I’ve started running Curse of Strahd and have been having a ton of fun making wacky homebrew things for my party and tweaking the module. Unbeknownst to the players so far, I have made them all a secret Dark Power trying to use them to usurp Strahd and Vampyr, and they’re just waiting to offer their dark gift.
For example, I have a druid with some fire giant ancestry who loves Produce Flame and is their front line, so he’ll be offered a slightly weaker Rage with the Path of the Storm Herald desert feature to use once per long rest. The celestial warlock would get charges to boost his Eldritch Blast damage and some secondary healing in exchange for sapping his life.
Giving my players powerful upgrades alongside typical class advancement can make some encounters harder to balance around, but as long as we’re all having fun who cares about balance??
DM here, mine is a bit vague and cheesy but whatever. Favourite part is seeing how excited my friends get when something cool happens! Whether it’s pulling out a spicy combat encounter, or they connect the clues of some big plot point, or they pull off something heroic and/or disastrous in game and we all know it’s unforgettable.
Being a DM feels a bit like hosting a party (except less overwhelming). It feels like giving gifts to my friends in the form of a fantasy world. It’s highly fulfilling, and we end up weaving many joyful memories together.
(Also hello from a fellow Curse of Strahd DM!)
Have you used any supplementals? I’ve dug through most of Mandymods stuff (shout-out to her) but haven’t looked at Dragnacarta or the interactive Tome yet.
We’re at the start of our campaign (they’ve just gone though Death House) so I’ve yet to dig deep into it but I have been taking a close look at both MandyMod and DragnaCarta.
At first I was preparing to follow MandyMod closely with the Fanes and stuff but it ended up getting a bit overwhelming for me and I realised I didn’t actually need or want all of it. So I’ve dialled back a bit and am just taking bits and pieces of inspiration wherever fits. I’ve liked stuff from both supplements so I’ll probably continue to do so, although I have to be careful with MandyMod because there’s so much homebrew lore in it that I need to remind myself what is module lore and what is fan lore. Nevertheless, there’s a treasure trove of stuff to add which is a really nice change for running a module.
I haven’t actually heard of the interactive tome, marvel missed that but I’ll have to check it out!