Want To See The Castle Ravenloft Poster Map In CURSE OF STRAHD?

Those who are excited about the fold-out map in Curse of Strahd can take a peek at it courtesy of Jeremy Crawford. The map features Barovia on one side, and Castle Ravenloft on the other, depicted in a gorgeous isometric view just like the original Ravenloft module was back in 1983.

 

[dave2008]

. It's the weekend; time to enjoy the sunshine.

Agreed! However it is raining here

 

[Mouseferatu]

"The staircase leads down to area K61 and up to area K30. The double doors provide access to area K10." Which is also completely extraneous, since the adventure comes with a map that shows this very clearly.

The "double doors" sentence may be extraneous, but I find descriptions that mention where staircases and the like go to be quite useful. I tend not to think visually, but descriptively; it's just a thing with my brain. So I often have trouble picturing how things fit together. To me, and to anyone else who doesn't think visually or otherwise doesn't have good spacial awareness, this information isn't extraneous at all.

 

[dave2008]

To me, and to anyone else who doesn't think visually or otherwise doesn't have good spacial awareness, this information isn't extraneous at all.

That's a good point. I am a visual thinking, but I know many people (my wife being one) who are not and much prefer print to images / pictures / maps.

 

[JonnyP71]

I hope nothing has been done to tone down the difficulty level of the original. I bought it when I was a teenager in the 80s, and enjoyed reading it - but was never sure how it would play - and I wasn't a good enough DM to do it properly.

30 years later - I finally ran it - last Hallowe'en as one mammoth all-day session. We wore Hallowe'en costumes to scare/amuse trick or treaters, I put some spooky sound effects on my Ipod - creaking doors, organ music, howling wolves, thunder, etc

And it was fantastic.

Strahd managed to divide the party, first putting one PC to sleep - then charming another. He then disguised the sleeping character as himself and placed him in his coffin. I told the trapped character's player he was now playing as Strahd, and told him his motive (to make Ireena fall for him). The remaining PCs eventually found the dungeon level, and reached Strahd's crypt - they saw what they thought was the Vampire and staked him..... killing their own party member.

The Strahd player then commanded the (charmed) party Wizard to help him, who started flinging fireballs at anyone defiling the crypt - killing 2 more PCs. The last 2 fled, all the way back to the entrance where they were fried by the dragon statues.

Leaving poor Ireena, alone with Strahd and his new apprentice.

Such a great villain! I'm glad I waited to run it though, and with an experienced group of roleplayers who really got into the spirit of the adventure.

 

[Mercule]

Out of curiosity, Did Strahd cheerfully take the minimum of 10 hit points of damage from just touching the Holy Avenger. He had 55 hit points, IIRC, so just a scratch to him. Did the Paladin's player witness the item's saving throw? It would have had a +11 to its save (or maybe just a +6) v. crushing blow, and with the sword only needing to roll a '6' to save, it could only fail on a '1'.

I'm guessing that you all were playing AD&D 1e. If not, ignore my comment please.

Apparently, you misread the part about the holy avenger being switched when the party was attacked in camp. I don't remember exactly why the paladin left it unattended, but Strahd had set a lure that he felt had a reasonable chance of giving him the opportunity. I believe it was some mortal thrall who actually made the switch, thus Strahd never had to touch the thing and wasn't actually present when it happened. The sword that was snapped was an exact replica (again, details of how it was made are foggy -- this was 1992-ish) which had a fake enchantment put on it. The paladin never had cause to check his sword to see if it was fake.

FWIW, I believe this particular run through was done in the 2E version, with a 16th(?) level Strahd. We use 1E rules, for most things, though, since the two editions were 90%+ compatible.

 

[Mercule]

I hope nothing has been done to tone down the difficulty level of the original. I bought it when I was a teenager in the 80s, and enjoyed reading it - but was never sure how it would play - and I wasn't a good enough DM to do it properly.

I actually had two modes in which I ran it: Normal and with full disclaimers.

I think I ran it normal, three times for three different groups. All with existing characters in an ongoing campaign. It was tough, but reasonable. Two of the parties made it out without loss. The third (middle, actually) was my only real-world TPK and included the previously mentioned wand of wonder. All three were a ton of fun.

At some point, someone wanted to play actual horror. So, I started running Ravenloft as a challenge to folks to see how far they could make it. The terms were that I never broke any game rules and Strahd had to work within the information reasonably available to him -- but the module gave plenty of excuses for Strahd to learn almost anything about the PCs. No one walked in blind. All characters were made for the module and not expected to survive. At some point, one PC actually switched sides and stayed as a permanent NPC (who was eventually killed), with the conceit that each run of the module was Strahd being cursed to relive the death of another incarnation of Tatyana/Irena and hoping each group of adventurers would finally bring the artifact he needed with them. Several other permanent changes were made, over the years, but none particularly important -- mostly tributes to the fallen.

When the 2E version was released, I upped the ante and started using all the rules in the various Van Richten's guides. I also kept allowing higher level characters. The last time I ran the module was in the early to mid-1990s and the party was, IIRC, six characters of sufficient XP that at least one of them was 25th level. That may have been the poor paladin who was (player and character) completely cocksure that he'd be the one to defeat Strahd to the point of letting his guard down too many times and, ultimately allowing himself to be isolated by Strahd while believing he had the upper hand.

Wow. I just realized that module was my training ground for almost every dirty trick I've learned as a GM. It was a magnificent exercise in manipulating and misdirecting people for entertainment. I don't really feel bad about it because every group that played through had a blast and people kept seeking me out, during college, to be part of the next run through. I probably did the "horror mode" 10-12 times and probably would have done more, if we hadn't switched to WoD and Champions.

 

[JohnnyZemo]

I picked up the adventure on Friday, and it looks nice. I was very surprised to see that they had re-used the old maps, but I guess that's okay. It also appears (after a quick look through the adventure) that all of the Ravenloft-specific magic items/artifacts from previous adventures (I6 and Expedition to...) are back. I'm a little disappointed that there's so much recycled material. I could convert I6 or Expedition to 5E myself.

So, it's a nice-looking book. I'm sure the adventure will be fun to run. I'm just ready for Wizards to try something new.

 

[MrHotter]

I picked up the adventure on Friday, and it looks nice. I was very surprised to see that they had re-used the old maps, but I guess that's okay. It also appears (after a quick look through the adventure) that all of the Ravenloft-specific magic items/artifacts from previous adventures (I6 and Expedition to...) are back. I'm a little disappointed that there's so much recycled material. I could convert I6 or Expedition to 5E myself.

So, it's a nice-looking book. I'm sure the adventure will be fun to run. I'm just ready for Wizards to try something new.

I was just about to run I6 for my home game. I'm very glad for the CoS being released and it's the first 5E adventure I've bought besides the Starter Set. I like having the encounters and loot updated and the fact that it adds more material to go from levels 1-10. If it did not keep the I6 Ravenloft material I would not have gotten it.