absolutely love the other mother vibes, that "i knew you would disappoint me" line is just so perfectly encapsulating!

I've not played or run Curse of Strahd... but this video makes me want to do so. Using Carmilla as the model fiction for the campaign is incredibly intriguing.

I love that idea for a vampire in general and it fits so well into the setting of fear and terror.

Holy crap. Is this the best D&D video on KZfaq? Certainly feels like it... I can't imagine how much more terrifying this version would be.

Ho. Lee. Shit. I am so glad I found this channel right before I start running CoS. This is fuckin gold.

I love your work! I’m also a teacher (high school) and I run the DnD club there. I’m just starting to run my brew of Curse of Strahd for the kids (while running a version for adult friends). Your teaching techniques and DMing video was amazing! I love your take on female Strahd!

Love it, love it, love it! My players have slogged through CoS and had a blast. But now I'm going to steal these ideas for my upcoming Mafia Matrona. Thank you for the inspiration!

I love this idea for a villain. I wouldn't run this version as the actual module, but as a second playthrough for thsoe who have already expereienced the original module its great. Personally I will be using this concept as a villain in a city based campaign. Up until now I hadn't had a major undead villain.

Yes, at this point I'm watching all three videos in a row, haha. This one is amazing as well! I might implement this in my homebrew campaign, as we already played Curse of Strahd!

Immediate subscribe!! I absolutely adore this motherly take on Strahd and will definitely be using that creepy bit about forcing a player to be “soothed” like a child by the Matron >:) Love the video-thank you for your two coppers on CoS!!

Cool video! Good insight here!

Looking to run this for my friends and my brother (he sort of has run this one before) so I love this alternative and can’t wait to surprise them if I can make this work

this was soooo good omg, I don't even play dnd but this is something I could picture myself enjoying thoroughly

This is awesome!! If I ever run this module, I might do exactly this 😁

I see deconstruction of gothic horror tropes in D&D, I subscribe.

Your channel is excellent and the presentation of your ideas is really nicely done too. You must be a great GM!

This is gooooood stuff! Am def taking notes. Thank you!

Great video! I think this is an excellent take on the character, and you can even take it further with the character of Bab Lysaga, a twisted figure that Strahd herself is trying to please maybe there is another master manipulator in town

I did my own customized Strahd which worked realy well but left him male. The possibility of a female "motherly" Strahd and the personaility and themes you have suggested would play really well and get away from some of the tired dominating male noble tropes. Great video! Hope you keep them coming...

I used a female Strahd. My bi and lesbian players were all simping for her 😂. DM’ing her as a man was a bit awkward, but she made my players happy, so it was a good time 😊.

Damn, that evil matron take hit a spot I didn't know I had. I am currently DMing CoS and having a blast playing the manipulative narcissistic lying b*stard that is the Count, but ironically I feel like playing the Matron would actually reach way too deep into personnal territory for me xD Some of the worst people I know are just her with less immortality and more blood craving. Would love to be a player and live my dreams of cutting the old hag down though.

Just found this channel and am currently bingeing. Hopefully you feel it appropriate to make longer videos someday

Great video! I've not had the chance to play CoS, but this vid sure makes me want to. Also I've learned a new word today, 'motherlogue' and I'm going to incorporate this into my vocabulary forever. THANK YOU, MOTHER.

Great video- I love this take!

I'm starting the campaign this weekend and was going to use a female Strahd to subvert my player's expectations. This is a way more interesting and believable take than just a 1-to-1 gender swap. The domineering narcissistic mother makes so much sense, quite genius really! You should find a way to get Wizards to cut you a paycheck! Thanks for the video.

Oh, this is even BETTER than the Count. Creepier, players feel more powerless, tragic, horrific. Fatal Attraction meets Mommy Dearest

Awesome ideas here, and I love the channel so far! Is it weird that I keep hearing "Strahd is a woman" sung to Ariana Grande's "God is a Woman?" 😂

Hey I saw your previous videos, great job with the lighting and ambiance as well as your voice and the pacing of it but this video I could not finish because of the audio quality. Your content is original and enjoyable just little note on that so you are aware.

Well...I am not into DnD. Curse of Strahd was one of the modules I looked into and now I am stuck in a game of Strahd with a "pure" DnD GM who has no idea how to create drama or horror...besides letting us count rations and throwing gridded combat random encounters at us. I love your idea of a female Strahd, it gives the character so much more understandability, yet remebers me of the frustration of being a child and "hating" my mother for having to do things I didn't understand back then. This is AMAZING. (= I love it. I think I will convert CoS into an other RPG system and run it with Mother Strahd as the main villain. Besides that, I am very curious what that board on the background is, with all the sticky notes, index cards and strings. Is this a tool you use for your games? If so, would you make a video about it?

Amazing stuff. ... I am terrified of this Strahd.

Jeez this channel is just hit after hit, I keep coming back every time I need to recalibrate my dramatic skills as a GM! Fingers crossed my matronly mafiosa delivers half as well as you do it!

I saw this and my eyes got so big

Ow wow! Amazing! Brilliant! How can I join the party??

Really like the take on Strauhd....

The psychological quality of the horror you inspire with this character is something that is really quite terrifying! It cuts down to a very primitive level and therefore engenders a very primitive and powerful fear. Mommy is supposed to be good and loving. Mommy is supposed to protect me from the monster. OMG mommy is the monster!?!?!

I'm very impressed, I never would have thought to genderbend Strahd**, but it gives an entirely different perspective, not surprisingly, but extremely pleasingly. This video alone is worth the subscription

Consider me inspired for a campaign using OSR systems as well as 5e. And subscribed 😊

Damn... that's dark. Love it! 😁

Fantastic idea. I've been looking at the game Vaesen. It looks really interesting to me. And taking your idea as jumping off point, it'd be neat to have a Mother Strahd figure (changing her name) that wouldn't immediately have the players know that she is the big threat and the one pulling the strings. But also not trying too hard to hide it. Rather, it starts off with her almost seeming like _their_ matron. A confidant and potential wealthy backer as they find themselves stuck in some dreary countryside and then becoming embattled with creatures of folklore and an oppressive atmosphere and all the while she's there to "help" ... but quickly making it apparent that she is quite dangerous and as the Baroness or Lady of the land she isn't just someone hoping for them to help with all the problems... they discover that the darkness and maladies and hopelessness has been woven by her hand. And they are not safe around her. And when they confront her about this (though powerless to really do anything just yet) she may just laugh in a pitying manner or scold with practiced motherly concern for their confusion about the whole thing. And make it clear that they are powerless to stand against her. She may allow them to leave while accusing -- in a manner that causes the heart to thump and the skin to prickle -- that they are breaking her heart by turning on her while she offers such gracious hospitality and dear love. I wouldn't have her be a vampire, at least not of the traditional sense. Maybe more like a witch of immense power? I just don't see the blood-sucking working for me, thematically. Although, maybe she does indeed bathe in it. While draining a person's spirit.

I'm working on a historical game based on Romania in 1450s. I'll use these personality traits for the mayor of the starting village, Arefu.

"It hurts me to see you suffer, I hate that YOU make me do this to you, can't you see the agony your pain brings to your mother, I don't know why you keep putting me threw this, putting US threw this, you could at lest hold it together little better for me, I can't take any more of this, Count Rugen turn the Pit of Despair up to level 10 till he learns to quit crying. I am too distraught and mommy needs her cream puffs, and Count Rugen cover up that Six Finger no one wants to see that, something only a mother could love. Remember that you no one else NO ONE WILL EVER LOVE YOU not the way I do, I am all you have we only have each other it's mommy and you forever. so keep mommy happy why is it not already at level 11 like I TOLD YOU quit dragging your feet, honestly both of you quite a pair of rascals, (with love): mommy's little rascals."

uhul, great content

Great idea. Have you considered changing Strahd's first name for the female variant?

In my campaign I plan on making my fem!strahd to become the Raven Queen after shes killed

The _"Evil Mother"_ concept is, at least in my opinion, WAY more terrifying than the _"Egomaniacal Incel"_ thing that standard-Strahd has going on. Frankly this vampire-mother is good enough and different enough to stand on her own as an original villain for a campaign. Either way, VERY well done!

Where is your ascent from? I am having a hard time understanding you.

It's kinda hilarious that a gender flipped Strahd boils down to the most obnoxious kind of "Gaslighting Girlboss" imaginable.

Funny accent lady!

this was wonderful. being a man women always fascinated me. a lot of times id feel impulses stemming from a masculing urge/desire and it always made me wonder what a feminine personality would do. where a man is paternal how would a woman be maternal. where a tank takes damage for the team how would a healer heal the team. when i fantasise being the chief of a tribe i do it as a man, but i wonder in this fantasy if i were married what would my chieftess do, or if i was a warrior or a shaman of a tribe with a metriarch how would i be led. thank you for offering me the female strahd. in my darkness i could find hints of the male strahd. but thank you for personifying your feminine darkness. :) keep up the good work. this is going to be a great chennel. much love - pandeyjibalwaan

Dommy mommy vampire Gothel??? Don't threaten me with a good time

I'm getting ready to run CoS for my friends and genderbending Strahd will be such a good twist

This is great stuff. Just please, (please please please) don't use Gothic horror sources as a model for Romani and Roma-adjacent characters (cough Vistani cough). Even the newer, revised CoS leans on some deeply racist tropes about us.

what about femcel strahd ? I image it would take less readaptation work, just a gender bending This comment was posted to provide activity for the algorithm

Sounds like the Disney-MCU version of Ravenloft. Seriously, you didn't even change the name "Strahd"? And of course... she's also a lesbian. After all, having her lust after a man would somehow make her not as much of a girl-boss, and require actual storytelling talent from the DM to make the plot fit. You could have just as easily used Ivana Boritsi, and move the campaign to Borca, or used one of the many other (pre-gender swapped) female dark lords of Ravenloft. Before 5e, good female antagonists and heroes actually existed.