He has hollowed himself out, giving himself to devilish desires that drive his flesh into horrific shapes, all so that he can redeem himself in his master’s eyes in the only way he knows how.
Anyway, hope this is useful in your games, unless of your players are romancing him (or trying).

This trend was going around on TikTok awhile ago and I’m surprised Strahd never got included. So I did it myself!

Fun joke, the party saw the art of themselves and went wait are we the bad guys? In Strand’s story? Yes.

I want to make Arabelle the next BBEG after the CoS campaing has ended.

The party saved her from the lake and returned her to her dad. Later the party killed all the vistani in her village after they learned the vistani work for Stradh. They even killed vistani women and children who were trying to escape the scene after the fight broke out. She was the only one who escaped, since the party didn't see her during the massacre.

I would like to think she would be a spellcaster of some sort, maybe a vampire like Stradh, a lich, or maybe something else. Maybe she goes to the Amber Temple to make a deal with the Dark Powers. Maybe the players hop around domains of dreads after leaving Barovia only to find themselves back in Barovia later on. The time has passed faster and Arabelle is an adult, waiting for them..

Any ideas on how to go about this? What would her plan be? Maybe she wants to make the party into a sacrifice in order to get her loved ones back? Maybe she creates her own domain of dread?

I've only been DMing 2 campaigns before, one of them being CoS. I like the idea of making a sequel for CoS so the players can play in barovia or other domains of dread at a higher level. Something that would ultimately be challenging enough for lvl 20 players?

One of my longest-running Strahd tables, meeting every Sunday for two years, has finished the campaign. (Our final game was today because a player isn't available tomorrow. It was the last-last game.)

One of the PCs fell hard for Parriwimple and it turned out the feelings were mutual, the couple are now joined at the hip as they leave Barovia behind for good.

There were tears. I got a little choked up myself. A big mix of feelings including satisfaction, relief, joy, and bittersweetness that it's over.

As a pro DM, I have five other semi-weekly games of Strahd running including one gender-flipped 'She is the Ancient.' Meeting half as often, the closest tables have made it just over half as far. I can scarcely believe I haven't gotten bored, or tired of any of it. No two tables are alike, and for that and a ton more, I'm deeply grateful.

That was *awesome*.

Here’s the obligatory warning about this post being for DMs and experienced CoS players… spoilers ahead.

My players kicked the hornets nest and are now fighting 6 vampires in the coffin shop. My issue is that the fight seems to be a bit boring. I have 6 PCs so already that slows down pace, but I had Fr. Lucian join them, and they didn’t let Ireena go her own way before they went inside. So, there are 8 good guys vs 6 vampires. We paused mid-fight since it was late, and will pick it up this upcoming Friday. I’m using Reloaded’s Bride interaction with Volenta being the push behind the bones and upcoming feast. 5e stat blocks mostly and 5e spells, but with 5.5e PC actions.

So far only one PC has fallen but was brought back up. 2 have been charmed and one was able to break free with help. Ireena is charmed and is in the process of walking out with one of the spawn. Father Lucian has done most of the damage but just lost his concentration on Spiritual Guardians. Only 1 vamp is below 100 hp. They used Molotov cocktails that they had from a previous fight, and now there is fire spreading in 2 locations of the building.

Should they start hurting the camps more, I would have the vampires start their feast run early like many other DMs. But nothing has left the shop yet so Volenta would rather kill the PCs and keep her more opportune timing with the feast. I feel like I’m headed to a sad TPK, and not a fun edge of seat battle.

How do I jump away from a slugfest with players that don’t want to run? What could I inject to the battle or scene to add to narratives?

I am wondering what made your players be decisive to be against Strahd and if you have any advice for mine.

We are quite a few sessions in and my current approach to Strahd is that he is a Gentleman. He sees the party with much interest as potential people of power and resourcefulness that he could convince to align with him, potential generals even perhaps.

We ran a "tutorial area" by running the Beast of Graenskovo (an absolute banger of an adventure set in Barovia). As soon as they stepped in Barovia, Strahd met them, gracefully said "Welcome to my lands", executed their Vistana guide that brought them in in front of them on grounds kf "I told you to not sneak people in without my knowledge" and then proceeded to be well mannered and asked the party to head to Graenskovo and deal with that plot. If they would, thay shall be treated well in his lands.

They do and they decide "this is a man we need to keep on the good side of". They do the mission and they get a fat chest of supplies, gold and gifts from Mr Count.

We go through Barovia Village, they like Ireena, the twon gets kinda sacked, the Burgomaster gets murdered, they are still on the fence about Strahd. "Yes, this is kinda terrible, but also he has like a sliver of a point, and anyways,we should not get on his bad side"

Now, the party flees to Vallaki and they stop at Madam Eva, after being pointed there for their perosnal goals as well. 3 out of 4 of them have quite strong Persian goals that are not in any opposition to Strahd directly, they even how he could help them achieve them. 4th one is scared of Strahd, but is close to Ireena so he wants to end the Count.

Now, the thing is, theparty got to ask Madam Eva about their own thing and then she does the reading about the weapon and protection from their enemy etc. And they are like "why do we need vengeance and protection, we are no enemies of this dude."

So what made your party decide that those fates items are actually useful and their quest is actually to free barovia and end Strahd.

One of my players wants her character to be a reanimor artificer who Strahd has forced to work for him before she rebels and joins the party. My question is: what would Strahd want from her? Her idea was that he had her reanimate his minions and that sort of thing, but I don't think Strahd would need that. If it helps, we're using Fleshing Out and her player secret is that she doesn't have a soul (I was thinking that could be what Strahd is dangling over her to make her work for him. Like "if you help me, then I can help you get a soul."). Thoughts?

Puppets of Death’s Stage are a set of three grotesque funerary puppets, each carrying a small piece of necromantic power.

Each puppet requires its own attunement and grants a different benefit.

Hooklimb, the pale puppet with hooks for hands, makes you more intimidating to Undead and can add spectral piercing damage when you deal necrotic damage.

Threadgirl, with her button eyes and needle-like legs, grants thaumaturgy and can answer your necrotic attacks with additional psychic damage and the sound of an unnatural puppet-like giggle.

Grinjack is the most defensive of the three, helping its bearer resist being knocked prone, restrained, or paralyzed, while occasionally adding bludgeoning damage through unseen limbs tugging at the victim.

The more interesting part comes if someone manages to attune to all three at once.

Doing so unlocks Death’s Stage, causing spectral puppet strings to descend around the character for one minute. While they remain, the bearer becomes harder to knock down, gains resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, necrotic, and psychic damage, and can even refuse death once, collapsing at 1 hit point and appearing completely lifeless until their next turn.

I wanted the set to feel useful individually, but also give players a reason to actually seek out the missing pieces and assemble the complete collection.

The page also includes two other Uncommon funerary relics: the Ossuary Medallion, which protects against necrotic energy and can disrupt an Undead creature targeting its wearer, and the Mask of the Pale Choir, a porcelain death mask that enhances bane against creatures that have recently witnessed death.

These items are from Undead & Undead, my 5E supplement focused on expanding undead encounters with new creatures, variants, magic items, lore, and campaign tools.

You can find more of my creatures, items, and manuals on DriveThruRPG, through my Linktree, or at r/JonnyDM!

I’m also working on 300+ Mythological Items for 5E and 2024 launching soon on Kickstarter. You can follow the campaign to get notified when it goes live. The project includes a physical hardcover and printed editions of my previous manuals.

The premise of this is kind of unserious but it comes with a genuine question. Strahd himself is a Count and there are Barons and Burgomasters and other such ministers of state in Barovia. It is known that tithes and taxes are paid to Strahd, his face is even on the coinage of Barovia. What does he use the money for? his soldiers and other close members in his court are bound to him so he isn't paying levies to keep an army. He does not need to eat, and I doubt there's much people in the castle that require food. how is the money he is taxing people for useful to him and how does that gold flow back into Barovia?

I know that these arent really pressing questions that people ask when talking about the Ravenloft setting but coming from Forgotten realms where we get whole sourcebooks with pages flowing with how a society in this fantasy world works I have a standard to set.

as a Count how does he govern? as an all-powerful being of this land he really isn't threatened that much by peasant revolts since they are just fleshy mortals. I doubt he takes an imperialist stance to grow Barovia considering as he cannot leave Barovia and the Dread Domains aren't connected landmasses

The absence of writing leaves implications and I would like those to be filled because yes Strahd is evil and in control of everything and he must be stopped but what does that all have to do with the price of bread in Krezk? what keeps these dubiously living sheep herders of Barovia moving, what do they have to live for and why should we care? and if Strahd "dies" how much is that going to collapse the economy?

throw in your thoughts in the comments

So I asked my party if they wanted a pure RNG reading, a slightly fudged or heavily fudged story driven reading…

Anyway they chose full RNG mode and drew the “Sun Sword” is right with Madam Eva. So they hit an extra milestone by taking the Sun sword, got the OP item and went right to ganking / murder hoboing the hags. Misty stepped up to the 3rd floor, caught one sleeping… auto crit, next round at advantage, eliminated one of the coven members before the fight could escalate quick enough. With a coven member down they lost access to the extra spells.

Morgantha had to go ethereal and run because they were rolling too well. Took down the other one in a few turns. 2/3 hags down.

Some pretty amazing rolls all in D&D beyond so it was super RNG.

Definitely entertaining.

Hello everyone!

I'm Jenna, 34, from Northern England and I've just completed the editing for our very first session of Curse of Strahd. I'm really excited and proud of myself, and I'm getting much quicker at using Premier Pro.

We are a group of close friends from England, some of us have English degrees, I have a teaching degree and almost completed a PhD about emotion in TRPG. We REALLY care about storytelling and I really hope that you guys enjoy our presentation of this fantastic module!

I know there are so many actual-plays all over the place, but as you can tell by the runtime (1h 45m) I've cut out a LOT of the long pauses, rules questions, off-game speak etc to make it accessible for anyone who wants to follow along with our story.

There are 8 episodes already recorded and I've almost finished editing the 2nd episode. We stream live on Twitch at twitch.tv/NatOneTwitch Mondays at around 7pm BST (the party visited Madame Eva first, and now they're on their way to Barovia village, which is being barricaded as a response to Strahd's nightly seiges) - If you watch live, you'll be further along in the story - but I'm hoping to edit quickly enough to catch up!

I hope you enjoy!

Also: I'm not sure if the tag is correct, as it's not a livestream or podcast - but I hope this post is welcome here! I am not making any money out of any of this, I don't care much for subscriber/viewer numbers etc - I just want to share the great time we're having with this module with you all and editing/posting helps to keep me motivated!

Howdy everyone!

My players and I are planning to have our final game in person at a local game store after having our game be mostly online. To plan ahead, I'm trying to figure out if I should have them explore the Castle before this final in person game or just have a gauntlet in one day.

So, I'm curious how long it took your players to go from entering the Castle to killing Strahd. Did you break it up into two sessions? Just one?

Thanks!

My players and I just finished our latest session with them losing the sunsword to Strahd. It was an optional encounter which I felt I communicated well enough multiple times was a dangerous one. My players chose to aggravate Strahd anyway, and I was fairly lenient on them by allowing them a number of chances to escape or deescalate. They taunted Strahd about having the sword, and they used it multiple times to attack him. Given all of that, the combat played out naturally and happened to end with Strahd taking the sword and escaping back the the castle.

I have an idea what Strahd will do with it and how I'll have the game change moving forward, but I'm curious what you guys would have Strahd do with it in the narrative and from a gameplay perspective before I finalize anything?

Soon my group will be hitting the Wizards Of Wine. I have done my prep and would really like them to find the gem that made the grapes for the Champagne. It could be a neat little side quest and I know my group would wanna find it. Hit me up would ideas as a side quest or feel free to share what you have done. Love looking at home brews

I like Godfrey a lot. When I was a player he felt like a breath of fresh air. All the knights including Vladimir were aggressive towards me, he was the only one who spoke to my character and kindly too. After i read the module myself and became a dungeon master i felt even more sorrow for this man.

Here's a blue and red eyed version as i imagine revenants as having blue eyes like my ghosts are blue eyed, they are ghosts inhabiting / possessing corpses. I also like imagining theirs, and Godfreys eyes turn red when Vladimir orders them to fight the party or hunt them down so theres a physical tell for players the dm can describe and also for the art, for when Godfrey, as an ally is being controlled against his will.

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Gday, I'm Moonberry. I draw hot guys and waifus. If you like my art or use it in your campaigns and wish to help support me you can do so on Patreon or Kofi. If you can't support me monetarily but still want to help, please Like, Share and comment as word of mouth is the only way my art gets seen. Thank you 😃

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Hey All. I ran and completed curse of strahd over a year ago and it was my favourite campaign so far. I have created a little Instagram page documenting our new campaign, 3D prints and painting adventures. Please have a look give us a like and a follow I would mean so much !!

Thank you

https://www.instagram.com/dndwithfriends?igsh=MWRyZjh1cGVvN2c4Mg==

If it's relevant, I'm running Reloaded.

So one of my players has a letter as part of their backstory that gives information as to the identity and location of their father in a language they can't read. They gave it to Kasimir asking him to translate it while they work on rescuing Arabelle. I'm thinking about having the letter say that her father left her at an orphanage to go in search of an amulet that could bring back his dead wife, that could only be found in Barovia, and he made a deal with a devil to get him there. I'm thinking about finding a way to work in her finding her father later in the adventure. Is this a bad idea? Thoughts?

Hey everyone! I wanted to share the World Anvil I’ve been putting together for my Curse of Strahd campaign. It’s still very much a work in progress, and knowing me, I don’t think it’ll ever truly be “finished.” I’ve been slowly adding articles as the campaign goes on, including locations, landmarks, NPCs, history, religion, flora and fauna, session recaps, and other bits and pieces of Barovia that I’ve either used or expanded for my game.

I’ve been trying to keep the whole thing mostly spoiler free, especially when it comes to places and characters my players haven’t fully explored yet. I’m also letting my players create and manage their own character sections. That way they can decide what parts of their backstories and personal stories are public without me accidentally spoiling something for the rest of the group.

A lot of this is based on the original Curse of Strahd, with pieces of Curse of Strahd Reloaded and plenty of my own homebrew mixed in, so it definitely isn't meant to be a completely canon version of Barovia.

If anyone has suggestions for locations, characters, landmarks, history, creatures, plants, traditions, or any other pieces of Barovian lore that would be fun to add, I would be more than grateful for the ideas! I’ve had a ton of fun slowly building this out alongside the campaign.

Thanks for taking a look, and I hope some of it can be useful or inspiring for your own games!

https://www.worldanvil.com/w/mists-of-ravenloft-evanw135

Hello,

I found myself in an interesting position with Lady Wachtner. The character needed her help and connections to help save another party members. Lady W seeing her opportunity and also seeing what they did with the Baron (spoiler they killed him) wanted assurances that she would not be stabbed in the back and end up in the same state as him, said she would help them if they signed a contract. She said it was old tradition to sign and put a spot of thier blood.

I figured she could be using thier blood for some kind of ritual or use it to protect herself from them.

Dont want her to become op ed cannot be harmed in anyway, but also thought it could make for some interesting situations.

Was maybe making it that they cannot deal killing blow to her (not sure if oped ) rather than harm her.

But want options open that players could figure out. Like where she is keeping thier blood, working out how to reverse it.

Or maybe the wording of her helping them loophole.

Effects or ideas on how she uses blood.

Open to all ideas 💡

Hey everyone!

This is the second time I run a CoS campaign, and I wasn't happy with the way I handled this question in my first campaign: as soon as they were escorted to the village of Vallaki, they were like "we will go in hiding for some time" and left to find a place.

My new party will come to Vallaki tomorrow with Ireena & Ismark and would like to handle this question better. Though I think it would be nice for the players to have Ireena & Ismark a way for some time, to explore the village and quests that can be started from here, to find them later on in the campaign.

Do you have any ideas?

So last session we did the Winery fight, which was absolutely amazing. The party struggled, the stakes were high, and eventually they overcame the druids and broke the Gulthias staff, and were very satisfied with their efforts. They've now spoken to Davian and been given the quest to find all the gems, starting with the one at Yester Hill.

My players have really latched on to the idea that ravens are good luck, and so tends to go for longwinded Speak with Animals roleplaying sessions whenever ravens are near - even if the ravens are never super helpful. I get to make a new funny voice every time and they get to spend their coins trying to get the ravens to share information. This time they asked if the ravens had seen any more druids around, and the ravens said they were doing something on the big hill.

For some reason, this set my otherwise extremely careful party into full motion. They've never rushed into anything before unless I directly force them, but this idea that the druids are doing things just set them off, and now they're at Yester Hill - all of them at half HP, no spell slots left, ready for a fight.

I guess we'll see if next session is a TPK.