• CURSE OF STRAHD CAMPAIGN ANIMATIC • Smiling Fate

[@davidlz830]

-Drops a banger -Leaves -Refuses to elaborate any further

[@UnbeGnomest4381]

You really nailed Strahd's affect, casual and almost bored as the PCs suffer crushing loss, heartbreak, setbacks, doubt, fear. Magnificently framed, your use of light and shadow reminds me of the classic art from the old Black Box set. This was a real treat to watch, well done.

[@whitleypedia]

OVERCONFIDENCE IS A SLOW AND INSIDIOUS KILLER

[@Ash_Waste_Nomad]

Mine was way different we accidentally made the gods see Strads realm and in which we accidentally rolled in at 20 on religion so then all the gods sort of rushed in through a hole in the fabric of Strads domain and we accidentally made a holy land and now we started a war of Strad and the other evil people in those realms against the gods.

[@Alex-p3k4h]

​@@Ash_Waste_Nomadcool but why

[@Ash_Waste_Nomad]

@@Alex-p3k4h DO YOU THINK WE WANTED THIS?!

[@Ash_Waste_Nomad]

@Alexander-iy4gi it also ended were the gods now are in a holy war against one another over the land.

[@pixelnpc8480]

Shit. This reminds me of my own CoS run. Our party was betrayed by our warlock at the end. And my Tiefling fighter ended up selling his soul to the archdevil Levistus so he could leave. I ran him again through Dungeon of the Mad Mage next, With Strahd taking the characters soul and becoming his patron. He died in that campaign too tragically. Like most that go down under the Yawning Portal. I can't help but imagine my boy Ciel was somewhere in that procession of dead adventurers. Very well made animatic, and thanks for reading. To whoever gets this far.

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

Absolutely, I pictured the ghosts marching to castle Ravenloft to be mostly ex-adventuring parties trying to get back at Strahd... Ciel would definitely fit in there!

[@UllrT]

That sounds epic as heck.

[@cooperemmerton2692]

Man what is with cos and the party getting betrayed by a warlock happened to me too

[@Stellaria88]

Wait you guys were betrayed by your warlocks? Bro mine died to the brooms in death house. Paladin was planning on betraying though

[@trishapellis]

@@cooperemmerton2692 In our case (currently ongoing), my whispers bard was just going to be a jerk, but then we had a DM switch - I'm the DM now - so my bard fucked off to Ravenloft, leaving everyone else wondering what the hell got in his head... 😈 He's not betraying them though - at least not intentionally - but if you're a cop going to the mob boss saying you want to join, you gotta expect the mob boss to ask for Van Richten's head as proof of your dedication...

[@aggresiveiceberglettuce8848]

Coming over to this man i remember my first time ever participating in COS and think of syphon my echo knight fighter dude went out on his own terms to protect the rest of the party so the part where the souls march i feel just represents everyone whos fallen in this task

[@merionn4391]

As someone who runned CoS, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS CHAOS??? Now I want to learn how to draw just to make something similar to my players (specially considering that one of them has drawn a version of the Tarokka Cards with the characters and me (I was drawn as the Darklord card) as a gift. It was so fucking cool)

[@akai8891]

There's my dm

[@ascri1000]

Our DM

[@namithecatdemon]

i was wondering the same thing. This looks like a fantastic story ^^ my group was also so much fun chaos lol

[@TheMpkc]

That is f***ing awesome :D I got a painting of all the payers characters, resting on a beach, at the end of the campagin.

[@saltysoykaf2104]

One year later, and this master piece still rocks.

[@Ash_Waste_Nomad]

Make that 2

[@saltysoykaf2104]

Three more months for three years.

[@xeroxhero5615]

2:37, I love the look of the party here. Strahd is one of the few villains that really motivates the party on a personal level.

[@TheRusty]

And we cut to Strahd with five stakes in his chest... love it

[@chefleon859]

Nice

[@unknownslayer7363]

My party attacked straud at the wedding. They are a half orc bloodhunter ghost slayer, a human grave domain cleric, a dragomborn oath of vengeance paladin, and a high elf divination wizard. Bloodhunter used hit crimson rite of the dawn and used his blood curse of the marked. He also manged to get the sunblade. Grave cleric used there channel divinity. And divination wizard gave him a nat 20. they pre planned it like this once the divination wizard got a 20 on his die roll. Ended up with 12d6+12d8 on straud in one hit, all of the damage being radiant, not counting the paladin who smited him right after. I had that be the only time in the campaign where straud actually showed visible fear as he had never bin hit so hard in his life and was almost dead. He was forced to slip away and hide for about 5 rounds to heal before he tried to attack the party again

[@cockman8437]

Thats brilliant, Im sure the players planned that since the very beginning of the campaign. But did the wizard get lucky on his portent dice or did he get a 20 and was able to keep it

[@unknownslayer7363]

@@cockman8437 he got a nat 20 on his divination dice the long rest before, maybe it was planned, but it didn't seem so as they seemed to start planning it right after he rolled the nat 20 and got excited. I let them pull it off cause they had a good mix of luck and strategie and planning, so I rewarded them with the chance to vib check straud

[@orlando71434]

@@unknownslayer7363 how much health was he left at?

[@unknownslayer7363]

@@orlando71434 don't remember exactly the number but somewhere around 20 ish left. I just remember that it hit like a truck

[@youdontknowme236]

@@unknownslayer7363 damn that's crazy

[@redsnake188]

Waited two years to watch this (just finished the campaign) and this was surprisingly nostalgic at times

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

Awww!! Im so touched by you remembering to watch this video... and im glad it captured the right kind of feeling!!

[@Baalslegion07]

I love curse of Strahd so much... I recently finished my first full playthrough of it and damn Was that awesome. My players lost to Strahd and that pure feeling of hopelessness was as awesome as it was devastating. And it wasn't just a "Oh we lost the final fight" ending, no it was a "after all we sacrificed to win we still lost, our souls now forever trapped in the domains of dread now fully ruled by Strahd who we helped to become the unstoppable monster he became" ending.

[@connorjohnson8590]

Bruh

[@FinnMcGregor-t8e]

I love this, one of the most iconic dnd animatics, and for some reason I think this song would be great for a durge animatic from bg3

[@corinnestein6178]

I can't imagine how your group must have felt seeing this, what an amazing thing to do!! I'm a storyboard artist who just started running a new CoS campaign of my own, and now you're giving me ideas. Also, you say you're not a storyboard artist but you could've fooled me! Great job :^D

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

Well, to be 100% fair I did study animation for some time. But I really need to thank a friend of mine (profile in the description) for babysitting me and pointing out some major mistakes! I guarantee this would have been a lot more confusing w/out her. And hell yeah!!! I love watching dnd animatics, looking forward to yours!

[@rowena8044]

in the middle of CoS atm and i love this!! i joined about halfway through the campaign and the rest of the party currently has my barovian character convinced seeing the sun for the first time will actually kill him, lmao

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

Noooo poor guy T-T I hope he gets to enjoy the sun someday!!

[@ettinakitten5047]

Reminds me of when I was playing a PC who came from the Nine Hells and a series of misunderstandings led my character to think the Material Plane ocean we were sailing over held the exact same dangers to it as the River Styx.

[@taylorsackett2556]

I rewatch this at least once or twice a year since the end of my own CoS campaign ended. I think it was release a few sessions before we finished. That game is to this day one of the most influential DnD games I've been a part of (I actually got a tattoo for my character in our game) and this video makes my eyes well everytime. My game was the first to ever make me cry at the table and watching this makes me feel a kinship because I can feel that the players here experienced something similar I know this is super late but thank you so much for sharing a piece of your experience with the rest of us.

[@pravisamaratunga1129]

What happened in your Vallaki? It looked like chaos but the Inn was still standing? Anyway this is absolutely amazing.

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

our Vallaki went through. A LOT- (SPOILERS) basically we f up and both Lady Wachter and Vargas died at the Sun Festival, and the city got attacked by Strahd (keep in mind that I havent read the manual, so I'm not sure how much was homebrewed in) Viktor Vallakovich ended up becoming Baron of Vallaki (and a big ally weirdly enough) and Ireena almost got captured at the Inn-- she managed to escape but one of our party members (and Lancelot, our dog) got killed. But yeah we were not a very. plan-oriented party, so the campaign was Very chaotic😬

[@cochoco6331]

Maybe is Saint Andral's fiest. Its a event in the book. If you don't search for the Saint Andral's bones Strahd can entered Vallaky and kill everybody. I Love this event. (As a dm of course) lol

[@wulfrik2987]

@@Janedoe-rb2jw poor puppy

[@justinjette1473]

@@Janedoe-rb2jw Chaotic Vallaki is the best Vallaki!

[@lasonris8934]

Just in case someone read the module the DM probably made it a bit of homebrew How to deal with rules lawyers and how to never have the same game twice

[@momo-ff3od]

Currently DMing Curse of Strahd and I've been using this to hype myself up for the session each week.

[@ramone8165]

Holly canolli, this gave me goosebumps. I loved the Ideia of Strahd burning the crap out of Blue Water Inn. I'm currently DMing a CoS campaign, and the next session will all be about the Sun festival. Keep up the good work, my dude.

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

My favourite part of the module 😍 (in case that wasnt obvious) and thank you!! I def plan on making more dnd animatics

[@imTEHninja1]

My party has done almost nothing towards fulfilling the card reading but managed to stop strahds plans during the festival. Somehow they're doing quite well despite wandering in the opposite direction constantly lol. So I made the successful completion of the festival of sun transport vallaki to Har'Akir and while my party is off to seks tears to help return the town lady watcher has overthrown the baron. Idk if strahd will be pleaded or pissed about that yet tbh. I'm thinking he'll blame watcher for taking his city to another domain and praise the party for returning it to get them to dinner. Any ideas?

[@ramone8165]

@@imTEHninja1 Now this is some epic turn of events. IMO, Strahd won't give a damn about this city. In the RAW CoS Module, Strahd hasn't visited Vallaki for about 100 years. Of course, he implanted the vampire nest in the coffin maker's shop a few months ago, but purely out of boredom. To me, Strahd's first visit (a few hours before the festival) should be all about giving the PCs a lesson. And of course, to win back Tatyana/Ireena (this time not through charm or magic) In my segment, Strahd will have a vampire spawn run through the streets of Vallaki, while the party chases it. Then, it will give the Saint Andral bones to Strahd, while he awaits in the very same church. He will then destroy, in a monologue, explaining that he's unbeatable (I'm pushing really hard to destroy any hopes that they created in the previous sessions). He will then invite Ireena and the PCs for dinner, which I'm not expecting them to accept. Probably only when Ireena gets kidnapped. This will absolutely destroy morale of the whole city. The festival will be posponed for another 1 ~ 2 days. And when the festival happens, the mob (incited by lady Watcher) will destroy the whole city and lynch the Baron, should the party doesn't help/incite more violence. (sry If I didn't made myself clear, english is not my first language)

[@m0k0m1]

Near the end, I began to have a theme. One step forward, two steps back. Either with the party or someone else.

[@kendalls_kingdom22]

@@Janedoe-rb2jw Oh I can't wait!!!!!

[@brwisnt]

2:41 bearded vultures are sick af. Love this animatic even though I barely know anything about CoS. Great work

[@pirateking56128]

The curse of strahd run I'm doing right now. Players are traveling around Barovia, got hooks for every player so far. They're fighting the druids at Yester Hill, even managed to figure out taking the green thing out. But right as they are about to succeed, one of the players, their character being an old friend of another's who betrayed them way back when(made the whole thing rocky), fails their check against Strahd's charm. They party tries to save them, but Strahd flies away with one of the party, charmed. The following morning, they each receive a personalized invitation for dinner with the count. This game is fuckin' wild man.

[@Niobe-theone]

I can't stop watching this. The fear, regret, and sadness in the player's faces throughout the animation, it really sells the CoS atmosphere. Yet they still preserve despite every setback. I love it, wonderful job

[@wrenberlanga6539]

I'm a DM about to finish Curse of Strahd in the next month and holy shit this animatic is SO good. There's so many emotions portrayed here that I can only hope to bring to my table. I can't stop re-watching it because it has me so enthralled in the story. Incredible work and congrats on beating Strahd!

[@lumir.7384]

This video was the first time I’d heard “Sinners” and it just topped my Spotify song for the year at 404 plays in 5 months. Thanks for a new artist in my life ❤🎉

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

!!! HOW did you surpass my record. I'm actually impressed (and happy you found a new song that clicks with you!!! its an amazing feeling ^^ )

[@SpencerFoustLovesYou]

This is utterly jaw-dropping. It’s the kind of thing I’ve always wanted to enshrine campaigns of my own. Your characters were distinct and very much real. You have a talent for weaving such a dramatic story with so little time. Bravo!

[@ammygamer]

As someone that has repeatedly DMd CoS since 3.5 and is always looking for something to add in and polish every time, knowing that people that enjoy the campaign use so much of their time to make heartful art like this really inspires me. Once I get all my material digitalized on Foundry (playing 5e nowadays, with some homebrewing), I really hope I can share one of our adventures online. Keep it up, your storyboarding eye keeps the story behind each scene flowing really well!

[@trinityspark7160]

Omg 3.5 CoS would be terrifying... I'm currently DMing a Pathfinder campaign and decided to dissect the majority of the classes archetypes. If I could put even a handful of those characters in a CoS campaign god the fights would be brutal....

[@ammygamer]

@@trinityspark7160 ​ Well, a lot of the campaigns I DM in tend to have a lot of roleplaying. I take a lot from experiences with Call of Cthulu and World of Darkness. :) As a personal rule, if you character has a background/profession related to a particular subject, and you have a good reasoning to try and do something in a certain way (detailing is important) in a low stress setting, I'll just say you do it. I won't even ask you to roll anything. I like to reward my players for playing smart, using their character's strengths and BG, and understanding that running away or watching enemies from a distance is a viable way for them to formulate a plan that allows them to leave things to chance as little as possible. But in compensation, when combat does happen it tends to be fairly brutal, yes. I also made a point to make all monsters, even minor ones, a concern for different reasons. For example, in my Barovia Zombies are "weak", but they exist in large numbers in some places and they can quickly overwhelm you and bury you under their collective weight. Also, zombie bites work exactly as you might expect. So yeah, it's one of the first creatures the players have to deal with, but they never become nonthreatening.

[@trinityspark7160]

@@ammygamer I would say my campaign are an even split of combat and roleplay. The players have plenty of free time to enjoy the town have some friendly banter between them. And of course showing them that there are plenty of dangers and issues going on in the kingdom they are in. I agree on the whole background situation as well as rewarding my players cleverness. Mainly cause only a few of them think to scout and stealth ahead, but when they do I'm not gonna take away that victory. It depends on the information I feel like one of my players used to live in the cursed forest but decided to leave due to things getting worse. She knows a lot of about the forest and the creatures in the area she was in, but I dont think she would know anything about the deeper parts of the forest. Just knows that it is incredibly dangerous. I will admit I'm trying dial down the severity of my encounters for now. Cause in the first campaign I ran I think I went a little to hard on them cause every encounter almost turned into a TPK. I didn't mean for that to be the case mind you!! I even created a strategy that was designed to fail for my NPCs in 10 different scenarios, but the rolls made it actually work... I didn't plan for my success....

[@ericbarbara7486]

The only bad thing about this video is that I checked your channel and you didn't have MORE animatics!!! Seriously, brilliant work! I hope you do more in the future, if you can!

[@Lillimertheglitterlover]

Curse of Strahd impacted my group so much that our new campaigns characters reference Barovia heavily. I love it so much

[@AngelaVintageVibe]

Now that I've watched this easily 100 times I figured I should just say I love this so much! It's perfect.

[@zoeybleu7548]

I played this campaign recently. It ended rather abruptly when the Deuregar Battlerager grab Strahd in a piledriver and plummeted off a cliff. The Dwarf survived, but the same could not be said for Strahd.

[@archbishopofpride296]

You didn't play strahd then cause he respawns lol

[@TJBrumfield]

@@archbishopofpride296 And Strahd can go shapechange into a bat and fly. Or he shapechanges into mist and flies away. And Strahd is immune to non-magical damage, so he is immune to fall damage.

[@motomoto7462]

holy sh*t man, this gave me literal chills, CHILLS. I have played COS and I am in the middle of running it. You absolutely killed it. Amazing work.

[@freakyskull516]

god, curse of strahd... we had about 19 character deaths in that mostly infighting as barovia was such a horrid place we were at each other's throats constantly a few notable ones were: -an unexpected inflict wounds crit during an argument between 2 warlocks over a friendly fire incident VERY early on before anyone trusted anyone else -our druid yelling "OOOORRRRGAAASM" running naked into the woods, getting lost, and dying out there -the gunslinger trying to rob the warlock at gunpoint and getting killed for it by said warlock -the goblin ranger/war cleric of maglubiyet getting instantly killed by a statue shooting death lasers from it's eyes -2 of the party plotting to kill 2 of the other members because one of them is a skeleton serving an ancient ice witch and the other is getting too chummy with it, team skeleton won that fight... -our poor slimy boi who just wanted a midnight snack getting beaten to death by gargoyles and broomsticks in strahd's castle -flame skulls... so many flame skulls ; _ ; -our barbarian murdering our wizard in a ritualistic sacrifice to bhaal the lord of murder because he talked down to her too much -our poor bard who survived all of this having seen over a dozen murders, betrayals, and worse finally going so crazy that the child cleric(?) who joined our party and kept being waaaayyy too sketchy overthrew her patience by endangering the party one too many times and died for it... that tabaxi bard Honey From The Pot was the only survivor from the original party having seen barovia from death house to the final battle this was achieved with a mix of luck, using others as meat shields, and the player missing like 1/3 of the sessions due to illness causing her to backline a lot her player did a good job of showing that poor cat wear down and lose the will to go on.

[@onimoose9646]

Let me just say that I've played this video dozens of times already! I'm running my 2nd CoS campaign and this time around I've implemented a buncha of mods and expansions like MandyMod, Dragnacarta & Lunch Break Heroes. And with my current formed group of carefully picked individuals who have amazing chemistry, spotlight instincts and roleplay comfortability, I am having a blast at running it! The scenes of this animatic reflects a lot of choices that my party has taken in the campaign already and I just simply adore it! They're currently trying to survive the Festival of the Blazing Sun and I can't wait to finally share this video to them when the campaign is all over! Amazing work all around!

[@trinityspark7160]

I have officially lost count of the amount of times I have watched this today. I feel so attached to these characters even though their story is over. I hope everyone had fun in the end.

[@samoftheswamp]

I can’t count how many times I’ve rewatched this. This is sooooo good! I love your art and AGHHH. I’m going to be DMing this campaign for my friends and it’s my first time actually being a DM than a player, and I’m so excited. This just makes me even more excited for it

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

aaahhh I'm sure you and your party will have lots of fun playing this module!! good luck!!!

[@sirmoriarty8230]

The emotions I feel when watching this- What a wonderful animatic! I'm so interested in what exactly went down in your guys' campaign. Looks like it was a blast!

[@Davanzale95]

Literally a masterpiece. Brings me back to the CoS run i mastered years back, and I was able to remember and feel everything again; you were able to convey the storytelling and emotion through the drawings and the beautiful song. Really a wonderful work. BTW Is the mechanical goat named after a strange land from a dark souls world where burly men with big moustache come from? XD

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

I asked the player about Tortisio and what I got was: its a coincidence BUT he found the name in an old dark souls video by the same youtuber? That's what I gathered at least. And!! Im glad you liked the video!

[@thomasrose2149]

Curse of Strahd is what we should expect from Wizards of The Coast

[@christophercarosella9529]

I’ve watched this three times already. In the middle of a campaign right now, this made me smile to see how far my group has come and how far they have to go! Thanks for this! Back to prep….

[@UchihaKat]

That early perspective shot of the Death House where you have the low 'moving' angle was already so good I was like. Oh this animatic is gonna be GREAT.

[@mariakutsy2178]

This is GORGEOUS! I wish my players would do such thing for my "Curse of Strahd" campaign. This video needs more views!!!

[@xelyd7989]

Every couple of months I go back to this video and get that overwhelming urge to run curse of strahd even though I haven't prepped enough for it due to me wanting it to be my best campaign. This is probably my favorite piece of D&D content out there.

[@andaer_301]

I have watched this video countless times. Have started running a game of CoS myself, and if it can get anywhere near the emotion, drama, tension, heartbreak, and downright epicness that comes across in this animation, then I would be a very happy DM.

[@nichtfelixh2316]

My friends are about to start another dnd homebrew campaign and this inspired me to what kind of a character I want to play, so thank you very much

[@Nelson_Lopes]

God, sinners match perfectly with that chaotic thing that ur campaign turned into. Strahd is a very punitive story.

[@gaunjee4182]

Oh my god this was amazing! I'm going to be playing in a COS campaign soon, this really got me hype

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

Thank you!!!! And good luck, I hope you and your party have a great time!

[@Sonntam]

OH MY GOD THIS IS SO COOL! This is so amazing and epic. Do you have somewhere a summary of your campaign? All of this looks so fun. SO MANY GHOSTS, did someone from your party die??

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

THANK YOU!!! I dont have a summary- this animatic is the closest thing to a summary there is, but I do have some drawings and sketches on my twitter and tumblr! AND YEAH many pc deaths, one (the uman bard that got dragged away by Strahd) cause a player had to leave the game, and the second one (the half-orc artificer that got stabbed by Rahadin) that fortunately got revived later. And our dog :( The DM literally printed a ghostly version of our tokens to use "whenever we died" (YES the dog got one too)

[@ofirgurvits9172]

there is an event that is called march of the dead in the manual, it basically has a ton of ghosts walk from barovia village cemetery to castle ravenloft at night

[@williambaker7647]

@@Janedoe-rb2jw Also what happened to your barbarian at 0:41 ?

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

@@williambaker7647 at the beginning of our campaign, our barbarian/monk was trying to become... less unhinged? After a life of pillaging and violence. At that point of the animatic, hes still struggling w his guilt and anger. He did get better tho! To protect his friends 🧡

[@williambaker7647]

@@Janedoe-rb2jw Awesome thanks for explaining. Been looping on your video since i discovered it this morning, the song is a hit ;) If you can, can you tell us race / class of your group as displayed at 0:26 ? Sorry to bother ;)

[@anklebiter6577]

Just started a CoS game myself. Now I watch this video whenever I want to get into the right mindset for planning my games. I think this is brilliant, well done.

[@powerlessburger]

Same!

[@MyFoolMind]

I ran Curse of Strahd two times and want to do it a third time. I loved Ravenloft dearly ever since the early 2000s when I discovered the setting. Your video is not about any of the parties I got to know as we unfolded the pages together. And yet, somehow, it's all of them. Barovia is a cold place where fate, pain, grief, loss and ultimately healing and triumph and sun and laughter can prevail over the uncaring mists. Thanks for this video. You're amazing.

[@kahlzun]

Whats the deal with the 'Shh' character at 0:22? I dont remember that being in any of the artwork

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

Cause they're part of a painting in Death House that our DM made up! He basically filled the house of paintings/objects that had hidden creepy details, for example this one (my favourite) was a classic "hunting " scene, with dogs and hunters looking for prey outside the House. Upon closer inspection, we found the painting was filled with human figures hiding in the shadows, shushing the viewers as if fearing to be found out by the hunters After our first fight encounters in the house we went back to the painting, but now it depicted the dogs having umh. Found their preys I can promise you we were so creeped out after that! The death house was one of the (many) highlights of the campaign!

[@willmangrum3686]

@@Janedoe-rb2jw *Ahem!* Don't mind me. Just stealing that idea.

[@kahlzun]

@@Janedoe-rb2jw Looks like your DM changed a bunch of stuff. I dont remember anything about disappearing kissy ghosts or a soiree, or a giant water beast or (eggs?) that help the ravenfolk and the druids make peace.. somehow..

[@jeremiahsafford1389]

In other comments she said that the soiree is the Fidatov manor (from MandyMods guide to CoS). The eggs (?) are magic things making the wine grow, which the party "convinced" the Martikovs to hand over to a pacifist druid faction. No idea about the kissy ghosts or the water beast.@@kahlzun

[@KatjaCoder]

Damn I've watched this 6 times and I'm still getting chills every time. Currently dming curse of strahd and damn just inspires me to continue to try to make it an experience like this. - Also making me want to do an attempt at my own for a call of cthulhu campaign I've played in. You're work it amazing. Wow.

[@medievalkite]

Oh my gosh, I FEEL the emotional journey this party must have gone through with the way you animated this. WELL DONE. I need to do this for my games so bad....

[@rogerith7905]

Man, you just drop THIS? then bounce...what a legend

[@sivsi6598]

I love this so fcking much omg. the timing is fantastic and you manage to get the story across so well!! good vibes very epic I love it

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

how did you find this so fast 😭😭💕💖💕 tysm I was so afraid it would turn out an unreadable mess!!

[@sivsi6598]

@@Janedoe-rb2jw I am a magnet to your art and a fiend for animatics 😌😌 but fr though it’s so so good and *absolutely* readable! Makes me wanna get off my lazy butt and finish my own animatics 😭

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

@@sivsi6598 ; ; 🧡 and YESS I wanna see em

[@TheSkeletonVA]

From one Curse of Strahd DM to another, very good job on this! I look forward to seeing what else you release in the future for your next game!

[@Veledan]

This was so fantastic. I've been running CoS for almost two years (lots of missed weekends for our usually bi-weekly sessions, unfortunately.) and this so brilliantly fits the mood, the feel, the fucking *everything* that is CoS that I had to watch it a few times. It's just that amazing. Great work!

[@Athkore]

Really awesome. Meanwhile my Curse of Strahd experience: *Chaotic Stupid Intensifies*

[@Locyle]

Here i am watching this for the 7th time. You did a great job capturing the scenes/beats of Baorvia

[@welcometochiles6156]

did you just "hey you, you're finally awake" us with that intro?

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

PERHAPS

[@Captain_tiberius]

This is AMAZING! I love the artwork in every frame! I really want to know more about the character, they all looked like they had such flavorful personality's! and i'm dumbfounded by both the haunted mansion and elf parts! (i've read the module numerus times, and ran it once, but I'm trying not to use names for spoilers) just, dear god you made that look like it would have been such an awesome roller-coaster! I've gatta' show this to my group!

[@Kartorian]

Running CoS for the first time in 2 weeks! May or may not have come back to this for some visual references, ideas, and also just because it's a banger of a Barns Courtney song.

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

I agree! Plus in my opinion, fits the setting. Good luck with your campaign! Hope you guys have fun

[@Kartorian]

@@Janedoe-rb2jw Well so far it's a ballache. We haven't even had session 1 and the person (who I was primarily going to be running the campaign for) threw a wobbler when I asked them to change a minor backstory detail and is dropping from the game entirely without the slightest bit of consideration which is terribly rude. Everyone else is fucking cracking though and we're all really excited to play, and the potential absence of the party member appears to have left everyone largely unaffected. May end up looking in to doing something with my campaign once it's close to wrapping up too! The video is gorgeous and it seems like a little sweet treat to thank them for bearing with.

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

@@Kartorian oof, sorry to heaar about that rough start-- hope it gets better!

[@josephodonnell1727]

Having finished a 2 odd year CoS campaign a couple weeks ago this really captures the journey and death of innocence amongst me and my fellow party members. Great work!

[@katfoxwell3995]

This is beautiful. I know so little about the game because we never finished, and I know much less about the game you played, but this really made me miss my party and all the potential of that story.

[@thibautgayrel2573]

Given the sheer amount of comments, you probably will miss this one. But I wanted to thank you, as because of this video, I've started to learn drawing and eventho, I'm still far from your skill level, I'm having a blast. I probably wouldn't have done it without this wonderful animatic. So thank you very much for this piece of work !

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

oh my god you don't know how happy I am to hear that!!!! I really hope art and drawing will bring you joy🙏 No matter the skill level (I have so much to learn and improve still too! We are on the same path!) its such a wonderful and powerful thing, to create something new!! You made my day, thank you!!

[@paulhermann2956]

HOLEEE SHEEEEEEEET!! Now that looks like a Campaing I wanna be part of ! That was bloody great! Like from the animation/artstyle to the choice of music! well done Sir!

[@Manomana1]

I keep coming back to this animation is so good and well made

[@Lavenish]

Ikrr. I found this yesterday and have watched this 11 some times.

[@n.k.2662]

This has inspired me to run Curse of Strahd myself, after two failed attempts within my group (In the first try everyone met a grisly fate and the DM couldn’t continue running it because of work, the second attempt derailed pretty fast when the NPCs pledged their alliance to Strahd and wiped out a Vistani camp) and I can’t wait to use these two attempts to fuel a continuity and hopefully end the cycle. So far I have 8 special new NPCs and 5 special magic items in my version of Barovia, all inspired by the PCs of the last few attempts.

[@bobthebuilder4240]

I'm currently running CoS with my friends and I would just like to say how nice it was of you to make this for them. This I a beautiful peice of art and you should be proud of what you made. Well done!

[@bobthebuilder4240]

No need to like it. These are words from the heart. But thank you I enjoyed it. I hope you have a good day or night or whatever time it is where you are once again thanks for this masterpeice

[@dev5965]

I tried this campaign as a player, it didn't even last long enough to complete the introductive mission (the party split for external reasons) but out of each of the four sessions we played, each time at least one member of the party almost got killed, this happened with every encounter

[@HallowedKeeper_]

to be fair, the introduction (I'm assuming death house, though there is at least one other I can think of) is notorious for its Brutality (honestly the entire campaign is Brutal)

[@LadyLunarella]

love the artwork! ^^ and the song! currently my rogue has been kidnapped and taken to Strah'd castle while knocked out cold. so yes, damsel in distress. it doesn't bother me it's fun sometimes plus it makes me happy to see my friends come to my rescue.

[@MaskedArtist08]

I have played this every week before DMing my session of CoS for the past month or so. Absolutely love the animations, the downbeats with the music itself matching with the dramatic moments, the character designs, it's all so nicely done! There has to be a great amount of pride behind this masterpiece!

[@tom13stone59]

Cheeses Christ, that was beautiful. Almost cried (i did), well done! That's amazing how nice are the tabletop games as a source of inspiration for good stories (in my case it's Arkham Horror 2nd btw). Definitely waitng for more!

[@jamiejammydodger1174]

Bril. Given me a ton of inspiration to kickstart some new flavourings for Barovia. Love the attention to detail, song worked perfectly, art is stunning. U aced the characters (NPCs and the unique PCs). Well done!

[@pl1708]

I have been watching this so much purely because of how amazing it is and I felt like I should mention that my current DM for CoS started running our game because he was so inspired by this animatic! :)

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

thats great!! I hope you all have an amazing time

[@pl1708]

@@Janedoe-rb2jw Thank you so much! So far it's really fun :)

[@pl1708]

Update: Just finished the campaign today, it was the most fun I’ve ever had so on behalf of myself, my party and my DM I want to thank you so so much for inspiring it :)

[@jesnemo2677]

Randomly stumbled on this and just love the energy of the narrative…. And the song, DAMNNNN! Never heard it until then and promptly added it to my current PC’s “playlist” as it just defines him to the core. Thank you. xx

[@blakethornton5721]

I've probably contributed a couple thousand views on this video. It gives me chills! So well done! It's one of the things I watch to get inspired to work on art or campaign writing!

[@ArisuShinku]

I have no idea what was going on in the story, but I felt so many emotions. I am not even sure what to do with them. That was so good! I love it. Thank you!

[@dinner.25]

this is so damn cool. i love to see other people's CoS stories, and it seems like your guys' was seriously good.

[@ethangriffin3935]

Reminds me of an interesting thing that developed in the CoS game I participated in. I got DM approval to play a character who ended up in Ravenloft from the Dark Sun setting, and by the end of the campaign, he didn't want to leave the place, despite how horrific it was.

[@lb7945]

I have watched this so many times in the past week - this little animatic you've made is inspiring to run my own CoS game after my ttrpg group has finished their currently game. I wish I could like this video more than once!!

[@aggressivly_cries]

My party's run-through of CoS was so fun and emotional, and seeing how your party endured it as well brings me nostalgia. Our group was much newer to DnD at the time so we went through the story m u c h faster due to our... poor decisions, but I do recognize some events and I'm happy I can. This was beautifully animated and I love how you all played your story, absolutely beautiful.

[@innocentlyjaded]

Came from the CoS reddit and good lord, I'll be re-watching this for the rest of the day. THIS. IS. ABSOLUTELY. GORGEOUS. The song fits perfectly. And it looks like you had one intense campaign. I'm currently running CoS, I only hope it could be half as intense as yours was.

[@Pyre]

Had this in my favorites for a year, only just now realizing I never commented. I've never gotten to play Curse of Strahd. It's one of the only books where I won't even read it ahead of getting to play in it. And this... This animatic is everything I would want that campaign to be. I had a 5-year long game that was inspired by older Ravenloft among other things, and this video evokes all the same emotions I remember having while running it. And hope I was able to give my players. Thanks for this. 'Masterpiece', like others have said, is just about right.

[@Wakeywakeycornflakey]

I've watched this at least twice a month ever since I found this. It's that good

[@mx.fidgetful]

THIS LOOKS SO GOOD!

[@Imeno.awai.]

This video made me dm my own campaign of Curse of Strahd. I watched it after finishing the story as a player. Also the song is one of my favorite nowadays. Thanks a lot!

[@ZoisDucks]

how many times have you watched this in the past two years? Yes

[@jacquelynpack4258]

i love watching this little cinematic every once in awhile. i’ve played it about three times at this point and reading some of the comments about everyone’s campaigns is fun. one of my pc was an hexblade warlock (later made a pact with strahd and became undead warlock) who was able to go back in time and reverse some of the mess. now she’s the countess and while strahd acts a shadow ruler. another one was a barovian vengeance pally turned redemption who was turned to a dhampir by strahd (took a dip into warlock for the sunsword/sergei to be his patron too). :3

[@zachsimsphoto5344]

In the middle of playing this campaign. Every one is so different. Seems like you guys had a rough go of it. Also the music is mesmerizing. Love it. Great job.

[@warlock2507]

I don’t have the words for how good this is. I’m on the brink of tears every time I watch. Thank you for creating this

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

And I'm tearing up reading this!! Thank you for leaving this comment, it honestly made my day a better one

[@warlock2507]

@@Janedoe-rb2jw ❤

[@littlespiritdragon8098]

Yo this animatic is SO GOOD!? I love your artstyle, the character designs, backgrounds and the way you framed each shot! It looks so cool❤️✨

[@OmegaEnvych]

Wow! I felt it! I just started my own Strahd campaign with quite colorful party and can say, this is VERY good representation. I love it.

[@Pagewaster]

In the campaign of CoS I played in, my first character was a Wizard whose end goal was to defy mortality and become a god. As the campaign went on, he started to consider Strahd as a doorway to that, even meeting with him alone at one point. Then, a few months later, the character died a heroes death and was buried by the rest of the party. Fast forward to Strahd's tomb, the party opens his coffin and finds he's already been killed - because my Wizard had been resurrected as a vampire, and turned on Strahd. His end goal was to become immortal, so he turned into a lich and served as quite the interesting final boss. This wasn't unexpected either, my character only saw people as a means to an end, behind his knowledgeable and well-meaning façade, he was very cruel and narcissistic. I considered that a much more fitting end to the "Great and Powerful Zhorand."

[@ignatznagele1572]

This video is amazing but may i ask what that giant sea monster at 1:51 was?

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

It's an aboleth! I didn't really know while drawing the animatic, so it just looks like a generic sea serpent/monster, how it was described to me in-game

[@ignatznagele1572]

I was more confused because there was no sea monster in the book and i wanted to know if i missed something

[@Janedoe-rb2jw]

@@ignatznagele1572 no i think its homebrew! There was a lot of homebrew going on I think ahaha

[@ignatznagele1572]

Homebrow is great, in my campaign strahd in disguise just gave the players his animated armor disguised as a +2 plate mail. And when they corner him the armor will activate and it will immobilize/attack the one wearing it

[@ashleyhinckley1240]

That was incredible!! So well done! The music was a fantastic choice. I've watched this like 80 times already.

[@Morklle]

I love the final splash of color at the end to show how the world changed. That was amazing!

[@leosmith-moores1213]

I remember playing this campaign with my friends in grade eight, it's to this day still one of my favorite campaigns I've done, also the character I created for curse of strahd is the character I use to this day

[@MildRider1]

This was amazing, you absolutely nailed it, COS is such an emotionally charged campaign.

[@wulfrik2987]

You really need to post more, this was absolutely amazing. I dmed CoS a little while back, it went fairly normal. The party made it to the bug confrontation with Count Straud Von Zarovich, fough hard, but ultimately fell before him. It was an unfortunate TPK.

[@angrycanadiannerd8928]

God i've been obsessed with this animatic for days, you did such an amazing job

[@ianh1900]

As a two time Curse of Strahd DM this is beautiful and I love every bit of it. Well done! (Also very glad Strahd didn't get to kiss Ireena.)

[@pakunoduh]

Im about to start a strahd campaign with a bunch of people who have no idea what its about and this is such a perfect introduction to the setting, thank you so much for sharing your skills and journey with us!!!

[@boram1760]

This is amazing. I'm running CoS for my group currently and they have the Sun Festival scheduled for the next week... Good luck to them.