Curse of Strahd: Preparing for Season 2

In September we will restart our game of Curse of Strahd by entering the demi-plane of Barovia properly. If you recall, I'd decided to ignore the Death House scenario in the appendices because I didn't feel that it was in keeping with the rest of the campaign. It felt too much like being a dungeon for a dungeon's sake. On reflection, perhaps that was a deliberate approach to slowly introduce players who hadn't played in this kind of setting to Ravenloft through something that feels a bit familiar. Instead, I'd used The Beast of Graenseskov as an introduction. It's an adventure which could have done with some better organisation, but the premise is more in line with what follows, and the plot genuinely engaging. It went down well with the group.

Notes from a session - spoiler free

My first steps in restarting the campaign have been to review the folder full of printed out copies of the after-action reports that I've shared here on the blog. The copies in my folder are a little bit different. They're annotated with comments which range from what I've learned about the party from their interactions, to ideas for beats to introduce in later sessions, to notes about the consequences of their actions. I also tend to capture a to-do list for the next session. I've mined this information for things that I can carry through to maintain some continuity as we approach the game proper.

These have ranged from the obvious (Strahd is aware of the characters) and some extensions from the actions that the characters have taken (Strahd has lost his agent in Graenseskov, so needs to act to close that gap). Some of the extensions and consequences will take place off-screen and fall out from the way that the players 'solved' the previous adventure.

I also ended up with two solid plot hooks for the next stage of the campaign, which is the village of Barovia itself. These will give good reasons for the characters to engage with the non-player characters present in the demi-plane. They also come from the consequences of their actions.

I'm pretty satisfied with where I've got to with this, so the next step is to re-read the campaign (or particularly, the sections of the campaign that we're likely to encounter over the first few weeks of the game). A gaming friend - Robin P - pointed me at the Curse of Strahd Reddit as well. Having had a good look on the phone, there's some really useful stuff there that I will be mining.

I'm looking forward to returning to the vampire's realm.

24 August 2020