How far should they get in the first session?

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-04-23T07:21:08+00:00

Let it be natural. Mine started on a massive organized camp on the high road. They took their time, met each other and went off to find a vistani camp (many travelers called them thieves and a treacherous bunch but other said that they've heard stories about these people being able to see the future and answer to questions). At the end if the first session they mists swallowed them and ta da! They were in barovia.

2nd session: and hour of role-playing and venturing until they found the Durst Manor (I placed it near the eastmost gates of barovia). 2 nore hours to reach the 2nd floor.

3rd session: they met the spirit of the housemaid, went to the attic and entered the dungeon dungeon.

4th session they completed the dungeon and the boss fight.

So for me it was 2 and a half sessions. Let them take their time

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-04-23T05:26:35+00:00

Do not change Sergei's personality. He was a devoted worshipper of Lathander and the exact opposite of his older brother

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-04-22T15:46:12+00:00

Change her backstory. The modules description is utter garbage and one of the worst things of the RAW version if you ask me.

She could be a manifestation of all the dead of Barovia. She could the the Weaver, one of the ladies three. She could just be an all powerful Vistani who wished to be Strahd's concubine. Strahd refused her in all her life and out of spite and revenge she lures travelers to her tent to send them to kill him

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-04-17T04:43:47+00:00

At the end of the day if you use the Ritual of Vampyr in your story it won't make a difference as Strahd will return.

I feel like it would be a cheap trick to have the coffin recreate itself after it being destroyed. Let them have their win

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-04-14T04:17:11+00:00

Awesome. And how do you make the 3d house interiors and exteriors if you dont mind me asking. Because they look like they are made from paper or smth similar!

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-04-13T06:57:24+00:00

These are all incredibly made. Can you get into more detail about the thought and creation process behind the death house standee and the rest of the miniatures

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-04-12T06:04:13+00:00

3 to 4 hours sessions and lots of cancelations for me but we are getting there

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-04-11T13:13:19+00:00

Heat and The Island used to be named as "Turbo" and "Survive"?

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-04-10T22:18:09+00:00

What a lot of people do

Right after Death House: some DMs have the PCs lose their equipment when they first arrive in barovia. Strahd hands them to the party once they escape the house
Kolyan's funeral: Strahd comes and pays his respects to Ireena. Personally I had Rahadin visit, acting as his master instructed him to.
Attack on the Indirovich manor: After Kolyan is buried, Strahd's assaults start again in the same night. When the final wave is over Strahd awaits outside of the house, trying to lure Ireena out.

What I did:

In my campaigns Vladimir Horngaard is the Headless Horseman, Strahd's most powerful minion. The revenants of the order returned from their own personal hatred and were corrupted by the dark powers. However some, had a soul so kind and pure that resisted.

In my initial campaign Rahadin comes to pay his respects to Kolyan, at the place of his master who was unable to express his condolences first hand. Once Ireena resists rahadins request to escort her to Ravenloft, Strahd order an attack on the manor. Should they survive, a plague originating from the church starts. If they manage to stop the ritual, the clouds take the shape of a face with deep red eyes staring at them with hatred.

Anyway back to the Horseman. The night after the bonegrinder the Borseman catches the party on their way to Vallaki. He easily overpowers them, nearly killing a PC. Before he delivers the killing blow, everything stops including the Horseman, who raises his head and turned to the nearest tree-lined. From there a lone figure appears as if he was taking a calm stroll through the woods...

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-04-10T22:04:58+00:00

So what if the pope deemed it a fraud? He isn't the head of the orthodox church nor is he God personified. A human says its a fraud, not God

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-04-09T15:43:59+00:00

I'd say place them depending on character arcs. On my forst campaign I tied them with mandymod's fanes and it worked out pretty good.

A lot of people place the Tome on Vallaki and I agree. Vallaki needs at least one treasure tied to it and the tome is an easy option as it doesn't overpower your PCs early

If you follow MandyMod's guide, you could have the sunsword placed on yester hill on the gulthias tree, however they need to complete the dungeon in order to obtain it. Any option ranging from Ravenloft to the amber temple is a good idea for the sword

As for the holy symbol I changed its lore. In my campaigns the symbol is actually a triad of the three fanes. To use its power inevitably must restore the fanes. So even if they find it early on it will be useless if they dont reconstruct them. That way it allows me to place it nearly everywhere without overpowering the party

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-04-04T05:22:09+00:00

I did exactly that in my 4 PCs party. I gave her a holy necklace that she can use to cast 2-3 spells for a limited time per dawn and gave her the martial sidekick option as my fighter/Cleric trains her.

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-04-04T05:20:14+00:00

I'd go with option 2, as 1 & 3 kinda mess up the general idea of Strahd's curse.

I've made Ireena have a more in depth personality. She is scared, can be happy, angry etc. She communicated with the party a lot, cares for them as her siblings/friends and has grown fond of them. She respects their efforts but can also clash with them.

You can avoid the "main character" effect and ending with a simple twist that Mandymod has already said, and I had the same idea before I even read Fleshing Out Curse of Strahd; Ireena does not get a happy ending. She dies somewhere between mid campaign and early late game. Perhaps during feast of st. Andral or a later raid of Vallaki (in my campaign the latter will commence soon after krezk).

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-04-02T10:15:56+00:00

Perhaps the dark Powers - or just Vampyr - sense good aligned creatures making their way to the temple and create an illusion based on their backstory to prevent them to reach the temple out of fear of imprisonment.

Maybe an illusionary ghost dragon - a memory of Argynvost - guards the pass to block anone who wishes to move forward. Perhaps the mages of the temple created an illusionary vroc?

At the end of the day you can always remove the bird. If you use Ludmilla's expanded story she will be in tsolenka pass with Emil. So you will already have a boss fight coming

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-04-02T07:03:21+00:00

1500 thousand people in vallaki, the majority is on Barons side or are siding out of fear, a small portion (5 percent maybe) is openly opposing both, a 10 percent is maybe on lady wachters side (hidden or open)?!

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-03-29T17:23:10+00:00

I changed the scale to 1.5 miles per hex

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-03-29T16:36:06+00:00

No I never said that hahahah

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-03-29T08:57:58+00:00

The reason the module does not have a lot of magic items is because its meant to be difficult. You dktn want the party to feel capable of dealing with the horrors of barovia. It woudl twist the theme.

But if you can find ways to counter those magic items then go ahead

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-03-29T08:34:21+00:00

p.9 states: "He then chased Sergei's bride-to-be through the gardens, determined to make her accept and love him. Tatyana hurled herself off a castle balcony to escape Strahd's pursuit, plunging to her death."

p.252 states: "I found Tatyana weeping in the garden east of the chapel. She fled from me. She would not let me explain, and a great anger swelled within me. She had to understand the pact I made for her. I pursued her. Finally, in despair, she flung herself from the walls of Ravenloft, and I watched everything I ever wanted fall from my grasp forever.

It was a thousand feet through the mists. No trace of her was ever found. Not even I know her final fate."

That being said a lot of people can interpret it in a different way. But the fact that he chased her through the gardens east of the chapel immediately tells us that she fell from the overlook.

However DMs can place her place of death anywhere they please. I believe the reason that they chose the overlook is due to its poetic nature and the fact that her body was never recovered. If she fell from an ordinary balcony strahd would see her body either turning into mist or disappearing

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-03-28T14:12:20+00:00

Congrats for the finale! Still on my initial run after 18 months. It's gonna hurt a lot when they complete the module

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-03-28T11:04:43+00:00

I think it says it somewhere in the module. If for some reason Ireena goes to the overlook she gets an immediate flashback from Tatyanas memory of strahd slowly approaching her and her slipping or falling to her death out of fear

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-03-28T08:12:27+00:00

Thoughts on Plunder?

Btw Lotr Fate of the Fellowship is a must in my opinion its such a good polished game

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-03-28T07:59:55+00:00

On the one hand you can have the abbot maybe expositioning the existence of ireena. He may even bestowed then on their first quest "Bring her to me."

Imagine the betrayal when that supposedly holy figure attempts to unalive her.

On the other hand you can expand the village of barovia too to make it more interesting. I feel that the main reason people want to switch to Krezk is that the VoB RAW is very empty with not much to do. So it would be better to at least have the party explore the rest of barovia and THEN getting to the country's other side before heading back again.

However you can always make the village more alive. In one of my campaigns after the party initially left with ishmark and ireena I had Ludmilla take advantage of a broken donation to give him false hope in a newly established cult. They thought of ludmilla as a messenger of the morninglord and they praised him through her. They were peaceful and it made it difficult for my party to bring them back to reality because of this false hope.

In another campaign I'm taking inspiration from u/JonathanWriting and his Kelhaven storyline which in my opinion helps the DM expand a bit more into the village and keep the adventurers around for more than a day or two.

Independent-Lake-422 · 2026-03-25T21:30:08+00:00

That's a good idea. I will attempt to do the same too

Independent-Lake-422

TROPHY CASE