I have been asked to DM a COS games for a streaming channel. It is to be run in five 4 hour sessions. (Strahd light if you will) What would you cut out to make this happen?
Depends how fast your players are. I'd probably trim it down to nothing but the Village of Barovia, the fortune telling scene, and Castle Ravenloft itself.
Haven't completed my run of this campaign but I think the most easy shortcut is to replace the initial hook letter by the invitation to the diner and add the initial fortune reading to this initial encounter outside of Barovia and make sure that all 3 items can be obtained on the way to the castle.
Level up once/session ... start at level 5 ... play one location each day (not sure if you can keep to this). Limit the Tarot reading so that the items are only found in the places you go. You also need to decide how much role playing vs combat. Some of the locations are quite combat heavy of the 1 fight/day sort.
You need to figure out where you want to start. If beginning at a higher level then maybe make the party a group coming to Barovia to defeat a great evil.
- Intro to Barovia - pass through the village of Barovia - get a tarot reading at the Vistani camp - give them information they will need.
- Wizard of Wines/Yesterhill - the battle at Yesterhill can be much easier if they recover the Gulthias staff from the battle at the winery
- Village of Berez or Argynvostholt (but make the dragon skull accessible)
- Amber Temple - key part of Strahds back story
- Castle Ravenloft (this is huge but depending on timing they can either run into Strahd sooner or later)
The problem is that the Amber Temple and Ravenloft might easily be more than one session each.
I think you have to drop most of the lower level stuff - Old Bonegrinder/Barovia/Vallaki/Krezk and a lot of the sub plots and minor quests to try to keep it on track. Even then you should probably go over the content a few times to see what is manageable. I think the list I have above would be too much in practice and might have to come down to intro + one locaton + amber temple + ravenloft ... and that doesn't include any of the flavorful random encounters or map exploration encounters.
The problem is that I am 15 x 4 hour sessions into running CoS and still have the Amber Temple and Ravenloft to go which I expect will probably take 3-6 sessions depending on what is encountered, role playing and "random" encounters so I am not sure how to cut it down to play in 5 sessions unless you focus on the end game.
You can definitely do Barovia and Tser Encampment in four hours. My inclination would be to save the Castle for episode five. In four hour bites, I think you could do Bonegrinder, St. Andral’s Bones (and meeting van Richten), and van Richten’s Tower (with werewolf attack). Or maybe Argynvostholt with an additional werewolf attack.
James Haeck wrote a good article on this site called “Strahd Must Die Tonight” about doing the castle and final battle in a single four hour session, so maybe read that.
Level up once/session ... start at level 5 ... play one location each day (not sure if you can keep to this). Limit the Tarot reading so that the items are only found in the places you go. You also need to decide how much role playing vs combat. Some of the locations are quite combat heavy of the 1 fight/day sort.
You need to figure out where you want to start. If beginning at a higher level then maybe make the party a group coming to Barovia to defeat a great evil.
- Intro to Barovia - pass through the village of Barovia - get a tarot reading at the Vistani camp - give them information they will need.
- Wizard of Wines/Yesterhill - the battle at Yesterhill can be much easier if they recover the Gulthias staff from the battle at the winery
- Village of Berez or Argynvostholt (but make the dragon skull accessible)
- Amber Temple - key part of Strahds back story
- Castle Ravenloft (this is huge but depending on timing they can either run into Strahd sooner or later)
The problem is that the Amber Temple and Ravenloft might easily be more than one session each.
I think you have to drop most of the lower level stuff - Old Bonegrinder/Barovia/Vallaki/Krezk and a lot of the sub plots and minor quests to try to keep it on track. Even then you should probably go over the content a few times to see what is manageable. I think the list I have above would be too much in practice and might have to come down to intro + one locaton + amber temple + ravenloft ... and that doesn't include any of the flavorful random encounters or map exploration encounters.
The problem is that I am 15 x 4 hour sessions into running CoS and still have the Amber Temple and Ravenloft to go which I expect will probably take 3-6 sessions depending on what is encountered, role playing and "random" encounters so I am not sure how to cut it down to play in 5 sessions unless you focus on the end game.
I'm finding this formula quite manageable and keeping with the spirit and flavor of the game. I've found that keeping them on track with heavy narration works too. I wish this group had one extra session because I hate leaving out the Abbey. It's one of my favorite places to explore with new to COS players.
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I have been asked to DM a COS games for a streaming channel. It is to be run in five 4 hour sessions. (Strahd light if you will) What would you cut out to make this happen?
Depends how fast your players are. I'd probably trim it down to nothing but the Village of Barovia, the fortune telling scene, and Castle Ravenloft itself.
Haven't completed my run of this campaign but I think the most easy shortcut is to replace the initial hook letter by the invitation to the diner and add the initial fortune reading to this initial encounter outside of Barovia and make sure that all 3 items can be obtained on the way to the castle.
Level up once/session ... start at level 5 ... play one location each day (not sure if you can keep to this). Limit the Tarot reading so that the items are only found in the places you go. You also need to decide how much role playing vs combat. Some of the locations are quite combat heavy of the 1 fight/day sort.
You need to figure out where you want to start. If beginning at a higher level then maybe make the party a group coming to Barovia to defeat a great evil.
- Intro to Barovia - pass through the village of Barovia - get a tarot reading at the Vistani camp - give them information they will need.
- Wizard of Wines/Yesterhill - the battle at Yesterhill can be much easier if they recover the Gulthias staff from the battle at the winery
- Village of Berez or Argynvostholt (but make the dragon skull accessible)
- Amber Temple - key part of Strahds back story
- Castle Ravenloft (this is huge but depending on timing they can either run into Strahd sooner or later)
The problem is that the Amber Temple and Ravenloft might easily be more than one session each.
I think you have to drop most of the lower level stuff - Old Bonegrinder/Barovia/Vallaki/Krezk and a lot of the sub plots and minor quests to try to keep it on track. Even then you should probably go over the content a few times to see what is manageable. I think the list I have above would be too much in practice and might have to come down to intro + one locaton + amber temple + ravenloft ... and that doesn't include any of the flavorful random encounters or map exploration encounters.
The problem is that I am 15 x 4 hour sessions into running CoS and still have the Amber Temple and Ravenloft to go which I expect will probably take 3-6 sessions depending on what is encountered, role playing and "random" encounters so I am not sure how to cut it down to play in 5 sessions unless you focus on the end game.
You can definitely do Barovia and Tser Encampment in four hours. My inclination would be to save the Castle for episode five. In four hour bites, I think you could do Bonegrinder, St. Andral’s Bones (and meeting van Richten), and van Richten’s Tower (with werewolf attack). Or maybe Argynvostholt with an additional werewolf attack.
James Haeck wrote a good article on this site called “Strahd Must Die Tonight” about doing the castle and final battle in a single four hour session, so maybe read that.
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/17527/I6-Ravenloft-1e
;-)
Yeah, first edition Ravenloft is more appropriate scale, though it was originally designed to be powered through in one (long) session I believe.
I'm finding this formula quite manageable and keeping with the spirit and flavor of the game. I've found that keeping them on track with heavy narration works too. I wish this group had one extra session because I hate leaving out the Abbey. It's one of my favorite places to explore with new to COS players.