Tips on running CoS (Potential spoilers)

[Wondermndjr]

I'm about to begin running Curse of Strahd for my group, as I've heard good things about it and I won't have as much time to prep adventures after summer ends.

Anyway, what are some basic tips I should keep in mind? Any advice is welcome, but I do have some specific questions:

1) Should the players start at level 3 or level 1? Starting at 1 forces me to railroad them into Death House -- the book explicitly tells you not to let them do anything until they finish it.
2) How much railroading or guiding should I do, in general? The adventure is very open-ended and I'm worried they'll stumble into Castle Ravenloft about five levels too low. On the other hand, I don't want to make them feel like they're getting ushered from place to place.
3) How should I handle magic item distribution? It might end up being a party that can't use most of the magical items to their fullest extent, so should I modify the items to fit the players or force them to adapt to what they find?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[bluthunda]

I just finished running through this game I joined midway (public AL game) and 3 of us started at lvl1 when the other players were lvl 5ish? We leveled up pretty quickly just played smart (they were at the amber temple when we joined). Once we hit lvl 4 we used DT to lvl to 5 and catch up some.
Some of the magic items that dropped weren't ideal like my barbarian with great weapon fighting went into the Straud fight dual weilding a mace of terror and the saints thighbone.
All in all it went well our wizard was able to use a staff from the crypts to make the Straud fight a little too easy in my opinion.

I wouldn't worry about changing items all too much but you're the DM so If you wanna be nice feel free to replace a magic weapon from the book to one that someone who's lacking magically can use.

[War_lord]

1) If your players are experienced players, I'd recommend starting them at level 3 with the "Mysterious Visitors" adventure hook. Assuming they go along with the Vistani it'll achieve a couple of things. First, the characters will have a clear goal: kill Strahd, and secondly they'll be in the right place to get the Tarokka reading from Madam Eva that tells them were the artifacts they'll need to confront Strahd are located.

2) I'd have the Vistani at the camp warn them to stay away from the Old Bonegrinder mill, without outright saying why it's dangerous. Maybe even warn them that Strahd sees all within the wall of Castle Ravenloft, although I would expect most players to understand that the Castle is an endgame area. Overall I wouldn't railroad them at all. If I felt like there was high level zone they were about to run into without warning, I'd incorporate a sense of dread and malevolence about the place into my descriptions. The thing is, this is a horror adventure so if the party starts blindly wandering into danger, they should be at risk of losing people.

3) I'd force them to adopt, it should be harder for a morally ambiguous group to triumph over evil.

[ruy343]

The best campaign I ever ran was a CoS campaign. That book as serious potential, and if played right, it can be a blast.

If your group is new to 5th edition, or if you're new to DMing, by all means, railroad the players into Death House. You can even tie the Death House adventure into the main story by having the players discover the Tome of Strahd atop the altar in the basement (that's what I did - worked wonderfully).

Have the players encounter Strahd early. I'm talking, they enter the mists, find a dead messenger with the note saying they shouldn't go to Barovia, and there's Strahd, asking for that letter back. Keep Strahd constantly on the players' minds - rarely attacking, but eager to play with his new toys. In fact, have him banter with them while the party battles his minions, even compliment them on their combat style or spellcasting prowess. Have Strahd ooze confidence, and when the time is right (if the party does something that truly angers him, such as returning his love to Sergei in the pool), he should unleash his full potential.

Warn them on day one of the campaign that you will be more lethal than you ever have been before, and constantly remind them of their mortality. Of course, it's all a lie - you're going to be just as fair as always. But, if the players don't learn to run away, it should get messy. When they get in over their heads, or when they have truly done something that has angered Strahd, kill the players. Make it brutal. If Strahd is angered and given breathing room in combat, have him stop attacking the conscious players just to have him actually kill players at 0 HP that are lying on the ground. Then smile, resume the combat, and have that dead player rise as a vampire spawn the next day to haunt them players unless they burn or otherwise deal with the corpse.

Regarding Bonegrinder, continual hints by the various NPCs that it's a dangerous place can go a long way. Ismark the Lesser, the hunter dudes in the Barovian tavern, and the Vistani they meet along the way can all serve as good DM mouthpieces to remind the players not to go there. If they go anyways, have them learn their lesson.

My final bit of advice here is that if they decide to go to Ravenloft, scare them, and remind them that they CAN LEAVE at any time. The guardians in the early rooms should let the players escape if they choose to run. Alternately, have Strahd show up, and laugh at the PCs feeble attempts to bypass his defenses. Have him tell the players that he's not through playing with them just yet, and that he can't wait for them to "see things his way". Remember, Strahd gets his kicks not by killing the PCs (but again, when he's mad, it's personal, and he will totally kill them). He gets his kicks by warping them, slowly guiding them towards the madness, hopelessnes, and despair that the other residents of Barovia experience.

And after all, this batch of PCs is the most interesting thing to have happened in a long time - why end the fun early?

[Byke]

I'm about to begin running Curse of Strahd for my group, as I've heard good things about it and I won't have as much time to prep adventures after summer ends.

Anyway, what are some basic tips I should keep in mind? Any advice is welcome, but I do have some specific questions:

1) Should the players start at level 3 or level 1? Starting at 1 forces me to railroad them into Death House -- the book explicitly tells you not to let them do anything until they finish it.
2) How much railroading or guiding should I do, in general? The adventure is very open-ended and I'm worried they'll stumble into Castle Ravenloft about five levels too low. On the other hand, I don't want to make them feel like they're getting ushered from place to place.
3) How should I handle magic item distribution? It might end up being a party that can't use most of the magical items to their fullest extent, so should I modify the items to fit the players or force them to adapt to what they find?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

1) Definitely third level - I wrote my own opening for the campaign involving Vistani/Werewolves kidnapping children and taking them to Barovia for my players.

2) Railroading...none....guiding/warning...plenty :) There are many areas that are deadly to a low level party, warning should be plentiful (IE Berez). But if the player decide to ignore the warning, there should be consequences, it's what makes CoS such a classic. Use the Wereravens / Ally against Stradh / Madame Eva, to provide them the guidance they need.

3) Aside from the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and the Sunsword everything else is open to you discretion. I always make custom items for the games I DM. That said it is fun for player to get items that are not tailored for them and use them in creative ways...I still regret giving one of my player a Staff of the Python as random loot....meh it's just a wimpy snake, until it grapples and your BBEG and fails his Str saving throw 5 round in a row.

4) Other stuff....If you are going to use Argynvostholt, I had Baba's riding the dragon skull. IF you wait until they get to the Castle to get the skull, it will be much to late for it to ever be relevant. Also lots of dead boring empty space.

5) Introduce Stradh early, the players are his latest amusement, but not to often. A simple things like Stradh offering a player a ride in his carriage, when they got separated from the psarty (and dropping them off in view of the party). Caused so much paranoia and distrust in my party that it caused no end of amusement for me ...err Stradh greatly.

[Big Papa Turnip]

Out-of-game atmosphere can work wonders for Curse of Strahd. Play at night, draw the curtains, shut the electric lights off and play by candlelight. Real good stuff. We're wrapping up CoS right now and while it's been a blast, playing in the middle of the day in a well-lit den sort of dulls Barovia's bite.

[willdaBEAST]

If this is derailing your OP too much, let me know and I'll create a separate thread.

I'm currently DMing a CoS game and have backed myself into a bit of a corner. The situation deteriorated in Vallaki, Lady Wachter made her move on the Baron during the festival of the blazing sun but was unsuccessful and retreated to the Wachterhaus where the town guards, Izek and an angry mob laid siege. Strahd ultimately came to her aid and with a giant swarm of bats chased pretty much the entire town into the church, demanding that Ireena (his bride to be) is released into his care.

Izek met his sister Ireena in the church for the first time and was overwhelmed, becoming possessive and controlling. When the Baron suggested that Ireena should be turned over to Strahd, Izek killed him. I'm going to have Victor Vallakovich inherit the position of Burgomaster and I think his only reservation would be that he didn't get to personally kill his father.

I forced the party into a sadistic choice, to save one of the PC they'd have to turn over Ireena. The PC in peril willingly sacrificed himself and was hanged. They refused to turn Ireena over to Strahd.

All that said, what is some motivation for Strahd to leave Vallaki without Ireena?

My main idea is to have Ireena propose to one of the PCs, having it be suggested by Father Petrovich that even Strahd honors Barovian law once she's married. This'll put a huge target on that PC's back and shift Strahd's attention onto the party rather than defending Ireena (I want to avoid her being a damsel in distress). It doesn't have to be a long term solution but to me it creates some rational for Strahd to temporarily retreat to form a new plan.

[Wondermndjr]

Thanks for all the advice, especially about using Strahd liberally. The whole thing about Vallaki is actually similar to what I'm looking for -- how can I make my players have to choose the lesser of two evils? The interactions between NPCs even if the PCs aren't around is important to CoS (as far as I can see).

Another thought came up: my players are decidedly not the most interested in lore, so the Tome of Strahd would seem out of place. Is there any reason that the information in the Tome is particularly important? I feel like they'll be more inclined to listen if it's Strahd dispensing the knowledge himself in a monologue.

[p_johnston]

I've run curse of strahd twice (the group failed the first time.) and had a blast both times. If you want where I got some of my advice
http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com/2016/03/dungeons-dragons-guide-to-curse-of.html
http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com/2016/05/dungeons-dragons-how-to-run-curse-of.html
The above blog was super helpful. Some of the advice I give will definitely come from that.

General Advice
1. The tarrokka card reading should be stacked not randomized. The only real structure in the adventure is to find the items, find the ally, and kill strahd. This leads to a very odd campaign if all three items randomly end up in the castle, or if all three items can be obtained within a session. Your best bet is to choose where you want to place the items before hand and put those cards on top of the deck in the right order.
2. Connected to the above, You don't need to railroad but impose some suggested order. through where you place the items and hints from a variety of helpful NPC's you can steer the PC's away from places that will get them killed and to the locations that are more level appropriate. Ismark the lesser, Ireena, ezmeerelda, and van richten are all great mouthpieces to help steer the PC's towards the safer areas.
3. I will second that you should use Strahd liberally. He should show himself about every 2-3 sessions to mess with the party in some way. I will also mention that I personally think he should at one point beat the bloody hell out of the party when they are lower level. He shouldn't kill anyone but he should down several people and then leave. Help establish that he is in fact the most badass of badasses in Barovia.

Your Questions
1. Level three is best. Any lower and you'll be murdering PC's left and right.
2. Guiding PC's is your friend. CoS is a great toolbox, but a kinda ****ty campaign as it is written. Your best bet is to write out an expected "adventure path" with the locations you think are coolest from the book on it. Let the PC's deviate if they want to but try and steer them onto it. Most players will either not realize their being steered or if they do are good enough sports to go along.
3. Feel free to tweak/add items as you see fit. If no one is a cleric or paladin then you probably want to tweak the holy symbol of ravenkind for instance.

As to the tome of Strahd it actually doesn't accomplish much by itself. It tells the players that strahd is afraid of sunlight, which they probably already guessed by virtue of him being a vampire. If you want feel free to replace it with something you feel is more interesting. Maybe strahd has also pulled a Dorian Gray and his soul is trapped in a painting. Maybe the tome of strahd is the same but also mentions that the only way to kill him is to stab him with the sun sword in his crypt.

P.S. Also visit the below link. It gives you a list of the deadliest encounters in the adventure.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?483009-where-you-re-going-to-die-in-CoS-%28spoilers%29

[MOLOKH]

I'm planning to put my group through either Curse of Strahd or Out of the Abyss after we finish our current campaign (Storm King's Thunder). But instead of starting them off at 3rd level or using the Death House we're going to play Sunless Citadel. The idea is to let them choose the adventure. There are tunnels to the Underdark in the citadel, through which the Kobolds originally came, which the party can explore and they accidentally stumble on a large drow slave-trader patrol. If they manage to get through the whole SC, they'll most likely destroy Gulthias, which will reveal that the vampire buried there was in fact Strahd, who gets resurrected when the tree that is holding him in place gets chopped down. This way they'll have some incentive to seek him out, since it was their fault he's loose, and he'll have a reason to take interest in the PCs. Also Van Richten, the ally character, or some other prominent NPC can be a decendant of the guy who trapped Strahd there in the first place.