It’s July, but here’s how last month’s Curse of Strahd session went!

In this series, I’m writing about how I prep my monthly CoS sessions and the results of that preparation. I’ve been able to learn a lot about how I need to prep generally and for this specific group.

What was prepped:

  • Wrote recap

This recap clocked in at 426 words, which is a little shorter than last time’s. The group has accomplished enough so that it’s easier to summarize in a few short phrases. Then, I can dedicate the meat of the recap to reminding everyone of the current state of events. I think we were able to easily transition from pre-game chatting to actually playing pretty smoothly this time.

  • Read over Retainer rules

The party has picked up a few NPCs on their adventures. It helps them out a lot—as they’re only a party of two—but DMing those NPCs during combat became clunky.

So, I turned to MCDM’s Strongholds & Followers. Specifically the Followers section. The book has rules for running “retainers,” NPCs with PC-like abilities that are weaker but more streamlined. I took the follower cards for two different fighter-like retainers and gave those to the players to use. This time around, the players ran Ismark Kolyanovich and Ireena Kolyana in combat. I could focus on running the enemies, and the players seemed to enjoy getting to decide what their NPC friends did in the fights.

  • Prepped possible encounters

I prepared three encounters for this session. The players were travelling for quite a ways across Barovia this time, they hadn’t had any possible combat scenarios in a bit, and I didn’t want to depend on the random encounter table mid-session. I scanned through the table ahead of time and pulled up the dire wolf and the scarecrow stat blocks.

Since the party was leaving the town of Barovia, I also pulled up the vampire spawn stat block to use for Doru, a vampire spawn who had escaped from where he was held in the town.

The party hit all three of these scenes. They discovered Doru on their way out of the town, fought him, and seem to have destroyed him. A pack of dire wolves began tailing them midway through a day of travel, so they confronted the group and successfully fended them off. Kara, the half-elf bard, used Leomund’s tiny hut to protect the party while they made camp in the woods. The scarecrow encounter came up during their stay, so they were able to defeat them quite easily, but they were still scary! I think this worked out fairly well.

  • Wrote scene to read aloud

I typed out a short scene to give the players a glimpse of happenings elsewhere. Honestly, I wish I had spent more time on this. It communicated the information I wanted to communicate, but I think I could have delivered it better.

  • Fleshed out NPC personalities

The party has befriended three NPCs that have basically become part of the group. I spent some time definining Ireena, Ismark, and Korina (a character I made up) during session prep. This allowed me to continue roleplaying them while still maintaining that they’re each a different person, with their own goals and voices.

I still have a ways to go before these characters are as defined as I’d like, but I think I made pretty good progress here.

What was improvised:

  • Visiting the Wizard of Wines winery

The party decided to swing by the winery on their way over to Yester Hill. They wanted to check in on the Martikov family, since they had saved the winery from evil druids a while back. This was a pleasant surprise—I always love it when players circle back to NPCs they had previously interacted with—but I had to take a second to read back over the NPC information in the book.

Fortunately, I had remembered enough to roleplay the Martikovs consistently. The party was also able to gain more information (or just reminders) about the area around Yester Hill, where they plan to visit soon.

  • Narrating a second scene

I wasn’t satisfied with the first scene’s narration, so later on in the session, I dropped in a short few lines in a second scene. I think this one served better to build the mood—the first one I wrote lacked tension.

But, because I improvised the “cutscene,” it wasn’t as tightly written as the one I had prepared. So, pros and cons.

  • Wrapping up the session

The party was inside the winery, talking to the Martikovs… and there’s a knock on the door.

The swashbuckler stands on the other side of the door. That’s where the session ends.

The swashbuckler is a character the players have seen in the few “cutscenes” I’ve narrated over the past few sessions. They know he works for Strahd and is probably a vampire spawn. And now, they know they’ll have to deal with him next session.

I don’t always do cliffhangers, because it’s just as important that players feel a sense of resolution at the end of a session, especially since we don’t meet often. I felt like this was effective because the players were in a fairly undramatic point in the session, but I still had this NPC to deploy in some way.

What I need to prep next time:

  • Flesh out the swashbuckler

Now, they’re going to have to deal with this one in some way. I need to give him proper stats (and a name) and figure out just how powerful he’ll need to be. He’s certainly not one to be defeated easily—the party may not even be capable of it at this point—but I’ve certainly learned not to underestimate them. They have the holy symbol of ravenkind and a little more knowledge of how vampire spawn work.

I also need to figure out his angle, how he’s going to approach the party, and what he thinks of them. I’m pretty sure he’s a former adventurer who failed to defeat Strahd, so how does he see these new outsiders?

  • Prepare Yester Hill area

The party is going to reach Yester Hill within the next two sessions, so I’ll have the area prepped and reviewed properly. I’ve read over it a few times during the last session prep. This makes my job now a little easier!

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!