u/GuessNotTho

Fenrir, Zheron, Vain, Vesper stop reading.

I am a newly DM. I played the stater kit three times and am now dming CoS for the first time for one group I played the starter kit with. We were all really hyped about it.
My group rolled their stats really good. None is a single digit. Everybody, me included, was thrilled that the dice gods were merciful for the adventure in barovia. The group has a aasimar light cleric, human zealot barbarian, tielfing school of dance bard and now a halfing hollow warden ranger, after her monk died to the hags.
There were some bumps in the organisation regarding 2014/2024 rules but now we found a middle way which somehow works for us.

Now to the frustrating part. I spend a lot of time prepping the sessions. I try to get a good overview over the areas my party is currently in or will be going to next while trying to know the whole story. The thing is, I feel like I can’t get the right vibe for the story. They don’t really „fear“ Strahd even though they know what he is capable off. Vallaki fell to the feast but they merely joke about it and don’t worry about the consequences. I didn’t manage to make Irene as lovable as she could have been. In general my barbarian seems to be annoyed about everyone and everything that his happening.

But what frustrates me the most are the fights. We all love them. I am using a encounter generator to make the fights challenging but they just go through them without any difficulties. They even went to the wizard of the wine at level 4 and they were in no serous danger. I know that I am not playing against them as DM but I can’t seem to hit them and even if I use spells with saving throws the DCs are so low and their stats so high that they always pass them.

I’m feeling so frustrated all the time and I need a break but I also love playing as a DM for my friends and I don’t know what to do.

Sorry for this post. I am just frustrated and feel lost.

Hello there fellow DMs. I am relatively new to DMing and as we all probably do at some point in our career I want to play music right as the party meets a devastating encounter which makes them question their life choices. I am taking about music that makes them want to turn around immediately. Music that makes them trying to strike a bargain with me in real life just so they get to live another session. Do you know what I mean? I would be forever grateful for your ideas.

What should I do with this situation? Technically Strahd would go to all the places, retrieve the items (especially the sun sword) and keep them close to him in the castle. But I feel like this destroys the whole meaning of the card reading. Do you have any ideas how to play this so the players actually have a chance?

Hey, I am a new DM and am currently running CoS for the first time with my group of four. They will probably get their cards read next session and I was wondering about the ally. More so if they are supposed to follow them around all the time or if it’s more like a “I’ll help you at the final battle” situation. I guess I could play it either way but maybe some of you have mir insight on that for me.