HOW TO PLAY CURSE OF STRAHD (Part 3: Barovia Explained)
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- Опубликовано: 26 ноя 2024
- wow that's one detailed map
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Everyone’s a gangsta until they hear: “It is not a cat. It is a person saying ‘meow’.”
The Stella encounter broke me as a DM as I needed to convince my players, that a girl went this crazy, because a boy she despises, said "unkind" words to her and I couldn't come up with an explanation on how this would work.
They first thought he cursed her and was lying to them, when he said he was just very mean to her after they smuggled him out of Vallaki beforehand (to the Vistani camp, so that he could marry into their group and so leave Borovia) not knowing that he killed 2 of the servants and later confronted him again.
Player 1: Insight - Nat 20
Me: Yeah, he says the truth.
Player 2: What the hell did he say to her!?
DM: How should I....wait a second..."Victor grabs a piece of paper writing it down, as he does not want the Vistani to hear it, still hoping that he can leave with them Borovia. He hands you the folded piece of paper." Do you want to read it?
Player 1: Yes!
DM: Roll me a Wisdom Saving Throw!
Player 1: Nat 1....
DM: You suffer from Indefinite Madness (like Stella): "I am the smartest, wisest, strongest, fastest, and most beautiful person I know."
Player 1: That is my opinion anyway....
DM: Maybe you should contemplate that for a second then...(*mumbling* I should have just melted her face like in "Raiders of the Lost Ark")
@@TheTrueLeafless I like how the MMO Dungeons and Dragons Online handled this. They alter her backstory a little: Victor doesn't just reject her, but potentially attempted one of his magical experiments on her, and that's what drove her mad.
@@TheTrueLeafless I made it that the son of the mayor was learning to become a wizard and was as cruel and stoic as Strahd or a serial killer. He was arranged to marry her and enjoyed torturing her and practicing his magic on her and then mind wiping her at the end.
Because he's not a good wizard, every time he wiped her mind it broke a little bit until she went completely mad.
For anyone doubting how detailed Castle Ravenloft is, I am here to inform you of the fact that there are 8 full pages describing the crypts in 1 room. 40 separate crypts, each with unique inscriptions and contents.
I've always thought of Strahd as an angry DM who has had enough of his players bs
- he railroads them to a land that they can't escape.
- he plans his every move to bring as much pain to the characters as possible.
- he makes really unfair and difficult encounters.
umm, just run away? its saved my PCs life more than i can count, although i seem to be lacking any party members since the ghouls ate them all...
Natasel im refering to the deadly combats, not the demiplane of dread itself
@@piemaniac9410 You have players with enough sense to run away? You lucky bastard!
Erik Gaillard oh no, I ran away, the other players played hero though
@@piemaniac9410 Welcome my brotherly soul of running away.
One of my favorite times of playing COS, the DM actually made one of the players the reincarnation of Ireena. Having played through the adventure before, it confused the hell out of me why the DM hadn't introduced her in the first town, but oooh boy, did that make for a terrifying first encounter with Strahd. it went from an invitation to dinner, to he insisted that everyone stay the night (which of course was a big f-ing nope.) This led to almost 2 sessions of trying to escape first from the castle, and then from the area surrounding the castle. I really can't say that this worked better than just introducing Ireena, but it was a really cool start to the adventure.
@Natasel nope just a human female paladin.
@Natasel I think the DM was playing it as if the dark powers were granting the paladin their power, but only if the felt like it. multiple times the DM had powers and spells not function for both the cleric and Paladin, and one of the times, the effect was completely reversed (oh god that was horrifically gory.)
We secured his ass until we cured him
CSP baby, it was one of the highlights, honestly I think I played a Cinnamon-bun paladin that you had to murder because you couldn’t make him stop having hope only I had played an OotA Pal with no idea they were so crazy tanky, also had the UA Diplomat feat so I kept encouraging hope into everyone; 😅 I think I kind of broke the DM
I'm running this game for my friends, but when I did the first tarroka reading to have an idea of where things are (before the players got to any of the in game card readers) I got really unlucky. Two of the items are in Strahd's castle, one is in Strahd's throne room (sunsword), which also so happens to be the place the cards said Strahd will face them. The players make the joke that he's literally sitting on it.
Make him do so. Make him litterally keeping the blade sealed under some kind of throne or altar. It can make the fianl battle fun, as the party will desperately try to reach the sealed container and Strahd try to stop them.
I'm playing Strahd with the character angle of him being spoiled and undisciplined as a child, so I'm giving him douchey adult tendencies commonly seen in kids. Him sitting on it would totally work in my game xD
@LongshotASF-- So that means(in your game, at least) that Strahd either had someone go get the two items, knowing that the current set of Adventurers would be looking for them(since he knew they'd be arriving sometime due to the Vistani guide he sent) OR they were on the bodies of the last group he killed, so he collected them like any other PC(which the book reminds you of). Doesn't mean that he USES any of it, just that he's still a bit of a Pack-rat from his adventuring days....
@@johnnysizemore5797 I imagine Strahd being so cocky and confident that he would hang the Sunsword on the wall directly behind his throne, just like "you can have it, if you get past me"
@@piemaniac9410 Yeeeeeessss, he's such a little shit so he would do that xD
One of the hooks I did for one of my players was they received a letter from their late husband, telling them they were alive and in Barovia, written in his handwriting but not his style of writing.
At the gallows, instead of the corpse of a player, I put the corpse of the husband. :v To the other players it looked like a random Barovian, but to that one player it looked super familiar. I think it wound up being more dramatic that way. :v
Adds a bit of horror to the mix, good job
Omg thank you for that idea I love you
:v
Ok silent hill
I bless you, fine human reading through the comments. You'll need it in Barovia...
He is the Ancient.
He is the Land.
And you... are trespassers.
And may the Morninglord guide you.
*Strahd laughs in the distance*
Thank you kind wizard.
When we did the windmill, our lawful good Triton fighter ran in seeing the hag drag a crying child and we all followed in. Me being a low level human wizard, my spell attack rolls were crap.
So I ended up beating one of the hags to death with my quarterstaff.
Our goliath barbarian was so proud of me.
The ally card doesn't mean you can't get everyone to be an ally and fight Strahd in the castle. It just means they definitely will join you and can use their action to inspire a character.
I really love that the story of curse of strahd is determined by the players: I just wish that us players hadn’t been so incredibly bad at telling a story that the DM sort of gave up
My joy with strahd was the creative in which to use him. I played Strahd rules as written, it's very surprising just how dangerous this guy is when you read his stat block carefully (he is almost laughably invincible).
I ran him as a rich pompous prick who thinks everyone loves him. I took one part of his stat block and pretended he wasn't aware of it, thinking himself naturally charming. It was way more awesome playing him this way and forcing my players to greet him as a friend. Strahd spent all the time believing that nobody wanted to leave Berovia because how great he was. Until they nailed him in his coffin and dropped him in the waterfall.
Nice. Love the creative and yet kind of mob feel to it.
In our game I was a paladin and he’d gotten the lightsaber and went all *Return of the Jedi* the moment he came out a wall, there was a crit and a full smite involved. His squire had just been kill by Strahd that morning in a call lightning attack, and that was when things got scary real. He stopped joking, he stopped talking he just marched up to castle Ravenloft with the intention to finish him. Didn’t actually get the kill, but DM said I destroyed the heart round one and that basically put him in a panic the rest of the thirty seconds he got to live.
.. My party went guns blazing into the bonegrinder at lvl 3... Even though I warned them as much as I could... They managed to kill Morgantha, almost all went unconscious (one player died) while the hags were chasing them down, before they gave up and went back to save their mill that the players set on fire. But hey, they managed to recover the Sunsword, so that's neat.
What happened to the children in there?
@@UmekCrafter .. They're in a better place, for now..
… For now…
Don't worry the children will be back in due time
*This and your how to play series is honestly my favourite content on the site at the moment*
Can we get "How to Play Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus" next?
I dont think he has ran Avernus as much as he has Curse Of Strahd, I think he's mostly making these based on his own experience
He’ll probably do Dragon Heist next
My character gained permanent spiderwalk at the cost of an extra unblinking/never seeing eye on her tricep. Neat curse.
My character gained truesight at the cost of his eyes, and looking terribly disfigured.
His character flaw was "I can't resist a pretty face" so there's that.
If you ever see this comment, thank you for making these, Jacob. I'm running CoS for the first time and Barovia is...a lot, so having things broken down into slightly more digestible pieces helps.
I'm hosting my second session of CoS in like 30 minutes, thanks so much for uploading this fast! I'm nervoussssss
We need a video for Castle Ravenloft, it's one of the most famous dungeons in D&D's history!
Love the suggestion for the allies, took that approach when I ran a small party (3) through CoS. Actually lead me to taking a different ending with most of the NPCs, and I can happily say a few are recurring characters in the same campaign.
Playing my Dark Elf Gloom Stalker Ranger in Barovia was pretty freaking fun.
Not designed for Barovia or anything, but I can’t think of a better way to start off a Drow with sunlight sensitivity.
Oh god, the ad break was perfect. Just going "meow, meow, lets kill jacob" *cut to ad, close up of anime catgirl mobile game crap* "nyaaaaAaaa"
I died
I keep getting ads right before "Mordenkainen is in the game."
Love the change of assembling the allies to fight Strahd. Really gives me Castlevania vibes. The image of Van Richten, Ezmerelda, Kasimir, Godfrey, and Ismark storming the main hall and wrecking shit is so rad.
I'm in the middle of a game already, it's really nice to get this extra layer of context, even if I'm already pretty much familiar with the setting. It's cool hearing about what worked and what didn't with you.
I just read the book for my campaign im running and i was so confused because there didnt feel like a MAIN STORY only side quests that all lead to this weird vampire dude, so the fact that you explained at the end of the video that "There is no story only what your players choose to do" makes me really happy that im not stupid. Thank you so much.
I loved this series so much. I aspire to run Waterdeep Dragon Heist followed by Curse of Strahd for my friends sometime.
Can we get a How to Play Waterdeep Dragon Heist? That would be awesome! I loved watching that game on Arcane Arcade and it made me want to run it!
If I was the DM running this, I would do a lot of Homebrew/House-Rule changes to this adventure. I would create a way to truly eliminate the "Dark Powers" as well as the other Evil enemies/beings that exist in this place. Including truly d3stroying Strahd and reconnecting Barovia to the other Planes, letting the Player's decide which Plane of Existence. Also setting up a few options beyond that depending on the Plane & their Player Race.
I’m running a CoS game and as a first time DM this series is a godsend. I’m so psyched to run this module
The quality of your work has over time matured and gotten much better, keep up the great work!
3:54 it sure is a difficult choice, one that my players unfortunately ignored
I love this video. You can tell that he was practically going insane reading it all.
Not only is this a helpful guide, but I was really jamming to your music
Keep up the good content! Love the thoughtfulness you put into your videos.
I loved everything about curse of strahd and am finishing up my dnd character's cosplay but as if strahd had won. Even had a blood spear commissioned. This game is so great and the stories behind it are engaging. Adore it and love the videos. Keep it up
Hey, could you link some of the music you used? I kind of wanna listen to it on its own
He has a bunch of playlists on Spotify on the account RPGplaylists. I don't know if this is the music he's using, but still nice to know.
Please do more of these, format is great and it helps DMs like myself understand the book better.
Loved this series! Can we hope for a similar guide to Waterdeep: Dragon Heist? Please?
Thanks a ton for making this series! It's helping me so much!
I love this module because the open-world is so huge! There's loads of things that the players can do, and even more they may never see. I've run 2 groups in this setting and they didn't see even HALF of what they could have, but both loved it all the same.
I've been playing Dungeons & Dragons Online for...ever, really, and a couple years ago, they recreated the entirety of Ravenloft. I have to say, it is amazing, so much so that I got the 5e book and look forward to running it for my new group. Brand new players. Going to get them to lvl 3....then railroad them into the mist. With luck, I can time it to have them meet the Lord of the land for the climax around Holloween.
I love it that all sounds like so much fun. Im super bummed my buddy decided to hold off on his Curse of Strahd session for a while now lmao
You should do a guide outlining more details on your alternate start in Krezk
agreed
Jacob: how do I put this lightly?
RUclips: land new tricks without having to stop for ads!
The Stella encounter broke me as a DM as I needed to convince my players, that a girl went this crazy, because a boy she despises, said "unkind" words to her and I couldn't come up with an explanation on how this would work.
They first thought he cursed her and was lying to them, when he said he was just very mean to her after they smuggled him out of Vallaki beforehand (to the Vistani camp, so that he could marry into their group and so leave Borovia) not knowing that he killed 2 of the servants and later confronted him again.
Player 1: Insight - Nat 20
Me: Yeah, he says the truth.
Player 2: What the hell did he say to her!?
DM: How should I....wait a second..."Victor grabs a piece of paper writing it down, as he does not want the Vistani to hear it, still hoping that he can leave with them Borovia. He hands you the folded piece of paper." Do you want to read it?
Player 1: Yes!
DM: Roll me a Wisdom Saving Throw!
Player 1: Nat 1....
DM: You suffer from Indefinite Madness (like Stella): "I am the smartest, wisest, strongest, fastest, and most beautiful person I know."
Player 1: That is my opinion anyway....
DM: Maybe you should contemplate that for a second then...(*mumbling* I should have just melted her face like in "Raiders of the Lost Ark")
God damn I really enjoyed the 3 parter. I'm hoping Jacob decides to do this with a few other books. I applaud you Jacob. Well done :)
I'm playing this with some friends and this is very helpful, so thanks man
i remember when playing this and we pulled Mordenkainen as our companion and we were so hype to have this powerfull wizard as our buddy. my Halfling ended up having a Bilbo/Gandalf relationship with him where he would come over for tea and chill from time to time after they escaped barovia
Your videos are a fantastic resource, thank you for giving this adventure in particular the attention I think it well deserves!
Will you be doing this for any other modulus i would LOVE to see your version of this for Waterdeep: dragon heist + tomb of the mad mage or My personal favorite setting Ebberon- i know its less of a campaign more of a world setting/overview but it would be interesting to see how you dissect it
Honestly Eberron is an interesting setting for Dragon Heist to take place in, the location and the villains I can actually really see fitting into Eberron.
Definitely should do this as a Series for the other adventures!
11:56 "the vampire hunter doesn't want you to discover his secrets"
Advertisement of Rick from Rick and Morty reaching "climax"
ive never played a 5th edition campaign and i want to play this one SO bad it seems like so much fun
I love your videos, they have such a refreshing style and are so easily accessible to new DMs like me. Would love to see a guide to all of the adventures! Thanks and keep it up!!
I'm already halfway through this, I'm just watching to get hyped after a long hiatus!
Wow, there is like, SO MUCH to do in curse of Strad. I'm definetively going to look after running this for my players.
Please do this for other Adventures, particularly Tomb of Annihilation
God, I second this. I'm running ToA right now and I could use something condensed like this to help keep track of things. There's WAAAY too many npc's right off the bat.
@@terrenaven that's a recurring problem with 5e adventures in general tbh, that and being fairly railroady
ToA is definitely a recommendation but is a MASSIVE hex crawl with many potential dead ends. If the PCs like that tho, by all means. It can be a gritty or as loose as you want to make it.
Something else with Curse of Strahd is that there are some other great resources for it. The adventures from the Adventurers League season are normally quite easy to fit in (Though you really don't want to do so with the Tier 1 adventures unless you're going to run through them all as they directly build on each other...and actually make a great replacement for Death House if you don't mind another Hag being added to the mix that is actually a very nasty piece of work in the form of Jenny Greenteeth).
I've worked through some things to port bits and pieces from Expedition to Castle Ravenloft with both the 3.5 book and the board game (some of the adventures in the game work well for modifying quests or even on their own for story pieces). The Knights of the Raven from the book are a very interesting addition to the game and would work great for a Paladin Oath option or background for someone playing one. The web enhancement also can create an interesting adventure that shifts the tone for it if things get a bit to depressing (It and a few of the others could fit the werewolves more into the story if your players like them)
If you have access to them, the White Wolf licensed Ravenloft setting books for 3.5 have several other good ideas in it. Especially if you're planning on going beyond Barovia for the other domains after Strahd or want a short change of pace as a few of the things there make for interesting shifts such as the shadow unicorns and can easily fit into a single adventure there.
*watches all 3 videos, then goes into the comments section of the last one*
Dragon Heist! Dragon Heist! DRAGON HEIST!
4:56
I ran death house to start off Curse of Strahd because the most experienced member of the party suggested it, as it is my first campaign DM'ing and two of the players first times playing dnd. All of us are very good friends and have been for a very long time. Our Rogue and Monk's characters didn't really get along at first and almost got in a fist fight. Other than that, Everything starts off really smoothly, party working together, taking every encounter slowly and carefully. Except the monk. In the house he found the dumbwaiter, met the requirements to use it and left the group to look for alcohol. He continued to do this for the rest of Death House..
right up until the Cult Leaders quarters. The group unanimously agreed not to loot the room because of the fear of traps and moved on. The Monk and Rogue also talked and sorted out their differences. As the rest of the group searched the Reliquary and prison on the level below, the monk went off by himself, and looted the cult leaders quarters only to get ambushed by the Ghasts. In their surprise round they both hit, one with a natural 20. Unconscious. I then allowed the players to metagame in an attempt to save the monks life as he was already pretty much dead, Rogue rolls like 23 on initiative and runs over to attempt to help only to have to watch the Ghasts lay into the monks body.
Next session, the group gets to the Crossroads, I rolled for a random encounter, got nothing, rolled one anyways and got Grave, nobody really cared and the group moved on, but as they did, the rogue asked to roll perception.
He saw the monk. Hanging from the gallows, looked away, realized what he saw, looked back and he was gone. I'm having a blast DM'ing
(literally)
Last session I almost TPK'd with my first cast of Fireball as Strahd as his entrance to the campaign.
4:13 dismember and seal the wounds the with fire, wait until remove curse is viable, reattach because that is how undead work, remove curse. Ya know it’s strange he never considered any of our PCs for the throne. I only learned that is a thing today.
Sadly, I've never been able to get through this adventure. I've attempted twice as a DM and twice as a player, both which ended early (technically 1 was a win for us, but we only got to level 4 by the time Strahd died, which our DM said ended to fog curse). The times I dmed, we had some scheduling issues and the group dissolved after a few sessions because of it. The first time we played, everyone died in the death house. The second, we got all the way too the Wizards of wine, but then the group disolved due to a falling out between the Dm and some of her friends. This last time, Strahd confronted us at Krezk after he killed the Abbot, the Wizard cast remove curse on him, which the DM said means that he lost his Vampire curse. So the Barbarian proceeded to beat his ass the death, which the Dm said ended the fog curse. Sadly, I've never gotten incredibly far into the game, and I really want to finish it.
Damn that sucks. I've attempted to DM COS once before but similarly we all had scheduling issues and falling outs, so we cut it short only a session or two in. I'm about to start it up again with a different group so fingers crossed we can finish it
His voice is "course and rough" *inserts Anakin* BEST PART😂
After reading Wild Beyond the Witchlight, I totally think Jacob needs to make one of these for that adventure. Mostly so I can hear him do an "Umm" for Zybilna like he did for Mordenkainen in this video. 😳
i know im like 2 years late to this video, but finally gonna try my hand at running strhad! thank you for these videos jacob
Great summarization and presentation, thanks Jacob!
I'm gonna run curse of strahd soon and these are so helpful!
Loved this video, Im about to start this adventure as a DM and really help to see the big picture for the history.
Thanks a lot !
Can't wait for my players to look this up and ruin the locations for themeselves! looking at you paul and Ian
thanks for these videos!
I'm planing to dm curse of Strahd but I'm getting a bit lost and this has helped a bunch, and the fact htat someone made a minecraft map of the castle is mind blowing and awesome.
Nobody:
Fog: Nice place Strahd.
I might seriously look into that Out of the Box you are pushing. I'm a big Nerdarchy fan and have been following them for years.
Hopefully there'll be a 'How to Play' on the Tyranny of Tiamat books (I only remember one of them, can't remember the other).
First book is called “Horde of the Dragon Queen” and the second one was called “Rise of Tiamat.”
Any link to the music used in the video?
I'm especially curious about 6:30 onward, that music with the castle is real groovy.
I’m 90% sure the music starting at 13:00 is the first few minutes from an ost from the live action Rurouni Kenshin movies. The ost name is Unmei Meikai no Kodou
mysterious moments by eneide
@@Hentiksz it's not quite the song I was looking for but thanks anyway because that one was good too
With Doru, my players adopted him. I changed his backstory a bit by having him be a former lover of Strahd.
In my CoS Campaign:
Doru was a young and naive 18 year old who was fairly sheltered by his father and was on the path of becoming a man of the cloth. But he was charmed by Strahd and saw "good" in him and was willing to leave his home for him. Strahd only toyed with Doru because Doru was the son of the priest of the town and he just liked screwing around with it (tickled his funny bone). The night before he was supposed to leave for Castle Ravenloft (Doru did tell his father that he had fallen in love with a person and was planning to leave, but left out the fact that it was Strahd because he knew his father would not allow for him to leave), Strahd pulled a Strahd (adult themes) and killed Doru and tossed his body at the church where Father Donovich found his broken body. He buried his son and weeped over the grave. When morning came, Donovich was getting ready to leave and join his son when Doru clawed his way out and bit his father. Doru told him the truth, and his father had him locked in the celler buying fresh kills from the local hunters and fed the blood to his son.
When the party found out what had happened, they decided to go and take Doru and help him seek his vengeance over Strahd. Played Doru as a shy lad who was learning to get his own power back. Made him a Cleric of Light (thought it was funny since he was a vampire spawn). Near the end of the campaign, I had Doru leave the party, returning to his home. The players got there after Ireena got kidnapped and were in a huge fight at the church. His father died in the combat and the players were able to use a use a spell/scroll/wish to bring him back to life with Reserection and turned him into a Dragonborn. Party did defeat Strahd and Doru was ready to be cured. Van Richten took him to a private area where he killed him and revived him (at my table, remove curse only removes minor curses and suppresses some major curses for a short period of time. It can't cure things like vampirism or lycanthropy). He became a human again and was crying when he felt the sun for the first time in his life. He, and some of the other locals left Barovia. Some of my players were able to leave as well. Some not so lucky (one of them became the new Dark Lord by being a Vampire and Lich since they made many deals with the Dark Powers). Although that character is not the true Dark Lord, they still serve a function for Strahd's imprisionment by keeping power away from him since he also sees that with gaining that power again, he will still be able to get Tatyana.
secret boss idea. if during the final battle against strahd you didn't fred the dragon skull. strahd turns it into a dracolich
Love your channel. Great job. Is there a video where you explain why I should start my players in Krezk? Also I recommend a playlist grouping all of you CoS videos together. Keep up the great work!
Ohhh, that last phrase got me good...
We ran Curse of Strahd a few months ago. I was a Tiefling Wild Magic Sorcerer, and with me there was a Human Grave Cleric, an Elf Arcane Trickster, a Human Colossus Fighter Ranger and a Half-Orc Battlemaster. Each character of the group had a dreadful flaw. Out Rogue thirsted for knowledge, our Fighter wanted to return glory to his tribe, our Cleric had the dread of his dead wife haunting him, our Ranger seeked revenge against Strahd for destroying his town and me? Well, I was greedy as fuck, trying to copy the recepy of the wine to immitate on Faerun and grabbing magical items that changed his mind slowly, but creeply.
At the Amber Tower, me and the rest of the group fell to the temptations of the Dark God's powers. Only the Cleric, faithful to his God, remained true and didn't claimed any powers. And while the Fighter and the Rogue felt their minds falling into insanity, my character surprisingly resisted the corruption of the Dark Gods. But sadly, he was now a rotten corpse, at least on looks. As a act of selfless, the first of his long life of commerce, he revived Exethaunter and freed him from his curse.
With our new found powers, we tried to defeat Strahd. We had success, but with a dreadful price. Irenna was killed in the path, and my character was in love with her since the first meeting. He dragged her from the fountain trap Strahd tried to lay on her, getting a lighting bolt to the face (the second of many, many ones that happened at that campaign); swore to protect her and tried to be a better man for her sake. Desperate, the Tiefling begged for the group to help her. The Cleric, hearing the pleads of his colleage and remembering his lost wife, revived Strahd's would-be wife. Then, the Tiefling gave her a choice: she could stay with her brother and meet Sergey at the afterlife, or start a new life with him. Surpisingly, the woman ignored the decripted looks and went with him, starting a merchant caravan in the deserts of the Forgotten Realms. And Barovia, while somewhat destroyed by the groups shenanigans, at least found peace from his dreadful lord. And learned to worship a new god, Pharasmus, by pissing on the floor. Don't ask.
"Who is an angel! Sent down to kill Strahd but failed and went crazy!" Man, I wish I had a seat at your table!
I was actually thinking about having Mordenkainen be a plot hook for my players.
I'm playing some one offs and laid out some stuff about Mordenkainen. My group will deal with an Adventurers Guild with a quest being to locate Mordenkainen. They don't know he's specifically in Barovia, but some people followed his trail in that direction, and some haven't come back.
As the players follow the trail, they accidentally get stuck in Barovia and the story begins. They want to get out and find Mordenkainen and may actually find him as they explore Barovia!
Warlock with crazy DC thanks to King maker + Pact Rod, and Fighter levels:
*Suggestion* "Come teleport with me" (you'll be happy that you did).
*Action surge* + *Dimension Door 500ft up*
*Either already have a source of flying* or *Reaction: Feather Fall.*
I have spent weeks looking for a video like this!!! Thank you!!!!
So I was DMing this for my younger group that has a veteran in it right, and our brand new player who was a rogue decided to sneak into the windmill where the sun sword was for my game. Our wizard cast invisibility on the rogue who then sneaked all the way into the upper level with crazy high rolls and nat 20ed to stealthily open the attic. He then got the sword left and gave it to the Paladin. After that they had an amazing encounter that involved grease, and knocking hags downstairs. It was fantastic.
Thanks Jakob! Really some nice ideas^^
Got the book because of ur vids and am looking soo forward to playing it:D
It might be interesting to combine some of the reasons for entering a bit. Say the PCs are hired to track down some 'creature' in/near the woods. It turns out to be a werewolf who tried to make it through the fog, but was driven mad. The PCs chase it in to the fog and start to succumb when they run in to Vistani outriders, also hunting the werewolf. The Vistani pick up and dust off the PCs ('here, drink this..'), who in return help them with their hunt. The Vistani then insist the PCs come back with them to Borovia, where the lord of the land would be pleased to thank them. Once across the fog, the Vistani ditch them (maybe rob them too a bit, I mean, why not?) and leave them to their fate - or maybe tell them to rest at the town ahead, grinning ear to ear, and to call on Strahd when they feel more fit.
I'm running this game for my friends. And to be fair I added a few things to the campaign. One of the things I added was to the start of the game when the PC's go to barovia. I used a Court of the oldest vampires that call the shadowfail home and who's leader is Alucard who is a demigod and his father Dracula who is the ruler of half of the shadowfail is sealed in the Amber temple. There are a few other things I changed.
Just picked CoS up. I have to say it's so overwhelming to even attempt to devour any of the seemingly unending wealth of info presented, that it's becoming a deterrent to start this thing. This brief series is certainly helpful, but GD, IDK how you can become even slightly familiar enough with everything to feel confident to start this.
Almost Avernus
Barovia
Ghakis Mountain
That old Raven River
Life is old there
Older than the witch
Younger than the Temple
Dark powers in its crypts
Svalich Road
Take me down
To the place
I despise
Krezk, Vallaki
Barovia
Take me down
Svalich Road
All my party’s
Not together
Vampyr’s lady
Running to blue water
Blue and cloudy
Taking up the sky
Taste of purple grapemash,
Could almost make me cry
Svalich Road
Take me down
To the place
I despise
Krezk, Vallaki
Barovia
Take me down
Svalich Road
I hear his voice, in my nightmares oh he calls me,
The Vampyr reminds me of the one who’s pulling strings
And walking down this road I get the feeling that I should’ve stayed home
Yesterday
Yesterday
Svalich Road
Take me down
To the place
I despise
Krezk, Vallaki
Barovia
Take me down
Svalich Road
Svalich Road
Take me down
To the place
I despise
Krezk, Vallaki
Barovia
Take me down
Svalich Road
Take me down,
Svalich Road,
Take me down,
Down Svalich Road
Well you got the rhymes ok at least
I'm a simple DM. I see Barovia, I click.
Curse of Strahd was the first bit of D&D I got to play. We managed to make it a comedy. We mocked Strahd on the regular. The Bard took all the SILVERware off of the Table in Strahd’s table, casted animate objects on them during the final battle and... yeah. A shitton of flying silver knives during the fight with Strahd. But the best part is that Strahd was like “If I die, I take you all with me!” And cast Fireball on the floor beneath his feet, killing him. We all passed our saves. DM forgot the Sunsword was a thing. Strahd killed himself.
After watching this series I picked up the book from my FLGS and will definitely be running this campaign!
I especially like putting my players up against intelligent enemies as that is when I can really pull out all the stops, and make a truly memorable encounter which can't be done with a pact of wolves
I'm starting this campaign in a couple hours, I'm so excited!
As DM or player?
@@austinvanderveer213 I'm DM.
@@chazzle3459 Ooooh, you'll love it! The accelerating level of confusion in the player's eyes, the tensions in them, the puzzled faces and excited gasps, this adventure is every DM's wet dream!
@@chazzle3459 dude, you gotta tell me how it went. I'm running Curse of Strahd too, and I'd love to hear how others went into it.
@@austinvanderveer213 3 players and me. A warlock, rogue, and bard (he intends to multiclass into barbarian). One more person who was gonna be a paladin didn't show. First session I tried the death house because it seemed interesting initially. Killed a PC with the first enemy they came across. I realized just how grindy it is and Jacob is right just skip it. Just leveled all Pcs to 3. Next session paladin MIA again. Whole session (only 1.5 hours because we started late) was spent role-playing and my players really loved it. I started them by Barovia rather than Krezk because it was more natural with one of the players backgrounds being from barovia. Pcs spent their time in Blood on the Vine talking to Ismark and then the Vistani owners. You can really give your players a sense of unease not being sure who to trust, and figuring out facts from rumors. My players liked all the PCs but don't trust any of them. The Vistani are a really fun element because most barovians assume the PCs work for Strahd unless convinced otherwise. My Vistani use this fact to dismiss the rumor that they work for Strahd and tell the story of helping Strahd as an alternative explanation. Overall I haven't had much time with the module but already loving it. Skip death house though, for real.
That time your playing straud, and you open up some stuff in "Van Richtens Tower", and the dm rolls for the items you find, and you find the "Eye of Vecna". Yea, that campaign took a turn. Still Havent finished it, but theres essentially a civil way in the party as of now
So I guess it wasnt completely useless
So.... at 11:57 when you were saying a visage appears and says "Go no further. The vampire does not want you to learn his secrets," or something like that, it immediately cut to an add for Hepatitus C and how to cure it. Nice to see what I can do for my campaign.
Wow Jacob, that's one detailed map!
Im watching the arcane arcade episodes starting from the water deep heist because i love watching oyu guys talk about dnd
I'm loving these videos!
So what campaign are you gonna do a video series on next? Tyranny of Dragons? Tomb of Annihilation?
i asked in the earlier parts and ill ask again: please do dragon hesit!
It's Soo inconsistent
There is another way to help the priest's son.
There is a one shot called the chalice of the undead. You send your players to find the chalice that was used by strahd to drink Sergeys blood, if the players find it they can use it to cure from being zombies and vampires unless they've been that way for more than a 100 years
I'm actually running this game with my two younger brothers, (They're 14 and 12) so there are certain things in this campaign that I don't wanna add, like the crazy drunk man on lake Zarovich trying to drown a vistani girl for his fishing god. Lucky me though. My water genasi blood hunter (The 12 year old) actually made a backstory that there was a village of water genasi floating on the lake. Good thing I'll be able to do that instead.