D&D 5E CoS: frequency of going to the Castle (minor spoilers)

[GlassJaw]

I'm prepping to run CoS and run a lot of guides on threads. But one thing I don't have a great feel for is how often the characters will go to (and leave) Castle Ravenloft.

There are a lot of leads and connections to the the Castle and its inhabitants throughout the campaign, never mind the fact that some of the treasure locations might be in the Castle.

My initial thought was that once the characters enter the Castle, it's essentially "act 3" of the story and the campaign will be coming to a climax with the players confronting Strahd. But after reading more and more, I'm not sure that's the case.

So for those that have ran - or played! - CoS, how often did you go the Castle and then leave to continue to explore the countryside? If you did go and leave again, what brought you to the Castle in the first place, assuming it wasn't to confront Strahd?

 

[ad_hoc]

It's going to vary with how they treat Strahd and how much reason they have to go.

I would say the average would be around 2-3 times.

One is through invitation and one more for the final confrontation. Beyond that it depends, but I wouldn't let the PCs come and go as they please except under extraordinary circumstances.

 

[thethain]

It is designed with the idea players will show up a few times. Specifically stating strahd wouldn't kill them until he grows bored with them. Likewise the other major threats like Rahadin will not kill them. The invitation is at least one visit, they may come back to rescue the damsel(s) in distress.

My campaign the players went once for a wedding invite, again to reclaim the skull of Argynvost, and will be going one last time for the final showdown.

 

[Rils]

In our campaign they are only going once - for the final showdown. That was the player's choice though, they purposely stayed away, feeling they weren't strong enough to tackle it yet (whether that was true or not). However, I would have been fine if they went multiple times. It's really up to how you want to run it though. Lay out plot hooks, some of which include going to the castle, and see what the players bite on. Don't under any circumstance tell them they can't go, or make it sound too high level for them. Let them figure that out on their own.

I read some ideas in another thread about making Strahd more of "sponsor", getting the PCs to work for him by taking care of "malcontents" and other chores around the valley, until they realized they were actually killing potential allies in a fight against Strahd... If I ran it again, I'd totally do it that way, and they'd be at the Castle regularly.

 

[machineelf]

Our group had played the original once before, so when we played CoS, we all assumed we shouldn't go to the castle until we were ready to beat Strahd. So we avoided it until the end. Our DM tried to communicate to us that we could go to the castle whenever we wanted, but I guess we didn't understand that. Still turned out to be a blast. The best 5th edition adventure path so far.

 

[CydKnight]

My thought is that you never know what the players will actually do so you plan accordingly as best you can. You can try to steer them in certain directions but they will still surprise you with their decisions at times. If it were me, I would try to at least have an idea of what a trip would look like at each Character Tier level.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I'm running two different CoS groups, and each have gone to the Castle different amounts thus far.

Group One (with both the Tome and the Sunsword located in the Castle for them):
- has been trying to avoid going to the Castle
- was eventually sent the dinner invitation by Strahd and still avoided going
- finally was routed there via portal due to a Madam Eva / Lost Island of Castamir sidequest too difficult to get into now
- had dinner with Strahd, told that to get on his good side they should go after the inhabitants of Argynvostholt
- wandered the Castle just a short bit and then left
- I have no idea at this point if/when they will return to go after the two items or not, but my expectation is they may not at all until they finally deal with Strahd (and they hopefully actually try and go after the items)

Group Two (who also had the Tome of Strahd and Sunsword located in the Castle):
- almost immediately went to the Castle upon arriving in Barovia because one PC fell in instant adoration of Ireena, and when the carriage arrived to invite the group to dinner, the PC climbed in because Ireena was going-- and thus the rest of the group also went
- at dinner they were told to "deal with" a woman in Vallaki who was trying to usurp control of the town from the Burgomaster (Strahd playing the reverse psychology angle where he expected them to not believe anything he says, so they'd end up putting Lady Wachter into power just like he would actually prefer)
- wandered the Castle and found / rescued Gertruda from the master bedroom upstairs (and one of the PCs snuck off and managed to find the teleportation brazier in the basement-- which just teleported her back up to the library in the Castle where the group had just been) and they all left the Castle
- after meeting Rictavio and him revealing himself to them, the group learned that since Strahd still had Ireena and presumably finished his bite/drain of her, she would lay in stasis for seven days and then awaken as a vampire spawn-- so they had a timetable to get back there and recuse her (as the one PC in puppylove with her demanded they do)
- when they finally got their chance to return to rescue Ireena, they brought a cask of newly-acquired wine and posed as delivery people here to deliver the wine to the Castle for the upcoming shotgun wedding of Strahd and Ireena
- they made their way to the tombs, the paladin grabbed the Thighbone of St. Markovia, the mystic grabbed the Tome of Strahd from Ravenovia's sarcophagus, they located Ireena's body in her crypt, grabbed her and made their way back to the teleportation brazier room, and blinked out of the Castle up to Tsolenka Pass
- probably have enough other things to do (and have pissed Strahd off enough by stealing his beloved and destroying her dead body before fully transforming into a spawn) that they won't return to the Castle until they finally need to cleanse the Chapel there and grab the Sunsword-- and then will be locked in until they have a final confrontation with Strahd

 

[Savage Wombat]

If you play the module "as written" the party will be unable to just leave the castle without difficulty. Keep this in mind.

 

[Mercule]

We're just starting Curse of Strahd, but I've run the original I6 at least a dozen times. I think I've only ever had one group enter (for the dinner invite, IIRC) and then leave to return. Every other group has either finished off Strahd on their first foray into the castle (very rare, and never a final death) or died trying. There was another group that partially escaped, but they didn't actually survive long enough to return.

Two things worth calling out: 1) The first time I ran I6, I modified it such that the castle was the ancestral home of one of the PCs and had been stolen by Strahd, instead of built by him. I'm completely ignoring this for my statistics. 2) Every other time I ran I6, it was done intentionally as a horror/challenge one-shot. I was a complete bastard and most parties were psychologically broken long before they got to the castle.

 

[SwivSnapshot]

In my game, the PC's are a curiosity for Strahd- something to play with until he is bored or until they make him angry. They finally took him up on his invitation to dinner where he encoured them to seek out the mad mage and finish him off.