D&D 5E Curse of Strahd (and limitations on 1st level play)

[Retreater]

This is my second time running Curse of Strahd. With this group, I tried to emphasize that Barovia was a scary place in an attempt to get the most out of the theme.
It's backfired.
The group is running away from every challenge, accomplishing no story progress, defeating no threats, etc. I was going to keep up with XP behind the screen to have an idea of when to advance their levels (along with milestone). In three sessions, they've earned 80 XP.
They ran away from the kids from the Death House without going in.
It's like they're going to be perpetually stuck at 1st level. As they've fled deeper into Barovia, they are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy: every encounter around them is too strong.
What's a DM to do?

 

[mamba]

Not sure how you scared them that much, but tone that down.

Have them encounter someone that sends them on the right track / back to the beginning area on a lighter (less scary) quest that also gets them to level 2 (milestone). You’ll have to make that quest up I guess and maybe after reaching level 2 by fulfilling a part of it, it then leads them back to Death House - unless you think they will run away all over again, then skip that house altogether.

Maybe find some gothic adventure for the first two or so levels for that sidequest and a replacement of Death House.

Certainly have that NPC meet up with them after they complete that quest, but in the starting location / in town, not wherever they are now, and use that NPC to help them navigate the next steps. Maybe one of the existing NPCs can fill that role

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Maybe force-feed them some encounters that dont require engaging in combat.
- ie: A riddle challenge against an hag, some kind of puzzle, getting rid of a disease in a party member, navigate a maze full on invisible passage (ala Shadow Temple/Bottom of the Well from LoZ) etc

Or combat encounters they cant escape:
- ie: ambush by spiders in the middle of the night, most of the party is cocooned at the start of the battle, defend an inn against a zombie horde for a whole night (there's a nice scenario for this in Saltmarsh, just change the undead from the adventure with regular zombies).

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

Well, first, I want to say congrats (no sarcasm) on apparently capturing the feel you wanted this second go-around. A friend and I had the discussion before about Barovia and horror games, and I feel too often character sheets are a disconnect where players feel safer than they should because they can 'math out' their risk.

Maybe for this group, as others have said, you need to guide them back into it and ease it on. You have the group buy-in that this setting is dangerous and scary - THAT is hard to get. Now what you need to show them is that not everything is a potential TPK. Have challenges that aren't combat, like helping villagers. Have the party get attached to an NPC who is on a combat quest and needs their help - so you can kind of ease their worries, but don't make the NPC do all the combat 'heavy-lifting'.

You've totally got this. And if they refuse to go into the Death House - the beautiful thing about Barovia is... you can't deny it. If you won't come to it, the Mists will come to you.

 

[TheLibrarian]

I like all the ideas above. ESPECIALLY "I you won't come to it, the Mists will come to you" as well as the idea that there is a certain level of dissociation that happens between D&D characters and players. And its worse with experienced players. They've seen soooo much in D&D, film, books, video games, etc. that I think hooking them is really a task.

haha. I feel like 75% of the prep that I do is coming up with a reasonable reason for the players to engage with the story.

A couple more ideas that haven't been mentioned...

• Maybe drive the characters in to action via their personal backgrounds and motivations. (I've also been known to pull on the personal backgrounds and motivations of the players in a similar way to get them moving. Because: I'm an @$$hole.) Character (or player) really likes dogs? I heard those weirdos at The Durst Manor really like to do bad things to dogs. Looks there's a mutilated Golden Retriever dragging its way toward you now.
• Leverage the legendary monster hunter Van Richten as a protector and mentor. He rescues the heroes and then ends up mentoring them. Show them that the night is defeatable. Then have him die horribly at some point in front of them by Strahd's hands. (Van Richten as Rictavio was a waste of the character in my opinion.)

For my part, when I ran Death House, it turned it into Van Richten's Manor, which was situated in Baldur's Gate. As his former students, they were inextricably drawn to the manor (geased) only to find their mentor had disappeared. Clues were scattered throughout the manor pointing to where he had gone and that he needed help. As others above have said, I felt this eased the players into the scenario.

/Soapbox
Something else that I think a lot of DMs face in CoS is dealing with bad writing. Curse of Strahd engaged in some incredibly sloppy writing tropes, that almost warn the heroes (and their players) off. The worst of which has to be... The Death House. Follow a couple creepy kids into someplace called "The Death House?" That sounds like a great idea! It smacked of the GEICO commercial where the group of teens says "Let's not go get in the car and leave, but instead go hide in that shed full of chainsaws." There's a lot of this type of writing, which makes a lot of extra work for the DM to provide a realistic hook into engaging in the scene.
/EndSoapbox

 

[Charlaquin]

Your players are actually scared enough to try and avoid combat in Curse of Strahd? What a gift! Personally, I wouldn’t try to undo this if I were you. If you’re trying to run a horror campaign, the fact that the PCs are too weak to defeat enemy monsters in combat is a good thing.

My advice would be to embrace the fact that you’ve now got a campaign where fighting is almost always going to be a losing proposition, and instead encourage your players to look for non-combat solutions to the obstacles they face. Rather than a quest to amass enough martial power to defeat Strahd in combat, it becomes a campaign of gathering allies, fostering connections between the isolated and frightened communities, and inspiring Barovia to conquer their fears and unite against Strahd. Tie the Fortunes of Ravenloft in with that quest. Maybe the sun sword isn’t even a magic weapon anymore, but a symbol that will inspire hope and fan the flames of rebellion. Strahd’s enemy isn’t just someone who will help the players fight him, they’re a figure around whom the resistance will rally. The Tome of Strahd isn’t just a neat bit of lore, it’s proof that Strahd is, despite all his power, just a sad, petty little man, and he does have weaknesses that can be exploited.

Then, offer an alternative, at a terrible price. Wield the Bloodspear, seek out the curse of lycanthropy, take up the Gulthias Staff and use it to command an army of blights, enslave yourself to the vestiges of the Amber Temple. These are the dark paths the would-be heroes will have to go down if they wish to defeat their enemy through direct, individual force… and in so doing they might just make themselves the new objects of the Dark Powers’ interests.

 

[TheSword]

@Retreater I think you’re missing a key piece of information in your OP… are the players enjoying it? If they are, it really doesnt matter if they’re running away.

As @Charlaquin says. Lean into it. Use that feeling of oppressive terror to add spice to combat.

That said, I have some suggestions

• Death House is not necessary or relevant to the story. It was only ever a way of getting folks into Barovia and levelling them up to 3. Don’t force it. However, if (and only if) you really like the module - have the house follow the PCs. Any time the pace is lagging and they are near a structure, have a door open and the children be there. They could be haunted by the house. Personally I wouldn’t bother
• I would award XP for surviving encounters. Sometimes that’s a success all in itself.
• Where are the players running too? Nowhere in Barovia is safe. If they retreat to the forest - the forest is full of dangers. Do they flee down the road - they reach Valaki. Do they flee into the moors - well they reach the Windmill.
• Make it clear that Barovia is one big escape room and either they get out or they die… and if they die, well their soul is trapped here forever and another soul is captured by the mists to take their place.
• DON’T go easy on them. DON’T lighten the mood. You need to stick to your guns. Offer them sanctuary sure… but make sure it’s sanctuary with a cannibal old lady and make them push granny in the oven.

Best of luck with it all. Keep us posted how it goes!

 

[BookTenTiger]

Would it make sense to add in ways to "win" encounters without having to kill everything?

For example, they encounter someone being attacked by wolves. They could scare away the wolves, create an illusion to bait the wolves away, etc. If they run away, that person is going to die!

Or they encounter a prisoner in a cage at a crossroad. "Help! Before the guards come back! I know a safe house where we can all hide!"

You can give them little victories that still sell the danger of the world while also showing they can make a difference. And also gain XP!

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

/Soapbox
Something else that I think a lot of DMs face in CoS is dealing with bad writing. Curse of Strahd engaged in some incredibly sloppy writing tropes, that almost warn the heroes (and their players) off. The worst of which has to be... The Death House. Follow a couple creepy kids into someplace called "The Death House?" That sounds like a great idea! It smacked of the GEICO commercial where the group of teens says "Let's not go get in the car and leave, but instead go hide in that shed full of chainsaws." There's a lot of this type of writing, which makes a lot of extra work for the DM to provide a realistic hook into engaging in the scene.
/EndSoapbox

I love the way my friend used Death House to get us into a non-Ravenloft horror game. We were all kids who grew up in an orphanage together, including a brother and sister NPC. Some bullies said we wouldn't go spend the night in this infamous haunted house, the Wycker House. Since we weren't allowed out after curfew, we (as ten year olds) went to the House anyway to prove those bullies wrong.

It went... poorly. We all had spooky encounters, combat with objects, etc. We were playing hide and seek, and the sister got trapped in the dumbwaiter - I think she ended up losing use of her legs trying to escape it and the door snapped on her like jaws. (it was dark)

We flashed forward to the NPC brother's funeral. We'd all come back to a place we swore we'd never return to for it, and my character started a romance with the wheelchair-bound sister. We found his letters - he had kept returning to the House for decades, and discovered it went to a dark mirror of our world. He'd been missing for five years, and being eccentric, people assumed he died or did himself in and he was declared dead....

Anyway, that's how we used the Death House and ended up somewhere else

 

[Charlaquin]

Would it make sense to add in ways to "win" encounters without having to kill everything?

For example, they encounter someone being attacked by wolves. They could scare away the wolves, create an illusion to bait the wolves away, etc. If they run away, that person is going to die!

Or they encounter a prisoner in a cage at a crossroad. "Help! Before the guards come back! I know a safe house where we can all hide!"

You can give them little victories that still sell the danger of the world while also showing they can make a difference. And also gain XP!

100%! Non-combat solutions should be the first thing the players reach for. Combat should be the last-ditch effort to buy precious moments for the rest of the party to escape, regroup, and form a new plan. And yeah, definitely give XP for just surviving encounters. That’s a victory in Barovia.