Hello everyone! My name is Dylan and I've started playing DnD last year around September. I play with relatively new group of players we are just about to finish our first campaign Dragon of Icespire Peak(more of a learning campaign for all of us lol.) We are all excited to move on to a new longer campaign. I've landed on Curse of Strahd, mostly because I love Gothic horror, but also because my wife bought me the the revamped set for Christmas. I've read through book a few times now, made my notes. But I wanted to get some advice from some you wonderful DMs(or players even) who have played CoS before. What kind of things worked and what didn't? Did you lose any of your players attention on the story? If so what would you have done differently? Alot of the tips I have read lead me to believe I should focus the campaign on Strahd, should that be the case or should I find room for the possibility of new and dangerous enemies? Sorry about the wall of text, I'm loving being a dungeon master and wish I would have started when I was younger! Any advice is appreciated. Thank you!!
As a player in it, the biggest challenge so far is that your characters background have very little impact on the setting. It’s very much about the campaign story, not so much about individual character stories.
Also, the premise that you are trapped in this area feels a bit railroady.
finally, make sure you actually want to play horror and focus on immersion. You can play it as a happy go lucky story, but it’s mostly designed for immersion and terror.
Great advice! My players are extremely excited for the darker atmosphere, so I'm not so concerned about the genre.
Funny enough you brought up 2 of issues I'm having some internal conflict about.
Our current campaign is chock full of character backstory that has impacted the setting quite a bit. And after reading the material I could see how the character development could get pushed aside for the story.
I'm playing with the idea of allowing the players to eventually leave area and possibly travel outside. My issue with that is I feel like it might undermine Strahd and the power he has over the realm.
Thanks for replying with that BTW. Really helped confirm my initial suspicion.
My general advice is to break it down into segments and run it more like a series of episodes with a common plot thread. When your guys are in the village of Barovia, lean in to the scary parts there and don't try to always tie everything into Strahd and Ravenloft. The DM is sort of like the Cryptkeeper or Elvira running a midnight movie festival. You know you're going to see Strahd at the end, but don't forget to enjoy the other ones along the way. Make sure your players know that you intend to run a pretty high-lethality game and not to spend too much time on background for their characters. Inform them that running away is an acceptable answer for many of their problems.
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Hello everyone! My name is Dylan and I've started playing DnD last year around September. I play with relatively new group of players we are just about to finish our first campaign Dragon of Icespire Peak(more of a learning campaign for all of us lol.) We are all excited to move on to a new longer campaign. I've landed on Curse of Strahd, mostly because I love Gothic horror, but also because my wife bought me the the revamped set for Christmas. I've read through book a few times now, made my notes. But I wanted to get some advice from some you wonderful DMs(or players even) who have played CoS before. What kind of things worked and what didn't? Did you lose any of your players attention on the story? If so what would you have done differently? Alot of the tips I have read lead me to believe I should focus the campaign on Strahd, should that be the case or should I find room for the possibility of new and dangerous enemies? Sorry about the wall of text, I'm loving being a dungeon master and wish I would have started when I was younger! Any advice is appreciated. Thank you!!
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/189372/A-Guide-to-Curse-of-Strahd
this is pay what you want, but throw Sean a bone it’s worth your time and a few bucks! You can find it on his website for free too - get it 👍
Awesome! I'll check it out thanks for the link.
As a player in it, the biggest challenge so far is that your characters background have very little impact on the setting. It’s very much about the campaign story, not so much about individual character stories.
Also, the premise that you are trapped in this area feels a bit railroady.
finally, make sure you actually want to play horror and focus on immersion. You can play it as a happy go lucky story, but it’s mostly designed for immersion and terror.
Great advice! My players are extremely excited for the darker atmosphere, so I'm not so concerned about the genre.
Funny enough you brought up 2 of issues I'm having some internal conflict about.
Our current campaign is chock full of character backstory that has impacted the setting quite a bit. And after reading the material I could see how the character development could get pushed aside for the story.
I'm playing with the idea of allowing the players to eventually leave area and possibly travel outside. My issue with that is I feel like it might undermine Strahd and the power he has over the realm.
Thanks for replying with that BTW. Really helped confirm my initial suspicion.
My general advice is to break it down into segments and run it more like a series of episodes with a common plot thread. When your guys are in the village of Barovia, lean in to the scary parts there and don't try to always tie everything into Strahd and Ravenloft. The DM is sort of like the Cryptkeeper or Elvira running a midnight movie festival. You know you're going to see Strahd at the end, but don't forget to enjoy the other ones along the way. Make sure your players know that you intend to run a pretty high-lethality game and not to spend too much time on background for their characters. Inform them that running away is an acceptable answer for many of their problems.