So I had some inspiration the other day to write a gothic horror adventure, and I was in the middle of research when I stumbled appon Curse of Strahd, which I’d heard of, but I didn’t know that much about. Anyway, I’ve Now read a lot of reviews, and read through a large chunk of the adventure and I think it’s pretty sweet. Here’s my problem, the group I DM for is only 3 people deep. And I feel like a lot of the adventure could be seen as filler since the main dungeon is Castle Raven Loft.
So here are my options as I see: Write my own adventure which I’m completely fine with. or option 2: heavily adapting the Curse of a Strahd to fit my needs.
Would editing COS be more difficult then it’s worth? If I cut out the Towns of Valleke, or If I cut the amber Temple etc... break the game?
One of the nice things about Curse of Strahd is that it is relatively easy to cut out whole sections of the adventure without drastically altering the story or the end result. Whether your players will see these other sections as filler really depends on how much they're into the tropes of Gothic Horror. Before running the adventure, I would strongly suggest you make sure your players are on board with the genre and everything it entails.
That said, if they are into Gothic Horror, Curse of Strahd offers a wide variety of scenarios, and most of them are very well done. Having played through the adventure, I really enjoyed some of the sections that didn't necessarily have that much to do with Strahd himself. But you should really feel free to condense or cut out sections as needed. You just need to make sure your players are in the appropriate level range when they do finally come face to face with the titular antagonist.
Hey Guys,
So I had some inspiration the other day to write a gothic horror adventure, and I was in the middle of research when I stumbled appon Curse of Strahd, which I’d heard of, but I didn’t know that much about. Anyway, I’ve Now read a lot of reviews, and read through a large chunk of the adventure and I think it’s pretty sweet. Here’s my problem, the group I DM for is only 3 people deep. And I feel like a lot of the adventure could be seen as filler since the main dungeon is Castle Raven Loft.
So here are my options as I see: Write my own adventure which I’m completely fine with. or option 2: heavily adapting the Curse of a Strahd to fit my needs.
Would editing COS be more difficult then it’s worth? If I cut out the Towns of Valleke, or If I cut the amber Temple etc... break the game?
thanks for the advice!
One of the nice things about Curse of Strahd is that it is relatively easy to cut out whole sections of the adventure without drastically altering the story or the end result. Whether your players will see these other sections as filler really depends on how much they're into the tropes of Gothic Horror. Before running the adventure, I would strongly suggest you make sure your players are on board with the genre and everything it entails.
That said, if they are into Gothic Horror, Curse of Strahd offers a wide variety of scenarios, and most of them are very well done. Having played through the adventure, I really enjoyed some of the sections that didn't necessarily have that much to do with Strahd himself. But you should really feel free to condense or cut out sections as needed. You just need to make sure your players are in the appropriate level range when they do finally come face to face with the titular antagonist.