Learn to Play | The Curse of Strahd: A Heroe's Trial
The gates of Barovia slam shut behind you. The undead stir. The villagers despair. And the devil Strahd? He’s already chosen his next guest.
About the adventure
Step into the mist-shrouded land of Barovia, a cursed realm locked in eternal twilight under the rule of the vampire lord Strahd von Zarovich. Shadows stretch long across haunted forests, forgotten ruins, and villages gripped by fear. Castle Ravenloft looms over it all, a silent sentinel and symbol of Strahd’s dominance. Here, nothing escapes his gaze—and no one leaves without his will. Guided by the enigmatic seer Madame Eva and her Tarokka deck, your fate will be revealed through visions of danger, unlikely allies, and powerful relics. In The Curse of Strahd, every choice matters, and the line between hope and despair is razor-thin. Will you rise to challenge the darkness, or will Barovia claim yet another soul lost to the mist? —————————————————————— What to expect: 🩸 Non-linear gameplay: Choose your own path and tackle quests in any order. 🩸 Active villain: Strahd is always watching, manipulating, and shaping the story. 🩸 Moral ambiguity: Barovia’s people are flawed, with no clear heroes or villains. 🩸 Survival in a cursed land: Barovia is bleak, with little hope and even less magic. 🩸 Runs from levels 2 - 12 🩸 Wonderfully rendered animated interactive maps Sign-Up now before spots all fill up for this interactive amazing story about one of the greatest villains in D&D.
Game themes
$30.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Saturday – 6:00 PM UTC
Session Duration / 3–3.5 hours
Campaign Length / 50–75 Sessions
1 / 6 Seats Filled
GAME MASTER
Erick
he/him
5.0
(38)
Each player will be charged when a session starts.
Report Adventure
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(38)
5 years on StartPlaying
23 games hosted
Highly rated for: Teacher, Creativity, Sets the Mood
Average response time: 5 hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
My name is Erick. I have played Tabletop RPGS for over 25 years now. If you ever told me that I could get paid to play TTRPGs I would have thought you were joking. But here I am today. The CEO of StartPlaying asked me join StartPlaying during beta just before the pandemic. When the pandemic lifted I went back to running in-person games at game rooms where I live. I now back on StartPlaying to open up to online games again. I have run games for events, conventions and Adventure League helping people learn and understand TTRPGs for the first time. And for the advanced players, I have offered challenging and intriguing memorable stories. I have traveled the world as a travel photographer connecting with people and telling their stories. Now it is time to create our own stories together. Let us sit down with a group of friends, roll some dice and tell a story together.
View Profile →Reviews (38)
Proficiencies
Players say this GM is great at:
Teacher
Creativity
Sets the Mood
Macchiato Monkey
Played 2 sessions
Gm at the end of the session asking: mention one thing you think I could have done better. Me: Everything was great! Erick knows the rules and his adventures very well. His portrayal of NPC's is wonderful! He's very welcoming to players who are practicing their English linguistics skills. The design of his adventures and pregenerated characters help these kind of players to more easily portray their player character in a non native language.
Biqij
Played 2 sessions
Erick was really welcoming and patient. None of us had ever played D&D or used a VTT before and two of us had never played a VTT but he made it a friendly environment to figure stuff out and have fun. The game was awesome and I really loved his characters - the backstories definitely led to some further discussion among the three of us after the game. We had some technical issues on roll20 but Erick helped us reach a workaround so that we could keep playing. We talked to Erick about it on stream and we know he is already aware but in case it would be helpful to Start Playing in general - it would be really nice to have everything all in one place because it was tough to keep flicking between the chat and the character sheet and discord, especially when still getting used to where everything is.
Chip
Played 2 sessions
Erick did an amazing job of making us all feel welcome and integrated in the group. The story we played through had characters that were very well developed with solid back stories to hook us in with each other. He had a great amount of patience as we had many new players on the Foundry platform and he kept us all involved throughout the session. I had a great time and learned a lot from him. I'll be looking for his sessions in StartPlaying in the future.
Chazz
New review
Played 1 sessions
Wonderful storyteller, kept pacing up, played NPC's with sincerity, and unflappable as I had some technical difficulties at the top.
J
New review
Played 1 sessions
Erick is great at teaching foundry vtt and is very knowledgeable on the rules of dnd. He sets the mood with flashy slides on pop-ups and the twist at the end is a nice story touch. If your looking to learn the vtt or 5e this is a great introduction.
Serafim Parente
Played 1 sessions
Was a great introduction to DND, Erick explain the base mechanics of the game well. Gave us a nice short quest to complete while introducing relevant mechanics throughout making it fun and educational. 100% Recommend.
Character creation
Creating your character
We will be creating a characters during a session 0. The guidelines of character creation will be sent to you in a link as well of the rest of the session 0 information. Creation Rule Preview: 2024 Rules Starting at level 2 Point Buy Stats Most lineages available 🚫 Not Allowed 🚫 Lone wolves, Murder Hobos Multi-classing without a story reason Unearthed Arcana material Home-brewed content
What to expect
Preparing for the session
NEEDED 🖥️ A computer with internet access and dedicated GPU + 16GB of RAM 🖥️ 🌐 Firefox or Chromium Browser (Safari does not support web audio or animations) 🌐 🎙️ Working microphone and headphones 🎙️ ⚔️ DnDBeyond Account (Free) ⚔️ 🎮 Discord account (Free) 🎮 ♟️ Forge VTT Account (Free) ♟️ RECOMMENDED 🎥 Webcam (this is optional but adds a lot to the immersion of roleplaying) 🎥 📋 Reviewing this primer: https://www.localdungeonmaster.com/curse-of-strahd-primer/ 📋 ✅ Character design/background concept ✅
What Erick brings to the table
🗺️ Animated maps and visual aids 🗺️ 🎵 Curated musical playlist 🎵 📝 Wiki access to lore of the campaign 📝 📔 Website to store notes 📔 📚 DnD Beyond access to core and supplement digital books. 📚 ✅ Campaign rules and expectations as well as home-brew rules ✅
Equipment needed to play
Computer
Headphones
Internet
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Erick creates a safe table
This campaign contains dark themes and potential triggers, most of which can be removed if needed. We’ll discuss these in Session 0. We’ll also use tools like a variation of the X/N/O card system, an open door policy, and post-session check-ins to ensure everyone feels safe and supported.