I have no excuses for making this. I made bat cookies in pastel colors, and wanted to make something game-related to go with it. Given how many positions of questionable power I’ve gotten my character into over the years, having this list just kind of… fit that? A lot of them involve people instantly following/falling for her, because when a bard corrupts, that can happen. Oops.

Going all the way back to 2019 with this one, but I do love that the page came out like this, so I thought I’d share it on here anyway. Back in the day, Rebecca and I decided to try a Curse of Strahd campaign where the roles of Strahd and my character Prianna were reversed. The Mists, tired of all the interference in their plans, threw everything in reverse, just to see what would happen.

For a different campaign, I set Barovia Village’s color scheme to blue, to be referenced throughout all of my notes later if it ever came up. Using that idea, I began to break down the at-a-glance information needed for running this town for my players. Plot points at the top, locations with little images and descriptions next, and NPCs with their traits beneath it.

Like most DM’s, I usually take the module and then edit the hell out of it to fit my party. Locations and sections of the plot end up being broken down like this in my notebook. Every detail I need, from the rooms, to the plot points, to the NPCs and their thoughts, all carefully listed in a way that my brain can easily follow.

When you play a chef character in D&D, you have a lot of options for creative play. My favorite was actually crafting recipes from a list of ingredients that were available to me, like a fantasy version of Chopped. Every time she would be challenged to create something to entice a NPC, or fill the stomaches of her party members, I’d make extensive notes about it.

I once had a druidic player ask me what animals were native to Barovia, so they could better fit in. The character themselves was Barovian, and it really only made sense to them. So, basing it off Hungarian/Romanian animals, I came up with a list for them.