Right, so I recently started a DnD Club with my friendos. We voted on the Curse of Strahd and already set dates to play so there's no going back and I also spent hours preparing notes. Despite all that, there is this ONE thing that annoys me completely and I really do not comprehend what I am meant to do. My question is, When do I actually do the Tarokka card readings for the locations of the artifacts, an ally and Strahd's location in the castle??? At the very beginning right before the start?? Some specific chapter? When exactly, please help.
You do a pre-emptive card reading before running the adventure; if the players encounter Madame Eva or Ezmerelda, they can offer to read the party's fortune. If the players accept, do it again and use the new results; otherwise keep going with the old ones. They're likely to encounter Madame Eva in area G shortly after leaving the Village of Barovia.
If you have a couple $, I highly recommend picking up the CoS Guide at dmsguild A Guide to Curse of Strahd. It helped streamline everything during my first play through. I felt a little overwhelmed before hand without it.
As InquisitiveCoder mentioned, do it before the game starts. You can even do it secretly without the players knowing, write it down somewhere and consider that to be the locations. Keep in mind that some of the locations are REALLY deadly so telling the players right out that they need to get a sword from the Amber Temple (at 3rd level) will likely end with them all dead. As Whiskeytown mentioned, there's a really good Power Score CoS Guide (this one is free, just requires interwebs to look at) that recommends doing the tarot reading in a more structured way. It's ultimately up to you, but going with a set plan instead of just randomly drawn locations can actually help in the long run.
I prepared my cards beforehand picking what I thought would be most interesting and make the most sense.
- I took out any CASTLE locations for the items to help defeat him. - I put the Sun Sword with the Hag since she is one of the hardest things to battle and hence I figured she would be protecting the sword.
- I put the Holy Symbol with the Knights of the Silver Dragon since it fit well with what had happened to Hornguard.
- I put the Tome in Van Rictens tower but I do regret that! I would advise having the tome much much earlier as it does not give any buff. It just makes its 100% that Strahd is a Vampire, I ran the game as everyone knew he was a Vampire as he had no reason to hide it in his domain so getting the book was a bit pointless. I did fix it by making it magical and whoever attuned to it would get advantage against any spell saves against Strahd. I read a great idea later on to run the world as if Strahd was actually more commonly known as Strahd the 8th and that he was faking his death every hundred years and having his "heir" become the ruler. Since he can turn into anyone he would wander the lands as a younger version of himself so people thought he had children. Over the years Strahd became a more cruel ruler with each of his new lives and so people read books of Strahd the 1st who was a noble leader and the family just got shitter form there!
Have some people go on about hoe they reckon he is a wizard prolonging his life and have some people who believe he is a vampire because they can kinda remember dreams of his drinking from them (actual memories messed up by his charm to force them to forget) and then once they find the book it is a big reveal that he is a vampire!
I highly recommend doing the tarrot cards as soon as you can! I had my group wander through the woods and have the mist bring them into Barovia. They then went through the gates of Barovia and continued down the road in the woods. Came across a random house with some crying children out the front. I then ran DEATH HOUSE and once they escaped the house and ran outside they werent in a forest anymore they were in the middle of the village of Barovia as if transported to another place altogether. Before leaving the house they met a projections of Madam Eva who read the cards to them and from then on if they ever got another reading the only detail that would change was the location of where the final battle with Strahd would be which was always in the Castle somewhere.
At this point you've probably started. I DM'd CoS a year or two ago and I recommend diving into the lore behind Strahd. I didn't think they explain it well enough how the man became a monster with the tragic love story behind it all.
I recently made a post with my musical interpretation of how the creation of his curse. Perhaps it can help gain some inspiration and insight if you're reading this and you're trying to figure out where the heart of the story is in Curse of Strahd. Here's the post.
Right, so I recently started a DnD Club with my friendos. We voted on the Curse of Strahd and already set dates to play so there's no going back and I also spent hours preparing notes. Despite all that, there is this ONE thing that annoys me completely and I really do not comprehend what I am meant to do. My question is, When do I actually do the Tarokka card readings for the locations of the artifacts, an ally and Strahd's location in the castle??? At the very beginning right before the start?? Some specific chapter? When exactly, please help.
You do a pre-emptive card reading before running the adventure; if the players encounter Madame Eva or Ezmerelda, they can offer to read the party's fortune. If the players accept, do it again and use the new results; otherwise keep going with the old ones. They're likely to encounter Madame Eva in area G shortly after leaving the Village of Barovia.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
If you have a couple $, I highly recommend picking up the CoS Guide at dmsguild A Guide to Curse of Strahd. It helped streamline everything during my first play through. I felt a little overwhelmed before hand without it.
As InquisitiveCoder mentioned, do it before the game starts. You can even do it secretly without the players knowing, write it down somewhere and consider that to be the locations. Keep in mind that some of the locations are REALLY deadly so telling the players right out that they need to get a sword from the Amber Temple (at 3rd level) will likely end with them all dead. As Whiskeytown mentioned, there's a really good Power Score CoS Guide (this one is free, just requires interwebs to look at) that recommends doing the tarot reading in a more structured way. It's ultimately up to you, but going with a set plan instead of just randomly drawn locations can actually help in the long run.
Best of luck!
I prepared my cards beforehand picking what I thought would be most interesting and make the most sense.
- I took out any CASTLE locations for the items to help defeat him.
- I put the Sun Sword with the Hag since she is one of the hardest things to battle and hence I figured she would be protecting the sword.
- I put the Holy Symbol with the Knights of the Silver Dragon since it fit well with what had happened to Hornguard.
- I put the Tome in Van Rictens tower but I do regret that! I would advise having the tome much much earlier as it does not give any buff. It just makes its 100% that Strahd is a Vampire, I ran the game as everyone knew he was a Vampire as he had no reason to hide it in his domain so getting the book was a bit pointless. I did fix it by making it magical and whoever attuned to it would get advantage against any spell saves against Strahd.
I read a great idea later on to run the world as if Strahd was actually more commonly known as Strahd the 8th and that he was faking his death every hundred years and having his "heir" become the ruler. Since he can turn into anyone he would wander the lands as a younger version of himself so people thought he had children. Over the years Strahd became a more cruel ruler with each of his new lives and so people read books of Strahd the 1st who was a noble leader and the family just got shitter form there!
Have some people go on about hoe they reckon he is a wizard prolonging his life and have some people who believe he is a vampire because they can kinda remember dreams of his drinking from them (actual memories messed up by his charm to force them to forget) and then once they find the book it is a big reveal that he is a vampire!
I highly recommend doing the tarrot cards as soon as you can! I had my group wander through the woods and have the mist bring them into Barovia. They then went through the gates of Barovia and continued down the road in the woods. Came across a random house with some crying children out the front. I then ran DEATH HOUSE and once they escaped the house and ran outside they werent in a forest anymore they were in the middle of the village of Barovia as if transported to another place altogether. Before leaving the house they met a projections of Madam Eva who read the cards to them and from then on if they ever got another reading the only detail that would change was the location of where the final battle with Strahd would be which was always in the Castle somewhere.
Hi!
At this point you've probably started. I DM'd CoS a year or two ago and I recommend diving into the lore behind Strahd. I didn't think they explain it well enough how the man became a monster with the tragic love story behind it all.
I recently made a post with my musical interpretation of how the creation of his curse. Perhaps it can help gain some inspiration and insight if you're reading this and you're trying to figure out where the heart of the story is in Curse of Strahd. Here's the post.
Curse of Strahd Music
I loved the campaign and the setting. We had a blast and I learned so much from a DM point of view.
All the best
/Magnus Chirgwin