Curse of Strahd Review and DM Overview

[@monkasaurus]

This whole playlist has been such a HUGE help!!! This book has a lot of story lines and this made it so much easier to keep track of everything! Thank you so much for making these!

[@NoFunAllowed]

thank you and no problem!

[@thesupergeek]

Hey dude, I just gave you a shout out on the subreddit. This video series is the magnum opus of DM help for this module. So, so helpful. Tons of information, well presented, no fluff, I will be watching those over and over. I just joined your Patreon. I can't tell you how much this has helped me as a brand new DM that was struggling to put all the stuff in the book into context.

[@NoFunAllowed]

thank you so very much!

[@KosmiDeath]

Really glad I found this series because I'm a first time dm and I'm running a group with 6 players :'D I didn't realize the amount of work I was in for until I opened the book and it was overwhelming But your breakdown seems to make everything feel coherent so I'm off to watch the rest of your videos for CoS!

[@NoFunAllowed]

haha thank you! theres a ton to go over, thats why I wanted to dissect every little area to make it more consumable!

[@bladesinger2002]

I just wanted to drop in and say how much I have enjoyed this series. I was just thinking to myself as I was considering running this module how nice it would be if someone who has already ran it really broke it down, and provided a series of "how to run this module" as part of the prep. Yours was not the first I visited, it is probably the third, but it has been by far the BEST that I have found. Subscribed and already looking forward to your other module reviews and overviews... but first I have to finish this one!

[@NoFunAllowed]

Thank you so much! I am still pushing out some curse of strahd content, but also pushing out plenty of other campaign guides!

[@bladesinger2002]

@@NoFunAllowed I see that. I just finished up the playlist for this series as it stands and have moved on to some of your other content while I deliberate on what to add to this campaign to flush it out to what my players will enjoy the best. Keep up this amazing work!

[@NoFunAllowed]

@@bladesinger2002 thank you and will do!

[@sneakybutcher9782]

Really glad I found this channel, lots of great tips, thanks for putting in the time and effort. I’m about to start CoS in a few weeks as a fairly new DM, so a little nervous, but have decided to start it from the Western side of the map where the players will encounter the mist and the gates of Barovia as normal before finding the corpse of Dalvan Olensky and dealing with the wolves. Strahd will make an appearance here but stay out of the fight and won’t reveal himself (shadowy figure in the mists that vanishes to give them something to worry about and give the sense of being watched. He might even fire off a few low level spells like Message or Cause Fear just to mess with the players heads from the get go). From here, the party encounters Krezk as the first settlement. The module never mentions where the 3rd Wizards of Wine gem is so ive decided to place a Herbalist/Alchemist shop in Krezk where the land around it is unnaturally fertile for growing ingredients, despite the harsh environment, which is due to the gem of course. The Herbalist is going to be some messed up individual who is secretly working with the Abbot to brew concoctions for experimenting on the Mongrelfolk but who knows where this will go? Another idea was to have Ireena, once found, have flashbacks or memories of her former reincarnations like Tatyana for example and throughout the adventure steer the players if they get stuck. I also like Lunchbreak Heroes idea of having a conspiracy web on the wall scene in Van Richtens Tower and I’m thinking this might be the eventual home base for the players once they find Van Richten and Ezmarelda so they can store loot, have a safe place to sleep and plan their next move. I’m pretty excited to see how it all goes.

[@NoFunAllowed]

Awesome stuff! It sounds like your off to an incredible start!

[@MrDpwilson333]

Wow, where has this channel been all my life? GREAT STUFF!!

[@NoFunAllowed]

the channel is only 11 months old haha!

[@Boondoggle_Mollywop]

As a new viewer getting ready to run CoS, thanks for organizing your Playlist. I'm gonna go through listening to them all while prepping, and I've been given confidence by your attention to detail thus far.

[@NoFunAllowed]

heck yeah! you got this!

[@Discourteouscuttlefish]

I'm so glad you have this series!! I found you when I started waterdeep dragon heist and then wild beyond the witchlight and then when i was going to start CoS i was like, god i sure hope he has a guide for this one. All your guides are absolute gold and i appreciate the work you put into them

[@ademiranda2]

The way I am running Strahd this time is by doing a "low and slow" cook. It took a whole three hour session to play out the adventure hook "Mysterious Visitors". We ended up with them being pushed by the fog into a dead forest and them having an encounter with a starving wolf pack at the end of the session. They have not even arrived at the Eastern Gates yet. In contrast, I just started a different campaign as a player where we all appeared in front of the Durst Manor at the beginning of the session with no hook other than one moment we were somewhere else and the next we appeared in front of the house (the DM skipped all the hooks in the book). It was a two hour session and we have already explored the first two floors. Although that was a fun session to play, I prefer slowly introducing the players to the demi plane of Barovia, building tension slowly to make it scarier.

[@NoFunAllowed]

horros a hard and unique thing to pull off!

[@AuntLoopy123]

I'm running it now, and my party is in Death House (herded there by The Mist, before they are allowed to go anywhere else. I mean, it FORCED them there). I told them, every time they look out the window, that there are skeletal hands in the Mist outside. Sometimes, they are making rude gestures. One time, the hands were playing Cat's Cradle with a loop made of braided hair, the color of that character's hair, and when the PC felt their hair, they noticed a CHUNK was missing, at the right side of their face. Once, a PC went out onto the balcony, and the mist was there, and the skeletal hands GROPED THEM. They felt no physical touch, but just COLD, where they were groped. They are FREAKED OUT by the Mist. One PC actually joined late, and was "yoinked" into the world, by the mist. Creating the character quickly, since they just showed up to the game in progress, they decided that "I HATE THE MIST!" as a character trait, and later, during a private "Session 0" with them, they decided that they witnessed their own parents being taken by the same Mists. But, because their child was only six, and was so close, the parents struggled against the Mist, rather than going into Barovia, so the child basically witnessed the Mist exhausting their parents to death. They now have an actual phobia against mist, in general, and want to stop the Mists of Barovia, permanently. And it all started with a throwaway "I HATE THE MIST!" after seeing the skeletal hands in the mist doing stuff. I LOVE D&D!

[@XxFarrinxXv2]

Dude this is such a good idea for a channel. I'm excited to see your channel blow up. Good luck man.

[@NoFunAllowed]

haha thank you!

[@FearZoo]

This was very helpful and deserves way more views.

[@Matexde]

Gonna run it as a DM for the second time, with new players to my club. Gonna use the DMsguild companion and I love it. I have the original AD&D module home as well as its sequel "House on the Griphon Hill" I may plan to adapt too. Big and nice project.

[@kyostituominen]

We started CoS campaign but unfortunately never finished (my brother was player and he had to move to another city etc.). I remember the fight at the Old Bonegrinder and how the characters finally won the hags. The final blow against Morgantha was a crit and they shoved her head first in the oven. (not unlike Hansel&Gretel story)

[@NoFunAllowed]

haha very thematic. hopefully you can get another game going of it, online is always an option!

[@jeanf5056]

This video was super helpful ! I'm gonna watch the whole playliste before I run the module ! Thank you !

[@NoFunAllowed]

thank you so much!

[@bytecode5834]

Fantastic video, thanks for sharing the gift!

[@anthiondel]

One big thing I did was I pumped Strahd's statblock because a lvl10 party can wreck him up as-is, so I gave him all wizard spells up to lvl7 and a few magic items. Will let you know how the final fight goes

[@NoFunAllowed]

heck yeah! the guys been unalive for this long, he might as well have spent some time studying haha. curious to see how your fight goes!

[@markgonzalez107]

How did it go? I'm so tempted to do this since the group i'm currently running is massive.

[@NoFunAllowed]

@@markgonzalez107 If you want to give a challenging final fight, you have to either bump Strahds stats up, throw in more minions into the fight, or maybe even both!

[@marca81]

Oh yeah. I tripled his Hp, increased his AC to 24 and gave him access to up to level 8 spells. I will have 8 level 10 characters to entertain, so we have to keep them guessing and continue to be afraid of him. Despite all their abilities and artifacts used against him he can still use pretty much any and every wizard spell in the book and make dure you take advantage of the contingecy spell. 😈

[@NoFunAllowed]

@@marca81 that'll be one heck of a fight haha!

[@ARodriguez258]

I am on the verge of finishing my CoS campaign thanks to this helpful video series and I'm curious if you have done similar videos for other modules? Especially Descent into Avernus?

[@NoFunAllowed]

I've covered Tomb of Annihilation, Rime of the Frostmaiden, Waterdeep Dragonheist, Curse of Strahd, Candlekeep Mysteries, and Wild Beyond the Witchlight!

[@marca81]

Since I have 8 badass players who are almost done with the Durst Manor, I believe they have earned a short audience with Lord Strahd. He is very impressed with their resilience and fortitude in ridding Barovia of such a dishonored and cursed family lineage. He is forever grateful and will offer the party a meal that has been prepared and laid out as a picnic outside the gates of Barovia. There, his Simulicrum will speak with them and thank them for their noble deed. He'll make some small talk and then cast mass suggestion to bring Irena to his castle....what happens from there is where the fun begins. If they attack...the Illusion us revealed as the Simulicrum deteriorates with each hit. Of course it will not attack but laugh insidiously until completely destroyed. If they are fooled and all charmed then they have Irena and Ismark to deal with...

[@NoFunAllowed]

Awesome stuff! A very memorable entrance for this dastardly villain!

[@marca81]

Would it be too much to incorporate dream pastries into the picnic?

[@NoFunAllowed]

@@marca81 haha not at all!

[@JackJester21]

So I started this module once, then my players and I switched to a different campaign. We're making plans to go back to ravenloft now and I made them write new characters because what's left in barovia becomes part of barovia. Oneplayer decided to take over the church in the village of barovia and now his character is going to be their first boss fight.

[@NoFunAllowed]

Haha awesome stuff!

[@Janshevik]

Do you have an idea how to expand the adventure with Van Richten guide to Ravenloft book with other domains?

[@NoFunAllowed]

For sure! You could have the party arrive to a new domain of dread after beating strahd, or add some of the awesome cities to the land of barovia!

[@Janshevik]

@@NoFunAllowed or even during the adventure. But this would not make their lives easier at all.

[@darrenskeeter4246]

Last time I was a player in this, we had a tpk early on. Now that im gonna gm it, if we tpk again, im planning on having the PC souls recycle and their next characters are born in barovia to try again

[@patriot639]

Oh to be a player. The curse of DMhood.

[@navarrjenkinz]

I don’t know if you could reply to this, but should I play the chapters in linear order for the most part or is it all sorta intertwined?

[@ryleymarquis8569]

I’m thinking about starting my characters off at 3rd level. Aside from death house are there any other short modules or stories you would recommend? Something that would lead directly into CoS

[@NoFunAllowed]

I have a list of some, and i'll write them down later! (supes busy at the moment) i'll come back and post them in a day or two!

[@NoFunAllowed]

From official 5e: Sunless Citadel could have the finale be tied with vampires and barovia. The Curse of Strahd Adventurers League content is also an awesome intro. Homemade Content: Starting the adbenture with the party joinin other adventurers on a wolf hunt that leads them into the mist is a classic way to kick off the campaign!