Hi, I'm a new DM. Earlier this year, my daughter watched/loved the series "Stranger Things" which got her interested in DnD so we bought the Stranger Things starter set and, as I'm the only one with enough experience in adventuring (on the computer)- Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Rogue, that sort of thing- I became the DM by default.
Our party had a great time. Now we want to get into something else, so I got the Curse of Strahd book and Tarokka deck for Christmas, and I'm about to get the ball rolling.
Here's my question: Regarding the introductory crawl in the Death House: Is it basically just an exploration throughout the house, as per the book? Or do I make semi-random monsters pop up now and again? In my experience on the computer games, you basically trundle along and hack-and-slash when you get into a new room, then look for treasure/traps/doors. I don't know if I should be doing something like that throughout Curse of Strahd, or if I should just follow along the locations in the book and limit the encounters to what has been provided.
Thanks for any advice about how to run this adventure.
No, just follow along. There are plenty of places in Death House (especially the finale) where an inexperienced party can TPK. You might even want to let them know that running away is a perfectly acceptable solution. The exploration through the haunted house is a mood-building exercise. All you really want to do is scare the players a bit while you get them up to third level where they can actually survive the next wave of challenges. CoS is a horror campaign and hacking and slashing is not only out of touch with the mood, it's super-dangerous since the players are going to be outgunned for a long time. What you should concentrate on to fill the dead space is using descriptions to make the place seem extra-spooky while the players unravel the mystery of what happened here to ghost-ify these two kids.
I agree with Tim - it's more about setting the creepy vibe for the rest of the game. I highly recommend supplementing with innocuous but creepy sounds or descriptions - anything that might put them on edge thinking they are about to be attacked, but then nothing happens.
Having run it, there are several encounters in the house - animated armor, the ghost of the children's nurse, and a few others. In addition, the module is setup with the expectation that the character's will have to run from the last room in the basement. Standing and fighting could well result in a TPK since the shambling mound is very dangerous to low level characters. However, the ghosts of dead children play a key role in the Death House. They were left to starve in the attic by their parents.
So, if you are going to run CoS for children, I think you may need to filter/edit the content depending on your children and whoever else is playing. CoS has some very disturbing elements.
I posted the following in a different thread but it is probably worth considering if you are running CoS for children.
My post was in response to the following disclaimer that another poster had incorporated in their post - I don't know the source or original author of the disclaimer:
"Curse of Strahd, as-written, is full of disturbing and graphic content. If you are potentially triggered by elements of child abuse, murder, stalking, gaslighting, racism, torture, mind control, cannibalism, situations paralleling sexual assault, child death, references to stillbirth/miscarriage, abuse of those with disabilities or mental illness, animal cruelty, body horror, child abandonment, portrayals of alcoholism or drug abuse, potential incest, implied necrophilia, or suicide, speak with your DM about potentially working around or entirely avoiding these elements."
As I am currently running CoS for a group ... I would have to say that the disclaimer posted above is accurate. There are a number of horror elements in CoS that push a number of these buttons, especially for someone who might already be sensitized. I've included some spoilers below to give context. The spoilers don't cover everything but if you want to play CoS at some point don't read them.
P.S. I am not a fan of the horror genre either but I had heard CoS described as one of the better modules so I decided to run it for a group. It is generally well written BUT the content is a bit descriptive.
CoS is classical horror ... there are scenes, events and characters that are intended to invoke fear and loathing just through the descriptions. There are also a lot of elements that can be/are offensive.
1) Strahd is a vampire. What do vampires do? They prey on people. The soul of a woman Strahd obsesses about is trapped in Barovia and reincarnates every so often. He always tracks her down, seduces her a few times feeding on her then converts her to a vampire spawn and imprisons her in the dungeon as his mate. In CoS, the characters encounter this woman and are given a quest to take her someplace more safe since Strahd has already fed on her twice.
2) Barovia is a realm of horror some of which is constructed from Strahd's mind. Souls can not leave Barovia but there are more people than souls so most of the people encountered in Barovia don't have souls. This can push a lot of religious buttons.
3) There is a coven of hags living in a windmill. They go through the towns selling cakes that give 24 hours of escape from Barovia (these cakes are addictive). The hags sometimes take children in exchange for the cakes. Ground bones of children are an ingredient in the cakes. The characters are expected to kill the hags and rescue the current captive children.
4) The people of Barovia are trapped in a cursed land. It is always cloudy, almost always raining, the sun never shines, they come up with desperate measures to try to get by. There is little hope and Strahd is always around to eliminate it if hope starts to spread. Wolves, dire wolves and werewolves as well as undead can roam the countryside. Travel isn't safe. As a result there are lots of elements involving depression and mental instability. The mayor of Vallaki holds weekly festivals in a mistaken belief that if everyone pretends to be happy then everything will be ok. The priest in Barovia keeps his son (who was converted to a vampire spawn in previous events) locked in the basement unable to save him, let him go or put him out of his misery. There are constant references to one of the only good things being the wine produced and distributed free of charge by the Wizard of Wines winery being the only thing that keeps some of the populace going. Several quests involve restoring the wine supply to Vallaki and Krezk. Providing wine is enough to get the party into some of the walled villages because of the surcease it provides.
5) The abbot at Krezk is a fallen celestial ... the entire plot line in the abbey which is also an asylum for a large in bred family of monstrosities with human and beastial characteristics is atrocious. I tried to bypass most of it though the plot stereotypes insanity and an asylum ... most are violent, incapable, and need to be locked up ... as someone said, it represents a medieval approach to insanity but fits the horror theme of the campaign. In addition, the abbot has created a flesh golem for Strahd, intended to be his bride, constructed from the body parts of recently deceased villagers.
6) The werewolf pack kidnaps children from the villages. The pack leader has the children fight to the death with the last one standing being converted to a werewolf. There was a fight in the pack where one faction thought it better to "spare" the children and just convert them all to werewolves. The leader who likes watching children kill each other won so the fights continue. The party is expected to rescue the current batch of children and kill the werewolves.
7) The Vistani in CoS are based on myths about a real life group and the change of name only slightly veils it ... the inaccurate stereotypes that are often applied to this group are present in full force in CoS. This group is the only one that can freely leave Barovia and are generally though not always followers of Strahd. This groups is loathed and despised by the citizens of Barovia if only because they can leave. There is a tiger trained to kill members of this group by an NPC that hates this group because of what some members of this group did to his son.
8) Strahd the vampire is the ultimate villain of the adventure and hopefully the players triumph in the end. However, the Amber Temple contains the vestiges of the evil gods that truly rule Barovia and who offer the characters "Dark Gifts". Making deals with ultimate evil to obtain additional powers is an option in CoS.
Most of the evil/awful plot are the horror elements that the players have to defeat. Most modules have the villains doing "bad" things (killing and worse) which is why the players/characters are motivated to defeat them. However, CoS makes these horror story memes (Hansel and Gretel, vampires, werewolves, witches etc) much more explicit in striving for the horror atmosphere.
There are some forces for good in Barovia but the general tone is dark/evil/depraved. The module is well written considering that this is the goal but the content is not for everyone. I also think it is important to try and play this with a good aligned party since there are too many ways that a party with evil characters would go completely off track.
No a silly question is which side of the neck does he bite you. Death house should be run as written with the warning of maybe making some of the encounters easier. As a new DM don't worry about getting things wrong. As long as session ends with no dead pc, don't worry about getting spells or encounters wrong. But I would take notes of what happens during the adventures in the book. An example, Bob the Barbarian kills a towns person, the next "Ghost" is that town person.
Or you could just play the game static like the computer games do. Adventurers get into bar fight, no one on the second floor notice.
Thanks for the replies. My daughter is 14 and is reading some Young Adult fiction which includes a lot of hacking and slashing, plus some (fairly benign) descriptions of brothels and such. So I think it will be doable. I read through the Death House scenario and didn't even blink when they mentioned kids that had starved to death. So after reading some of her YA books I'm either desensitized or she's old enough to handle it :-).
We'll see how it goes! I need to stay one step ahead of the troupe so I'll adjust as I go along.
Early on in Stranger Things, I kind of got a read on everyone's personality and I realized that the point is to make sure that people had a good time. So I fudged a lot, and "forgot" some of the rules during eg an attack on the Demigorgon, so he got his whacks in but nobody died.
We'll see if Strahd is as gracious... bwah-ha-hah-hah-hah-hah-haaaaaaaaahhhh!!! I like being DM. ...The POWER!!!!!
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-- - GreyGnome
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Hi,
I'm a new DM. Earlier this year, my daughter watched/loved the series "Stranger Things" which got her interested in DnD so we bought the Stranger Things starter set and, as I'm the only one with enough experience in adventuring (on the computer)- Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Rogue, that sort of thing- I became the DM by default.
Our party had a great time. Now we want to get into something else, so I got the Curse of Strahd book and Tarokka deck for Christmas, and I'm about to get the ball rolling.
Here's my question: Regarding the introductory crawl in the Death House: Is it basically just an exploration throughout the house, as per the book? Or do I make semi-random monsters pop up now and again? In my experience on the computer games, you basically trundle along and hack-and-slash when you get into a new room, then look for treasure/traps/doors. I don't know if I should be doing something like that throughout Curse of Strahd, or if I should just follow along the locations in the book and limit the encounters to what has been provided.
Thanks for any advice about how to run this adventure.
--
- GreyGnome
No, just follow along. There are plenty of places in Death House (especially the finale) where an inexperienced party can TPK. You might even want to let them know that running away is a perfectly acceptable solution. The exploration through the haunted house is a mood-building exercise. All you really want to do is scare the players a bit while you get them up to third level where they can actually survive the next wave of challenges. CoS is a horror campaign and hacking and slashing is not only out of touch with the mood, it's super-dangerous since the players are going to be outgunned for a long time. What you should concentrate on to fill the dead space is using descriptions to make the place seem extra-spooky while the players unravel the mystery of what happened here to ghost-ify these two kids.
I agree with Tim - it's more about setting the creepy vibe for the rest of the game. I highly recommend supplementing with innocuous but creepy sounds or descriptions - anything that might put them on edge thinking they are about to be attacked, but then nothing happens.
Having run it, there are several encounters in the house - animated armor, the ghost of the children's nurse, and a few others. In addition, the module is setup with the expectation that the character's will have to run from the last room in the basement. Standing and fighting could well result in a TPK since the shambling mound is very dangerous to low level characters. However, the ghosts of dead children play a key role in the Death House. They were left to starve in the attic by their parents.
So, if you are going to run CoS for children, I think you may need to filter/edit the content depending on your children and whoever else is playing. CoS has some very disturbing elements.
I posted the following in a different thread but it is probably worth considering if you are running CoS for children.
My post was in response to the following disclaimer that another poster had incorporated in their post - I don't know the source or original author of the disclaimer:
"Curse of Strahd, as-written, is full of disturbing and graphic content. If you are potentially triggered by elements of child abuse, murder, stalking, gaslighting, racism, torture, mind control, cannibalism, situations paralleling sexual assault, child death, references to stillbirth/miscarriage, abuse of those with disabilities or mental illness, animal cruelty, body horror, child abandonment, portrayals of alcoholism or drug abuse, potential incest, implied necrophilia, or suicide, speak with your DM about potentially working around or entirely avoiding these elements."
As I am currently running CoS for a group ... I would have to say that the disclaimer posted above is accurate. There are a number of horror elements in CoS that push a number of these buttons, especially for someone who might already be sensitized. I've included some spoilers below to give context. The spoilers don't cover everything but if you want to play CoS at some point don't read them.
P.S. I am not a fan of the horror genre either but I had heard CoS described as one of the better modules so I decided to run it for a group. It is generally well written BUT the content is a bit descriptive.
CoS is classical horror ... there are scenes, events and characters that are intended to invoke fear and loathing just through the descriptions. There are also a lot of elements that can be/are offensive.
1) Strahd is a vampire. What do vampires do? They prey on people. The soul of a woman Strahd obsesses about is trapped in Barovia and reincarnates every so often. He always tracks her down, seduces her a few times feeding on her then converts her to a vampire spawn and imprisons her in the dungeon as his mate. In CoS, the characters encounter this woman and are given a quest to take her someplace more safe since Strahd has already fed on her twice.
2) Barovia is a realm of horror some of which is constructed from Strahd's mind. Souls can not leave Barovia but there are more people than souls so most of the people encountered in Barovia don't have souls. This can push a lot of religious buttons.
3) There is a coven of hags living in a windmill. They go through the towns selling cakes that give 24 hours of escape from Barovia (these cakes are addictive). The hags sometimes take children in exchange for the cakes. Ground bones of children are an ingredient in the cakes. The characters are expected to kill the hags and rescue the current captive children.
4) The people of Barovia are trapped in a cursed land. It is always cloudy, almost always raining, the sun never shines, they come up with desperate measures to try to get by. There is little hope and Strahd is always around to eliminate it if hope starts to spread. Wolves, dire wolves and werewolves as well as undead can roam the countryside. Travel isn't safe. As a result there are lots of elements involving depression and mental instability. The mayor of Vallaki holds weekly festivals in a mistaken belief that if everyone pretends to be happy then everything will be ok. The priest in Barovia keeps his son (who was converted to a vampire spawn in previous events) locked in the basement unable to save him, let him go or put him out of his misery. There are constant references to one of the only good things being the wine produced and distributed free of charge by the Wizard of Wines winery being the only thing that keeps some of the populace going. Several quests involve restoring the wine supply to Vallaki and Krezk. Providing wine is enough to get the party into some of the walled villages because of the surcease it provides.
5) The abbot at Krezk is a fallen celestial ... the entire plot line in the abbey which is also an asylum for a large in bred family of monstrosities with human and beastial characteristics is atrocious. I tried to bypass most of it though the plot stereotypes insanity and an asylum ... most are violent, incapable, and need to be locked up ... as someone said, it represents a medieval approach to insanity but fits the horror theme of the campaign. In addition, the abbot has created a flesh golem for Strahd, intended to be his bride, constructed from the body parts of recently deceased villagers.
6) The werewolf pack kidnaps children from the villages. The pack leader has the children fight to the death with the last one standing being converted to a werewolf. There was a fight in the pack where one faction thought it better to "spare" the children and just convert them all to werewolves. The leader who likes watching children kill each other won so the fights continue. The party is expected to rescue the current batch of children and kill the werewolves.
7) The Vistani in CoS are based on myths about a real life group and the change of name only slightly veils it ... the inaccurate stereotypes that are often applied to this group are present in full force in CoS. This group is the only one that can freely leave Barovia and are generally though not always followers of Strahd. This groups is loathed and despised by the citizens of Barovia if only because they can leave. There is a tiger trained to kill members of this group by an NPC that hates this group because of what some members of this group did to his son.
8) Strahd the vampire is the ultimate villain of the adventure and hopefully the players triumph in the end. However, the Amber Temple contains the vestiges of the evil gods that truly rule Barovia and who offer the characters "Dark Gifts". Making deals with ultimate evil to obtain additional powers is an option in CoS.
Most of the evil/awful plot are the horror elements that the players have to defeat. Most modules have the villains doing "bad" things (killing and worse) which is why the players/characters are motivated to defeat them. However, CoS makes these horror story memes (Hansel and Gretel, vampires, werewolves, witches etc) much more explicit in striving for the horror atmosphere.
There are some forces for good in Barovia but the general tone is dark/evil/depraved. The module is well written considering that this is the goal but the content is not for everyone. I also think it is important to try and play this with a good aligned party since there are too many ways that a party with evil characters would go completely off track.
No a silly question is which side of the neck does he bite you. Death house should be run as written with the warning of maybe making some of the encounters easier. As a new DM don't worry about getting things wrong. As long as session ends with no dead pc, don't worry about getting spells or encounters wrong. But I would take notes of what happens during the adventures in the book. An example, Bob the Barbarian kills a towns person, the next "Ghost" is that town person.
Or you could just play the game static like the computer games do. Adventurers get into bar fight, no one on the second floor notice.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Thanks for the replies. My daughter is 14 and is reading some Young Adult fiction which includes a lot of hacking and slashing, plus some (fairly benign) descriptions of brothels and such. So I think it will be doable. I read through the Death House scenario and didn't even blink when they mentioned kids that had starved to death. So after reading some of her YA books I'm either desensitized or she's old enough to handle it :-).
We'll see how it goes! I need to stay one step ahead of the troupe so I'll adjust as I go along.
Early on in Stranger Things, I kind of got a read on everyone's personality and I realized that the point is to make sure that people had a good time. So I fudged a lot, and "forgot" some of the rules during eg an attack on the Demigorgon, so he got his whacks in but nobody died.
We'll see if Strahd is as gracious... bwah-ha-hah-hah-hah-hah-haaaaaaaaahhhh!!! I like being DM. ...The POWER!!!!!
--
- GreyGnome