91 Days Until Halloween!
Prologue
I have a deep and abiding love of Halloween. I don't always dress up. I don't always go
out for a party. But I do observe.
The last several years, I've put my seasonal efforts into my Halloween RPG sessions.
In 2023, I ran my own version of a One Night in Castle Ravenloft, inspired by a video and
article by Mike Shea and an article by James Introcaso. I run my game in a 2 hour time slot,
so I stretched the "One Night" into a "Three Night" version and my players enjoyed the brief
visit to Barovia's most famous castle. I called it "Halloween Extravaganza 1". I think the
articles' assumptions are that these will be "One Shot" games, but I chose to fold the event
into my campaign
The next year, 2024, I asked if they would like to return and they said yes. I anticipated
a deeper dig into the setting by my players and I haven't been disappointed; we're
technically still playing "Halloween Extravaganza 2", nearly two years later. They are no
longer in Barovia, the campaign has pushed into other Domains of Dread.
In both instances, I began planning those Halloween games in the summer months. A
poll on Youtube recently asked when DMs begin preparing for their Halloween RPGs. I
think their were 3 options: several months before, several weeks before, or no preparation
at all. I obviously fall into the early prep category.
I began planning for "Halloween Extravaganza 1" several months before because as I
mentioned above, I folded this into my already almost 2 year old campaign. My players
were exploring the megadungeon Dwimmermount with their many hirelings when I used
the Mists to abduct 4 characters while they were sleeping (the hireling on watch didn't
notice the disappearance of the 4). The 4 characters woke up in a moving carriage with
Madame Eva, she gave them a modified Tarokka Card reading (you edit the card deck to
only include cards that are associated with a location in Castle Ravenloft) before the
carriage stops in the courtyard of Castle Ravenloft. Over the 3 sessions of
"Halloween Extravaganza 1" the 4 characters meet Rahadin, Ireena, and Strahd.
Ireena leads them to 2 of the item locations and they discover the 3rd on their own. A
few tough fights with vampire spawn in the crypts before the end game where they
fought smart and had some luck in killing Strahd and 3 of his brides. They 4 characters
are whisked away by the Mist and awaken back in Dwimmermount just as the rest of the
adventuring party is stirring after the night's rest. They know they went somewhere and
have several items to prove it, but I left the event inexplicable and they continued to
explore Dwimmermount and it's wonders for a year of game sessions.
Taking us to the prep that I began in the summer of '24 to set the tone for a return to
Barovia. I did this by having 3 of the characters dream about some scenes occurring in
Castle Ravenloft, then the wider domain of Barovia. The 4th character did not dream of
Barovia, because I decided the domain was blocking/or blocked by her due to her using
the Sun Sword to deal the killing blow to Strahd. Another character would be chosen by
the player to take into Barovia when the time came. Helping Ireena would be the
emphasis/hook for "Halloween Extravaganza 2". The next bit of prep work was for me to
go over the CoS book and get a handle on what NPCs and locations were interesting to
me and edit out or de-emphasize the material I didn't want to work with such as the
Mad Mage of Mount Baratok. I liked Vallaki, especially the Blinsky Toy Shop and the
Ireena dolls hook with another NPC in the town. Other locations that were prominent
were the Wizard of Wines, Krezk, Yester Hill, Berez, the Vistani Camp near Vallaki, and
Lake Zarovich.
The week after Halloween 2025, their time in Barovia culminated in the attempted
wedding they arranged between the Flesh Golem Vasilka and Strahd (who was
inexplicably resurrected in the form of a tiny puppet). Uninvited wedding crashers
kill the bride to be, abduct puppet Strahd, and escape the domain of Barovia.
Informed by a 2nd Tarokka Card Reading (technically it was the 3rd) that points to
several magic items and an ally scattered throughout several Domains of Dread.
These will be beneficial towards hunting down Strahd and his accomplices, who
themselves have decamped to Nevuchar Springs in Darkon. Since November '25,
the campaign has picked up their ally in Lamordia, the Cloak of the Bat in Bluetspur,
Mother Luba's Tarokka Deck in Darkon, and now they pursue the Vorpal Sword in
Borca. It is in pieces, each in the hands of a different Borcan noble family. The PCs
have just begun to visit different estates as the Summer Garden Party Series begins.
I don't have a plan for the next 13 to 14 sessions beyond wrapping up the
Summer Garden Party Series arc of the campaign by late October. I don't know how
entwined in the milieu of Borcan society they'll be by the time they've acquired the
3 pieces of the Vorpal Sword, but the 2 Darklords are already interested in the party
of newcomers.
They feel like they have unfinished business in Darkon, so at some point the
campaign will return to that domain.
Main Vein
What are some collected thoughts I have on preparing for a Curse of Strahd
focused Halloween game?
Knowing that the session duration and interval schedule of our
campaign lent itself to a 3 session adventure arc the first time around.
I think if you want to run it as a one-shot, you probably want to give
yourself 4-6 hours total to introduce the situation/do the Tarokka Deck
reading (1 hourish), give the party the "middle portion" of the session
(2-4 hours) to explore Castle Ravenloft and hopefully acquire some
helpful artifacts, then give yourself the last hour of the game to fight
Strahd and whoever else you want to back him up from the Castle
Ravenloft denizens.
The second time the campaign went to the Ravenloft setting, I seeded
dream sequences to establish some mystery and NPC faces in the PCs
minds before they are brought back to help Ireena, who I was portraying
as having taken possession of Castle Ravenloft after Strahd's death.
Strahd's allies pose a threat to the young noblewoman.
For the second time around I was looking to run this from Halloween '24
to Christmas/New Year '24, so roughly 8-10 sessions at our weekly rate.
The players' interest in the setting and emerging situations have extended
it much further, so if you view expansion past the projected 2 month arc as a
failure, then I'm in some sort of mass effect, where I don't know when I can
turn the ship.
Be ruthless about editing parts of the adventure that you don't like. My
example is the Mad Mage. Gone.
I had PCs that were mostly 9th level or higher the second time around.
Therefore I skipped the village of Barovia, because Vallaki had more to offer
for my players to interact with as they solved the creepy Ireena doll mystery
that was my intro for the second time in Barovia.
Take that opportunity with the Wizard of Wines adventure with the gems,
to put the 3rd gem they don't give you a location for somewhere that causes
some kind of exploration or social navigation. I placed it in the Flesh Golem
Vasilka.
The second time around, I went for as long as possible without looking
outside the CoS adventure, MM, DMG, and PHB. After about 8 months, I
began looking at a couple of Ravenloft Youtube creators and got a few
supplements to help me run up to the Failed Wedding crescendo in late
October early November of '25.
Two of those supplements, Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and the
Second Tarokka Reading, led to the Domain hopping phase of the campaign.
This has led to 9 sessions in Lamordia, 3 sessions in Bluetspur, 10 sessions in
Darkon, and 7 sessions in Borca. They aren't finished with their goals in Borca,
so more sessions to come!
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft contains it's own haunted house type
adventure, the House of Lament, that I ran very recently. If you wanted an
alternative to Castle Ravenloft for a Halloween one-shot game, this is a
solid choice. I ran it over 4 two hour sessions, so roughly 8 hours. I think
it could be run in a shorter time slot. Since I'm folding it into my wider
campaign, I modified the intro, the NPC allies, and the resolution, but used
the map, seance intervals, and hauntings. I think my adaptation probably
added at least an hour, if not two hours, so a House of Lament one shot
might be achievable in 5 or 6 hours if you tighten up the pacing.
I ran the Old Bonegrinder location from Curse of Strahd, and I think that
would make a great Halloween one-shot! Maybe I'll expand on that in a later
essay.
Epilogue
Find some friends who will let you run crazy never-ending Halloween themed
RPGs for them, and you too can find yourself babbling about it on the internet;)
