The action takes place in a sinister pocket dimension known as the valley of Barovia, which means you can enter or exit the campaign from anywhere in the D&D multiverse. Where Curse of Strahd differentiates itself from the original, in my opinion, is in fleshing out its setting. Strahd is a fully realized character with a Shakespearean backstory and enough guile and cunning to stand up to any party of adventurers. He’s more than just your average B-movie bloodsucker. Why is Strahd such a great villain? Not to give too much away, but the payoff of his personal arc is definitely worth the time spent playing against him. Vintage art of Strahd von Varovich shows him lurking among the towers of Castle Ravenloft. Its version of Strahd is every bit as menacing as the original, and much more fun to play. Published in 2016, Curse of Strahd modernizes those mechanics and expands them from a meager 32 pages to a hefty 256. Rather than simply describing the action from a distance, Strahd allows the Dungeon Master (DM) to personally engage with the material and with the players at the table through both combat and noncombat encounters. Ravenloft was the first D&D adventure that truly felt like a complete narrative, and it centered on Strahd, a complex villain with motivations of his own. The secret was a charismatic vampire named Strahd von Zarovich. Written by Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman, it added a rich sense of storytelling to D&D. Then, in 1983, the Ravenloft module was published. Rolling dice with your friends meant crawling around a subterranean dungeon, killing weird monsters, and making off with some magical items. Why this vampire?īack in the 1970s, when D&D was young, the game focused mainly on exploration, combat, and loot. I’ll help you figure out which one is right for you.īut first, a little backstory to whet the appetite.
They run the gamut from old-school do-it-yourself storytelling to a luxurious collectors’ set with high production values. It’s called Curse of Strahd, and it might just be the most welcoming and adaptable way into the original role-playing game.īecause of its popularity, there are currently three excellent options for buying Curse of Strahd. But one campaign is regularly recommended ahead of all the others - especially for beginners. There are no fewer than three current starter sets, more than a half-dozen rock-solid published adventures, and an entire marketplace of fan-created content. If you’ve been thinking about playing Dungeons & Dragons then you’ve probably noticed that there’s a lot of material to choose from.
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