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Message: <blockquote data-quote="toucanbuzz" data-source="post: 7323358" data-attributes="member: 19270">I'm coincidentally prepping to run that campaign very soon and highly recommend visiting <a href="http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com/2016/03/dungeons-dragons-guide-to-curse-of.html" target="_blank">this guy's excellent site.</a> I liked his ideas so much that I bought his Guide on DM guild and home-brewed my own material with it. As to XP, I'm going with milestones because it fits the campaign better, and there's going to be several times when running or other options are better than hack n slash. A simple approach is to level-up when you feel the party has adequately resolved an area [sblock] For example, in Barovia, they bury Kolyan and/or otherwise convince Ireena to leave, and they've gotten a Tarokka reading with Madame Eva = 1 level [/sblock]. As to artifacts, you could grant a "half" credit for a level for finding one (there's 3), and a half-credit for the ally (or if none just give it anyways). I'd also consider half or quarter credit to a level for neutralizing a major enemy (whether by combat or other means, doesn't mean they're dead). [sblock] These would include the Hags, the Abbott, the Roc, Baba Lysaga, the Werewolf leader, and the Gulthias tree.[/sblock] This <a href="http://www.starwalkerstudios.com/blog/strahdmilestones" target="_blank">site</a> has them listed out.As to a solo hero, you'll need more than 2 people. [sblock] It's all about action economy. Strahd has a TON of lair abilities, and if run properly, can easily walk over a 10th level party of 4-5 heroes, even with artifacts in hand. There's a lot of NPCs in the module, including the Tarokka Ally, and I'd definitely boost the party size instead of levels.[/sblock]As to running the game, you're already halfway there because you're both invested in playing dread. No matter how much low-light and creepy music you add, you're still around a table with snacks, bathroom breaks, and so on. It's half on the player and half on the DM's skill in weaving a description. For music, I have my notes to play certain music for Strahd's appearance (Phantom Toccata, Carmina Burana, and may use Spotify or YouTube for general atmospheric music (or the Witcher CDs if you have those video games). On my front page of notes, I have common phrases from the Barovian language (Balok), and reasoned that Strahd has always required they learn Vaasi, a heavily accented version of common. I got the Ravenloft language ideas from <a href="http://www.nwnravenloft.com/world_languages.html" target="_blank">here.</a></blockquote>

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