The Curse of Strahd is an adventure module for the 5th-edition of Dungeons and Dragons, published by Wizards of the Coast in 2016. Set in the Ravenloft campaign setting, the module explores the possibility of the Vistani, especially those allied with Strahd, selling faulty magic items. The subreddit provides a helpful resource for those running the Curse of Strahd module for D and D 5e, as well as a discord server.
The Vistani are a different race of people, similar to Elans or Kalashtas, and cannot remain in the same areas without suffering from a curse. They are known for their ability to heal humans and offer spells such as Scorching Ray, Protection from Evil and Good, Bless, Acid Arrow, Magic Weapon, Lesser Restoration, Grease, Dragon’s Breath, Levitate, and Chromatic Orb.
In the Demiplane of Dread, the Vistani are known to make and sell elixirs that grant immunity to poison mists. They are skilled silversmiths, coppersmiths, haberdashers, cooks, weavers, musicians, entertainers, storytellers, toolmakers, and horse traders. However, they may face a mental backlash after the curse ends, and the 25gp limit cuts out many spell components that might usually be purchased.
In 2/3 edition lore, Strahd granted the Vistani immunity to his way of closing domain borders, which they have an affinity for mist travel. The subreddit and discord server provide valuable information for those running the Curse of Strahd module.
📹 HOW TO PLAY CURSE OF STRAHD (Part 3: Barovia Explained)
Wow that’s one detailed map OUT OF THE BOX ENCOUNTERS: http://bit.ly/OotBEPledgeManager JAMES’ RPG ART: …
What does Vistani sell?
The Vistani were renowned for their musical talent, silversmithing, coppersmithing, cooking, weaving, storytelling, toolmaking, and horse-trading skills. The Book of the Raven, found in Candlekeep, chronicles their daily life and travels. Notable Vistani include Ezmerelda d’Avenir, Madame Coth, a wealthy silk merchant in Ravens Bluff, and Marlena, a woman who helped cure Rengard Boltsmann of his lycanthropy, ending his domain of Kirlanova and returning Ravens Bluff to the Prime Material.
Are there mimics in Curse of Strahd?
The Curse of Strahd is a digital campaign for Mimics and Monstrosities, which presents a comprehensive account of the published adventure. The campaign commenced on July 11th, 2019, and concluded on December 12th, 2019, with a sequel entitled “Shadows Over Ravenloft.” The cast includes the following characters: Garrett, Rose, Brittany, and Jeremy.
Can the Vistani leave Barovia?
The Vistani are a group of travelers from Barovia who served Strahd von Zarovich as informants before his death in exchange for freedom to travel freely. After his death, many of them left to Faerûn to avoid persecution by the people of Barovia. The Vistani lived in Barovia since before Strahd took control, and when he was wounded and near death, they saved him. In exchange, Strahd granted the Vistani the freedom to travel freely. The group first appeared to the Curse of Strahd Party in Daggerford, where they partied with the newly formed adventuring party before hiring them to take them to their destination.
Are the Vistani evil?
The Vistani, formerly servants of Strahd or Madame Eva, are renowned for their erratic and unpredictable behavior. In comparison to the average human, Vistani are typically of shorter stature and slightly more slender in build. Your size is designated as “medium,” and you may develop expertise in one of the following skills: The skills of deception, insight, perception, performance, sleight of hand, and stealth are available for selection.
What level should you end Curse of Strahd?
Curse of Strahd is a game that runs to level 10, but if characters are leveled every time the text suggests, they may be overleveled for the villain and climactic end of the adventure fight. To avoid this, it is recommended to simultaneously improve Strahd’s abilities alongside the characters starting at level 7-8, especially once they have access to magic that generates sunlight. Bumping up HP and AC is obvious, but giving Strahd access to a mythic action and regenerated health may be more fun for players. Castle Ravenloft is a massive dungeon crawl that drains resources, but it may never be necessary for characters.
Are Vistani all human?
The Vistani are a human variant with a dark complexion, jewel-toned eyes, and a proclivity for bright colors and ostentatious jewelry. The Vistani are afflicted with a curse, known as the “Curse of Strahd,” which has been passed down through their lineage. An additional one-point increase is granted to one of two different abilities, selected by the player.
What are the Vistani curses in Curse of Strahd?
Vistani curses are a form of curse that can be uttered by any individual, regardless of age. The curse targets another creature within 30 feet that the Vistana can see and lasts until ended with a removecurse spell, a greater restoration spell, or similar magic. The curse is a repayment for an injustice or a slight and can result in various effects such as unable to perform fine motor control, changing appearance in a sinister way, vulnerability to a damage type of the Vistana’s choice, disadvantage on ability checks and saving throws tied to one ability score of the Vistana’s choice, ending attunement to one magic item (chosen by the DM), or blindness, deafened, or both.
Vistani are skilled silversmiths, coppersmiths, haberdashers, cooks, weavers, musicians, entertainers, storytellers, toolmakers, and horse traders. They earn money by telling fortunes and selling information, supporting a lavish lifestyle, and sharing their wealth openly. Each family or clan of Vistani is its own little gerontocracy, with the oldest member ruling the roost. This elder carries the bulk of responsibility for enforcing traditions, settling disputes, setting the course for the group’s travels, and preserving the Vistani way of life.
Vistani families and clans are closely knit, resolving disagreements through contests that end with reconciliatory singing, dancing, and storytelling. Although they may seem lazy and irresponsible to outsiders, the Vistani are serious people, quick to act when their lives or traditions are threatened, and merciless when they believe they must be. Vistani who knowingly bring harm or misfortune to others of their kind are banished, the worst punishment a Vistani can imagine, even worse than death.
What is the best character type for Curse of Strahd?
The campaign suggests that players consider selecting a Cleric, Rogue, Monster Hunter Ranger, or Paladin class for their party. It should be noted, however, that any class can be useful. Please be advised that JavaScript may be disabled or blocked by an extension, and that your browser does not support cookies.
What happens if Strahd is killed?
Strahd’s demise provides Barovia with a temporary reprieve, resulting in the dissipation of the fog that had previously enveloped the land and ceased to pose a threat to those traversing it.
Where do I spend money in Curse of Strahd?
The town’s sole source of revenue is Bildrath’s Mercantile, which is perceived as unpopular due to its elevated pricing. Other commercial establishments in the module include Arasek Stockyard and Blinsky Toys. Additionally, the text indicates that JavaScript is either disabled or blocked by an extension, and that the browser in question does not support cookies.
Do the Vistani work for Strahd?
The Vistani are a group of travelers from Barovia who served Strahd von Zarovich as informants before his death in exchange for freedom to travel freely. After his death, many of them left to Faerûn to avoid persecution by the people of Barovia. The Vistani lived in Barovia since before Strahd took control, and when he was wounded and near death, they saved him. In exchange, Strahd granted the Vistani the freedom to travel freely. The group first appeared to the Curse of Strahd Party in Daggerford, where they partied with the newly formed adventuring party before hiring them to take them to their destination.
📹 Run a KILLER dinner in Curse of Strahd
Make the dinner at Castle Ravenloft the highlight of your campaign with this guide! We walk you through everything from Strahd’s …
One of my favorite times of playing COS, the DM actually made one of the players the reincarnation of Ireena. Having played through the adventure before, it confused the hell out of me why the DM hadn’t introduced her in the first town, but oooh boy, did that make for a terrifying first encounter with Strahd. it went from an invitation to dinner, to he insisted that everyone stay the night (which of course was a big f-ing nope.) This led to almost 2 sessions of trying to escape first from the castle, and then from the area surrounding the castle. I really can’t say that this worked better than just introducing Ireena, but it was a really cool start to the adventure.
One of the hooks I did for one of my players was they received a letter from their late husband, telling them they were alive and in Barovia, written in his handwriting but not his style of writing. At the gallows, instead of the corpse of a player, I put the corpse of the husband. :v To the other players it looked like a random Barovian, but to that one player it looked super familiar. I think it wound up being more dramatic that way. :v
I’m running this game for my friends, but when I did the first tarroka reading to have an idea of where things are (before the players got to any of the in game card readers) I got really unlucky. Two of the items are in Strahd’s castle, one is in Strahd’s throne room (sunsword), which also so happens to be the place the cards said Strahd will face them. The players make the joke that he’s literally sitting on it.
When we did the windmill, our lawful good Triton fighter ran in seeing the hag drag a crying child and we all followed in. Me being a low level human wizard, my spell attack rolls were crap. So I ended up beating one of the hags to death with my quarterstaff. Our goliath barbarian was so proud of me.
.. My party went guns blazing into the bonegrinder at lvl 3… Even though I warned them as much as I could… They managed to kill Morgantha, almost all went unconscious (one player died) while the hags were chasing them down, before they gave up and went back to save their mill that the players set on fire. But hey, they managed to recover the Sunsword, so that’s neat.
I love the idea that some god finally realizes one of his angels is missing then sends down a couple of planetars and whatnot as a literal deus ex machina to help the players kill Strahd. Like “Bob? Steve? I think that Strahd beat up that angel I sent to kill him and now he’s stuck down there in Barovia, could you go bring him back? Ok, thanks.”
My joy with strahd was the creative in which to use him. I played Strahd rules as written, it’s very surprising just how dangerous this guy is when you read his stat block carefully (he is almost laughably invincible). I ran him as a rich pompous prick who thinks everyone loves him. I took one part of his stat block and pretended he wasn’t aware of it, thinking himself naturally charming. It was way more awesome playing him this way and forcing my players to greet him as a friend. Strahd spent all the time believing that nobody wanted to leave Berovia because how great he was. Until they nailed him in his coffin and dropped him in the waterfall.
Sadly, I’ve never been able to get through this adventure. I’ve attempted twice as a DM and twice as a player, both which ended early (technically 1 was a win for us, but we only got to level 4 by the time Strahd died, which our DM said ended to fog curse). The times I dmed, we had some scheduling issues and the group dissolved after a few sessions because of it. The first time we played, everyone died in the death house. The second, we got all the way too the Wizards of wine, but then the group disolved due to a falling out between the Dm and some of her friends. This last time, Strahd confronted us at Krezk after he killed the Abbot, the Wizard cast remove curse on him, which the DM said means that he lost his Vampire curse. So the Barbarian proceeded to beat his ass the death, which the Dm said ended the fog curse. Sadly, I’ve never gotten incredibly far into the game, and I really want to finish it.
I’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons Online for…ever, really, and a couple years ago, they recreated the entirety of Ravenloft. I have to say, it is amazing, so much so that I got the 5e book and look forward to running it for my new group. Brand new players. Going to get them to lvl 3….then railroad them into the mist. With luck, I can time it to have them meet the Lord of the land for the climax around Holloween.
I was actually thinking about having Mordenkainen be a plot hook for my players. I’m playing some one offs and laid out some stuff about Mordenkainen. My group will deal with an Adventurers Guild with a quest being to locate Mordenkainen. They don’t know he’s specifically in Barovia, but some people followed his trail in that direction, and some haven’t come back. As the players follow the trail, they accidentally get stuck in Barovia and the story begins. They want to get out and find Mordenkainen and may actually find him as they explore Barovia!
I’m actually running this game with my two younger brothers, (They’re 14 and 12) so there are certain things in this campaign that I don’t wanna add, like the crazy drunk man on lake Zarovich trying to drown a vistani girl for his fishing god. Lucky me though. My water genasi blood hunter (The 12 year old) actually made a backstory that there was a village of water genasi floating on the lake. Good thing I’ll be able to do that instead.
I kinda like the idea of Strahd being to busy moping or whatever to notice people just kinda walking into his castle unannounced. When i ran this game for my players i kinda did the bad thing of it being a “big final boss dungeon”(they didn’t go anywhere near the place until the end where Strahd was actively hunting them trying to get the sword/journal back) and with that mindset, there a few quests/events where Strahd would invite you over to the castle for dinner or whatever that just made me go “why in the world would the players ever trust Strahd’s hospitality or be able to just leave with the quest item or NPC? Stradh woulden’t allow it” I played him a bit more on the ruthless and oppressive dictator side slightly more than cunning most of the time(in my game he made a personal appearance to the festival in Vallaki to take Irina for himsefl) so perhaps that was just my failing.
Is there a article specifically about changes needed to start the game at the other side of the map? I’m intrigued and see your reasoning, but there’s so much that needs to be radically reshuffled that I don’t know how feasible it really is. Do you move Ireena to Strezt (i will never spell that town right without looking it up) as well?
I just read the book for my campaign im running and i was so confused because there didnt feel like a MAIN STORY only side quests that all lead to this weird vampire dude, so the fact that you explained at the end of the article that “There is no story only what your players choose to do” makes me really happy that im not stupid. Thank you so much. <3
5e is very weird in this setting as it both retcons large swaths of Strahd’s backstory and also throws around characters that should have died much earlier in the setting. You can make it work with a few changes I found: *Spoilers* 1. Get rid of Argynvostholt. This seriously adds nothing and only makes your head hurt when you try to figure out how human Strahd killed a Silver Dragon. It also tries way too hard to explain the nature of the Dark powers which is never something you should do. 2. Get Rid of the Amber Temple….This is a D&D Adventure path style Dungeon completely out of theme with the rest of the setting and is so over leveled for the party that by the time they get here they should be prepping to tackle the Castle itself. It also tries to explain the Dark Powers. Which you should never do. 3. Replace both with homebrew content, preferably using the old lore of Ravenloft. I chose to have a Graveyard encounter with Strahd’s Niece Lysa and repeated encounters with Jandar Sunstar. Both acting as potential allies for evil or more morally grey parties. 4. Get rid of Mordy. Replace him with Azlin Rex having once again lost his memories, using the Lich encounter from the Amber temple as a template. Have him offer to “reward” a player with a dark pact. Making him an undying patron for players looknig to multiclass. 5. Recall that Strahd is forced to sleep during the day in the old lore. Even without powerful sunlight throughout the land Strahd cannot be active during daylight hours giving the players some respite from the direct wrath of the vampire.
The Stella encounter broke me as a DM as I needed to convince my players, that a girl went this crazy, because a boy she despises, said “unkind” words to her and I couldn’t come up with an explanation on how this would work. They first thought he cursed her and was lying to them, when he said he was just very mean to her after they smuggled him out of Vallaki beforehand (to the Vistani camp, so that he could marry into their group and so leave Borovia) not knowing that he killed 2 of the servants and later confronted him again. Player 1: Insight – Nat 20 Me: Yeah, he says the truth. Player 2: What the hell did he say to her!? DM: How should I….wait a second…”Victor grabs a piece of paper writing it down, as he does not want the Vistani to hear it, still hoping that he can leave with them Borovia. He hands you the folded piece of paper.” Do you want to read it? Player 1: Yes! DM: Roll me a Wisdom Saving Throw! Player 1: Nat 1…. DM: You suffer from Indefinite Madness (like Stella): “I am the smartest, wisest, strongest, fastest, and most beautiful person I know.” Player 1: That is my opinion anyway…. DM: Maybe you should contemplate that for a second then…(*mumbling* I should have just melted her face like in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”)
Ohhh, that last phrase got me good… We ran Curse of Strahd a few months ago. I was a Tiefling Wild Magic Sorcerer, and with me there was a Human Grave Cleric, an Elf Arcane Trickster, a Human Colossus Fighter Ranger and a Half-Orc Battlemaster. Each character of the group had a dreadful flaw. Out Rogue thirsted for knowledge, our Fighter wanted to return glory to his tribe, our Cleric had the dread of his dead wife haunting him, our Ranger seeked revenge against Strahd for destroying his town and me? Well, I was greedy as fuck, trying to copy the recepy of the wine to immitate on Faerun and grabbing magical items that changed his mind slowly, but creeply. At the Amber Tower, me and the rest of the group fell to the temptations of the Dark God’s powers. Only the Cleric, faithful to his God, remained true and didn’t claimed any powers. And while the Fighter and the Rogue felt their minds falling into insanity, my character surprisingly resisted the corruption of the Dark Gods. But sadly, he was now a rotten corpse, at least on looks. As a act of selfless, the first of his long life of commerce, he revived Exethaunter and freed him from his curse. With our new found powers, we tried to defeat Strahd. We had success, but with a dreadful price. Irenna was killed in the path, and my character was in love with her since the first meeting. He dragged her from the fountain trap Strahd tried to lay on her, getting a lighting bolt to the face (the second of many, many ones that happened at that campaign); swore to protect her and tried to be a better man for her sake.
Something else with Curse of Strahd is that there are some other great resources for it. The adventures from the Adventurers League season are normally quite easy to fit in (Though you really don’t want to do so with the Tier 1 adventures unless you’re going to run through them all as they directly build on each other…and actually make a great replacement for Death House if you don’t mind another Hag being added to the mix that is actually a very nasty piece of work in the form of Jenny Greenteeth). I’ve worked through some things to port bits and pieces from Expedition to Castle Ravenloft with both the 3.5 book and the board game (some of the adventures in the game work well for modifying quests or even on their own for story pieces). The Knights of the Raven from the book are a very interesting addition to the game and would work great for a Paladin Oath option or background for someone playing one. The web enhancement also can create an interesting adventure that shifts the tone for it if things get a bit to depressing (It and a few of the others could fit the werewolves more into the story if your players like them) If you have access to them, the White Wolf licensed Ravenloft setting books for 3.5 have several other good ideas in it. Especially if you’re planning on going beyond Barovia for the other domains after Strahd or want a short change of pace as a few of the things there make for interesting shifts such as the shadow unicorns and can easily fit into a single adventure there.
Almost Avernus Barovia Ghakis Mountain That old Raven River Life is old there Older than the witch Younger than the Temple Dark powers in its crypts Svalich Road Take me down To the place I despise Krezk, Vallaki Barovia Take me down Svalich Road All my party’s Not together Vampyr’s lady Running to blue water Blue and cloudy Taking up the sky Taste of purple grapemash, Could almost make me cry Svalich Road Take me down To the place I despise Krezk, Vallaki Barovia Take me down Svalich Road I hear his voice, in my nightmares oh he calls me, The Vampyr reminds me of the one who’s pulling strings And walking down this road I get the feeling that I should’ve stayed home Yesterday Yesterday Svalich Road Take me down To the place I despise Krezk, Vallaki Barovia Take me down Svalich Road Svalich Road Take me down To the place I despise Krezk, Vallaki Barovia Take me down Svalich Road Take me down, Svalich Road, Take me down, Down Svalich Road
Great vid! We r near the penultimate encounter… Hitting the amber temple first. I really wanna buy the book you published… But I spent 5 min trying to figure out how to buy on Kickstarter and couldn’t. 🙁 Could u provide me crayon level instructions on how to throw money ur way and get ur book???
If I was the DM running this, I would do a lot of Homebrew/House-Rule changes to this adventure. I would create a way to truly eliminate the “Dark Powers” as well as the other Evil enemies/beings that exist in this place. Including truly d3stroying Strahd and reconnecting Barovia to the other Planes, letting the Player’s decide which Plane of Existence. Also setting up a few options beyond that depending on the Plane & their Player Race.
LoL “They will die.” Won that fight in 2h with 3v3 just cuz, DM ran a werewolf encounter to introduce my character, and my character got lycanthropy out of it. Every time it transformed DM would have me roll for “Losing control to new animalistic instincts.” and by sheer luck, I’d keep rolling nat 20 on that roll, roar “POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!!!” and go to town on the encounter. The best part was when we met Strahd and he tried to take control of my curse, rolled nat 20 and that’s how the meme of “POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!!!” was born at our table. Was all good, till one day in town, I went to the woods to try and master the werewolf blood, as to not need to roll for the chance to do 180 and fight my party, I guess that angered the dice gods as I rolled a nat 1, and ended up killing 2 children in my blood rage. When my char learned of that next morning, he took the sentient sword Sun Blade and killed himself. Was a very awkward moment for the table and the sword got traumatized. Was one of those “It’s what my character would do.” moments, but because it was. Didn’t want to switch chars either as despite being a human fighter battle master, it was really fun to roleplay him as this showman of skill and finesse, using tricks and quick movement to overcome his opponents and “inspire” party with quick jokes and taunts at the enemies expense. R.I.P. Sebastian. Rest in peace.
Holy crap man. I wanted to buy “Out of the Box Encounters” Follow that link and read the “Nerdarchy Pledge Manager Instructions” it’s like the Tomb of Horrors, some 42 point checklist to 100% ensure I close my browser. Honest curiosity, why is that a good idea? Just give me a paypal button so I can throw my money at you in exchange for a book. The is facepalm level 100.
Jacob, I love you man and think you are a really great DM but DO NOT GIVE THE PLAYERS ALL THE ALLIES! You have to only give them one to make it fair. Because SPOILERS for arcane arcade When they fought Strahd in arcane arcade they each controlled one other Ally and absolutely steamrolled Strahd. One of the players literally lost no health and everyone looked really bored. Please keep only one ally
So… I don’t know if this is the proper way to play it… but I have a group who is going to basically pick a questline after they defeat Zariel’s plot to merge Elturel and Baldur’s Gate with Avernus… so my PC’s should be 13th level by the time they choose any other questline. they’re eager to curb-stomp any early-quest baddies.
I can’t really lead this comment with any naysaying. This adventure rocks, and jives well with gothic horror fans. The problem? The suspension of disbelief is more difficult to maintain with DnD groups than a movie, and people just aren’t going to buy into it if they aren’t sufficiently invested in the story. Take my negativity with a huge grain of salt, because there’s plenty of people out there who can do well playing and running Curse of Strahd. You’ll probably have to recognize what kind of group is going to see Strahd as Count Chocula/The Count (Sesame Street) and what kind of group is going to see Strahd as an actually scary Dracula-like figure. My group will probably see Strahd as just another villain… not monster of the week, but still just a huge bump in the road on their way to success.
With Doru, my players adopted him. I changed his backstory a bit by having him be a former lover of Strahd. In my CoS Campaign: Doru was a young and naive 18 year old who was fairly sheltered by his father and was on the path of becoming a man of the cloth. But he was charmed by Strahd and saw “good” in him and was willing to leave his home for him. Strahd only toyed with Doru because Doru was the son of the priest of the town and he just liked screwing around with it (tickled his funny bone). The night before he was supposed to leave for Castle Ravenloft (Doru did tell his father that he had fallen in love with a person and was planning to leave, but left out the fact that it was Strahd because he knew his father would not allow for him to leave), Strahd pulled a Strahd (adult themes) and killed Doru and tossed his body at the church where Father Donovich found his broken body. He buried his son and weeped over the grave. When morning came, Donovich was getting ready to leave and join his son when Doru clawed his way out and bit his father. Doru told him the truth, and his father had him locked in the celler buying fresh kills from the local hunters and fed the blood to his son. When the party found out what had happened, they decided to go and take Doru and help him seek his vengeance over Strahd. Played Doru as a shy lad who was learning to get his own power back. Made him a Cleric of Light (thought it was funny since he was a vampire spawn). Near the end of the campaign, I had Doru leave the party, returning to his home.
I was excited to DM Curse of Strahd until the second my players entered the city they went decide the only action they could take is to become loyal servants of Strahd. How do they do this? Well isn’t it obvious. Genocide. That’s it, everyone saw was killed instantly. They had a grand time but I was just sitting there thinking about how I spent money on this book so I could play this with my friends and all they wanna do is commit genocide. I did play the adventure with another group of players and that was much more fun but I will never forget my first experience I had with it.
Just picked CoS up. I have to say it’s so overwhelming to even attempt to devour any of the seemingly unending wealth of info presented, that it’s becoming a deterrent to start this thing. This brief series is certainly helpful, but GD, IDK how you can become even slightly familiar enough with everything to feel confident to start this.
Curse of Strahd was the first bit of D&D I got to play. We managed to make it a comedy. We mocked Strahd on the regular. The Bard took all the SILVERware off of the Table in Strahd’s table, casted animate objects on them during the final battle and… yeah. A shitton of flying silver knives during the fight with Strahd. But the best part is that Strahd was like “If I die, I take you all with me!” And cast Fireball on the floor beneath his feet, killing him. We all passed our saves. DM forgot the Sunsword was a thing. Strahd killed himself.
I’m currently running this adventure (first time as a dm) and upon meeting Parriwumple and his merchant uncle two of my players decided to kill them. I gave them so many chances to leave but one of the players was saying they were capitalist assholes who needed to be smited (because the uncle sells everything for ten times the price that they should be). Somehow my players succeeded…
I think giving the players all the allies seems like a cool idea. However when I watched the strahd fight on Arcane Arcade it made it seem super easy to defeat strahd. I don’t remember the players ever in any real danger during that fight. I mean hell, Tallman went unconscious for like a single turn. Idk if this was due to the ally army or not but the fight didn’t seem that dangerous at all when I watched it.
4:56 I ran death house to start off Curse of Strahd because the most experienced member of the party suggested it, as it is my first campaign DM’ing and two of the players first times playing dnd. All of us are very good friends and have been for a very long time. Our Rogue and Monk’s characters didn’t really get along at first and almost got in a fist fight. Other than that, Everything starts off really smoothly, party working together, taking every encounter slowly and carefully. Except the monk. In the house he found the dumbwaiter, met the requirements to use it and left the group to look for alcohol. He continued to do this for the rest of Death House.. right up until the Cult Leaders quarters. The group unanimously agreed not to loot the room because of the fear of traps and moved on. The Monk and Rogue also talked and sorted out their differences. As the rest of the group searched the Reliquary and prison on the level below, the monk went off by himself, and looted the cult leaders quarters only to get ambushed by the Ghasts. In their surprise round they both hit, one with a natural 20. Unconscious. I then allowed the players to metagame in an attempt to save the monks life as he was already pretty much dead, Rogue rolls like 23 on initiative and runs over to attempt to help only to have to watch the Ghasts lay into the monks body. Next session, the group gets to the Crossroads, I rolled for a random encounter, got nothing, rolled one anyways and got Grave, nobody really cared and the group moved on, but as they did, the rogue asked to roll perception.
Soooooooo I just accepted alot of dark gifts including the one that turned strahd into a vampire to begin with, and now I’m about to fight strahd lol. However I’m an EK that has a cursed great sword that when I hit 0 hps an fail a con save the demon inside the sword takes over an is insanely powerful, and I mean I’ve nearly wiped my party twice an I my pc is about to die/lost his soul/reincarnate into a new body(assimar) with the demon in permanent control an as a vampire. Soooo excited to see the fight between strahd, my form teammates, and my bad guy pc lol.
It might be interesting to combine some of the reasons for entering a bit. Say the PCs are hired to track down some ‘creature’ in/near the woods. It turns out to be a werewolf who tried to make it through the fog, but was driven mad. The PCs chase it in to the fog and start to succumb when they run in to Vistani outriders, also hunting the werewolf. The Vistani pick up and dust off the PCs (‘here, drink this..’), who in return help them with their hunt. The Vistani then insist the PCs come back with them to Borovia, where the lord of the land would be pleased to thank them. Once across the fog, the Vistani ditch them (maybe rob them too a bit, I mean, why not?) and leave them to their fate – or maybe tell them to rest at the town ahead, grinning ear to ear, and to call on Strahd when they feel more fit.
There is another way to help the priest’s son. There is a one shot called the chalice of the undead. You send your players to find the chalice that was used by strahd to drink Sergeys blood, if the players find it they can use it to cure from being zombies and vampires unless they’ve been that way for more than a 100 years
Hey Jacob, I’m about to DM my first campaign with some of my buddies. I’m gonna be doing CoS so these vids have been extremely helpful. Is there anyway I could get a hold of some of your dm notes so that I can learn what I need to be focusing on and writing down? I don’t really know what I need to write down about characters and the campaign without going super overboard lol. Thank you so much for making so many awesome vids. They have helped me and my friends out a ton!
I’ve got a question (somewhat new dm here): why would the players ever agree on strahd’s invitation to go to his castle when they know he is the evil ruler of barovia (especially if they have faced off before) and if they do go, why would strahd ever let them go when he can keep them locked inside and torture them in his lair where he would be in complete control until he gets bored and kills them?
I’m running this game for my friends. And to be fair I added a few things to the campaign. One of the things I added was to the start of the game when the PC’s go to barovia. I used a Court of the oldest vampires that call the shadowfail home and who’s leader is Alucard who is a demigod and his father Dracula who is the ruler of half of the shadowfail is sealed in the Amber temple. There are a few other things I changed.
So I was DMing this for my younger group that has a veteran in it right, and our brand new player who was a rogue decided to sneak into the windmill where the sun sword was for my game. Our wizard cast invisibility on the rogue who then sneaked all the way into the upper level with crazy high rolls and nat 20ed to stealthily open the attic. He then got the sword left and gave it to the Paladin. After that they had an amazing encounter that involved grease, and knocking hags downstairs. It was fantastic.
I did pretty bad my first attempt at running this one…I realised I probably shoudn’t roll on the random encounter table as often as the book sugests OR the players shouldn’t start at level 1, I had 5 level 1 players, I rolled an encounter…13 wolves before they even made it anywhere at all. Some of the wolves started dragging the the dead sorcerer back to their den before the battle was even over. Tpk before they even did anything.
n regards to Strahds wolves, in my game I’ve changed them into worgs. And here is why: wolves are both boring and unchallenging (unless they significantly outnumber the players and running a combat with a large number of week monsters kinda sucks). Worgs on the other hand are stronger and more importantly far more intelligent, the wolves become another race that serves strhad and gain personality! They are now a faction of monsters with tactics and goals, they change from simple animals to cruel, cunning man eating monsters! My players really feared Strahds man eating wolves, and their ability to not only kill for strahd, but to spy, kidnap and terrorize the land of Barovia. Also in the game I’ve never called them Worgs, to my players they were just these terrible monstrous wolves of Strahd. His “dark hounds” they called them. I almost never tell my players the names of monsters, only what THEY know about the creature. Keeps the enemies mysterious and far more terrifying. Also the worgs had a leader, I used the stats of a winter wolf and just bumped his int to 10, and gave him language proficiency, to reflect his status as the alpha of the pact. And amongst the regular worgs I’ve sprinkled in some zombie worgs to amp up the dread.
One DM here on YouTube suggested that, rather than acting as more hit points for Strahd, the heart should control the mists. This way, if they need to leave, they can destroy the heart, and then they would have until sundown the next evening to leave or else the heart would come back to life and mists would come back. Unless you used the Sunsword, which means that you destroyed the heart for good.
So me and my friends have recently been playing D&d(with me being the dm), but we only played 3.5 because those are the books my friends uncle had, so after this 3.5 campgain, we’ve devided to get the 5e essentials kit,and if we like it wel play course of strahd in the same campgain, so this lines up perfectly
Not gonna lie this is annoying me. Im a dm running curse of strahd with new but optimistic group of players. That being said i told them not to look up anything about curse of strahd, why? Because of articles like this. If people wanna know this many details to the game A. They have the book and need to reed it themselves or B. Are playing it or want to play it and your spoiling all of it. Give summaries sure, give dm tips ok, talk about experiences why not but don’t give them info that ruin the game for them. Seriously. Saying spoiler warning at the beginning doesn’t make it better. And yes 1 i do trust my players but youtube recommendations are a b****, 2 being surprised about something is a good thing why ruin that, 3 again if your curious read the book and 4 its pronounced (slavICK) not slovich. Haven’t been this annoyed since your artificer article
Our group cheerfully accepted the invite because he hit all the obvious trap cliches so well we said it would have felt rude to spoil all that work. We tucked into the food with gusto (on the principle we’d at least have a full stomach when we were running screaming for our lives later), which lead to the best line of the campaign when we asked Strahd why he wasn’t eating with us – “Oh, I’ll be dining later this evening :)”. DM was amazing, best game I’ve ever been in really.
My personal choice for switching up the illusion Strahd was to KEEP illusion Strahd playing the organ, and the players waited respectfully at the door for him to stop, only for real Strahd to walk in behind them and sit at the table like “oh please no need to stand on ceremony, sit” and the players were just looking back and forth trying to figure out which was real Strahd, or if he’d used something like Simulacrum and they were BOTH Strahd 😂 the wizard was VERY distracted throughout dinner
I actually have a solution to one issue. If the players agree to give Ireena to Strahd in exchange of freedom from Barovia, Strahd won’t let them go until after the wedding. During the wedding, someone, most likely Van Richten and/or Ezmeralda, crash the wedding and successfully rescue Ireena. Strahd, furious, sends the players after them. I personally would have them chase them to Kresk and see the reunion of Tatyana and Sergei. Their failure has put them on Strahd’s shitlist.
This article brought up a great point that I hadn’t considered before. When you suggested Strahd prepare Wall of Force, my first thought was, “But Strahd doesn’t have access to Wall of Force, it’s not in his spell list.” Then I realized, Strahd is a Wizard, and he’s been around for a long time, slaying many Wizards while ruling over Barovia, collecting their spellbooks. It stands to reason he could prepare any Wizard spell up through level 5 that he wants! Running him just got much more interesting. Thank you for this bit of insight.
I’m running this soon for the first time with some friends. Really love the ideas y’all cooked up here. One thing I intend to add is that during a break between the main course and dessert, Strahd will elect to serenade the group with some music and insist that they all dance, each with one of his consorts. I like the idea of each of them having a bit of one-on-one banter/threats when Strahd is “not looking.”
Excellent advice. My one nitpick (and this truly is a nitpick) is the appetizer course. The goal of the course is “introduction” so wouldn’t it make more sense to have something local? A goulash made with all the bounty of Strahd’s great land. A peasant dish, for sure, but under Cyrus’ expert hand (and several imported spices) surely a welcome addition to any table. Strahd can save truly wow-ing the party for the Entrée or the Dessert course–perhaps something like italian ice? Fruit at the height of perfection, preserved by wonder of the cold. Why would you let rot, when you can keep it forever? (cough vampirism? cough)
Whenever i start a session i ask my players little questions to flesh out their characters. Early in the campaign ill ask the players their characters favorite appitizers, meal, side dish, and desert and have whaterver they say served at this meal. Really adds to the all knowing, always perusal feel of strahd
We were invited really, really early on and went to the castle with Ireena. Strahd didn’t try to take her mind you, but simply flirt with her to get her to come with him willingly. Plus he wanted to get information on the party and delegate a few tasks – namely going after the hags and retrieving taxes for him. His goal was to intimidate the party and see what we could do. The main thing I remember doing during all this was having my rogue flirt with Escher. When the party went to the ballroom to dance with Strahd and his consorts after dinner, they slipped off with Escher while everyone else danced. That’s how they managed to get to the library and steal the Tome of Strahd. It also clued them into why Strahd was so interested in Ireena. Yes, stealing the tome came back to haunt my character later, but it worked out for them in the long run.
While I agree with the idea of being mindful of your players dietary choices… A certain part of me likes the idea of Strahd having a nice roast in front of the party to find out their preference be amused by it then as a lord and gentleman demand that suitable food be prepared for his guests. As long as it wouldn’t offend your players. Consider also if the party has ever eaten while Strahd is spying on them since this happens often, if so he would have an appropriate meal prepared in advance.
It was pretty fun when my players dinned with the Devil. They dinned with him and his group. Finding that no expense had been spared. The barbarian spared with one of the brides which caused the cleric to almost start combat not realizing the pair had mutually agreed to a fight in the hall. Same trickster cleric slipped soap figurine into Rahadin’s pocket as he watched him do so. Some perused the books in the study. A few dressing up for the occasion with garments able to be chosen upon. A few even eating baked goods that were provided by a certain old lady down the road. _ They got invited first session after entering the mists from a carriage on an empty road when each got lost from their respective places and had them dine with Strahd who was being a perfect host throughout dinner (remarking he as the lord of this land had matters to discuss with them after as that business could wait) with each introduction of the brides, Echer, and Rahadin (and that dynamic). I figured Strahd would invite them straight off into the land before they knew better and thus be able for Strahd to twist the narrative. With him requesting (slowly dripping in hints of the vampirism) the group deliver a sealed message (with pendant inside) to a girl in the nearby village as his presence being a Lord might take up a stir with the locals. The group agreed and making their way to the village they were pulled into the Vistani camp where Madam Eva invited them inside and gave a warning and a card reading.
I love these articles and have used them to add flavour to the current CoS campaign that I’m running. Whilst I don’t use everything, some of the suggestions make for some fantastic storytelling. Special thanks to you for this session on the dinner!!! I LOVED the extravagant 3 course suggestion with Strahd’s entourage. Will be running this with my Group next week, and wanted to go all out on the dinner to make it as ostentatious and pretentious as possible. After trolling through some of the most pretentious dish and wine reviews I could find, I’ve come up with a 3 course meal + 3 course “blood” pairing. Tasting notes / descriptions after the main description, which the vampires can preen about over the course of the dinner. WARNING – Disturbing content below My Lords, my ladies and non-binaries – I present our first course for the evening: – Porcini mushroom soup, garnished with black truffle shavings and a cheeky dash of sherry and thyme. (It is a unctuously rich, earthy soup that lies beneath a layer of foam.) – I humbly present a tantalizing vintage of mystery and rarity – drawn from a Drow priestess from the depths of the Underdark. A soul brimming with wickedness and spite, from one whose skin had never been touched by sunlight. Seasoned with a hint of cranial fluid. (One can taste the profound notes of cruelty, malice, and fresh turned earth. It displays a careful balance between power, finesse and a complete lack of remorse.) Served with a basket of steaming brioche, baguettes and truffle butter.
The dinner with my party was very formal, was the real Strahd playing host, his 3 consorts attended. The party were courteous and handed out gifts that appealed to each of Strahd’s consorts. Strahd never gave the promise they would be unharmed? But how can one be rude to such fine guests? Strahd appealed to the party’s emotions, humanity and sympathy. To mend Strahd’s broken heart… the party have agreed to bring Ireena to Castle Ravenloft.
I had a friendly NPC in my homebrew campaign that was slightly based off of Strahd in his sinister behaviour. His whole gimmick was that the players were meant to believe he was a nefarious Vampire climbing the political chain for power, authority and gathering magical artefacts for a possible coup, when in actuality he was just sick of the incompetent lord of the local area so he became his “secretary” to “help him make the right decisions” and is interested in magical artefacts as they are the only thing that are older than he is and will outlive him. He is meant to come across as a thinly-veiled villain when he’s just very poor at representing himself without looking sinister and is INCREDIBLY theatrical and over the top. Naturally to sell his presumed evil-ness, his accent was a more nasally Claude Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame (very close to how he says “get out you idiot” in the Hellfire song). His role is to trade magical items for magical items in his collection for a tangible, gameplay affecting trade OR for political favours for a more roleplay oriented trade, just so players had something to do with the magic items that they’ll never use that have insane gold value that no shopkeep would reasonably have on hand for selling or bartering. In terms of political position he, for all intents and purposes, is the Lord of the area – just without the actual title of Lord. The official Lord is retired to a manor in the woods and is well cared for, wanting for nothing. Everyone in the government knows of this arrangement and, as the character is actually good as a Lord and politician, they don’t really care.
While “waiting in sinister silence” and “playing the organ” are both pretty on-the-nose introductions to a gothic villain, I think I’d have to stick with playing the organ because it shows that he really isn’t concerned with the party at all (especially if his back is turned), and is much more disarming to a party of paranoid adventures. Waiting in “sinister silence” and facing the party could imply that he views the party as a serious threat, and set a combative tone to what is supposed to be a social encounter.
I know this might’ve been a Taboo thing, but I gave the party the Invite at the end of Death House. But to make it not immediate, he gave them an unspecified time (Anywhere from when they reach Vallaki to the Feast) to join him. I did this because in my version there arent many heroes that enter Barovia. At least 1 party every 20 years, but it’s been a slow 40 so he’s eager to get back in the bend. I haven’t done the dinner yet but I’m most likely gonna do it within the next few sessions. In terms of if they don’t do it before the feast, I’m going to paint it as Strahd feeling personally attacked due to the fact that they essentially ignored him for a week. Thanks for the advice! Love your content <3
Sooo I am currently running Curse of Strahd and the dinner scene was quite different. The party was a Drow Mercy Monk, a Tiefling Infernal Warlock, and a Human War Cleric. After they cleared my (heavily revised) version of the Death House, they got the invitation. Incidentally, this is after they found Rudolph Van Richten and read the Tome of Strahd, learning his backstory. The Monk and Warlock declined the invitation, reasoning that if they showed up to dinner, they would try to kill Strahd on principle and die fighting. The Cleric on the other hand kept hoping that by sitting down and speaking with Strahd like civil people they would learn of a way to break his curse. Sidebar, he was trying to look for a “True Ending” where Strahd didn’t have to die. So, the Black Carriage arrived, the Cleric went to the castle alone. Rahadin took him aside and gave him proper dinner attire before entering the dining hall. As for Strahd’s entrance. I had the organ be self-playing. It was an Unseen Servant carrying out Strahd’s orders while he sat at the far end of the table. Completely in the open. No illusions, no walls of force. Instead, he had Gertruda sitting right next to him, naively going on about how magical and wonderful the castle was and how nice and sweet the Lord of Barovia was. It was a power move on Strahd’s part. I am king here, and you aren’t even worth the illusion of defense. As for the conversation and courses. I had precious wine and food prepared from different DnD realms, prepared by Rahadin and brought by the Vistani.
Due to a big roll on the encounter table the part met Strahd early. I saved this encounter until they finished there business with Madam Eva. The results of the dinner was Strahd being pretty high in the party’s esteem, but they felt most of his consorts were shifty eapescially since I used them to introduce later plot threads. Its only now in the game that they are seeimg Strahd as the abusive patriarch he is. The part gets a pass, but his wives amd Escher pay for every one of the party’s transgressions. Example: Ludmilla allowed the wizard of the the part to steal a few spellbooks from Strahd’s study and the ranger to read the tome(though he didn’t choose yo take it . . .hmm) as punishment she has been kicked out of the castle and continuously appears to harass the part for some way to get back. She’s going to show up at the Wachterhaus for sure.
Our dm had the main course served and it was revealed to be the severed head of a former PC. OOC they had left the game few months ago and IC she had left the party to persue a personal journey so we just assumed it was an out so we’d never see her again… then he serves her head on a literal silver platter
I know you recommended that we cut the illusion part of Strahd’s dinner, but I had a different idea. What if the illusion does exactly as it is described, but partway through the parties discussion with the illusion the actual Strahd walks in and converses with himself. He says something along the lines of “Please forgive my tardiness, I had urgent business to attend to” and the illusion dissipates. It gives the party the feeling that they can’t trust what they see as well as making Strahd seem like he’s very busy(when he’s actually not).
Our DM really did this great, after we left Barovia/Vistani camp, we knew a bit how Strahd is, so we tried to not go to his castle, so when we where at the crossroad to Valakki/Ravenloft the carriege was there with a letter in it that we’re invited, we wrote down no thanks and closed the door. A few days later and doing some quests we we’re yet again at the Vallaki festival, shit went wrong and Rahadin was there with the previous adventure party (that got turned). He killed a few commoners and then asked who is X name ( it was one of our party members) after killing some more we responded, and he gave us an invite to the castle, and if we didn’t go more would die. So we went to the castle in the carriage that was provided. 10/10 Great DM.
Man I wish I found this article sooner! I have been running Curse of Strahd for a few months now, and the only real interaction they have had with Strahd was him showing up to try to nab Ireena from them, which always ended in combat. This is my first time DMing so I won’t be too hard on myself, but damn I wish they had a dinner with them before it was so late in the game that everything will devolve into combat!
One of my party members (because this is a group of pranksters) keeps trying to do silly things to provoke people. One of them asked Strahd (they stopped winter splinter for this visit) how Sergei was… Strahd merely left (I know, my bad) but I plan on the meal including a pit trap of blond haired ghouls that have a strange family resemblance…
I changed it from a simple dinner to a massive fricken ball. To make it more interesting the characters were all whisked away to Barovia from their homeland, or rather the land they were traveling in…. Colorado Territory, USA circa 1870. To say that these guys are freaked the hell out is an understatement lol.
Oh, it’s a shame I already ran the dinner with my group. Wonderful guide! I did it in a somewhat similar fashion and even had Escher played by a guest player, but your guide is so so helpful. When (because that for sure will happen) I will run CoS again I will definitely come back for some inspiration <3
When I ran death house, one of my players managed to die at the hands of a shadow. With no real way for the party to resurrect the dead player character, I had our vampire lord and savior arrive in time to resurrect them. We can say that he was scrying on his new toys that had just arrived and when he saw one of them pass away so quickly, and not at his own hand he was mildly upset and took it upon himself to bring the player character back to life, only so that they may be toyed with a little longer. When they exited death house with the player characters corpse they were greeted by Strahd I and in exchange for the player characters life all he asked for in return was that they come over for dinner. I might also note that I gave them one week to get to the castle, and I also started them all the way over in Krezk. It then became a dinner with a deadline as they now had to traverse across Barovia on foot in a week, or find another way to get there.
Strahd has just invited my two players and Ismark to meet him and his soon to be bride Ireena… My first time running CoS has certainly been eventful. I have no clerics or paladins wanting to root out strahd once and for all, just a druid who wants to see his good side and a Rogue who might be persuaded to join him in exchange for his greatest desire…
We received the letter while we just hit lvl 4 and had a ton of other things to do (like freeing Ireena from the baron). Still we decided is wasn’t wise to let him wait for too long. We decided that we would solve the mill issue on the way, but it turned out we were completely overwhelmed by the three inhabitants that were waiting for us. They couldn’t kill use because of the letter’s protection, but they could torture children in front of us, and finally the kicked us out literally naked except for a pair of silver scissors, asking us to bring back some of Strahd’s hair if we wanted to get our equipment back. The dinner took place during the same session, just so that you can picture our state of mind at this moment. We all nicely put on the dusty old clothes we found in the carriage and barely said a word until we were greeted by Rahadin. During the dinner our DM did a perfect job at playing Strahd as someone who tries to sound nice but is deep down an unstable psychopath. I remember him suggesting that one of us became his advisor so they could help him becoming a better person… At some point one of use could talk to Gertruda (who was serving the wine) and she gave him some jewelry, and told us about some secret signal so that she could open the gates for us next time we want to come in Ravenloft… she seemed sincere and we honestly couldn’t refuse any help at that point. When the dinner was over, Strahd brought us upstairs for a dance with his brides: of course the point was to talk privately while dancing.
Fantastic article! Dinner with Strahd should be one of the most iconic and memorable parts of the whole campaign and the book doesn’t really give all that much detail on how it can go. Your ideas here are excellent and now I want to go run Curse of Strahd a third time just to try and pull off a Dinner with the Devil like yours 😀
Our party never even heard of some of these characters. Strahd invited our party, Ismark (installed as burgomaster of Vallaki by the party), van Richten (publicly “out” by this point), Mordenkainen (rescued by the previous two while we were in Krezk), and Ireena to dinner 5 days ahead of time. Within that time we managed to get each of his three female consorts (the DM homebrewed them with spare PCs he had) within the area we had Hallowed around Vallaki (upgraded to have true sunlight via Divine Intervention) and not-entirely-dead, thereby freeing them of his control. Dinner never happened and we had only two brief visits to the Castle: once to smash the Heart, grab the Skull and Word of Recall back out¹, and once to again go straight for the Hall of Bones and defeat Strahd. — ¹ Damaging the Heart was only supposed to be a distraction for Strahd who was sitting in the Hall of Bones, but in the first round our Rogue/Ranger instead novaed it to smithereens while the rest of us shone the Amulet and Sunsword in Strahd’s face, causing him to nope out through a wall, letting us Reduce the Skull and Recall out.
I’m thinking about perhaps introducing my dinner earlier in my campaign. Right now my PCs are becoming pretty invested in the missing villagers of Barovia and Gertruda and have conflicting information on Gertruda’s fate (Ismark says give her up for dead and the Visanti says she is well taken care of). Of course my PCs have the crystal ball from Durst Manor so Strahd is scrying in them. I’m thinking that perhaps he shall invite them to dinner so they can see Gertruda is safe and then he can survey them and attempt to hire them to find and kill Van Rickten. Right now my characters find him more interesting and fascinating than scary and I want him to be a more cunning villain instead of one that goes straight for the violence. If he can manipulate the party for his own needs, what reason is there to kill them?
As someone who just had a formal dining experience recently, I can safely say it’s really fun. This experience wasn’t an RP session either. This was an irl experience hosted by the college I attend. I would love doing something like this around Halloween, especially given this aspect of Curse of Strahd.
our dinner was … something. It started with the fact that Strahd allowed anastrasya to dekorate the walls. she did so with things that would Trigger us for example the Wings of one of the dead family members of our owlin. But our group swallowed the anger and acted like its fine during the dinner. It was a lot of fun since everyone at the table was acting like were all friends, just dining together while this tenssion of hate and anger was silently present. Afterwards he offered to dance and wanted me to dance with him ( in our campagne our DM gave me Ireenas story instead of making her an NPC) . During the dance we all had the chance of a little privat conversation with the individual partner. Our Dragonborn was dancing with Volenta and they had the weirdest “ill kill u” ” not when i kill u first” chemastry which was so fun to watch. Our rouge, whos a flirtboy actually flirted so hard with escher that later on the blonde Vampire joined our Group and my chara got the chance to ask about her (tatyanas) and strahds past. At that point we already encountered Sergei, who had told her that Strahd had killed him and that tatyana was not strahds bride but his. My chara isnt sure if she can trust sergei tho. – i mean to her he was just a ghostly stranger. Strahd told her a lie about they’re past which she noticed but not commented. After the dinner we ran throu the castle and my chara wanted to go to the tower she fell in her past life from. we ran in some traps and my character got pushed of the same tower again (storytelling vise it was super epic and emotional) – strahd showed up to safe her, tho because of the fall, she remembered the fall in her past and the fact that strahd was there with her that day, which we didnt knew till then.
I had Strahd invite them after they talked to Father Donavich and agreed to take Ireena to Krezk. He wanted to learn about “my new guests of my land”. He then told a version of his backstory that made himself look good and Sergei look bad, of the 3 PCs, 2 Nat 1’d Insight and the other Nat 20’d. He offered the party “More treasure than a dragon’s hoard” (but really he’d just have them either killed or become vampire spawn). The party talked later and was able to get on the same page with Strahd’s BS
Man… My DM forced us to attend dinner using the mists of Barovia. We’d been putting it off, not trusting him. Fine. We entered, led by the steward straight to the dining hall. Strahd was at the organ. He stopped. It was basically, “Hey, I’m Strahd. I’m the big bad. Eat dinner, or not, whatever. I’m busy so, if you bring Ireena to me I’ll reward you.” Then he walks out!! Then we’re just kinda awkwardly left there. There was little incentive to explore, no direction. We found a room of plain mirrors behind the organ. They were just mirrors. Then we all left. … 😐
I ran imstead of a dinner I ran a ball. And my players had failed to save irena so when they entered auditorium I made in castle ravenloft strahd was front and center dancing with a vampire Irena in a wedding gown surrounded by dancing zombies to the music. Before they all left to dinner after the dance.
These articles have been great. I’m glad you covered the dinner, as it will be coming up in six sessions or so (2 hour sessions). I try to recommend this website to everyone who has questions about cursive straw that isn’t specifically mentioned in the module, or that can be changed for the better (reddit, etc). Thank you!
DM here, I would suggest to anyone who hasn’t run Dinner with Strahd yet to not do so too early in the campaign especially not right away. Definitely wait a bit, let the castle in the distance hang in the background while they travel back and forth, always menacing, and fear of the land, stories of the “Devil Strahd” marinate for a while. It will make the invitation and journey to the castle even more terrifying.
Yeah I wish my players would just walk in to the castle to have chat with him… My players play the game like you play a article game. Explore the entire map, do everything else BEFORE advancing the “main storyline”. My Strahd already got fed up of waiting and confronted the characters. A battle ensued with one player KO’d. I’m fairly sure I’m never getting them to dine with Strahd now :DD I have one player who has trouble letting go of the article game mentality. He also happens to be the loudest player and he gets visibly annoyed when things isn’t done the optimal way or he doesn’t get what he wanted/expected. 😛 Even last session I had to tell him to relax when my DM controlled npc mage didn’t cast fireball on a pack of wolves…
I’m thinking of giving my party their invite to the dinner soon; They’ve already met him a few times around the place and one of my players even attempted to fight him (and proceeded to nearly die to the hoard of bats and rats that Strahd called to his side) during St Andral’s Feast. . .which did not go well for them and ended with one of death saves, many extremely weak and one very dead priest. I need an excuse for them to go to the castle soon, want to nudge them in the direction of one of the fortunes (which I’m going to reroll soon; they have the Sunsword and have done VERY well concealing it from Strahd, however I don’t want to throw them at Baby Lysaga for the Tome and the Holy Symbol is in Nimble-Nobs Crypt and my attempts to nudge them that way have missed unforunately). I’m going to have a fun time with it for sure, since they’ve got the Gertruda side-quest and the next session we do is going to be the Fall of Vallaki.
I invited them when they hit the T junction where you can go to Vallaki or the castle. They refused but he sent another carriage to the Blue Water Inn a few days later. When they arrived he hosted a lovely dinner with music from the brides. During the meal, Strahd took each party member off for a brandy and a chat and offered them something they’d each be very tempted by, essentially boiling down to wealth or power. It was effective with a few thinking about it but eventually begrudgingly turning him down. Now, months later IRL time, they’ve just entered Ravenloft last session and are looking to destroy the man himself…
For some reason my group is hell bent on doing anything they can to just piss off Strahd. Not even the usual module things just really petty but over the top BS. They are currently discussing if they like Irena enough to not kill her or if they want to kill her just to “stick it to the man”. I dont know what specifically I did that made them hate him so much more then every other villain we’ve ever had but ita getting hard to justify not just fireballing this party and moving on. Both IC and IRL. :/
My players hated strahd from the get go, but got mangled up by morgantha and a few random encounters. I used strahd to make a spontaneous dinner in the forest, sided by fog banks and hordes of wolves and bats. The dinner was just to clear their negative statuses, basically give them a heroes feast + greater restoration. None of them would have it, they sat down but didnt eat, except for one who got hit the worst.
In my campaign we used the un welcome visitors hook so the vistani and madame eva met the characters now the characters made there way to barovia to help a woman named ireena who was asking around for transport to krezk the party gladly accept and whilst they do that the vistani talk to strahd about a group in which they sense something new about and so strahd hid the invitation in the blue water inn as he knew where they would be staying so he could see and learn about theese new visitors
Well I had at least 4 different finished CoS campaigns and not all of them had this moment: 1 – Strahd invited party after they visited Ember Temple and Rahadin kinda snitched on them (because Iraina, my dear eldrich knight, severely mocked him there but that`s another story). Party accepted the invitation and dinner was very very very tence. Cleric mocked Strahd about fate of all tyrants but their skill of trolling was equal, bard sang some sad lovesongs, werewolf huntress just didn`t care about a thing, stuffing her half-orc face with food and tiefling sorceress with severe PTSD almost burned everything to ashes because of stress and lack of self-control. To that moment party bard (revenant) and Iraina visited the castle at least 3 times (and brides of Strahd really hated her guts). Iraina and Strahd were frightenly similar and brutaly honest with each other from their first innteraction (even Madame Eve thought she would be perfect replacment) so party was realy scared that she will side with vampire in the future. But no, after some remembering of party not so noble deeds and warning not to touch HER toys, because she is petty and will brake every single one of HIS, like she did with her lil bro`s stuff, Iraina smiled and invited him to have a drink. To what moment Strahd bited her to death door 8 times. After this dinner in Ravenloft dungeons appeared a crypt next to Ireena`s supposed resting place. I think you could guess which name was on the slab. If Tatiana was what this poor unfortunate vampire desired, Iraina was what he actually deserved.
I can’t even manage to get my players to go to Castle Ravenloft. Strahd has sent two separate invites and both times they declined and still refuse to go. They’re so utterly convinced he’ll kill them and that it’s a trap that they refuse it entirely. I’ve even had people mention that although Strahd is a bane to Barovia he does have a sense of honor about him and his word is law. Both times he’s offered protection, guaranteed that they’ll be safe from any disturbances, etc. Nope. They still won’t do it. They’re level 5 at this point and haven’t once been to Castle Ravenloft. Other than quite literally kidnapping them, I get the feeling the whole party will end up missing what I think is one of the coolest moments in the adventure, which is a shame.
They started their adventure where our last campaign ended. There they met a woman. It was predictable that a friend of mine would try to take her to his room. There it turned out that she was a vampire. When they were following her, they got caught in the fog and fainted. After they woke up again, they were in Barovia.
I’m a brand new dm and have never actually played as a player either. Is it cheating or unimaginative of me to be taking so many notes from these articles? Cuz I am note taking like crazy but I don’t want to feel like I’m cheating my players? My players just hit level 4, and I had them start in death house and then fibbed and moved death house near krezck so they did the wizard of wines first. I also moved the tser pool to near krezck so they have met madam Eva and gotten their card reading. That was all my first session (about 8 hours of play). Next session I’m gunna try to tackle krezck and the abbey of saint markovia. The first session was mostly just investigating and combat and not much role play. How can I get my players (who are new to dnd as well) to role play more? How can I prepare myself to role play the village and NPCs? Any tips?