Legends of Barovia: an Expanded Curse of Strahd Campaign
Legends of Barovia is an expanded Curse of Strahd campaign that weaves new lore into the mythical lands of Barovia!
$30.00
/ Session
Details
Bi-weekly / Saturday - 6:00 PM UTC
Dec 20 / Session 6
Session Duration / 3 hours
Campaign Length / 20–60 Sessions
5 / 6 Seats Filled
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Schedule
Meet your party members
5/6
About the adventure
In Legends of Barovia, your character is an ordinary adventurer that can achieve the extraordinary—but they have to earn it. No one becomes a hero in Barovia until they prove their merit. Barovia is a unique place, and your character will be out of their element. At least initially, they will not be seen as heroes and will be treated accordingly. This serves to reinforce the shock your character may experience when they first face the darkness and horrors that plague this realm. Depression, fear, and darkness cover the land. Talk is cheap, and only results that are hard won through brave deeds are valued. Dozens if not hundreds have ventured into this realm, all believing they would be the triumphant heroes to save this dark place. None have succeeded. This adventure uses the D&D 2024 rules, but with additional mechanics for Fear, Horror, Despair, Lingering Injuries, and other gritty/horrific elements. Players will not see the DCs for skill checks and saves, but they might know if something should be Easy (10-14), Moderate (15-19), Hard (20-24), etc. We will use the Proficiency Dice variant rule. This rule adds volatility and uncertainty. Barovia resides in a Domain of Dread covered in mists that reduce the reliability of one’s skills. Death is not only possible, but likely. So, we'll have access to a variety of exciting rules and mechanics that keep the game moving in the wake of a character's death. Maybe your character comes back as a revenant! Perhaps she makes a deal with the same Dark Vestiges that gave Strahd his eternal life! Perhaps Strahd, himself, will bring you back from death for his own inscrutable reasons. As a DM, I focus equally on all three pillars of gameplay: Roleplay, Combat, and Exploration. Specifically, I see Investigation as an unofficial fourth Pillar (really, a subset of Exploration), and this campaign is full of significant opportunities to do research and roleplay with NPCs in order to learn pivotal clues that have real in-game benefits. In some ways, this adventure shares a lot with games like Call of Cthulhu, where the horror and despair your character feels as they experience the terrors of Barovia have mechanical effects in-game. In other ways, I draw heavily from the play style (if not the skill and ability) of Matt Mercer and the Daggerheart system, especially the significance of the choices we all make during our session zero, where we will pick a theme from one of these choices: Dark Fantasy, High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, or Medieval Fantasy. There are also custom backgrounds available that can drastically change the story (Curse of Lycanthropy, Vistani Clan Member, Missing Merchant, Sun Blade Relic Seeker, and more!). We will make our characters during the session zero based on the choices everyone makes! Of course, you can have a general idea of your character concept, but nothing is set in stone until we play through the session zero!
Game style
Roleplay Heavy
Rules as Written (RaW)
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(20)
3 years on StartPlaying
340 games hosted
Highly rated for: Creativity, Storytelling, World Builder
Average response time: 2 hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
Hey there! I'm Gamersaurus Lex, a longtime player and GM who owned a local game store for about a decade. I am a happy-go-lucky extrovert that spent the last decade of his life running a FLGS and professionally nerding out with gamers of every age and disposition. I love running games with lots of excitement, fully realized NPCs, and a true open sandbox approach, even when we're running an established module. You want to ignore the module's storyline and chart your own course? I will make it happen! Prefer to play in one of my homebrew campaigns set in the Moonsea Region of the Forgotten Realms? Buckle up, you're in for a wild ride! I have decades of experience introducing new players to the hobby, at my game store, conventions, and at my home table, so you couldn't be in better hands if you're just starting out with TTRPGs or if you're switching systems. I have been a pro GM for about 20 years, and only recently started offering my services online with StartPlaying. Veterans will enjoy my games, too, especially with all the Easter eggs that pop up in every session. I tend to run D&D 5e, Pathfinder 2e, and Starfinder these days, but I have plenty of recent experience with 3.x, Savage Worlds, GURPS, and the many varieties of the Cypher System. And, let's be honest, given time to prepare, I can run any system if there is a group that really wants that system.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
We will do most of character creation at the session zero, but you can play around with ideas ahead of time on D&D Beyond using the following parameters: - D&D 2024 Core Rules only (no supplemental material or Legacy Content) - 27-point Buy (although if the players want to roll for stats at session zero, we certainly can) - some of the custom backgrounds have race and class restrictions Join the campaign on D&D Beyond here: https://www.dndbeyond.com/campaigns/join/69636253458625717 You should also join my Discord here (make sure to select the Bat Emoji during Step # 2 to give yourself the proper role so you can access the campaign channels: https://discord.gg/adkCzF6S86
What to expect
Preparing for the session
Join the campaign on D&D Beyond here: https://www.dndbeyond.com/campaigns/join/69636253458625717 You should also join my Discord here (make sure to select the Bat Emoji during Step # 2 to give yourself the proper role so you can access the campaign channels: https://discord.gg/adkCzF6S86 You can join the VTT server here (requires a free account to ForgeVTT): https://forge-vtt.com/invite/gamersaurus-lex-curse-of-strahd/609752d7-ac99-4599-bd36-fc4cb4fc5eba
What Gamersaurus brings to the table
I am a drama nerd, so I love to give my NPCs real personalities, distinctive voices, and their own POV. I generally play Rules as Written, but the 5e system leaves a LOT of room for GMs like me to reward creative ideas and engaging roleplay. I provide beautiful scenes, atmospheric music, and a host of VTT automations designed to make the online TTRPG experience come alive. We all prefer to play around a table, but this is the next best thing! Expect to be rewarded just as much for social solutions that avoid combat as you would have if you'd been forced to fight. Expect challenging (rewarding!) combat with NPCs and monsters that are varied and special (i.e., not just copied and pasted from the Monster Manual). Expect a ton of lore and unique opportunities to gain critical buffs due to research/gathering information/influencing/deceiving/etc. The more you engage the story and setting, the more you will succeed.
Homebrew rules
* Fear When a PC confronts threats, monsters, or situations they have no hope of overcoming, the DM can ask the player to make a Wisdom saving throw. A character who fails the save becomes frightened for 1 minute. * Horror When a character learns, sees, or experiences something horrific, the DM may call for a Horror check. The affected characters must roll a Charisma saving throw to resist. The DC is based on the magnitude of the horrific circumstances. A character who fails the save gains short-term or long-term madness, depending on the magnitude of the horrific circumstances. Despair A melancholic atmosphere pervades Barovia, and creatures who spend an extended amount of time there may succumb to it. Creatures who face Despair must succeed on a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw or be affected by a random Despair effect. * Lingering injuries When a creature fails a death saving throw by 5 or more, suffers a critical hit, or is reduced to 0 hit points but is not killed outright, the creature must succeed on a Constitution DC 10 saving throw or gain an effect from the Lingering Injuries table. * Secret DCs The DM will not reveal the DCs for any ability check or saving throw. Instead, he will reveal only whether the difficulty of a task is easy, moderate, hard, very hard, or nearly impossible. Player uncertainty is a crucial part of a horror game! * Nightmares If a creature has less than 50 percent of its hit points or any level of exhaustion before taking a long rest, it may suffer from nightmares. * Some spells work differently in Barovia and others do not work at all. * Removing curses in Barovia is more difficult than usual * Long Rest A long rest is 8 hours long and requires 6 hours of sleep. However, where this rest takes place (Secured vs Unsecured Location) impacts the benefits gained. *Revenant Characters A PC who dies in Barovia may come back as a revenant to finish their quest to defeat Strahd or find and defeat the creature that killed them.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Headphones
Platforms used
Safety
How Gamersaurus creates a safe table
Legends of Barovia and Curse of Strahd is gothic horror, and some subject matter may be unsuitable or offensive to some players. This campaign is for ages 18+ and contains child abuse and neglect, emotional and physical abuse, murder and attempted murder, kidnapping, stalking, assault, gaslighting, abuse of power, racism, xenophobia, cruelty, torture, references to genocide, mutilation, mind control, the desecration of the dead and places of worship, cannibalism, mercy killing, parental death, child death, mental illness, starvation, cruelty to animals, prolonged and painful deaths, body horror, insects and infestation horror, decay, betrayal, consumption of alcohol and drugs, involuntary homicide, graphic depictions of death and violence, necrophilia, self-harm, suicide, and potentially other mature themes. If you find any of this material objectionable, offensive, or potentially disturbing to see or hear about in a TTRPG setting, let's discuss it at our Session Zero and figure out where the lines and veils need to be and make sure everyone is signing up for the same experience!
Content warnings
Safety tools used