5 Issues You Ought to Do To Run A Nice Curse Of Strahd Marketing campaign – Gamezebo

Immediately on the fifteenth Of March 2026, Dungeons And Dragons’ Curse Of Strahd turns ten years previous. It’s each my favorite module for 5e, and the most well-liked up to now. (Regardless of brazenly promising a horrible time for all of the PCs.) I’ve performed 4 campaigns of Curse Of Strahd from totally different DMs. I’ve run one marketing campaign, and I’m gearing as much as run a second. Along with a dozen or so others I’ve skilled the highs and lows of Barovia. If you wish to ring within the date by kicking off a gothic horror everybody remembers for years afterwards, listed here are my suggestions for 5 issues it is best to do to run an incredible Curse Of Strahd marketing campaign.

5 Issues You Ought to Do To Run A Nice Curse Of Strahd Marketing campaign

Spoiler Warning! This comprises some particulars of the Curse Of Strahd module. Should you don’t need to see a number of the story particulars you’re greatest to keep away from this.

1 – Perceive The It Is Not Good

Curse Of Strahd is a good module. It’s atmospheric, compelling, and it’s a nice backdrop for characters’ tales. Nonetheless, some particular elements of it, aren’t very enjoyable to play. There are a number of encounters which might be flat out unfair of their problem. The Dying Home spectre alone has been the loss of life of many stage one PCs, and there’s actually no approach to keep away from having to cope with an incorporeal ghost that may one-shot most courses on the stage they run into it. Now, some DMs may argue that the unfairness is a part of CoS’s horror theming, which is okay when you’ve got a desk to folks wanting a death-filled expertise, however as a rule I simply noticed gamers trying upset and annoyed making a personality to have them one-tapped thirty minutes into session one.

There are additionally some decisions which have caught some flak through the years since its launch. The characterization of the travelling Vistani folks as principally unscrupulous is without doubt one of the extra widespread critiques of the module, although subsequent materials has tried to redress this a bit extra.

As a DM, you shouldn’t really feel certain to stay to sure issues within the module if your gamers received’t reply nicely to them. Change issues, make issues up, don’t really feel strain to stay too near all the things.

2 – Use The Neighborhood Content material

Associated to the purpose above, if you wish to change or add one thing to the prevailing materials, however aren’t positive the place to start out, you might be already lined a number of instances over. Curse Of Strahd advantages from an incredible group, and nice creators inside it who’ve performed a ton of labor constructing on the unique module. Dragnacarta’s Curse Of Strahd Reloaded takes the marketing campaign and does an enormous overhaul whereas protecting it fairly canon pleasant. There’s additionally MandyMod’s Fleshing Out Curse Of Strahd, which extends on every space and offers options to construct on it. Each are wonderful. You don’t have to make use of them of their entirity. (Reloaded scolds you for it, however you may get away with choosing and selecting so long as you learn the entire thing.)

3 – Make It Scary

Curse Of Strahd is meant to be scary. And by ‘scary’ I don’t imply ‘kills the PCs each session’. Gamers might be numb to threats if PCs grow to be simply extra meat for the grinder. As an alternative you should discover threats which might be extra refined. Get gamers connected to NPCs then have Strahd come after them, present dreadful conditions the PCs can’t simply repair, current encounters the place the chances are overwhelming and the PCs have to decide on between allowing evil to happen, or probably throwing their lives away to a futile finish. Have Strahd attempt to corrupt characters. Have energy come at some dreadful price to a PC’s integrity, and even their soul. Don’t be afraid to introduce the Darkish Presents from Van Richten’s Information To Ravenloft, and have lifeless PCs resurrected with some dread affect pulling their strings.

You don’t need your PCs feeling too secure, however you don’t need them feeling so completely harassed that there’s no time to course of The Horrors™. A few of the greatest interactions which have come up between celebration members in video games I’ve performed have been much less about hazard, and extra concerning the psychological terror of PCs feeling their idealism slipping, and turning into much less themselves than earlier than.

4 – Permit Strahd To Be The Worst

Strahd is certainly one of D&D’s most iconic villains for good cause. Performed nicely, he’s somebody PCs will genuinely detest. That mentioned, it may be a balancing act to maintain everybody engaged. If Strahd instantly cancels the life subscription of any PC who appears to be like at him humorous, there’s no rigidity. Everybody’s simply lining up the following character sheet. If he’s too permissive of the celebration’s nonsense, he turns into a joke all of the heroes attempt to sass each time he seems. The hole between these, when gamers aren’t positive what motion the Vampire Lord will dismiss as an enthralling quirk, and what’s going to get them fed to zombies within the Ravenloft oubliette, is the place the horror is.

5 – Let Every Of The PCs Shine With Content material Tailor-made To Them

One thing I hear loads with regards to Curse Of Strahd is ‘Properly, Barovia is a special aircraft, so you possibly can’t make something private to the PCs.’ Now I’ve seen loads of DMs do in any other case, however even when nothing in Barovia relates on to the characters, it doesn’t imply you can’t arrange conditions that may resonate along with your PCs and provides every of them a superb likelihood to really feel essential. It’s too straightforward for the marketing campaign to start out feeling like a haunted home attraction the place the celebration simply rock as much as a brand new location and begin blasting something that appears at them humorous. Taking a little bit of time to tie every PC into one thing occurring in Barovia so all of them get somewhat little bit of highlight could make all the things really feel extra interactive.

A number of examples:

In case you have a cleric, monk, or paladin with an apparent religion the priest characters like Father Donovich, or Father Lucian, could instantly belief them extra. The Abbot may also take curiosity in them, and possibly even try to govern them into certainly one of his schemes.Elves of any stripe may entice odd appears to be like or feedback round Barovia, and the Nightfall Elves are prone to take speedy curiosity in them.Characters of noble background could also be pulled into the Vallaki political strife, with each the Vallakoviches and Wachters wanting to get one other of ‘their very own social standing’ onside.A bard may be requested (or advised) to carry out on the Competition Of The Blazing Solar.Druid or ranger PCs may encounter the feral, filthy druids of Barovia. Are the Barovian wildfolk extra forgiving in the direction of different customers of nature magic? Or do they view them as a traitor?Victor Vallakovich instantly takes to a celebration wizard, keen to seek out somebody he would take into account an ‘mental equal’.

So these are my 5 issues it is best to do to run an incredible Curse Of Strahd marketing campaign. I hope the following tips will turn out to be useful and that they’ll allow you to be taught from my experiments and errors over my many campaigns. Should you’ve already run Barovia into the bottom, may I counsel having a look on the sister article to this one, the 5 greatest Domains Of Dread.

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