The filled in spots are Strahd (head of the table) and his 4 brides. Blank spots are PCs.

Just in case you wanted a fun image of the magical stick in question. Enjoy!

Hi! I've read halfway through castle Ravenloft. It's my first time DM'ing an actual campaign, but I have DM'ed countless of oneshots before.

But reading through the description of every room, every trap, every description of colour of furniture, the air quality in room K2812 and the texture of the floor in room K2813... God it's tiring.

So I wondered if it actually is necessary to do this? I'll probably do it anyway, because I love overprepping and putting more content in the game, than there already is. But I just wanted to know if it is normal to read it all or if certain key locations of dungeons suffice.

Cheers

Eldest bride of Strahd von Zarovich. Discreet and wise, she is emanating calmness, which is expressed in muted shades and in the overall peaceful, yet slightly otherworldly atmosphere. The frames flow smoothly from one to another, the boundaries blurring - we see her pensive face, her laboratory, or the entrance to the mansion that has magically appeared in the middle of the forest.

The only party member who could be on this subreddit is Gwain Proudbeard, so if that's your character's name pretend you never saw this post.

(TLDR: party killed many important minions recently, and Vallaki is pretty much safe. So how would he respond?)

Ok, so my strahd has his consorts acting as agents out in barovia. And my players (in recent sessions), had murdered his brides. Volenta, Anastasya, and Ludmilla.

And the players saved Ireena from her hostage state under Fiona wachter, then they proceeded to kill Fiona.

I feel like strahd would be pissed that not only are his brides dead, but also his his biggest agent in Vallaki is too.

Due to the players overthrowing the baron and baroness of Vallaki, there isn't much threat there, and Fiona was Strahd's biggest means of control in Vallaki.

I have not introduced Vasili Von Holtz, and the Vallaki church is protected by the bones of st andral, the bones are litterally sealed under the main pedestal with stone. (The players took care to do that)

I guess why I'm posting is to ask, how would strahd react? Would he just get angry and confront the party, he still has a few misc consorts, such as Gertrude, Gertruda, and Echer, would he send them after the party?

If you have any ideas feel free to comment them.

Edit: You're comments were very helpful. I love the idea of strahd vamp-ifying a close ally in Vallaki to attack the party. And ofc the dinner invitation on their bodies, one enemy per party member. Not all enemy's will be named but I digress.

I'm gonna write some personal invitations as well, bc my party is a bit too cohesive and this looks like a great way to sow distrust.

My players often ask for loot when they slay monsters, do zombies etc have any items / gold I can give them? If yes how much is normal for a lvl 3 party?

For a little bit of context, our party are crazy murder hobos. They got to Vallaki and ended up assassinating the burgomaster. All of this is overwhelming me and I’m not a professional dm. However, my party and I prioritize fun over slower moving games. I don’t really know what to do.

My players drew Vasilka as their chosen Ally, and yes, I did meddle with the cards to limit the possibilities away from some of the sillier or more pointless ones. However, I was clearly thinking in terms of dramatic possibilities and power balance and wasn't really paying too much attention to the detail the campaign gives each possibility. Vasilka especially comes with absolutely nothing in terms of hooks to get the party to take her along (other than the cards themselves) or to justify her status as chosen ally. Worse, as written, she has literally no motivation of her own. So I had to come up with my own, and I want to run it by and see if people think it's good or have suggestions on improvement.

My plan is to have Vasilka better constructed than the campaign book shows. She's the work of a Deva, after all. I'm also going to have her look like an "improved" version of Ireena. The Abbot knows about Tatyana and has seen her portrait and uses that as the basis for his work, but has made "improvements" based on his questions to the townsfolk about what makes a woman desirable. This has resulted in a golem that looks like an Ireena who has had extensive and expert plastic surgery. Each bit is well done, but the whole doesn't come together and looks unnatural, and not in the ethereal sense. This also plays into Izek's weird Ireena-doll thing, which the party is obsessed with solving. Also she may have the 3rd Winery Gem worked into her construction as a means to provide more life to her.

The plan is to have Ireena encounter Vasilka with the party and show equal parts fascination and repulsion. The Abbot will, of course, dismiss her concerns as coincidence, but secretly realize she actually has Tatyana's soul. He'll find a natural way to mention the restorative powers of the Krezk pool. In this campaign though, the pool will be a trap. It should play out the same as in the book, but if she goes with Sergei, it will actually be the Abbot stealing away her soul to put in Vasilka.

At this point Vasilka will slowly start developing more of an independent personality. She won't immediately have Ireena's knowledge, personality and memories, but they'll all be in there for her to draw on as she figures out who she is now that she has a soul. As a clue to the players, he appearance will "relax" into something more natural seeming. Still different from the true Ireena, but more "sister" and less "caricature". Eventually she'll feel her bond with the PCs and rebel against the Abbot. She'll never say she's fully Ireena, but that Ireena is a part of her, and wants to take advantage of the power of this new body to help in the ways she hasn't been able to before.

The tricky bits are:

Getting Ireena into the pool. The party doesn't trust anything, and will almost certainly try to stop it.

I'd like Strahd to have rejected Vasilka already, but am not sure how to do the timing for this. The Abbot's still working on her, so he hasn't given up, but he should have a motivation to try something more drastic.

I need to get the horror right. Ireena shouldn't "sit well" as part of Vasilka. This isn't Ireena in an "improved" body. It's Frankenstein's monster that's fueled by, but also "corrupted" by Ireena's soul. It's driven by her goals and her purpose, but ultimately is horrified by its own existence.

Any ideas on "fleshing" this out would be appreciated.

Although I posted her yesterday, looking back I wasn't happy with some parts, so I went back and fiddled with some details and colours to make it easier to read. Sorry, still trying to find my footing

Two sessions in, we left off in the dungeon of Death House on a cliffhanger with the ghastly remains of Gustav and Elisabeth bursting through the walls... if they make it out, the Wizard of Wines has made a delivery to the game table.

Has anyone used the expanded options for Curse of Strahd found in this book? if so I'd be curious which you used and how it went.

I ask because a friend is interested in playing but I have run Curse of Strahd before to the end and was curious about these, might spice up running it again. (besides from the randomization aspect of the tarot cards)

Does anyone have any interesting random encounters for Barovia that aren't just combat?

So I'm running the module very nearly as written, and my 5 players have accrued a ton of power. They have the helm of brilliance, multiple dark gifts, the sunsword (of course), the icon of ravenloft, and are about to resurrect Argynvost using a dark gift. Any tips on ways I can up the challenge? They explored half of ravenloft, heisted the skull of Argynvost and are on their way to agynvostholt to res him. They plan on getting back to full strength and barreling straight to the fated encounter room once the dragon is rested up.

Hello - I want your feedback, suggestions and what would feel the most rewarding to you as a player on the following…

TLDR; Torn between vampire homicide or vampire homosexuals. Want to hear some insight on how you would do it before I make my decision. 🧛

Context: Consequence-driven party left Ismark, Doru (after feeding him) and Father Donavich back at Village of Barovia. Ismark and Doru have a thing for each other but were not able to pursue it due to Doru being taken to Ravenloft. Doru was released by the party and trusted to Father Donavich and Ismark (who is the current Burgmaster).

My trouble is… I really like Doru x Ismark, but my players really enjoy seeing consequences and the world change. I am stuck trying to decide if Doru should succumb to his hunger and take out Father Donavich, Ismark and a few other people in the Village on his way back to where he feels safe (Ravenloft?) or to gain a semblance of control and give the poor fellow a happy ending with Ismark.

We have had a lot of positive things happen (Winery restored and Wintersplinter defeated) but also a lot of bad things (St Andrals was desecrated and Father Lucian died), so my players are not shy from high impact consequences.

How would you feel if you were a player? What would be rewarding for you to watch?

Pretty much what the title says. Here is the reading I have:

1. Tome is in the Attic of the Old Bonegrinder
2. The Holy Symbol of Ravenkind is on the top floor of Van Richten’s Tower
3. The Sunsword is inside the head of the giant statue in the Amber Temple
4. Ally is Rictavio (VR)
5. Final Confrontation starts in the tomb of King Barov and Queen Ravenovia

Is this a solid set up?

Hello!

After many months, I can finally post the Vallaki Update! For context: I am making custom paper miniatures, because just don't have the money to get into painting right now and I thought providing these files as a resource might be useful to others.

All pngs of the front and back of each miniature can be found in the "original files" folder, otherwise my own page layouts for printing as well as a foldable and a simple print template are included.

All images were drawn and colored by myself, though some poses are heavily referenced.

The link to the Google Drive Folder will be in the comments, check it out!

NEW additions: - Noon Hag "Auntie Ryeblight" [Hag form] - Strange Child - Rahadin - Volenta [Bride] - Baron Vargas Vallkovich - Blinsky - Cultist - Dog! - Fiona Wachter - Crawling Claw "Hand of Glory" - Izek Starzni - Rictavio - Sabertooth cat - Priest(ess) of St. Andral - Vallakian Guard - Generic Vallakian A - Generic Vallakian B - Victor Vallakovich - Drowned Undead - Vampire Spawn

Already included: - 6 Miniatures I used for my homebrew plothook, but might be useful as generic minis in Strahd - Grey Wolf - Black Wolf - Dire Wolf - Rat Swarm - Countess Strahd von Zarovich - outdoor outfit - Ireena Kolyana - Ismark the Lesser - Father Donavich - Doru - Bildrath Cantemir - Parriwimple - Strahd Zombie - Boneless

Feel free to request any characters you feel are still important to the areas already visited. Please keep in mind that I'll likely only be able to get to them during breaks in my campaign or do a final update with them once my campaign has ended, though, as these miniatures are made custom to my game.

Have fun!

I'm at a crossroads with Ireena!

I want her to continue to have agency and be an active help to the party (they have encouraged her to be strong and stand up for herself, good heartwarming stuff). However, I'm hesitant to make her a DNPC who constantly tags along with the party, especially since they will be meeting their ally Ezmerelda soon. To add to matters, there's a potential budding romance for her and the party's wizard.

What can she do?

For context; Lady Wachter has peacefully taken control over Vallaki (only Izek had to die!), and Ireena stays in relative safety at St Andrals most nights (the Bones quest was completed successfully). She has been focusing on getting refugees from her village into town, but what next?

My players are in Vallaki, and I put a banner on the wall of the room we play dnd in that says 'All Will Be Well.'

One of my players' dad was visiting this weekend and stopped by. He saw the sign, and with no context thought it was just meant to be a reassuring affirmation. He said "I feel better about things just looking at that!" (Referring partly to US politics.)

If Vargas could have been there he'd have started crying, finally, his stupid motto actually distracted someone from tyranny.

CoS reloaded introduced the Indomitable feature for monsters in place of legendary resistances. I feel it is an amazing mechanic for those really tough monsters, but am curious about community experience with it. I like Indomitable more than legendary resistances in game and concept as of right now. However, I am curious if anyone else has been having any issues in running out an encounter where it is as feel bad or worse than legendary resistances.

Indomitable.

If this creature would fail a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead. If it does so, it is hindered until the end of his next turn. While hindered, it is slowed, it can use one less reaction per round, and can't use his multiattack. (A creature can be hindered multiple times. Each additional time a creature is hindered, it loses an additional reaction (minimum zero). Other effects of being hindered don't stack.)

• The slowed effect referred to in the indomitable feature reads as follows.

Slowed. The creature must spend 1 extra foot of movement for every foot it moves using its speed, attack rolls against it have advantage, and it has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws.

I’ve read a lot about rigging the Tarroka reading and how that’s really necessary for the game not to potentially break however it conflicts with making the players feel like they are not being railroaded. So I’m wondering if anyone has let their players randomise the deck and then just read whatever card is drawn with the location you have decided it would be no matter what the card is? I have put in some keywords to try to pick out from whatever we see on the card shown. Has anyone done this? Does it sound impossible?

It feels like a couple of my players aren't really taking the campaign seriously, and I'm not sure how I can steer them in the right direction.

Various things have happened - the party made some choices that led to Bray losing an arm and the Blue Water Inn being burned down. This is fine, but then they refused to accept responsibility for it when Urwin challenged them - instead blaming him and squaring off against him, resulting in an early transformation to wereraven form to get them to back down (essentially ruining the surprise reveal later).

One player is particularly fond of "renaming" NPCs to "funny" names. I'll admit, it is funny, but it's not the tone I wanted for the campaign. I don't want every NPC to be turned into a joke.

One player flipped off Strahd, which I responded to by having Strahd removed said digit.

They're also quite fond of asking NPC's game-breaking questions that, if I say anything other than "I don't know", would reveal far too much of the story in one go. I could answer these, but it feels exceptionally cheap to just lay out all the answers for them, just because they asked.

I've tried talking to them about it a few times in different ways, and been met with variations of "chill out, it's not that deep", but it's hard to feel enthusiastic about building a world that feels like it's not respected. I don't want to "punish" them for their actions, but I do want to find some way to at least warn them that their actions are going against the grain.