HOW TO PLAY CURSE OF STRAHD (Part 3: Barovia Explained)

if you want encounters to throw into your Dean d5e games make sure to check out the sponsor so you're gonna play cursive straud part 3 the final part we're gonna talk about burro via now that your players are in burro via you should know a few things number one cursive strawed has some game altering rules about burro via and you know try to make the world a little bit better first of all a deadly fog surrounds the land of peruvian and gulfs any creature that tries to leave oh fun is a set in place by the dark powers because this entire realm is its own little demi plain and it kind of you know make sure players feel trapped because they are and they cannot leave the fog always magically turns you right around and back to borough view and the area is heavily obscured and if you go into the fog you have to succeed at DC twenty conse for take a level of exhaustion there's no escape and there's also not really sunlight in burrow via it's more like a big LED in the sky there's also alterations to magic it functions differently in creepy lee in burrow via for example revivify a creature restore to life by a revivify spell screams upon regaining consciousness as though waking up from some horrible nightmare or find the path a child's spirit appears and guides the caster to the desired location the spirit can't be harmed and doesn't speak it's kind of like the lover kin in witcher which is pretty freakin cool and here's the map cursive straat is the kind of adventure that motivates the players to explore its semi-open world each area has new things or the characters to discover will go through each area briefly so that you can get an idea of what's there also there's a random encounter table that are really fun please use them or or you you should have saw this coming you could use out-of-the-box encounters out of the box encounters is a book supplement to add to your 5 e games that are contained with a bunch of encounters with really game art minis and a bunch of other things and they're very well balanced and written by youtubers like us so go late pledge back on this book so that you can get yourself a copy I have my own encounter in the book as you very well know so make sure to go check it out alright let's uh let's get into the map this thing's huge and we're gonna try to explain each area as best as possible these are all the different areas that your players will be going to and I'm gonna try my best to tell you what each one is right here we go the old Follett's Road it's the road mainly the main road what that's what it is the gates of burrow via this is the big old gates that seal the player is in burrow via in the first place they have headless statues and are a great introduction into the world Swach woods is there any area of woods in burrow via and they almost always have dangers I always imagine they have these gnarled ax branches or you can check out this art by James RPG art go check about a patreon River if 'less it's a river village of burrow via the village of burrow via is a sad muddy crap hole directly underneath Castle Ravenloft it feels strods oppression like no other place there's a couple of quests the characters can pick up here finding mad Mary's daughter saving or killing the priests under ooh or Irena Annie's mark you need sanctuary from Strada there's also a great NPC in build Ruth's mercantile the guard his name is Perry wimple highly recommend your players meet up with him in terms of the quest that the players will gather in the village of morovia mad Mary's daughter can be found in Castle Ravenloft which is quite a ways away from one of the starting quests that they may get why I think the player should start on the other side of the map there's also saving or killing the priest sundori oh the priest in the church has a son his name is Dorian who went off to go fight straw boat was transformed into a vampire spawn when he returned back to the village so the priest has been praying for him his voice is coarse and rough and his son just begs and begs to be set free or food it's a really tough choice that the players will have to make and is a great introduction into the world however they can't really do much about Daru as the only way to save him is to cast a remove curse as far as I'm aware other than killing him this ends up just being a pretty sad depressing moment for the players that kind of just feels hopeless which I guess is kind of the entire theme of cursive Stratos hopelessness and that the players are the hope that are going to save it from everything else irena knees mark needs sanctuary from straud as we've explained before Irena is the reincarnation sort of Tatiana and strawed wants to do everything in his power to not capture her but seduce her but if he can't seduce her then capture her in turn into a vampire spawn because he's a fucked-up guy river of Lists crossroads this crossroad gives the player some directions on where to go they'll also always have an encounter here so you can roll on those and not all the encounters in cursive straud are fights some of them are just creepy strange things that happen to them that don't necessarily require them to roll initiative the best part about the crossroads that when they leave the corpse one of the players hangs from the gallows and stares at them with their dead eyes pretty creepy Sarah Poole encampment this is where the players will encounter the Visconti and Madame IVA a fortune-teller if you can get it the game has a Taraka deck kind of like a tarot deck where you can have Madame Eva perform a reading for the players the book describes how to do it and what to tell the players and it will give them some clues on finding the icon of Ravenloft the Sun sword and the tome estrade the Sun sword has Sarah gaze soul in it so it's a pretty cool these magic items that are needed in order to defeat straud it also gives them an ally that will travel with them and the location of Strada in his castle pretty fun and one of my favorite parts of this game however I highly recommend that you do not do the Ally I suggest that Madame Eva gives them all of the cards for the allies and the players gather up all of the allies they can possibly get in the game as some big army to go defeat Straub it was really fun when we did it on arcane arcade and I think it makes for really compelling climax to curse estrade also they get to do all the side quests for all the really cool NPC's in this game Sarah Falls don't fall down these stairs it's a big bridge and a waterfall black carriage there's a black carriage on the road with no driver the players get in it it drives them up to the gates of Ravenloft this is the gate in the drop bridge that leads to Castle Ravenloft this big-ass [ __ ] Castle is extensive they really took their effort to put as much details as possible into this castle so much so that when I ran the adventure I found someone who had made the layout of it in Minecraft and then I decorated all the rooms so I would know where everything is in any case I can't rightly explain the entirety of this castle in this video so I'll put it simply there are six main floors in a tower in this towers a giant beating heart that acts as extra hit points forced rod basement crypt levels are a bunch of tombs that have goodies and traps in them there's confusing ass elevator trapped in the middle of the castle it's basically a counterweight elevator puzzle NPCs are all over this thing like pit awake - raha distraught Butler Lee flips each strods accountant esker Cyrus Garrett ruda and some witch's traps all over the lower levels and there's a big organ room where straud introduces himself and has dinner with the party behind which the organ has like a secret room there's a room full of mirrors Stroud took all the mirrors down because he's a vampire I love the attention to detail regardless Castle Ravenloft should be played like stron it is not the big final boss dungeon it's a character and an area of Peru via that should be visited multiple times like saving Gertrude afore mad berry or recovering the bones of Argan vast for Argan vas told yes there's a possibility they'll encounter Stroud but he's too busy moping and not caring and listening to MCR to really mind if some [ __ ] break into his big-ass [ __ ] castle legs are ovitch this is the lake outside of the locky and has a quest involving a drunk crazy man drowning of astana girl to please the lake for his fishing God okay mad mage of Mount Barrett attacking uh-hmm how do I put this lately Morden Canaan is in the game he went crazy and likes to run around as a deer because he fought straud and lost I'm not making this up town of the lucky the lucky is another area of the game that the players can get quite lost in there's many events involving a loose tiger sad parades attacking vampire spawn and the political drama that makes this an interesting center point for the campaign there's lots of stuff to do in people to meet so don't be afraid to slow down your game now that the characters explore for locky a bit Rudolf van rycke tin is hiding out here and if the players can find him he can offer some insight on defeating Strutt also there's a creepy family that led to one of the most awful and amazing NPCs that I ever are peed and as soon as you begin here you know it is not a cat it is a person saying meow it sounds like a female voice going kitty wants to play south of Milwaukee is a camp where a bunch of hiss Donnie hang out along with the last of the dusk elves a lost race of elves that strata killed all the women in and are letting the man just die out there's an NPC there named Casimir was a really cool side quest about going to the ember temple to revive his sister who was a once bride of straud old bone grinder a windmill filled with children corpses that three old hag ladies have been cooking into pastries and selling to the public oh boy yay this encounter is pretty nasty for a low-level party so be sure to properly warn them of the supposed danger before they go guns blazing to kill some child cookers they will die watch my video they will die Luna River crossroads another crossroad to help navigation Argan Voss halt so in burrow via there was a resistance to stops trod oh yeah burrow V has been around for a while a lot of people have tried to stop straw and a group of paladin's that served a silver dragon named Argan vast they believed in good honor and that under their Dragon Lord they would prevail and stops trod from his villainy Strad killed Argan vast and most of the paladin's scattered the dragon bones and hung the skull up in his house as a decoration so now their old manor is filled with sad defeated angry revenants who only want freedom and the destruction of stron I love this narrative because even the good guys have been broken and turned misguided in morovia if the players bring back the skull of Argan phosphate fries the souls of the order and a beacon shine throughout all of Peru via granting the players of sweet sweet bonus this was one of the high moments when we ran curse of Strada Logan and I got a little emotional when it happened it was great love this part Raven River crossroads another crossroads signpost village of krymsk Kretz gives a village on the edge of peruvian it's kind of a safe haven in comparison to all the other areas of morovia they guard their walls and their people are kind and helpful however that doesn't mean it's perfect burgomaster's children have all died from some form of disease there's a fountain where Irina can get pulled in by ser gays ghosts and be gone from straat forever I don't like this ending for her I might prefer the trending to the game when I ran it I changed it to where the pool was a trick from strawed and she went directly into his grasp and an abbey with mongrel folk half human half animal abominations all created by the misguided abbot who is an angel sent down to kill straw but failed and went crazy this is also where the players can encounter Esmerelda avestan a woman who studied under Van Rycke ttan and became a vampire hunter she's got a great backstory that you should totally go read so linka pass up in the mountains is a bridge with a glowing green fiery gate it's quite mysterious and no one really knows what it's for regardless the players can find their way around it if they want and they'll receive warnings continuing up this road is dangerous and beware a figure of straat appears on a bridge though no further the vampire does not want you to discover his secrets ruins of Barresi muddy ruins are home to scarecrows and Baba Yaga I mean bobble I saga herself and her house with chicken feet yep bobble I saga is kind of the entire reason strut is evil she believes herself to be the mother of strawed and is pretty [ __ ] up she has one of the seeds at the Wizards of wine need for their vineyard van Rycke dooms tower this booby trap tower is nothing more than that a booby trap tower for whatever reason the book decided that Van Rycke ttan returns to his tower after his quest is completed in Valachi the one with the tiger but there's nothing here that specifies what he does when he returns back to his run-down broken-ass booby trapped hour I don't get it but there's a cool door the wizards of wines a vineyard that supplied Peruvians with wine one of the only good things in morovia unfortunately there's sadness because this is burro via and all the fun died years ago their magic seeds that grow their grapes have been stolen by crazy tree people and others also their vineyard was taken over by tree people also the wine people are where Ravens Dee amber temple the center of all the dark powers and one of the most dangerous places for the play to go the amber temple is a frozen forgotten dungeon of mystery guarded only by golems a lich whose mind has been lost and uh you girl off in its depths lie amber coffins that grant boons to anyone willing but beware with boons comes a curse dead a supplier can make a deal with the dark powers like straw did and become a [ __ ] vampire this adventure is so good yester Hill oh this is where the crazy tree people are building their giant walking tree that's gonna stomp on the way Ravens house also a bleeding crystal thighs tree because vampires werewolf den of course you can't have vampires without werewolves this misfit group live in a cave on the outskirts of barodia and terrorize anyone who dares cross them their loyalists rot but I've had a bit of a power struggle the wind some of the werewolf leaders didn't agree on making kids kill each other so he sold one out in his in Castle Raven Laughton you can find him and have him redeem all the werewolves yep well there you go there's all of the locations and the entire map of borough via in a 15 minute video nutshell and while I would love to go ahead and explain the story of curse of Strada there kind of isn't one to explain the entirety of this game is based on what your players will do and the decisions and choices they will make that will change burrow via for the future or not change it hopefully they don't get completely deep decayed by Strada and they bring a lot of hope to burrow via in any case I guess that's how to play curse of Stroud [Music] you [Music]

Channel: XP to Level 3

Views: 231,551

Keywords: dnd, d&d, dungeons and dragons, how to, tutorial, funny, monk, fighter, 5e, player, book, dm, dungeon master, roll, ranger, rogue, paladin, cleric, barbarian, bard, wizard, sorcerer, warlock, artificer, mystic, skits, idea, character, stats, build, new, tips, gm

Id: f6zRXh8YVXc

Length: 15min 1sec (901 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 11 2020