13 ESSENTIAL Curse of Strahd DM Tips 🧛 (after I ran it 3 times) D&D 5e 

I made the Hags pretty young women, the PC's fell over themselves trying to impress them at first and when they found out they were being used by hags, the sense of betrayal was very personal.

On tip #10 I made my players make vampire spawns and we did some one shots with them. My surprise is I'm going to use them in the coffin maker's shop. They're gonna scream lmao

One of the biggest changes I made to CoS was starting with the dinner. I think it’s because I had just re-read Dracula for inspiration. My players seemed to really like this change because it introduced Strahd and his court early on. I didn’t have him attack the characters but instead he offered them a quest. Obviously the players knew he was a vampire and the villain but their characters had no idea and were sympathetic to him.

8:40 I actually gave The Abbot the foreshadowing gig, because when the party meets him, he tells his backstory of being a servant of the Morning Lord, who was sent to Barovia to wipe out Strahd. At the gates of Ravenloft, the Abbot destroyed Strahd, using his full angelic powers, and as he smugly awaited the Mists to part, bringing in the Sun's cleansing light, Strahd's broken body started laughing, as he reformed back to his normal self. "I am the Land, I am the Ancient" he said, and walked inside his castle, completely regenerated. The Abbot stood there for a week, trying to figure out what went wrong. Then he came up with the idea that since Strahd is connected to the land, he must break that connection. And the best way to do that is to connect him to a wife, like Vasilka. "Let these two become one," and then Strahd becomes vulnerable, and can then be killed by the Abbot. Or so the Abbot thinks.

I replaced a part of the crypt with an alchemist lab where strahd was experimenting with souls and homunculi. Which was rad because the start of my campaign began with nobody having a memory of entering Barovia. So when they entered this room for the first time they were like ohhhh ssccchhhiiitttt! And it all clicked. Epic DM moment for me.

Lol at the random portrait of Data from Star Trek

I am at the end of my second campaign in CoS and here is my lessons learned. - Give Ireena something to do. She is important NPC and treated like hell in the module. Give her goal and ambition for those goals. If you as a GM doesnt care about Ireena, the players will not. - If Strahd is relying on spies, teach the players that missinformation is big part of the game. - Like you I did personal quests in Barovia, even if they all are somewhat tied to the land, part of the overall mystery feel lost. Next time I will go rather with themes as you suggested. - I personally dont like Strahds charm since it has always given wierd roleplaying moments, player act wierd and they lose their agency. Group know they are charmed and sometimes freeze out the person from the group because they risk giving out information to Strahd. Give Strahd access to modify memory in other hand, gives alot of experience. Player just loose suddenly passage of time. Roleplay something that didnt really happen and so on.

I ran CoS so long ago at this point, if I were to run it again, I would use a lot of these tips. With all the community work and Van Richten's guide, the possibilities are endless.

The last one is correct; some player are so afraid of Strahd that they will never accept a dinner date from a (famous) vampire lord!

I once ended the campaign with my Paladin becoming the antithesis of Strahd. Through Epic Boons and Blessings, my Paladin became an immortal who could call upon the help of spiritual warriors, and had an unnatural healing factor (Boon of Immortality, Blessing of Valhalla, Blessing of Wound Closure). I know it sounds like it could have killed the mood of the campaign, but the work my DM set about me getting these boons is what drove it for me. The agreement I kept with my DM is that I likely wouldn’t be allowed to have any magic items unless the DM gave me the “OK.” I wasn’t complaining though because I got what I wanted. It ended with Strahd always reviving no matter what, but that also left my Paladin as his direct opposition for all eternity. Just like Strahd became a terror in Barovia, my PC became its hero, and whether Strahd liked it or not, he got what he wanted: “His Successor (which he hates)” It also ended bittersweet as after Strahd’s 2nd death, the rest of the party was given the chance to finally leave while I stayed around to try and maintain peace in Barovia.

Running CoS modified into a bigger adventure among Domains of Dread. Some tips are: -Don't let the first PCs death be final and show there are fates much worse. A party member dies? Let the dusk elves give party a direction towards the Amber Temple, let one of them pay the price, and then make sure that revived character is not the same - shift alignement from good to evil, from evil to good, leave a mark on them. Someone dies in the Mists? Let Victra Mordenheim conduct an experiment on cadaver and return the character into play as a poor sod with a parasittic conscious entity in their brain, or as Reborn from Van Richten's Guide. Talk to your player - if they are eager to play other char that's fine, just put the revived former PC in a stash and unleash it upon them in the most dramatic moment. "YOU LEFT ME FOR DEAD! I'M GONNA MAKE YOU JOIN ME NOW!" -Strahd can hear any prayer or interplanar connection attempt in Barovia. With his deception bonus he may clearly pose as Cleric's deity, pushing them away from their path. Or intervene with warlock's communication with their patron, making them lose the favor and potentially leading to taking Strahd as a patron. -If you can't get all players together at sone date, roll out some adventure of Vallaki guard or a peasant from Barovia village, give them a taste of what regular people feel when facing the dark. Or give them a team of undead knights of Argynvostholt searching to stop the Abbot from his attempts of releasing Strahd, to let players see, how powerful they potentially are, while all that power is laid to waste due to Horngaard's stubborness. Seeing that the world (un)lives even when PCs aren't around adds color to the picture.

my favorite thing to do in CoS, since 2e has been to give the players powerful artifacts that turn them into darklord candidates. It's a good way to both show how easy for a good character to choose evil in the short term to accomplish a task, like abandoning a villager to wolves to heal their party member, and how those small evil choices mixed with rising stakes and power can be very corrupting. Then when they, look at strahd and start learning his history, they will start to see some similarities. a lawful good character (remember he had a Pegasus mount, meaning he was genuinely lawful good), who got put on the path of evil one small step at a time. a couple of Faustian deals, a dash of greed, a spoonful of jealousy, and a midlife midlife crisis were the only major difference from strahd and the average lawful good paladin. let the party think that instead of killing strahd, maybe he can be redeemed, and that barovia can be saved. let them play a chunk of the campign running around trying to lessen the power of the darker powers, these evil gods that have corrupted that poor man, and when the party feels good about their redemption plans, when they think they are about to bring strahd back to the good side of the alignment chart, then they can find out about his reincarnation obsession, his genocide of the elves, and his willingness to slaughter people for pleasure. Let them slowly realize that strahd is well past any chance at redemption or having his sins absolved through anything short of divine intervention of a greater deity. While this is happening, keep putting the players in situations where the artifacts offer them small deals, like let someone get hurt to gain a boon or ignore cries for help and be lead in the right direction. simple things at first, let the party try to rationalize it, let them spread the bad choices so no individual becomes evil they all just become slightly less good. Then throw in a couple of big choices, like ignoring a fatal blow by gaining a monster template or resurrecting a fallen party member for the small price of a innocent life. Choices that are only made necessary by the short timeframe of CoS. The party doesn't have time for a proper rest or time to recover spells and heal their injuries, the BTB version of CoS is generally just a week maybe two and most of that is spent on the road between locations. Choices need to be made, sacrifices must happen, and good characters will choose small acts of evil for the greater good almost every time. This works very well when the players come to the end and finally defeat strahd. At this point at least one of them has made enough deals with their artifact, have taken a dark gift maybe more, and are perfect for taking over as a darklord, only to realize that once they take the seat, that no matter what intentions they had about being a better ruler than Strahd, no matter how good they once were, they will eventually become puppets of the dark powers. If they are lucky they will be driven far to mad to realize what's happening, when decades later, when they just happen to glance in the mirror and see strahd's face before their reflection vanishes forever, because there is no better dark lord for Barovia than Strahd von Zarovich.

I actually sort of tricked my players into a very chaotic incident at Vallaki. I emphasized how the ppl seemed to be forced to act happy and when they met Lady wachter she explained she wanted to stop the burgomaster died to his cruelty. So they helped her overthrow the baron and kill the town guards, only to find out that Lady wachter serves Strahd and had been using her cultists to actually summon demons. The end of it all was her death and Vallaki literally in flames and infested with monsters and demons.

This is a good video. Having Strahd pretty present in the campaign is exactly the vibe.

I gave Strath more servants like Lief (the accoutant). Just good folks that close their eyes to the horror. In my game he had Bertha a female cook and her husband Johann who worked as a butler. Always polite and helpful. Also Clovis was convinced that the characters were there for the wedding and I was hoping they ask him about secrets about the castle, but they left the crypta as fast as they could and didn't care about all the small doors with the brass plates and possible secrets... All were there for the dinner with Strath of course.

Another tip when running CoS for an experienced group that played CoS before. Nothing stops you from making Strahd immune to the magical MacGuffins that the players collected over the course of the adventure. He´s literally an ancient Evil that can or has returned dozens of times. Sometimes you gotta amp up the antics a bit.

I didn't want this video to end lol I'm a very new DM and running CoS is intimidating on the surface but very fun for the player and the DM (so much prep involved if you want to make it good). These tips boosted my confidence and gave me great ideas. Thanks!!

I found the less encounters with Strahd the better. I ran it a few times then it dawned on me when i remembered what director of Alien said The less you show the monster the better. Nothing is more scary than the monster in peoples imagination.

Strongly recommend upgrades the wives to full characters and importance.

Yeah, my biggest takeaway from DMing CoS for first-time players (and I'm a first-time DM but have watched hundreds of hours of DnD campaigns) was this: - Make Strahd more approachable, as you mentioned in your last tip. All of my players are gamers, and immediately assume that once Strahd is shown as a tyrant by some citizens he is a Sunday morning run-of-the-mill villain. Once I introduced the dinner invitation they scoffed, and once I teased them with a horse and carriage with open doors on the way to Vallaki they set the carriage on fire and subsequently killed the undead horses that were pulling the cart. Thus missing out on having dinner with Strahd. - I learned that my players are very combat-intensive and are actively seeking combat, so I attempt to illustrate that their actions have consequences and that their (at times) senseless killing sprees might not always be viewed positively by other people. They went out of the way to break into, rob, vandalize and scare the Mayor of Vallaki's house and son.

My favorite way to run Strahd is as he is written in: I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire. Makes things way more challenging and fun. Also lets the player explore the character much deeper. (The War Against Azalin can also be helpful to play with Strahds magic items and magical capabilities, and also tactics)

I just ran this for my group and in your intro was probably one of the best pieces of advice. Keeping a time calendar for the group to see. We ran into this problem of them not remembering when certain dates or events were supposed to happen and they got distracted by something else. I think this is a great idea. Ill use it next time. Ty!

I really love the advice of rather than trying to tie in their backstories (which, yeah, that would feel forced) to look for themes in their backstories. Keep this kind of advice coming!

I think players should understand they are entering Barovia, a different plane of existence when making their characters. Don’t expect your literal backstory to come into play very much, and especially don’t make a very complicated intricate one. Understand that you should create a character with strong beliefs, ways of doing things, morals, personality, modus operandi. That will gel well with the setting, gives them a place and purpose. How does Barovia challenge them and how do they challenge Barovia. Physically and mentally. So I definitely agree with your point about echoes of backstory. How they relate to the world they are in. Sympathies, memories. Chances to correct past mistakes or help others in similar crisis.

Strahd final battle on castle's bridge... No one tought it possible... Strahd uses Steel wind strike to kill 4 pcs and there were only 2 players left... a player willingly uses a "This is sparta" kick to shove the other on a death fall, instantly and surprisingly becoming the traitor (and a vampire spawn)... not even the DM could imagine that.

I’ve got some interesting backstories for my PC’s: Grave Cleric: Grew up in a swamp by a graveyard, met and befriended a revenant who’s purpose was to find and lay to rest his comrades who he’d abandoned in battle. The young Tortle befriended the revenant and eventually convinced him to find the bodies, listen to the ghosts, and lay them to rest. Originally it was a ghost but I said “oh hey, there’s a revenant in Barovia, might be cooler if it was a revenant you befriended” and the player agreed. Lizardfolk Druid: He’s the sole survivor of a previous party and owes Gertruda and Mad Mary a life debt for nursing him back to health. Everything before Barovia is extremely vague. (He’s also the sole survivor of an actual TKP). Wild magic Barbarian: The soul of a failed lich is stuck inside him. This outta be interesting once they run into the dragon lich and stuff. The monk just wants to punch evil things.

Wow. Just wow! So many helpful tips and ideas!

Thanks for the valuable tips!!! I appreciate them a lot ♡

Moral:Treat Borovia as purgatory. I got it.

Great video! I loved the advice about having the fight start at the top of Ravenloft and phase downward. Definitely enhances the boss-battle feel!

I've just finished the campaign for 1 group and definitely learnt a lot. Group 2 is ongoing and group 3 starts soon. Love these tips and will definitely use some in the future.

This video was so insightful! I’m running CoS right now where I’ve dropped the realm of Barovia into my homebrew world and it’s been quite challenging but so rewarding so far! I’m definitely going to be using your advice!

Beautiful video! I'm going to use a lot of these tips for my own game!

I revamped both Ismark and Ireena as I felt that they should be more than just a Veteran & Noble. I ended up turning Ismark into a van helsing type bro who after months of keeping his sister safe has trained and developed those credentials lmao Ireena was turned into a Paragon of sorts with some hefty inspiring abilities and high charisma lmao They both have silvered weapons and holy water flasks. They've become staple travel companions for the group I introduced them to as such. They love them!!! I feel like it really brought those 2 to light and gives the players more reason to contend with Strahd after befriending the siblings and aiding them.

📒 Read my article on 13 tips and lessons learned for running #CurseofStrahd here: www.flutesloot.com/curse-of-strahd-dm-tips-advice-ideas-lessons 📚 Read all our Curse of Strahd articles www.flutesloot.com/category/running-the-game/curseofstrahd 🗺Purchase the same maps I purchased for Castle Ravenloft: www.dmsguild.com/product/185990/Castle-Ravenloft-hires-colour-jpg-maps?affiliate_id=3063449 DragnaCarta talks about how to run terrifying villains (I HIGHLY recommend this video): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fHathfdsQqI.html Tell me which of my ideas inspired you with this poll: poll.fm/10954697 Much of the art in the video was gathered years ago when I ran CoS, so let me know if you want me to help you find a particular art piece that you liked in the video.

Maaan, so dopeeeee! Loved it 🤩

Great ideas! Starting the adventure today!

Great tips! Thanks! I’m going to run Black Roses Bloom, Curse of Strahd, and finally Bleak House. Love the Loft!!

You made DMing Curse of Strahd so much easier and better, thank you

Your CoS videos secured an amazing game for my players. I took all your advice, watched your videos over and over, and those guys Loved it! THANK YOU 🙏🏼 so much

That idea you had about starting on the roof of Ravenloft in the rain and fighting in phases was SO cool! Reminds me of fighting Ganondorf at the end of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I wonder if anyone has done a liveplay where they put that into effect. I want to see it now!

I can’t think of a better way to prep for DM-ing this adventure than starting with these lessons learned before diving in to research and planning. Thank you!

This was AWESOME thank you so much!

Hey Flutes! I just want to say I think your content is great! I’m glad you keep doing videos that are backed up by useful articles. So much of DnD on RU-vid is just reacting to new WotC releases or extremely niche character optimization. The articles on your site make it clear you and the other authors actually play and enjoy the game and your recommendations (including character feat choices and stuff. I’m not against optimization) reflect that.

This is an EXCELLENT VIDEO. Thank you. I started playing D&D Table top board game last Friday with my friends. There is no RP there, but it is the window into another world. Definitely getting a starter set for the OG RPG.

Excellent video! I really mixed it up from the get go and played up that they really weren’t home. Some of the ways I played up the alienness of the place was by changing up the religion to Greyhawk deities from my Homebrew deities. I also lent heavily into the differences in how magic worked and expanded those rules for spells that would produce different effects I also had them appear near the left side of the map with the Death House the only sign of civilization they initially saw. This starting point made it so they could see the changes in the landscape and people as they got closer to Strahd etc. I also had their dead haunt them being heard and seen in the mist at every opportunity demanding why they won’t save them. It was truly an awesome campaign to DM. Cheers

Thank you for this!

I've run it many *many* times. I do three main parts of homebrew and one small one. One: I have redone most of the Amber Temple and try to lure players there early. I make it so that the deals don't just take away your character if you fail. You can take one deal, and that's that. Though they have negatives down the line. Two: I gave all his wives personalities. One is in love with one, one is obsessed with him, and one is just there because of an old political deal that was made with the Zarovich family. And they all have their own motivations and interests. Three: I make the mad mage more of a moral dilemma. Not a "go fix this guy." It's a "if you want... You can have his power to help your cause. But you will need to kill him to take it." Minor: I rework Morgantha to make her more likely to help the players when they show up first, for... A favor in the future. The best feeling is when she extends a hand to shake and when they shake it you have her say "the deal is struck." They know they just made a deal that they probably shouldn't have.

This video has been amazingly helpful. I hate to nitpick, but at 9:28, that's a picture of Asami from Legend of Korra

Kinda sorry I only found your channel because of recent drama. Great advice! Subbed! I really struggle with D&D books and decoding the amazing narrative opportunities. The “how to run this adventure”section of the book isn’t nearly as well thought out as this book. Maybe because this video has the benefit of time and 3 play throughs. Well done.

Made my players go to the castle for the heist and they got to explore most of it and the catacombs/dungeons, they really enjoyed it, one player even got killed using the orbs and got teleported into the Vampire spawn room in the Amber temple.

My plan for the dinner will be, for Strahd to give each player a present matching their playstyle (Fighter gets a plate armor for example), in the final battle, those presents will work against the group, the armor turns into an hostile animated one, the spider climb boots will make the player stick to the ground, the wild shape improving ring would force them into their form and attack their friends...some stuff like that.

Revisiting, got all the books, Starter Set, Essentials and Curse of Strahd. So many details. Starting CoS by the end of this month. I will make him into a horrible terrorizing moster.

I worked with each player ahead of game to give them a motivation why their character was trying to find Barovia; each one tied to a different location in Barovia. The theory is that the character's backstories will influence each player to seek out different locations. The players are welcome to share their motivations if they like; so far none really have but some are more free with it than others. One player is secretly a werewolf looking for a way to control their lycanthropy, they heard werewolfs in Barovia have the ability to control their transformations at will. Another player is seeking out Mordenkinen, another is looking for a temple of immense power (amber temple), another is trying to discover what happened to an order of paladins, etc.

Your homebrew tip is invaluable. As a new DM I wanted to give my players the best possible experience and thought more content = better, so I used the Dragna Carta homebrew and added other details from different people as well, but I think it got out of hand so now I'm trying to steer it back to the normal RAW campaign as best as possible. It is just too much for a new DM and I found that the gaps CoS leaves are not a bad thing. Players will speculate and come up with their own theories of how the things the module leaves out actually work and I can just pick ideas they bring forward and go with them. I think that being very familiar with a smaller amount of content absolutely beats being somewhat familiar with a larger amount of content as well. Still HUGE respect for Dragna Carta, he does some incredible work and for more experience DMs or people with more prep time it is super useful I'd imagine.

I think the few homebrew things ive seen people use and loved were were incoperating Strahd as Vasili von Holtz and having him meet the charcaters and pretend to be an ally. He's mentioned in the book but never expressly meets the characters but the ones ive seen that use him as an "ally" that actually works to mislead and hinder the characters. I also love the ones that give personalitesd to the Brides of Strahd. They all have great backstories and the fact that they arent utilized basically at all in the book is a travesty.

After I TPKed my group at the Feast at level 7, my players mentioned they didn't like how they didn't feel like they were hitting any milestones or "accomplished" any goals. They had issues with exploring as encounters/areas were higher levelled and felt completely powerless in some situations. I would probably emphasize or modify a few moments in the campaign where they just "succeed" something versus "succeeding but with a less desirable outcome" as it happens quite a lot.

Great advise.

Love all this! Jealous that you’ve gotten through this 3 times!? I’m still trying to get it to the table

I'm homebrewing a lot of the mechanics of Curse of Strahd but leaving the story nearly untouched (except for somethings I'm taking inspiration from I, Strahd) decided to run it for some high level adventurers and buffed up Strahd a good bit with higher level spells, some maneuvers from his soldier days, and general tankyness due to vampires in my setting being based off the witcher

i'm noticing a lot of similarities between the curse of strahd and the video game series Castlevania. Both have a vampire that always comes back to life and both have living castles.

originality is the ability to conceal the source

Hi, thanks for the video. Starting CoS next month. I already tried to launch it a couple of years ago, but I had to move and the campaign stalled. This will be my first game as a dm. Last time I killed half the party in the dead house, they level 3 went to the hill and barely escaped there. So thanks for the tips "how to" and there won't be a couple of words, what "definitely not" to do?)

i love the one random data picture

Sounds like you would be a great and respectful DM

My personal tip: Add more monsters to give your players a little more variety in enemies and so it makes the world a little more engaging

amazing tips! Multumesc!

Im currently plotting the first incounter into the castle so tip 13 was really helpful with trying to decide if they go in or if i just have it locked as the players have forgotten they were invited.

On the Castle Ravenloft note, the group I played with ended up going there before being ready to face Strahd(not by much, mind you, it was a few sessions before the last session) because most of the items we needed were in Castle Ravenloft and I think that was a good way to do it. Also one player got kidnapped even earlier on so our fated ally went to rescue him and we sort of ended up leaving our fated ally in the castle until that aforementioned burglary of the Strahd's home.

I'm here in search of advice and ideas since I'm trying to prepare to run curse of strahd for my first campaign ever.. I have a really small party so I'm hoping for the best

i plan on running this (haven't decided how vanilla it'll be yet), but i really like the idea of having 2 groups of "hunters" failing to kill Strahd. one of the groups will fail with Mordenkainen, another will have died to the various horrors of the region. maybe a wandering revenant muttering about the hags where a pair of the mongrelfolk reminisce their lost party member while describing the weapon of said revenant. at the moment though, i'm more likely going to complete and attempt-to-run my own Dread Domain. i'm basing the environ on an extended run of the Death House while using the House of Keys board game's floor plan. i'm done laying it out as a colorized template, just need to convert it into a TaleSpire scene and write the story. :D

Amazing tips man! One question - how do you feel about allowing the PCs to recruit all allies available? Like rallying a small army to confront Strahd? I'm a green DM so please be firm but kind! Thanks!

This can certainly fly in the face of the "less homebrew" thing but I've transplanted CoS to a pocket dimension duplicate of Ustalav in Pathfinder. It really builds up the scale of the game. Now you are fighting a national war against King Vonsarovich. Raising armies and county rebellions is a vibe you don't normally get in CoS and it really is cool, especially since every bit of power gained is innocence spent. By the time you do have your confrontation with Strahd your party is just as corrupted as him. True heirs of Ravenloft.

I'm going to be running this campaign for 2 groups (this is my second campaign I'm running) Definitely taking notes on the using Charm, and having the fight move through the castle (though I had already intended this. The book explicitly DID say use his resources fully.) I plan to have the players visit Ravenloft early in the campaign (No later than leaving Vallaki). If they're on a positive relationship with Strahd at this point (haven't stood against him, etc.) then it's truly that. A real dinner, where the players get a friendly chat where he brings the idea of one of them possibly being his successor. Also a moment to showcase his brutality as a vampire servant accidentally serves a wrong glass of win to his guests and he kills them in cold blood immediately for it. After that he'll excuse himself and leave, inviting the players to explore (though the gradual realization that leaving isn't so simple. It still is a "trap"), though he might charm them and attempt a bite in front of the party to try and instill just who this guy is. If they're on his bad side it truly is a trap, but since leaving isn't so easy (The dragon wyrmlings and drawbridge make the primary escape route tricky) they'll have to explore. If they come across Ezmeralda she'll guide them to his teleport room as somebody well acquainted with the castle. Either way, it'll get the players in the castle at a lower level and an excuse to get around the place, learn how many secrets there are, and given them ideas on what they may have to return for later.

Ended up incorporating Carmilla, (Or Miracilla as her alias is) Into COS. It's pretty funny.

Strahd returning always felt like such a stupid idea to me. "Oh, you know all of that work your characters did? All of the sacrifices they had to make and all the growth the achieved to overcome this terrible monster? Yeah, it was all for nothing. Your characters got out and now have some cool abilities, but Barovia and everything in it will all return back to normal in a few years, give-or-take. Nothing your characters did mattered in any way except that they got to leave Barovia." I can't imagine anything less motivating then telling someone that anything they do won't matter. Who cares if the winery gets destroyed? It'll get rebuilt in a few years when Barovia comes back. Who cares about helping or befriending the Barovians? 90% of them aren't actually real anyways, and the remaining 10% will just be trapped in Barovia yet again... I just can't get into the head of the authors when they wrote that. "The victory you've spent probably over a year preparing for is hollow and small." How would that motivate people?!

My players panicked when I introed strand during the burgermeisters funeral and gave Ireena to Strahd. So I'm having her replace Strahd and she's been using him as a puppet this whole time, because he turned her and she ended up being much more powerful than him. I'm stoked to see how my players react when she pops up after they find his husk of a body

Currently playing CoS with a character I made in my first run of the campaign. My character (a reborn bard) recently had an encounter with a bat that they discovered was from that first adventure through berovia. My DM didn't even tell me I was a reborn at first. Just dropped hints like I don't get hungry or I don't need sleep. Its been crazy.

Great tip on having the vampire spawn have their own personality, it wasn't something i considered before. Will definitely be using it as i run CoS again. I've played CoS as a player once and am currently on my 2nd time DM-ing it, and I in my opinion there is no better place to fight Strahd for the final battle other than Sergei's Tomb. The atmosphere, seeing Strahd weep before his brother before the fate of the valley is decided is just too epic. (Also I agree that the characters shouldn't just beeline toward the final showdown room; to that end I made the heart of sorrow really important so it takes the characters all the way up before going all the way down) I am, however, against Strahd using his charm action during the final battle. It's the most important battle in the campaign and if the characters have no way to counter it, they're screwed. I do use it when he appears at key moments in the story (Lighting the Beacon, Festival of the Blazing Sun, etc.), but I feel like for the final battle he would want to defeat them fair and square. He is a proud conqueror after all.

So much good advice, but in so little time! Please slow down I am making notes

Sempai Strahd, I will use that.

This video should be required watching for anyone who wants to run Curse of Strahd. I personally can't stand the campaign because, while I think there's a ton of potential for it to be a fun filled gothic horror game, the DM has to run it PERFECTLY or else it just becomes a shitty memefest. I love your suggestion of turning stress into a mechanic for the game. When I ran it (very briefly) my players were definitely creeped out by murder/death house, but they cleared it, the game became a meme as they didn't take anything seriously. I think mechanizing character fear definitely prevents that. I also really like the mysterious letters sowing distrust between the players and NPC's as well as Strahd's spy network. I think the way to pull off the sowing distrust is to definitely have the first one or two be true rumors about NPC's being treacherous so they're not immediately like, "oh Strahd's messing with us." When I was a player for CoS (also my first DnD campaign ever), my DM didn't do ANY of that and so Barovia really didn't feel threatening at all. There also weren't really stakes to leave either, and a lot of my fellow players felt no reason TO want to go back to Faerun.

20:25 lmao why is Data here Man caught me off guard

I would say - do something with the Hags. In the module they are quite boring, 1-dimensional, objectively evil beings, players pretty much have to kill, when they learn the truth about their pastries. Instead it's much more interesting to tone them down a bit, and then weave them into world more - as those creepy old ladies, that some people have been making deals with. They could divine for the players, or provide some rare spellcasting materials (at extra cost), usually with creepy side effects. And everything comes at a price, not always covered with gold. In my game they have a host of "services" they can provide, and thus - become harder to just kill off. And think about their motivations - are they trapped in Barovia and want to get out as well? But are smart enough to not go against Strahd themselves, instead waiting till someone offs him, for them. They might be cutting deals with many people - if players piss off Lady Wachter, she might cut a deal with the Hags to have a Banderhobb stalk them, for example. Also be prepared to tone down the pastry reveal, or to change it completely - make sure your players will be OK with that twist, and if not - change it beforehand. In my game I wasn't comfortable with the idea of feeding dead children to player characters, so I reworked it as follows: The hags are "emotions" vampires - they feed off good emotions people have - especially beautiful dreams, they harvest as people sleep. But Barovia is a somber place, so they'd starve - so Morgantha created Dream Pastries - she uses a bit of those "good emotions" to enchant the pies, she then sells to people. They eat it, and have the most beautiful dreams in their lives, happiness they never expirienced, which when they wake up - is all gone - harvested by Morgantha and her coven. People get hooked on that feeling and want more, going so far as to selling all their belongings, just to afford more, and the Coven has their own "dreams factory" in the Village (and late Vallaki). People who can no longer afford pastries might start cutting terrible deals, commiting crimes, stealing and eventually dying from the sadness that seeps in every time they wake up. Another thing - Do something with the Brides. In the module they are uninteresting nobodies, just "creepy ladies that Strahd has in his crypt". Instead - give them personality and something to do. Strahd needs "lieutenants" to carry out his will out in the Valley, and keep track track of minutia he's too busy. Someone who will be an intermediary between comon spy and himself. I had every bride be responsible for one big event in the module, overseeing it. And when players thwarted it - they'd escape. THat also makes the encounter with them all in the castle later more insteresting. I had Ludmilla oversee the theft of bones in Vallaki as well as preparing for the Feast (she was one of the vampires in the coffin maker's shop) Volenta coordinated the attack on the vinery and keeps an eye on both the druids and werewolves. Anastrasya was responsible for corrupting and keeping an eye on the Abbot - feeding him lies, and pushing his madness further and further. She was warded against divination with a necklace and had magic aura spell on her, to hide the fact she was a vampire and undead.

20:26 Lt. Commander Piddlewick II? Maybe he's the party's destined ally, and wants to be a real boy?

One point of contention: I think the road of Yester Hill should be ill-tended and overgrown, but still apparent, like the roman roads in Britain today, because it was a site of pilgrimages for eons.

Great tips, I'm going to start running Curse of Strahd within the next few months as a "first" time DM, I've DMd small one-shots before but not a full campaign, this will be a great source of inspiration! :) Also, what is the background music at 3:48 ? I feel like dark classical music would be a great addition to the atmosphere within Castle Ravenloft

I had a pair of NPCs who had guarded the party in Waterdeep Drogn Heist get abducted by Strahd. They had been a couple in Waterdeep. Once in Barovia, Strahd cut the hands off one of them, broke his mind, and let him wander and made the other a vampire. The party was unaware of this when they ran across one of them in Vallaki during an attack by vampire spawn when she ran into them, rejoiced at being rescued, then attacked and abducted one of them to Castle Ravenloft thus forcing the dinner with the devil.

So I'm actually running curse of strahd right now and my players are a bit more high level they used the same characters from a previous campaign the wild be on the witchlight which is directly tied to cos. I made a few changes to make it harder and more compelling the first thing being that I made strahd truly immortal, he created a demi-plane and rules over it like a god that's not something you can so easily beat. So I made it that the giant heart that he keeps in his castle is a giant magic source that until it's destroyed strahd cannot be killed no matter what the players do even if they somehow manage to beat him down he'll simply come back a few moments later. Of course there were other ways around this but I made it clear from the beginning at least in barovia strahd is almost a god. The next change I did was similar to you where the invitation to the dinner wasn't an attempt to kill them but an actual dinner. I made a massive banquet or ball think a vampire masquerade with an entire party of different characters being the first lively thing the players would see since coming to berobia with every one of the guests being either a vampires or horrific monsters in disguise as I just thought it was a fun concept. I made my strahd much more charismatic he openly chats warmly to people speaking to my players like their old friends happily greeting them, but I make it clear from the beginning he has a short temper even the moment he's even slightly challenged he'll snap before going back to his charismatic cocky facade. It was oh really good moment for my players per their own testimony as they get up close and personal with him understanding just who they're dealing with and vice versa. I wanted to portray strahd as both intelligent, charismatic, and most importantly arrogant, the moment the players step through and are basically sitting getting chatty with him I wanted them to realize that the Lord of barovia sees himself as so above the players and so confident they cannot defeat him that he literally openly invites them into his home and even gives them the opportunity to try and kill him if they really want knowing that he's completely safe. Obviously I'm leaving a bunch of stuff out but it added a whole bunch and made them both really like and really hate Strahd

Today, I learned that Strahd always comes back.

to point 13. You can also tell your pc that you are going to play in the campaign, so that they can make pc who fits in

If I'm using the death house intro for this module, when is a good time to introduce strahd? (more so their first interaction with him) in the house? after they escape? after madam eva's card reading? first time running it and I'm just curious how you handled that!

My biggest problem is how to let the party meet Strahd offent. Had the same problem in DoIP. The adventure give almost no examples. A d20 list of where they can meet is not good enough IMHO. I would LOVE a video, or replies, on where/when/why Strahd would interact with the party.

I had my fight at the room with Tatyana’s portrait. I felt that it was fitting because of his obsession with Tatyana/Ireena. But my advice is to not play the Krezck pool scene where Ireena is suddenly thrown out of the game. If you as a DM spent a lot of time trying to get her likable for the players, it just feels very out of left field. Either tweak the scene where it feels more like an actual choice your Ireena would make or just don’t do the scene. In my CoS campaign, Ireena was a very independent person and by that point in the game was absolutely done with Strahd and his obsession with her. And saw Sergei’s “Tatyana, my love” bs as him being no better than Strahd for failing to realize that she may be Tatyana’s reincarnation but she was not Tatyana.

Strahd **HATED** me. I can't speak to the DM side of things on this campaign... I've been DMing various games since the 70s. But I was playing a Beguiler under 3.5 rules and specialized in counterspell feats and I don't know how Strahd's charm is supposed to work but enchantments and illusions are a Beguiler's jam and perhaps there's a mechanics reason I was never charmed and maybe the DM decided that if I was charmed that the party had no chance at all?! I can see an argument for that. When we faced off, though, Strahd found himself without any good options. We had powerful melees and we had a solid cleric and wizard. But whenever Strahd wanted to cast, if I had a spell in that school available (and for Beguilers, all spells in their spell list are available), I'd automatically counter it. And if it wasn't in a school I had, I had a Dispel Magic (maybe a Greater, I can't recall what levels we were) to contest it. And if he became vulnerable to take care of me, my party was going to swarm him. Near the finale, I was forced to cast a Greater Mirror Image as a defensive action and Strahd saw his chance. He braved fire from my teammates and engaged me, wounding me. To which I responded with Alter Self to Strahd's lost love. He & I were surrounded by images of a wounded Tatyana swirling around us. OOC - I feel the GM lost a storytelling moment and I would have gone another direction. The GM responded later that Strahd had True Sight so he was able to see through the illusion. As a GM, I would have rewarded the creativity with a pause. Even when people KNOW something intellectually that doesn't mean they are unaffected emotionally. I think it would have been disorienting to be confronted by such a vivid image. At a minimum, something like... "Strahd smiles thinly and hisses, 'Nice try.' and quits the battlefield to heal."

I’m running my first module with this, and it is hard for me to not improvise, because one of my players was a previous DM, and her last story was curse of Strahd

Have Strahd charm and marry players. Great fun!

Where did you find that good maps of Castle Ravenloft? In the book the maps are very good but not usable to show the players where they are. I need maps viewed from the top, to show them piece by piece, while the war fog fades away.

I am currently waiting for my book to arrive in the mail, but I had a question. As someone whose run curse of Sthrad so many times. Would having a muppet of Sthrad add to the experience?

"Characters life. Not real life" Alright, Jared, Strahd hits you for 40 points of damage, almost as hard as your dad hit you when you when you dropped out of school.