D&D 5E Curse of Strahd Impressions

[MechaPilot]

I'm definitely going to pick this up, but I'm still debating if I'm going to run it for my players or not.

One of them, who happens to be the leader of the group by virtue of being the loudest, bossiest, and most experienced player at the table, has a very kick-in-the-door style about him. I find myself concerned that the party is not going to survive the adventure. Now, that's not a deal-breaker. I've worked around that before (telling players to bring backup characters, making a resultant TPK into a dream or into being brought back to life by a patron whose service they then have to escape, etc), but I have my doubts as to whether they could actually learn enough from that initial failure to make it through, especially if the only way out of the adventure is to defeat Strahd in the end.

 

[Daern]

I've been wondering how cool it would be to combine this with the infamous Death Frost Doom module. It would mess with the well contained nature of the module, but still, it might work as a prequel.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

I've been wondering how cool it would be to combine this with the infamous Death Frost Doom module. It would mess with the well contained nature of the module, but still, it might work as a prequel.

Which one would be the prequel?

 

[Daern]

Death Frost Doom <MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW>
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There is a big chance of releasing an army of undead and their vampire general by the end of Death Frost Doom. It might be neat to run it as if Strahd is released, then resume the campaign some years later.

 

[Jabborwacky]

Death Frost Doom <MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW>
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There is a big chance of releasing an army of undead and their vampire general by the end of Death Frost Doom. It might be neat to run it as if Strahd is released, then resume the campaign some years later.

From what I was able to research about the adventure you are talking about, I don't think it would work well for the following reason.

[sblock]In Curse of Strahd, Strahd brings the PCs to his domain to kill for sport, which is the primary driving force of the campaign. If the vampire lord and Strahd are the same person, then Strahd would have no reason to ever bring them to Barovia if they signed said contract. Even if the contract leaves it open for him to kill them whenever he wishes, it would be incredibly one sided. You'd have to change the nature of the contract so that it is no longer in effect when they go to Barovia.[/sblock]

I'm definitely going to pick this up, but I'm still debating if I'm going to run it for my players or not.


One of them, who happens to be the leader of the group by virtue of being the loudest, bossiest, and most experienced player at the table, has a very kick-in-the-door style about him. I find myself concerned that the party is not going to survive the adventure. Now, that's not a deal-breaker. I've worked around that before (telling players to bring backup characters, making a resultant TPK into a dream or into being brought back to life by a patron whose service they then have to escape, etc), but I have my doubts as to whether they could actually learn enough from that initial failure to make it through, especially if the only way out of the adventure is to defeat Strahd in the end.

Oddly enough, he probably has the right idea then. One of the greatest contradictions I found with this adventure is that you'd think a non-combat oriented investigative party would do well, but you'd be wrong. At its heart, this is potentially the most door kickiest of door kicking adventures you can find. Having some investigative skills and subtly would be a big plus, but without the standard array of dungeon delving techniques, the players would be helpless observers to the evils around them.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

[sblock]In Curse of Strahd, Strahd brings the PCs to his domain to kill for sport, which is the primary driving force of the campaign. If the vampire lord and Strahd are the same person, then Strahd would have no reason to ever bring them to Barovia if they signed said contract. Even if the contract leaves it open for him to kill them whenever he wishes, it would be incredibly one sided. You'd have to change the nature of the contract so that it is no longer in effect when they go to Barovia.[/sblock]

Well not quite

[sblock]Strahd's goal with the PC's is the find someone to succeed him as lord of Barovia. As he believes that if he finds someone that could take his place as ruler then he will be able to leave Barovia at last. But his responsibility to the land and it's people prevents him from just putting some random dude on the throne. So he aims to find someone worthy of it. He attacks and tests the PC's to try and figure out if one of them are worthy of taking his place. Whether his plan for replacing himself would work or not, Strahd is too arrogant and eventually decides that none of the party is worthy of succeeding him and plans to kill them.[/sblock]

 

[Jabborwacky]

Well not quite

[sblock]Strahd's goal with the PC's is the find someone to succeed him as lord of Barovia. As he believes that if he finds someone that could take his place as ruler then he will be able to leave Barovia at last. But his responsibility to the land and it's people prevents him from just putting some random dude on the throne. So he aims to find someone worthy of it. He attacks and tests the PC's to try and figure out if one of them are worthy of taking his place. Whether his plan for replacing himself would work or not, Strahd is too arrogant and eventually decides that none of the party is worthy of succeeding him and plans to kill them.[/sblock]

Yeah, my bad.
[sblock] I just generally summarize it to myself as Strahd hunting them down for sport since that is what it devolves into inevitably. [/sblock]

 

[RCanine]

I'm describing my weekly playthrough here, but we're still in Death House, which IMO is a great adventure (if a little cliché).

I've read a little bit into the rest of the book, and a lot of the details seem fun. I like that no one is a straight-up good guy, and that even Strahd's origin story is pretty compelling. I have a (literally) kick-in-the-door type, and he's already taken a pretty good drubbing for it from the small amount of level 1 stuff, so we'll see how the rest goes.

 

[Guest 6801328]

but we're still in Death House, which IMO is a great adventure (if a little cliché).

I'll admit I tend to prefer adventures that are a little (or even a lot) cliché. I'd rather play something cliché than something novel but too experimental/nouveau to be highly enjoyable. C.f. John Cage. I'd rather hear Bach.

 

[Quickleaf]

I'm curious, is any indication given of when the story takes place? For example, has the Grand Conjunction taken place? A subtle way to tell, that might appear in the book, is if there's mention of Gundarak's annexation by Strahd and/or Gundarakite rebels.