The Adventure Review is a series of blog posts I make mainly for my future self, a summary of the D&D modules I game mastered to put all those great memories into words. However if they can be useful to you too, it’s even better! ⚠️ There are heavy spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned.

The adventuring party:

• Nyx Folkore (Mel), a gnome magician
• Selena, a human bard
• Darwin, a human Paladin
• Eskel, a human monk

What we loved the most:

• The Villain, with a capital V. What a character! Strahd is one of those bad guys your players will truly hate
• The setting, especially the Vistani and the Dark Powers
• The Tarokka card reading
• The town of Vallaki and all its subplots
• The Wizards of Wine, and the Keeper of the Feather
• The time pressure that I induced at the end of the campaign (they had 3 days to find the remaining 2 artifacts before Strahd's wedding with Ireena)
• The final fight with Strahd, from the top of Castle Ravenloft to the catacombs.

The moments we'll always remember

• The Monk dying at Vallaki's main square and coming back from the dead mere minutes later, with dark blood and a black spot in his eyes
• An encouter with Strahd with three duplicates of a the bard, bringing fear, distrust and pure chaos to the party. More details here: The most terrorizing Strahd encounter I pulled off yet.
• When a Dark Power called Darkness succeeded in turning our mage to the dark side. The others fought her in the Amber Temple to prevent this outcome, but she misty-stepped to break the Dark Power’s sarcophagus
• How animate object on 10 marbles covered in holy water can do 100HP of damage in one turn to a Vampire

What was a bit less fun/didn’t stuck as a vivid memory:

• The werewolf plotline

What I learnt as a GM with this module:

• How to milk external resources such as the Curse of Strahd subreddit to get awesome new content, art and ideas!
• How to weave the PC's backstories into the main plot (thanks Dice, Camera, Action! for that)
• How to run a deep, complex villain
• How to craft some props for the players, such as this bloodied letter prop

Will I replay it in the future?

I WANT TO. It was the best campaign I ever ran, and it has a lot of replay potential. It’s not a module I would run for first time players but otherwise I WANT to run it again.

What whould I change?

Incorporate even more stuff from Reddit/other sources. Run the Interactive Tome of Strahd. Use the Into the Mists soundtrack from Travis Savoie. But most of all: make Strahd a female (might do a post about it one about how it went if I come to it).

The resources I used:

• Curse of Strahd subreddit (especially MandyMod's Fleshing Out Curse of Strahd)
• The Wedding at Ravenloft
• Wizard of Wines wine bottle labels
• Castle Ravenloft realistic maps

All the posts in this series:

• Out of the Abyss
• Curse of Strahd
• Tomb of Annihilation
• Lost Mine of Phandelver