Dungeons & Dragons Curse of Strahd: A Sourcebook (D&D Supplement)

The classic D&D adventure setting Ravenloft gets the 5th Edition treatment, updating it to the current rules system and expanding on the themes of the original adventure module as well as adding further encounter sites. A great campaign for those who who like gothic horror fantasy, with the opportunity to build a chilling atmosphere and offer challenging situations. Well-printed and bound with clear layout, maps and illustrations.

I bought this book to run for my group once we finish our current campaign, Princes of the Apocalypse. Wanting something of a change from the big, glorious dungeons of Princes, we talked back and forth and decided to go for Curse of Strahd thinking the atmosphere and horror elements would be refreshing. After receiving the book and reading through, I honestly can not wait to run this adventure. Firstly, the quality of the book itself is excellent. The accompanying artwork, layout, color scheme and maps are all beautifully thought out, well ordered and presented on very good quality paper. DnD books obviously cost a good amount of cash and, thankfully, this book feels like you are really getting your money's worth. The campaign is very well written with solid characters, lore and locations. Strahd himself is described well, he is a fun villain and there are plenty of tips on how to make him a diabolical, scheming foe for your players. There's also an interesting semi-random element to the campaign structure, which I won't go into detail about for spoiler reasons, but it's a novel idea that I think will be a lot of fun, especially if you end up running this adventure again. This is a pretty open ended game which means you, as a DM, will need to put the work in beforehand to get it all ready, but every step of the story is well explained and laid out so once the work is done I think even new DMs will be able to run this easily. Again, the book guides you with helpful tips and details on how to create the atmosphere of horror, run the monsters and role play all of the non-player characters. The only minor gripe I have is Castle Ravenloft. Though the included map is beautiful, expansive and will make for an incredibly memorable location, the map is isometric and highly stylized. This means it is quite impractical as a battle map if you want to use it like that, either online or with miniatures. With all of the maps in the book being really wonderful Mike Schley top-down examples, the jarring difference for Castle Ravenloft, the finale and main focus of the entire game, is a big shame. Saying that, the map is still usable, even if just for reference and flavor but personally I am going to re-draw it in a more practical format for when my players decide to visit.

This is an excellent adventure, well written, and extremely fun - as long as you as the DM and your party as players are clear right at the outset that this adventure is _gothic horror_. When run "straight", and with a role-play centric game style, it is likely to destroy your party from the inside as much as from attacks by monsters. Winning is... unlikely, if you play by the rules and define winning as "beating the boss". But, that's by design. If everyone is on board with the fact that this game is meant to be like that, then you're going to set off on some of the best drama I've seen in any adventure for 5th edition. It has kept our party of five players busy for 18 months, played once a week for 3-4hrs each week. We've had multiple character deaths, and characters turned so paranoid and hopeless that... well... Many unforgettable table moments have been had running this game. We have had characters and players break down crying over events in this game. That's part of the fun, that's how invested you can get. It can be intense. I will say that there is a lot of information you as a DM will need to read well - and have notes on - before running the campaign; there are many NPCs, locations, and relations you'll need to be on top of. So, it's a bit daunting to run. You can, of course, tweak it to a different style of play - dole out additional magic items, mix it up, de-power a few monsters, and run a more standard fantasy "the hero's are going to go hero!"... but I think you can get that in most other adventures. Treat this one like the dark brooding horror it is and see how that changes your game. Just don't forget to offset it with humour from time to time.

Great book, no damage to the book

Quality is good

Inspired to dm

Fantastiskt bra äventyr till världens bästa rollspel - Dungeons & Dragons. Eftersom det är en så kallad kampanj kan man plocka delar om man så vill eller köra hela paketet och ha många timmars kul rollspel tillsammans.

Una formidable campaña para personajes de niveles bajos de D&D 5a edición. Está diseñada para iniciar con personajes de 1-3 niveles de experiencia. La aventura transporta a los personajes al mundo aislado de Barovia y el libro cumple muy bien la tarea de impregnar al Dungeon Master o narrador del juego con los elementos necesarios para exaltar la experiencia de juego de los jugadores en sus aventuras en este mundo donde los contrastes de desolación y romance se mezclan perfectamente en un ambiente en decadencia bajo la sombra de miedo puro. El libro es de pasta dura y su contenido está dividido en capítulos de contenido que SOLO deben ser leídos por el Dungeon Master, NO por los jugadores. Al final también se incluye unos apéndices y mapas muy bien detallados e ilustrados que podrán ser compartidos a los jugadores llegado el momento. El contenido debe ser leído por completo por el Dungeon Master (DM) antes de iniciar las sesiones de juego pues se trata de una campaña (serie de aventuras) de estilo "sand box", es decir, el mundo estará completamente libre de explorar y abierto a las desiciones que tomen los jugadores en el juego. El DM debe estar preparado para esto y muy posiblemente deba leer algunas secciones dos o tres veces conforme vaya avanzando la campaña. Para jugar la campaña en este libro, el DM necesitará además tener una copia del libro de Player's Handbook, el Dungeon Master Guide y el Monster Manual. Todos estos libros en su 5a edición. Una vez iniciada la campaña, los jugadores pueden esperar terminarla exitosamente en mínimo 12 sesiones de 2 horas cada una. Pero en mi experiencia, estarán aquí un largo tiempo... y si el DM lo desea, podría tener a los personajes de los jugadores atrapados en Barovia el resto de sus vidas. Conclusiones: Después de leer y jugar las otras que han salido hasta ahora (excepto Dungeons of the Mad Mage publicada recientemente), Esta es quizá la mejor campaña/aventura publicada por Wizards of the Coast en 5a edición. No puedo mas que recomendarla para todos los estilos y gustos de juego. No se desepcionaran!

Great book. Excellent adventure