I got the idea to do a Castle Ravenloft Halloween game while watching Sly Flourish videos on YouTube last winter. Here is a link to Mike's article that details the method he uses to run Castle Ravenloft as a one-shot game. Here is a link to James Introcaso's article that outlines a similar approach that I also found helpful.
About 5 or 6 weeks before Halloween this year, I asked my players if they had any interest in doing a special game for Halloween. They expressed enthusiasm for the idea, so I started planning the details for how I would go about running Castle Ravenloft from the 5e Curse of Strahd adventure. I knew for my game I wouldn't be able to pull this off as a one-shot due to our tight 2 hour weekly sessions. So I planned for a 2 to 3 session Halloween Extravaganza.
My players' characters are currently exploring the 1st level of the mega dungeon Dwimmermount. The Mists of Ravenloft would be their conveyance into that demi-plane/dimension. The session before Halloween, the PCs chose to rest within Dwimmermount which was convenient for me to have the Mists arrive and pull the PCs out of a deep sleep and into a carriage with Madame Eva.
After deciding how to get the PCs into Ravenloft, next I started thinking about win conditions and I determined that death in Ravenloft wouldn't be perma-death in the campaign. If they died in Castle Ravenloft, they would wake up in Dwimmermount as if from a terrifying dream. I also started thinking about PC level. The 4 characters going into Ravenloft were LotFP; a level 8 Magic-User, a level 8 SPC, a level 6 Fighter, and a level 4 Cleric of Tiamat. It has been quite the grind to level for the two level 8 characters. I had read that the recommended character level range for Castle Ravenloft was 7-9 for 5e characters. With my limited knowledge and experience of 5e, I knew that LotFP characters might be at a disadvantage. I decided on a temporary character advancement to 9th level that would carry through to the regular campaign if the PCs defeated Strahd. I did all the rolling for the temporary leveling hit points and spells.
If you want to find out how this game preparation turned out, keep reading the blog over the next several days as I post session reports.
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