I’ve started running Curse of Strahd and have been having a ton of fun making wacky homebrew things for my party and tweaking the module. Unbeknownst to the players so far, I have made them all a secret Dark Power trying to use them to usurp Strahd and Vampyr, and they’re just waiting to offer their dark gift.
For example, I have a druid with some fire giant ancestry who loves Produce Flame and is their front line, so he’ll be offered a slightly weaker Rage with the Path of the Storm Herald desert feature to use once per long rest. The celestial warlock would get charges to boost his Eldritch Blast damage and some secondary healing in exchange for sapping his life.
Giving my players powerful upgrades alongside typical class advancement can make some encounters harder to balance around, but as long as we’re all having fun who cares about balance??
For years now i thought the details and the world building behind the campaigns is the most fun part, at least for me. After now three to four years building a world, without having my players play even one session in this world. I don’t deem my world ready yet. I think it’s never gonna be played. Its to much fun just creating the world. I don’t want my player find a loophole while playing and me having to fix it mid game with a not as perfect solution as it could be.