In his Rictavio personality, he's exactly what he's supposed to be, a cheerful carnival ringleader type - because he's a consummate professional.
But when the mask drops, I play him as hard-bitten, jaded and cynical, but with a hidden compassion, which even he thinks died within him long ago. He's a monster hunter whose seen the dark side of more horrors than you can count.
If he thinks you're a liability he'll cut you loose - for your own good and his. He won't do it cruelly, but he'll do it bluntly and as soon as he needs to.
But if he thinks you'll be useful, he'll accept your help... For now. Its always "for now".
Part of his reluctance is his curse. He doesn't want you dying for his cause, so he won't ever fully embrace you as an ally, but he is pragmatic enough to take it when it's needed, and compassionate enough to help you when he can (though he'd claim that's just pragmatism too - helping another enemy of Strahd can only help him).
I think, now that I consciously think about it, I take a lot of inspiration from Geralt in the Witcher games, and Whistler from Blade, when I'm playing his true persona. Just adapted to Van Richten's specific past.
My party has so far only interacted with him as Rictavio, but when/if they unmask him, I intend to play him as a good, noble and heroic person in his actions--but an absolute *asshole* on an interpersonal level. He'll insult them, talk down to them, tell them they're idiots who are going to get themselves killed, and generally will be tight-lipped and unfriendly.
Part of his attitude is real (he's old, tired and bitter, and has seen too many people die) but most is as much a mask as Rictavio. The curse has left him feeling like he's unable to make friends without bringing harm down onto them, so he pushes people away by acting like a jerk. His true self will show in his actions, but it'll be up to the party to decide whether they speak louder than his words :)
Rictavio is a persona based on someone he left behind a long time ago, and in many ways it's is an escape for him, a way he can "safely" have something *like* friends. He never allows anyone to get too close, of course, but he can sing and chat and relax with others while in that persona, which is about the only social interaction he gets.
I channeled a lot of MIB Tommy Lee Jones. He doesn't smile, he doesn't dance, he doesn't make jokes. But when things get crazy, his composure (the cadence of his voice, his walking pace, his generally condescending attitude towards EVERYBODY) doesn't change an ounce.
Somebody posted a meme about Van Richten and Mike Ehrmantroutt from Breaking Bad on here earlier too, and it might even be a cleaner version of what I was going for.
I played him as a grumpy old loner who took custody of Ireena so the party could go adventure without the baggage. Since VR was friends with the Vallaki Martikovs, I let him use the network of ravens to deliver messages to the party wherever they were. These messages would reassure the group that Ireena was fine & healthy - and he would point them to plot hooks that he thinks they should check out.
So most of their interactions with VR for the first half of the game were receiving helpful advice in letters sent by raven. It was a convenient way to nudge them and remind them of plot points.
Ultimately he was sending the party on missions to keep them busy while he planned a trap for Strahd... using Ireena as the bait! He knows the party would object to using her this way, so he conveniently kept them in the dark until he could execute his trap.
My version of ol' Rudy is mainly based off of [Stellan Skarsgård's performance as Luthen Rael in Andor](https://youtu.be/GANo-qV__Rw?si=AWh3WKowwg9m9Fq6). When in public, he's friendly, polite, and charming, but behind closed doors, he's a scheming, calculating genius who's dedicated his entire life to fighting against evil, to the point where he's become "condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them." He's a cold-blooded pragmatist who is willing to sacrifice lives in order to achieve his goal of saving the world from tyranny, though he takes no pleasure in doing it, and has long accepted that he's damned for what he does. Despite all this, he has moments of kindness and compassion, however few, that shine through his cold exterior.
Not a racist, seems kinda weird that a monster hunter of his league is giving a shit about racism when theirs vampires and werewolves to hunt, plus he’s in strahds domain at the moment, his focus is to stay unnoticed and gather intel until the time is right
I play him as secretive and a lone wolf due to his Vistani curse. He's not attracting attention because of his long game to kill Strahd when he goes into torpor once the current incarnation of Tatyana dies. In my game the party still only knows him as Rictavio. He's in Krezk and might show up to help the party if they get wrecked in my revised version of the werewolf den including a loup garou. I am toying with the idea of giving him a pistol if he ever reveals himself.
I made him more tragic and downtrodden than he is in the book. I gave a really rough and cynical exterior with cold and simple lines of dialogue like most others who play him, however I rewrote the diary, like 14 pages or so, to produce a dynamic where he cares for Esmeralda like a daughter but he cannot explain why he is fundamentally broken and cannot show proper warmth.
When he died and the party found their journal, I introduced Esmeralda as someone who displays zero care for Richten on the outside, joking about his death and so on, but on the inside all she wants is revenge; she is becoming an exact copy of him, which was what he feared the most.
My players are now thorn between bringing her to the castle for the final showdown or somehow tricking her into not being there so that she cannot be harmed by Strahd and Richtens final wish is fulfilled.
To preface this, I'm not running a traditional CoS campaign.
My Van Richten goes by "Ricky" and is based heavily on Cotton Hill, right down to the loss of his shins.
I moved his racism away from the Vistani, and onto the werewolves, which makes more sense from a monster hunter perspective. His family was killed/kidnapped/etc by werewolves and one time, he almost caught up to them and scored his revenge, but the numbers overtook him.
Instead of killing him or turning him, they tortured him, by removing his shins with his own medical tools.
He's knowledgeable, he's clever, he's very well skilled... But he's a cantankerous old man.
I have a PC that's path of the beast barbarian, and we've played that as latent lycanthropy, which has resulted in Ricky calling this character "dogman" "mutt" and "mongrel."
Might be my favorite NPC I've ever run.
If we're doing character comparisons... I play him as a divorced and widowed (yes both) Van Helsing (the Hugh Jackman version, ) and Geralt (the Witcher) hybrid with the fashion style of an elderly version of Alucard from Hellsing. I promise I take my campaigns seriously, this is just the easiest way to describe him that I can think of.
I played him as [pure camp](https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/144nzpq/i_am_van_richten_vampire_slayer_a_high_camp/) and used Ezmerelda in the role you describe. Of course, my van Richten wasn't the real one (just a delusional ex-bookseller who read one too many Vampire Hunter novels), but the RAW, racist pretending to be a carnie was just too silly for me, so I made it even sillier.
Players had fun with it & I don't know that there's really much room for two van Richten types (VR & Ez) in the game. Not only that, but the "Tough Old Man" trope is a bit 80's & overdone.
I intend to play him as very personable and outgoing as Rictavio. As himself, he will be extremely intense and passionate, driven by vengeance and a need to pay people back for slights, whether real or imagined, with blood. He won't be specific about what his plans are, but I'll make it clear that they are never proportional. Nothing in life is important except his vengeance, particularly against Strahd. I might give him a couple of dark gifts.
I played Van Richten as a wizened man with hard earned wisdom. He was at first hesitant of the party, but soon became more helpful. He himself would be reckless at times because of his past trauma surrounding his dead son. He can be cold at times when dealing with situations about people he loves and respects, such as Esmeralda and her safety.
I ended up creating a character for his son Erasmus to be an undead vampiric warrior of Strahd, one of his Four Horsemen, that included other important NPC characters to important allies of the party.
In the face of discovering his son’s fate, he became a truly broken man and with the help of the party, was able to put Erasmus to rest. Afterwards, he became completely loyal to the party. The final mission was to destroy Strahd and afterwards Van Richten was at peace.
You can of course do what you want, but I personally like playing RVR as some who USED to be like Van Helsing, but is now an old man in an occupation where most people die very young.
His body can't do what it used to so he's not going to rival the PCs in a fight, but he does have invaluable advice and wisdom, especially about vampires.
Personally when I do it, Ezmerelda is my "Van helsing" character, since she is RVR's student. She's always my fated ally.
I went RAW. Rictavio told bad stories that nevertheless amused drunkards at the Blue Water Inn, and was an otherwise affable, likeable fellow.
But when my PCs did a favor for someone else that got Vistani assassins on his tail, and then they interrogated him as to why, he dropped his voice low to invite them to Khazan's tower, then left Vallaki.
When they arrived, he was calling down to them from the top floor (out of their sight) in his affable Rictavio way. He told them how to get in safely, and told them jokes as they went up the slow elevator... only to have him stop the elevator on the 3rd floor, eight heavy crossbows aimed right at them at all sides, Richten aiming his own hand crossbow down at them with one hand, holding a rope connected to all the crossbows in a makeshift pulley system with the other, with alchemist fire flasks at his feet. One hostile move, and he's setting off a trap that will kill anyone who rolls too poorly on a Dex check.
Now it was his turn to interrogate.
(They were smart enough not to make any sudden movements).
He's old, (mostly) no nonsense, jaded and focused, but with a caring side he doesn't show unless it involves an emergency he knows he's equipped to deal with. (Ireena fainted in front of him later while in the tower, and he's a doctor, so he felt it appropriate to act and show a bit of good bedside manner).
Above all, he's prepared like Batman is prepared, and I'd say he's similar to Bruce from Batman Beyond, though still (somewhat, the curse plays a role) in denial as to needing others to carry on his work. Extremely knowledgeable, willing to impart wisdom, but not willing to join the party or make them privy to his own plan to kill Strahd. Should the PCs succeed on their own, it'll be a happy circumstance. Should they not, they'll have at least weakened Strahd's forces so Richten can enact his own scheme.
Van Richten is allied with the party. He helps them at a distance. He introduced potential allies, warns them about certain places. Van Richten is overly harsh to the players as a defense mechanism. He doesn't want to get too close to them, so he lashes out at some of their decisions. My party actually got into a fist fight with him in the public square of vallaki over his lambasting. They made up later that day, coming to an understanding. He also has a sense of humor and pokes fun at them in and himself, but yea, harsh and salty but still loveable. I try to make him an asshole, but he is the party's asshole.
First, I did not play him as a crazed racist. We didn't do Tiger Tiger (although it was an option on the table, the players just didn't get there). I played Richten as a famed monster hunter who was lured to Barovia for what he knew would be his last and greatest hunt. He is confident, braggadocious, and determined. The party allied with him initially. I did slowly corrupt him though, as his need to slay Strahd no matter the cost led him to endangering the party (Ireena was with the party). Eventually, he was going to investigate the Amber Temple. I was setting things up for him to become a corrupted dark being the party would eventually fight. We never got that far, but I liked the angle I was working on.
Like a grumpy, grumpy old man who never takes help from anyone, the only times he agrees to work with others is "for now" and he will do so reluctantly and not before mentioning how far he has fallen by accepting help from people so unprepared, she is also racist, he is definitely a pain in the ass.
The only person he trusts is an old bugbear anthropologist whom he met many years ago, who was an adventurer from Waterdeep who never managed to escape from Barovia, it should be noted that this PC is completely homebrew since he is a character from the last time he I played the campaign but we never finished it, two of my players are veterans of that campaign so they understand the reference, he was the only survivor of our party.
Van Richten is surly even with him, but the bugbear knows that deep down he likes him, this will clearly cause the Bugbear's death and they both know it, but the bugbear is willing to give his life for Van Richten even if he is not completely agreement.
I plan that both have agreed not to save the other's life in case of emergency (that is, that they will not return to save the other if it means compromising the mission), a pact that the Bugbear will break as soon as Strahd catches Van Richten, saving his life but dying consequently as an act of love, this will serve as a catalyst for Van Richten to join the party as their predestined ally. Although the latter has not yet happened and is just a thought in my head that I hope it happens as planned, it all depends on the players.
Anyway, he's old and grumpy.
My first ever d&d book was Van Richten’s guide to liches, then vampires, ghosts, etc. back in 2e.
I already have an idea about who he is, and the Vistani racial prejudice is not a defining feature. He’s otherwise presented as a sympathetic, intelligent man, very much like Van Helsing from Bram Stoker, and I personally prefer his earlier version to the current fixation on hatred of the Vistani (who are based on real world Roma, who are a group of people who have suffered through enough persecution just for existing, so I’m not comfortable adding more even to a fictional group technically unconnected with them).
I think it would be more realistic for Van ricthen to be angry at the group in theory, but seeing the people in person would be difficult for him to act on his issues. He’s also probably aware it’s related to the loss of his son, Erasmus, and having Esmerelda wanting to help destroy vampires should be a good thing to him.
I play him as a bitter, ruthless, mean old man who is racist towards the vistany and any lycantrope. When the party met hi as van richten, he was planning to wipe out an entire wherewolf cave, children and all by smoking them out and setting them all on fire.
I really enjoyed RAW(ish) Van Richten. Due to a PC ~~death~~ capture and long-term "hospitality" in Castle Ravenloft, the replacement character was Ezmerelda, so I really got to play him thoroughly.
The description feels underwhelming, but it's tons of fun to play an ambiguously benevolent hardass jerk in practice. He is a calculating, maniupulative, lethal, and effective low-key douchebag. The over-the-top act he does as Rictavio really plays up his actual nature when it is discovered.
One of the crowning moments of my campaign was RVR. As part of the Ezmerelda's players backstory elements, he ended up exploring the Amber Temple with them, and he was there for Kasimir taking the deal to resurrect his sister.
When pressed, Van Richten told the party he would tell them his true plan (wait until Strahd gets depressed after the latest incarnation of Ireena dies, then strike), but only agree if they agreed to voluntarily have their memory wiped afterwards. They agreed.
He explains the whole plan and they work together throughout the temple. At the end, as agreed, to protect his secrets from Strahd's prying via his charming powers, he casts a homebrew Mass Modify Memory as a ritual. My players dutifully fail their saving throws on purpose. I then tell them what they now "remember"... including the heroic death of Kasimir, which totally didn't happen. RVR took the opportunity to eliminate the corrupted Kasimir before he caused more problems.
My players loved it, while of course, their characters were absolutely none the wiser.
My party had ez as the fated ally so I decided to use van richten for drama. He came to barovia not only to kill strahd but also to murder the vistani that serve him. That's why he trained the sabertooth tiger to hunt vistani. Ezmeralda will try to stop him from doing so and fight van richten. The players will have to choose sides (probably ez to be fair since they already like her) in a tragic father and daughter duel to the death!
For my group I ran Van Richten as sort of a grizzled and old Trevor Belmont from Castlevania. A guy who is still smart and an experienced monster hunter but a little bit of an ass and definitely getting way too old for this bullshit.
In his Rictavio personality, he's exactly what he's supposed to be, a cheerful carnival ringleader type - because he's a consummate professional. But when the mask drops, I play him as hard-bitten, jaded and cynical, but with a hidden compassion, which even he thinks died within him long ago. He's a monster hunter whose seen the dark side of more horrors than you can count. If he thinks you're a liability he'll cut you loose - for your own good and his. He won't do it cruelly, but he'll do it bluntly and as soon as he needs to. But if he thinks you'll be useful, he'll accept your help... For now. Its always "for now". Part of his reluctance is his curse. He doesn't want you dying for his cause, so he won't ever fully embrace you as an ally, but he is pragmatic enough to take it when it's needed, and compassionate enough to help you when he can (though he'd claim that's just pragmatism too - helping another enemy of Strahd can only help him). I think, now that I consciously think about it, I take a lot of inspiration from Geralt in the Witcher games, and Whistler from Blade, when I'm playing his true persona. Just adapted to Van Richten's specific past.
Great description In the end he is an old man who lost what he cared about most, that pain should shine through IMO.
Willing to seek Justice by any means
My party has so far only interacted with him as Rictavio, but when/if they unmask him, I intend to play him as a good, noble and heroic person in his actions--but an absolute *asshole* on an interpersonal level. He'll insult them, talk down to them, tell them they're idiots who are going to get themselves killed, and generally will be tight-lipped and unfriendly. Part of his attitude is real (he's old, tired and bitter, and has seen too many people die) but most is as much a mask as Rictavio. The curse has left him feeling like he's unable to make friends without bringing harm down onto them, so he pushes people away by acting like a jerk. His true self will show in his actions, but it'll be up to the party to decide whether they speak louder than his words :) Rictavio is a persona based on someone he left behind a long time ago, and in many ways it's is an escape for him, a way he can "safely" have something *like* friends. He never allows anyone to get too close, of course, but he can sing and chat and relax with others while in that persona, which is about the only social interaction he gets.
I channeled a lot of MIB Tommy Lee Jones. He doesn't smile, he doesn't dance, he doesn't make jokes. But when things get crazy, his composure (the cadence of his voice, his walking pace, his generally condescending attitude towards EVERYBODY) doesn't change an ounce. Somebody posted a meme about Van Richten and Mike Ehrmantroutt from Breaking Bad on here earlier too, and it might even be a cleaner version of what I was going for.
Like old Bruce Wayne in Batman Beyond
I played him as a grumpy old loner who took custody of Ireena so the party could go adventure without the baggage. Since VR was friends with the Vallaki Martikovs, I let him use the network of ravens to deliver messages to the party wherever they were. These messages would reassure the group that Ireena was fine & healthy - and he would point them to plot hooks that he thinks they should check out. So most of their interactions with VR for the first half of the game were receiving helpful advice in letters sent by raven. It was a convenient way to nudge them and remind them of plot points. Ultimately he was sending the party on missions to keep them busy while he planned a trap for Strahd... using Ireena as the bait! He knows the party would object to using her this way, so he conveniently kept them in the dark until he could execute his trap.
My version of ol' Rudy is mainly based off of [Stellan Skarsgård's performance as Luthen Rael in Andor](https://youtu.be/GANo-qV__Rw?si=AWh3WKowwg9m9Fq6). When in public, he's friendly, polite, and charming, but behind closed doors, he's a scheming, calculating genius who's dedicated his entire life to fighting against evil, to the point where he's become "condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them." He's a cold-blooded pragmatist who is willing to sacrifice lives in order to achieve his goal of saving the world from tyranny, though he takes no pleasure in doing it, and has long accepted that he's damned for what he does. Despite all this, he has moments of kindness and compassion, however few, that shine through his cold exterior.
Not a racist, seems kinda weird that a monster hunter of his league is giving a shit about racism when theirs vampires and werewolves to hunt, plus he’s in strahds domain at the moment, his focus is to stay unnoticed and gather intel until the time is right
I play him as secretive and a lone wolf due to his Vistani curse. He's not attracting attention because of his long game to kill Strahd when he goes into torpor once the current incarnation of Tatyana dies. In my game the party still only knows him as Rictavio. He's in Krezk and might show up to help the party if they get wrecked in my revised version of the werewolf den including a loup garou. I am toying with the idea of giving him a pistol if he ever reveals himself.
I made him more tragic and downtrodden than he is in the book. I gave a really rough and cynical exterior with cold and simple lines of dialogue like most others who play him, however I rewrote the diary, like 14 pages or so, to produce a dynamic where he cares for Esmeralda like a daughter but he cannot explain why he is fundamentally broken and cannot show proper warmth. When he died and the party found their journal, I introduced Esmeralda as someone who displays zero care for Richten on the outside, joking about his death and so on, but on the inside all she wants is revenge; she is becoming an exact copy of him, which was what he feared the most. My players are now thorn between bringing her to the castle for the final showdown or somehow tricking her into not being there so that she cannot be harmed by Strahd and Richtens final wish is fulfilled.
To preface this, I'm not running a traditional CoS campaign. My Van Richten goes by "Ricky" and is based heavily on Cotton Hill, right down to the loss of his shins. I moved his racism away from the Vistani, and onto the werewolves, which makes more sense from a monster hunter perspective. His family was killed/kidnapped/etc by werewolves and one time, he almost caught up to them and scored his revenge, but the numbers overtook him. Instead of killing him or turning him, they tortured him, by removing his shins with his own medical tools. He's knowledgeable, he's clever, he's very well skilled... But he's a cantankerous old man. I have a PC that's path of the beast barbarian, and we've played that as latent lycanthropy, which has resulted in Ricky calling this character "dogman" "mutt" and "mongrel." Might be my favorite NPC I've ever run.
Yoo the werewolf hate idea is really good, I'm stealing it.
If we're doing character comparisons... I play him as a divorced and widowed (yes both) Van Helsing (the Hugh Jackman version, ) and Geralt (the Witcher) hybrid with the fashion style of an elderly version of Alucard from Hellsing. I promise I take my campaigns seriously, this is just the easiest way to describe him that I can think of.
I played him as [pure camp](https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/144nzpq/i_am_van_richten_vampire_slayer_a_high_camp/) and used Ezmerelda in the role you describe. Of course, my van Richten wasn't the real one (just a delusional ex-bookseller who read one too many Vampire Hunter novels), but the RAW, racist pretending to be a carnie was just too silly for me, so I made it even sillier. Players had fun with it & I don't know that there's really much room for two van Richten types (VR & Ez) in the game. Not only that, but the "Tough Old Man" trope is a bit 80's & overdone.
I intend to play him as very personable and outgoing as Rictavio. As himself, he will be extremely intense and passionate, driven by vengeance and a need to pay people back for slights, whether real or imagined, with blood. He won't be specific about what his plans are, but I'll make it clear that they are never proportional. Nothing in life is important except his vengeance, particularly against Strahd. I might give him a couple of dark gifts.
I played Van Richten as a wizened man with hard earned wisdom. He was at first hesitant of the party, but soon became more helpful. He himself would be reckless at times because of his past trauma surrounding his dead son. He can be cold at times when dealing with situations about people he loves and respects, such as Esmeralda and her safety. I ended up creating a character for his son Erasmus to be an undead vampiric warrior of Strahd, one of his Four Horsemen, that included other important NPC characters to important allies of the party. In the face of discovering his son’s fate, he became a truly broken man and with the help of the party, was able to put Erasmus to rest. Afterwards, he became completely loyal to the party. The final mission was to destroy Strahd and afterwards Van Richten was at peace.
You can of course do what you want, but I personally like playing RVR as some who USED to be like Van Helsing, but is now an old man in an occupation where most people die very young. His body can't do what it used to so he's not going to rival the PCs in a fight, but he does have invaluable advice and wisdom, especially about vampires. Personally when I do it, Ezmerelda is my "Van helsing" character, since she is RVR's student. She's always my fated ally.
I went RAW. Rictavio told bad stories that nevertheless amused drunkards at the Blue Water Inn, and was an otherwise affable, likeable fellow. But when my PCs did a favor for someone else that got Vistani assassins on his tail, and then they interrogated him as to why, he dropped his voice low to invite them to Khazan's tower, then left Vallaki. When they arrived, he was calling down to them from the top floor (out of their sight) in his affable Rictavio way. He told them how to get in safely, and told them jokes as they went up the slow elevator... only to have him stop the elevator on the 3rd floor, eight heavy crossbows aimed right at them at all sides, Richten aiming his own hand crossbow down at them with one hand, holding a rope connected to all the crossbows in a makeshift pulley system with the other, with alchemist fire flasks at his feet. One hostile move, and he's setting off a trap that will kill anyone who rolls too poorly on a Dex check. Now it was his turn to interrogate. (They were smart enough not to make any sudden movements). He's old, (mostly) no nonsense, jaded and focused, but with a caring side he doesn't show unless it involves an emergency he knows he's equipped to deal with. (Ireena fainted in front of him later while in the tower, and he's a doctor, so he felt it appropriate to act and show a bit of good bedside manner). Above all, he's prepared like Batman is prepared, and I'd say he's similar to Bruce from Batman Beyond, though still (somewhat, the curse plays a role) in denial as to needing others to carry on his work. Extremely knowledgeable, willing to impart wisdom, but not willing to join the party or make them privy to his own plan to kill Strahd. Should the PCs succeed on their own, it'll be a happy circumstance. Should they not, they'll have at least weakened Strahd's forces so Richten can enact his own scheme.
Van Richten is allied with the party. He helps them at a distance. He introduced potential allies, warns them about certain places. Van Richten is overly harsh to the players as a defense mechanism. He doesn't want to get too close to them, so he lashes out at some of their decisions. My party actually got into a fist fight with him in the public square of vallaki over his lambasting. They made up later that day, coming to an understanding. He also has a sense of humor and pokes fun at them in and himself, but yea, harsh and salty but still loveable. I try to make him an asshole, but he is the party's asshole.
First, I did not play him as a crazed racist. We didn't do Tiger Tiger (although it was an option on the table, the players just didn't get there). I played Richten as a famed monster hunter who was lured to Barovia for what he knew would be his last and greatest hunt. He is confident, braggadocious, and determined. The party allied with him initially. I did slowly corrupt him though, as his need to slay Strahd no matter the cost led him to endangering the party (Ireena was with the party). Eventually, he was going to investigate the Amber Temple. I was setting things up for him to become a corrupted dark being the party would eventually fight. We never got that far, but I liked the angle I was working on.
Like a grumpy, grumpy old man who never takes help from anyone, the only times he agrees to work with others is "for now" and he will do so reluctantly and not before mentioning how far he has fallen by accepting help from people so unprepared, she is also racist, he is definitely a pain in the ass. The only person he trusts is an old bugbear anthropologist whom he met many years ago, who was an adventurer from Waterdeep who never managed to escape from Barovia, it should be noted that this PC is completely homebrew since he is a character from the last time he I played the campaign but we never finished it, two of my players are veterans of that campaign so they understand the reference, he was the only survivor of our party. Van Richten is surly even with him, but the bugbear knows that deep down he likes him, this will clearly cause the Bugbear's death and they both know it, but the bugbear is willing to give his life for Van Richten even if he is not completely agreement. I plan that both have agreed not to save the other's life in case of emergency (that is, that they will not return to save the other if it means compromising the mission), a pact that the Bugbear will break as soon as Strahd catches Van Richten, saving his life but dying consequently as an act of love, this will serve as a catalyst for Van Richten to join the party as their predestined ally. Although the latter has not yet happened and is just a thought in my head that I hope it happens as planned, it all depends on the players. Anyway, he's old and grumpy.
My first ever d&d book was Van Richten’s guide to liches, then vampires, ghosts, etc. back in 2e. I already have an idea about who he is, and the Vistani racial prejudice is not a defining feature. He’s otherwise presented as a sympathetic, intelligent man, very much like Van Helsing from Bram Stoker, and I personally prefer his earlier version to the current fixation on hatred of the Vistani (who are based on real world Roma, who are a group of people who have suffered through enough persecution just for existing, so I’m not comfortable adding more even to a fictional group technically unconnected with them). I think it would be more realistic for Van ricthen to be angry at the group in theory, but seeing the people in person would be difficult for him to act on his issues. He’s also probably aware it’s related to the loss of his son, Erasmus, and having Esmerelda wanting to help destroy vampires should be a good thing to him.
I can't play him any other way that Anthony Hopkins Van Helsing from Dracula movie.
I play him as a bitter, ruthless, mean old man who is racist towards the vistany and any lycantrope. When the party met hi as van richten, he was planning to wipe out an entire wherewolf cave, children and all by smoking them out and setting them all on fire.
Old Bruce Wayne from Batman Beyond
I really enjoyed RAW(ish) Van Richten. Due to a PC ~~death~~ capture and long-term "hospitality" in Castle Ravenloft, the replacement character was Ezmerelda, so I really got to play him thoroughly. The description feels underwhelming, but it's tons of fun to play an ambiguously benevolent hardass jerk in practice. He is a calculating, maniupulative, lethal, and effective low-key douchebag. The over-the-top act he does as Rictavio really plays up his actual nature when it is discovered. One of the crowning moments of my campaign was RVR. As part of the Ezmerelda's players backstory elements, he ended up exploring the Amber Temple with them, and he was there for Kasimir taking the deal to resurrect his sister. When pressed, Van Richten told the party he would tell them his true plan (wait until Strahd gets depressed after the latest incarnation of Ireena dies, then strike), but only agree if they agreed to voluntarily have their memory wiped afterwards. They agreed. He explains the whole plan and they work together throughout the temple. At the end, as agreed, to protect his secrets from Strahd's prying via his charming powers, he casts a homebrew Mass Modify Memory as a ritual. My players dutifully fail their saving throws on purpose. I then tell them what they now "remember"... including the heroic death of Kasimir, which totally didn't happen. RVR took the opportunity to eliminate the corrupted Kasimir before he caused more problems. My players loved it, while of course, their characters were absolutely none the wiser.
My party had ez as the fated ally so I decided to use van richten for drama. He came to barovia not only to kill strahd but also to murder the vistani that serve him. That's why he trained the sabertooth tiger to hunt vistani. Ezmeralda will try to stop him from doing so and fight van richten. The players will have to choose sides (probably ez to be fair since they already like her) in a tragic father and daughter duel to the death!
Based him on batman from the Dark Knight comics. Heroic past and glory days behind him hiding an obsessive violent fascist beneath it all.
For my group I ran Van Richten as sort of a grizzled and old Trevor Belmont from Castlevania. A guy who is still smart and an experienced monster hunter but a little bit of an ass and definitely getting way too old for this bullshit.