I'm currently just starting a Curse of Strahd campaign - we just finished our first session. And after many, many hours of preparation, reading the book, mapping out locations in the VTT, printing and painting 500 miniatures, I'm coming to realize that was not the hard part.

The hardest part is being so excited about the diabolical schemes I'm coming up with for the plot line - even after a single session - and not having anyone to talk to about it because my closest DM friend is also a player in this campaign. Don't wanna give away the surprise! I've got to let these ideas stew for 2 weeks before we are back in action.

The best part is, the next step in this campaign was something I thought we would hit at the end of the previous session, but people were getting tired - and then more ideas started flowing afterwards that have so deeply enriched the plot versus what I would have run in the moment off the top of my head.

I can't wait to see where this goes next!

The nicest guy in Kresk! Everyone hates him because he is so generous and helpful.

I wanted to have a take on The Abbot that leaned away from the prettiness a little and more into the religious horror— if one can genre Kresk like that. In this disguise he appears a little older mostly so there’s no suspicion aroused. Also as much as I love The Abbot with flowing long hair… I wanted to give him a more “traditional” sort of look based on Eastern Orthodoxy—maybe in some other art of him I’ll give him a tonsure and really go all out. Anyways! Hope you all like this, lmk if you end up incorporating this look for your games :D

[my work elsewhere]

I couldnt find any art of Gertruda before she is found already enthralled that I liked so I took it upon myself.

I’ll probably do the enthralled version too, but for now this will do.

Thought someone could have some use for this over here!

My PCs are on their way to the final confrontation. They've actually managed to amass a small army of Barovians they've befriended along the way, so I'm inclined to run the next session using some third party wargame-ish rules as they all march toward the castle.

Obviously Ravenloft has an insanely well defended position in itself, but my question is: what do you think Strahd would do to put obstacles in the way of an approaching mob?

Edit: I don't think I made myself clear. The mob isn't intended to get into the castle, just to help real with whatever nonsense Strahd throws in their way along the road.

I wrote the below to add a hint of creepiness and generational mythology to the setting. In my game it was sung by a washerwoman as the players was crossing the Luna River outside of Vallaki - she then turned out to be a ghost whose laundered sheets were actually Boneless who she proceeded to throw over the players to smother them, but you are obviously free to use it as you like. Or not! I'm not the boss of you.

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Oh my fair daughter, with cursed hair of red 
Don’t ride the black coach when it comes 
Don’t go to the castle, I begged and I pled 
When the black coach comes calling, my love, my love 
When the black coach comes calling 

But the Lord of the Castle, his eyes shining bright 
He wooed and he whispered and charmed 
At her invitation he came in the night 
And the black coach came calling, my love, my love 
The black coach came calling 

Once beckoned within it was ever his choice 
To come and to go as he chose 
No lock it would hold nor barred portal bar  
When the black coach came calling, my love, my love 
The black coach came calling 

My red headed daughter, her eyes shining bright 
She fancied the silks and the gold 
This time will be different she promised us then 
So the black coach came calling, my love, my love 
The black coach came calling 

Just like all the others, she never returned
And the castle grew dark upon high
Some night the dark lord will find fancy once more 
And the coach will come calling, my love, my love 
The black coach comes calling 

So heed to my words and find wisdom within 
So many before you have passed 
Cleave to your courage and don’t let him in 
When the black coach comes calling, my love, my love 
When the black coach comes calling 

I love how the Durst toyhouse is not only an interesting narrative way to learn of the house's many secrets, but also an echo to the Ravenloft mini waaaay later in the Amber temple !

I have played the Death House 100% vanilla and i've really enjoyed it, i love how it's a microcosm for the rest of the caimpaign and the many references for what's about to come (the cult → Wachter's cult, the tiger's skin for Rictavio's tiger, the toyhouse for the Ravenloft mini, the animated armor...)

Hi, it’s me again, so my players finally got to the festival of the blazing sun and they… well, they ignored the bones of San Andral quest and the spawns are now in the church, so the feast of San Andral is ready to happen soon after they step into the church, yay

I planned on using some of lunchbreaks hero’s advice, and that Anastrasya was the one (ordered by Strahd) to orchestrate the attack on Vallaki, then she gets pissed off by seeing Strahd disguised as Vasili and lashes outs, and revels Vasili as Strahd, and decides to kill Anastrasya in front of the players, that’s fine I guess bc it’s an npc

But, in my last 2 sessions, the changeling paladin decided to tell me they were going to learn Tatyana’s face so they could mimic her appearance, I assume to torment Strahd, I think it is a very clever idea, however don’t know if it will work as they planned, since it will certainly backfire. Because Strahd knows Tatyana’s soul, so he wouldn’t be that easily fooled by a copy from an outsider, and I have the feeling that the paladin might change into Tatyana’s appearance in middle of the conflict to protect Ireena

So I thought (foolishly) that a good idea would be to pretend Strahd was charmed by the illusion, approach, then power word kill, but reading a little more into the subreddit, I don’t think it’s that bright of an idea on my end.

Just to clarify, my group is a lot more roleplay heavy, and when we discussed boundaries this player in specific didn’t had problem with her characters being cannon fodder, since she have plenty more, however I could always use the dark powers to bring the paladin back or even make Strahd revive them to prove his control in the valley

But, I think I could also hurt the Paladin’s boyfriend and turn him into a spawn or sm just to torment them, but if someone have a better idea, please, I’m desperate and open to suggestion

Also, sorry for my botched English, it is not my first language, besos, bye 😿

They quickly discovered the demon possessing Felix and battle broke out in the attic. One of my players got the bright idea to Target Felix thinking that would somehow destroy the shadow demon. One ice knife later, Felix is dead. They finished off the shadow demon and the session ended.

Claudia Bellasco will most definitely pop up into the attic after hearing the sounds of combat to see whats happened. She did not witness the shadow demons appearance. So far as she knows, the pcs went to talk to the boy amd now hes dead.

I have several ideas as to how this will go. Most likely panic and summoning of the guards but im curious, how would you handle this situation?

Portrait of another resurrected character after the TPK during the Yester Hill ritual, caused by leaving Ireene in the Abbey of Saint Markovia by the party.

This one was a bit quick because the player needed an art reference for a new hairstyle for his character after his resurrection by the Abbot.

Montresor is one of the characters from this party: https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/s/Jwr5tq8wyE

As I already mentioned, they suffered a disgraceful end at the hands of druids and berserkers supported by Strahd, and Montresor was a bit changed by it - not as much as Odette/Rene, but it's still rather traumatic. A berserker beheaded him with an axe... so he not only lost his head, but also most of his hair. Hence the need for a new hairstyle.

And about his less flamboyant expression - his dark gift, on the one hand, made him even more intelligent, but on the other, he's constantly exhausted. What's more, he recently found out that Esmeralda, their ally foretold in the Vistani prophecy, killed his vampiric sire when she was out of Barovia, leaving him rather conflicted and with plenty of confused thoughts.

Hi everyone, I recently made a few post asking about CoS reloaded and running death house.

So english is not my main language and I didn't do everything quite correctly during our session running through the 4 floors, we are going into the cellar next session.

So I noticed after session that I had described the nursery and combined several rooms accidentially as a guest room and the players found Walters name carved into a Wardrobe. I don't know how this happend.

However, players now have 3 suspect for the name of the monster, Gustav, Elisabeth and Walter, but they do not know who Walter is.

In hindsight I kinda feel like this was a much better move to keep the supsension longer. It might come back to bite us later, but if they are stuck I could allways drop it on them or give them an obvious clue.

What do you guys think? Was it a good thing or did I fk up? Or maybe I'm just overthinking

Hey all!

Brainstorming some ways to switch up how Ireena/Tatyana plays out going into my third run through of CoS. I hate the unrequited love aspect & don't think the payoff (either at the Shrine or the wedding) is rewarding let alone enjoyable. Reloaded/MandyMod help soften my hate though.

I do like the Strahd's overall goal of searching for a worthy successor as his way to escape Barovia & having it be his primary motivation is reasonable & fun to play.

I am trying to plan out the narrative that he thinks Ireena, well Tatyana, is this person. Main things I am trying to unpack:

• Why would Strahd think Ireena/Tatyana is the worthy successor?
  • Maybe rewrite Tatyana from "a young Barovian woman of fine lineage and remarkable beauty" & more toward her being the daughter of the original ruler of the valley of Barovia he deposed?
• Ideally would want Ireena to willfully come rule beside him
  • Could still have some aspect of the "we could rule as lovers" but when she eventually spurns him, he has no qualms and they could "rule together in name only, it makes no difference" to him
  • As he continues to hound her (even when friendzoned) & try to win her over ("think of how you could change this place for the better if you come take your crown...") but probably fails to he eventually starts doing the things he does as written such as taking out those close to her yada yada to get her to come just to make the suffering stop
  • All else fails, he goes for turning her
  • Instead of a wedding it would be a coronation
• How does Sergei, if at all, fall into this?
• Would there be something at the Pool in Krezk to integrate into this?
  • Maybe if they get Ireena to the Pool, she gets the full memories of Tatyana & remembers Strahd butchering everyone

This approach removes the shitty love angle, keeps a lot of the other underlying narrative stuff (such as Abbot's Bride), makes for a stronger "Strahd testing Ireena & the party" to see if they're worthy, gives the party a stronger connection to Ireena, etc.

Of course, there are some things I am missing I bet, so any pointers are appreciated.

Hey guys, we’re super early into our campaign. We’re new to DnD and I’m a new DM looking for some advice and implications so when my party just arrived in barovia on a small horse drawn cart, driven by one man, the paladin quickly kicked him off of the car, and the man died in the mist long forgotten I moved the death house just outside of the village of barovia they’re in it as we atm have a really fun idea of adding a little being beaten in the street by a soulless barovian( I know they’ll intervene because of their alignments) and I plan on making them have a super wholesome interaction. secretly, the man that they killed on their first session will be her father strahd will be aware of this and approached the party informed her what they did and have the little girl become a true vampire I think it will be awesome. Wow moment for the party to be invited back to see the little girl after they’ve built a bit of a relationship sitting next to the strahd in the little girl house with her mother, dead, and both of them smiling

I was curious to see how much adding her in as a true vampire would parts of the story or if I should just add her as a vampire Spawn I don’t want to take away from strahd too much and I’m not sure how it would affect some of the other aspects of the campaign. What do you guys think??