r/CurseofStrahd

Edit 1: We have been a VERY combat heavy group and I want to usher us to a more concerted role play effort, but it’s important not to jump away from combat too fast. They’ll bitch if we go a whole night without fighting

We’re about to begin COS, I’ll be DMing for a group of players with 5 years of FoundryVTT and ~ 8 years DnD playing experience.

Bottom Line: At least 3 of the 6 players know a lot of DnD lore, have watched several shows, are online always etc

What are some of your best recommendations for tweaks to keep the lore exciting and surprising, and so that players can’t simply stumble upon every answer and hack.

I understand there’s no perfect way to keep them from finding everything out, but what are some favorite twists and turns to keep them guessing after the module has been out for a very long time.

Thanks in advance!

Hey all, I just started a campaign with two players who got pretty far into CoS before the GM disappeared and I agreed to them playing characters from Barovia. One is a Female Dusk Elf and the other is a Vistana who loves her. I was just wondering if you all did anything cool with some of the Barovian archetypes you've had (or maybe there was a cool idea that you wanted to do). Thanks!

I've bought the module and I'm reading over it, I know there are artifacts and stuff that needs to be collected but I'm worried that my players might ignore them or miss them (which will probably be my fault)

I know places are leveled, so more powerful enemies are in some places but how can I express that to my players without them getting into combat and TPKing?

Also I don't know how I would bring in new characters if theirs die

I don't want to muck it up for them because it's horror and spending 30 minutes arguing over why they died or why an NPC is dead would ruin it

Hi! I know so many of us adore Curse of Strahd as a module in a way that beats out any other modules. I also know there are many people who have either fought Strahd in one-shots (“Strahd Must Die TONIGHT” rings a bell) or run the game as a DM but never got to play through it.

I’m in the position where I tried running it as a DM, fell in love with the module and setting, but learned that I really hate DMing. So I got spoiled completely, but have never actually gotten to experience the story. And obviously, having one player at the table who knows Barovia like the back of their hand can be nerve-wracking (for good reason) if not everyone has that experience level.

Thus, I started to wonder; has anyone run CoS for a whole group of people who have either played or run the module before?

I feel like, for a lot of other modules, there would be a concern of “getting it right”, but with CoS there’s so much homebrew out there that already no two games look exactly alike, so I’d imagine any kind of Barovian adventure would be welcome.

If any of y’all have done something like this, let me know how it went!

Hi everyone! Not sure if this has been done before (probably I would guess), but I had an idea for a one-shot.

I just TPK'd my party (to some mixed reviews from some other redditors on this sub) and am having all of them work on their second characters. I also asked them all privately if their characters' souls would be willing to return if they sensed someone was trying to bring them back (per resurrection rules, the soul must be willing). My thinking is that players who want their characters back would be resurrected and players who think that their character should be dead and they should get a new character join in. The TPK was a bit rough, and some players feel there was some miscommunication that led to their downfall, and I'd hate the reason for them to have their favorite character killed off because I didn't explain something well enough or because they misheard me.

My IDEA is this: all of the new characters that join are chronologically older than their first characters. The oneshot would be of everyone's second characters in the group that Doru was a part of that tried to kill Strahd (the fight that got everyone killed and got Doru turned into a spawn). The problem is that there is little to no info on this attack other than that it was a failure and got Doru turned into a spawn. I'm thinking by doing this, it starts off the new characters with a built in history and it makes sense why they are joining the original party (tho chronologically newer): because Strahd is playing with his food and thought it'd be fun to bring them back.

Does this sound like a good idea? Has anyone else done this? Maybe I could use the Death House somehow?

So after trying his best to bring the party up against each other, Strahd actually managed to do so with one if my players. She was the last one surviving a TPK, and Strahd asked her to help him get to Ireena, in exchange he revived two of the dead party members.

So anyways, now she's on his side, and I'm kind of struggling with what I want to happen now. Strahd has asked the PC for a strand of hair of a new party member (one of my players didn't want their character revived and we wrote a new one) to be able to scry on all of them, and she did so without anyone else noticing.

She's torn between the two sides, her party and Strahd, and I'm unsure of how to handle this situation.

I don't want to actually hurt the other players by helping her betray them, but I also think Strahd would definitely use this to his advantage.

Any tips?

My players learned about Doru under the church and one of my players knew a vampire spawn whose master had died (in her backstory) so thinks of them as basically human with a dietary restriction and sunlight sensitivity. So she convinced her party to come together and fill a water skin with blood (roughly half a gallon based on the weight in game, everyone who contributed got a point of exhaustion) and broke the lock throwing it to him. They then put Dorus old bed over the hatch to keep it shut and want to get an animal to throw down to him later.

I ruled it as his screaming has quieted for the time being (the night) but am wondering where to take it as the party went to bed after.

My thoughts are:

Donovich tries to see him, gets eaten and Doru gets away. I don’t love this cause they’re planning to do the burgomaster burial in the morning

Doru escapes and spares his dad. Could become a later encounter?

He’s kept in the basement and they have to explain to an insane grieving man to keep him locked up and throw a pig down there now and then.

What would you do?

Hello DMs and players of r/CurseofStrahd !

I'll be preparing the adventure for my players for the first time - never played, ran, or watched anything Curse of Strahd related, heard plenty good things about this adventure - and was wondering if i should get the new book (Ravenloft Horrors within) in addition to original material, or run it as forefathers inteded?

As title states. What's been your favourite/most effective/most fun change you've made to this module and how did your players react?

Did you have to buff/adjust any statblocks or encounters? What other things should I look out for?

For context, my party is currently split three ways and I’m worried of losing two players. This is fresh out of the dinner with Strahd and the party has been invited to stay the night since it’s a heavy storm outside.

The players have a couple of goals. They are trying to find the sun sword in Strahd’s tomb and also rescue Rudolph van Richten from the dungeons. Currently, one player is with Strahd, being tempted to become one of his new consorts. It’s working. Two players are staying in their chambers, not wishing to anger Strahd by going where they shouldn’t be.

The last two are with Ezmerelda, trying to sneak down to complete their two objectives. The players are all level 5 right now. However, Strahd is currently fully aware of them trying to rescue Richten.

How should I handle this. We’ve accepted that one player may just turn evil and join Strahd, but I’m worried for the two delving into the crypts. Strahd is aware of them, the crypts are extremely deadly, and Strahd’s tomb is guarded by three vampire spawn.

What is your advice for how to run this? All of Strahd’s consorts are in the castle, as is Arrigal in secret. (One of the players going down have a vendetta against Arrigal.) Strahd isn’t in a bad mood yet, but would he wish to kill these players? It’s a very deadly situation and it’s entirely possible the party could lose half their characters.

So my party just finished the father Donovich and doru and the burial of Kolyan in reloaded. One of them is a paladin who was raised in a cult worshipping a good god named Dadien, unbeknownst to his character tho dadien is actually Cyric the god of lies. When Donovich was so broken down when not feeling the morninglords light, my paladin rolled really high and managed to convince him to worship dadien, now they are on the way to tser falls. How do I handle borovia with a priest who is now actively preaching Dadien (cyric) to the villagers.

I want to be prepared in case the party picks a fight with Vasili specifically. It hasn't happened, so I have no context other than "just in case" and "players do be players".

Should Vasili reveal himself and I just play Strahd music? Or should I have some other music as Strahd limits himself to only what a human accountant with maybe a rapier should be able to accomplish? What would I play if Strahd tries to not blow his cover? My generic Barovia fight music?

I have been running CoS, last session the party met Donavich at the church in the village of Barovia. Donavich didn’t want his son killed per the adventure.

One player was charmed by strahd and offered his blood to Doru, but the rest of the party decided to attack the vampire spawn.

Which is understandable, however, upon them doing so my goal shifted and I just wanted to get Doru out of the undercroft and escape the party. After a few rounds, I had Donavich come down the stairs where he proceeded to cast sanctuary on Doru to help the escape efforts.

Shortly after the party even attacked Donavich. And through that turn I was able to get Doru and Donavich away from the party after grappling a cleric. Doru did feed on the player who offered his blood so I think it’s safe to say he could be tied over while with Donavich.

What I’m curious about is, has anyone ever made Doru and/or Donavich ascend through vampirism?? As the DM I want to have this affect them in the long run. Perhaps Doru becomes a vampire lord? Donavich becomes Doru’s spawn? Open to ideas!!