Grogg of the North
Adventurer
Curse of Strahd seems to get universal acclaim. I was excited to play it. Yet, I found my experience lacking. I wouldn't say I hated it, that may be too strong a word, but I definitely found it disappointing. Now, I was a player and I have no idea what the DM altered, cut, or just simply forgot about. So it is entirely possible that my experience will be completely different than yours.
First off, this didn't feel like Ravenloft to me. If it didn't say Strahd on the tin it could have easily just as been Generic Spooky Setting. The Dark Powers and their influence were completely absent. Magic worked just fine and we never had to roll a Dark Powers Check. Fear, horror or madness checks were completely absent, too. Everyone seemed scared of Strahd but that was it. He was just this boogey man in a castle. There really wasn't any evidence of his influence and hold over the people other than their fear.
Around level 4, the campaign started to take a turn towards silliness. Everything went from "Oh my goodness, how are we going to survive?" to "Wolves? Again? Alright." Now, this was shortly after our only PC death (The bard died saving the paladin and letting the warlock escape) so I don't know if the DM pulled back on some things, if events occurred behind the scenes that we simply weren't aware of, or if Level 3 to Level 4 is a big power jump for players. I'll admit my 5E system mastery is not amazing. It's not that I wanted a meat grinder of a game but there were a few times were we just had the paladin face tank encounters. The worst example would have been the coffin maker's home. Now it may be that we encountered that fight much later than we were supposed to due to the sandbox-y nature of the module but I feel like a big fight with vampire spawn should not devolve into the paladin casts Protection from Good and Evil and laughs as the monsters feebly scratch at his armor.
Maybe my group falls into the Thick as Mud category but, I feel like we had some unclear agency. None of us really cared about Barovia. We just wanted to leave. Well, the bard cared but he died and so went the morale compass of the party. And so most of our adventuring consisted of looking at the map of Barovia and going "Well, we haven't been here yet. Maybe what we need is there?" and then later putting a big red X on the map and asking Ezmerelda for help on what we should be doing. Yes, we had the vistani prophecy but none of us really could make heads or tails of what we should be doing with it.
I did not like Ezmerelda. Parts of the campaign felt like we were just following her around and she felt a bit too much like a Mary Sue.
We dumped Irena off on Rictavio and the two of them hid in Valaki without any problems. So Irena's plight just sort of ended with a whimper.
I feel like the end game of the module was weak, too. Strahd showed up when we restored Argonvost and through a combination of crazy tactics and dumb luck we managed to trounce him. Now, the party was going to poke around and try to follow up on a few ideas we had still: the ghostly army and the mage that fell over Tser Falls. But then it started to snow and Ezmerelda (The DM?) was like "No, we need to go to the castle. Now." Which leads me to...
The Sunblade. Now, the impression I got from all the NPCs was that this was the key to getting an edge in fighting Strahd. An edge. That little bit that might just tip the scales in our favor. Not turn the last dungeon into LOL GG EZ mode. We cranked that sucker to full power, beat on Strahd for a bit (he escaped), and then had a nice long rest in his castle before hunting him down and finishing him off. I think he had some generic skeletons with him at the end but they were almost an after thought at that point. It was hardly the grand showdown with a Dark Lord that I was expecting.
This isn't to say that you are having bad wrong fun if you enjoyed this adventure. I understand that not every campaign or style is for every player. Maybe this just wasn't for me. I'm just wondering if my experience was atypical. Was there something I was missing? Did my friends and I completely bungle our way through the adventure and fail upwards?
First off, this didn't feel like Ravenloft to me. If it didn't say Strahd on the tin it could have easily just as been Generic Spooky Setting. The Dark Powers and their influence were completely absent. Magic worked just fine and we never had to roll a Dark Powers Check. Fear, horror or madness checks were completely absent, too. Everyone seemed scared of Strahd but that was it. He was just this boogey man in a castle. There really wasn't any evidence of his influence and hold over the people other than their fear.
Around level 4, the campaign started to take a turn towards silliness. Everything went from "Oh my goodness, how are we going to survive?" to "Wolves? Again? Alright." Now, this was shortly after our only PC death (The bard died saving the paladin and letting the warlock escape) so I don't know if the DM pulled back on some things, if events occurred behind the scenes that we simply weren't aware of, or if Level 3 to Level 4 is a big power jump for players. I'll admit my 5E system mastery is not amazing. It's not that I wanted a meat grinder of a game but there were a few times were we just had the paladin face tank encounters. The worst example would have been the coffin maker's home. Now it may be that we encountered that fight much later than we were supposed to due to the sandbox-y nature of the module but I feel like a big fight with vampire spawn should not devolve into the paladin casts Protection from Good and Evil and laughs as the monsters feebly scratch at his armor.
Maybe my group falls into the Thick as Mud category but, I feel like we had some unclear agency. None of us really cared about Barovia. We just wanted to leave. Well, the bard cared but he died and so went the morale compass of the party. And so most of our adventuring consisted of looking at the map of Barovia and going "Well, we haven't been here yet. Maybe what we need is there?" and then later putting a big red X on the map and asking Ezmerelda for help on what we should be doing. Yes, we had the vistani prophecy but none of us really could make heads or tails of what we should be doing with it.
I did not like Ezmerelda. Parts of the campaign felt like we were just following her around and she felt a bit too much like a Mary Sue.
We dumped Irena off on Rictavio and the two of them hid in Valaki without any problems. So Irena's plight just sort of ended with a whimper.
I feel like the end game of the module was weak, too. Strahd showed up when we restored Argonvost and through a combination of crazy tactics and dumb luck we managed to trounce him. Now, the party was going to poke around and try to follow up on a few ideas we had still: the ghostly army and the mage that fell over Tser Falls. But then it started to snow and Ezmerelda (The DM?) was like "No, we need to go to the castle. Now." Which leads me to...
The Sunblade. Now, the impression I got from all the NPCs was that this was the key to getting an edge in fighting Strahd. An edge. That little bit that might just tip the scales in our favor. Not turn the last dungeon into LOL GG EZ mode. We cranked that sucker to full power, beat on Strahd for a bit (he escaped), and then had a nice long rest in his castle before hunting him down and finishing him off. I think he had some generic skeletons with him at the end but they were almost an after thought at that point. It was hardly the grand showdown with a Dark Lord that I was expecting.
This isn't to say that you are having bad wrong fun if you enjoyed this adventure. I understand that not every campaign or style is for every player. Maybe this just wasn't for me. I'm just wondering if my experience was atypical. Was there something I was missing? Did my friends and I completely bungle our way through the adventure and fail upwards?
