Strahd’s Terrorism Techniques

[Nemo]

One way I plan to run Strahd is to lean into the "Lawful" part of his Lawful Evil alignment. He has no love for the people of Barovia, but he also understands that a lord without subjects is lord of nothing. To that end, he'll allow the werewolves and druids and hags to terrorize Barovians, but he'll never allow them to go so far as to pose an existential threat. This will be my reason for why he sided with Kiril in the fight with Emil: Emil's plans for running the werewolf pack would have worked, but then the pack would upset the balance of Barovia's population. That's also why he's never bothered to wipe out the wereravens: they don't pose any real threat to him, and they keep the people happy(ish).

There are two exceptions to his restraint: anything involving a potential reincarnate of Tatyana, and plucky outsiders who seem incapable of figuring out "how we do things in Barovia" and insist instead upon rocking the boat and meddling with the Count and his servants.

[isaaruthethief]

How do you deal with a party member who “doesn’t become frightened”

[markhill]

This advice is FEEBLE :) Heres how you scare the fuck out of players in Ravenloft :) You kill some of them. Do it organically .. simply allow them to die. Just turn down the GM fudge factor to zero .. we all know what we are talking about here :) Then .. next time they are in the castle .. you attack them with thier OWN DEAD PCS .. returned as vampires :) And the look you see on their faces THEN .. is Horror my friends .. Pure, Unrestrained, Unfaked .. HORROR lol