Read! 💯 Staff Pick! [Let's Read] DM's Guild Ravenloft Sourcebooks (1 Viewer)
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Libertad
Knight in tarnished armor
RPGnet Member Validated UserProduct Link
Product Type: Adventure
CoS-Required? No, but can tie into it.
Curse of Strahd is one of the most well-known modules for 5th Edition, and the Death House introductory adventure is almost as well known among hapless newcomers. It is also a highly lethal adventure even by the standards of the campaign, which has led to a number of alterations and revisions over the years.
Van Richten Dies in Ravenloft is an alteration to that module, albeit it removes the subterranean level in favor of remaining purely aboveground. The major change to the plot is that the hook for Death House is finding Rudolf Van Richten dead on the front steps, and the party ends up in telepathic contact with him once they pick up his Ring of Mind Shielding. Once they do that, Van Richten serves as a comedic narrator to help guide them through the dungeon with some helpful advice. In this version of Death House, the house is a sentient malicious being who happened to gain the journal of Rudolf Van Richten as a rare prize after causing his death. The PCs can obtain that journal, either by stealing it themselves and risking the House’s wrath or by making a deal to return to the House with Strahd’s journal as a fair trade.
This is the body of Doctor Rudolph Van Richten, a noted vampire hunter and writer of storied guides to creatures of the night. Most importantly: he’s dead. There is no discernible cause of death. He wears a hat of disguise and ring of mind shielding (Appendix A). In his bag, he carries two potions of healing (Appendix A). Because Van Richten died while wearing the ring of mind shielding, his soul is now housed inside it, and he can telepathically communicate with any creature wearing or holding it. The ring emits a soft, blue light that slowly pulses, the pulses getting closer together the closer a creature is to the ring. Once a creature touches the ring, they immediately hear the deep, rich voice of an older man, which—perhaps too cheerily—says, “Why hello there! I guess I’m dead, then.” The ring does not light up again unless Van Richten feels he is being ignored or has something urgent to relay, in which case it flashes rapidly.
Already I’m spotting a potential problem. While it’s standard procedure for adventurers to grab valuable jewelry, there are some groups who may mistake the pulse for a trap and avoid the major change to the module entirely. They could also make the realization that a man just died, and being seen rifling through his belongings would be perceived by potential bystanders as evidence of guilt.
A good portion of Van Richten Dies in Ravenloft is the same as Death House, but with several changes. The ghostly children of Rose and Thorn aren’t present, and the House’s monsters and traps are altered. The hunter’s den (room 3) conceals a bear trap, the kitchen (4) is home to an animated flying knife,* there’s a spear trap in the servants’ room (7), the secret room contains Van Richten’s journal instead of the letter from Strahd (9) and there’s no spell scroll treasure, a ghostly harp in the conservatory (10) can trigger ghostly applause on a successful Performance check or a collapsing bench dealing damage on a failed result, a suit of animated armor attacks the PCs in the balcony (11), the nursemaid’s suite (15) has been converted to a guest suite, the attic hall (16) has a tripwire trap linked to position crossbows, there’s no specter in the storage room (18), there’s a replica dollhouse in the playroom (20) which if examined via Investigation can reveal replicas of all the traps in the house and PCs advance to 2nd level when they find the key to the secret room (9), and the secret stairs (21) lead to other areas in the Death House rather than to the subterranean level.
*The flying knife has stats similar to an animated knife, but has more hit points (17 as opposed to 12) and its basic attack deals more damage (1d8+1 vs 1d4+1).
Upon gaining Van Richten’s journal, a loud scream echoes through the house, causing a nearby book to fall over and spelling out a warning by Death House.
Damned thieves! The treasures of this house are not yours. They are the history of this land and our dread lord, and you defile this archive with your clumsy fingers and footsteps.
However, you have proven you have some ability, and so I offer this: in exchange for your lives and in no longer than two tendays, return to me with Dr. Rudolph van Richten’s journal, your own travelogue, and the dread lord’s account of his life and unlife. Sign in blood or I will spill it all.
At this point the PCs can try to make a deal. If they agree to find Strahd’s journal, they will be allowed to leave the house as the bricked-up windows become open again and all of the remaining traps are disabled. But if not, they will need to escape like in the original module, with the doors being replaced by slashing scythe-blades and rooms with heating systems (oven, stove, or fireplace) are filled with poisonous black smoke. Additionally, unlike in the original module, destroying a 5 foot section of wall (which are now brittle) summons a specter to attack the PCs. PCs that manage to escape the house reach 3rd level.
Strahd’s journal is in fact the Tome of Strahd. If returned, the Death House will be as good as its Lawful Evil word, and provide the PCs the original deed to the house. This effectively gives the party a place to stay, and the House will also give them free food for more tales of Ravenloft not yet archived in its library. The House can use its internal magic to perform all kinds of various domestic chores to make it a suitable living space. But if PCs make a deal and don’t or can’t uphold their end of the bargain, they’re plagued by restless sleep which imposes a permanent 3 levels of exhaustion until they uphold the oath.
However the PCs solve the mystery, Van Richten will be willing to act as a mentor from then on out, and grants his leave for the PCs to keep the magical items found on his corpse (not that he had any means of enforcing this). He can also suggest they journey to find his protege Ez d’Avenir or otherwise find a means of resurrecting him.
That is, if this module is being played as part of Curse of Strahd. At which point you may also wonder how Van Richten’s death affects the Artifact result from the Tarokka High Deck. In such a case, the PC’s ally against Strahd is Blinsky the toymaker, who is very obviously a huge downgrade from Van Richten for he has Commoner stats.
Overall Thoughts: Van Richten Dies in Ravenloft is still a lethal dungeon crawl, particularly if the PCs don’t have reliable means of detecting or disabling traps. But it is shorter and less monster-filled than the original module and there’s quite a bit less treasure as a result, particularly for the more potent items such as the silvered shortsword, Cloak of Protection, and spellbook in the cultist quarters. It’s meant to be more light-hearted than the default module, including Van Richten’s surprisingly nonchalant response to his own death setting the mood, which may be a subjective taste.
It can be run as a one-shot, although for a Curse of Strahd campaign I’m not too excited about the longer-term changes it would make. It gives the party’s Van Richten’s Journal far earlier than they would ordinarily get it, as opposed to finding it in his tower when they likely had more of a chance to interact with Rictavio in Vallaki and possibly Ez as a natural buildup. Secondly the great importance Madam Eva places on the Tome of Strahd means that a lot of groups may not wish to trade for it once they find out about it, at which point the 3 level exhaustion is far more of a debilitating drawback than the default Death House’s dangers. Additionally, the swapping of Van Richten as an ally for Blinsky is a letdown, and even if the PCs desired to have the legendary monster hunter alive and kicking the rarity of NPCs and treasure with access to resurrection in the module means it likely won’t happen any time soon.
Join us next time as we learn useful tips and tricks for running a better Curse of Strahd in the Barovia Gazetteer: Collected Edition!
Libertad
Knight in tarnished armor
RPGnet Member Validated UserProduct Link
Product Type: DMing Tools
CoS-Required? Yes
Just about every official megacampaign has online guides for how to optimally run it. Curse of Strahd’s popularity means that it has quite a number of such guides. The r/curseofstrahd subreddit has two notable ones, Fleshing Out Curse of Strahd and Curse of Strahd Reloaded. Many guides, including these, also give supplementary content not present in the original module. The Barovia Gazetteer by Marc Singer is a similar series, albeit a professionally-designed product on the Dungeon Master’s Guild. In addition to having its own material, the book makes reference to other online articles complete with embedded URL links for expanding beyond the contents inside. I like this touch, for it shows that the book wasn’t just one person’s thoughts in isolation but is pulling from a variety of voices for Curse of Strahd.
Introduction outlines the Gazetteer’s mission statement: to provide dungeon masters with additional resources in the form of bonus scenarios, encounters, fleshing out of characters, and background information to allow for a more immersive campaign while making things easier for said DMs. The guide goes over typical stuff (session zero discussion on campaign tone, safety tools, etc), and to its credit it also mentions that given the outlander nature of PCs that players should avoid backstories that tie them too closely to non-Barovian settings. Instead it pushes them to more unanswered mysteries and being tied to other PCs. I like this, as I’ve heard one too often of players who expected CoS to take place in the broader Forgotten Realms or Eberron only to find that those settings’ institutions never come into play. It also goes over likely means of resurrection access in the campaign as written and how to handle character death given that the scarcity of high-level magic means that death has greater consequences.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of the introduction is an alternate start; the author feels that the default hooks have various flaws (“drive the Vistani out of town” has Antiziganist overtones, Plea for Help treats level 1 PCs as famed adventurers, Creeping Fog is railroaded, Werewolves in the Mists can result in OP PCs receiving Harper equipment of silver weapons and spell scrolls). Instead, a hook is provided in the Faerunian town of Daggerford, where the PCs received word of an escaped murderer and cannibal known as Ghazlak Gorlu who has a bounty on his head. A rival group of adventurers, the Black Banners, are eager to snag the bounty and thus view the PCs as competition. They too will end up in Barovia, seemingly one step ahead of the party, but they are overconfident and will do various things one shouldn’t do when playing Curse of Strahd. The Black Banners basically act like a gaming group who decides to “murderhobo their way through the campaign.”
A caravan of Vistani are fleeing Barovia and want nothing to do with Strahd’s schemes, and quickly become the scapegoat for the town’s woes as Arrigal was responsible for freeing Ghazlak from custody as part of a ploy to lure new adventurers into Barovia. The townsfolk are unaware that Vistani aren’t a monolith and find it all too easy to shift their anger to strangers from out of town. PCs can learn that another group of Vistani headed south with Ghazlak, and if they showed kindness to the innocent Vistani will be given a small token that serves as a signal to others of their kind that the party is to be trusted. This has an in-game effect too, automatically shifting the attitudes of non-evil Vistani one step up when displayed.
The PCs have opportunities to find out more about Ghazlak’s escape and the surrounding environment, which has various hooks of people mysteriously disappearing due to the Mists of Barovia. After some encounters with gnolls fleeing the Mists and packs of wolves scavenging the body of one of the missing townsfolk, the PCs will be claimed by the Mists and reach 2nd level. The designer notes explain the various decisions of this new hook: the Black Banners serve as an object lesson and rivals to contrast the party’s actions, an opportunity to learn more about the Vistani on non-hostile terms, the opportunity to enter Barovia via a gradual buildup of “something’s not right” without feeling tricked out of nowhere. As for Ghazlak Gorlu, he’s not from Barovia nor an intentional servant of Strahd. He’s just a garden-variety depraved killer who upon fleeing into the Domains of Dread will serve as another (early to midgame) threat for the PCs to prove their heroism.
The Land of Barovia outlines the domain in broad terms. First off, the Gazetteer recommends enlarging the map so that 1 hex equals 1 mile (rather than ¼ mile). This way, travel between areas is longer and it doesn’t feel like the PCs can cross most of the land before the sun goes down. For certain places such as the Amber Temple, it forces the PCs to make camp outside the larger population centers, imposing the risky choice of forced marches to travel quicker at risk of reduced passive Perception and exhaustion. It also recommends using a variant natural healing rule where PCs don’t regain hit points at the end of a long rest unless they rest in town or a safe area, giving further incentive for PCs to plan out their trips. We also get new encounters to spice things up, such as a band of skeletal outlaw raiders who gradually increase their strength as the PCs level. By level 8 the party has a chance at fighting their leader, Red Lukas, and make the Old Svalich Road safer to travel from then on out.
The next big portion of this section details the people of Barovia. Some of it touches upon existing material, but other things are expanded further. For example, the influx of outlanders means that there’s quite a number of foreign coins in circulation in Barovia’s economy. The calendar system is lunar due to needing to track lycanthrope appearances, and thus every month has some lunar-themed name: first month is Cold Moon, sixth month is Summer Moon, ninth month is Harvest Moon, etc). Due to the fear of vampires, it is traditional when having visitors over to hold the door open and see if they walk in unprompted once they arrive. The Gazetteer alters the historical events somewhat to make Strahd’s conquest of the valley to be one masked as liberation via wars against humanoid monsters (orcs, goblins, etc) known as the “beastmen.” Naturally there are in-game texts (also available as new PDF handouts) that expand on the history. The perpetual dusk/night cycle of Barovia, along with roving monsters, means that alternative food sources are used in spite of the valley’s fertile nature. Root vegetables which don’t need much sunlight are common, such as leeks and carrots, and mushrooms are a vital part of the Barovian diet. Flax is a staple crop most farmland is dedicated towards. Cows and sheep require too much land and thus make them easy targets for wolves and monsters, so goats, pigs, chickens, and hares are the primary domestic livestock. Times are still lean, so most meat comes from hunting, and many have taken to hunting wolves due to both them and humans having depleted most of the small game. Finally, the wines of Barovia have had their names changed (“du le stomp is terrible French,” “Red Dragon Crush sounds like something you buy out of a vending machine”) to names such as purpuric (grapemash), balorosu (red dragon), sangovin (blood wine), and tsuika (a plum brandy). The Wizard of Wines doesn’t serve champagne, but instead aszu which is a sweet dessert wine made by grapes infected with noble rot. We also get monetary values for barrels of wine given how important they are to the Barovian economy, and prices have changed for the Blue Water Inn and Blood of the Vine. The latter inn is farther from the Wizard of Wines, so they charge more.
Death House explains that the adventure is highly lethal, and suggests some modifications so it’s still dangerous yet doesn’t risk a TPK too easily. First off, the Durst children are changed to be just one pair rather than two with different motivations. As the book explains, “there is a difference between playing a sincere character and playing a liar, and players can usually pick up on it. Don’t lie to your players when you need them to believe you.” In this case, the house is placed on the outskirts of Barovia so it’s the first place the party will see, ideally when it’s nightfall and they are seeking shelter. The children will be scared when the PCs approach, to make it seem like less of a trap, so the hook is that they know their baby brother is in trouble and don’t know where their parents are. This can serve as a hook for PCs to be more likely to want to help them. The Gazetteer calls out MandyMod’s Fleshing Out CoS guide for expanding on the Durst family history as well as other suggestions: removing the flying broom monster if it wouldn’t fit tonally (and help conserve party resources), changing the shambling mound in the final room to a gibbering mouther for a more reasonable “boss battle,” and the shadows in the Darklords’ Shrine attack one at a time rather than all at once due to being able to easily kill low-level characters.
The Village of Barovia mentions that the area runs very well as written, given that most of the content has existed since the original 1983 module and had plenty of time to be improved. But there’s still content for this book, as it serves as a vital “first impression” to the foundations of the greater campaign. We get “at a glance” information surmising important aspects (population, industry, leader, etc) in one-sentence outlines,* and a suggestion for a slower sense of decay by altering the random encounters for the contents of random houses. This is opposed to the default adventure, where it seems like the village is on the verge of collapse where zombies and rats outnumber human residents. A good amount of space is focused on role-playing Ireena: she can be made to be more useful than a “damsel in distress” by using sidekick progression rules from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and she can serve as an in-campaign “tour guide” in explaining aspects of Barovia to the fresh-out-of-the Mists PCs. Furthermore, Ireena is understandably angry at having lost her father and is about to lose the only home she’s ever known, so instead of taking it out on the party (“they’ll see her as an ingrate”) the book mentions she should run to the village square after a suitably emotional scene. She’ll call out other villagers for not caring for Donavich in his grief, not answering the burgomaster when he called on them for aid, and even curses the name of Strahd for killing her father and stealing the sun. Not only does this show that Ireena knows who to blame, it also illuminates to the party the true stakes of getting her to a safe haven and why Ismark wants to get her out of the village. Another suggested scene is to have her go sightseeing the marching dead at night, as she loved seeing the “ghost parade” since she was little. This shows that she is more than just a woman consumed by sadness while also illuminating how Barovians can find beauty of a sort even when living in gloom. Basically, make Ireena more of a living, breathing character than an escort quest stat block.
*This is repeated for Krezk and Vallaki, too!
There’s some other general notes, such as having Strahd showing up at the funeral of Kolyan Indirovich in paying respects to the late burgomaster. This is a good way to introduce him to the party without combat. The last big part of the Village of Barovia section is a suggested optional encounter to better put the party in Ireena’s shoes via a flashback encounter. In this case, the players take control of Ireena, Ismark, and Kolyan as the village’s mansion is assaulted by Strahd’s monstrous minions, and Kolyan risks an ever-more-likely heart attack under certain circumstances (taking the Dash action, any round he takes damage, etc). They must fight off 3 waves of enemies during the siege, although none will target Ireena. It’s also a good opportunity to insert replacement PCs for ones who died during Death House, for they could be present during the siege and thus be tied in to escorting Ireena out of the Village of Barovia.
Tser Pool Camp and the Tarokka covers another vital area of the campaign. We get some general tips on portraying the Vistani: don’t portray them as thieving drunkards or jovial performers as those are equally stereotypical, remove the fact that Madam Eva is Strahd’s half-sister as it has no impact on the campaign, reuse Stanimir’s story from the Mysterious Visitors hook from the default adventure to explain how they were granted safe passage by Strahd, and read Van Richten’s Guide to the Vistani for more in-depth notes on their culture. As for the Tarokka reading, it suggests rigging the deck if it’s your first time DMing, and to remove certain cards in that there should be results to try and avoid.
For the treasure locations, the 2 of Stars should be removed as it gives the PCs one treasure immediately with no effort, while the 7 of Coins makes the party backtrack to the River Ivlis crossroads which can take a lot of time depending on the map scale. We get some recommended locations for narrative strength such as Van Richten’s Tower and Sergei’s Tomb. The Gazetteer breaks convention from other guides regarding placing treasures in Castle Ravenloft, for it helps encourage exploration of different levels and PCs may still be able to go there early via a “social phase.” This phase is later covered under the Castle Ravenloft section of the guide proper.
For Strahd’s Enemy, it’s suggested that when rigging the deck to pick an ally who balances out the party’s weaknesses. Certain cards are suggested to be removed, such as Innocent (Ireena is already with them) and Marionette (both allies are weak and Pidlwick II may not be encountered late in the game if at all). The Gazetteer recommends a half-dozen allies, notably the more popular and iconic ones such as Ezmerelda d’Avenir, Kasimir Velikov, and Davian Martikov.
Finally, for Strahd’s Location it mentions that the Ghost or Raven cards pose risks as the magical barrier could end up splitting the party if not outright preventing them entry. It talks about how locations can force the party to explore more of Castle Ravenloft and what fits with the tone and theme of the campaign. Fighting Strahd in Sergei’s Tomb fits in well with the gothic tones of the villain’s sins, while fighting at the Overlook is a classic “fighting the bad guy on top of a castle while lightning strikes” climactic scene.
Old Bonegrinder discusses how the hags are notoriously difficult to fight, and can end up swinging one way or another in a near-party wipe or the PCs coming back at a time where they’re powerful enough to easily dispatch the hags. A good amount of text covers their ethereal nature and dream-haunting ability, and how to best make use of that and plan for them as a GM. Several tactics for confounding the hags are given, along with ways the hags can adapt to them (Leomund’s TIny Hut, the antimagic field of Van Richten’s Tower, St. Andral’s Church when the bones are returned, using a Magic Circle spell in a Glyph of Warding and what NPCs can prepare such spells). The book even provides a detailed sidebar of how the author’s own gaming group managed to outsmart and trap the night hags in play:
Thoughts So Far: The Barovia Gazetteer has a rather unfortunate name, for it implies less DMing tips for a module and more a setting expansion to Barovia. Which is a shame, for it contains some really good advice. I’m quite fond of the details for farming and livestock, as this is one of the most vital aspects of worldbuilding in that it provides plausible explanations for how people trapped in a perpetually dusky, monster-filled land would adapt to survive. I also like the addition of more “out of world” characters to Barovia such as Ghazlak and the Black Banners, showing that the Mists haven’t just claimed the PCs. The restructuring of Death House and applying Sidekick rules to Ireena (along with a sample progression in the rear appendix) are kind of obvious in hindsight, but really great suggestions for new DMs who may inadvertently get themselves tripped up by unexpected lethality in the module.
Join us next time as we cover the Town of Vallaki, the fate of the Black Banners, and Rudolf Van Richten’s hate crimes!
That is, if this module is being played as part of Curse of Strahd. At which point you may also wonder how Van Richten’s death affects the Artifact result from the Tarokka High Deck. In such a case, the PC’s ally against Strahd is Blinsky the toymaker, who is very obviously a huge downgrade from Van Richten for he has Commoner stats.
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Reviews for "Boy witches and feminism: Analyzing the relationship between male magical practitioners and gender equality"
1. Sarah - 2/5
I found "What is a boy witch called" to be quite disappointing. While the premise of a boy witch sounded interesting, the execution fell flat. The story lacked depth and character development, making it difficult to engage with the protagonist. Additionally, the writing style felt stilted and repetitive, detracting from the overall reading experience. Overall, I would not recommend this book to others looking for a captivating and well-written story.
2. Mark - 3/5
"What is a boy witch called" left me feeling underwhelmed. Although the concept had potential, the plot felt predictable and lacked originality. The protagonist, despite being a boy witch, did not possess any unique qualities or traits that would make him stand out. The pacing of the story was inconsistent, with some parts dragging on while others were rushed. While the book had its moments, it ultimately failed to fully engage my interest or leave a lasting impression.