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

[Bayushi_seikuro]

Ha! The other night, in our Night's Black Agents game, one of the players was fretting over splitting the party as one group headed to point A and the other to point B. After a few minutes of discussion, another player piped up with, "This isn't D&D. It's okay to split the party."

I love that. And I think that's an appropriate response for that game. If I recall right, you're burnt spies - the larger group you travel in, probably the larger profile you're going to leave and lead the problems right to you.

To me, the only time not splitting the party should be the SOP is if you're in an James Cameron Aliens scenario, or going back to CoC, you're on the Innsmouth raid in 1928.

 

[mamba]

This can happen sometimes in horror games.

Doesn't take horror. I had a group tasked with protecting a town from bandits, and upon arrival I somehow had them so spooked that they holed themselves up in their room. I wanted them to talk to the villagers and upon return find a note in their room telling them to leave, just to make clear they are being watched. They never left the room the day they arrived, so I had the note shot at their door with an arrow, told them they heard one knock at the door, and they did not dare open it

 

[dave2008]

I would skip the Death House personally. It's only going to make things worse, as your players will become too afraid of even walking through a door.

I would suggest having them run into some friendly Vistani who steer them back to the camp where Madam Eva is. Maybe she can give them some relatively "safe" tasks to do to prove themselves (i.e. make it to 3rd level) before she decides they're the ones and gives them the tarokka reading.

I think this is your winning answer @Retreater

 

[jdrakeh]

I would skip the Death House personally. It's only going to make things worse, as your players will become too afraid of even walking through a door.

I would suggest having them run into some friendly Vistani who steer them back to the camp where Madam Eva is. Maybe she can give them some relatively "safe" tasks to do to prove themselves (i.e. make it to 3rd level) before she decides they're the ones and gives them the tarokka reading.

I think this is good advice. Death House is an absolute meat grinder that is very likely to result in a TPK as written unless your DM is mercifully fudging some things on their end (I've both played through it and run it, nearly ending in a TPK both times). In my opinion, it's a pretty crappy introductory adventure in that regard. Even for Ravenloft.

I also like your suggestion about painting the Vistani as potential allies. i'm not sure how Revamped handles them, but the original CoS hardcover does almost nothing to suggest that they're anything other than Strahd's stooges out to get you at every turn (so, as one might expect, the PCs tried to avoid them at all costs).

CoS remains my favorite 5e hardcover, but it has some problems (don't even get me started on The Amber Temple).

 

[pukunui]

I think this is good advice. Death House is an absolute meat grinder that is very likely to result in a TPK as written unless your DM is mercifully fudging some things on their end (I've both played through it and run it, nearly ending in a TPK both times). In my opinion, it's a pretty crappy introductory adventure in that regard. Even for Ravenloft.

Agreed. I took one look at Death House and thought, "This could be fun for a one-shot but not as the intro to a lengthy campaign." I ran it as a one-shot for my regular group with some pregenerated characters. They all died. When I ran the actual Curse of Strahd, I just started them at 3rd level or whatever.

If the OP has access to Van Richten's, another possibility might be to have the mists engulf the party and then they find themselves at the House of Lament instead. I haven't run it, but I recall when reading it, my reaction was "This would make for a much better 'haunted house' intro than the Death House!"

I also like your suggestion about painting the Vistani as potential allies. i'm not sure how Revamped handles them, but the original CoS hardcover does almost nothing to suggest that they're anything other than Strahd's stooges out to get you at every turn (so, as one might expect, the PCs tried to avoid them at all costs).

It's not just the Revamped. The original CoS has the changes errata'd into them as well, and yes, it does a good job making the Vistani more neutral / potential allies rather than Strahd's stooges.

CoS remains my favorite 5e hardcover, but it has some problems (don't even get me started on The Amber Temple).

Indeed. I ran the Amber Temple as a standalone adventure as part of an episodic campaign I ran some years back but I did not include it as part of my Curse of Strahd run-through.

 

[jdrakeh]

Agreed. I took one look at Death House and thought, "This could be fun for a one-shot but not as the intro to a lengthy campaign." I ran it as a one-shot for my regular group with some pregenerated characters. They all died. When I ran the actual Curse of Strahd, I just started them at 3rd level or whatever.

Yeah, it's an absolutely brutal adventure, especially for low level characters. The best CoS experience I've had was when the DM, like you, skipped Death House and, instead, used Lost Mines as a run up to our Ravenloft transition (the mists came for us).

If the OP has access to Van Richten's, another possibility might be to have the mists engulf the party and then they find themselves at the House of Lament instead. I haven't run it, but I recall when reading it, my reaction was "This would make for a much better 'haunted house' intro than the Death House!"

That would be a good solution as well, I think.

It's not just the Revamped. The original CoS has the changes errata'd into them as well, and yes, it does a good job making the Vistani more neutral / potential allies rather than Strahd's stooges.

Very cool.

Indeed. I ran the Amber Temple as a standalone adventure as part of an episodic campaign I ran some years back but I did not include it as part of my Curse of Strahd run-through.

Yeah, when I ran CoS, I immediately regretted using the Amber Temple section. It's tonally dissonant when compared to the rest of the campaign material, I think.

 

[Flamestrike]

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?

Just give them an encounter.

DM: As you [do whatever] you hear a growling sound coming from the darkness to your left. Glancing over, you see the body of a villager, lying in blood, its throat torn from its body. Suddenly, a pack of [monsters] with glowing red eyes burst from the darkness howling at you all in rage! Roll initiative.

 

[Retreater]

The core quetion, especially seeing as how acting as horror protagonists is frustrating them is... do that want to be playing a horror campaign?

Well, they picked it, knowing full well the theme.

Is this the same group that was twinning fireballs and using a wand of reverse gravity in a previous campaign of yours?

Yeah. And I wanted to make sure to start the power level "right" to be able to follow the themes. Maybe I went too hard the other way?

I would skip the Death House personally. It's only going to make things worse, as your players will become too afraid of even walking through a door.

Not having much time before today's game - and not reading this thread until 30 minutes after the game ended, it's too late for me to take that advice.
Not having enough time to throw something else together, I ran it.
They "beat" it - well up to defeating the shambling mound - they haven't escaped yet. Honestly without much trouble. I ran it by the book - excepting they had 6 characters.
So it looks like they'll beat Death House, become level 3, and probably not be challenged by the rest of the campaign (which is pretty standard for 5e).

 

[mamba]

Yeah. And I wanted to make sure to start the power level "right" to be able to follow the themes. Maybe I went too hard the other way?

they are level one, not much you can do about the power level at that point

I ran it by the book - excepting they had 6 characters.

default is 4 chars I believe. Given the action economy, you will have to bump up encounters

 

[Charlaquin]

I think this is good advice. Death House is an absolute meat grinder that is very likely to result in a TPK as written unless your DM is mercifully fudging some things on their end (I've both played through it and run it, nearly ending in a TPK both times). In my opinion, it's a pretty crappy introductory adventure in that regard. Even for Ravenloft.

I like the concept behind Death House, but the execution is botched in so many ways.