I was recently throwing around campaign ideas, I was thinking about how I’d always wanted to do Vecna, but can’t help but feel like those iconic villains aren’t as fresh for those veteran players who know about them from lore already. Especially with the popularity of Critical Role, my group and I know almost everything there is to know about Vecna.

I have good players and know they won’t metagame, but it feels like the spice of the horror and mystery of learning about this dark necromancer turned hopeful god, who was the master of Acererak himself, just isn’t the same when the players have heard all about him in real life.

Or like Curse of Strahd. Anyone who has heard anything about it knows that Strahd is the villain, so the whole friendly invitation thing doesn’t have much twist when he starts to be the enemy.

Anyone out there have any hot tales on keeping these iconic villains feeling fresh for veteran players?