I'm talking about how long the survey is open to responses. The window is so small, the majority of people are barely getting a single game in to playtest. Maaaybe two.
The surveys for UA were so short I don't know how they got any meaningful playtest data back. It was useful to point out any immediate and glaring issues, but not actual play data.
You CAN transfer from Curse of the Azure Bonds onward to the Savage Frontier games, with only a little corruption! The grand campaign is:
Pool of Radiance > Gateway to the Savage Frontier > Curse of the Azure Bonds > Treasures of the Savage Frontier > Secret of the Silver Blades > Pools of...
I always remember from the novel that Strahd keeps a coffin in the mountains within misting distance of his castle. It sticks in my mind whenever Curse of Strahd talks about him retreating to the coffin in his basement.
"Oh, but he has another one!"
Yes. You get the fun and randomness of actual dice, and the fairness of everyone being able to pick whichever set they want, but it does tend to result in slightly stronger characters if one or more players rolls high. So I buff (or nerf) the encounters based on my evaluation of the power of the...
I've never used this method in D&D, but I've used it in games like Chronicles of Darkness, Exalted, and Scion where you have some amount of XP set aside and the players can spend them mid-session. I think it's a really fun idea that had mostly positive results in the games where I allowed it...