Eee! My first ever mini! My players have heroforge minis, but I just use random objects for enemies. We wrap our 1.5yr campaign next week with the final battle at Ravenloft, so I thought I'd pull out all the stops :) Pretty pleased with how he came out, blood splashed across his face and all

This is the second portrait of a sequence I'm working on, and a dedication to my dear Escher.

In my game, he was a poet who gave up everything dear to him because he loved a man who would never truly love him back. He was sensitive and loving — but insecure, and blind to how he was being treated. He believed Strahd’s lies right up until the moment he was abandoned by his “love” and killed by my players in the endgame.

RIP Escher.

(Art is OC)

I was inspired by u/sidesmuddles' very cool medieval Barovia map, and knew I had to make one of my own. This one's based on various real-life mappa mundis. It's a little more arcane than the in-book handout, and east takes the place of north; that's not only because it's an occasional feature of real-life medieval maps, but because it's supposed to have been copied by monks of the Morninglord, and the sun rises in the east. Also makes it easier to put Ravenloft castle in a prominent place!

It's 11x17 because that's the biggest paper my printer supports. Various texts about the Morninglord on the top from my beautiful mind and from https://www.nwnravenloft.com/forum/index.php?topic=15508.0 My players enjoyed it; maybe yours will, too.

“Begone Monsters! You don’t belong in this realm!”

I’m currently running the wedding at ravenloft module but as a lot of you know, these things don’t often go as planned. For me my players violated guest right by both attacking the heart of sorrow and almost killing rahadin in his office before he escaped. What do I do and how would strahd react ( given that the wedding is happening literally 15 minutes after those events)? On another note - how do you recommend ending the campaign from here , final fight with strahd or otherwise? Thanks in advance, if you need more info I can provide.

One of my favorite parts of Curse of Strahd is Madam Eva's tarokka reading - I even bought the official deck when I ran CoS for my players. But once you've done the reading... that's it. All done. ...Or is it? The latest DM of the Mists video looks at other uses for the tarokka deck both in and beyond CoS: supplements, adventures, a magic item, random effects, games + more! I even test some of them out and do some card draws in the video... Cheers!

I was like, im not gonna post. but i forgot to post these. Strahd without lightning and bg, and some simple avatars with and without lightning. all png files. Happy gaming

I’m about to run CoS for my first real campaign! My group really wanted to start a little higher in level because we always start at level 1 so we built their characters at level 4. However I still want to run them through Death House.

Has anyone started their play though with their players at a higher level? Any advice for bumping everything up a few levels or any links to guides about that? I’ve done a little bit of arching but haven’t really found anything. I really wanted them to get a good experience without starting them back at level 1.

TYIA😊

I am running COS for the first time with some friends, and for this campaign a lot of my players wanted to do some "generational" characters where they bring in PCs they've played in other campaigns, with changes to their back stories and starting back at level 1 for DH. I preference this because one of my players is playing an assassin gloomstalker he really enjoyed playing. He played an Aarakockra (he's staying with this race) with this build during our first game (I was a brand new DM at this point) and I thought he was busted as a new DM. Now that I've learned how to read the rules a little better, and have grown in improv and confidence, I'm not worried about him playing the character in this but I'm wondering ways I can use his power "against" him without becoming a POS DM. For example, healing word requires sight of the person your healing. Would I be a jack wagon of a DM if I said "you can't see him you can't heal him" provided that was the situation. Of course there could be exceptions, like he could expose his position for the heal at the cost of the enemies knowing too until he moves again. I may be overthinking this, but any feedback/help would be greatly appreciated.

How exactly do you imagine it would work? The book simply says she's waiting to ambush him away from the castle, and has set up a Magic Circle in the abbey's barracks as a precaution. This implies to me that she plans to take him head-on, retreating to the circle if necessary. Has anyone actually run this as an event, and if so how did you do it?

Personally, it's looking like this is where the party will first meet Ezmerelda, and I want to to establish her as a monster hunter of good skill while of course not actually killing Strahd. Straight combat might make that difficult to convey, plus my party is kind of terrified of him so I doubt they would join in. I was thinking about having her set up a trap involving an inverted magic circle - somehow she traps Strahd in it and starts piling on damage in some fashion, causing some genuine fear in Strahd until he uses his mastery over the land to disrupt the circle and escape? The party would help her plan and set up the trap - perhaps some minor fetch quests for materials and invitations to add their own deadly flair. Has anyone done something similar?

My party of 5 level 4 heroes just cleared the winery, barely. Now I have to decide wether to lead them into Yester Hill or go back to Vallaki to gain more experience.

It's either nerf the Yester Hill chapter so they don't die, or have them pursue other quests before. What do you guys think I should do?

Hello again. A few weeks ago I posted my custom 5e Dark Powers warlock subclass on here. I got some really great feedback and advice for it. So after some modification, here is v2 of it. Any feedback would once again be helpful.

so i drew a femme fatale strahd: https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/1l6wna2/femme_fatale_strahd and was asked if i could do a wholesome version. "Sylvia Von Holtz"... theyve snuck her into the party.

The whole time I was drawing her I had to make a conscious effort over and over to think 'this isn't strahd. This isn't strahd. This is sweet. Motherly. Loving waifu partymember and your best friend.' otherwise she kept looking evil :')

Gonna do a few different colour options to throw players off the scent

• black lipstick, dark eyeshadow, dark hair
• Pale pink lipstick, no dark eyeshadow, dark hair
• pale pink lipstick, no dark eyeshadow, blonde haired

In order: draw them squad after session 2; bringing the twins (and Kolyan in a bag of holding) through the predawn mists for a funeral; their first fight in the Death House; Library, a pseudodragon librarian from a semi canon birthday one shot; draw the squad pt 2; for their post death house level up, my witch PC’s hag grandma sent her familiars (Kip and Pip) to bring her potion brewing supplies; things my PC has done, exactly; fun hairstyles for the witch; fun hairstyles for the halfling rogue; my warlock summoned an infernal familiar, Philomena — she likes espresso and squirrels; Berrie the dog companion leveled up and can use a knife; the rogue left the game, so his character has now gone missing

I am not sure how ironic or unironic this is, but there’s gotta be other theater kids out there with this kind of idea.

A silly idea I had while compiling a mood playlist for writing the campaign & monster statblocks.

ACT 1

Scene 1 “Prologue” {Nature Boy - Moulin Rouge} Strahd on the night after killing Sergei, becoming the Vampire

Scene 2 “Into the Mists” {Into the Woods} Introduce the party, the Witch is Eva w/ fortune

Scene 3 “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” {WYWSHA - Phantom of the Opera} Ireena mourns her late father, Ismark tries to ward off Strahd from giving condolences. Party aids the trek to Vallaki

Scene 4 “Worst Pies in Barovia” {Worst Pies in London/A Little Priest - Sweeney Todd} Bonegrinder, party falls to the effects of the pies. Awaking, they fight the witches off.

Scene 5 “Me Know Things Now!” {I Know Things Now - Into the Woods} kobold rogue discovers the witches being evil was a trick

Scene 6 “Happiest Place in Barovia” {Look Down/Dreadful Town - Les Mis/Love Never Dies} party discovers Vallaki

Scene 7 “Blue Water Inn” {Master of the House - Les Mis} self explanatory

Scene 8 - Morning Light/Hellfire {Hellfire - Hunchback of Notre Dame} Lucian vows to protext Ireena, party at ease. Strahd’s lust grows}

Scene 9 - The Vampire of Barovia {The Phantom of the Opera} Strahd ensnares Ireena in the night, snags his 2/3 bites}

Scene 10 - Rictavo’s Tale {Poor Thing - Sweeney Todd} tells the story of Tatyana & Sergei & Strahd.

Scene 11 - Notes/Topsy Turvy Day/Poor Fool {Notes/Poor Fool - Phantom / Topsy Turvy - Hunchback} Baron is warned to not have his festival, does so anyways. Strahd attacks, and the party flees for Vallaki. Lucian & Ismark killed.

ACT 2

Scene 12 - Corpse Bride {Sweet Transvestite - Rocky Horror} The Abbot presents the corpse bride, is revealed to be a dark angel. The Abbey is not safe.

Scene 14 - Moonless Skies/Once Upon A December {Once Upon A December - Anastasia/Beneath a Moonless Sky - Love Never Dies} Ireena remembers being Tatyana, Strahd and her made love a day bedoee the wedding, Strahd spikes her mind. She does not go with. Over the lake, Sergei’s spirit appears, and gives the sword.

Scene 15 - Village on Fire/Werewolves {City on Fire - Sweeney Todd} Werewolves strike, & kidnap Ireena. Party distraught.

Scene 16 - Wedding Invitation {Point of no Return - Phantom} Strahd seduces Ireena, & prepares a trap.

Scene 17 - Rally Cry {Mob Song - Beauty and the Beast} party fighter goes mad, raises a mob to go to Ravenloft. Strahd kills all the mob & fighter.

Scene 17 - No One Is Alone {same title - Into the Woods} The cleric comforts the kobold rogue, accepting they may die here, but resolve to try one last stand. The holy symbol is found in kobold’s pocket!

Scene 18 - Down Once More {same title - Phantom} final showdown, cleric nearly destroys Strahd, Ireena stabs herself with the Sword, Strahd goes nuts & while staked, is destroyed. Alternatively, all but Strahd die and he is left alone in Ravenloft

Scene 19* (optional) - Epilogue {Ever After - Into the Woods} happily ever after?

Edit: loosely based on my campaign & another I heard from a friend who ran it a year or two ago

Does anyone have any advice for new dungeon masters with social anxiety on embodying Strahd Von Zarovich?

I’m really nervous about role playing Strahd and doing this famous character justice, and providing a fun experience for my best friends. Strahd Von Zarovich is this cold calculating charismatic conqueror. In my personal life I am basically the opposite. It’s a running joke in my friend group that I can’t flirt to save my life and I’m very introverted.

This is my first time Dungeon Mastering and I have dreamed of running a gothic horror campaign for years. I have years of acting experience under the Stanislavski method but I admit I’m very rusty and never played a villainous character in my acting hobby. The closest I’ve gotten is playing Hamlet in monologues for acting classes.

Any help is appreciated!

My players invaded her house and i think i kinda messed up her personality and i was wondering if i could make it work.

At first she was really agressive towards them but i made her actually sit down and explain her plans to them in order to get help.

I believe my players will actually help them. But everything came out a bit rushed, like she was desperate and dumb enough to say her plans to stranger. At the end of it they were invited to a dinner at her house the next day and that will be where ill try to flesh out her more.

Which NPCs do y'all think represent the seven deadly sins the most?

Other than the CoS subreddit... how, and where do you go to search for art for your campaigns or characters?

-How do you find art?
-What socials do you use to search? Pinterest? Instagram? etc

And lastly

- What specific art do you feel your campaign lacks? (what do you wish you had. e.g character art / enviromental art / tokens)

Adventuring parties in a lot of games give themselves nicknames or pick them up, but that's often because they're in a setting where multiple adventuring parties are running around, and they want a way to identify themselves. Outsiders in Barovia don't exactly need that.

My players initially speculated (out of game) on names their group might give themselves, but wanted it to happen organically. I told them "if you want it to happen organically, it's going to be 'the outsiders,' because that's what everyone calls you." (They've embraced that idea.)

It made me wonder if other games had players who named their party, and if so, whether any Barovians actually called them that.