Ravenloft suggestions and ideas 5e

[Yamatohekatsue]

Me and my group are debating playing the curse of Strahd. So I've been preparing just in case the group oks it and wants to play. I did a decent job two years ago when I dmed the 3.5 expedition to castle Ravenloft and it took us from the start of summer til just after Halloween to finish it.

I've decided that if we play it their current characters are way to strong with average player level being 9 so I was really wanting to throw the party a curve ball by making character sheets and letting them pick randomly to sorta drop them into the thick of things at level 3 but I want the races to not have dark vision and the party must use light sources like lanters, and torches to see to get around. I know the human and dragonborn don't have those, but not much else. I know I don't want alot of divine casting so if I include a class that is a divine caster I want that to be the only one.

My first question is what other classes should I include and what are potential races that don't have dark vision?

Second I want this to be more horror
theamed and have the players with limited supplies so they get the real feeling of fear, dread, and terror. Strahd's goal in this game is to pry the party for weakness and slowly turn them into vampires.

So how could I go about making it feel like the players are in peril? And I know tension needs to be lifted every so often, how could I go about doing that?

And lastly I've been told that ambient music and sounds can help set the mood, does anyone have suggestions for ambient and acustical music I can play, and what are other things I can do outside of game to set the stage for some great night's of d&d?

[Scripten]

Unmarked Curse of Strahd spoilers to follow

I just started running a Strahd campaign (though I began with the Death House adventure, which is designed to take the party up to level 3) and there have certainly been some learning opportunities.


I've decided that if we play it their current characters are way to strong with average player level being 9 so I was really wanting to throw the party a curve ball by making character sheets and letting them pick randomly to sorta drop them into the thick of things at level 3 but I want the races to not have dark vision and the party must use light sources like lanterns, and torches to see to get around. I know the human and dragonborn don't have those, but not much else. I know I don't want a lot of divine casting so if I include a class that is a divine caster I want that to be the only one.

My first question is what other classes should I include and what are potential races that don't have dark vision?

I didn't assign my players any constraints, but we ended up with two Halflings who tragically did not make it out of the Death House. In fact, the party was closer to death than I have ever seen. The remaining surviving characters were two half-orcs, one of whom was unconscious and the other at 1HP. One could cut the tension with a knife.

Since the Halflings did not have Darkvision, they needed a light source and thus were at at disadvantage when trying to sneak about. So I wouldn't force the whole party away from Darkvision, but maybe have one or two characters without. The requirements and sense of horror remain and are sometimes even amplified if the party has to split up to be most effective. Usually I advise against splitting the party, but a CoS game works well with it.

Besides Halflings, most of the race options in Volo's Guide are without Darkvision and actually make for decent thematic fits for a CoS game. After all, Kenku, Lizardfolk, and Tritons are all similar in some way to various Victorian-era monsters. If you wanted, a Triton could be slightly refluffed as a Swamp Monster to fit in with the horror themes. (The challenge of using monstrous or especially exotic races should not be understated however. Barovia is already unfriendly.)



So how could I go about making it feel like the players are in peril? And I know tension needs to be lifted every so often, how could I go about doing that?

I found that using as few variant rules and homebrew as possible helped with the tone of my game. 5E is fairly lethal when RAW - Many of the monsters hit hard enough to easily cause instant death to an unconscious PC (remember that attacks have advantage and auto-crit). On the other hand, you probably don't want to turn the campaign into a meat grinder, so be sure to allow your players to utilize any advantage they can come up with.

In our game, the tension naturally lifted when the players got a chance to joke around. It was pretty rare, since the world is so actively hostile, but I didn't stop them when they started laughing about the dire state of their situation or when the Warlock began claiming the house they'd cleared in the village as their own to NPCs. (Of course, the house will refill after several hours, but they don't know that.)



And lastly I've been told that ambient music and sounds can help set the mood, does anyone have suggestions for ambient and acustical music I can play, and what are other things I can do outside of game to set the stage for some great night's of d&d?

I find that there are a few good sources for ambient effects (If you right-click on a Youtube video, you can Loop it! Very useful!):

Cryo Chamber (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X--TT1ABB_Y) makes for good exploration music, as it's dark and brooding, but not distracting.

Lucas King's Dark Piano (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziQ9GURNrUg) videos are useful for interactions with neutral or friendly-leaning NPCs. They're unsettling and work well as contrast to less threatening conversations, ensuring that the players never truly feel secure.

For battles, I'm really fond of remixes or remasters of the videogame Castlevania's soundtrack (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTMRtIrMCbA) (Note that this video isn't good for Looping as it has the preview at the end.). It's generally really good music to start with, and it has the benefit of being based on the same Gothic Horror themes as Strahd.

I've used several other sources for music and ambient sound as well, such as music from Silent Hill, Hollow Knight, Dark Souls (great for "boss" battles, and other video games. Some film scores work but they are often composed of a variety of motifs which can pull players out of the immersion.

Also, on top of the music, I tend to play various ambient sound videos, such as loops of rainstorms or nighttime animal sounds. you can find these under tags like "ASMR" or "Relaxation".

[Yamatohekatsue]

Thanks and my players have a habit if picking only races with dark vision so they don't need torches and lantern, that's why I asked about races without it. So with dead house we start at what level 1? And end up at 3?

Thanks for the music suggestions I started to make a Spotify playlist called Ravenloft is there any gear or things I should let them start with to help them out or just leave them stranded?

[Scripten]

Thanks and my players have a habit if picking only races with dark vision so they don't need torches and lantern, that's why I asked about races without it. So with dead house we start at what level 1? And end up at 3?

Ah, gotcha. Well, you could request that some number of player characters be native to Barovia, since most everyone is a human, but I tend to prefer outsiders to avoid any awkward gaps in knowledge. Alternatively, you can rely on the tried-and-true amnesia trope - just be careful with it, as it borders on overused. In our case, the Halfling players came in after the end of Death House with two new characters who were both partially possessed by the spirits of the dead Halflings. (The Half-Orc players don't know this yet and one Halfling player doesn't yet know that the other is possessed.) I find that it adds an amount of horror to the world; things that just aren't right.

And yeah, Death House is an optional starter dungeon that levels players up from 1 to 3. It is also conveniently placed in the village of Barovia, which is a good starting location.


Thanks for the music suggestions I started to make a Spotify playlist called Ravenloft is there any gear or things I should let them start with to help them out or just leave them stranded?

I found the level 1 starter gear to be fine. There are some resources, but nothing particularly unbalancing. It might be hard for them to find usable weapons at first, so I wouldn't recommend taking those away at the very least.

[Yamatohekatsue]

Ok well I'd hate to take weapons away unless monks are in play lol, I'm not a fan of the whole o forgot everything blah blah blah every story seems to do that at some point and it's way over used
I'll read on dead house and see how it goes

[Yamatohekatsue]

Also the only thing I've seen in all of 5e to help with undead is holy water, but in 3.5 they had things like vampire repellent, special items, ext

What items other than holy water can the players use to help get an edge on vampires besides the sun sword, holy symbol of Ravenloft, and the tomb of Strahd?

[Scripten]

Out of starting equipment? I don't think there's anything, really.

[Corsair14]

A RL campaign I have starting hopefully in January, isnt following CoS, but you could use the way I am getting my party there. Following the novel Black Crusade, all of the party is human and is a real life non-magic based class(allowing clerics and some LoTR classes). Basically each class has archtype for lack of better name, soldier, noble cavalryman, scout, and a couple others, each starting with appropriate period respective gear, weapons, and armor. Have them arrive at the sack of Jerusalem and when the Grimoire is found have the mist take them away at the end of the boss fight. Then start the whole stranger in a strange land at whereever CoS begins. Also gets rid of the whole players wanting to play silly beastial races that would never last more than a few minutes before the superstitious people of Barovia burned them at the stake.

[Yamatohekatsue]

When I was asking about holy water and the three artifacts I was wanting to know out of all other items. Like stakes, vampire repellent, ext

[Yamatohekatsue]

gets rid of the whole players wanting to play silly beastial races that would never last more than a few minutes before the superstitious people of Barovia burned them at the stake.

See that's something I too have thought about Barovian would fight any lizard folk, tortals, vupine, and just about any beast race that came into their town.

[Mr_Fixler]

I have a few thoughts after reading your posts and questions.

Firstly fog. Fog everywhere. Darkvision doesn't see through fog.
Non humans are going to have it hard enough in Barovia. Just as you said, the locals are likely to form a mob on anything that might be threatening. You might just throw any non-human PCs a bone on the darkvision to balance that out and use fog when you want something hidden.

I don't think there are any specific rules in 5e for garlic or wooden stakes. Ultimately it would be up to you. I would make garlic only repel vampire spawn and at that only 5-10 ft tops. Wooden stakes might not do anything in combat, but are a key to keeping vampires pinned in their coffins or to their grave earth. Your game, your rulings. I think as long as you are consistent and the rulings make sense the players will go with it.