Back in Black: The Players Wrap-Up to the Absolutely Epic Curse of Strahd Finale with Vampyr, the Star of Blood

3 Wise DMs

Hello and welcome BACK to 3 Wise DMs! It’s been quite some time and we’re glad that we’re back… Back in Black, that is - like Vampyr, our epic, final BBEG to end all BBEGs in Barovia. We thought that it worked out that the absolute, final ending to our 2+ year Curse of Strahd campaign coincided almost perfectly with the initial launch of 3 Wise DMs – and that deserves a proper sendoff. So, we gathered the players, the Monster Wrangler (what’s that?), and the DM to discuss how we homebrewed the second half of our adventures in Barovia after the dread vampire lord was defeated while staying true to the setting and the tone. For everyone wanting to continue with your 5e games after your players hit 11th level and the book finishes, this is the episode for you!

Time Stamps

0:20 – Thank you to the listeners.

1:10 – Where do we go from here?

1:30 – Episode Intro.

2:50 – Player Introductions.

6:05 – The Monster Wrangler: What is it and how to use them?

9:05 – How to delegate responsibilities to the Monster Wrangler to help manage the session.

10:40 – First impressions of Scott’s table set-up of Mount Ghakis, Tsolenka Pass, and the Amber Temple.

19:01 – The Psychology of D&D: how the characters mowed through 2000+ hit points without a rest, yet still felt the tension.

27:30 – DM Dave FINALLY dropped the Bear Totem Barbarian.

28:50 – A DM Regret: How we completed every character arc except one.

31:00 - Lore dumps to set the scene to complete a character arc. Do they work?

34:50 - How we homebrewed the 2nd half of the adventure without losing the original tone.

40:50 – What worked and what didn’t with keeping the realness of Barovia after the published adventure is complete.

47:30 – How to best onboard your Monster Wrangler so they can succeed.

54:00 – Communicating when side information needs to be shared as opposed to can be shared.

55:50 – How the frequency of play can affect immersion and using narrative out-of-game communication to make up for it.

59:25 – Final Thoughts.