Strahd & Ravenloft | D&D Beyond
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
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The reason CoS is so well received is that the BBEG isn’t a shadow until you go to the last room of the last dungeon. He comes early. You get to know him. He’s real. He’s there. He’s strong. He’ll bite your face off. He’s charismatic. He’s the hero of his story. He’s in love. His story is tragic. He’s more fleshed out than most PCs..
Actually I found it a tiresome trope. There aren't many vampire stories around that aren't basically this.
fmacanadaguy it’s the standard Dracula story yeah. But it being in a improv storytelling environment adds to it. You can change a lot of the story too
@@cloudstone123 ravenloft is from 1990, nowadays we are literally submersed with vampire stories, but back then he was one of not so many, plus the first fleshed out in D&D
That last one really hurt. We were playing last night and in character I asked jim where his PC was from. He responded "oh ya know...some village..." Lmao
@@Keemera I know. I was born in 75 and started playing in 87 so I was there for all of it. Didn't care for it much then. Too much Dracula.
Strahd is an incredible villain, he’s like Darth Vader. He can stand perfectly still and totally destroy you, or he can rip you to shreds. That being said, he’s such a manipulative bastard, he can be almost pleasant. When I ran this campaign, I had him randomly show up in the player’s camp, tending their fire, admitting to loving to camp out of doors among his men and soldiers, and that that was when he felt most alive. That put the player on watch at ease, and allowed them to have a chance to talk, and to really get a good ability to size them up as a possible replacement for him.
Do you mind if I steal this and use it for my upcoming game?
*casually writes this down for later use*
Amazing idea 💡
This is such a cool power move idea, love it!
In my group the fighters pissed Strahd off so much that he didn’t care who we were or what we wanted. My character, a half elf cleric noblewoman, tried talking with Strahd at least once and he just attacked me because of stuff my party did. We beat him but Rahadine showed up and blamed my character for what happened. In fact, Rahadine was so mad he killed me and beat up my dead body until my party killed him. Apparently I’m the scapegoat of the party. 😝
The biggest crossover of my childhood was the introduction of Lord Soth from Dragonlance moving over to Ravenloft.
Still blows my mind to this day.
I loved that book, but I think it was retconned.
The players I'm running this game for are on their way to Ravenloft after one whole IRL year of excitement, bewilderment, and sorrow. We're all thankful to everyone who created this adventure, especially whoever came up with Snow Dwarf and the Seven Wights.
I can sit and listen Chris talking for hours about CoS.
Now I'm just curious what will happen next
It's interesting, currently running Tomb of Annihilation and having already gone through Curse of Strahd, the disparity between the two villains, Strahd and Acererak. In terms of sheer power, the archlich has the vampire beat, but Strahd is arguably the far more compelling character. And yet, both do so well in their respective spheres of villainy: one is a more personal villain, someone you spend the whole game knowing his identity and doing all in your power to thwart. The other you only learn about much later but his presence and power can be felt throughout the multiverse, he's on a level like Thanos in terms of widespread influence.
It would be so interesting to listen to a conversation between these two in a room at one point.
I mean, he's less *physically* present, but his personality oozes from every inch of the Tomb for instance.
I'm running this for the first time right now! Strahd just introduced himself to the party and graciously welcomed them to his land.
So much mystery and personality in every shadow of this world!
This is ironically the most alive a D&D setting has ever felt in my mind.
2:18 Chris quote of the month... and nothing scarier than a spell casting vampire ... in a gothic horror setting
Recently started DMing COS for the first time about a month ago and I'm fully entranced with the lore and atmosphere of Ravenloft. I'm brimming with excitement for when my party makes their way towards the castle.
My friend just finished running Curse of Strahd for me. By far the best module I’ve ever got to experience so far. Keep up the good work guys!
Behind the gates of Ravenloft: halles of evil, dream of dread. Only the touch of dead waits on the steps of Ravenloft
Honestly, one of my favorite things about CoS is how brutal it is. I certainly love Strahd and think he's an interesting character, but Ravenloft is what happens if you turn D&D into hard mode. At least, I assume so, unless my DM has done so on his own. I could tell that it was a bit more difficult than other games I had played in the past, but when I really noticed, was when the party was escorting Ismark and his sister accross the land, and the night gaurd woke the party up when a group of 16 zombies (we were only level 3) was wandering towards our encampment. For some reason, trying to gather up all the supplies and run away is significantly more stressful than any boss battle I've ever been in. Loved every second of it.
So is ToA.
During the session zero for my group before I ran CoS I literally said "This is DnD on hard mode." They are ready to storm Strahds castle now and its been awesome.
Please return to the Demiplane of Dread! More Darklords!
@@malcolmcampbell2370 DUDE YES
I would just like to see them ignore Ravenloft a lot less. Not sure I like having each domain be it's own demiplane anymore, either.
I play a Bard from Kartakass, which doesn't seem to exist anymore. So much awesome lore, thrown out the window.
You got your wish!
I would love to see Chris do another run of Curse of Strahd but with his own new set of twists and changes
Love this. My players are level 5 and smack in the middle of Vallaki. Just figuring out how Strahd will be making his second face-to-face with the party.
0:40 I just love the way this phrase has true meaning in both the literal and metaphorical sense, since vampires have no reflection!
It's iconic because every player remembers the campaign that nearly killed them, too many times.
And every DM remembers panic scaling all the monsters to not one shot a party. Lol
I am currently 9 months in to running the COS campaign. I love this story and setting !
Strahd has realized his love will never be returned and has struck a deal with Shar. No longer constrained to the confines of Barovia he has taken pity on all of Toril and wishes that none shall ever suffer his fate. In one final act of altruism, of redemption, he will end all suffering, all despair by any means necessary, even if it means returning everything to the void.
AND .. I've been drinking.
A lot.
Worked for Soth
In my humble opinion, Strahd is the greatest villain in all D&D Lore.
It's a good thing your opinion is humble or we'd be fighting.
VECNA!!! FTW!!
Zak Meow I would DIE to see Vecna and Strahd duke it out.
Strahd got a lot less compelling once it occurred to me that all this dark-powers/demiplane-of-dread BS could've been avoided if someone'd taught him as a kid how to take 'no' for an answer 🤣 Don't get me wrong, I love a good vampire story, *but*.....
@@sharlharmakhis280 what is bad about having a bad childhood as a backstory for a villain?
Love Strahd! he is suck a tactical thinker and he enjoys toying with the party and tricking them and that he is tangible! Flawed and perfect at the same time! best kind
I'm running this story right now for my party and I love it. It really does feel like they give the DM plenty to play with, including strahd himself.
Ravenloft drew me in to D and D. 20 years later I’m still reading the books over and over. Someone please tell James Cameron there is a goldmine of movies just waiting to be made here.
CoS has been my first DMing experience. I can't thank these folks enough for making my debut effort such a blast!
my group never finished CoS because of scheduling issues, but I remember going to van Richten's tower, using disguise self and the actor feat to look and sound like Strahd and one of my allies then attacked me because he didn't know it was me. the tower was empty, we looted it. fought off multiple attacks and went on.
My DM let me play through as a Werewolf which was just classic Vamps vs Werewolves. It also added a lot to the campaign in ways we did not expect. This is such a great adventure and there is no wonder why it’s ranked number one in so many top ten WOC campaigns for 5E.
Where did this come from suddenly? IS COS THE NEXT REWORK AND ALTERNATIVE COVER ADVENTURE!?!?!?!
Çınar Demir is think that more stories from that world will come, not a reworking. I’d daringly say it’s one of their best book campaigns.
They better not reworking, I literally bought this book yesterday (And feel like they are making videos for me now lol)
there's no real need for that... The dragon adventure was flawed and needed an update to shine. CoS is perfect as is.
A Aron it is insanely good but I couldn’t call it perfect. They didn’t even release an Errata for it though so that shows that they’re satisfied with it completely.
@@kenshokram Lucky. I wish this video had been made before I started or even finished DMing my first CoS campaign lol
I find Strahd frightening on a different level again, one that's talked about by Hickman in the prologue of the book but not so much here. He IS the tragic, fallen hero...in his own mind, and in the worldview he wants to convince you of. One thing that's frightening about him is that that lie he presents is seductive, easy to buy into. In reality, he's just an abuser who utterly refuses to let his victim escape him. She can't even die to get away from him. No matter how many times she's reborn, there's Strahd, chasing after her, tormenting everyone in his vicinity just to get to her, turning other people into vampires just to temporarily sate his obsession with her. Where Dracula (novel version) was a cold, calculating predator with zero conscience, Strahd's obsessive stalker angle makes him somehow worse.
Why a video on Strahd now? I could listen to Chris talk forever but I'm curious as to why this video right now.
maybe something new is coming ?
Ravenloft has many other domains. Some with more powerful lords
Maybe a sequel to CoS? There were adventures that take place before and after the previous editions' versions of CoS.
@@platinumsketch Havenloft-A Spring Break! All the shopkeepers are stocked up on booze and the Barovian highland maidens have the softest hands! There is a hot tub party waiting in Vilaki and Strahd is the MC & DJ at castle RAVEnloft!
Halloween "expansion"/sequel coming up? Doubtful. They are already releasing a lot of adventures this year with Saltmarsh, Icespire Peak and Avernus. However, they recently announced a new cover edition of Tyranny of Dragons following the same theme of the special game store releases of the core rulebooks. Maybe they are timing that for Halloween. Why tease that on D&D Beyond? Well, because the new edition might come with a discount code for buying the adventure on D&D Beyond as well.
I'm pretty sure the occasion is Halloween though, even though. Icespire Peak now/September. Avernus in early October and and Strahd "deluxe edition" in late October.
If you're really interested in Strahd, you *should* check out the novels written by P.N. Elrod.
I read the novels first and then I absolutely had to take my players on the adventure.
It's odd.. We JUST started CoS YESTERDAY😅 Made it too "The Death house" so far.
good luck friend, death house is absolutely brutal if you're not lucky lol
Love the ping-pong game going on in the background. LOL. I'm nearing the endgame of running my campaign of CoS, and I LOVE it. I would 100% run this again for new players, taking what I've learned from this run to make it even better next time. It's been one of my favorite D&D experiences to date.
Dave Hatfield THATS what I’m hearing!!
As someone who has played a CoS campaign as a player, it’s honestly fun and I do plan on having my first time DMing be CoS.
The time I played CoS is with me as a Human Sorcerer and because of some conflicting stuff, my original party left but we were able to get new party members and my DM made it to where Strahd attacked my party, leaving me the sole survivor. My character vows revenge for her fallen party and begins to search for Irenna and Van Richten with her new party. She ends up discovering that Strahd has an eye for her and offers her immortality. She doesn’t know what to think of Strahd’s offer but he charms her and then bites her once. Once they arrived at Ravenloft, my party fought him until our Rogue fell and my character went to get him away from Strahd. Strahd offers his deal again but this time if she doesn’t take it then our Rogue dies and everyone is killed before her. Realizing that what he says is the truth, she takes his deal but tells him the Barovia is freed and her party can leave. She and Strahd leave and the Tiefling in my party declares that they need to go back and rescue me from Strahd. Now because of my sacrifice, my character is now a vampire and is Strahd’s
The most brilliant thing my DM ever did was play a Strahd who had overcome himself. One who, after centuries of fighting and killing countless adventurers, was finally able to see himself clearly and hated what he saw, but was so ancient and tired that he was past despair. We met him as a drunk Vasili in a pub in Barovia and didnt fucking realize who he was until we'd taken shelter in Ravenloft from an army of revenants that were marching on our location. The first words I slurred at him as he was pulling me, half-paralyzed, from one of Ravenloft's poison traps, were
"You're a real dick, Zarovich"
- So you think you're the first vampire with necromancy spell Strahd ? Vlad Von Carstein
Amazing setting and adventure.
Love these talks, Keep it up!
I'm a player in this adventure right now and am absolutely loving it!! Thanks for your hard work!!
3:30 I think if ur asking for something relatable, it's that he loved someone that didn't love him back.
I just got into D&D, can't wait to learn to play so I can run through this campaign.
Based on Tales from the Yawning Portal and Ghosts of Saltmarsh, it seems WOTC is keen to cash in on updating some old adventures (with some common themes) to 5e and stringing them together in new adventure books. It wouldn't be too hard at all for WOTC to update a set of old Ravenloft adventures (2nd edition stuff from various domains of dread) and put out another Gothic horror adventure book, like TftYP or GoS. Ravenloft is perfect for this, as you can plug these adventures into any campaign, just have the mists of Ravenloft take the heroes away for an adventure and at the end deposit them back in their campaign world.
Here's hoping :)
Agreed
There is soooo much more to offer in the domains of dread.
Is it bad to feel sorry for a malicious psychopath?
Curse of Strahd is probably the most flavoursome adventure of them all... i'd argue it's their best book so far... i would definately like to revisit
I love the Ravenloft setting and Strahd but have always preferred to play him as a tragic villian. I want the players to understand him and sympathize with him but still do what heroes must do.
CoS is the best adventure released by WOTC for d&d so far... is this a teaser for more things to come? because the story is perfectly self contained. lots of talk about the castle .. maps?
I just started my second run of CoS. Some of the players are returning from the first campaign, so I've taken a different slant; I've made it a prequel. How did our young Strahd become a vampire? How was Ravenloft cast into the Shadowfell? What events transpired to bring Barovia to ruin?
Aware that these events are covered in "I, Strahd," but really endeavoring to make this an original story. The party starts off working for Strahd and have slowly started to uncover an ancient plot centered around a cult that worships the Dark Powers and their efforts to free them from the Amber Temple. Really enjoying the freedom to introduce characters that aren't in the original campaign(i.e. Argynvost) as well as provide origins for others(i.e. Von Richten.) Also got to rebuild Berez from scratch, which is pretty neat.
We've been at it for six months with a waaaaays to go, but it's quickly shaping up to be better than our original run. I really credit this to the sandbox format the campaign's written in: really gives you a lot of room to play and get creative!
Shout out to the people playing air hockey in the background audio.
Strahd, Azalin, Soth, Mordenheim, Ankhtepot... All of these deserve their own unrated animated stories told finally for real. So much untapped potential story telling people are just not using.
Please give us more Domains of Dread to explore in 5e!
Please let this video and the return of The Tales From The Mists tease that! 🙏
After strahd we need azalin, lord soth and the other domain lords
Love me some Curse of Strahd.
Vampires have lasted so long because they are the ultimate metaphor for the elite. Dead inside, praying upon the poor, can't reflect, living in a castle.
with an unyielding need to consume more and more... ;)
Love it!! Wish these videos got seen more
One of his minions nearly killed me last week!! Bastard.......
I would really love to see either a game all about strahd or a movie based on “ I, strahd”. please make this happen!!!
I’d love to see reconstructions of borca, darkon, paradon, castle forlorn and sithicus. You should bring ALL of the dread realms back (and for god’s sake make lord soth the lord of sithicus again that dwarf they got to replace him sucks)
Gothic Horror is why Cos and VRGR are my favorite sourcebooks.
Ravenloft is so much more than just barovia.
Love the setting. Love the characters. Gothic horror is my favorit settings for roleplaying games....... more please. :)
Simple answer for me, GREAT WRITER(s)!
Definitely need more Ravenloft. I am itching to get my question answered on who takes a win in the end. Lord Soth vs Strahd
This video suggests curious things.
Oh yes! A Ravenloft-Sourcebook coming up?
One was just announced
@@alexsanchez1620 yeah, I'm HYPED! ☺️ Thanks for the reminder, my favourite black panther 😁
Please tell me that they are talking about Strahd because he's going to make an appearance in the 9 Hells during "Descent into Avernus."
It's a story about depression.
love Strahd worried that I won't do him justice roleplaying
Good God I love Chris so much
WE WANT MORE RAVENLOFT
ALSO SPELLJAMMER
You mean... TSR/WotC didn't have a vampire as well fleshed out...
In horror movies the monsters initially brought about personal justice to the misunderstood victim upon their stronger enemies but ultimately the temporary hero would lose control instead of returning to their boring life. The CofS remains at the center of the eternal loss which is for evil a burial place to forces such as nurture and bless the expanding universe. How can the vampires punishment be eclipsed so that it can end its embrace.
Azalin
Yes please
My favourite D&D villain of all time
COS2 Strad's return
Please let the demi plane of dread return. Would love to send my adventurers to Darkon, Karstakass and dare I say it, Sithicus
i was playing a dhampir in CoS and he looked up to strahd, and strahd always charmed him because he had -1 wisdom. my dhampir really wanted to see the good in him, but for the sake of the story he had to grow and see that strahd was set in his ways and was a very evil person. in the end, i really didn't want to kill strahd, my dm had played him very well and bounced off my dhampir super well. i was really sad to kill him. it didnt help that i painted a really nice mini for strahd either :( rest in peace, messed up evil vampire man
Curse of Strahd 2: Mecha Strahd
By the Morninglord, are we getting more Ravenloft material?
Hey, can we make adventures for a dungeon master with a walkthrough for the dungeons. I am piecing everything together and discovering the dungeon on my own days before I run it.
This goes for tomb of annihilation.
I think more people will dm if it's a little easier.
But what about the other Domains of Dread? What about the other Darklords? Why is Strahd hogging the spotlight?
The Realm of Terror boxed set from 2E introduced over a dozen new lands each ruled by someone as evil as Strahd, such as the lich Azalin Rex, the Flesh Golem Adam, and a dictator modeled on Vlad Tepes named Vlad Drakov. They should get some love from Wizards!
You took Bram Stokers "Dracula" and reworked it alittle it's not like you did alot of the hard work it's already a great story.
Gahh I wish I could watch but I'm currently paying in Curse!
Who would dislike this? 🤷♂️
There is no reason why the Grand Conjunction or Grim Harvest can not be written out as a multi books series of modules.
Love you chris
Strahd came to us in our dreams last session and told us to betray each other and take his place. Some considered it, others refused him outright,
the Warlock called him a Boomer and dabbed on him, and the Bard asked him if he wanted to buy the Golden Gate bridge
I love D&D
WHA CAN WE HAVE A NEW STRAHD THING!? PLEASE!? **PLEASE!!!?!
We need 5E Krynn campaigns... Lord Soth... etc
Wait a minute does this mean Strahd is somewhere in the nine hells now oh no lol
Please! Bring Ravenloft back!!!
Because he's Dracula
💪🏽💪🏽
Strahd is just a giant incel
Now that I’ve driven off the haters, I’m actually having my party break Strahd out of Ravenloft and bring him back to the prime material. They need a great power of darkness in order to counteract the light they have brought forth. He will betray them once he gets out and is done with them though.
Oh yeah, and they’ve already been through CoS as an earlier part in the campaign.
Who else loved the novel I' Strahd?
Woot! I'm the 666th like on a conversation about The Devil Strahd!
Strahd is an amazing villain but second to Chris Perkins.
I'm hoping they do another Ravenloft based adventure/campaign that isn't based off this tiresome vampire trope. To steal from the past Ravenloft video game series, use a mummy lord.
I don't think the book really gets this across about Strahd. I know a lot is on the DM, but so much of CoS just seems like a depressing, evil for evil's sake land, and it doesn't make any sense for Strahd to act the way he does, or for the people of Barovia to still even try to live, after this long. I was let down by the book, but I know I am in the minority.
This seems kinda late
I ran into a problem running CoS, once the players found his journal they couldnt take mr.fedorawearing creep of a vampire seriously anymore. I reccomend retconning alot of the silliness in the campaign guide to make him truely formiddable.
castlevania anyone ?
"hard to kill" my party nuked him in two turns