Don't end Curse of Strahd without watching this

[@Spooksmagoo]

Ah, the epilogue to the CoS game I played was a good time. My LE Sorcerer sat down and had a drink with the rest of the party, then told them to GTFO of Barovia, I'm the new ruler and I don't want to see you ridiculous jokers ever again.

[@christurner5791]

If a party member ever did that in my group they'd probably PVP that sorcerer so hard it was cool those "jokers" left and let them have that it was pretty nice of them ^^

[@Nemo12417]

How I would do it is, if Strahd is unable to reform and a suitable Darklord cannot be found in short order, Barovia collapses on itself. Anyone from outside Barovia is swiftly transported home, perhaps waking up in a empty field in their home world in a scene that asks as many questions as it answers. Shells cease to exist. They never truly existed in any case. Where it gets interesting is with people who had souls. Any person with a soul who had formed a strong connection with a person from the outside has the ability to follow them home. Otherwise, they depart for their respective afterlife (they've been reincarnating for so long that their souls would be akin to ash at this point).

[@darksev.6468]

...and then there's my players, who just so happen to all be from various Domains of Dread. Two of them are from Darkon and one of them is actually trying to save Darkon, and if I do this, she'll see the same happen to another world.

[@sjoerdhogervorst]

We played for about 5 years, bi-monthly and with a few months of break per year, but still, a huge investments from everybody. To reward my players I made a huge PowerPoint with art and music in the style of a baldur's gate ending movie. They loved seeing where everybody ended up and how the valley reacted to their actions, people that died or found new callings and how it affected Barovia. Loved the campaign ❤️

[@Harrison_stream]

"On average a year" *Profusely sweating*

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things.

[@DirkMcThermot]

My game only lasted 22 sessions. My group was rather small and we played about once a week, give or take a few times. So about 4.5 months in total. It varies wildly for different groups.

[@trofim9059]

@@DirkMcThermot jeez my group have had 25 sessions abd this is month #8

[@teabooksgirl854]

So I'm doing my Ireena a bit differently. I wanted her to have a full personality and identity, and I wanted to give my players some hints about her history with Strahd early on, so in my game she had nightmares about her past lives and how they ended. She just thought they were nightmares at first and didn't realize they were memories. When she got to the pool in Krezk, Sergei talked to her, and that convo + the water's holy properties unlocked her memories as well as her powers. (Inspired by Lunchbreak Heroes' idea of giving her stats at Krezk, I gave her some class levels in devine soul sorcerer.) So she knows who she is. She knows she is an old soul ... but she is also dating 1 of the pc's ... so she decided she wants 1 more chance to live without her life being cut short. So she will not just go give up her identity and fade into nothingness with a man she doesn't remember. If the pc's manage to find a way to defeat Strahd and get home, she will follow her pc girlfriend home.

[@szrene99]

In my campaign Ireena and Esmarelda started dating, and Esmarelda ended up being a reincarnation of Sergei. Happy ending for all

[@unhackerthelaziestbastardo6083]

That's the elite version of this.

[@theblaze5530]

Damn Ireena survived

[@Sam-sp4pt]

This channel is _way_ too underrated

[@diddly785]

Truth

[@Grimlore82]

It's up to us to spread the word.

[@primetimemonkyhours743]

I second this motion

[@pectelance5975]

My cos ended with strahd stuck in coffin and one of the wives alive and a party member dead in strahds crypt. Bride of strahd takes over read clouds turn purple with pink lightning and mists are also deep purple and she takes over with dead players character her body guard reverent. Now they want to go back around next Christmas to save them and I get to twist barovoa to a worse place under her rule. Oh and they never met Tatiana. Started from other side of map.

[@pectelance5975]

Dinner with strahd became end game push

[@xyphious]

Once again your timing is spot on. I’m 1-6 sessions away from the end (depends on the battle and what they do after). Thanks for helping me improve my game in such a massive way, it’s been a pleasure watching your videos and I will continue to do so

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thank you so much for watching!

[@dascientist8443]

You raise a good point with the issue of Irena's identity death. I feel like a less awful way to portray it is as her soul's memories returning, rather than her personality being overwritten?

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

I like the idea that her identities coalesce and she becomes more than the sum of her parts. We go over that in the PDF of Krezk over on Patreon (it didn't make it to KZbin).

[@WolfBerserker13]

That's closer to how it was played in my group. She didn't become less Irena, just more of herself. All the aspects of Tatyana that were returned were entirely in line with her established personality and even explained some of her little habits.

[@vonpepper3482]

I’m sad to see this series come to an end, but I enjoyed every step of the way

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

It's not over quite yet, and a new Ravenloft source book is coming out!

[@matttale7918]

I chuckled about the Ireena bit, who at WoTC thought that it was better for her to just ‘die’ and no longer be relevant to the campaign?

[@madmadame1508]

Thank you so much for putting the average end time. Mine went a little over a year and I thought I had accidentally dragged things out.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Nah, you're right on track. :-D

[@MijMike]

What about the part where Strahd inevitably comes back because the dark powers refuse to let him "die" and returns to his cycle once more?

[@Nethar6]

What kind of ending do my players deserve? Let's, see what they have done so far. The town of Barovia has been overrun by the Zombie plaque they could have stopped but didn't. They killed both the Baron and lady watcher leaving Valaki leaderless and in chaos. They stopped Wintersplinter but not yet the Hut so the Vineyard may be destroyed and the Wereravens scattered. They have been turned into Vampires, Werewolves, Fiends, and Revenants in Strahds service. They delivered Ireena to Castel Ravenloft where she is now held while they go on errands for Strahd. They do have the Symbol of Ravenkind and the Sunsword but are not confident that their 9th level party is up to facing Strahd again without another party wipe. However, by now they have wised up to bad things happening if they move on to grind levels without tying up loose ends. So now they debate whether they should leave the castle to explore the Abby or The Amber Temple and whether to break Ireena out risking the final confrontation with Strahd.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

They've either got a bad ending, or one hell of a redemption arc coming up.

[@Nethar6]

@@LunchBreakHeroes Seems like you called it with the bad ending. In the last Session yesterday my Players managed to take Ireena with them to Kresk where she was reunited with Sergi, that's the good news. The bad news is that they ended up fighting the Abbot, setting the Abby on fire, and unleashing panicked and crazy mongrel folk on the village. Now with all Human towns in the campaign effectively destroyed Strahd has called them to Castle Ravenloft to face his wrath. With only two Treasures and without the help of Van Richten (who refuses to help because they have become monsters under Strahds rule) they are marching to face an angry and prepared Strahd. Looks like we will wrap this campaign up in a session or two.

[@Nethar6]

@@LunchBreakHeroes To let you know how things ended after the Epic final fight against Strahd. The group made good use of the Sunblade, Bloodspear, Symbol of Ravenkind, Thighbone, and a custom magic item I choose to replace the mace of terror with. Fighting their way past Strahd's remaining lackeys and chasing him through the castle when he tried to retreat. After talking things over with each player this is on what they settled for their characters. Most did choose bitter-sweet to dark endings. Our Eldrich Knight who became a Vampire drained Strahds last HPs and is now the new Dreadlord of Barovia. Our mage who became a Revenant will remain in Barovia and study how to turn herself into a Lich since she would otherwise die when leaving the domain. Our Witchknight (3lvl hexblade/7lvl Oath of Vengeance) having embraced his fiendish tiefling heritage and fulfilled his oath of killing Strahd became a full-on Fiend and got dragged into the lower plains. Our Fight/monk used the last wish in the Wishblade to turn himself back from being Werewolf and left with Esmeralda to hunt other evils Our Ranger/Rouge choose to remain a werewolf in sync with nature and left Barovia heading into the Feywilds. All in all a very satisfying campaign, thanks for all the good ideas!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Sounds like great endings all around!

[@lokismischief2512]

We murdered the abbot for being a sketchy p.o.s. we killed lady Wachter, left Valaki to the mordikovs and secreted the Baron away with us to Barovia, leaving him at the sad inn in the middle. My traveling companion has discovered she used to he the hound of strahd. The Durnst manor stole our memories, so we were allowed to be who we hoped we are. We're trying our best, but i can feel the noose tighten on our necks.

[@joshuaschleich6277]

I literally JUST finished my CoS campaign, RIP me, lol.

[@ЭльмарСултанов-к7б]

gj dude!

[@MrImportantGuy]

How did it go? Did you enjoy it all the way through? :)

[@joshuaschleich6277]

It was a little stressful a couple of times, but other than that yeah, it was fun, and also my players had fun the whole time :)

[@trofim9059]

Oh my god... don’t tell me that you will stop doing these cos guides. You made these wonderful videos and huge impact on my games. I don’t know if you are the author of Buster the Bust but he is one of my party’s favorite characters. Thanks for this whole thing✨

[@InLiquidColor]

There was a new Ravenloft book announced today... So, maaaaaybe? ;)

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Oh we're totally going to continue with Ravenloft stuff. :-D And yes, I'm the author of Buster the Bust! I envy you folks who've gotten to play him--I have yet to do so!

[@trofim9059]

@@LunchBreakHeroes My group had experience of blowing up Ezmerelda’s wagon. They triggered wolves and ran away going back to the tower only a day after this. So buster help party convince Ez that they didn’t cause that explosion. If not him - they would have pissed off fated ally)

[@gmanyer68]

My party has a mongrelfolk they 'adopted' at the abbey carrying Buster around as a third head. The unlikely duo of Clovin II and Buster has become their favorite NPC.

[@InLiquidColor]

@@LunchBreakHeroes One of my parties meet Buster a couple sessions ago. He asked for their help as you outlined, but our Bard player actually wrote a fairly lengthy love poem tailored for Ez while the others investigated the tower. It was such good RP I gave it to them on the spot 🥰

[@humant3206]

I'm pretty early on in my campaign, but now with the new book coming out on the domains of dread, I think after we finish CoS, I will bring the party through a bunch of other domains in a homebrew campaign all the way to lvl 20, but I can still use this for a conclusion of CoS. Thank you so much for the vids, they've been very useful!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Glad we could help!

[@stephenfowler2301]

This is what I’m doing! My party is getting close to finishing CoS but I’ve been planting seeds that Strahd really isn’t in charge and someone else is pulling the strings (the dark power) one of my players is a twilight cleric of Mother Night and decided to make her the dark power. She’s getting more and more powerful and is going to break out of the shadow fell and take over the world so they’re gonna have to travel to several other domains of dread to find the Macguffin to save the world and stop mother night

[@Bishoptay]

Your first “sponsorship” was a complete success. Just saved the Kickstarter to notify me when it begins. Will definitely be getting a deck :)

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thank you so much!

[@itzybitzyspyder]

In the CoS I ran I turned Isek's hand I to a crawling hand that could throw fire. It tormented the group the ENTIRE campaign. It wound up being a contributing factor in the fight against Strahd since Isek was obsessed with Irena and so was Straud. The hand lent constant fire damage to the vampire lord. A other twist is that Strahd knew they were coming for him and had a false coffin (with a turned pc in it) while his real coffin was 6 ft under the loose soil with an ever smoking bottle opened in it.

[@ghostman1695]

I plan to end my game with Strahd leaving through a portal. I am also switching back and forth between this and the classic I10 module. The I10 characters will find out the other characters were their 400 yr old ancestors. I also plan to use the fane story from 3.5e version as well.

[@orwin5445]

I feel like this is perfect timing with the "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft" campaign setting just being announced. I hope to see your insights on that book and the setting collage contained within :D

[@cwinship]

I literally started my CoS campaign just this past Sunday, these videos were an incredible help in getting stuff set up and you deserve *way* more subscribers than you currently have!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thank you!

[@cwinship]

@@LunchBreakHeroes no, thank you! 😊

[@TheRepublic4]

Love the Video! Thank you so much, all of this content is great. As always your content is insightful and keeps ideas flowing that help me run a better game, me and my players thank you

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

You're so welcome!

[@connorsmith1005]

People sitting around making up stories, couldn't think of anything better :) Thank you for all your hard work. You've made my Strahd games truly special :)

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

My pleasure!

[@benhurmussulini529]

2.5 years here... Strad broke its own curse and madame Ewa became the new dark lord.

[@jmacroberts]

Just now finding your channel. Does Realm Smith ever give you any kind of shout out? They use A LOT of your ideas.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

We’ve talked, and he’s one of my patrons!

[@s.rnohbody3068]

2 of my players have a personal quest to rez a former PC character and the means to do so is in Barovia (via the Warlock's patron), so afterwards they might want to personally gather the materials instead of summarize it. and the 3rd PC had a meeting with the Lords' Alliance so she'll probably want to inform them y shes a few months late....so basically after CoS, I'mma have to figure out how they wanna deal with Barovia. Do they wanna help out and establish order before leaving or just straight gtfo. I await the day I can see what path they choose...should they survive the whole way

[@acheron1872]

I’m currently in a heavily customized Stormking’s Thunder game, I really wanna have a session/half-session to close it out as I’m a roleplay fiend.

[@brugernavnene]

You're truly the MVP

[@maxpark1339]

Nooooo is this the last CoS vid? I wanted one on a Vampyr bossfight

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

That's next (hopefully)! The Vampyr stuff is still in playtesting. It's taking a bit longer than anticipated.

[@chickeneverythingisfine9338]

Hey a good video idea would be to explain how to mix everyone’s backstory together at the beginning of the game like you mentioned at 8:44

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Already got you covered! kzbin.info/www/bejne/fXrRoYBtitV6pK8

[@chickeneverythingisfine9338]

@@LunchBreakHeroes YOOOO HOW DID I MISS THAT?!?

[@jesseperry9602]

Hey LBH, speaking of your Deck of Many Quests, is there any chance of a digital copy of it? My group and I have fully gone to virtual gaming, and I would love to have this as something I could just say, use as a deck on my Roll20 account. Even a PDF version would be nice. Thanks in advance!

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

A PDF version will absolutely be available!

[@jesseperry9602]

@@LunchBreakHeroes SOLD GOOD SIR!

[@MyRegularNameWasTaken]

This is so awesome! I really loved MandyMod's recommendations of fighting Vampyr, but the method behind it just didn't jive with me. I'm hoping when I get to the end of Curse of Strahd, the group will be in a position to run this as a better finale. otherwise I'm gonna have to tell them Strahd is reformed a few months later in the epilogue, which to me feels like telling them their efforts were fruitless.

[@Kendelise1]

I've loved this video series. Its been a big help as I run the campaign. Would you ever consider doing a video on the Fanes of Barovia?

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Likely not. I don’t use them, and there’s more official Ravenloft content on the horizon!

[@bunnybarbarian]

This is exactly what I was hoping for :) Also!!! What do you think about the announcement of Van Richtens Guide to Ravenloft? Think you're going to be doing videos on that when its out?

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

I'm stoked! And yes, we're going to continue Ravenloft content. :-D

[@bunnybarbarian]

@@LunchBreakHeroes Can't wait for expanded domains of dread stuff :))) Maybe a year from now or so im gonna run a reunion game for my CoS players using the book likely

[@connorsmith1005]

200 Quest Cards! Sign me up brother!

[@SellingSadness]

Warning you May read some spoiler so be aware. My draconic sorcerer(Red Dragon pyromancer) plans to become the new ruler of Barovia. She want's to eliminate any sort of racism and want to oblige all the people to accept each others. She plans to make all the living being in Barovia to live all togheter in harmony (Vistani, mongrefolk, wereWolf, wereraven, human ecc...) No diversity Is allowed any more and no more violence... Who don't accept this Is goning to suffer and become an exemple for everyone. She's become very close to Ireena, Esmeralda, vasilka(the master make her a golem with Wish and dreams, but vasilka knows that people become scared of her and want to kill her at sight). and my character found a friend of her background Transformed into a werewolf. So Ember the draconic sorcer want's to create a Place where her friend can be accepted and live happily. And She Will do that at any cost

[@studioshadowcross]

My player bullied me into running this adventure. Even if it is the best adventure written over all 5 editions (6 if you include HackMaster), I will always hate it.

[@dutch6857]

So with souls and shells. If shells are only animated by the will of Strahd, but if shells are actual biological beings (they need nourishment, they are able to procreate, etc., etc.), what happens when the strings are cut? Should Strahd die, the sole mainspring of 90% of Barovia would be removed and as these Barovians are physical flesh and blood, what would happen? The ploughman behind the ox, the maid at her loom, the child fetching water would all suddenly no longer be animated. And by four days later... With not enough of the living to bury the dead... Under the newly re-emerged sun... The stench. Followed by the pestilence. But this is more gross-out/body horror than gothic horror. Which is a big reason why I wouldn't use shells, but the main reason would be to give Barovians a weariness. They have all been through this 7 or 10 times. They know that their lot is not going to change.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

RAW, I think, they disappear. I’m not a fan of them existing based on Strahd. They’re real people, and will continue to exist. They’re just full and soulless, thanks to the vestiges’ insatiable hunger

[@dutch6857]

@@LunchBreakHeroes Just re-read the epilogue. They "Fade into nothingness" (disintegrated?) if they step beyond the valley, so your take of Strahd merely being the conduit for the vestiges' power lines up really well. I, myself, still don't care for the soulless Barovians thing or see how they further the narrative in any meaningful way. My 5 cents. (Canada discontinued the penny)

[@adpayne91]

Color me curious, are there any HP tabletop game videos?

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Not from me, but I’m sure there’s something out there!

[@cthomashand]

This channel is beautiful.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Glad you think so!

[@lildemon6816]

Yes! Like number 500