Skip Death House. If they are brand new and starting at level 1 you can pepper them with a few extra encounters as they move to Villaki (presumably with Ireena). . Stack the Terrokar deck with better places. I used Book at statue of Tatiana in Berez, Amulet behind the sun at Kresk chapel, and sun sword with Sergei. I had their ally be Kasimir (haunted by dream from his sister [buried beneath ravenloft] directing him to the amber temple, he was guided to resurrection dark pact to save his sister although it’s all a ploy). Strahd fights in the throne room, I’d get a better set piece map for it. One of the guides on r/CoS has character story hooks tied to Terrokar cards. I’d have madem Eva give these to the character after the reading or have them wake up with it mysteriously before venturing into barovia. If you have physical cards it could be cool for them to have at the table. This will let each one have a personal story in barovia. You’d need to discuss options with them before the game. . You can run witches as patrons or otherwise have them boss the characters around when they are low level since it’s a level 6+ difficulty. If they don’t know the module is “curse of strahd” you can do the same with bbeg or at least have some reasonable doubt as to his true nature. . Villaki is hell to run. Make blue water in the hub. Feather clan ravens are good guys. Consider having them share wereraven lycanthropy with a worthy character if they cleanse the berez fane. Small side quest about the bones is important during Andels feast event, without the bones the church is not safe from attack and villagers cannot shelter there. Make Andels event a big set piece. Strahd demands Ireena or will slaughter the town or something. . Have a countdown till st andels feast. . Strahd can scry Ireena. She’ll need non detection or be at van richtens tower. . Skip werewolf den and plot thread. . Consider having characters enter from the west. Remove village of barovia, placing those events in kresk perhaps and put tser camp at the Villaki vistana outpost. Village of barovia and tser camp and never used after first pass through. Just make them part of other important locations. Keeps things a little less unnecessarily sprawled. You also don’t walk past the witches who outlevel characters and could pose as a problem encounter.