Hook Your Players into Barovia! | Running Curse of Strahd 5e 

How are you planning on launching your players into the mist-shrouded land of Barovia? Are you going to do it by the book, or will you be adventurous in your own right and craft a beginning of your own?

I had session 1 a character almost die, and to keep him engaged during his death saving throws. I talked about his nightmares of him being helpless and watching the same old horror of watching that werewolf kill his parents. I went into so much detail. Strahd sent him a dark sword that corrupts his heart. He’s not used it but it whispers to him. In his dreams he sees the same nightmare of watching his parents die this time the boy stands as the wolf approaches the sword rises from the ground. Whispering to him 😊

I started my second campaign of Barovia with stripping PCs of all equipment and starting in Death House. Loads of fun. Everyone grabbed knives off the table and from kitchen. College of Swords bard got the longsword over the fireplace. Monk ripped a curtain rod off the wall for his monk weapon. They all took spears from the suits of armor. Wizard was Order of Scribes, so was able to download his spell book as soon as they got to library. Cleric had it the hardest... No holy symbols in the house. I let her use the orb in the basement for spells. By then it was only useful in the shambling mound fight. Bard never got to use spells either, he couldn't play the harp.

More Strahd content would be amazing. Your videos have already inspired me...soooo....yes please. Lol

I never thought of disarming the players, my guys might be level 5 starting this and that's a wonderfully evil way to have them worry.

You devious bastard. I like this whole range of videos!

I likes that a lot and will use during the encounter with Esmerelda

Wanna make Death House, death-ier? Take away all their stuff lol

Thank you for this! I was trying to think of a new adventure hook to get my players into Barovia, especially if the characters have never met each other before. This will be perfect because then it involves each of them on a personal level.

Really nice videos! We are about to start COS with me as the DM and these are a great source of inspiration and preparation, thanks!

Damn, half my players are trying to scape their past life, the other 2 are respectively, a dwarf who wants to be an hero and become a legend, and a Paladin who is going full deus vult, I will have to work hard to make sense on their fates, good thing, the Paladin gave me the the perfect bridge to move them into the adventure.

I had almost the exact same idea with the dream sequence. I hadn't thought of incorporating the Tarokka deck though. I'll have to use that one

The main guy from Prison Break sure knows a lot about DnD. Just kidding, great content friend!

Damn I wish I had watched this before I started my first game. This is great

"Or a broom..." ROFL

Love your CoS videos! I'm preparing to run the adventure and they are so helpful! Great work!

I LOVE this idea

I love this hook idea. I am going to be running Death House as my second outing as a DM. I am going to try and use this with my party.

The Death House is already considered a meat-grinder for level 1 and 2 characters, with several deadly encounters between them and the altar in the basement, and then several rooms of deadly traps between them and the exit. How do you avoid a TPK the characters only having access to the minimal equipment that is available in the Death House?

This is so good thank you!

Great ideas here. Thanks for the tips!

Love your content. I hope you get more attention soon.

Can you give me an advice? I Really liked your Pastry idea, and the Vestige Boons, but I think they conflict with each other. Players addicted to pastry will look to the dreams and offering of becoming a champion with suspicion. So, after seeing this video, I had an idea: What if the conclusion of theyr destiny is attached with the Vestiges? If you, let's say, mass murder the werewolf clan instead of resolving the leadership problem with the minimum amount of deaths, or leave the children to become new werewolfs, you became attuned to Yog, and receive his Dark Gift. With time, if he fails the saves, his soul is taken, and only can be retrieved at the Amber Temple. I think it's a way to connect with the old mechanics of Ravenloft (Fear, Horror and Madness). What do you think?

I'm curious as to how you think the Tarokka deck can be used outside of Curse of Strahd. For instance, in Pathfinder you have the Harrow Deck, which is similar. However, you can build a character around it who uses the cards in game. Or be able to tell general fortunes. What are your thoughts about something similar for Tarokka?

My player's monk without gear and scraping by.. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I've seen two groups online play the whole campaign and I've also played it through once as a player. In all these cases, we just end up in Barovia and our backgrounds or others contacts didn't matter at all. I've decided to make Madam Eva the grandmother (or maybe a great-grandmother, I'm not sure which one would be better) of our two player characters which they are going to learn when they eventually see her! Madam Eva had a daughter who went to live her life as a mother of the two player characters.

This is so cool! I am dming my groups first CoS game, it’s also going to be my girlfriends second D&D game and I have to use this! It’s so cool!

You are amazing.

I have 5 players for my campaign so i think what ill do is have one card correspond to the characters destiny, and those 5 cards are also the ones that appear during the reading in barovia

I was intending on using your new version of Drust Manor as an intro chapter for my players, but now that I've fallen upon your idea of leaving them as they went to bed... Would that change anything? Is there any monsters that would prove too tough inside your version of Death House?

Just discovered this channel and these videos. They're so great! But could you PLEASE fix the playlist so they play in the correct order?

Is the intent to give the PCs their personal reading from Madam Ava during the dream? or once they reach her wagon in game?

I’m a new dm in full prepping mode for Curse of Strahd. I’m fascinated with the dreams idea. I think plan on using it as my adventure hook. Already got my PCs working on which class they’re planning on playing. I’m limiting them to human/v human. We’re doing session zero and diving into session one on the same night. We’re all amped up to get to playing. But I have two questions. How do you handle dreams of two PCs are planning to play the same class? Is recommended to do the dream sequence 5 times in a row at the very start of session one or could I do the dreams individually like the week before that way we start the campaign with them already making their separate ways to the inn/tavern. TIA!

Should I send my players descriptions of the nightmares before the first session? Or should I read them out loud during our first session for everyone to hear?

moreeeee!!

For the following reading with Eva, did you get the cards back? or did you do the reading without those cards?

This got me thinking on a tangential issue that always bothered me about the Curse of Strahd: why are the Barovians there? I understand why Strahd is there: he murdered his brother, drank his blood, and tried to shack up with his girlfriend. But what did the Barovians do to warrant eternal punishment? The book says, “It is widely believed that she [Mother Night] has forsaken the Barovian people and sent the devil Strahd to punish them for their ancestors’ offenses.” Elsewhere it says the Barovians believe that, “The devil Strahd is a curse placed on the land because of a forgotten sin of the Barovians’ ancestors. (This is untrue, but Barovians believe it nonetheless.)” Maybe this isn’t literally true but not far off the mark. Maybe the Barovians, ahem, chosen to live (and relive) in Barovia are being punished for a forgotten sin they committed. Maybe Barovia is a personal hell for all of its inhabitants and not just Strahd. Maybe Strahd is their personal “devil.” For example, maybe Tatyana’s soul is trapped there because, in life, she led Strahd on and maybe hooked up with him with selfish motives only to then marry Sergei. Maybe the Priest had his own sin in life that he is reliving in some way in Barovia. And perhaps these souls could leave Barovia if they could only find redemption, a la CS Lewis’s The Great Divorce, but they can’t due to the ever-present fear of Strahd, their devil. Instead, they’re doomed to be reborn only to repeat their folly. Or maybe this is too Stephen King-ish for a D&D campaign.

How much damage do you count in for improvised weapons like firepokers and molotov cocktails?

Do you think it’s too nice to give their gear back after death house?

Hi. Brand new DM here. This will be my first attempt to run an adventure ever. Forgive me if this is a dumb question. I'm a bit confused about the reading by Madame Eva.I love the idea of doing readings for each character to determine their destiny and give them a reason for being in Barovia. How to you integrate this with the reading Eva does to determine the location of the magic items and Strahd?

So last night my players had their readings from Madam Eva. They each received their personal destiny when she explained the card she had given them. I have gotten to thinking, what reward should the players get for completing their personal destiny?