FoxMikeLima, my group just finished CoS. The adventure I am planning happens before the wedding and before Baroiva is ripped from this plane into the demi plane..
Just want to mention that Barovia has been four times smaller than it was intended since the day it was published. For some obtuse reason they didn't want to make it 'too big' so they erased the map scale and inferred that it was smaller. If I recall,, they figured the area would be indefensible if it was too big. Anyway, it was already doubled once, if you dig around you'll find the maps with the expanded map scale and travel times. Barovia could stand to be doubled again without causing an issue.. in fact, it would then be the size that it was originally intended to be. ;) God knows that there's MORE than enough wilderness in Faerun to account for it. (Note that doubling it's SIZE would quadruple it's AREA.)
King Barov wasn't the original king of Barovia (..and Strahd sure as hell didn't name it after his father). The Zarovich family are descendants of the original kings, but it was an inhabited region LONG LONG before it was a kingdom. King Barov was the Protector of the Realms. Plural. Even CoS tells us that Strahds homeland can be viewed through the mists at Yesterhill. I could go on and on, but I won't.
Also.. Strahd was NEVER an only son. He was the eldest, and raised from birth to be a General. Sturm, the middle brother was raised to run the family castle and holdings. Sergei, the youngest brother, was raised to be a high ranking church official. Then he fell in love... Anyway, as mentioned, when STrahds father died, Strahd inherritted the title of Protector of the Realms and became head of the military branch of the Holy Order of the Dragon.
A piece of advise? The canon in CoS has more plot-holes then a piece of swiss cheese. It clashes with it's OWN canon in multiple places. When in doubt, fall back on the old school canon.
Main point of posting here: for a pre-vampire Strahd adventure, look for the Interactive Tome of Strahd. I believe it's on DMsGuild. If not, try DriveThruRPG.
I can't recall the name of it, but there was an a fictional story where the characters went back in history to murder Strahd before he became what he is today, but afterwards they woke up, and they were prisoners of a lich pulling devious pranks. There is some evidence to show that Curse of Strahd IS just another dream.. but that's not canon. Yet. Part of the evidence is that WotC themselves placed the events in CoS in an alternate timeline.. so TECHNICALLY, all of CoS is not canon to the known Faerun universe.. I don't see any harm in adopting the bits that make sense, though. :)
Since Strahd is simply a fictional version of Vlad, we could surmise that he turned evil when his father was murdered by the Terg/Turks. We know that both men were trained in the art of war from birth, and became unrelenting unholy terrors after their fathers were murdered. That is conjecture.. I still haven't found the time to read the fictional novels, so I'm not certain if I, Strahd or the other canon books depict him as evil before that point. I believe Strahd was always lawful.
In the 5e module there are a few events that happened before he was a Vampire:
Strahd conquered the alley and renamed it after his father
Strahd's forces invaded Argynvostholt and killed Argynvost
Baba lysaga blessed strahd with the power of dark magic
According to Van Richten's guide
Strahd fought with the ulmist inquisition to eliminate fiends, cultists and the priests of osybus.
My advice to make a module would be to set it during Strahds early reign in barovia. Argynvost is dead leaving Strahd as the defacto defender of the amber temple given he now controls the land. Strahd with the help of the Ulmist inquisition is attempting to stamp out the priests of osybus, worshipers of the dark powers. If strahd dies, the remainder of the wights which still protect the temple from the priests vanish and the forces against them are massively weakened allowing them to release the dark powers of the temple. You can even have them manage to release one from the broke sarcophagus in COS.
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750 years ago on the Sword Coast..
I would recommend any DM read "I, Strahd: Memoirs of a Vampire" if they are preparing to run CoS.
It provides a ton of background info into Strahds life, death and undeath.
FoxMikeLima, my group just finished CoS. The adventure I am planning happens before the wedding and before Baroiva is ripped from this plane into the demi plane..
Just want to mention that Barovia has been four times smaller than it was intended since the day it was published. For some obtuse reason they didn't want to make it 'too big' so they erased the map scale and inferred that it was smaller. If I recall,, they figured the area would be indefensible if it was too big. Anyway, it was already doubled once, if you dig around you'll find the maps with the expanded map scale and travel times. Barovia could stand to be doubled again without causing an issue.. in fact, it would then be the size that it was originally intended to be. ;) God knows that there's MORE than enough wilderness in Faerun to account for it. (Note that doubling it's SIZE would quadruple it's AREA.)
King Barov wasn't the original king of Barovia (..and Strahd sure as hell didn't name it after his father). The Zarovich family are descendants of the original kings, but it was an inhabited region LONG LONG before it was a kingdom. King Barov was the Protector of the Realms. Plural. Even CoS tells us that Strahds homeland can be viewed through the mists at Yesterhill. I could go on and on, but I won't.
Also.. Strahd was NEVER an only son. He was the eldest, and raised from birth to be a General. Sturm, the middle brother was raised to run the family castle and holdings. Sergei, the youngest brother, was raised to be a high ranking church official. Then he fell in love... Anyway, as mentioned, when STrahds father died, Strahd inherritted the title of Protector of the Realms and became head of the military branch of the Holy Order of the Dragon.
A piece of advise? The canon in CoS has more plot-holes then a piece of swiss cheese. It clashes with it's OWN canon in multiple places. When in doubt, fall back on the old school canon.
Main point of posting here: for a pre-vampire Strahd adventure, look for the Interactive Tome of Strahd. I believe it's on DMsGuild. If not, try DriveThruRPG.
I can't recall the name of it, but there was an a fictional story where the characters went back in history to murder Strahd before he became what he is today, but afterwards they woke up, and they were prisoners of a lich pulling devious pranks. There is some evidence to show that Curse of Strahd IS just another dream.. but that's not canon. Yet. Part of the evidence is that WotC themselves placed the events in CoS in an alternate timeline.. so TECHNICALLY, all of CoS is not canon to the known Faerun universe.. I don't see any harm in adopting the bits that make sense, though. :)
Since Strahd is simply a fictional version of Vlad, we could surmise that he turned evil when his father was murdered by the Terg/Turks. We know that both men were trained in the art of war from birth, and became unrelenting unholy terrors after their fathers were murdered. That is conjecture.. I still haven't found the time to read the fictional novels, so I'm not certain if I, Strahd or the other canon books depict him as evil before that point. I believe Strahd was always lawful.
In the 5e module there are a few events that happened before he was a Vampire:
According to Van Richten's guide
My advice to make a module would be to set it during Strahds early reign in barovia. Argynvost is dead leaving Strahd as the defacto defender of the amber temple given he now controls the land. Strahd with the help of the Ulmist inquisition is attempting to stamp out the priests of osybus, worshipers of the dark powers. If strahd dies, the remainder of the wights which still protect the temple from the priests vanish and the forces against them are massively weakened allowing them to release the dark powers of the temple. You can even have them manage to release one from the broke sarcophagus in COS.