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Enhancing "Curse of Strahd" (and DDAL adventures)
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<blockquote data-quote="fobia" data-source="post: 7898175" data-attributes="member: 6922648"><p>I'm going to resurrect this for some comments on my experience as a DM.</p><p></p><p>I DMing Curse of Strahd for the second time now and this is what I feel can be helpful to keep in mind:</p><p></p><p>- There is, if you play as written, a lot of combat that can subtracts from the gothic horror atmosphere of the game. It can at times become a quite typical heroic fantasy adventure, no matter how eerie and atmospheric your storytelling is. The "What might lurk behind shadows?" atmosphere is often lost when it's at most foreshadowing of a new potential foe. This gets old after a few sessions, even though it works wonderfully at the beginning. If gothic horror is your focus, it can help to reduce the encounters and plot hooks and make them more mysterious and dangerous. Instead of having multiple encounters in the village of Barovia for example, you could have 1-2 quests that need to be resolved which require the characters to investigate and learn about Barovia and it's threats and how to defeat them.A kind of Monster/Mystery-of-the-Week approach, similar to the old X Files episodes.</p><p></p><p>- Character death can limit the party's cohesion if too many of the characters that got the reading from Madame Eva perish. This is true for every adventure, but here the Tarokka reading is a kind of breaking point imho. The option to turn at least one of the character into a revenant is awesome. But at some point they need to be resurrected, which is difficult until you find the Abbot or learn the required spell. If they need to be exchanged with new characters, it can be helpful to have a native Barovian in the party. But the original party's reason to go on with the plot is the escape from this dreadful lands. With a growing number of new characters, it can be tricky to have the same cohesion and goals that players want to achieve. I had my group basically forget what they needed to do in order to defeat Strahd and had NPC remind them of their original goal. If you introduce new characters it can be very helpful to tie them to the plot in a more serious way than normally, and maybe remind the remaining party of the urgengy of their quest and the unpleasantness of their surroundings.</p><p></p><p>- There can be too much content if you have a slower play style. My group often needs hours for things others do in 30-60 minutes. For example, I had a group that took three sessions between 2-3 hours to finsih Death House. Next to a lot of curiousity, they have a RP-heavy approach, which I like and support. But if you play a content loaden campaign like Curse of Strahd, this can also lead to fatigue and the impression that nothing gets done. Especially the big dungeons, Argynvostholt, Amber Temple and of course the Castle itself can be a lot for some groups. I as DM also disliked the tombs in Castle Ravenloft, that included a lot of very bad puns and jokes that didn't go well together with the usual tone of the adventure. Be confident in cutting content that isn't essential for your approach to Curse of Strahd.</p><p></p><p>tbc. maybe. ^^</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="fobia, post: 7898175, member: 6922648"] I'm going to resurrect this for some comments on my experience as a DM. I DMing Curse of Strahd for the second time now and this is what I feel can be helpful to keep in mind: - There is, if you play as written, a lot of combat that can subtracts from the gothic horror atmosphere of the game. It can at times become a quite typical heroic fantasy adventure, no matter how eerie and atmospheric your storytelling is. The "What might lurk behind shadows?" atmosphere is often lost when it's at most foreshadowing of a new potential foe. This gets old after a few sessions, even though it works wonderfully at the beginning. If gothic horror is your focus, it can help to reduce the encounters and plot hooks and make them more mysterious and dangerous. Instead of having multiple encounters in the village of Barovia for example, you could have 1-2 quests that need to be resolved which require the characters to investigate and learn about Barovia and it's threats and how to defeat them.A kind of Monster/Mystery-of-the-Week approach, similar to the old X Files episodes. - Character death can limit the party's cohesion if too many of the characters that got the reading from Madame Eva perish. This is true for every adventure, but here the Tarokka reading is a kind of breaking point imho. The option to turn at least one of the character into a revenant is awesome. But at some point they need to be resurrected, which is difficult until you find the Abbot or learn the required spell. If they need to be exchanged with new characters, it can be helpful to have a native Barovian in the party. But the original party's reason to go on with the plot is the escape from this dreadful lands. With a growing number of new characters, it can be tricky to have the same cohesion and goals that players want to achieve. I had my group basically forget what they needed to do in order to defeat Strahd and had NPC remind them of their original goal. If you introduce new characters it can be very helpful to tie them to the plot in a more serious way than normally, and maybe remind the remaining party of the urgengy of their quest and the unpleasantness of their surroundings. - There can be too much content if you have a slower play style. My group often needs hours for things others do in 30-60 minutes. For example, I had a group that took three sessions between 2-3 hours to finsih Death House. Next to a lot of curiousity, they have a RP-heavy approach, which I like and support. But if you play a content loaden campaign like Curse of Strahd, this can also lead to fatigue and the impression that nothing gets done. Especially the big dungeons, Argynvostholt, Amber Temple and of course the Castle itself can be a lot for some groups. I as DM also disliked the tombs in Castle Ravenloft, that included a lot of very bad puns and jokes that didn't go well together with the usual tone of the adventure. Be confident in cutting content that isn't essential for your approach to Curse of Strahd. tbc. maybe. ^^ [/QUOTE]
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