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I am confused about the part where you said the dark powers were a 4th 5th ed change are you saying they added them or that they took them out in those editions?
There are (in my humble opinion) two ways to play Curse of Strahd (and Ravenloft): 1. with the players knowing they are going to play CoS, that they are going in to Barovia, and all that entails; and 2. as an evil surprise. IMO (again) the latter is the better way if you really want to fill the _players_ with the dread their characters should feel. I started my players/campaign with Lost Mines of Phandelver. As we neared the end of that adventure, I told the players we were going to transition to Storm King's Thunder with the same characters. After they had cleared out the mines, and finished the main story of LMoP, the PCs traveled back to Thundertree to finally confront Venomfang. When they got their they parlayed with Venomfang and the Cult of the Dragon, and decided to camp the night before determining what to do about the dragon and his minions. Previous to this, for days of in-game time, I started describing the weather as rainy and grey every day, miserable, dark and foggy. Thus, when the mists of Ravenloft rolled in during the night, they suspected nothing! Bwa ha haaa! Suffice to say, I surprised my players with Curse of Strahd so that they would actually dread what was to happen. They didn't plan to be there, so they were unprepared for what was to come... as it should be!
I just finished running the entire module with my friends, and oh man I really really think it's the most well polished campaign ever and the writing is insanely good!!
Just picked this up for a group of 3 and have been blown away by just how good it is. Really looking forward to running it.
5 лет назад+52
I am currently running CoS. And i am really happy that we are not emglish speakers. The descriptions are great but the need for me translate them lets me put my own spin on them. Also I urge everyone to che the curse of strahd subreddit. There are several people who wrote huge posts on how to improve the module.
5 лет назад+6
Also I try to make combat rare but brutal. One of my players went exploring alone and encountered some zombies. He was dead before he could act - Ravenloft should be deadly. The next session there was no combat at all but a lot of interactions with npcs and other sources of lore. Also make Ireena sort of your GMPC. You wantnyour players to care about her. My druid player loved it when she started asking him how he can change into these fantastic beasts (it helps that he is an Eladrin and therefore his beast shapes tend to be colourful). On the note of Eladrin barely anyonr in barovia has ever seen a non human and those who have might have seen an elf or dwarf at most. Feel free to screw over players of other races by locking doors in front of them.
“Death House allows you to get from levels 1 to 3 safely.” HAHAHAHAHA!!! Man, I love it when Jorphdan jokes.....wait..... is he joking? He's joking right?
When he said that line, I went "mmmmmmh press x to doubt". The first time one of my DnD character died was in the Death House. My first time playing as the healer started rough lol
I love reading about the Ravenloft setting..the Ravenloft novels like I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire or I, Strahd: The war against Azalin definatly a must read ...personally the setting is a bit too creepy especially for a 1st level character when the overall setting is basically a giant prison for extremely powerful evil NPCs
The Ravenloft Gazetteer books are pretty good for tying the domains together. No Darklord is more involved in the workings of the lands then Azalin. Even more so than Strahd
I only ran keep on shadowfell part 1 and storm kings thunder but then! I ran the entire module of curse of strahd and it immediately made me better in making each NPC unique in their own way
I am running this now as DM! My players will probably finish Death House on Saturday and then onto bigger and better things! Nervous, but very excited!
jcirmsa death house final encounter is deadly Unless you have any resurrection spells Then its really easy Just have one player commit suicide then resurrect him J O B D O N E
@@KJ-ud9uf Not quite. A sacrifice calms down the phantom cult and allows players to leave, but do not extinguishes the evil that lives in the house and keeps making more and more victims.
First campaign in D&D I ever did was ravenloft. Never forget, a guy walked into the hall and passed a great long mirror. I was the only one to notice no reflection. I broke a chair and stabbed him with the leg. Good times.
The Ravenloft setting is pretty damn cool, and unlike other D&D settings with their "medieval stasis"-type deal in their setting, includes many a domain that are essentially low-magic takes upon historical locales, oftentimes corresponding to whatever horror media piece they were ripping off there, alongside little bits of other settings. Late Renaissance-styled ones, Dementlieu and Mordent, and the weird Polish-Lithanian Commonwealth/Medieval Muscovy/Medieval Scandinavia hybrid, Nova Vaasa, are my personal favorites for the first cathegory, and Kalidnay, a small piece of Athas in the Domains of Dread, for the second.
Fun Fact: the Death House module is available for FREE by WOTC! So you can try that out to see if the game has the kind of feel of you want before buying the module. :) Death House was the first thing I ever DM’d, and it encouraged me to try running the whole module! I’m having a blast, and personally find CoS a perfect first DM module because of its sandbox-yet-contained nature. It keeps players on task without necessarily sticking them on obvious railroad tracks- they want to leave Barovia, and they’re characters stay focus on that. I also second the notion of using Milestone Leveling!
I was a fanatic about Ravenloft when the original adventure came out and especially when the campaign setting came out. This new version is fantastic! Everything about it; even reading the forward was great!!!
We are currently playing in Neorovia, a distant future where Strahd never got stopped in the old days and managed to rejoin Barovia with the world, themes are 80's and SciFi, were using the retroverse rules and its such a different feeling to the OG CoS
I've been running COS as my first real campaign and I love how many options and ideas are in the book. Seems like there is always something behind the players and around the corner ahead of them 😊 I know I'm not doing the "horror" aspect justice due to my newbishness, but I think my group enjoys horror/comedy anyway. We're having fun and that's what counts lol
I'm currently running Curse of Strahd (my group just left Vallaki for Krezk.) I've found that even when I've nerfed encounters when necessary they're still hard enough to catch that tension and fear. (2 hags at once instead of three, half the party in vampire spawn at the coffin maker, both tweaks had my players barely scratch by alive) A thing I've really liked is most areas have enemies that explicitly do not pursue parties that flee so you can roflstomp with the first encounter in the area, sending them running, without mandating a party wipe
@@HungryHungryShoggoth It may be a paladin thing then because my players had their paladin crushed by the shambling mound too. The player got really upset. And now he's got a bard and they're heading to Vallaky
haha im running CoS as my first campaign, im a new dm and i LOVE the sandbox and being free to adjust everything to how i see it, change the chapters to make them more exciting. So i get why you`re saying its better suited for veteran dms, but its definitely managable as a new dm if you invest time to think about the world and the consequences
Speaking about the part of Adventurers League, the 5 factions actually had no presence in the Curse of Strahd hardcover and the 14 modules written during the story season of Barovia.
Anyone who sees this comment and wants more lore the novel vampire of the mists is a GREAT DnD novel and really goes deep into strahd lore from the view of an outsider but also sort of a kindred spirit as your POV is from another vampire one older and possibly stronger than Strahd.
In 2E role playing was supposed to yield experience. This was stated in several adventures that I've seen from that time specifically set in Ravenloft. Unfortunately, this ended up being a lot of hack and slash. Ravenloft was a hard campaign setting to run. Very fun though.
This guy made a hombrew campaign on obsidian portal called City of ravenloft it still gothic fantasy but barovia was a built up city state instead of a branoy with little village and one or two ruins. It was great to have my pc ride the ghost train across ravenloft when a group werewolfs bandits Rob the train and took people to feed on they stopped them but it resulted in a we're hunt and slowly the pc found themselves working for strad because everything was controlled by him. But the only problem with was strad was this boggie man and no body knew how to get to him and in trying to find a way to the pc party was wiped by one of strads vampire underlings.
I ran this as a new DM, it's really not that bad. You can run it vanilla, by the book, ect. You can also run it like Jorphdan said, "how you want to" (which is what did). They give you a lot of options and you just need to not be scared to fail.
For the records, Jeremy Crawford runs an adventure, DDAO Shadow of the Vampire, which is AL compatible and takes place 100 years after the events of Curse of Stradh. And yes, my group has failed it.
I played a gamebook in the 80s where a paladin enters the castle and faces Strahd. Very good book. Then years later I read "I Strahd", so when i played the 3.5 module, I was ready!! but like you said, too much text! to much descriptions! so, to avoid it, just watch classic black and white movies the day before (like Dracula 1931), get into the "mood". I think this 5th ed module looks more agile, tiem to return to Barovia!
@@Jorphdan That's awesome! I had no idea that Princess Bride playing cards were a thing! Thank you for enlightening me to this fact (and the lore surrounding Strahd).
@@Jorphdan I don't have The Princess Bride version, but I do have a Star Trek original series deck of cards. Each card has a picture from the show or a publicity shot, with a little caption giving background information. Not the kind to use when substituting for a Tarokka deck.
Some of the information is not 100% accurate, for those interested in strahd himself read his journal "I strahd, memoirs of a vampire". Overall fantastic job, this is a solid introduction to the setting for new folks.
I was thinking about starting a modified homebrew version of CoS but I'm might have to find a newbie DM friendly campaign to start with thanks for the info
Lol it's the first adventure in DMing other than a couple of one shots. Having a great time with it. My players are op and have a bunch of NPCs with them, so I'm not letting them level to 10.
Good stuff.....Ive got the original ad@d ravenloft boxes set.....its used and abused.....and that's how much we loved playing it back in the day!!!!!!Strahd is a badass.....but I always liked it.
My group is currently running through Curse of Strahd. Our party is originally from Eberron, and it consists of: Rita (drunkard pessimistic female human wizard bladesinger) Hubbard (kind-hearted and naive male juggernaut warforged forge domain cleric of the Traveler) Pom Pom (flamboyant and very pansexual male protector aasimar zealot barbarian) Mala (grandma tabaxi hunter ranger) Roxir (prim and proper gender fluid dark elf warlock with fiend pact) It's a blast so far!
@@ashenwuss1651, actually, the aasimar is brand new to DnD and just described the type of character he wanted as a "sassy queen who beats people's asses with holy vengeance and get super angry." The bladesinger wanted to mechanically create who would essentially be the child of Trevor Belmont and Sipha from Netflix's Catslevania series. That being said, I immediately noticed the similarities on our first session, and I love it so very much, because Critical Role is the best thing ever!!!
Would be quite cool if you did a video on 'Greyhawk Lore'. It's such a strange setting but a good synopsis of the history lore would be great. Also to promote the channel, the most popular videos you have are teh forgotten realms devils and demons ones, but for the 'upper' planes you did them as planes and not as 'angels'. Could be worth a look at. best dude.
Strahd is the Land and cannot be Destroyed. I expanded Strahd to a PC with motivations to escape his prison instead of just playing him as the Big bad. For 20 years my players have fought with and sometime aided Strahd in his goals.
Just so many options. Dread Domain can connect to any material plane thru the mists. It's awesome! Cool that it's part of the Shadowfell now. Is Azilon the Lich Lord still around?? Been awhile, I think it's name was Azilon. I may be wrong tho
well, Barrovia could be a place in forgotten realms, that is magically sealed, you can enter but you can not leave. You are the DM, these books and moduals are just guidelines.
Hey quick thing! Raven loft is fantasy, all works that have fantastical elements, even works that take place on earth and are incredibly small scale are fantasy. Forgotten realms is a fantasy world with the aesthetics of more classical fantasy/dnd fantasy ands genre is more the same, but ravenloft is equally fantasy. Ps. The videos amazing!
Tbh I've never DM'd before but I've played for 5 years now and I'm gonna try my luck with the revamped version that's coming out here soon. I've seen many sources thats said it's no good for new DMs but Imma give it a shot anyways 🤷♂️
I have mixed feelings about Ravenloft. So you know I started out on OD&D back in the late 70s, then moved to AD&D and really hit my gaming stride in 2E. In my campaigns I DM about 95% of the time in my homebrew setting. One of my good friends was a pretty decent DM and would run a game sometimes so I could actually play. To minimize the prep needed his sessions were often set in Ravenloft. I have most of the original material but not every single module and product. In my mind the Ravenloft setting has some good qualities. First it's a real change of pace! Kind of a neat thing to get some gothic horror tossed in there. One big strength too is the modularity. Being a demi-plane you can easily use it with your homebrew world or one of the commercial settings (eg Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, etc). The main downside is that it's extremely cliched and derivative. Call it a homage if you prefer but they basically take the most popular monster movies and horror novels and slightly tweak the names and present it as their own. I suppose it's a lot easier and cheaper to simply rip off other authors but there's very very little that's novel or original in Ravenloft. All that said, I feel it's a nice change of pace, something the DM/GM can pull out to give the players something different or when she isn't really prepared to run an original session in the normal campaign.
I have a question because wikis aren’t helping. Is Leilon an active town or ruin? It sounds like has had some rough times but it doesn’t out right say it was destroyed.
If you didn't know. 2nd edition has much more information about all of Ravenloft. Many campaign settings and many adventures and rule books. You make it sound like 3rd edition is where the basis for Ravenloft started. Maybe look further back. If you want to tell about d&d. You should probably look into more than just 3rd edition and newer. 2nd edition is where most of the d&d stories started. Go back and read more then you'll have more info to go on. You could start with the Van Richtens guides. Much more info than you ever thought possible. Guide to the lich, vampire, ghost, werewolf, vistani, fiends and on and on.
As a tarot reader myself, I love the use of Tarokka cards to help shape the story- I think it really helps with the replayability of the game too. I’m running some friends through the module now, and it’s a ton of fun! I’ve gender swapped my Strahd so she is now a Baroness and I think it’s made the game even scarier for my players tbh! 😂
I will never forget my party running into Adam. and nearly beating him. that was until our wizard casted chain lightning and all the bolts hit Adam. …. Nuff' Said. As for a add in into the worldish of this sandbox. For 5th Ed. find the Plane Shift - Innistrad. yea yea I know its a MTG plane, But its got the same dread feeling as Ravenloft. I think it has some player options. And it might have a answer to a situation that the books don't cover because sometimes, players can be unpredictable.
@@DracosDiabolis I meant that targets of Chain Lightning can only be effected by one bolt at a time. Regardless, that's awesome. Adam is a Frankenstein monster!
@@ashenwuss1651 yea that's what he was based on. as for how. the dm had the neck bolts enchanted with a variation of "missile attraction" cursed item. it attracted lightning. we asked him about it after we found out our body parts were getting stitched together to build Eve.
I read an online story retelling of a campaign running of CoS... I loved it... there were about 20 pc deaths along the way.... I'd advise players to not go into the adventure with the characters they want to... "maybe survive"... just saying
Off topic but I can't figure out how to send a PM on youtube anymore and I have a question. Is there a specific campaign book for 5e that takes place in Waterdeep, Neverwinter, or Luskin? I am interested in running games in the forgotten realms and really want as much info, and mechanical layout as possible for these settings.
I don't think PMs exist anymore on RUclips. You're probably looking for Waterdeep Dragonheist for 5e. Or the Neverwinter Campaign Setting for 4th edition D&D. amzn.to/2EIIWJU www.dmsguild.com/product/163174/Neverwinter-Campaign-Setting-4e?affiliate_id=728035
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I am confused about the part where you said the dark powers were a 4th 5th ed change are you saying they added them or that they took them out in those editions?
It’s weird seeing a RUclipsr comment in there own comment section and it not having about half a million comments in it
@@giffinjeremyj the shadowfell was the 4th/5th edition change. The Dark powers existed in the 1990 Ravenloft Campaign Setting.
Ok good thought I was remembering things wrong lol
"Welcome to curse of straphd, the ph is silent..."
We need THIS campaign setting
😂👻
Only the P is silent
“Death House allows you to get from levels 1 to 3 safely.” AHAHAHAHAHA!!! *wipes tear from eye and re-rolls new character after the TPK*
nstrug Death House is absolutely brutal xD that one spectre alone almost wiped the party I ran through it
Yes, that specter
@@magerious2150 Not to mention throwing a shambling mound at level 2 party in fairly small room...
Our whole fucking party almost died to the stupid swinging blades at the end😭😭
My exact thoughts. Surely this is a jest?
There are (in my humble opinion) two ways to play Curse of Strahd (and Ravenloft): 1. with the players knowing they are going to play CoS, that they are going in to Barovia, and all that entails; and 2. as an evil surprise. IMO (again) the latter is the better way if you really want to fill the _players_ with the dread their characters should feel.
I started my players/campaign with Lost Mines of Phandelver. As we neared the end of that adventure, I told the players we were going to transition to Storm King's Thunder with the same characters. After they had cleared out the mines, and finished the main story of LMoP, the PCs traveled back to Thundertree to finally confront Venomfang. When they got their they parlayed with Venomfang and the Cult of the Dragon, and decided to camp the night before determining what to do about the dragon and his minions.
Previous to this, for days of in-game time, I started describing the weather as rainy and grey every day, miserable, dark and foggy. Thus, when the mists of Ravenloft rolled in during the night, they suspected nothing! Bwa ha haaa!
Suffice to say, I surprised my players with Curse of Strahd so that they would actually dread what was to happen. They didn't plan to be there, so they were unprepared for what was to come... as it should be!
Love it
I actually did something similar myself on their way from Phandalin to Neverwinter! About 75% through CoS since December last year
I just finished running the entire module with my friends, and oh man I really really think it's the most well polished campaign ever and the writing is insanely good!!
Just picked this up for a group of 3 and have been blown away by just how good it is. Really looking forward to running it.
I am currently running CoS. And i am really happy that we are not emglish speakers. The descriptions are great but the need for me translate them lets me put my own spin on them.
Also I urge everyone to che the curse of strahd subreddit. There are several people who wrote huge posts on how to improve the module.
Also I try to make combat rare but brutal. One of my players went exploring alone and encountered some zombies. He was dead before he could act - Ravenloft should be deadly.
The next session there was no combat at all but a lot of interactions with npcs and other sources of lore.
Also make Ireena sort of your GMPC. You wantnyour players to care about her. My druid player loved it when she started asking him how he can change into these fantastic beasts (it helps that he is an Eladrin and therefore his beast shapes tend to be colourful).
On the note of Eladrin barely anyonr in barovia has ever seen a non human and those who have might have seen an elf or dwarf at most. Feel free to screw over players of other races by locking doors in front of them.
“Death House allows you to get from levels 1 to 3 safely.” HAHAHAHAHA!!!
Man, I love it when Jorphdan jokes.....wait..... is he joking? He's joking right?
When he said that line, I went "mmmmmmh press x to doubt". The first time one of my DnD character died was in the Death House. My first time playing as the healer started rough lol
I love reading about the Ravenloft setting..the Ravenloft novels like I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire or I, Strahd: The war against Azalin definatly a must read ...personally the setting is a bit too creepy especially for a 1st level character when the overall setting is basically a giant prison for extremely powerful evil NPCs
The Ravenloft Gazetteer books are pretty good for tying the domains together. No Darklord is more involved in the workings of the lands then Azalin. Even more so than Strahd
Ravenloft is an AMAZING setting. You're right on the point that it requires an experienced dm.
I only ran keep on shadowfell part 1 and storm kings thunder but then! I ran the entire module of curse of strahd and it immediately made me better in making each NPC unique in their own way
I am running this now as DM! My players will probably finish Death House on Saturday and then onto bigger and better things! Nervous, but very excited!
jcirmsa death house final encounter is deadly
Unless you have any resurrection spells
Then its really easy
Just have one player commit suicide then resurrect him
J O B D O N E
@@KJ-ud9uf Not quite. A sacrifice calms down the phantom cult and allows players to leave, but do not extinguishes the evil that lives in the house and keeps making more and more victims.
How did it go?
First campaign in D&D I ever did was ravenloft. Never forget, a guy walked into the hall and passed a great long mirror. I was the only one to notice no reflection. I broke a chair and stabbed him with the leg.
Good times.
How did it end up?
The Ravenloft setting is pretty damn cool, and unlike other D&D settings with their "medieval stasis"-type deal in their setting, includes many a domain that are essentially low-magic takes upon historical locales, oftentimes corresponding to whatever horror media piece they were ripping off there, alongside little bits of other settings. Late Renaissance-styled ones, Dementlieu and Mordent, and the weird Polish-Lithanian Commonwealth/Medieval Muscovy/Medieval Scandinavia hybrid, Nova Vaasa, are my personal favorites for the first cathegory, and Kalidnay, a small piece of Athas in the Domains of Dread, for the second.
Fun Fact: the Death House module is available for FREE by WOTC! So you can try that out to see if the game has the kind of feel of you want before buying the module. :)
Death House was the first thing I ever DM’d, and it encouraged me to try running the whole module! I’m having a blast, and personally find CoS a perfect first DM module because of its sandbox-yet-contained nature. It keeps players on task without necessarily sticking them on obvious railroad tracks- they want to leave Barovia, and they’re characters stay focus on that.
I also second the notion of using Milestone Leveling!
Here's the link to Death House! :D
media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/Curse%20of%20Strahd%20Introductory%20Adventure.pdf
9:35 , yeah : "Safely". In order to get out of the death house one of my party members had to be sacrificed in the basement.
eeep!
Fortune Teller Jorphdan is a character I'd like to see more of 😂😂
I was a fanatic about Ravenloft when the original adventure came out and especially when the campaign setting came out. This new version is fantastic! Everything about it; even reading the forward was great!!!
We are currently playing in Neorovia, a distant future where Strahd never got stopped in the old days and managed to rejoin Barovia with the world, themes are 80's and SciFi, were using the retroverse rules and its such a different feeling to the OG CoS
That sounds super cool!
Thats amazing
this would suit a couple of my players so well.
I'm DMing Vampire: the Masquerade set in a more Neon version of 1983 Auckland NZ
I've been running COS as my first real campaign and I love how many options and ideas are in the book. Seems like there is always something behind the players and around the corner ahead of them 😊
I know I'm not doing the "horror" aspect justice due to my newbishness, but I think my group enjoys horror/comedy anyway. We're having fun and that's what counts lol
Werewolf gypsies! Damn I really miss that. It's been too long since I've played. Thanks for doing this vid man! Great job!
I'm currently running Curse of Strahd (my group just left Vallaki for Krezk.) I've found that even when I've nerfed encounters when necessary they're still hard enough to catch that tension and fear. (2 hags at once instead of three, half the party in vampire spawn at the coffin maker, both tweaks had my players barely scratch by alive) A thing I've really liked is most areas have enemies that explicitly do not pursue parties that flee so you can roflstomp with the first encounter in the area, sending them running, without mandating a party wipe
Our DM did an amazing job running CoS!
I've been playing ravenloft loft scence 3.5 I've always had strad capture the player at least 2 times before he kills them.
I wish I had seen this years ago. It was the first book I had ever bought as a new DM and was sooo in over my head.
Deatn House.....get from level 1 to 3.....safely?!?!? 9:07 There are ghouls and shadows in this very house that you cannot exit.
'Get from level 1 to 3 (Safetly)'
HAH! Great joke Jorphdan!
First time as a player through this adventure my Paladin died. LOVE running death house as a one shot itself though
@@HungryHungryShoggoth It may be a paladin thing then because my players had their paladin crushed by the shambling mound too. The player got really upset. And now he's got a bard and they're heading to Vallaky
There is also several second edition books that build the demi plane. I think I have about 4 of the adventures and lore books.
haha im running CoS as my first campaign, im a new dm and i LOVE the sandbox and being free to adjust everything to how i see it, change the chapters to make them more exciting. So i get why you`re saying its better suited for veteran dms, but its definitely managable as a new dm if you invest time to think about the world and the consequences
This was the first adventure I ever ran as a DM. I have a great fondness for it!
Your first? Damn. How'd it go? As the module intended or did it morph into your own little domain of terror?
Speaking about the part of Adventurers League, the 5 factions actually had no presence in the Curse of Strahd hardcover and the 14 modules written during the story season of Barovia.
I'm a new DM and I came up with the great "Idiea" lol to run Curse of Strahd with guns.
I loved the character Jandar Sunstar from Ravenloft
Death House:
"kind of an introduction to Barovia to allow you to get to level 3 safely."
You and I have very distinct definition of the word "safely."
I am going to make my next adventure using Ravenloft setting. Thank you so much for this video!
Yeah, They can try. I support the idea abou D&D as a sandbox
Anyone who sees this comment and wants more lore the novel vampire of the mists is a GREAT DnD novel and really goes deep into strahd lore from the view of an outsider but also sort of a kindred spirit as your POV is from another vampire one older and possibly stronger than Strahd.
Good breakdown, Jorphdan. I really enjoyed the inserts from other media. They helped break up the monologue.
Thanks!
In 2E role playing was supposed to yield experience. This was stated in several adventures that I've seen from that time specifically set in Ravenloft. Unfortunately, this ended up being a lot of hack and slash. Ravenloft was a hard campaign setting to run. Very fun though.
Still need to do a video about I6 Ravenloft.
This guy made a hombrew campaign on obsidian portal called City of ravenloft it still gothic fantasy but barovia was a built up city state instead of a branoy with little village and one or two ruins. It was great to have my pc ride the ghost train across ravenloft when a group werewolfs bandits Rob the train and took people to feed on they stopped them but it resulted in a we're hunt and slowly the pc found themselves working for strad because everything was controlled by him. But the only problem with was strad was this boggie man and no body knew how to get to him and in trying to find a way to the pc party was wiped by one of strads vampire underlings.
I ran this as a new DM, it's really not that bad. You can run it vanilla, by the book, ect. You can also run it like Jorphdan said, "how you want to" (which is what did). They give you a lot of options and you just need to not be scared to fail.
For the records, Jeremy Crawford runs an adventure, DDAO Shadow of the Vampire, which is AL compatible and takes place 100 years after the events of Curse of Stradh. And yes, my group has failed it.
DDAO?
Author Only Adventures!
dndadventurersleague.org/storyline-seasons/author-only-adventures/
Are these available to the public?
@@HeirophantCarneus If Crawford ever releases it.
I played a gamebook in the 80s where a paladin enters the castle and faces Strahd. Very good book. Then years later I read "I Strahd", so when i played the 3.5 module, I was ready!! but like you said, too much text! to much descriptions! so, to avoid it, just watch classic black and white movies the day before (like Dracula 1931), get into the "mood". I think this 5th ed module looks more agile, tiem to return to Barovia!
One of my favourite adventures. Thanks for the lore video.
Thanks for watching :)
I'm running curse of strahd atm with some friends and its a blast.
My Phoenix Origin Sorcerer has been a good call for it. Glad you made this video!
Awesome!
I miss these - you should continue them, if you want!
Dude you could not make this at a better time. I'm starting the Campain into Ravenloft super soon thank you lol
huzah!
That's good info about the one shot version!
Does that first card have Andre the Giant on it?! Reminds me of his character in The Princess Bride.
It does! My Princess Bride playing cards.
@@Jorphdan That's awesome! I had no idea that Princess Bride playing cards were a thing! Thank you for enlightening me to this fact (and the lore surrounding Strahd).
I knew there was something unique going on with those cards.
@@Jorphdan I don't have The Princess Bride version, but I do have a Star Trek original series deck of cards. Each card has a picture from the show or a publicity shot, with a little caption giving background information. Not the kind to use when substituting for a Tarokka deck.
A 17 minute Jorphdan (The PH is silent) lore video? I think I like this already. (Clicks like button) yusssssss....
Some of the information is not 100% accurate, for those interested in strahd himself read his journal "I strahd, memoirs of a vampire". Overall fantastic job, this is a solid introduction to the setting for new folks.
How about a Barovian demiplane collision with the Maelost demiplane story arc?🤔
I was thinking about starting a modified homebrew version of CoS but I'm might have to find a newbie DM friendly campaign to start with thanks for the info
Mandy Mods and dragnaCarta make this the msot epic adventure published by WOTC and definatley worth a look by any aspiring DM.
“They’ll soon learn they might need to back off…”
No party in the history of DnD has ever learned to back off from an encounter. 😀
Played Ravenloft in either 1st or 2nd edition, great mod!!
Lol it's the first adventure in DMing other than a couple of one shots. Having a great time with it. My players are op and have a bunch of NPCs with them, so I'm not letting them level to 10.
Good stuff.....Ive got the original ad@d ravenloft boxes set.....its used and abused.....and that's how much we loved playing it back in the day!!!!!!Strahd is a badass.....but I always liked it.
Wow I'm pretty new to DnD and was just seeing if you made a video on this two weeks ago! Keep the content going!
Going Strong! :D
Besides another great video, enjoyed seeing the old Thor comic on the wall!
Heck yeah! 1982 I believe 🙂
My group is currently running through Curse of Strahd. Our party is originally from Eberron, and it consists of:
Rita (drunkard pessimistic female human wizard bladesinger)
Hubbard (kind-hearted and naive male juggernaut warforged forge domain cleric of the Traveler)
Pom Pom (flamboyant and very pansexual male protector aasimar zealot barbarian)
Mala (grandma tabaxi hunter ranger)
Roxir (prim and proper gender fluid dark elf warlock with fiend pact)
It's a blast so far!
Sweet!! I imagine the Barovians don't know what to think of Warforged :D
I see two crit role influenced characters! Molly and Yasha all in one? That's brilliant.
@@ashenwuss1651, actually, the aasimar is brand new to DnD and just described the type of character he wanted as a "sassy queen who beats people's asses with holy vengeance and get super angry." The bladesinger wanted to mechanically create who would essentially be the child of Trevor Belmont and Sipha from Netflix's Catslevania series.
That being said, I immediately noticed the similarities on our first session, and I love it so very much, because Critical Role is the best thing ever!!!
Would be quite cool if you did a video on 'Greyhawk Lore'. It's such a strange setting but a good synopsis of the history lore would be great.
Also to promote the channel, the most popular videos you have are teh forgotten realms devils and demons ones, but for the 'upper' planes you did them as planes and not as 'angels'.
Could be worth a look at.
best dude.
lol I was so confused when I picked this up and saw the Daggerford plot hook
Strahd is the Land and cannot be Destroyed. I expanded Strahd to a PC with motivations to escape his prison instead of just playing him as the Big bad. For 20 years my players have fought with and sometime aided Strahd in his goals.
You know the Jorphdan doesn't mention the canonical ending where Strahd gets bitten in half by a Tabaxi polymorphed into a T-Rex.
Hell yeah, Strhad is my favorite module ever
Just so many options. Dread Domain can connect to any material plane thru the mists. It's awesome! Cool that it's part of the Shadowfell now. Is Azilon the Lich Lord still around?? Been awhile, I think it's name was Azilon. I may be wrong tho
Holy crap I need those PB playing cards!
well, Barrovia could be a place in forgotten realms, that is magically sealed, you can enter but you can not leave. You are the DM, these books and moduals are just guidelines.
Hey quick thing! Raven loft is fantasy, all works that have fantastical elements, even works that take place on earth and are incredibly small scale are fantasy. Forgotten realms is a fantasy world with the aesthetics of more classical fantasy/dnd fantasy ands genre is more the same, but ravenloft is equally fantasy.
Ps. The videos amazing!
Sweet! Was my favorite in 2nd Ed. Advanced!!
The Death House became a total party wipe.
great vid! where did you find that beautiful map @ 04:30?
Tbh I've never DM'd before but I've played for 5 years now and I'm gonna try my luck with the revamped version that's coming out here soon. I've seen many sources thats said it's no good for new DMs but Imma give it a shot anyways 🤷♂️
I have mixed feelings about Ravenloft. So you know I started out on OD&D back in the late 70s, then moved to AD&D and really hit my gaming stride in 2E. In my campaigns I DM about 95% of the time in my homebrew setting. One of my good friends was a pretty decent DM and would run a game sometimes so I could actually play. To minimize the prep needed his sessions were often set in Ravenloft. I have most of the original material but not every single module and product. In my mind the Ravenloft setting has some good qualities. First it's a real change of pace! Kind of a neat thing to get some gothic horror tossed in there. One big strength too is the modularity. Being a demi-plane you can easily use it with your homebrew world or one of the commercial settings (eg Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, etc). The main downside is that it's extremely cliched and derivative. Call it a homage if you prefer but they basically take the most popular monster movies and horror novels and slightly tweak the names and present it as their own. I suppose it's a lot easier and cheaper to simply rip off other authors but there's very very little that's novel or original in Ravenloft.
All that said, I feel it's a nice change of pace, something the DM/GM can pull out to give the players something different or when she isn't really prepared to run an original session in the normal campaign.
Imagine if after one campaign where the players suffer a TPK, the new player characters meet the reincarnations of their old characters.
Whats the deal with the off camera camera?
I have a question because wikis aren’t helping. Is Leilon an active town or ruin? It sounds like has had some rough times but it doesn’t out right say it was destroyed.
Please do somthing on kara tur
Oliver lad_squad seconded
I legit think that even a Low level party should be able to defeat high level bad guys if they plan for it and are smart
Bravovia, shows picture of yosemite.
I'm a first time DM and I just picked this up....ooops!
You'll be ok 😉
Can you do a video on R.A Salvatore characters please :)
2:12 such trendy cutting J!
Great clip, keep up the great work...
D204life...
If you didn't know. 2nd edition has much more information about all of Ravenloft. Many campaign settings and many adventures and rule books. You make it sound like 3rd edition is where the basis for Ravenloft started. Maybe look further back. If you want to tell about d&d. You should probably look into more than just 3rd edition and newer. 2nd edition is where most of the d&d stories started. Go back and read more then you'll have more info to go on. You could start with the Van Richtens guides. Much more info than you ever thought possible. Guide to the lich, vampire, ghost, werewolf, vistani, fiends and on and on.
I did actually read a lot of the 2e Ravenloft stuff. Sorry that didn't come across. :)
now if only theyde give us a full campaign setting for ravenloft and not just a campaign set in barovia.
Jorphan - where did you get the full sized Sword Coast map... I need one of them!
I got the file here: dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/map-faer%C3%BCn
and printed it out at my local library!
Awesome video.
Thanks!
I need those cards!
Can you please make a Silverymoon video?
Where did you get that sweet Princess Bride playing card set?
This is the first module i dm lol
Where did you get the Faerun map on the wall in the background?
It's available from WoTC's D&D website, and I printed it out at my library which has a super large printer for stuff like maps!
Look into The Grand Conjunction
As a tarot reader myself, I love the use of Tarokka cards to help shape the story- I think it really helps with the replayability of the game too.
I’m running some friends through the module now, and it’s a ton of fun! I’ve gender swapped my Strahd so she is now a Baroness and I think it’s made the game even scarier for my players tbh! 😂
I will never forget my party running into Adam. and nearly beating him. that was until our wizard casted chain lightning and all the bolts hit Adam. …. Nuff' Said. As for a add in into the worldish of this sandbox. For 5th Ed. find the Plane Shift - Innistrad. yea yea I know its a MTG plane, But its got the same dread feeling as Ravenloft. I think it has some player options. And it might have a answer to a situation that the books don't cover because sometimes, players can be unpredictable.
How do all bolts from Chain Lightning hit one creature? This is utter madness!
@@ashenwuss1651Adam is flesh golem and is healed my lightning. we found that out the hard way as the DM cackled.
@@DracosDiabolis I meant that targets of Chain Lightning can only be effected by one bolt at a time.
Regardless, that's awesome. Adam is a Frankenstein monster!
@@ashenwuss1651 yea that's what he was based on. as for how. the dm had the neck bolts enchanted with a variation of "missile attraction" cursed item. it attracted lightning.
we asked him about it after we found out our body parts were getting stitched together to build Eve.
@@DracosDiabolis Man. I've got to play CoS. I played Death House, but never CoS.
I read an online story retelling of a campaign running of CoS... I loved it... there were about 20 pc deaths along the way.... I'd advise players to not go into the adventure with the characters they want to... "maybe survive"... just saying
Do you have any information about the faction called the chill?
Off topic but I can't figure out how to send a PM on youtube anymore and I have a question. Is there a specific campaign book for 5e that takes place in Waterdeep, Neverwinter, or Luskin? I am interested in running games in the forgotten realms and really want as much info, and mechanical layout as possible for these settings.
I don't think PMs exist anymore on RUclips. You're probably looking for Waterdeep Dragonheist for 5e. Or the Neverwinter Campaign Setting for 4th edition D&D.
amzn.to/2EIIWJU
www.dmsguild.com/product/163174/Neverwinter-Campaign-Setting-4e?affiliate_id=728035
Nice !