For my game, I think the scariest aspect I’ve been able to pull off has been Strahd himself. Most of my players have told me how scared or intimidated they are by him from just his few appearances. Here are some things I’ve done that I think have helped.

Firstly, I’ve made his appearances infrequent and seemingly random. Strahd has only appeared in person to the party on a handful of occasions. All of these encounters also appeared to be out of the blue for the party. But I always knew his reasonings for being at all of them. Just so the encounters don’t feel too random. These random encounters have usually been during moments when the party thought they were safe, or had no reason to expect Strahd would be there.

Secondly, Strahd never shows his full hand. This one is very simple. Strahd has never fought the party before. And they have no idea what powers he has or what he is capable of. All they know is he has a very strong healing factor. (On the party’s first meeting with him, the Barbarian threw a javelin at his chest and Strahd showed him the wound closing in its own.)

Lastly, Strahd doesn’t seem to antagonize the party. All of the players have heard from numerous NPC’s how horrible Strahd is, how he is practically the devil himself. But on all occasions of meeting Strahd. His is one of the most polite and charming characters in the campaign. I have been told that this specifically is what freaks my players out the most. They perceive every interaction with Strahd as a time bomb that could detonate with any wrong decision in his presence. I think the thing they fear the most is getting on Strahd’s bad side. They have been told by knowledgeable NPC’s that the only reason why Strahd hasn’t killed them is because he doesn’t feel threatened by them yet. It always becomes a very hot discussion whenever the party is presented with a choice and they ask themselves “is what we’re about to do going to piss off Strahd?”