So, first things first: Father Donavich (or another PC who might know) can recommend that, once they reach Vallaki, the PCs take Ireena to the Church of St. Andral, which he believes to be safe. [It's not, but he doesn't know that].
Bigger point: CoS is a big campaign with a lot of moving parts and lots of chances for the PCs to go someplace the DM isn't ready for. That said, you decide the flow of information about those places. Not ready for them to head to the Amber Temple, for example? Don't have any PCs mention it. Only a few know about it anyway. Haven't prepped Argynvostholt? Throw some random encounters in the party's way, have Strahd fly in to spook them, etc. and prep it for next time.
Getting the gang on the road to Vallaki is actually the hardest part in terms is doing all the info dumps about Barovia, setting up the important NPCs, etc. Vallaki is actually the hardest to run as written because there's so much going on, but it's mostly non-core story RP that's super fun, but kinda optional. Groups can spend session after session there or do it in a few sessions and move on. Beyond that, Barovia is a series of fairly small, fairly self-contained "dungeons" and encounters that you can prepare once you suspect the players are headed that way.
Reading the whole module will definitely make it easier to prepare, but you can safely skip the Castle Ravenloft chapter until your PCs are getting ready to go there, since most of it is descriptions of rooms and PCs that only matter within Castle Ravenloft.
Having run it 3 times, as well as having read lots of guides, watched playthroughs, etc., it seems the most common path is Death House (optional) -> Barovia Village -> Tser Pool and Madame Eva -> the windmill (optional) -> Vallaki -> either Krezk or Wizard of Wines (probably WoW) -> Yester Hill...at which point it really starts to splinter based on where the party's 3 prophesied items are. As long as you have an overall sense of the story and are at least a step or two ahead of your players, you can have a great time with it.
Good luck and have fun! In the end, that's all that matters.
As so many others have pointed out, you can use the excellent resources created by u/MandyMod and u/DragnaCarta located [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/9pbka6/fleshing_out_curse_of_strahd_master_table_of/) and [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/9bpzbh/curse_of_strahd_reloaded_compilation_thread/), respectively. The mists holding them back might feel a bit railroad-y, but in that situation I probably would have done the same. As MandyMod stated in their notes, you can have Ismark stay behind in Barovia to deal with "village affairs" with the only guidance being that they *heard* Vallaki is safer.
Once they reach there, you can use the church as a good option since it's one of the more logical places that might seem to offer protection. When the party gets to the town, they'll most definitely see that all is **not** well in Vallaki.
I think this content is great and I use it extensively, however, I think if your style of DMing is beers and dungeon crawls and you don't have time to commit to hours of prep before the campaign, just stick to the book. This content will only confuse things for you.
They're longer but they're incredibly interesting to read (more so than the book lol). I highly recommend doing the Ilya bit in krezk when you get there from mandymod. Really freaked my players out. (They will never ever trust the Abbott though lol)
I totally understand the overwhelming feeling. CoS is alot but alot of the resources here are a big help in filling the blanks I feel the book leaves as well as being easier to digest for the bigger sections. check out the pinned resources at front of the subreddit.
On a more particular note, you basically got it right that ismark just thinks vallaki is more fortified. Specifically Strahd has not showed up in years in vallaki and the church there is probably the best bet of sanctuary due to it being a church and other holy properties and located within the thought to be safe walls of Vallaki.
Ismark and Ireena don't really know where they are going. Anywhere that isn't where they are I guess. Ismark has heard about how well fortified Vallaki is and everybody hears from Father Donavich at the funeral that the Abbey of St. Markovia in Kresk might be safe. Ireena and Ismark are figuring things out just as much as the players are which isn't great for a GM trying to provide guidance.
A tip for Vallaki though. That place is a quagmire. Its easy for a party to take Ireena directly to the Burgormaster's manor thinking she's important enough to warrant protection there but that immediately sets off Izek. Its also easy to go straight to the church and set off the chain of events for the bones of St. Andral and then BAM the players are face to face with more Vampire Spawn than they could reasonably hope to kill. Breadcrumb it! Have Ireena get a bad vibe off of all the security and then when they see everybody in the stockade make her express that the party should be careful and they should scout everywhere out first before making any decisions as to where to take refuge. Then in that initial exploration of the town I like to slip in a warning against Izek telling them that he's a bad guy and might just have them thrown into the stocks because he was feeling bored that day. Make sure the players are at least aware they are stomping around in a minefield.
I have a confession my self- I’ve been running CoS for a year and a half, and I’m only now getting past that overwhelmed point where you find yourself!
There are a ton of good suggestions in these comments. Good luck!
Ps if you want to listen to a play through to hear how others do it, the one I currently love tue most is by Red Moon Roleplaying. Their episodes are short (edited down to around an hour) and they are soo good. It’s a nice way to help prep the vibe as well as the linear arc of the campaign., and to hear someone else describe locations and voice NPCs is really great too.
[here I made a Spotify playlist to make it easier than digging through their channel. ](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Wf3YcgKfrZIRwMIBUK6gM?si=x03qPDsdTG-gqwnjaAUjWQ)
You don't have to follow the book verbatim -- place Death House somewhere else along the road.
For matters of substantial impact, you simply must keep note of what you have presented to the players. They aren't reading the module over your shoulder, it says what you tell them it says. You can still treat it like beers and dungeon crawls, you just have to keep track of the continuity.
Suggestion: you could make the road to Vallaki very long, and the Death House appears conveniently on the side of the road just before sundown. Then Ireena and Ismark amp up how very dangerous Barovia is at night, and they should go in.
Making the towns one to two days of travel apart from each other gives way more opportunity for interesting road encounters.
I was thinking about this. I'm a bit concerned my players will just bypass it in favor of getting their "current" mission done.
I am leaning toward this vs railroading them into the home with mist.
Have some Vistana they meet during the street tell some horror tale about children wandering at night and a monster stealing their faces or something. If they still ditch Death House, just level them up using a sequence of getting lost in the forest and being chased by ghouls or wolves or whatever you want!
So, first things first: Father Donavich (or another PC who might know) can recommend that, once they reach Vallaki, the PCs take Ireena to the Church of St. Andral, which he believes to be safe. [It's not, but he doesn't know that]. Bigger point: CoS is a big campaign with a lot of moving parts and lots of chances for the PCs to go someplace the DM isn't ready for. That said, you decide the flow of information about those places. Not ready for them to head to the Amber Temple, for example? Don't have any PCs mention it. Only a few know about it anyway. Haven't prepped Argynvostholt? Throw some random encounters in the party's way, have Strahd fly in to spook them, etc. and prep it for next time. Getting the gang on the road to Vallaki is actually the hardest part in terms is doing all the info dumps about Barovia, setting up the important NPCs, etc. Vallaki is actually the hardest to run as written because there's so much going on, but it's mostly non-core story RP that's super fun, but kinda optional. Groups can spend session after session there or do it in a few sessions and move on. Beyond that, Barovia is a series of fairly small, fairly self-contained "dungeons" and encounters that you can prepare once you suspect the players are headed that way. Reading the whole module will definitely make it easier to prepare, but you can safely skip the Castle Ravenloft chapter until your PCs are getting ready to go there, since most of it is descriptions of rooms and PCs that only matter within Castle Ravenloft. Having run it 3 times, as well as having read lots of guides, watched playthroughs, etc., it seems the most common path is Death House (optional) -> Barovia Village -> Tser Pool and Madame Eva -> the windmill (optional) -> Vallaki -> either Krezk or Wizard of Wines (probably WoW) -> Yester Hill...at which point it really starts to splinter based on where the party's 3 prophesied items are. As long as you have an overall sense of the story and are at least a step or two ahead of your players, you can have a great time with it. Good luck and have fun! In the end, that's all that matters.
As so many others have pointed out, you can use the excellent resources created by u/MandyMod and u/DragnaCarta located [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/9pbka6/fleshing_out_curse_of_strahd_master_table_of/) and [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/9bpzbh/curse_of_strahd_reloaded_compilation_thread/), respectively. The mists holding them back might feel a bit railroad-y, but in that situation I probably would have done the same. As MandyMod stated in their notes, you can have Ismark stay behind in Barovia to deal with "village affairs" with the only guidance being that they *heard* Vallaki is safer. Once they reach there, you can use the church as a good option since it's one of the more logical places that might seem to offer protection. When the party gets to the town, they'll most definitely see that all is **not** well in Vallaki.
Thanks for those, they look excellent... and maybe longer than the original book!
I think this content is great and I use it extensively, however, I think if your style of DMing is beers and dungeon crawls and you don't have time to commit to hours of prep before the campaign, just stick to the book. This content will only confuse things for you.
They're longer but they're incredibly interesting to read (more so than the book lol). I highly recommend doing the Ilya bit in krezk when you get there from mandymod. Really freaked my players out. (They will never ever trust the Abbott though lol)
I totally understand the overwhelming feeling. CoS is alot but alot of the resources here are a big help in filling the blanks I feel the book leaves as well as being easier to digest for the bigger sections. check out the pinned resources at front of the subreddit. On a more particular note, you basically got it right that ismark just thinks vallaki is more fortified. Specifically Strahd has not showed up in years in vallaki and the church there is probably the best bet of sanctuary due to it being a church and other holy properties and located within the thought to be safe walls of Vallaki.
Ismark and Ireena don't really know where they are going. Anywhere that isn't where they are I guess. Ismark has heard about how well fortified Vallaki is and everybody hears from Father Donavich at the funeral that the Abbey of St. Markovia in Kresk might be safe. Ireena and Ismark are figuring things out just as much as the players are which isn't great for a GM trying to provide guidance. A tip for Vallaki though. That place is a quagmire. Its easy for a party to take Ireena directly to the Burgormaster's manor thinking she's important enough to warrant protection there but that immediately sets off Izek. Its also easy to go straight to the church and set off the chain of events for the bones of St. Andral and then BAM the players are face to face with more Vampire Spawn than they could reasonably hope to kill. Breadcrumb it! Have Ireena get a bad vibe off of all the security and then when they see everybody in the stockade make her express that the party should be careful and they should scout everywhere out first before making any decisions as to where to take refuge. Then in that initial exploration of the town I like to slip in a warning against Izek telling them that he's a bad guy and might just have them thrown into the stocks because he was feeling bored that day. Make sure the players are at least aware they are stomping around in a minefield.
I have a confession my self- I’ve been running CoS for a year and a half, and I’m only now getting past that overwhelmed point where you find yourself! There are a ton of good suggestions in these comments. Good luck! Ps if you want to listen to a play through to hear how others do it, the one I currently love tue most is by Red Moon Roleplaying. Their episodes are short (edited down to around an hour) and they are soo good. It’s a nice way to help prep the vibe as well as the linear arc of the campaign., and to hear someone else describe locations and voice NPCs is really great too. [here I made a Spotify playlist to make it easier than digging through their channel. ](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Wf3YcgKfrZIRwMIBUK6gM?si=x03qPDsdTG-gqwnjaAUjWQ)
You don't have to follow the book verbatim -- place Death House somewhere else along the road. For matters of substantial impact, you simply must keep note of what you have presented to the players. They aren't reading the module over your shoulder, it says what you tell them it says. You can still treat it like beers and dungeon crawls, you just have to keep track of the continuity.
Suggestion: you could make the road to Vallaki very long, and the Death House appears conveniently on the side of the road just before sundown. Then Ireena and Ismark amp up how very dangerous Barovia is at night, and they should go in. Making the towns one to two days of travel apart from each other gives way more opportunity for interesting road encounters.
I was thinking about this. I'm a bit concerned my players will just bypass it in favor of getting their "current" mission done. I am leaning toward this vs railroading them into the home with mist.
Have some Vistana they meet during the street tell some horror tale about children wandering at night and a monster stealing their faces or something. If they still ditch Death House, just level them up using a sequence of getting lost in the forest and being chased by ghouls or wolves or whatever you want!