D&D: How DMs Can Make Curse Of Strahd Even Better For Players
A large, open world and plenty of gothic frights make Dungeons & Dragons' 5e module Curse of Strahd a perennial favorite among players and dungeon masters, though there are ways to make it even better in the right hands. The tragic tale of a vampire count driven to madness over unrequited love draws upon tropes that have been with the gothic horror and vampire horror genre since the days of Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley. Curse of Strahd gives players and dungeon masters a chance to write their gothic tale in a rich and well-developed world, but there are several ways in which the story could be improved.
Strahd and his domain of Ravenloft were first introduced in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Module I6: Ravenloft, back in the days when Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson feuded over AD&D. What started as one dark lord and one domain quickly spiraled into an entire demiplane full of similarly vile villains and haunted lands as detailed in the Dungeons & Dragons 5e supplement, Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. While each plane is separate and ruled and shaped by its dark lord, they all owe their existence to the original domain of dread and its dark master.
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With Curse of Strahd being such an iconic and well-received Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition module, a dungeon master could be hard-pressed to find ways of improving the experience for their players. While there are many options (such as the locations of the powerful artifacts that the party can use to defeat Strahd) intended to promote player choice, careful curation of certain aspects of the adventure behind the screen could lead to a more cohesive (and less unfairly lethal) campaign. Taking into account
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