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Fairy tale witches have long captivated readers and audiences with their intriguing and often sinister characteristics. These magical beings are often portrayed as old, ugly women with dark powers and malicious intentions. In many fairy tales, witches serve as the primary antagonist, casting spells, brewing potions, and causing havoc for the protagonists. Witches in fairy tales are typically depicted as cunning and manipulative, using their powers to deceive and harm others. They often live in remote and hidden places, such as deep forests or tall mountains, further adding to their mysterious aura. These settings serve as a stark contrast to the bright and cheerful worlds that the heroes of the stories inhabit, emphasizing the witches' role as a disruptor of harmony and order.

Duke Conall will do whatever is necessary to protect his kingdom from the damage and chaos left in the curse's wake. Even if it means rescuing the bride he never wanted.

At the end of the day, the core of Curse of Strahd is about the relationship that the players develop with Strahd and the land of Barovia, not the relationship that they already have with the land of Barovia or its history, or with other outsiders who might have wandered through the mists. Hadn t watched dawn break the over the cursed, impenetrable forest of thorns that had grown high enough to eclipse the Winter Palace and wide enough to stretch for miles in all directions.

These settings serve as a stark contrast to the bright and cheerful worlds that the heroes of the stories inhabit, emphasizing the witches' role as a disruptor of harmony and order. One of the most famous fairy tale witches is the Evil Queen in Snow White. Disguised as an old hag, she tempts Snow White with a poisoned apple, seeking to eliminate her competition for the title of "fairest in the land.

I'm revising Curse of Strahd: Reloaded—and I need your help.

Five years ago, I started writing Curse of Strahd: Reloaded—a campaign guide to Curse of Strahd aiming to make the original adventure easier and more satisfying to run. However, as I progressed, I kept coming up with new ideas about how to deepen and link the campaign—ideas that were often not reflected in, or, even worse, actively contradicted the earliest chapters.

On top of that, I've spent the past two years mentoring new DMs through my Patreon, which has really developed my understanding of the fundamentals of DMing and adventure design. That's been a blessing, but it's also been a curse, opening my eyes to a lot of design-based mistakes that I made on the first draft of Reloaded, as well as bigger problems that the entire campaign has a whole.

This past December, I started work on a wholesale overhaul and revision of Curse of Strahd: Reloaded, which I'm affectionately calling "Re-Reloaded" as a draft codename. My goals in doing so are to:

• enhance and supplement existing content to create a more cohesive and engaging experience,
• further develop the adventure's core strengths and themes, focusing the guide on what makes Curse of Strahd great instead of adding lots of additional content,
• organize the entire module into narrative-based arcs, minimizing prep time, and
• gather all Reloaded content into one, user-friendly PDF supplement.

This process, inevitably, lead me to reconsider one of the biggest aspects of Curse of Strahd: the campaign hook.

The original Reloaded uses an original campaign hook called "Secrets of the Tarokka." In this hook, the players are summoned to Barovia by Madam Eva to seek their destinies. Along the way, they develop an antagonistic relationship with Strahd, which eventually leads them to decide to kill him.

This campaign hook had a lot of strengths—it gave the adventure a more classic "dark fantasy" vibe, allowing the players to get more personal victories along the long and arduous road to killing Strahd. More importantly, though, it scratched a lot of DMs' desires to directly tie their players' backstories into the campaign. However, I've come to realize that it has major drawbacks:

• The individual Tarokka readings provided by Secrets of the Tarokka tend to distract the players from the true story of the module, which is killing Strahd in order to save and/or escape Barovia. It's a lot harder to make the players want to leave Barovia (i.e., kill Strahd) if they have unfinished business to do in Barovia (e.g., "find my mentor" or "connect with my ancestors") that Strahd doesn't really care about.
• The narrative structure of Secrets of the Tarokka makes it really difficult for the players to care about killing Strahd at the time they get the Tarokka reading. In practice, the players' decision to seek out the artifacts usually comes down to, "Well, Madam Eva told us to, so I guess the DM wants us to kill Strahd eventually." In order for Curse of Strahd to shine and the Tarokka reading to really feel meaningful, I truly believe that, at the moment the players learn how to kill Strahd, they should already hate and fear him and want to see him dead.
• At the end of the day, the core of Curse of Strahd is about the relationship that the players develop with Strahd and the land of Barovia, not the relationship that they already have with the land of Barovia or its history, or with other outsiders who might have wandered through the mists.

Re-Reloaded removes this hook entirely. Instead, it creates a new hook in which the players are lured into Death House outside of Barovia, which then acts as a portal through the mists—upon escaping, the players find themselves in Strahd's domain. Soon after, they learn from Madam Eva that Strahd has turned his attentions to them, placing them into grave danger, and are invited to Tser Pool to have their fortunes read. This gives the players a clear reason to want to kill Strahd (escape Barovia) and a clear reason to seek out the Tarokka reading (learn how to kill Strahd).

With that said. while discussing this change with beta-readers, though, I've learned that it tends to upset more than a few people. Lots of DMs really like Secrets of the Tarokka because it gives their players an instant emotional entry point into the module, giving them personal investment and making them feel like their backstories matter.

I totally get that! To that end, in trying to adapt the new hook to these DMs' expectations, I've outlined two new aspects of the hook.

• First, each player has an internal character flaw or goal (such as "redeem myself" or "escape the shadow of my family"), which primes them to organically connect with NPCs facing similar situations in the module and so develop their own internal arcs.
• Second, each player has something important they're trying to get to at the time that they're spirited away (such as "visit my ailing father before he dies"). The idea, then, is that the players are all already invested in the idea of "escaping Barovia" at the time that they get trapped.

But I'm not entirely satisfied with that, and I suspect that other people might not be, either.
So I want to ask you:

• How important is it that player backstories play a role in the campaign's hook?
• How important is it that player backstories play a role in the overall adventure?
• If you answered "fairly" or "very" important to either of those two questions, why is it important, and what role do you feel that those backstories should play in the "ideal" Curse of Strahd campaign?
• How do you feel about the two ways in which the new Reloaded tries to involve player backstories? Do you find them satisfying, or disappointing?

Thanks in advance! Sincerely appreciate anyone who takes the time to respond.

(PS: I haven't finished revising Re-Reloaded yet, but if you'd like a sneak peek, comment below and I'll DM you the link!)

" This classic portrayal presents the witch as a symbol of jealousy and vanity, willing to go to extreme lengths to maintain her position of power. In addition to their role as antagonists, fairy tale witches also often possess a wealth of hidden knowledge and magic. They are skilled in the art of spellcasting, able to transform people into animals or objects, manipulate the elements, or create illusions. This showcases their formidable abilities and adds a sense of danger and excitement to the story. However, not all fairy tale witches are purely evil. Some tales present witches as wise and helpful figures, offering guidance and assistance to the protagonists. They can be seen as the embodiment of feminine power and wisdom. For example, the fairy godmother in Cinderella uses her magic to transform Cinderella's rags into a beautiful gown and helps her attend the royal ball. Despite their varying portrayals, fairy tale witches have become archetypal figures in folklore and literature. They represent the darker aspects of the human psyche, such as greed, jealousy, and lust for power. Through their stories, these witches teach us important lessons about the consequences of our actions and the importance of inner strength and resilience. Overall, fairy tale witches are fascinating and complex characters that play a pivotal role in the narratives they inhabit. Their unique blend of darkness and magic continues to captivate audiences of all ages, making them enduring symbols in the world of storytelling..

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