Dungeons & Dragons - A Guide to Curse of Strahd

Welcome to what will hopefully be a useful guide to running Curse of Strahd. My goal here is to provide a resource for all of us DMs to use. I am going to go through the book and try to organize things, figure out any confusing sections, and possibly provide cheat sheets for any scenes with a lot of moving parts.

I am going to be nibbling away on this for the next week or two, so please bear with me as I go chapter by chapter. Check back here often for updates!

Official Links:

Death HouseA pdf of the level one adventure from Curse of Strahd
Haunted One Background and Trinkets
Table of Contents
Barovian Souls
Story Bible
Black and White Free Maps (untagged)
All of the Maps by Mike Schley
Handouts
Volo's Visit to BaroviaA great story/overview of Barovia by Ed Greenwood
Adventurers' League DM and Player Guides
Adventurer's League Launch Page
Dice, Camera, Action!This is a stream of the adventure's author running Curse of Strahd. If you have the time, definitely check this out.

Other Links:

An Enhanced Version of Strahd
Enhancing Curse of Strahd
Merric Blackman Curse of Strahd Playthrough

My Links:

My Review/Rundown of Death House
Guide to Strahd von Zarovich
Guide to Vampires

Planning

You should definitely check out the Adventurers League DM Guide for Curse of Strahd, as it has a number of fun things you might want to include in your game.

Jenny Greenteeth: This hag can help out the adventurers and she is the only spellcaster who offers services in Barovia. The heroes have to pay he in gold and will also have to do a random hilarious service for her.

Death in Ravenloft: This rule option says that if a character is under 5th level and they die, the Dark Powers of Ravenloft will resurrect them! The adventurer will rise up the very next round, but they will have to roll on a chart for a "dark gift." They will also be Touched by the Mists. "You're tainted by evil. Cats hiss as you approach, milk sours at your touch..." The character also gains..

Resurrection Madness: Souls of the dead are trapped in Barovia. When  character is resurrected they gain a form of indefinite madness from realizing that their spirit is trapped in Ravenloft, possibly forever. This is discussed in the Curse of Strahd book on page 24.

Roaming Barovia: This adventure is wide open. It is possible that the heroes will end up in  place way too dangerous for them. If this is something you don't normally do, you might want to alert your players before the first session of this fact. Some players go into a campaign with the assumption that everything is scaled to their level. Here is the areas by level chart (page 6) with page numbers for each area:

(Level 3) Village of Barovia: Flavor page 33 (the heroes will likely hit A, B and C before arriving at Barovia),
(Level 4) Town of Vallaki: (work in progress, I swear)
(Level 4) Old Bonegrinder
(Level 5) Village of Krezk
(Level 5) Wizard of Wines Winery
(Level 6) Van Richten's Tower
(Level 6) Yester Hill
(Level 7) Argynvostholt
(Level 7) Werewolf Den
(Level 8) Tsolenka Pass
(Level 8) The Ruins of Berez
(Level 9) Castle Ravenloft
(Level 9) The Amber Temple

Before You Start the Campaign


Here's some stuff you might want to do before you begin the first session:

• Decide Between Level One or Level Three: If you want to run "Death House" (page 211) start the group at level one. If you want to jump right in to the main adventure, have the group make level three characters.
• Handout: Print out the handout called "Version Two" on page 256 in case the heroes find the body in the Svalich Woods (page 34). 
• Notes: Check out page 7 and maybe jot down a few little moments like a sight only the hero with the highest passive perception sees, an example of age, etc.
• The Mists: Make sure you understand how the mists work (page 23) and have those elusive exhaustion rules ready (Player's Handbook page 291). When you're in the fog, you're heavily obscured (PH page 183) which means you are blinded - attacks rolls against the blinded person have advantage, and the blinded person's attack rolls have disadvantage.
• Souls: Make sure you understand Barovian Souls (page 24). Only 1 in 10 Barovians have a soul!
• NPCs: Make a bunch of Barovian villager families (use the name list on page 25) in case the heroes explore houses in Barovia (page 41). That's d4 adults and d8-1 kids per dwelling. Remember that most Barovians are bland, depressed nothings. You might want to come up with personalities only for the 10% that have souls.
• Zombies: Make sure you have Strahd Zombie stats ready, maybe roll out how many zombies there are in a house or two.
• Yikes: Check out/absorb the night hag stats just in case things get hairy when the heroes get to page 48.

How to Start the Adventure
 
1. Adventure Hooks: Pick a hook from the pile on pages 18-22 and run it. Here's the three that I think are kind of the "main" ones:

• Plea For Help (page 18): A gypsy gives the group an invite to Ravenloft. 
• Creeping Fog (page 22): The heroes are camping, the mists take them to Ravenloft. 
• Mysterious Visitors (page 19): The group investigates gypsies, are escorted through Barovia.
  

2. The Lands of Barovia: Go to the map of Barovia on page 35. The heroes come in on the far right of the map and experience these encounters in order:

• A. The Road (page 33): Creepy forest. The heroes walk for 5 hours and then...
• B. Gates of Barovia (page 33): Headless statues, gate swings open.The image of this place is on the bottom of page 34.
• C. Svalich Woods (page 34): Where they might find a dead guy with a letter.

 3. The Village of Barovia: Once the group gets to town, there are some choices to make:

• If the heroes are level 1: and you are going to run "Death House", skip to page 211 and read that flavor text. Once this adventure is done, then proceed...
• If the heroes are level 3: read the flavor text on page 41 (Mad Mary's weeping).
• As the Group Begins to Explore the Town:They see an old lady selling dream pastries (she does her best to avoid the heroes). This one is a bit weird and dangerous.
• Follow the Weeping: Checking out the weeping will bring the group right by Bildrath's Mercantile and the Blood of the Vine Tavern. A major NPC awaits the heroes in the tavern, so put a neon sign on it or something.
• Exploring: The group will probably check out Mad Mary (page 44), then buy some stuff at Bildrath's (page 43) and check out the tavern (also page 43).
• The Tavern: The heroes can meet Ismark. If you did the "Pleas for Help" hook, Ismark says the letter is a forgery. Ismark wants the heroes to come to his mansion to help his sister...
• Burgomaster's Mansion (page 44): The heroes meet Ireena and see that their father needs to be buried in the cemetary...
• Church (page 45): There's a vampire spawn and some shenanigans.

 Obviously I am just getting started! Check back again soon, I'll be working on this for a while.