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How to prep Curse of Strahd effectively

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7

$begingroup$

Before I move into the question there are no spoilers here.

I am about to embark on a lengthy D&D adventure with some new players that will start with the Lost Mine of Phandelver (LMoP) and then continue into Curse of Strahd (CoS). I envision LMoP will take 4-5 sessions (it may be slow moving with the new player) and then we will move on to CoS after that.

I have already run LMoP before and some other shorter adventures like A Wild Sheep Chase and The Low Crater, but I am very intimidated at the thought of running a longer adventure like CoS. I know the first step is to read the book cover to cover, but how do I prep for a pre-canned adventure of this size that also has a sandbox portion?

There is no way I can possibly memorize everything in CoS and I don't want it to be railroady. The sandbox element of CoS is part of its greatness. How do experienced DMs prep for an adventure this size?

dnd-5e new-gm gm-preparation curse-of-strahd

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

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asked 2 hours ago

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$endgroup$

add a comment | 

7

$begingroup$

Before I move into the question there are no spoilers here.

I am about to embark on a lengthy D&D adventure with some new players that will start with the Lost Mine of Phandelver (LMoP) and then continue into Curse of Strahd (CoS). I envision LMoP will take 4-5 sessions (it may be slow moving with the new player) and then we will move on to CoS after that.

I have already run LMoP before and some other shorter adventures like A Wild Sheep Chase and The Low Crater, but I am very intimidated at the thought of running a longer adventure like CoS. I know the first step is to read the book cover to cover, but how do I prep for a pre-canned adventure of this size that also has a sandbox portion?

There is no way I can possibly memorize everything in CoS and I don't want it to be railroady. The sandbox element of CoS is part of its greatness. How do experienced DMs prep for an adventure this size?

dnd-5e new-gm gm-preparation curse-of-strahd

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

V2Blast

23.1k374146

asked 2 hours ago

SaggingRufusSaggingRufus

937820

$endgroup$

add a comment | 

$begingroup$

Before I move into the question there are no spoilers here.

I am about to embark on a lengthy D&D adventure with some new players that will start with the Lost Mine of Phandelver (LMoP) and then continue into Curse of Strahd (CoS). I envision LMoP will take 4-5 sessions (it may be slow moving with the new player) and then we will move on to CoS after that.

I have already run LMoP before and some other shorter adventures like A Wild Sheep Chase and The Low Crater, but I am very intimidated at the thought of running a longer adventure like CoS. I know the first step is to read the book cover to cover, but how do I prep for a pre-canned adventure of this size that also has a sandbox portion?

There is no way I can possibly memorize everything in CoS and I don't want it to be railroady. The sandbox element of CoS is part of its greatness. How do experienced DMs prep for an adventure this size?

dnd-5e new-gm gm-preparation curse-of-strahd

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

V2Blast

23.1k374146

asked 2 hours ago

SaggingRufusSaggingRufus

937820

$endgroup$

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

V2Blast

23.1k374146

asked 2 hours ago

SaggingRufusSaggingRufus

937820

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

V2Blast

23.1k374146

asked 2 hours ago

SaggingRufusSaggingRufus

937820

edited 1 hour ago

V2Blast

23.1k374146

edited 1 hour ago

V2Blast

23.1k374146

asked 2 hours ago

SaggingRufusSaggingRufus

937820

asked 2 hours ago

SaggingRufusSaggingRufus

937820

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

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7

$begingroup$

Ask "What would you like to do next session?"

This is a question I ask my players at the end of a session where the next steps are quite vague. If they're in the middle of a dungeon crawl when we finish for the evening, I have a very solid idea of what they're going to be doing next time we sit at the table.

However, if you're playing a sandbox portion of the adventure, make sure your players are communicating with you what their intentions are. It's not railroading to prepare what's in Town1 if the player's specifically state they want to check out Town1 next time they play.

All DMs know that players are unpredictable though and their plans can change, which is fine. You've already stated that you know to read the whole book (or at least the main parts), so this is where your knowledge of the source material and improvisation skills come into play. I always have some extra locations/encounters/plot hooks stored away for this sort of scenario.

So sometimes the unknown is unavoidable. But a little bit of communication with your players would definitely help.

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

V2Blast

23.1k374146

answered 2 hours ago

BradenA8BradenA8

1,339523

$endgroup$

• 
  
  
  

  
  5
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  It might also be worthwhile noting that travel in D&D takes a while, and having a few "on the road encounters" prepped for travel time will give the DM buffers to prepare the next location, while not railroading characters.
  $endgroup$
  – illustro
  2 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  3
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  @illustro The CoS manual even provides a number of theme-appropriate and narrative-appropriate random encounters (pg 29) that could easily be fleshed out into seemingly non-random encounters
  $endgroup$
  – frog
  2 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

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7

$begingroup$

Ask "What would you like to do next session?"

This is a question I ask my players at the end of a session where the next steps are quite vague. If they're in the middle of a dungeon crawl when we finish for the evening, I have a very solid idea of what they're going to be doing next time we sit at the table.

However, if you're playing a sandbox portion of the adventure, make sure your players are communicating with you what their intentions are. It's not railroading to prepare what's in Town1 if the player's specifically state they want to check out Town1 next time they play.

All DMs know that players are unpredictable though and their plans can change, which is fine. You've already stated that you know to read the whole book (or at least the main parts), so this is where your knowledge of the source material and improvisation skills come into play. I always have some extra locations/encounters/plot hooks stored away for this sort of scenario.

So sometimes the unknown is unavoidable. But a little bit of communication with your players would definitely help.

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

V2Blast

23.1k374146

answered 2 hours ago

BradenA8BradenA8

1,339523

$endgroup$

• 
  
  
  

  
  5
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  It might also be worthwhile noting that travel in D&D takes a while, and having a few "on the road encounters" prepped for travel time will give the DM buffers to prepare the next location, while not railroading characters.
  $endgroup$
  – illustro
  2 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  3
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  @illustro The CoS manual even provides a number of theme-appropriate and narrative-appropriate random encounters (pg 29) that could easily be fleshed out into seemingly non-random encounters
  $endgroup$
  – frog
  2 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

7

$begingroup$

Ask "What would you like to do next session?"

This is a question I ask my players at the end of a session where the next steps are quite vague. If they're in the middle of a dungeon crawl when we finish for the evening, I have a very solid idea of what they're going to be doing next time we sit at the table.

However, if you're playing a sandbox portion of the adventure, make sure your players are communicating with you what their intentions are. It's not railroading to prepare what's in Town1 if the player's specifically state they want to check out Town1 next time they play.

All DMs know that players are unpredictable though and their plans can change, which is fine. You've already stated that you know to read the whole book (or at least the main parts), so this is where your knowledge of the source material and improvisation skills come into play. I always have some extra locations/encounters/plot hooks stored away for this sort of scenario.

So sometimes the unknown is unavoidable. But a little bit of communication with your players would definitely help.

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

V2Blast

23.1k374146

answered 2 hours ago

BradenA8BradenA8

1,339523

$endgroup$

• 
  
  
  

  
  5
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  It might also be worthwhile noting that travel in D&D takes a while, and having a few "on the road encounters" prepped for travel time will give the DM buffers to prepare the next location, while not railroading characters.
  $endgroup$
  – illustro
  2 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  3
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  @illustro The CoS manual even provides a number of theme-appropriate and narrative-appropriate random encounters (pg 29) that could easily be fleshed out into seemingly non-random encounters
  $endgroup$
  – frog
  2 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

$begingroup$

Ask "What would you like to do next session?"

This is a question I ask my players at the end of a session where the next steps are quite vague. If they're in the middle of a dungeon crawl when we finish for the evening, I have a very solid idea of what they're going to be doing next time we sit at the table.

However, if you're playing a sandbox portion of the adventure, make sure your players are communicating with you what their intentions are. It's not railroading to prepare what's in Town1 if the player's specifically state they want to check out Town1 next time they play.

All DMs know that players are unpredictable though and their plans can change, which is fine. You've already stated that you know to read the whole book (or at least the main parts), so this is where your knowledge of the source material and improvisation skills come into play. I always have some extra locations/encounters/plot hooks stored away for this sort of scenario.

So sometimes the unknown is unavoidable. But a little bit of communication with your players would definitely help.

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

V2Blast

23.1k374146

answered 2 hours ago

BradenA8BradenA8

1,339523

$endgroup$

share|improve this answer

edited 1 hour ago

V2Blast

23.1k374146

answered 2 hours ago

BradenA8BradenA8

1,339523

edited 1 hour ago

V2Blast

23.1k374146

edited 1 hour ago

V2Blast

23.1k374146

answered 2 hours ago

BradenA8BradenA8

1,339523

answered 2 hours ago

BradenA8BradenA8

1,339523