My group has made 3 characters each, we will be playing through the AL adventures for the Curse of Strahd season to get all characters to level 4, then each player will bring their favorite character into Curse of Strahd.
That being said, I haven't run Curse of Strahd, and I've barely looked into it. Luckily, I have time. I was just wondering what tips anyone could give for running curse of Strahd. I really want Strahd to become an iconic villain that the players will always remember. I also want it to be a very horror-esque themed campaign, so any tips to heighten the thriller/horror aspects would be greatly appreciated!
I just noticed this post. I've been running it for about a year now with two groups (each of which only meets about once per month). One thing I will definitely recommend is to make sure you steer them toward Irina and Izmark very early. It was only a stroke of luck that the first group decided to go back to the village of Barovia so I could incorporate them into the game.
I think I may have waited a bit too long to have Strahd show up to mess with the PCs, having only done so with one group so far during the most recent session. I think it would've been helpful to have him show up at least once beforehand to give them the "We're screwed!" feeling.
Providing the proper horror-laden atmosphere can be difficult in D&D, since it's a game that lends itself toward powerful characters. I try to supplement by playing a mix of tracks by the bands Midnight Syndicate and Nox Arcana. If possible, playing by fire/candlelight also helps a lot. Otherwise, you just have to make sure your descriptions carry across the right measure of creepiness. Some of the descriptions in the book are actually a bit over the top and elicited laughs from the players. (One example is the description of Wachterhaus as "seem[ing] disgusted with itself." Of course, YMMV; I'm sure there are some groups who actually found that very evocative.) When prepping for a session, maybe try reading some of the boxed text aloud to see how it sounds.
I've never run Curse of Strahd, but I've run horror themed D&D and Call of Cthulhu games before, and playing by firelight and with creepy ambient music does add to it, if your players are into that. But a lot of the horror writing in D&D is admittedly campy, it's like a 50's b movie or a tales from the crypt episode, it can hard to take completely seriously. If you really want to spook out your players, you sort of have to screw with them psychologically. I throw in a lot of inconsequential 'strange, unexplained happenings' as red herrings, to keep the players paranoid and unsure of what's a threat and what isn't. It's best to make them somewhat plausible, or seem like odd coincidences. There was a D&D book, third edition I think, called 'Heroes of Horror' that had a table where you could roll percentile dice for random horror mood effects, most of which were actually pretty good. Another thing that helps (I've tried this) is to try to tailor the creepy effects toward individual characters' backgrounds. As far as creating compelling and memorable villains goes, make them truly despicable, and give the PCs a reason to hate them or want revenge.
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My group has made 3 characters each, we will be playing through the AL adventures for the Curse of Strahd season to get all characters to level 4, then each player will bring their favorite character into Curse of Strahd.
That being said, I haven't run Curse of Strahd, and I've barely looked into it. Luckily, I have time. I was just wondering what tips anyone could give for running curse of Strahd. I really want Strahd to become an iconic villain that the players will always remember. I also want it to be a very horror-esque themed campaign, so any tips to heighten the thriller/horror aspects would be greatly appreciated!
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I just noticed this post. I've been running it for about a year now with two groups (each of which only meets about once per month). One thing I will definitely recommend is to make sure you steer them toward Irina and Izmark very early. It was only a stroke of luck that the first group decided to go back to the village of Barovia so I could incorporate them into the game.
I think I may have waited a bit too long to have Strahd show up to mess with the PCs, having only done so with one group so far during the most recent session. I think it would've been helpful to have him show up at least once beforehand to give them the "We're screwed!" feeling.
Providing the proper horror-laden atmosphere can be difficult in D&D, since it's a game that lends itself toward powerful characters. I try to supplement by playing a mix of tracks by the bands Midnight Syndicate and Nox Arcana. If possible, playing by fire/candlelight also helps a lot. Otherwise, you just have to make sure your descriptions carry across the right measure of creepiness. Some of the descriptions in the book are actually a bit over the top and elicited laughs from the players. (One example is the description of Wachterhaus as "seem[ing] disgusted with itself." Of course, YMMV; I'm sure there are some groups who actually found that very evocative.) When prepping for a session, maybe try reading some of the boxed text aloud to see how it sounds.
I've never run Curse of Strahd, but I've run horror themed D&D and Call of Cthulhu games before, and playing by firelight and with creepy ambient music does add to it, if your players are into that. But a lot of the horror writing in D&D is admittedly campy, it's like a 50's b movie or a tales from the crypt episode, it can hard to take completely seriously. If you really want to spook out your players, you sort of have to screw with them psychologically. I throw in a lot of inconsequential 'strange, unexplained happenings' as red herrings, to keep the players paranoid and unsure of what's a threat and what isn't. It's best to make them somewhat plausible, or seem like odd coincidences. There was a D&D book, third edition I think, called 'Heroes of Horror' that had a table where you could roll percentile dice for random horror mood effects, most of which were actually pretty good. Another thing that helps (I've tried this) is to try to tailor the creepy effects toward individual characters' backgrounds. As far as creating compelling and memorable villains goes, make them truly despicable, and give the PCs a reason to hate them or want revenge.