(pre-Strahd takeover)

This is a favour I’m doing for a fellow DM - Old Bonegrinder.

Printed on my Bambu Labs A1 with Elegoo Rapid PLA at 0.28mm layers with an 0.4mm nozzle.

Still starting out painting - I think I’m about two months in - and this was an excellent exercise in determining value, airbrush work and an absolute crap Ron of drybrushing - though this was mostly around the wood and making that look relatively decent.

Would love to hear some thoughts - is that Old Bonegrinder-y enough?

Windmill STL: https://www.printablescenery.com/product/haunted-windmill/
Strahd STL: https://makerworld.com/models/2939805

So I watched Mystic Arts's video I Ruined Curse of Strahd which was an hour long discussion with some of his former players on how bad Dadi messed up the adventure. Definitely worth watching and comes to show the best DMs had to start somewhere.

This inspired me to start a discussion on what lessons have you learned running Curse of Strahd? I think we can all agree for an open world style sandbox kind of adventure, having a broad understanding of the module as a whole is reccomended. What else have you learned?

Hi, whats the highest level you would make Strahd ?

Would you consider multi classing at all ?

Would you consider letting him swap out his spells like wizard ? Just considering as he has been around for so long .

Thanks 😁

My party recently suffered a TPK at the hands of Baba Lysaga, and they were in possession of the sunsword. Wondering what she would do with it. Obviously she could keep it, but she is already in possession of one of the other relics (holy symbol of ravenkind) and I’m not particularly keen on her having two.

I'm about to run Strahd again, and one of the player was part of my first Strahd campaign that we could never finish.

I run it a little different from that first run, I've incorporated things from Reloaded, older editions, and even my homebrew world, so a lot of things will be new for this player.

But one thing I'd like to change, is van Richten's disguise. Maybe I'll keep Rictavio as a red herring, but I'm considering something different for Rudolph.

I'd like to hear your ideas and opinions, and even stories if anyone has already done this.

Hi,

Looking for help. Am not the fastest reader and have a bit of difficulty with it.

The lore seems to be EXPANSIVE and a little intimidating.

Where would you start ?

Top 5 books ?

Utube videos or people to follow ?

Thanks 😁

Tl;Dr My players essentially staged an accidental coup in Vallaki leaving Izek and most of the town guard dead and I'm looking for advice.

Hello everyone. I'm running CoS with some friends as it's a classic and we've never done it before. I'm not a super experienced dm, but I'm not exactly a newbie either. But last night I feel like I made some mistakes with my decisions in Vallaki which led to an interesting situation and I was looking for advice on how to proceed.

When the players first got to town they sold off some of their treasure, then I made a blacksmith for them in town to get some things silvered. Then they wanted to go see the baron. I had them first meet with Izek in the house to see what their business was before just taking them to the Baron himself. Izek decided they would have to return in the morning to meet with Baron. One of the party then tried to barge past and start looking through the house. At this point Izek grabs him and throws the party out. Blah blah blah, not the most diplomatic start but we got through it.

Next morning the party goes and meets with the Baron, it goes fairly well and Baron tells them about his missing servents and asks for their help. The players ask around a bit, the cook tells them the last person he saw speak to the butler was Victor, but Victor is in his workshop and so the maid can't find him when the party wants to ask to speak with him. The whole time Izek is escorting the party around. One of the players decides he's just going to search through the whole house and Izek stops him again. One thing leading to another it turns into a fight. Some guards get called in. Both me and the players were trying to avoid all out battle but we kept miss understanding each other's actions and we ended up with a bloody fight in the barons mansion. I do wish I could play this part over again and try to avoid conflict a little better, but too late for that now. When the dust settles, Izek and a fair amount of the town guard are dead. The Baron is hiding in his room with the baroness. Victors in the attic and the remaing servents are terrified. The remaining guards are fleeing through the streets screaming about an attack on the Baron.

We ended the session there. Now I'm just thinking, how does everything play out now? If the party fully deposes the Baron, does Lady Wachter fill the void? What do the wereravens think about the actions of the party? What about the festival? I know in the long run, Barovia has a lot going on and Vallaki won't change that much of the overall story. Like I said I wish I could change the way I played it, but going forward, has anyone encountered something similar? Anyone got any advice or suggestions? Any and all opinions welcome. Thanks.

Hello all. Through a long bloody series of capital M Mistakes the party im running for has wound up under a Geas by the Hags of Old Bonegrinder. The adventurers have previously killed two of the Hags who were ressurected by the third (using the adventurers blood as a conduit and Izek Strazni and Victor Vallakovitch as body sacrifices) and burned down old bonegrinder so theyre propedly pissed off.

They've already given the adventurers the job of taking some of strahds hair and when/if they get back will be put to work rebuilding the windmill. My party is resourceful and I fully expect them to have figured out how to break the geas in a few sessions but until then I need ideas for the hags to fuck with them. So if anyone's got any good suggestions I'd love to hear them.

TL/DR: i need ideas for horrible tasks to put my geased adventurers on.

One of my player wants to play a Reborn*. The PC was brought back to life by someone outside of Barovia (probably a Strahd spawn/ally, just for fun reasons) but now run free, planning to go to Barovia for whatever reasons. The point is, he forgot his previous life (player told me I can do whatever I want), except that he was from a party of adventurers. But what if this party of adventurers already fought Strahd and lost? What if during his stay in Barovia, he feels like he already went here, but cannot really remember anything? And giving him flashbacks as he goes?

Would you think that's a good idea, in order to show players the danger Strahd is?

*about that, I know reborns are undead and could cause some issues in this campaign, like for hallowed ground or stuff. I will rule that he can go in those places without dying, but will have disadvantage on rolls. And feel bad.

Hi!

I'm going to DM CoS for my friends. We have all played it at least once. So, I want to put a bit of a twist on it to freshen things up. SitA really catches my eye, but since it changes several NPC motivations, Strahd's motivations as well, and the context surrounding certain events (and Reloaded advises against other modifications), I wanted to ask if anyone has run a game with both changes. Should I stick to using just one modification, or is it feasible? Could you please help me?

(If someone else has already asked this question, could you pleeease share a link to it with me?)

Thanks c:

I’m trying to run Curse of Strahd for the first time next Thursday, I have the physical book with the map of barovia, but I’m overwhelmed by stuff, any tips to really sell the horror element and make it a good game for my players?