$20.00 / week
Adventure Overview:
Welcome to the dark and treacherous realm of Barovia, where the sun never shines and terror lurks around every corner. Curse of Strahd is a thrilling Dungeons & Dragons campaign that thrusts your party into a gothic horror setting filled with mysteries, monsters, and a malevolent vampire lord, Count Strahd von Zarovich. Your adventurers will journey through a land of dense forests, haunted villages, and decrepit castles, all while trying to uncover the secrets of Strahd’s curse and find a way to escape the dreaded realm of Barovia.
Campaign Features:
Curse of Strahd is a campaign that will test your party’s wits, courage, and morality as they venture into a land shrouded in darkness and despair. Will they find a way to break the curse and escape, or will they become yet another tragic chapter in the grim history of Barovia? The answers lie in their choices and actions as they face the Curse of Strahd.
What if you’ve never played a table-top RPG, what is it like?
Our games are player-driven, putting you and your character at the center of the plot. Your choices will decide the outcome: from heroic victory to an untimely end. We’re here to tell a great story that makes you feel like you are in your favorite book or movie.
What do you need to do before the first session?
Upon sign up you will immediately be connected to the campaign discord, the GM will contact you to make sure you have everything you need to begin fleshing out your character ideas and support you in getting set up on the tech side of things.
What does the GM provide?
The GM provides access to all of the source materials and all of the character creation tools you will need through content sharing on D&D Beyond.
What digital tools will we be using?
All of these tools/services are free to use (on the player side) and will not require any additional purchases on your end.
Character Creation Guidelines:
Characters will start out at level two. Standard array or point buy is recommended but if you prefer to roll for stats you may do so under the DM’s supervision. All published content is allowed and homebrew content is allowed if approved by the DM in advance. Evil aligned characters are generally not allowed but any questionable character concepts can be run by the DM. If all of that sounds foreign to you because you are new to the game no worries, DM Ashton will be happy to help walk you through character creation and/or provide a pre-made character for you to start with.
Who will like this game?
Content Warnings:
This game includes typical fantasy themes that one might find in stories like “Wheel of Time” or “Lord of the Rings” as well as horror themes like those found in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and the original Brother’s Grimm fairy tales. Themes of good vs. evil plus all the grey in between. Murder and Violence (including two instances involving children) will be prevalent within the plot. The sexual assault of NPCs will be implied and potentially discussed. If you have any questions about the campaign’s content or preferences on skipping/changing certain triggering themes please reach out to the DM who can probably make accommodations.
Warning: Corruption is a major theme of the campaign and the player characters may find themselves turn various degrees of evil usually because of their own choices but potentially because of forces beyond their control. If this happens (depending on the severity of the corruption) you may continue to play the character if you choose, or give the character up to the GM to be ran as an evil NPC. If at that juncture you decide to give up the character you can either create a new character (working with the GM to incorporate them into the story) or turn one of the group’s NPC companions/allies that you like into a PC.
Please reach out to the GM via the “Contact” button at the top of this listing with any questions you may have!
Introduction: I was new to D&D when I started rolling the dice with Ashton just a little over two years ago. Since then, I’ve participated in two year-long campaigns and a couple of one-shot adventures.
Positives:
* Narrative Skills: Ashton is a solid storyteller. His excitement for how our characters will react to his scenarios is infectious. I’ve been a personal fan of the many “voices” and “accents” he applies to the NPCs in the game; it makes things more entertaining.
* Character Development: My first character had a thin back-story and Ashton helped me find many opportunities to make that character my own. I put more effort into my second character’s back-story, and I enjoyed how Ashton would modify aspects of our campaign’s story to incorporate my ideas. He did a fantastic job doing that for all the players in our sessions.
* Mechanics: Ashton is truly a student of the game and takes a lot of pride in delivering a consistent application of the rules and game mechanics.
* Environment and World-Building: We played pre-built modules for both campaigns, but Ashton added his own flair to the content to make it a more rich and personalized experience for us. He would add in his own home-brewed NPCs to the world and the group would genuinely want to get to know these characters more and interact with them.
* Communication: I’m not going to lie, our little group would produce some bizarre scenarios to play out and in general, Ashton was a great sport at playing along. But at the same time, he came in firm and fair when he needed to squash some ideas that were a little too far out there.
* Challenges: I genuinely enjoyed all aspects of the game that he orchestrated, from general role-play, to puzzles, and combat.
Areas for Improvement:
* If there was any area of improvement, the critique would fall on my group instead of Ashton as a DM. We tend to “take our time” going through scenarios and things can get a bit drawn out. While our group tends to take our time, perhaps Ashton could occasionally guide us to keep the pace up. However, he’s commendable for letting the story unfold naturally.
Conclusion: Learning D&D from scratch can be overwhelming. Add on top of that all the technical items involved with remote sessions. In addition to being a stellar DM, Ashton is amazingly patient with the players new to the game and those of us unfamiliar with the software used for the on-line sessions. I couldn’t be happier with our little group, and I am planning to join up for my third campaign with this guy.
Rating: I can confidently say I’d give Ashton a 10 out of 10. Anyone lucky enough to play a session with Ashton is in for a treat
Whisked to a vivid new realm, Ashton’s homebrew campaign is a masterclass in adaptability and immersive role-playing, celebrating player agency and intricate world-building.
Playing in Ashton’s homebrew Kingmaker campaign has been a role-playing revelation. From the moment our characters were whisked away to this otherworldly realm, every session has been a rich tapestry of intricate NPC dynamics, unexpected plot twists, and deeply immersive character interactions. Ashton’s brilliance lies not just in his world-building, but also in the way he encourages and embraces player-driven role play. He has an uncanny ability to adapt and weave our spontaneous decisions seamlessly into the overarching narrative. Each game feels like a collaborative masterpiece, a testament to his skills as a DM. Truly, this campaign is a hallmark of what D&D should be
This is my 6th campaign with Ashton, and journeying through the ‘Curse of Strahd’ has solidified my admiration for his skills as a Dungeon Master. His storytelling and role-playing capabilities are second to none, vividly painting the haunting landscapes of Barovia and it’s inhabitants in our minds. His thorough grasp of the rules ensures every encounter is not only challenging but also impeccably balanced. Ashton’s fairness and vast understanding of D&D mechanics make every session both an immersive narrative and a masterclass in gameplay. A toast to a DM who excels in every facet of the role!
The Curse of Strahd maps and vtt are really impressive and really immersive…I feel like I’m really there!
I recently started my third(!) campaign with Ashton and have honestly nothing but good things to say. Ashton is a super cool DM who is open to new ideas and making the campaigns unique to the players. He makes big and small changes to the modules that make them more interesting and fun to play. His table is welcoming, flexible, and great for anyone who is still learning the game (and veteran players). D&D is place for me to unwind and have fun and I definitely can do that in Ashton’s games.
This is my second campaign with Ashton. When I started, I was a new player with no DND experience. Ashton took me from knowing I needed to roll dice to a veteran player who now helps other new players get interested in the game.
Ashton has a skill for taking character backgrounds and blossoming them into story arcs within the campaign. He is able to do this in such a way that it fits perfectly within the setting, and they immerse the characters into the world that he is painting for us. Ashton’s skills with painting the landscapes, cities, and environments we explore and bringing the NPCs, both planned and off the cuff, to life truly brings the players into a sense they are there as the heroes of the adventure. He will throw the characters into difficult situations. Still, you can tell he’s rooting for them, and he’s creating these situations so the characters can grow and become even larger heroes in their stories.
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