Fangs in the Fog | Curse of Strahd | Beginner Friendly
Barovia is cursed, the mists have claimed you, and the vampire lord Strahd watches. Will you escape his grasp, or become part of his dark legend?
About the adventure
In the land of Barovia, the dreaded vampire lord Strahd von Zarovich rules with an iron fist. You and your companions are drawn into his domain, where you must navigate treacherous landscapes, unravel dark mysteries, and face the horrors that lurk in every shadow. Starting from level 1, this campaign will take you through chilling encounters and eerie locales as you strive to uncover the secrets of Barovia, gather powerful allies, and ultimately confront Strahd to break his reign of terror.
Game style
Combat Heavy
Roleplay Heavy
Sandbox / Open World
Game themes
$15.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Monday – 5:00 AM UTC
Jul 14 / Session 0
Campaign Length / 20–40 Sessions
2.5–3 Hour Duration
3 / 6 Seats Filled
GAME MASTER
Josh Ainsworth
he/him
5.0
(6)
Schedule
Each player will be charged when a session starts.
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(6)
1 year on StartPlaying
17 games hosted
Highly rated for: World Builder, Creativity, Voices
Average response time: 3 hours
Response rate: 67%
About me
Hi I'm Josh, a worldbuilder, writer and forever DM by choice! I'm a huge fan of mixing roleplay heavy games with interesting and engaging combat and challenges for my players. I have been a Dungeon Master for over 4 years, throughout that time I have maintained multiple active campaigns, one of which lasting from level 3 to a conclusion at level 20. My favourite part about RPGs and mainly Dungeons and Dragons is writing and creating. I love building engaging worlds for and with my players and I create homebrew classes, races, subclasses, magic items, and everything in between for fun and to fit the worlds I create. I am in the process of establishing a small publishing independent "company" called RPJeez where I publish the homebrew I create and I run a small podcast of the same name to discuss all things TTRPGs. Basically I love this hobby and am looking for more opportunities to spread the worlds and stories I create with more players who can help me make them.
View Profile →Reviews (6)
Proficiencies
Players say this GM is great at:
World Builder
Creativity
Voices
Six
Played 16 sessions
Josh made my DnD experience fun, entertaining, and enjoyable. Everyone had their moment to shine, and we were all able to laugh every session, always ending it with smiles on our faces.
Yorie
Played 4 sessions
Josh is very much a DM here to bring your visions to life, whether tat be his openness to your wildest character concepts, or his rule of cool handling of dynamic movie-esque actions like swinging on a cage as you try to time the unbanishment of an ally to free them from it. His goal as a DM is to engage you in a story you want to be there for, with excellent voice work (best water elemental ever), terrific use of role20 and other implements, and buckets of patience.
Ryan Aiden
If immersion, creativity, and epic worldbuilding were to manifest physically on this plane of existence, it would be in the form of this beautiful GM right here. I personally have had the pleasure of playing in now 2 of Josh's campaigns over the last 5 years. He has made me laugh, made me cry, made me angry, and even feel love. All done with holding a safe space for expression, an expert grasp of the rules of the worlds he creates, and while holding true to the Rule of Cool. Anyone would be lucky indeed to have an opportunity to be part of one of Josh's games!
Ross
Josh has been DMing games I've been playing in for roughly six years now and is a brilliant Game Master, with excellent original ideas and characters that leap to life and will steal your heart, or maybe your soul if you warlocks aren't careful. Josh not only encourages character ideas and is always careful to allow every voice at the table to be heard, he also gets the players involved in the creation of the world and the twists and turns of the narrative, allowing your character, and by extension you, to not just be in the world, but feel part of it too. Josh is a welcoming, friendly dude and his story telling and world building is not to be missed!
Murray
Josh is a wonderful GM, I have been a part of his worlds for 5 years. I really appreciated the effort he puts into making the world feel alive through the use of musical tracks, character voices, and description of mannerisms. His personal Homebrews are also super fun and easy to approach. I would recommend Josh to someone who wants to feel the world come alive around them.
The Guild of Misadventures
I DMed Josh for years as a player and I was always in awe of the fascinating and challenging characters he played. He was always engaged, driving the story forward and making big, interesting choices. Now that I have the privilege to be DMed by him, the same traits that make him an incredible player make him an awesome game master. He builds rich, diverse homebrew worlds that are full of threads to pull on, he rolls with the insane choices that his players make and pushes them to the next level and he is always down to dive into deep, emotionally-challenging scenes with you. I cannot recommend his games highly enough. Your choices will matter, your roleplay will be met head on and, most importantly, you will have tonnes of fun.
Character creation
Creating your character
We will work together prior to the first session on creating your character. All official 5e content is allowed and most Unearthed Arcanas are allowed too. Any homebrew content created by me found on DrivethruRPG is allowed and other homebrew can be allowed too if checked with me first. Level 1 PCs, roll for stats on the roll20 game when link provided Rolling: roll 4d6 drop the lowest When rolling HP you can reroll 1s
What to expect
Preparing for the session
What to install and/or sign up: Roll20 - used for rolling dice, accessing character sheets and for combat Discord - used for communicating with each other https://discord.gg/RhxDgFRXYy What equipment needed: Microphone and headphones - for voice communication
What Josh Ainsworth brings to the table
What I offer in DMing: I use character voices for NPCs (Some better than others), I encourage epic character moments through things like describing actions in detail, flashbacks and dream sequences for cool roleplay opportunities. I enjoy interesting combat where defeating every enemy is not always the solution and while I use the 5e rules I do encourage creative use of the rules in a Rule of Cool fashion. Resources I offer: Content on Roll20 for PC creation including PHB, Monster Manual, Dungeon Masters Guide, Tashas, Xanathar's, Volos and Mordenkainens.
Homebrew rules
Some house rules I use: Using health potions costs a bonus action Giving someone else a health potion costs an action Flanking grants advantage When you drop to 0 hit points and are healed you gain a point of exhaustion
Equipment needed to play
Computer
Headphones
Internet
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Josh Ainsworth creates a safe table
I am a DM that loves to engage in roleplay scenes and epic character moments. I love challenging my players with tough and interesting encounters and encourage players to make fun choices and actions to push not only the campaign but their PCs own story too. Lines and Veils: This will be sent to players before the first session to be completed Session 0: At the start of the first session for no more than 30 minutes I will dedicate time to reiterating our safety tools and how they work. Character creation will be done before the game to get into the action as soon as possible but any extra new or pressing questions would also be addressed in session 0. X, N & Os will be digital via discord DM Houserules: Flanking - if 2 characters are directly opposite a creature, melee attacks are with advantage Potions - bonus action to drink, action to feed to another