D&D 5E Co Strahd/Death House question

[Gwaihir]

Im starting my group at level 1 on Curse of Strahd. My thought for the start is this

Level 1 in Forgotten Realms - a town has wolf problems and the group investigates, kills some wolves.
Level 2 Return to town and enter the death house, perhaps the town is mist filled and abandoned otherwise
Level 3 escape the death house and emerge in Barovia, starting COS

I like the idea of using the death house as the gateway and I want to set Strahd up as having ties to the realms. Perhaps threatening to expand into them.

Thoughts?

G

 

[robus]

Im starting my group at level 1 on Curse of Strahd. My thought for the start is this

Level 1 in Forgotten Realms - a town has wolf problems and the group investigates, kills some wolves.
Level 2 Return to town and enter the death house, perhaps the town is mist filled and abandoned otherwise
Level 3 escape the death house and emerge in Barovia, starting COS

I like the idea of using the death house as the gateway and I want to set Strahd up as having ties to the realms. Perhaps threatening to expand into them.

Thoughts?

G

Seems like a very cool way to kick things off. Good luck!

 

[SwivSnapshot]

I ran Death House as it was presented in the book, but I like your idea much better.

 

[abirdcall]

I like it but I would have the mists envelope them during the wolf hunt. Turn it into more of an exploration challenge than a combat one.

Then when they return to where they think the town is it is just the Death House instead as they have already entered Ravenloft.

 

[Mercule]

I ran Death House as it was presented in the book, but I like your idea much better.

This. We are one session (plus Session 0) into CoS. The party made it to Barovia and found the Death House, but not very far in. I don't hate the way I did it -- I did some eerie stuff around the fog just sending them to Ravenloft w/o any other plot hook -- but I do like your way better.

 

[Bradley Hindman]

I like the idea of using the death house as the gateway and I want to set Strahd up as having ties to the realms. Perhaps threatening to expand into them.

Thoughts?

G

I did something similar and it worked well. In my case, I used the Death House to link Barovia to the real world. The characters were from the historical mid 1800s. They all separately received a letter from a barrister in Brasov Transylvania claiming that they had inherited the Durst estate. When they arrived to claim their inheritance, the lawyer directed them to an abandoned estate. After facing the mysteries within the house, the now bonded group of PCs found themselves surrounded by the mists. They were met outside by Arrigal and few other Vistani who guided them out of the mists to Barovia. (I moved the death house to somewhere deep within the mists east of the village of Barovia.)

 

[hastur_nz]

Great idea, it's a cool lead-in adventure, and has a slightly different feel than the rest of the campaign, so using the house as the conduit for the PC's getting stuck in Barovia is a good one.

Just two suggestions:
1. make sure your players know they are going to be playing Curse of Strahd; springing a complete surprise, as far as the campaign goes, rarely goes well for the players; people generally want to create a PC that will work in well with what the campaign is going to be like. Lord knows I've personally created a couple of PC's that didn't really fit the campaign, and I didn't enjoy it as much as I might if I'd better understood what kind of campaign we were in and hence what sort of PC could be most fun...
2. Death House is, potentially, a fairly large adventure for just 2nd level. Now, I must say my own group of 3-4 players pretty much finished the whole thing in a single 3.5 hour session, but they were very focused in their explorations so took very few 'side-treks' through the house.

So I think by all means lure the PC's into the House, using a different hook than just "it's there", but I'm not sure you really need a full level of adventure before letting them in...

 

[robus]

I did something similar and it worked well. In my case, I used the Death House to link Barovia to the real world. The characters were from the historical mid 1800s. They all separately received a letter from a barrister in Brasov Transylvania claiming that they had inherited the Durst estate. When they arrived to claim their inheritance, the lawyer directed them to an abandoned estate. After facing the mysteries within the house, the now bonded group of PCs found themselves surrounded by the mists. They were met outside by Arrigal and few other Vistani who guided them out of the mists to Barovia. (I moved the death house to somewhere deep within the mists east of the village of Barovia.)

So all human PCs? That's how I want to run it too. No darkvision to get in the way of the terror!

 

[corwyn77]

Great idea, it's a cool lead-in adventure, and has a slightly different feel than the rest of the campaign, so using the house as the conduit for the PC's getting stuck in Barovia is a good one.

Just two suggestions:
1. make sure your players know they are going to be playing Curse of Strahd; springing a complete surprise, as far as the campaign goes, rarely goes well for the players; people generally want to create a PC that will work in well with what the campaign is going to be like. Lord knows I've personally created a couple of PC's that didn't really fit the campaign, and I didn't enjoy it as much as I might if I'd better understood what kind of campaign we were in and hence what sort of PC could be most fun...

I think that really depends on the group. If I was to run it for my regular group (I ran it in Encounters) I would not tell them anything other than it's a Realms game. I'd have a back-up plan in case they weren't into it but I have faith in my players.

A couple of years ago, the other GM in our group ran a game in which we were normal people with real lives in 1752 London. We were impressed into the British Army (except my character who naively volunteered) and then were stationed in St. Johns Newfoundland. That's what we knew going in.

We had a few sessions as army grunts (basic training, a bar fight, a few mundane missions). Then a search to kill a bear that was causing trouble turned into an encounter with a sasquatch and a witch, then an encounter with time-travellers and a full conversion cyborg, laser weapons disguised as flintlocks, and we each got a package of cinematic/supernatural abilities based on the direction we were taking our characters (my gunsmith got cinematic gunslinger abilities and MacGyver-like gadgeteering abilities, our medic got regeneration and immunity to disease/poison, the team leader got luck and a bunch of charisma, one got Dr. Who like regeneration, and the last got the ability to snatch any item on the planet that could fit in his hand and could visualize - like a futuristic laser pistol for me. We ended up with a tardis shaped like a schooner and we were off; it was a blast.

 

[Gwaihir]

We had a few sessions as army grunts (basic training, a bar fight, a few mundane missions). Then a search to kill a bear that was causing trouble turned into an encounter with a sasquatch and a witch, then an encounter with time-travellers and a full conversion cyborg, laser weapons disguised as flintlocks, and we each got a package of cinematic/supernatural abilities based on the direction we were taking our characters (my gunsmith got cinematic gunslinger abilities and MacGyver-like gadgeteering abilities, our medic got regeneration and immunity to disease/poison, the team leader got luck and a bunch of charisma, one got Dr. Who like regeneration, and the last got the ability to snatch any item on the planet that could fit in his hand and could visualize - like a futuristic laser pistol for me. We ended up with a tardis shaped like a schooner and we were off; it was a blast.

This sounds GREAT!

My players know that its Ravenloft. Im trying to see if we can put more emphasis on roleplaying than the way I typically run a campaign. Several of my players are thrilled. One not so much.
Thanks!
G