My players had just reached the “open world” section of Curse of Strahd. They made a straight line for the Amber Temple (an end game bonus area). While spelunking, they discovered a plot to kidnap the barbarian’s children that ended up derailing the entire campaign. Every giant monster I had tossed in front of my players died horribly. The game ended after 34 sessions, 5 dead dragons, and 1 airship shaped battering ram.
Things took a turn during our Christmas special. Kidnapping the barbarian’s kid was meant to make things personal for the party AND BOY HOWDY DID IT! The party abandoned every other side quest to put the spurs to Strahd. After securing the kid, they marched back to the castle and kicked the old blood bag to death.
It started with the addition of a dracolich. He was a hinted at enemy in the Dragon’s Rest starter box that I ran them through. Really he didn’t have a lot of characterization–he’s more like a hook to build on. The party went straight to his face and destroyed him inside his lair. I nearly put the party down during the fight to my credit.
When leaving the dragon’s lair (inside the mote of the castle), Strahd’s airship (another addition) opened fire on the party. The monk went down (it only took 30D6 to the face but I managed). The barbarian flew his broom to the ship *stealthily*, fought through the zombie crew, took control, and promptly set her down nose first into Castle Ravenloft. This effectually ended most of the side quests left in the castle.
Not wanting to lose time, the team set off into the castle’s crypts. They walked directly to the tomb of the vampire lord’s favorite horse and murdered him. This triggers Strahd to immediately attack. They killed him in one round. Knowing this meant he was nearly done for real, I sicked the brides of Strahd on the party giving me an extra session to end things.
Once they dealt with the brides, they entered the crypt. I added monitors watching all of the terrible things occurring around Barovia that the party left undone. I thought it was fun for them to get to see all the other monster encounters I had planned. They killed Strahd for the second time and destroyed his clones. With an army of monsters converging on the castle, they loaded up inside the hull of the smoldering airship and pointed it toward a wormhole back home.
In the interdimensional space between worlds, I had the final boss fight with blood dragon Strahd. It was an adult red dragon but I replaced the damage type with neurotic and had it heal him with each hit. Also, gave him the vampire auto healing each round. By this time, the party was getting sleepy and wanted things to end. They killed Strahd for the third and final time as they returned to Faerun.
On the other side, a demigod was pointing a planet destroying cannon at the party (in anticipation of vampire monsters emerging). We decided that was a good place to stop. They could decide how to deal with their situation back home if we ever pick that game back up.
We discussed doing a legacy game with the same setting. So, everyone would be related to the heroes from the first campaign. The barbarian has already picked out classes for his kids. I also floated the idea of doing a Gestalt game. Basically, each level is 2 levels. That way they could go up to 40 (instead of 20). The only issue is that 5e math gets a little fuzzy at that power ranking. But I’d get to toss way worse monsters at the group which would be fun.
Overall I had a great time with this campaign. I really like CoS as a setting though I’ll probably play it RAW next time. My additions got a little out of control. It did feel too railroady as well. I’d love to do an open ended, no hard beats, just do what you want game. By the end, it felt like they were just going from crisis to crisis without a lot of down time. If we had actually done the side quests, I think this game could have easily lasted another 20ish sessions. We still had druids, ghosts, the witch, the temple, and the abbot to contend with.
This campaign also taught me a lot about player motivation. I could set up monsters or treasure in front of the party and they would respond. However, when I had a chance to role-play out scenarios things went smoother. Too often I’d just read what was in the book and then ask them what they do in response. I know this is a box adventure issue in general but when I let the party just do silly things we all had a better time. Also learned that I need to get better at fights. My player group was pulling some high strategy out against some of the monsters and I could have given them better fights. The best combat encounters came from going off script and adding little mechanics to keep things different. CoS is filthy with undead. Adding in more diverse fauna to attack the party gave them some diversity in their murder. Making the rooms different also helped keep the fights feeling varied.
I will say, CoS does lend itself well to replayability. I bet my same crew might want a second run at the old bat in a few years.
For now, we are discussing our next game. Thinking about doing some one offs with me playing instead of DMing. We are looking at being thieves performing heists. This might roll into a campaign if we get a good group of characters together. I haven’t settled on a character yet but I’m circling a warforge druid (I am GROOT), a gunslinging aarakocra (a “caw” boy), a goblin illusionist, or an autognome rogue. Also joked about playing a dragonborn monk again (my last one was actually a doppelganger that replaced that character so it would just be funny). Oh, or maybe a tabaxi shadow monk because CAT!
Ugh…
Such is the life of the forever DM. Forever not deciding on what character to be next when I do get to play.
