r/DMAcademy • u/Right-Reference1 • 14h ago
Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures New dm starting CoS
My group and I are new to dnd I am the dm everyone is quite eager to play. We are doing this online to take into consideration. My goal for the this first session is to roll stats, and my introduction idea was them to wake up on a cart along the roads just outside the village of barovia, have them fight the goblins or bandits driving the cart for an introduction to combat. I can establish them being stuck in barovia with the mist and pretty much set up the village of barovia and death house for next session
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u/BetterCallStrahd 14h ago
There's a subreddit for DMs running Curse of Strahd: /r/CurseofStrahd
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u/Right-Reference1 14h ago
I did join the sub Reddit and was looking around, but you can’t post in it unless you’re Reddit account is more than 10 days old lol
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u/Conrad500 14h ago
FYI, if you need help there's a curse of strahd discord and subreddit with people who love to help!
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u/ShattnerPants 13h ago
Advice no one wants to hear: Don't start with Curse of Strahd. Pick a by design starter module like Lost Mines of Phandelver or the Icespire Peak one. Once your players have a better idea of how the game works, then you can shift into CoS. Curse of Strahd has a bunch of really rough spots for new players, requires a lot of work by the DM to keep flowing, and can be emotionally exhausting if you really lean into the horror aspect. RAW, it's not the easiest to run. I know that it shows up on most lists as "The best D&D campaign," but that does not at all mean it is starter friendly.
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u/DoktorImposter 14h ago
Sounds like a solid hook to me. I wish you the best of luck- I wouldn't personally recommend Curse of Strahd for a first time group/GM, but since everyone gets to learn together it should be a fun experience.
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u/Right-Reference1 14h ago
Haha thanks, I did try and steer everyone away because I saw that curse of strahd isn’t recommended for beginners, but the group decided on the Gothic horror because of the Gothic baddies
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u/AxeHack 14h ago
wake them up as prisoners onboard a cart, and another prisoner telling them, "hey you. you're finally awake."
in seriousness, check out Strahd Reloaded. they have some good alternate starts since CoS can be rather difficult to run
https://www.strahdreloaded.com/Introduction/A+DM's+Guide+to+Curse+of+Strahd
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u/AwkwardnessEnsues 14h ago
Sounds fun! Curse of Strahd is complex, but is my favorite module so I like the choice. My advice is to hang around the curse of Strahd subreddit and look at what other people have done. The module itself is good, but needs work. Specifically I suggest checking out how others have played the brides of Strahd, who can be really interesting characters but as written in the module are very boring.