Tips for running Curse of Strahd?

[TheManicMonocle]

Hey all, so I'm going to be running Curse of Strahd pretty soon and I was hoping I could get some advice. I've been DMing for a good five years now, but I've never actually done a book adventure, I usually just make up my own story. I'll be running it for two experienced players and three new players.

So, my main question is, should I run the Death House adventure? And what's the best way for the characters to arrive in Barovia? I was thinking I might just have them wake up in the Death House and have to escape.

[War_lord]

If your players are already experienced at D&D I'd start them at third level, with the "Mysterious Visitors" hook. You don't have to use the exact text if it's too wordy for a lead in or you don't want to use FR stuff as a base, just follow the structure. The reason for this is that if the players aren't taken to the Vistani camp directly it can be easily missed. And that's where get their directions for the adventure, the storyteller gives them the basic background on the Vampire and Madam Eva gives them the task to "end his suffering" and the card reading that tells them where the objectives are (which you're going to want to rig to give the results you want).

[Zejety]

If your players are already experienced at D&D I'd start them at third level, with the "Mysterious Visitors" hook. You don't have to use the exact text if it's too wordy for a lead in or you don't want to use FR stuff as a base, just follow the structure. The reason for this is that if the players aren't taken to the Vistani camp directly it can be easily missed. And that's where get their directions for the adventure

Seconding this. All other plot hooks start in Barovia town and that easily leads to the players meeting Ireena and making a beeline for Vallaki. My players were level 5 or even 6 before talking to Eva, despite various NPCs pordding them to visit her.

[TheManicMonocle]

If your players are already experienced at D&D I'd start them at third level, with the "Mysterious Visitors" hook. You don't have to use the exact text if it's too wordy for a lead in or you don't want to use FR stuff as a base, just follow the structure. The reason for this is that if the players aren't taken to the Vistani camp directly it can be easily missed. And that's where get their directions for the adventure, the storyteller gives them the basic background on the Vampire and Madam Eva gives them the task to "end his suffering" and the card reading that tells them where the objectives are (which you're going to want to rig to give the results you want).

Hmmm, I'm a bit hesitant to start them at level 3 though since three of them are new players, what if I put the dead house in the Vistani camp? Or very very close

[StoicLeaf]

Kill. Them. All!

[War_lord]

Hmmm, I'm a bit hesitant to start them at level 3 though since three of them are new players, what if I put the dead house in the Vistani camp? Or very very close

The Death House is already in Barovia town. The problem is that the players are going to stumble out of the Death House (assuming they didn't get ganked by the high CR monsters within), and right into the inn, where Ismark is going to press gang them into escorting Ireena to keep Strahd away from her. So when they come to the branch in the road that can take them to the camp, they're probably going to (wisely) decide that they shouldn't bring too much attention to their mission and carry on down the road, bypassing the camp.

Might be a better idea to take something from another adventure to get them from levels 1-3 before they end up with the Vistani. I started my group of new players with the death house and regretted it.

[Haldir]

The House is as far as I got into CoS and I was exceptionally bored with it. Kinda soured me on the rest of the adventure, which I'm sure is phenomenal. I just never never got there because I was intimately exploring a house for most of our first session.

[Zejety]

If you want to run Death House, do so, but try to not introduce the characters to Ireena too early. Maybe the Vistani in the inn can be really pushy about Eva? Or you could make her seem like a good place to bring Ireena to, but that's hard to justify in-universe, with most Barovians mistrusting the Vistani.

[TheManicMonocle]

If you want to run Death House, do so, but try to not introduce the characters to Ireena too early. Maybe the Vistani in the inn can be really pushy about Eva? Or you could make her seem like a good place to bring Ireena to, but that's hard to justify in-universe, with most Barovians mistrusting the Vistani.

The only reason I want to run death house is because it seems like the players will be under leveled otherwise, though a lot of people say death house is bad so, my alternative is to start the characters at level 3, but that also seems problematic because I have three new players and I'm worried I would lose them if I made them do another session of working on their character sheets.

[War_lord]

As I said, might be a better idea to take something from another adventure to get them from levels 1-3 before they end up with the Vistani. I started my group of new players with the death house and regretted it.

[Belac93]

https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/9pbka6/fleshing_out_curse_of_strahd_master_table_of/ Check out this link, it's a master list for fleshing out Curse of Strahd.

[Sjappo]

Use Strahd as often as you can. Have him show up at inconvenient times. Toy with the PCs. Taunt them.

I cut a lot of the fluff out of the adventure. Most of Valaki, the Mad Mage, the Temple, the Tower, the Werewolf den. I tried to keep the story compact en focused. On Strahd and Irena. Never regretted that. It still took us just of two years to finish.

[Peelee]

The Mod on the Silver Mountain: It's dead, Jim.