D&D 5E Curse of Strahd Impressions

[Daern]

There's a few reviews but I don't see much chat about the book. So I'll talk a bit.
I hadn't planned on getting the book. I've used bits and pieces from Tyranny of Dragons, gotten bogged down in Gracklestugh with Out of the Abyss and bought but never did a thing with Princes of Apocalypse. Also, I've never been a huge vampire fan. Not to into Bram Stoker, Lestat, or Twilight. Not a big horror fan.
Then I saw some of the art (I don't usually like 5e art but this is pretty cool) and read the Death House module. And realized I hadn't bought a D&D book in a while (I went big on Star War rpg in January). So I bought it.
Long story short, I want to DM this.
It's a got a small setting with lots to do. It has a bunch of mysteries that all lead back to the Castle in the end. Where Abyss is basically a road through the Underdark and Princes is a sort of super dungeon, this feels like an actual sandbox. The mystery is not about who the villain is, but what is his story so that his weakness can be discovered. This makes wandering around checking out the land make a lot more sense (as opposed to going to just trying to level up).
This is a big module but the smaller self contained world might work really well for my next campaign...
What are others' thoughts?

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

I honestly thought, when I saw the thread title, that this was going to be a "Eastern European Accent" question!

But to answer your question, I hef already started my party on the original Ravenloft before the book was beink announced. From vot I can tell the bit in the Castle ees fundamentally the same, and the PCs hef already entered the castle, so I vont be buyink it, for zat reason alone. But if I hed not already started, oh yes, I vould be already buyink.

 

[Istbor]

I very much approve of the gradual slip into vampire Gnoll.

I have not yet read the book but plan on at least taking a look.

What I have heard is the same. A campaign with a lot of things for the players to do, check out, and discover in a small area. I think it would be a very fun campaign to run.

Having just run OotA though, we will probably be heading more to a home made world instead. I look forward to hearing more thoughts on this.

 

[BookBarbarian]

I haven't been able to read much of my copy, but so far I'm quite excited to play it. As you say the art looks great. The advice on running a horror game looks like it will be really helpful to me (since I haven't done one before) too.

 

[Quickleaf]

I'm curious, if someone doesn't mind sharing, what are the new monsters like? In terms of CR and also in terms of their backstories. Any major deviations from the past? And what's a "Barovian witch"? That looks new.

In particular, I'm wondering about the...

Barovian witch
Blight, tree
Mongrelfolk
Strahd zombie
Wereraven

 

[77IM]

I've only read the first 3 chapters (Introduction, Barovia, Barovia Village) and I have to say, I love this adventure. It is exactly the kind of adventure I want to run: open-world, somewhat creepy, lots of mysteries, lots of interesting and crazy NPCs, and a boss monster who totally s with the PCs constantly. This is the adventure I want to run with my children when they are old enough for D&D.

 

[77IM]

SPOILERS!!!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Barovian witch
Blight, tree
Mongrelfolk
Strahd zombie
Wereraven

Barovian witch: CR 1/2. It's a witch, like you see at Halloween. Casts some 0th-, 1st- and 2nd-level spells as a wizard.

Blight, tree: CR 7. It's a giant friggin dead tree. Somewhat nasty-ish.

Mongrelfolk: CR 1/4. Humanoids warped into hideous mutants. Their stat block includes a random table of extraordinary features they might have: amphibious, darkvision, flight, keen hearing and smell, spider climb, standing leap, two-headed. They also have the idiosyncratic ability to mimic any sound they have heard. This matches what I remember of mongrelfolk from earlier editions.

Strahd zombie: CR 1. It's a zombie with slightly more HP and multi-attack, but the best part is it has the "Loathsome Limbs" ability that is in the MM troll entry!

Wereraven: CR 2. It's a were-raven; if you have the MM, it follows exactly the pattern of all other lycanthropes. Is lawful good, and equipped with a shortsword and hand crossbow. Potentially balanced as a PC lycanthrope, since it raises Dex to 15 which is not outrageous; flight and immunity to non-magical non-silver weapons is pretty dang good, but at a high enough level can be balanced against magic item draws.


You asked about "major deviations from the past:" there is one monster that has a map. I don't mean there's a map associated with the monster, like where it lives or something. I mean there is a map OF the monster; they mapped the monster itself, because it is also a structure you can move around in. This is super-sweet awesomeness, as far as I am concerned.



.
.
.
.
.
.
.
OK spoilers done.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I'm curious, if someone doesn't mind sharing, what are the new monsters like? In terms of CR and also in terms of their backstories. Any major deviations from the past? And what's a "Barovian witch"? That looks new.

In particular, I'm wondering about the...

Barovian witch
Blight, tree
Mongrelfolk
Strahd zombie
Wereraven

I don't own the book yet but I can answer these.

A Barovian witch is a witch from Barovia. A low level spell casting enemy.

Tree Blights are the same thing as Twig, Vine and Thorn blights but trees.

Mongrelfolk are horribly mutated people that have taken on the traits of many races resulting in horrible deformity. In 3e lore they were the children of a superior breed of Doppleganger that could actually become the species they disguised themselves as by eating the flesh of that species. However the Dopplegangers did not pass on their powers to their children instead the children just took on a mishmash of all the traits from the species the Doppleganger had obtained the form of.

Strahd Zombies are superior Zombies created by Strahd. They are much more resilient then normal zombies and their body parts remain active after being separated from their body.

Wereravens are lycanthropes that taken on Raven traits.

 

[Ganymede81]

Mongrelfolk are horribly mutated people that have taken on the traits of many races resulting in horrible deformity.

I think they are a reference to the Broken Ones of the old Ravenloft domain of Markovia.

 

[Jabborwacky]

I have a copy of the book. The presentation is as you can already guess, gorgeous. I was thinking of some alternatives to the opening adventure they have in the back (Death House) that would fit the adventuring hooks, which all involve traveling to Barovia as outsiders. Also, one particular hook seems to favor a harper background slightly more than the others for some reason. Anyway, the wilderness is beautiful, but brutal in Barovia. While the Underdark of OotA is a deadly place, the nightmarish nature of OoTA took its time to build up, whereas Barovia is in nightmare mode right from the start. It's kind of like if the land itself wanted to kill the players and every gain in strength the players experience is accompanied with a redoubled effort to kill them. Not in the bestial way that OotA does, but in a serial killer kind of way.