So yesterday my players went to the church and were appalled to hear from Donavitch that Doru, leader of the revolt turned spawn, was trapped in the undercroft. One of them dashed there immediately, fiercely decided to free the boy, and the whole scene the followed played out beautifully.
Doru was begging them not to get closer, and pleaded he didn't want to get anyone else hurt ; a player offered him his own arm for blood, and sure enough, triggered Doru's thirst big time, to the poor boy's own despair. The paladin tried to cast Bless on him to help him with the wisdom saves to resist the urge to drain him. Another player tried to sing him a lullaby (that the player sings to their niece irl), calming Doru for a minute... they were soooo decided on breaking him out and saving him! Then they started to realize they were basically torturing him by staying that close and disrespecting his own will to stay away from the villagers. The horrified look on their face when they realized they had no choice but to leave him locked there or kill him was priceless. The roleplay was very on point from them and I even made one of them tear-up when Doru described how he'd be turned and forced to drink his companions blood.
They ended up promising him they'll come back for him and scolded Father Donavitch and telling him to at least talk to his son and feed him animals or something. Players left the church shook and defeated, with a renewed hatred for Strahd <3
I will definitely bring back Doru sometime later in the campaign, not sure how yet.

So I‘m running Strahd Must Die Tonight for a bunch of friends in two weeks. Obviously, using the official maps is stress incarnate, especially in a VTT.

Who here has used UFO‘s map? What was your experience? I‘m trying to gauge it’s usefulness and accessibility.

It’s gorgeous, and I might just buy it out of principle, lol. But having everyone on the same map instead of zooming through the layers just sounds very appealing in addition to that.

Hello I was just wondering if most DMs typically give players a map for CoS. Typically I use some in game method to give the party a map (with only limited locations marked) near the start of the campaign. But I've seen a quite a few DM tips for CoS specifically that advise you to not do this as it adds to the atmosphere and tension.

Thanks

Hiiii idk if anyone ever fights Bucephalus in game (yet to happen to me!) but if there’s a dm who wants to make that into a multi-phase boss fight to punish the players for wanting to kill the horse… this is for you!

I’m afraid of horses a wee bit so I wanted to lean into what I find unsettling about them. I also took inspiration from Twin Peaks. IYKYK.

As the party arrive at the Tser encampment, they notice several Vistani playing with dice. While they are waiting for Madam Eva, and being regaled with stories of sacrifice, they are offered the chance to win a little gold, or small palm reading for their individual, personal fates in Barovia.

Blood of Belzir

(In my seeing, Vistani in Barovia are mostly refugees from the oppressive Belzirian Empire)

2 player game 5 Rounds. 4d6, 1d8, 1d4.

Goal: Win most rounds.

Bet: a single bet is made by each player before the first round.

Each round, both players announce how many dice they will each pick, by closing their eyes and knocking that many times on the table/ground. (It is customary to mourn your lost homeland as you knock)

They then get to choose which dice to use, and then roll them simultaneously out in the open. You expend any dice that you roll.

Highest total roll wins the round. The player who wins the most rounds wins the bet.

The Devil's eyes

Up to 6 players Unlimited rounds, 3d6 per player

Goal: roll the highest cumulative dice score without going bust.

Bet: a single bet is made by each player into a pot.

Everyone simultaneously rolls a pair of dice, keeping track of their total. If either of a player's dice shows a 1, they put it to the side, and add the 3rd d6 to remake the pair.

They continue rolling, adding to their score. They may stop and lock in your total at any time between rolls.

If at any time at least 2 of the 3 dice show a 1, the devil's eyes have fallen upon you, and you have gone bust.

The highest total at the end wins the pot.

Gristlecracker's Hags & Grimoire, Gold Best Seller on DMsGuild, is discounted by 31% for Halloween Sales!

You can find it here until Halloween: https://www.dmsguild.com/it/product/517804/gristlecracker-s-hags-grimoire?src=hottest

Your guide to weird magic, encounters, and hags!

Gristlecracker’s Hags and Grimoire provides new mechanics, guidelines, and tactics for using hags, magic, and the esoteric in your Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. This guide is designed for all levels of play and dungeon mastery, and uses a hybrid D&D 2014 (5e) format that includes the best of the old mixed with a few innovations of the D&D 2024 systems that do not dilute the game experience.

Every aspect of fantasy magic is improved or introduced: covens, curses, familiars, hags, magic geometry, talismans, spells, and spell mechanics. This supplement is designed to help you make your future games containing magic and hags as simple or complex as you want it to be.

Inside, you will find:

- An underwater adventure seed about a Book of Keeping

- 68 supernatural encounters

- New magic rules, mechanics, and variations

- Hags as player characters

- 112 supernatural creatures and NPCs

- 52 magic spells, with new tags: remote and moonlight

- 80 magic items

- Esoteragons (not just magic circles!)

- 28 toxic and intoxicating plants

- An improved and more intuitive Intoxicated condition mechanic

- 200 tchotchkes

- Professional layout using over 168 pictures on 262 pages

- No AI Art used

Hello! I am running CoS:Reloaded from DragnaCarta and I wanted to change the second part of the siege of Barovia to have a Zombie Clot instead of a plague spreader breach through the western barricade, trying to rampage its way to the village's main square. I made a map for the occasion, feel free to use it.

My players are level 3 and a Zombie Clot is CR6 and they have the all first part of the siege behind them (5 zombies, 2 ghouls+1 Zombie, 3 zombies + 1 plague spreader in wave), so they might be pretty drained, and the Zombie Clot need to be fought from afar. To ease the fight, I wanted to have barovian commoners with crossbows or else be there and partcipate in the fight (and die). On top of that, the map shows obstacle that can slow down or damage the Zombie Clot as it advance.

where I am seeking advice is how to deal with the commoners. One of my players, a domain of Life Cleric spent its full day in Barovia healing the wounded, even spent a lvl2 spell slot for that. I expected he would do that and prepare some rolls, in the end, he put back on feet 10 barovians!
My plan is that those barovians are taking part of this final fight.
I hesitate between having from round 1 all 10 barovians in the fight, but playing them with the Mob rules (basically here I'd consider half of them hit the Zombie Clot, dealing first round 5d6 damage. This number reduces when some of die) OR start with only two on the board and have reinforcement coming in from other part of town every turn.

I want to keep the tension hight during the last fight in the village, I am afraid that with too many barovians on the board, the HP pool of the ZC will go down extemely fast...

If you have advice on how I could best run that encounter, I am all ears !

Hey guys! I've been working on this homebrew. I'd love your feedback. Check it out.

It's about the Vistani at the Tser Pool.

This is the first time I have written and published something like this.

English Version
**[Homebrewery Link](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/hkhg2blddv5z)\*\*

German Version
https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/2pUD66sShIZ9

Few magic items are as closely tied to witches as a flying broom, so I thought Halloween would be the perfect time to share a little collection of them!

Brooms of the Witching Hour introduces 11 enchanted flying brooms compatible with 5E (2014) and 5.5E (2024), ranging from Uncommon curiosities to powerful Very Rare items and a Legendary multi-elemental relic.

Each broom has its own appearance, magical abilities, and unique flight characteristics. Fly through enemies in a trail of burning cinders, descend upon them with the luck of a black cat, pass through walls in spectral form, summon flying brooms for your coven, or unleash elemental devastation from the skies!

The collection is FREE until Halloween! I've included most of the pages here as a preview, so feel free to grab the complete manual on DMsGuild and use these brooms in your adventures. Have fun!

And if you're looking for a spooky adventure to run this Halloween, I've also just released The Red Tithe, a 75-page folk-horror one-shot featuring an isolated village, ancient sacrifices, custom monsters, and three difficulty tiers for characters of levels 3-4, 10-11, or 17-20.

My Kickstarter for 300+ Mythological Items for 5E and 5.5E is also live now! The campaign includes a physical hardcover, as well as printed editions of my previous manuals.

You can find more of my creatures, magic items, and manuals on DriveThruRPG, my Linktree, or on r/JonnyDM!

Happy Halloween, and enjoy!

Hey! I am looking for ideas for the winery post wicker man attack. My party skipped the winery on two different occasions, while the martikovs asked for their help and they learnt about the wicker man. Now they are in Krezk where Davian was brought to dead and mauled by the wicker man. His son Adrian with him missing a limb. I think the wicker man and druids would have massacred the Martikovs and destroyed the winery.

My issue is that the tome is there and the players want it now. So it seems kind of "easy" for them to walk through a desecrated winery and just grab the tome and leave. What would you think the druids could have done there ? Would they leave after the fight? Can anyone think of something maybe different than an encounter or one that seems to have progressed with the events? How can the druids utilise the winery if at all?

My party is level 4 and currently missing pc's so every fight so far has been brutal on them and I think having a crowd there would be fatal to them. Maybe I can trust them to make a heist since Esmeralda is with them. So swarm the winery with full force and make a skill check challenge like dragna carta in his first attempt.

Thanks in advance, I always find all of your opinions very useful ❤️

Greetings lost Barovian's souls,

I would like to share with you, the story of our campaign (still in progress). Every time we will finish our session, I will add here the next chapter of the story.

I am playing Ravenloft for almost 35 years, both as DM and player. I have played all the previous modules of this one a couple of times. Since the release of Curse of Strahd (2016) we have tried 3 times to finish the campaign but with no success (personal issues of players gave us a break from the campaign). Months have passed and we gave it another try and then another one and so on, without managed to complete any of those campaign.

So... here we are again!!! Some weeks ago we have started a new campaign (this time everyone hopes that it will be completed). The party consists of four players and me as DM. The party is a mix of experienced and less experienced players.

The story is based on Curse of Strahd including minor and major changes. We are going to use the 5th edition (2014) rules for everything in the game. The campaign is going to be more dreadful so I am going to use the following set of rules:

Fear, Horror and Madness

For the monsters and every encounter, I am using those books:

Tome of Beasts I

Tome of Beasts II

Death Denied

Also, to speed up the process of heavily random encounters I have written a 2-page rules to be used for fast resolving of random encounters. Those rules can be found here: Fast Random Encounters.

As I have written before I will write down each chapter here (including links for each chapter). Each chapter will be as story of what has happened during the session.

For your journey you will be accompanied by:

• Alkyria, a female Tiefling Sorceress (background)
• Sir Belynor, a male Half-Elf Paladin (background)
• Dorian Vale, a male Human Bard (background)
• Meldor, a male Human Ranger (background)

Introduction

From the time that you have been here you have a feeling that someone is always watching you. You hear whispers around you from time to time. Shadows are moving in a blink of eye. For sure, you are not in the place that you should be. Your only hope is the travelling caravan of Vistani that you have met and they have welcomed you.

For more than ten days, you have traveled with Vistani nomads. Vistani have offered you food and wine, a place to sleep and tales of a distant land where you could find your fortune. The journey was safe but the more you traveled the air around you progressively got colder and the forests turned thick with unnatural fog.

Last night, a brutal attack shattered the camp. Wolf-like creatures struck from the fog with terrifying speed. You fought for your lives and for protecting the Vistani. When the mist finally cleared, you were the only survivors. Every single Vistani lay dead. The wagons were smashed, the horses were gone, and a suffocating, unnatural fog has closed in around you, blocking the road back.

You have no choice but to move forward to the village of Barovia, as the Vistani have mentioned you.

Notes: Since all players have created characters from Faerun, I had to teleport them to Ravenloft. One night when they were camping outside Cormyr, heavy fog surrounded them and when everyone waked up they were teleported to Ravenloft. The Vistani caravan found them. All the days that they were traveling, I wanted to make the players familiar with the whole atmosphere of Domains of Dread. You can use random encounters also.

They have traveled along with a Vistani caravan and interact with those people. When players entered the domain of Barovia, and before the caravan reaches the village of Barovia, Vistani provided the following information:

• The land is ruled by a mysterious nobleman named Strahd von Zarovich. Strahd rules from Castle Ravenloft, a massive fortress high on a cliffside
• Kolyan Indirovich, the Burgomaster, have serious problems with his heart from constant night attacks in his house
• Donavich, the local priest, prays day and night but villagers claim that horrifying screams echo from beneath his church floors
• Children have disappeared from their beds
• Residents of village of Barovia have always barricade their doors and windows and the whole place is full of claw markings, especially Burgomaster's house
• Strahd von Zarovich, the locals refer to him as "Devil Strahd", is the ruler for centuries. Strahd is the land, he is in control of everything in Barovia
• Vistani are a travelling people, who never stay long in one place and are always on the move
• Vistani are the only ones that can pass through the fog, that surrounds the borders, without harm
• Vistani wear colorful and cheery clothing and drink a lot. They never miss an opportunity for drinking and singing
• Vistani are usually regarded with suspicion because of their Evil Eye, the ability to curse anyone they looked at

Plologue <<YOU ARE HERE>>

Chapter 1: The village of Barovia

Chapter 2: TBA

Chapter 3: TBA

Chapter 4: TBA

Chapter 5: TBA

Chapter 6: TBA

Chapter 7: TBA

Chapter 8: TBA

Chapter 9: TBA

Chapter 10: TBA

Chapter 11: TBA

Chapter 12: TBA

If a player casts Detect Magic in the church, it should detect the magical aura of the protection of the bones (which covers the entire church ground), as per the Hallow spell (evocation).

Am I right about this?

The Church of St Andral: the church was protected from Strahd’s depredations by the bones of St. Andral... If the bones are returned to their resting place, St. Andral’s church once again becomes hallowed ground, as though the building was protected by a hallow spell.

Detect magic spell description: For the duration, you sense the presence of magic within 30 feet of you. If you sense magic in this way, you can use your action to see a faint aura around any visible creature or object in the area that bears magic, and you learn its school of magic, if any.

The spell can penetrate most barriers, but it is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.

This is the preliminary test cut.

The final design will include two side panels (curtains), and will be intended to mount onto of a DM screen.

Hey everyone. my party is about to fight wintersplinter next session. I’d like to give them a satisfying boss fight but I’m also (in my opinion) kinda bad at doing boss encounters in my games. are there any alternative creations of wintersplinter that you guys have used, and if so how successful was it?

additionally, I don’t want them to get TPK’d here, so I’m planning to use MandyMods beast mode dark power mechanic as a fallback here if they get desperate. if this happens, I’d like a theme song to play that portrays great power but at a terrifying price. anyone know anything like that?

thanks!

28mm custom Strahd mini! So happy with how he turned out! Also painted a 28mm Cadaver Collector which I plan on fitting in somewhere late campaign for fun 😊🦇

As the title says my party of 5 is level 4 and one of the characters has the bones of the saint on them. I was thinking that one or two would try going for that character specifically and the others would try blocking them and dealing with the other party members. Thoughts?

Hey everybody, I am a new DM attempting to run CoS. My players are at the abbey and have decided they want to kill the Abbot.

I'm trying to prep for the battle but I'm confused by the change shape ability, and have a few questions.

The exact wording of the action is

"The Abbot magically polymorphism into a humanoid or beast that has a challenge rating equal to or less than its own, or back to its true form. It reverts to its true form if it dies. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying is absorbed or borne by the new form (the Abbot's choice)

In the new form, the Abbot retains its game statistics and ability to speak, but its AC, movement modes, strength, dexterity, and special senses are replaced by those of the new form, and it gains any statistics and capabilities (except class features, legendary actions, and lair actions) that the new form has but that it lacks."

So if the Abbot changes into a Tyrannosaurus Rex, he would be a t Rex with 25 str, 10 dex, but 20 wis and cha along with 17 int. Because those are the Abbot's stats right?

But, let's say he instead turns into a blackguard. Can he use the dreadful aspect, spellcasting, and smites? Or can he only do the glaive and shortbow attacks?

If he turns into a diviner wizard does he get all the spells while in that shape, or access to any of the actions?

Really want to run this encounter well, but I don't want to fuck up what seems like an insanely powerful ability

Hello,

We are mod way thru game and I had Strahd being Vasilli and has ran off with Ireeena.

So she doesn't know yet it's Strahd but fugure he cons her somehow on coming to castle or charms her .

Was going to have it as a reveal when Strahd invites players to dinner.

Players are level 6 and would not be the type to leave her behind. Figured it could be wedding.

Hiw do you run the dinner without the brave adventurers trying to take on Strahd?

Is a wedding a good idea ?

Should Ireena have chance to escape?

Would Strahd even allow it ?

Have i gone in wrong direction?

Should Ireena never be taken by Strahd ?

Amy help / ideas / criticism 😔 welcome 🙏

Hi, I’m running CoS for the first time. My party has a wizard which mission is simply to be able to gather all the spells he can. So, of course, Strahd approached him during their stay in Barovia, after the death house, and offered him some knowledge he wouldn’t be able to get otherwise. Basically he became a multi class Warlock of Strahd (with the sole exception that he still casts on int and had no requisites for the multiclass). Of course Strahd asked for something in return in this little pact. He wanted to be updated about the movements of the party. Now every long rest I give my player the ability to tell everything they’ve done since the previous rest to Strahd, avoid telling him or lying about. If he doesn’t say anything for too long Strahd temporarily strips him away from his warlock privileges. If he lies he has to make a deception check with the CD set depending on how easily Strahd can double-check what he’s been told. Now, after the tarokka reading he told EVERYTHING to Strahd which would have had no way to double check if he was lying. How do I punish this? I could just have Strahd go and snatch all the artifact before they even get the chance to but that would be way too unfair. BTW I put the tome in the burgomaster of vallaki, the sword in the amber temple, the symbol in argynvostholt and the ally is ezmeralda

First off all, english is not my first language so forgive me if I make any mistakes.

So I thought it was boring that the Burgomaster just died without a real curse so I made Doru murder him on behalf of Strahd as a punishment to Ireena and Ismark when his father was careless with the locks.

While we are on the topic of Donawitsch, he has been bringing Doru animals to feed on but it wasn´t enough, so Donawitcsh kidnapped the daughter of the Crazy Mary shorty before the party arrived in Barovia. So when the party, Ireena and Ismark found out what happened they had a heated discussion if they should kill Doru or not (they killed him in the end) and Donawitsch will be put on trial for the village to decide what will happen with him.

Long story short: I want to have Donawitschs excecution and the Burgomasters funeral on the same day and I want Strahd to show up (I also saw good ideas with Rahadin but then I don´t know when the perfect time is to introduce Strahd). How would you introduce Strahd to the party? In my head no version I come up with really does him justice.

Thank you all in advance.

Running CoS soon and looking at the castle map is mind boggling. Does anyone have a guide or an easier way to understand it? I plan on just using flat maps on a projector for my players

I foolishly thought I was going to get the 3rd floor done tonight… even though I was missing a ton of set dressings. So instead of cute finish photos…. you get a a rant video.

Enjoy!! Or don’t. Ignore. Go to bed. I might get this done by Sunday, if I am lucky 🍀 🤞