Most of my changes were adding things from older versions of the adventure, combined with several things from Empty Hearts and Misty Fortunes. One of the things was the deranged, feral werewolf that came from Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, I introduced him as a potential plot thread and had him hunting the party...he's also just as much an enemy of the local werewolves as he is just about everyone else other than those directly working for Strahd who finds him amusing. I encorporated the Knights of the Raven into things, and took their temple and merged it with the raven rookery concept from the AL campaign starting from a random encounter I put in things. I also swiped the Totem of the Raven from the 3.5 Ravenloft setting and placed that there, it's not really mobile, but adds more of why it's a place of refuge...and why the locals still avoid the place The old expedition to castle ravenloft ruined tower was another thing, that one was mainly due to missing players and wanting to do something slightly different because that's an absolutely insane thing to play through, and 5e actually lets it work more rationally, but it's still crazy. I also added a zombie dragon encounter that never ended up used, but I put it in because I wanted to try using the one from the D&D Adventure Game: Castle Ravenloft for something. There
Haha yeah, sorry... 😅 I meant more in terms in breadth of experience/campaigns. Sure, I've done one looong campaign, but not done much beyond that. Or maybe I'm just modest, hehe.
@@DMoftheMists It's part of what makes your content so engaging. You're very down to earth and relatable even though you have such a vast wealth of experience to draw from. Don't change!
Yeah, it definitely helps to make them a bit more interesting - especially if the players have already fought other vampire spawn at that point (the ones in the coffin shop, the ones in the Amber Temple, etc.).
Long term DM here. I love all the modifications you did on CoS. I'm running two separate CoS games at the moment: Game 1: This is all being done through text RP between a friend and myself. I play two characters and run the game, and she plays two characters. The secret she doesn't know is one of my characters is Strahd's brother finally reborn as a Vistani. One of her characters in a past life smuggled his bones and the bones of his bodyguard out of Barovia. She is also playing the reborn bodyguard. The last character I'm playing is a 'dusk elf' who is actually an experiment of The Abbot who is going to be a mid game BBEG for us to defeat before we tackle the end BBEG. Strahd himself is our villain, but I wanted to tell the story of Strahd finally healing, which means letting Ireena go and saving his brother from being killed. The Vistani are also far more complex as they will help Strahd but are doing their own thing to save Barovia. Game 2: My Fiance heard the game I was running above and said 'You know what the greatest torment? Learning from your mistakes and not getting a perfect ending'. After sitting with that I offered my normal table the option to play CoS with some changes. This one is also getting a minor overhaul of the lore, so I can highlight stuff from 'I, Strahd' and play into his connections with the Ulmist Inquisition. The group are all connected to Strahd and are mirrors of him. I also had to modify the story because one of my players has a mental disorder and I can't throw all the hallicenations at them. One is a former Lord of Dread who's realm was destroyed and his body destroyed with it (Reborn in a Warforge). Another is a descendent of Strahd (Rewriting Madame Eva as Strahd's illegitimate child and the PC is her Great great grand child) who has to heal the family bloodline by quelling the spirits who haunt Barovia. And finally a vampire from a healed Realm of Dread (This is Ireena reborn and her arc is learning she never had a choice before, but now she can choose what path she wants in life and not be pulled along by heroes). We fondly call this 'Therapy of Stahd' and everyone has to suffer before they can live with their demons. I think the thing I didn't like about the raw module is while there is horror in depressive worlds. Real horror is supposed to be about seeing your worst faciets be glorified and battled with. So I wanted to build more for my players to sink their teeth in. Mind I also have two sets of players who are heavy into roleplay and fighting is a burden we get through to get to more story. I fully intend to write up my changes and post them once I'm further along in both games. Game 1 is getting through their introduction game (Running Waterdeep Dragon Heist before they get pulled into Barovia), and Game 2 is about to enter Barovia after I homebrewed an intro game for them.
Both of those sound really cool. I love the PC ideas in Game 2 as well. I was a player in WDH a few years back - it's a great campaign. If your players reach Level 5 at the end of WDH and you need balancing tips, then I have another video for that, if it helps: ua-cam.com/video/k4cE_-ejoRg/v-deo.html
OMG! I saw a post long ago in Reddit that explained something similar with Victor so it was you lol , I love the idea of the teleporting Wizard, I was going to add it to my Barovia games but my groups were very pro Vargas so I never had the chance
Hehe! It might've been me - I've mentioned it a few times, on the subreddit and a CoS DMs Facebook group - but I want to stress that I'm not the originator of the idea, so it could've been someone else... maybe even the person who originally came up with it. 🤩 Ahh that's a shame, about not being able to do it because they were pro-Vargas. I was about to say "pro-Vargas" is a phrase you don't see very often (I'd wager that 9 out of 10 parties side with the Wachters), but thinking about it, when I played CoS (before DMing it for myself), I'm sure we were pro-Vargas too... Or perhaps pro-no-one, as I think we kept away from the politics and left them all to it... 😅😬
Currently working on starting the campaign on the opposite side of Barovia. It is going to be one hell of a doozy reworking everything, but I have a feeling it will honestly work out better in the long run of the campaign.
Ooo, interesting - I've heard about DMs doing that. It's not something I think I'd want to do personally, but I understand people's reasons. Is there a particular reason you're doing it that way, out of interest? And how are you going about reworking it all? I think the only reason I'd consider it is if I'm running it for players who's played CoS before, or if they're entering at a higher level than intended - stuff like that.
My homebrew changes are fairly weak. Me and my girl are doing an 1 to 1 Curse of Strahd. And I made it so Strahdyana is a woman (we're both sapphic). And I had this changr that Ireena has been picked up by Strahdyana months before my girls party arriver ad had died. So thus my girl's character is now Strahdyana's newest bride to be 😂 It's very weak but me and my girl are enjoying our silly little sapphic campaign! ❤
Sounds cool - not weak at all IMO. At the end of the day, if you're both enjoying yourselves, then that's all that matters. And homebrew's supposed to be optional anyway. There's DMs who say that CoS needs homebrewing, but others who run it straight out of the book and it goes well (my DM did, back when I was a player playing CoS).
@@DMoftheMists Yeah! I think there is no wrong way to run any campaign as long as everyone who plays in it are enjoying it. Even if you alter the big pieces of the campaign/story! I just wanted to run this one to introduce my girl in D&D, and this one was perfect! Since it includes vampires and gothic vibes (which they love a lot and me too) we're now at session 1.1 entering Death House with their party (yes, I'm also roleplaying the 3 other party members since we are 1 to 1 campaign) :D
My last homebrew I did the following. 1. Started the party naked in Deathhouse and they had to scavenge for gear. 2. Didnt do the 3rd fortune teller because i wanted to keep it open. 3. At first crossroad to Castle Ravenloft, i had a carriage with nightmares ready to transport them to the castle. If they touch the carriage, they get stuck and the nightmare makes a mad dash for the castle. 4. Strahd, posing as Count Vasli is secretly the partys patron when they get to Valaki. 5. The NPCs in Valaki approach the characters. 6. Added the seeds as a personal goal of Strahd who plans to currupt them and take absolute control of the domain. He already has the 3rd seed. 7. Added more to the druids wanting the seeds. 8. On return to Valaki, had strahd hold seige to Valaki and the church, killing everyone. 9. Had a carriage chase where werewolves chased the party while they were racing to the castle. 10. No long rest allowed in the castle. 11. The priest in Barovia is the party ally and he commited suicide when his son died, so they had to figure out how to resurrect him. 12. All 3 witches polymorph into giant monstrosities with T-Rex stats. 13. Added flashback scenes throughout the adventure that is triggered by an artifact i gave them. The party is able to actively take part in Strahd history, such as the battle for Barovia as a lieutenant, sergios wedding as a guard to Strahds niece. A guard on the ramparts as Strahd murders Leo Dilisnyas guards, that attempted the coup. 14. Added a subplot with Leo Dilisnya being turned into a vampire and buried allive by strahd at the monastery. He wants to replace Strahd as dark lord when the party digs him up. 15. At the end, i had a massive fight in the village of Barovia with all the big bosses left in the game they didnt kill. This was stupid, but fun. I also wanted to prove a point on why i didnt allow long rest in the castle. It was my 4th time running the adventure and i went wild. It barely barely resembled the original plot.
@@DMoftheMists I personally liked the Naked Death House. I started it by having the party investigate an animal attack in a nearby village, north of Waterdeep. Turned out to be the werewolves that appear later in the module that are kidnapping children to repopulate Barovia. I did this to tie up a loose plot thread later in the game and give the party more incentive than just escaping. The werewolves also had an amulet that permitted escape to the prime material plane, but only if Strahd allows it. This gave the players a clear goal from the start. Save the children and convince or kill Strahd to let them escape. The first time they rest for the night, I had the mist transport them to Death house without their gear. For me, this really set the tone of the adventure and put a lot of dread into the game, right from the beginning. Was awesome watching them scavenge for gear. It encouraged exploration and It also means the players pay close attention to room descriptions. All the stuff a DM loves. My players favorite part was clearly the carriage chase from Vallaki to Castle Ravenloft. I did this by setting 5 markers along the path that required the driver to pass Ability score checks, like fallen logs, potholes, barriers, flame arrows, etc. The werewolves started 1 block away. If they failed a check, 2 werewolves catch the carriage and the rest of the party had to defend it. Was super exciting and they loved it. They ended up with a critical failure, which crashed the carriage, so they had to run that last bit on foot to the castle turn off. My biggest disappointment was the dead priest as an ally. I thought that would work out better. I was hoping for a Weekend at Bernie's, but it just didn't have the emotional effect I was aiming for.
Most of my changes were adding things from older versions of the adventure, combined with several things from Empty Hearts and Misty Fortunes.
One of the things was the deranged, feral werewolf that came from Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, I introduced him as a potential plot thread and had him hunting the party...he's also just as much an enemy of the local werewolves as he is just about everyone else other than those directly working for Strahd who finds him amusing.
I encorporated the Knights of the Raven into things, and took their temple and merged it with the raven rookery concept from the AL campaign starting from a random encounter I put in things. I also swiped the Totem of the Raven from the 3.5 Ravenloft setting and placed that there, it's not really mobile, but adds more of why it's a place of refuge...and why the locals still avoid the place
The old expedition to castle ravenloft ruined tower was another thing, that one was mainly due to missing players and wanting to do something slightly different because that's an absolutely insane thing to play through, and 5e actually lets it work more rationally, but it's still crazy.
I also added a zombie dragon encounter that never ended up used, but I put it in because I wanted to try using the one from the D&D Adventure Game: Castle Ravenloft for something.
There
That all sounds cool! You've mentioned a few things I'm not familiar with - I'm gonna have to look those up. Thanks!
"200 sessions, 4 years." Not that experienced though, guys! haha
Haha yeah, sorry... 😅 I meant more in terms in breadth of experience/campaigns. Sure, I've done one looong campaign, but not done much beyond that. Or maybe I'm just modest, hehe.
@@DMoftheMists It's part of what makes your content so engaging. You're very down to earth and relatable even though you have such a vast wealth of experience to draw from. Don't change!
Thank you! 😍
Giving the Brides some class abilities is definitely something I will try
Yeah, it definitely helps to make them a bit more interesting - especially if the players have already fought other vampire spawn at that point (the ones in the coffin shop, the ones in the Amber Temple, etc.).
Long term DM here. I love all the modifications you did on CoS. I'm running two separate CoS games at the moment:
Game 1: This is all being done through text RP between a friend and myself. I play two characters and run the game, and she plays two characters. The secret she doesn't know is one of my characters is Strahd's brother finally reborn as a Vistani. One of her characters in a past life smuggled his bones and the bones of his bodyguard out of Barovia. She is also playing the reborn bodyguard. The last character I'm playing is a 'dusk elf' who is actually an experiment of The Abbot who is going to be a mid game BBEG for us to defeat before we tackle the end BBEG. Strahd himself is our villain, but I wanted to tell the story of Strahd finally healing, which means letting Ireena go and saving his brother from being killed. The Vistani are also far more complex as they will help Strahd but are doing their own thing to save Barovia.
Game 2: My Fiance heard the game I was running above and said 'You know what the greatest torment? Learning from your mistakes and not getting a perfect ending'. After sitting with that I offered my normal table the option to play CoS with some changes. This one is also getting a minor overhaul of the lore, so I can highlight stuff from 'I, Strahd' and play into his connections with the Ulmist Inquisition. The group are all connected to Strahd and are mirrors of him. I also had to modify the story because one of my players has a mental disorder and I can't throw all the hallicenations at them. One is a former Lord of Dread who's realm was destroyed and his body destroyed with it (Reborn in a Warforge). Another is a descendent of Strahd (Rewriting Madame Eva as Strahd's illegitimate child and the PC is her Great great grand child) who has to heal the family bloodline by quelling the spirits who haunt Barovia. And finally a vampire from a healed Realm of Dread (This is Ireena reborn and her arc is learning she never had a choice before, but now she can choose what path she wants in life and not be pulled along by heroes). We fondly call this 'Therapy of Stahd' and everyone has to suffer before they can live with their demons.
I think the thing I didn't like about the raw module is while there is horror in depressive worlds. Real horror is supposed to be about seeing your worst faciets be glorified and battled with. So I wanted to build more for my players to sink their teeth in. Mind I also have two sets of players who are heavy into roleplay and fighting is a burden we get through to get to more story.
I fully intend to write up my changes and post them once I'm further along in both games. Game 1 is getting through their introduction game (Running Waterdeep Dragon Heist before they get pulled into Barovia), and Game 2 is about to enter Barovia after I homebrewed an intro game for them.
Both of those sound really cool. I love the PC ideas in Game 2 as well.
I was a player in WDH a few years back - it's a great campaign. If your players reach Level 5 at the end of WDH and you need balancing tips, then I have another video for that, if it helps: ua-cam.com/video/k4cE_-ejoRg/v-deo.html
@@DMoftheMists Pulling it up for tonight! Thank you!
OMG! I saw a post long ago in Reddit that explained something similar with Victor so it was you lol , I love the idea of the teleporting Wizard, I was going to add it to my Barovia games but my groups were very pro Vargas so I never had the chance
Hehe! It might've been me - I've mentioned it a few times, on the subreddit and a CoS DMs Facebook group - but I want to stress that I'm not the originator of the idea, so it could've been someone else... maybe even the person who originally came up with it. 🤩
Ahh that's a shame, about not being able to do it because they were pro-Vargas. I was about to say "pro-Vargas" is a phrase you don't see very often (I'd wager that 9 out of 10 parties side with the Wachters), but thinking about it, when I played CoS (before DMing it for myself), I'm sure we were pro-Vargas too... Or perhaps pro-no-one, as I think we kept away from the politics and left them all to it... 😅😬
Currently working on starting the campaign on the opposite side of Barovia. It is going to be one hell of a doozy reworking everything, but I have a feeling it will honestly work out better in the long run of the campaign.
Ooo, interesting - I've heard about DMs doing that. It's not something I think I'd want to do personally, but I understand people's reasons. Is there a particular reason you're doing it that way, out of interest? And how are you going about reworking it all? I think the only reason I'd consider it is if I'm running it for players who's played CoS before, or if they're entering at a higher level than intended - stuff like that.
I’m so excited to add the undead guard drake pet!! The sun sword is there in my game.
Silvia was (and still is) the GOAT. 😊🐲
That's a cool place for the sunsword! Is it in Vladimir's possession or elsewhere?
My homebrew changes are fairly weak. Me and my girl are doing an 1 to 1 Curse of Strahd. And I made it so Strahdyana is a woman (we're both sapphic). And I had this changr that Ireena has been picked up by Strahdyana months before my girls party arriver ad had died. So thus my girl's character is now Strahdyana's newest bride to be 😂
It's very weak but me and my girl are enjoying our silly little sapphic campaign! ❤
Sounds cool - not weak at all IMO. At the end of the day, if you're both enjoying yourselves, then that's all that matters. And homebrew's supposed to be optional anyway. There's DMs who say that CoS needs homebrewing, but others who run it straight out of the book and it goes well (my DM did, back when I was a player playing CoS).
@@DMoftheMists Yeah! I think there is no wrong way to run any campaign as long as everyone who plays in it are enjoying it. Even if you alter the big pieces of the campaign/story! I just wanted to run this one to introduce my girl in D&D, and this one was perfect! Since it includes vampires and gothic vibes (which they love a lot and me too) we're now at session 1.1 entering Death House with their party (yes, I'm also roleplaying the 3 other party members since we are 1 to 1 campaign) :D
My last homebrew I did the following.
1. Started the party naked in Deathhouse and they had to scavenge for gear.
2. Didnt do the 3rd fortune teller because i wanted to keep it open.
3. At first crossroad to Castle Ravenloft, i had a carriage with nightmares ready to transport them to the castle. If they touch the carriage, they get stuck and the nightmare makes a mad dash for the castle.
4. Strahd, posing as Count Vasli is secretly the partys patron when they get to Valaki.
5. The NPCs in Valaki approach the characters.
6. Added the seeds as a personal goal of Strahd who plans to currupt them and take absolute control of the domain. He already has the 3rd seed.
7. Added more to the druids wanting the seeds.
8. On return to Valaki, had strahd hold seige to Valaki and the church, killing everyone.
9. Had a carriage chase where werewolves chased the party while they were racing to the castle.
10. No long rest allowed in the castle.
11. The priest in Barovia is the party ally and he commited suicide when his son died, so they had to figure out how to resurrect him.
12. All 3 witches polymorph into giant monstrosities with T-Rex stats.
13. Added flashback scenes throughout the adventure that is triggered by an artifact i gave them. The party is able to actively take part in Strahd history, such as the battle for Barovia as a lieutenant, sergios wedding as a guard to Strahds niece. A guard on the ramparts as Strahd murders Leo Dilisnyas guards, that attempted the coup.
14. Added a subplot with Leo Dilisnya being turned into a vampire and buried allive by strahd at the monastery. He wants to replace Strahd as dark lord when the party digs him up.
15. At the end, i had a massive fight in the village of Barovia with all the big bosses left in the game they didnt kill. This was stupid, but fun. I also wanted to prove a point on why i didnt allow long rest in the castle.
It was my 4th time running the adventure and i went wild. It barely barely resembled the original plot.
Wow! 🤯 Those are some interesting changes! 😃 Which would you say was your favourite? And what was the players' favourite (if you know)?
@@DMoftheMists I personally liked the Naked Death House. I started it by having the party investigate an animal attack in a nearby village, north of Waterdeep. Turned out to be the werewolves that appear later in the module that are kidnapping children to repopulate Barovia. I did this to tie up a loose plot thread later in the game and give the party more incentive than just escaping. The werewolves also had an amulet that permitted escape to the prime material plane, but only if Strahd allows it. This gave the players a clear goal from the start. Save the children and convince or kill Strahd to let them escape. The first time they rest for the night, I had the mist transport them to Death house without their gear. For me, this really set the tone of the adventure and put a lot of dread into the game, right from the beginning. Was awesome watching them scavenge for gear. It encouraged exploration and It also means the players pay close attention to room descriptions. All the stuff a DM loves.
My players favorite part was clearly the carriage chase from Vallaki to Castle Ravenloft. I did this by setting 5 markers along the path that required the driver to pass Ability score checks, like fallen logs, potholes, barriers, flame arrows, etc. The werewolves started 1 block away. If they failed a check, 2 werewolves catch the carriage and the rest of the party had to defend it. Was super exciting and they loved it. They ended up with a critical failure, which crashed the carriage, so they had to run that last bit on foot to the castle turn off.
My biggest disappointment was the dead priest as an ally. I thought that would work out better. I was hoping for a Weekend at Bernie's, but it just didn't have the emotional effect I was aiming for.