• Give inspiration if a player remembers her

• She's a teenager (19)

• {She's actually at Ravenloft with Strahd}

• Gertruda is both very fun and very sad to role-play. I didn't just make her sheltered. I made her borderline delusional because she was so sheltered. Her ignorance and vapid personality can come off quite funny to players at first. But the more they talk to her, the more they should realize just how much her view of the world endangers her.

• Naive to a Fault

  • Gertruda is very black and white. To her, all people are either good or evil. But no person is automatically evil when she sees them. When she first meets the PCs, she'll automatically assume they're guests of Strahd and future friends.
  • Conversely, Gertruda will make snap judgments based on appearance. A mongrelfolk, for instance, would likely cause her to scream in terror. No matter how kind or civilized the creature, orcs, goblins, and the like are automatically monsters and should be kept away.
  • If Gertruda had a PC character sheet, she would just cross off the Insight skill all together. She will take every single person at their word and contradicting information causes her to borderline break down.
• Stupidly Loyal

  • Gertruda trusts Strahd. Like a lot. To her, he is a prince and princes are never evil. Also, Strahd is her fiancee, and that elevates him terribly in her eyes. Gertruda is basically a child who believes all her dreams are coming true. She lives in a castle with a handsome prince who will soon be her husband and they will live happily ever after.
  • The PCs can convince her, through a lot of confusion of course, that Strahd is actually evil. But remember, if Strahd finds her again, that she is ridiculously easy to brainwash. "Oh my dear, you mustn't listen to their lies. You are my beloved bride and I swore I would keep you safe and happy. Have I broken a promise to you yet?" And then Gertruda swoons and falls into Strahd's arms. XP
• Sheltered World View

  • Gertruda has spent her entire life sheltered by Mad Mary. Now, you could play that as a Mother Gothel/Rapunzel relationship, where Mary convinced Gertruda that all the world was evil, instilling her daughter with fear. But that almost seemed too obvious to me.
  • Instead, I made Mary a hopelessly indulgent mother who discouraged curiosity to protect Gertruda from herself. For instance, Gertruda doesn't believe in vampires. Even if they did exist, there's no way her beloved, handsome, brave prince could ever be such a creature. There are no monsters that live under beds and the monsters that do exist in the world will always be vanquished by brave do-gooders. Evil never wins in Gertruda's mind. She just doesn't know what evil is.
  • If Gertruda sees her beloved Strahd act monstrously, baring his fangs or otherwise looking evil, her sheltered understanding of the world will shatter. It's up the PCs to protect her at that point, but to be honest, her chances of survival are quite low.

• Gertruda is oblivious to any danger to herself—especially from Strahd, who has charmed her

• Sheltered by her mother, she was never allowed to leave home as a child

• She finally slipped away and made her way to the castle, drawn by its majesty

• Gertruda is innocent, and years spent as a shut-in have twisted her sense of reality

• Consequently, she maintains a fairy-tale view of life

• When faced with a decision, she almost always makes the most simplistic choice

• She is naive to the point of being a danger to herself and others

• Fortunately for her, Strahd has not yet bitten her, though he intends to. (If he can do so while the characters look on helplessly, so much the better.)

Barovian Lore

• Mother: Mad Mary