30 Dec 2018
Approaching the Village
Supposed we just started our adventure there’s still a long way to go before arriving at the village. Independently from the Adventure Hook chosen your players will now be likely in front of the massive barovian gates. They might be suspicious but wait a second, what are those? Oh, those are wagon trails! People come and go from this place.
This is the moment where you as a DM have to slowly build trust and hope in your players, just to destroy them when the gates close behind the group and they find the real burgomaster’s letter.
This is an important moment because they’ll feel hopeless and oppressed, just as they should feel.
If you’re planning to run Death House don’t run any combat encounter. Let the player with the highest perception (the DC doesn’t matter) find the hidden trail and let the party safely arrive to the Village of Barovia.
Areas of the Village
I never used the random house occupants table and I advice you not to use them either. Most of the people won’t even check the houses and fighting against some random rats isn’t fun.
Bildrath’s Mercantile
Remember that if played as written players can’t buy weapons in Barovia. This of course should change if you decided to strip your group of all the gear before entering the demiplane. For some flavor remember that Parriwimple is very muscular and big but “simple-minded”
Blood of the Vine Tavern
This is the hub of the Village Of Barovia. Here the players will find Ismark. He gave up on life and if you played Dark Souls he’s really similar to the Crestfallen Warrior. Some Vistani are also present in the tavern and they offer a good moment of visual contrast.
Mad Mary’s Townhouse
The players just escaped from a house that tried to lure them in with crying children, and even so, in a place like this almost no one would trust a mad and crying woman. Her quest isn’t that interesting either and most players will probably forget it (especially since it’s given so soon and can be completed only late game)
Burgomaster’s Mansion
Here the players will meet Ireena. Be ready to talk to yourself while roleplaying Ireena and Ismark. Strahd wants to marry Ireena because she is a reincarnation of Tatyana (but she doesn’t know that). Her house has been under siege for days and her father died because of a hearth attack caused by the attacks. Ismark wants that the players help Ireena and find her a safe place to stay but she won’t go anywhere before giving a burial to her father.
Ireena
Remember that Ireena is adopted but she doesn’t know that. She is also the sister of Izek, a man living in Vallaki and obsessed by her. This plot line is a good way of making someone involved in the story. One of your players might be Ireena’s and Izek’s brother as well.
Church
The church is destroyed and as soon as the group enters they hear screams coming from the basement. If properly roleplayed this is a really spooky scene. Doru is locked under the church. He is Donavich’s son that has fallen by the hand of Strahd and turned into a vampire spawn. Donavich is too weak to kill his son and he keeps praying hoping that he will turn back human. He will perform the burial if asked and he will show his son to the party as well if questioned, but he won’t allow anyone to hurt him. If his son gets killed he probably will commit suicide. If the party (or Ireena) asks him about a safe place he will recommend first the church of Vallaki and then the Abbey of Krezk.
Special Events
Dream Pastries
This is probably one of the best special events in the whole book. Don’t show the players the photo of Morgantha and don’t let the players see that she is kidnapping children. Let her come close to the party, talk like an old granny to them and try to sell them a pastry. If they ask why they cost so much let her answer that “it’s because they cure bad nightmares”. Try to hint at the fact that the people are happy to buy the pastries and don’t seem forced to do so. The Windmill’s Hags are some good recurrent NPCs for the party since they travel a lot selling pastries.
March of the Dead
This is one of those events that are cool on paper but really hard to convey by words. Most groups will follow the dead until the castle and not more than that so they’ll miss the end of the march. Also this event implies that a lot of adventurers came by in the past. Personally I don’t like this idea, in my Barovia people who dare to defy Strahd are sparse and few in numbers.
Wrapping Up
The typical Barovia session will go like this
- Players arrive in Barovia
- Enter and exit the Death House alive (optional)
- They see Morgantha and inquire about the pastries
- They’re in some way directed to the inn where they get to know Ismark that invites the player to his home
- There they become acquainted with Ireena and they help her bury her father
- Once the deed is done they leave Barovia and head to Vallaki
Read full article
30 Dec 2018
How To Survive (DMing) The Most Deadly House in Barovia
Death House is a free adventure given out as a preview for the Curse Of Strahd book. It takes the players from level 1 to 3 and it’s notoriously deadly. You’re not obliged to run it for your party and you can even start the whole adventure at level 3 but I think it’s a fun little dungeon, if you know how to run it, that will take two or three sessions to complete it.
Before You Start
Death House is a house situated in the Village Of Barovia, so before everything else you need to figure out if you want to run it or not. Don’t just drop the players in front of the children, make them go trough the initial adventure hook and trough the Gates Of Barovia. Let your party familiarize with the world and show them Rose And Thorn only when it’s natural for your players to see them. It’s not a good idea to force them to go into the house or listen to the children.
Don’t railroad the story. Contrarily to what’s written in the book don’t place the mist around the house. Let your players choose. If they don’t show interest in the house then just go ahead with the story (so it’s best if you prepare Barovia as well).
If they instead choose to listen to the children then don’t show them the picture for god’s sake, who would trust some spooky children like those? Also remember, they’re powerful illusions. Even if they’re touched the character won’t see trough the illusion (but allow a Wisdom saving throw!)
Inside the House
A lot of good articles has been written about modifying the place so I won’t repeat the same stuff over and over. You can find them all here:
I’ll just go and make a few points of what I think is “bad” in the original module or could be made better.
- First of all descriptions. There’s lots of empty rooms in the house and you don’t want to bore the players; have all the descriptions ready and read them when needed. There’s also a free DM’s Guild resource with some premade descriptions!
- Then combat. Most of the players don’t care about low level combat, and it’s almost universally considered bad,, especially if it’s there just for the sake of being there. Please, don’t make the players fight the animated broom or the armor, it will just kill the mood.
- The story of the house is really interesting. Let the players discover it piece by piece. Don’t give it to them all at once.
- The specter encounter is really hard. Let the players “win” it without fighting, award intelligent plays.
- Once the players descend into the basement play some music, some chants. Make the atmosphere feel as overwhelming as possible. They will feel some real relief once they exit the house.
- Contrarily to what people say I don’t think it’s necessary to change the end encounter in the house. Sacrificing someone isn’t forced on anyone and if the Shambling Moud is actually summoned then the players can simply outrun it. Let your players learn that non every adventure is won by fighting.
- The transforming house is a really memorable experience, but a very deadly one. Hint at the fact that the walls can be broken and maybe lower the DC and the damage of the door blades.
Outside the House
This is your first real opportunity to show Strahd to the players. Use it. Let him be there, outside the house as the players exit it running and almost dead.
Right as you exit the house you hear some slow claps coming from somewhere on the right. You turn to the source of the sound and you see a man in a cloak next to a pitch black horse “I saw you survived this little house. Well done, you must be truly heroes” he says in a sarcastic voice “I can’t wait to see what you’re capable of. For the time being, I have a present for you”. He points his hand at a basket full of fresh fruits lying on the ground next to you. “I hope you like it”. He then turns and gets on his horse. “Oh, and welcome to Barovia” he says while rearing his horse and then immediately flying up into the pitch black sky.
Introducing the group to the main villain of the adventure so early on is an amazing thing and very few adventures do so. It makes Strahd look really human and terrifying.
And now that your players (hopefully) survived the Death House they can start exploring the desolate town of Barovia.
Read full article
30 Dec 2018
Player Options, Initial Prep, Hooks and More
So, you just bought Curse Of Strahd and you want to jump straight into action? Well, you’re almost there. First we need to make some busywork so your adventure goes as smooth as it can. Don’t worry, it won’t take long!
Player Options:
One big thing to consider is how much your players will be invested in the story. CoS is a big sandbox adventure and in some points if you’re players don’t have a motif they’ll be left wandering in the lands of Barovia without a goal. As a DM you, of course, want to avoid it.
A good option often suggested is to make one of the players take the role of Ireena Kolyana which is basically the damsel in distress of the adventure. She is mostly considered to be a drag for the party and making her a PC is a good way of solving this problem. If you want to use this approach be sure to read her whole backstory and plot-line! Briefly Strahd wants to marry her and she has to escape first to Vallaki and then to Krezk with the help of the party. Be wary that by doing so you’ll probably make one of your players more important than the others!
Another cool idea is to make one character tied to Barovia somehow. Maybe he was born here, or maybe he is a paladin whose goal is to defeat Strahd. Maybe his patron is one of the Dark Powers! (More on them later) Who knows? You have unlimited possibilities, be sure to use them. Let the players make the story, don’t let them just play it.
Initial Preparations:
Before you start you want to have some stuff ready. First of all read the Introduction and the First Chapter of the book. There you will learn a bit about the backstory of the land and about something called the Tarot Cards, we’ll talk about them in a bit. In the introduction you’ll also find some good ideas on how to convey horror to your players, this is supposed to be a scary adventure after all!
You don’t need to remember everything but you want to get the general feel of the adventure. What is Barovia? What kind of person is Strahd? Etc.
Story Hooks
You’ll also need to choose a story hook. I suggest Plea For Help since it’s one of the most interesting ones in my opinion. Arrigal is your typical sly and mysterious guy with a slavic accent. The letter also helps to subvert the expectations of the players later on and you can easily use it to bring multiple characters together.
On the following day after receiving the letter everyone of you decided to check the meeting place mentioned in the envelope ready to find an army of people waiting to reclaim the treasures of Barovia. To your great surprise you discover just a handful of people looking all surprised as you do.
The players don’t have to be all in a tavern if you don’t like starting your game in a “mainstream” way, and also there’s a physical prop if you play in person. Those are always cool!
Tarot Readings
It’s not explained that well in the book (at least in my opinion) but that’s how you do it: you do it before starting the adventure by yourself and write down the readings, and then once the players reach Madame Eva at the Tser Pool encampment you redo the reading with the same outcome.
In my opion random results, while being cool and interesting, are always inferior than something finely crafted. That’s why my suggestion is to choose the results instead of randomly drawing them, especially since you’ll have to do a fake reading for your players anyways.
I don’t have a list of best options but I can give you a couple of suggestions. Mordekainen is a really interesting ally, given his backstory and relevance. Ezmerelda is really powerful (but a bit lacking lore-wise). Ireena could be an interesting choice as well, especially since most of the players will be already invested in her (be ready to buff her up a bit though). As for the items for defeating Strahd try placing them in significant spots for your party. There are lots of locations in Barovia and some of them won’t be really relevant to your players. Making them go there just because of some profecy isn’t that great.
Player Death and Dark Powers
I’m one of those DMs that don’t like randomly killing players. Even if they deserved it, even if they did something really stupid. Their actions should have consequences, but none of them should be death. And Barovia is a grim and unforgiving place. If you play it as written then many characters will perish. That’s when the Dark Powers come into play. They are the true enemy of this campaign and they control Strahd and the land itself. They don’t come into play until late in the game (Amber Temple) but I think it’s a missed opportunity.
Vampyr is the one that has chosen Strahd as his champion so it should have very big interest in the party. But generically speaking every Dark Power will have eyes on every evil (or even powerful) character in the group. If one of your players dies take this opportunity and introduce the beings to your party. Show the dead player an illusion and let them choose if to take the weird offering. If they do they come back with a Dark Gift as well as a new flaw (those are listed in the Amber Temple section of the book). Now not only you prevented a character’s death but you also created a memorable moment!
End Goal
It’s a bit early for this but you should start thinking about it, how do you want your adventure to end? This post has some really great ideas. I really like the idea of having three endings.
- Bad ending: One of the players learns about the Dark Gifts and decides that he wants to replace Strahd. In the book is written that Strahd would never allow such a thing but it’s really a wasted opportunity. Let your party learn about Vampyr during the campaign and give someone the chance to accept his Gift. Now the goal of that player becomes to defeat Strahd and take his place
- Neutral enging: This is the ending present in the book. The players defeat Strahd, free some people from Barovia and escape themselves, just to find out that he came back. Welp, I guess it’s time to come back for him!
- Good enging: The true ending. Instead of accepting Vampyr’s gift they destroy his vestige thus freeing him into the world. The players are transported into a new demiplane and you can go all crazy with that. Remember that he should be almost as powerful as a god (~CR25) so you’ll need to buff the party somehow (and get ready for an epic fight).
Now that you fleshed out all of these details you’re ready to do a Session Zero with your players and create your characters. Just be sure not to tell them too much about the world so they can discover it by themselves! One of the best parts of the adventure is crossing the gates and realizing there’s no way back.
Read full article