Hello, for the last few months I've been running a very successful Curse of Strahd campaign with my usual group of players. Now that we are on the verge of finishing I've become more and more intrigued with learning more about how other groups have gone about completing the campaign. Such things as where were your treasures located? Who was your enemy of Strahd? Did you feel they were a good addition to the party or simply an exp drain? Were there any areas on the map that you had difficulty getting the players explore? Did you avoid or re-work any areas? How difficult did the areas feel? underpowered? overpowered? What were some of the hardest fights? What type of harassment did you have Strahd do on the party? Did Strahd succeed in any of his goals, or was he even defeated at all? Plus your thoughts, comments and additions.
I'm excited to see with what we all came up with. I'll add my own timeline and thoughts as soon as my campaign is officially finished!
My players and I were very satisfied with how things finished up. We all had a victory beer and basked in the afterglow. It's been a very very long time since any of us has done a pre made campaign (we usually make up our own games and worlds) so we are feeling a great sense of accomplishment. With time constraints my group and I were getting short Roll20 games in one or twice a week, usually going for 3.5 hours each. At this pace, it took us just under 6 months to finish the book. The group was pretty thorough and didn't leaving anything unexplored.
I used a custom intro to get them into Barovia. They were all part of a harvest festival that was suddenly overtaken with fog during an event, they got lost and had a night of horror and woke up exhausted and frightened in the Barovian Woods.
To get them up to seed, we ran through the Death House starter mod presented in the back. We all thought it was a great intro game to get characters to level 3. The house is creepy, dangerous, and has lots of typical haunted house stuff that help set the mood. The ghost on the 2nd level was a serious fight! Amazingly enough nobody died. Everyone made it to the celer and defeated the plant monster there. Low on HP, everyone felt a bit miffed when the house attacked them as they left, once again, no death, but a few close calls.
Once out the party bumped into Ismark and almostly instantly agreed to help him bury his father and then escort he and his sister to Vallaki. After burying the father the group was offered lodgings for the night in their manor, only to be visited by Strahd that very night. I had Strahd hypnotize one of the characters in their sleep and so they made their way down stairs and began to noisily unlock the door. The rest of the group, hearing the commotion, rushed down stairs and restrained their charmed friend before he could fully open the door and invite Strahd in. Having Strahd appear out of the gate was really fun and thinking of ways to taunt and test he party became a kind of hobby for me.
On the road to Vallaki the group got a card reading from the Vistani. They learned that the Symbol of raven kind was behind a set of amber doors (Amber Temple) the sun-sword was with the mother of Evil ( Strahd's Mother's Tomb) and the Tome of Strahd was in the monster's lair ( Strahds Tomb) So...lots of end game stuff. Personal GM note: If your party is holding off and holding off on going to the castle or only intends to make one trip. You might want to change the locations. My group was so excited to finally get this stuff that they had been searching for and then barely got to use it before the game ended.
The enemy of Strahd was the innocent: or the big lad Parpol in the village of barovia. He has the stats of a Gladiator (3 attacks) and was a huge help to the party throughout the game. He was by far the only NPC that earned his keep for the exp cut that he took. Learning that he was so close, the party found and recruited him the same day as the card reading. Lastly, they learned that Strahd was to be found in his throne room.
After the card reading they made their way to the old bone grinder and were fed a delicious fried chicken dinner and succulent dream cakes for dessert. Having found the deed to the old mill in the Death House one of the characters tried to get back rent from the 3 night hags. they deflected and said to come back after they had collected some money together. As the party left, they secretly cursed several of the party members, which was suspicious. Ismark also began to feel ill as the night hags began to feast on his soul nightly as they followed them to the gates of Vallaki.
I've been running CoS with major tweaks. The end goal is still the same, I still use the Taroka and let that stand as a central guide to keep momentum in the sandbox. I'm throwing in elements of all my favorite horror movies. I'm having a blast with it and so is my group, although I'm not sure if they realize what I'm doing. It's hard to recognize a side story as being Suspiria if you've never seen Suspiria ;)
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Welcome to the Grand Illusion, come on in and see what's happening, pay the price, get your ticket for the show....
I've been running CoS with major tweaks. The end goal is still the same, I still use the Taroka and let that stand as a central guide to keep momentum in the sandbox. I'm throwing in elements of all my favorite horror movies. I'm having a blast with it and so is my group, although I'm not sure if they realize what I'm doing. It's hard to recognize a side story as being Suspiria if you've never seen Suspiria ;)
That sounds like a lot of fun! At some point we may run through it again. Since there is the sandbox aspect of the game and the random chance with the cards it could be a lot of fun, but this time with alterations. I really like your horror movie idea. I want to add a creature from the black lagoon into the lake now :P I haven't checked out Suspiria yet. Thanks for the recommendation, I'm a huge horror buff.
One thing that my group did was play with the optional sanity rules. I had each character roll 4k3D6 and use that as their sanity stat. I didn't tell them what it was. I also gave each character a personal trigger based on their experience on how they first entered barovia, for them to roll against their deep seeded fear. Examples were, when the character is being chased, trapped up high with danger below, in total darkness, finds a severed body part, etc. Each time they failed i had them roll on the minor sanity chart, If they failed by 10 or more, i had them roll on the bigger sanity chart. Also, every time the character failed by 10 or more, their score went down by one, making it harder to make their next check. :)
Enjoy your run through. I intend to continue My group's epic here as time permits. thanks for sharing.
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Hello, for the last few months I've been running a very successful Curse of Strahd campaign with my usual group of players. Now that we are on the verge of finishing I've become more and more intrigued with learning more about how other groups have gone about completing the campaign. Such things as where were your treasures located? Who was your enemy of Strahd? Did you feel they were a good addition to the party or simply an exp drain? Were there any areas on the map that you had difficulty getting the players explore? Did you avoid or re-work any areas? How difficult did the areas feel? underpowered? overpowered? What were some of the hardest fights? What type of harassment did you have Strahd do on the party? Did Strahd succeed in any of his goals, or was he even defeated at all? Plus your thoughts, comments and additions.
I'm excited to see with what we all came up with. I'll add my own timeline and thoughts as soon as my campaign is officially finished!
Good Gaming.
DD.
GAME COMPLETED!
My players and I were very satisfied with how things finished up. We all had a victory beer and basked in the afterglow. It's been a very very long time since any of us has done a pre made campaign (we usually make up our own games and worlds) so we are feeling a great sense of accomplishment. With time constraints my group and I were getting short Roll20 games in one or twice a week, usually going for 3.5 hours each. At this pace, it took us just under 6 months to finish the book. The group was pretty thorough and didn't leaving anything unexplored.
I used a custom intro to get them into Barovia. They were all part of a harvest festival that was suddenly overtaken with fog during an event, they got lost and had a night of horror and woke up exhausted and frightened in the Barovian Woods.
To get them up to seed, we ran through the Death House starter mod presented in the back. We all thought it was a great intro game to get characters to level 3. The house is creepy, dangerous, and has lots of typical haunted house stuff that help set the mood. The ghost on the 2nd level was a serious fight! Amazingly enough nobody died. Everyone made it to the celer and defeated the plant monster there. Low on HP, everyone felt a bit miffed when the house attacked them as they left, once again, no death, but a few close calls.
Once out the party bumped into Ismark and almostly instantly agreed to help him bury his father and then escort he and his sister to Vallaki. After burying the father the group was offered lodgings for the night in their manor, only to be visited by Strahd that very night. I had Strahd hypnotize one of the characters in their sleep and so they made their way down stairs and began to noisily unlock the door. The rest of the group, hearing the commotion, rushed down stairs and restrained their charmed friend before he could fully open the door and invite Strahd in. Having Strahd appear out of the gate was really fun and thinking of ways to taunt and test he party became a kind of hobby for me.
On the road to Vallaki the group got a card reading from the Vistani. They learned that the Symbol of raven kind was behind a set of amber doors (Amber Temple) the sun-sword was with the mother of Evil ( Strahd's Mother's Tomb) and the Tome of Strahd was in the monster's lair ( Strahds Tomb) So...lots of end game stuff. Personal GM note: If your party is holding off and holding off on going to the castle or only intends to make one trip. You might want to change the locations. My group was so excited to finally get this stuff that they had been searching for and then barely got to use it before the game ended.
The enemy of Strahd was the innocent: or the big lad Parpol in the village of barovia. He has the stats of a Gladiator (3 attacks) and was a huge help to the party throughout the game. He was by far the only NPC that earned his keep for the exp cut that he took. Learning that he was so close, the party found and recruited him the same day as the card reading. Lastly, they learned that Strahd was to be found in his throne room.
After the card reading they made their way to the old bone grinder and were fed a delicious fried chicken dinner and succulent dream cakes for dessert. Having found the deed to the old mill in the Death House one of the characters tried to get back rent from the 3 night hags. they deflected and said to come back after they had collected some money together. As the party left, they secretly cursed several of the party members, which was suspicious. Ismark also began to feel ill as the night hags began to feast on his soul nightly as they followed them to the gates of Vallaki.
End part 1.
I've been running CoS with major tweaks. The end goal is still the same, I still use the Taroka and let that stand as a central guide to keep momentum in the sandbox. I'm throwing in elements of all my favorite horror movies. I'm having a blast with it and so is my group, although I'm not sure if they realize what I'm doing. It's hard to recognize a side story as being Suspiria if you've never seen Suspiria ;)
Welcome to the Grand Illusion, come on in and see what's happening, pay the price, get your ticket for the show....