#Cos 5e

[thechekhov]

Hello! Just wanted to say I love all your content but I wanted to ask if you had any advice/tips for running curse of strahd? I'm working on getting ready to run it with some friends/my partner and while I've run a fair amount of homebrew stuff this is my real first attempt at a legit module so I was curious if you could share anything since I believe you also are running/had run that module as well?

Thanks for asking! This is a very fun question!

I have indeed run Curse of Strahd. It was my first foray into long-term DMing and my team and I finished that campaign a little under a year ago. It was awesome, and I'm always excited to talk about it. Curse of Strahd had be a great game if everyone is on the same page!

First of all, I'm gonna say

Having Experience with Homebrew will be a huge boon

When I ran CoS, I followed the actual module about... 60% of the time. It was good... as a baseline/blueprint. But the reality is that I changed up a lot of the details. Either because I didn't like the vibes of the story, or because the plot points were antithetical to my team's goals. I changed up an entire floor of Ravenloft. I threw away a whole storyline for a major NPC because I felt it was too boring.

I think most people who run Curse of Strahd do this, actually. I've heard countless tales of how others Homebrewed their own meat onto the skeleton, and still came out of the campaign with an awesome, Strahd flavored experience. So don't worry about that part.

Here's my advice:

1. Everyone should vibe with what Strahd IS as a game.

Strahd can be a lot of things - you can Homebrew your own motivations into him, or make him a her, or change the history of his castle if need be. But if there's one thing Curse of Strahd is... it is DARK.

The Venn Diagram of Parties Who Understand That Suffering Can Be Fun To Roleplay and Parties Who Had A Good Time Doing CoS is probably a circle. You cannot do this adventure with a group of people who just want to hit monsters a whole bunch. It's an inherently 'oh my god this SUCKS' adventure. That's the main theme. Your players need to be able to enjoy that sort of game, otherwise they will just be miserable.

One of my players, upon arriving in Barovia, immediately said 'I hate it here' and then continued to say it for the rest of the campaign. That is kind of the catchphrase of CoS. Your players need to be comfortable with that sort of bleak horror and overall misery. It makes the end and the potential to finally end Strahd worth it.

That being said, Strahd can also just be... a lot. It has death and torture and psychological horror in there. KIDS DIE. Please discuss this stuff with your table, and remove elements if they guarantee a bad experience for everyone!

(Yes, you can trim down some of the viscera if you need to, that's fine. But keep in mind it will still be tragic. It SHOULD still be tragic. I set some boundaries for myself, but I also killed a whole town in an avalanche. It happened to be the only town my players had grown to like. It was a dick move. It was exactly what you would expect to happen.)

2. Read ahead - A LOT AHEAD.

For a self-contained world, Barovia isn't actually that big. It's a very small map, compared to some that span continents. That means you have the ability to flesh it out, as it were.

To add to that... some areas are... severely underdeveloped plot-wise. Sometimes there are places your players will go where it FEELS like it should link up to another point in the game but it just... doesn't. There is room to expand there. Use your Homebrew skills to connect the dots that the module doesn't!

I greatly recommend taking the time to either read through the whole adventure OR listen through some video-essays. There IS some cool stuff that comes in in the later game that you can grab and put down breadcrumbs for from day one. Or add to your own story twists.

My recommended resource for this is the Curse of Strahd DM's Guide video series.

...and to that end...

3. Start living in Ravenloft Castle WAY before your players get there.

Listen..........listen. look.

Look at this, and suffer as all GMs have suffered.

Castle Ravenloft is unarguably the biggest, stupidest, most architecturally ludicrous hurdle when it comes to GMing CoS. And I am here to tell you - IT IS DOABLE.

You can understand the castle, you can grow comfortable with it. But you need to start early. Hell, I think I began to set up Ravenloft maps before my players even knew it existed. Then I stopped, because I was scared.. but then I went back, and I.... roleplayed SOLO on my off-days! I set up little scenes between Strahd and others and imagined him setting traps, and doing other things. It helped me understand which staircase led to where, and what floors were accessible from which angles.

A part of me actually thinks that there should be a mini GMs-only class where a more experienced Strahd GM takes some time with other GMs to guide them through a map of the castle. A CoS Learning Oneshot, if you will.

There's also a LOT of talented mapmakers that create beautiful, digital CoS maps! Here's one:

Even if you are playing analogue, at a physical table, I greatly encourage you to check it out for reference. The official CoS maps are bleak and a little bit more... rustic? Than they are gothic.

Anyway, in order to avoid talking your ear off, I will end it here.

My last bit of advice is... to have fun!

Yes I know I just said that Strahd is an inherently bad-vibes game. But it's actually GOOD to let your players goof off now and then. Don't be afraid to let them do shenanigans. It builds character, and allows them to regain the energy they need to role-play properly heavy elements later.

My group did a whole bunch of funny stuff. They felt so bad about losing Ireena that when they saw Ismark, instead of explaining themselves to him they cast Darkness and tried to scramble away. There was a running joke that the cleric was too good to know about sex, so they used the euphemism 'play cards' around her, much to everyone's amusement. They got kicked by a walking house once and never forgot nor forgave. And finally, they defeated some Flame Skulls by putting them into a bag of holding.

Anyway, the point is... have fun! I wish you and your party the best of luck. :)

[roguescorner]

Hag daughter !!

Some more of Ingrid, my Hexblade Warlock and the daughter of Baba Lysaga! Wanted to try to make it look like those old tapestries :)

[rose-reveries]

Me taking 5 seconds to create a meme to handle the days I’m not playing DND

[kmarks-art]

Ismark bein incomprehensibly charmed by my little elf bastard

[meeshnut]

AHHHH OH YEA

Kassie Ps ps ps’d at a smoke dragon??? through a fake wall in a dragon hold skipping a whole floor of content and SHE IS DETERMINED TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH IT

She also face -tanked some dead people while cheering her best friend esmie on lol

[vivtanner]

The Rookie & The Captain of the Guards - available on Tannenbaum Press till Nov 15th ⚔️

[curse-of-dming-strahd]

Oh right... The curse. The curse of Strahd. The curse chosen specially to torture Strahd, Strahd’s curse.

[moonbeambb]

I sure am glad none of my dnd party is on tumblr otherwise I’d be spoiling this MASTERPIECE @mooreaux created for them as their xmas present 🫡😩❤️❤️

[beckyblah]

yet another of my girl Ophelia!

[eliotbaum]

☑️ ezmeralda d'avenir joins the party

(our fated ally)

[v0id-seajay]

grahhhh finally drew strahd!!! design by dearest dm @tantaliax !!!!!! I have been SICK in the head about him lately. currently working on another drawing of him and my PC (whom I am going to post about soon) (ALSO NO COS SPOILERS IN TAGS PLEASE 💖)

[ashslayswrites]

𝙸𝚜𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝚡 𝙳𝚘𝚛𝚞! 💕 𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚋𝚢 @ampreh!

I will unfortunately never be normal about these two. The yearning in Ismark's eyes. The horrors in Doru's. I just want the best for this sweet golden retriever and his sad vampire boyfriend. 😭

Doru doesn’t want to admit that anything about his current predicament is something he should feel grateful for. But a fierce ache takes root inside him, and for the first time that he can remember, he’s at least somewhat glad he’s here, and that there are some idiots here with him who insist on loving him even when doing so has brought them nothing but trouble.

Read their story on Ao3!

𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘: The devil Strahd has been slain and the mists cutting Barovia off from the world have lifted. For Ismark Kolyanovich, this is met with mixed emotions as his best friend Doru—a rebel who was turned into a vampire spawn—remains cursed. Ismark journeys to Castle Ravenloft to meet its new owner and hopefully find a cure, only to discover an eccentric cleric with big plans to rebuild Barovia and make it a home for all things living and undead.

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: M | 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓: 55k total

𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄:

Angst with a Happy Ending

Hurt/ Comfort

Fluff and Angst

Friends to Lovers

Found Family

Idiots in Love

Grump x Golden Retriever

After the Adventure Healing

[panksage]

I’ve redesigned my familiar weasel for the Curse of Strahd, Mr Perriwrinkle

[syllyism]

is it part of the curse of strahd rite of passage that at least one pc will fall in love with victor vallakovich

[beetlebabby]

there's something strange about our friend vasili

comic i did based off of recent happenings in our campaign!

[vivtanner]

Devil's Companion & Demon General are among the prints available on Tannenbaum Press till Nov 15th ❤️‍🔥