Curse of Strahd - Character & Player Reflections

 

After we finished the campaign, I asked the players if they could give me some thoughts. We ended up chatting for quite a bit about what had gone on and actually had an extra session at the end for any questions (which I won't share details of because of spoilers). Here are some edited highlights:

Kelwarin (Graham/First Age) - Sorceror

Kel's thoughts/plans: Leave Barovia with Ireena. Make a new life together, maybe have children. Return to Barovia if called for, to see his friends.

Graham's thoughts: I very much enjoyed the campaign, and particularly liked the way that we gelled as a group and fed off each others' strengths, not just in terms of our character builds, but also as people. That comes with time, and we certainly had lots of that. With some notable exceptions, I often felt that Kell was not able to contribute enough to resolve combat encounters as the sorcerer [1]. Not entirely fair on Kell that. Ironically, I feel that Kell's most memorable contributions were when he flexed his charisma and has gift for words.

Although our pervasive threat, I didn't, as a player, quite understand our main opponent, Count Strahd. That's not a criticism, as there was some mystery there, and I may have been overthinking the psychology of the monster. Despite your best efforts, I never lost sight of how truly evil he was, so well played there, as it shone through whenever he was around! I hugely enjoyed a number of the set pieces, especially meeting the angelic priest, which is probably why I always wanted to recruit him and was sad to have failed there. Emphasising the social again, I enjoyed all the softer chatty bits with locals, protagonists and enemies. As a player, the relationship between Kell and Ireena was fairly meta. I wanted to mix things up a bit to make things interesting and thought it would screw with Strahd if my character... well, you get the idea.

I struggled with some of the set-piece conflicts, and as a GM myself I wondered if really we should have survived some of them. Who knows! The final battle didn't entirely work for me. It felt tactically correct, and booming difficult to DM, as there was such a weight of resources being chucked about. I'm glad it wasn't a TPK, but part of me felt it really should have been[2]. 

I was left feeling that, for me, 5e is 'OK' and serviced well enough to show our progression and manage the tactical when it cropped up. Roll20 was OK too, with improving AV over the life of the campaign. I'm not that much of a fan of it, but 'OK'.

I am very glad to have been a player and think it would be nice for us to continue playing as a group if we can find another game to play. I hadn't realised on starting to play in the campaign that it would take three years. In a way, I am glad that I didn't know back then, because I might have stepped away and completely missed out on a great experience!

[1] Alex: To follow up on Graham's post, on Kel's combat effectiveness - I've mentioned it earlier in the game, that I was feeling Gaddock was overshadowing Kel a bit. The way 5e is, the baseline wizard chassis just allowed for so many more spells to be learned/prepared, compared to PHB sorcerer, that I was feeling bad, anytime Graham would mention that he didn't know what he could contribute/cast. This is something WOTC has addressed with more recent printings of sorcerer subclasses, giving them expanded spell lists, but Wild Magic sorcerer being from PHB was a bit behind the times.

We had a pretty low-resource campaign, all in all; we didn't get a ton of magic items (and the ones we had, mostly had passive bonuses, like ring of protection, not activated abilities), and there weren't a lot of opportunities to obtain any[3] - I don't know whether we just missed the opportunity to sign up to VistaniPrime, and get some loot delivered from beyond the veil or not. So with that as a backdrop, Gaddock had received two full spellbooks as a loot, which felt almost like level-ups for a wizard, since he could transcribe new spells, which further opened up a gap between the two spellcasters

[2] Dom: It was very nearly a TPK. It turned on two things; Ser Alys saving against the charm (just, Tom rolled exactly) and the critical that Ser Adon did in the last round (and Strahd missing the previous round once). The critical brought him into killable range. Had Strahd have got his turn, Adon would have been most likely killed outright from the massive damage rule. As a party, you did a great job keeping characters alive with potions and healing. You - on at least two occasions - managed to stop Strahd from landing a killing blow. Kel did get a few spells nerfed by Strahd but that burned limited defences down. Luck played a part in the win.

[3] Dom: By not exploring Castle Ravenloft further, the party missed the opportunity to obtain 'magical loot' as described by Alex. However, it was understandable why you all wanted to keep time in the vampire's lair to a minimum.

Ser Adon (Paul/DrMitch)

Adon’s thoughts: It’s over. I thought we were doomed in that fight, but it’s as if Strahd wasn’t so vanquished in righteous fury, but just…got bored with the game. Calling me out to a duel was an act of boredom. He thought he would comfortably defeat me, then move onto my companions who had withstood all he could throw at him, but maybe part of him was hoping otherwise. Especially Alys. 

And though I can’t believe it’s over, it’s time to move on. Alys and I can build a life here together, and our children, put ourselves in the world we have saved. It’s now that the work to rebuild, to help Barovia and Valleki prosper, can begin.

Paul's thoughts: That was an epic and a half. I’m both sad it’s over and triumphant - we got through it! We won, and reached an apt conclusion. It had that lovely part of long campaigns of feeling I got to know everyone else’s character, not just mine. I’ll miss Alys and Kel and Gaddock just as much as I’ll miss Adon. But there’s something remarkable in the long but finite.

Interestingly after finishing the game I read the Curse of Strahd 5e book. It’s quite good, with some ideas standing out, but what we played was so much richer and far superior to that book, while largely containing it. The best bits of the book stood out, the weaker parts faded away into the background. This could not have been an easy task for Dom so thank-you again very much. I’m impressed.

I also really appreciate the way that the campaign allowed emotional involvement. There’s the relationships - Kel and Ireena, Adon and Alys, and Gaddock sacrificing the memory of his children and involvement with the fanes. There was also for me big emotional involvement with that fate of Vallaki and I felt both fear and hatred for Strahd. The blood spear subplot too. That for me was the real heart of why I enjoyed things so much. 

(Actually bringing out the emotional involvement is something Domis really good at - I’ve had it in several convention one-shots, and I think he’s the only GM that’s brought out that side of me in the space of a one-shot.)

Later: I’m relieved that four blows in a row on Strahd all backed up with the special Strahd-killing sword we went to great effort to obtain and backed up by undead-killed smites (after all the damage others had done) did the job. I’m glad we didn’t explore the castle more!

Ser Alys (Tom/Guvnor)

Ser Alys's plans: Settle down, have kids, keep Fiona Wachter in living fear of me

Tom's thoughts: The blood spear sub plot was good, and I hope Alys' tough love was on show. The Library was weird and good. The maze in the crypts of Ravenloft was both good and scary and frustrating.

Thank you very much for running this awesome campaign. I enjoyed keeping Alys on the side of good when she could have been seduced by the lawful rationale of Strahd. That was down to the wonderful relationship Paul and I developed and nurtured. On occasion, I felt as a player that a few hints might have helped. Once we went into the Castle once and were terrified and the clock was ticking then pulling him out into the sun seemed wise.

In the final combat, I didn't feel Strahd was behaving like a strutting arrogant Gothic anti-hero. He was a sneaking cowardly assassin. It felt off but hey, not everyone is Gary Oldman [4]

I also felt that the interesting social interaction was with the Wachters and how we manoeuvred around her. The apathy of the other locals was dispiriting, was it meant to be?[5]

There were some great fights that were genuinely challenging and scary. I like 5e fine, and Roll20. It was one of the campaigns I shall always remember.

[4] Dom: Strahd was - at heart - a brutal warlord with a veneer of honour and duty. In truth that’s all hollowed out with the pacts he made with the darkness. He knows you used powerful magic aimed at the Dark Powers. He knows where you got that too. By summoning him, you put him into a very different head space than he would have been in the Castle. He’d have felt more in control. This was Strahd the ruthless killer. He would have joyfully turned you on each other with charm (but you thwarted that with a lucky save and then protection from evil). Just to add that - had he strutted - he’d have probably been down in two or three rounds as the action economy and his hit point pool would have done for him. He survived so long from regeneration and necrotic damage.

[5] Dom: Most of the other locals have been cowed for centuries. You won the priest over (mostly) but damaged that with what you did to his sister and his nephew. You won the Martikovs over but left them to defend Vallaki. Jeny was definitely a friend of Gaddock after Kel turned down her advances. You neutralised Lady Wachter politically and then brought her a bit onside by saving her family. However, she was always in it for herself and power. You also killed off Baron Vargas’ faction with extreme prejudice. No one aligned with that was going to be a supporter.

Gaddock (Alex)

Gaddock's thoughts: Time to pack it up, and leave this blasted land behind, carrying it only in the sigils of our numerous scars. Gaddock is still worried about the influence of Vampyr on the larger multiverse - was killing Strahd just killing a vessel or dispersing the entity? Gaddock thought they needed to contain Strahd in amber, but mists have receded and Barovia returned to the fold with Strahd's death nonetheless. Gaddock is looking for a vacation - somewhere hot to rest his heels, and not worry about doom for a while. He might still return to Amber Temple and offer his help to research Vampyr, but tensions are still a bit hot right now, given how they've left the place last. Maybe give it a couple of years, and let the undead-dementia wash over the incident.

Alex's thoughts: The final battle was gruelling, as Strahd basically had limited invulnerability, with just how many counterspells and resistances he had. It was a long road, but an inspiring one. Playing CoS really had me looking for inspiration of what I could use in games I run, and how I would run CoS myself. There were some really memorable moments that were well-timed, for example, we just hit level 5 before going to Yesterhill, and letting the fireballs fly on piles of enemies was very cathartic. The Amber Temple run was very interesting - the environmental encounter was very interesting, with figuring out how to traverse the landscape. Feels like there were still corners of the map we didn't explore - I was sure that there was a monster in the lake somewhere.

30 July 2023
(Material taken from discussions on Discord 22 March to 4 April 2023)
(This isn't the final campaign post, that's still being pulled together).