The best Dungeons & Dragons campaign for beginners (and how to buy it)

Table RPG games are experiencing an incredible renaissance, with more people migrating to the hobby than ever before. And no game system is going beyond Dungeons & Dragons, now in its 5th edition.

If you’re thinking about trying the newest version of D&D, you’ve probably realized that there’s a lot of material to choose from. There are no less than three current starter sets, half a dozen rock solid published adventures and an entire market of fan-created content to choose from. But one campaign is regularly recommended before all others – especially for beginners. Is called Curse of Strahd, and it may be the most welcoming and adaptable way to the original RPG game.

Due to its popularity, there are currently three excellent buying options Curse of Strahd. They range from the traditional do-it-yourself narrative to a luxurious setting for collectors with high production values. I will help you to find out which one is right for you.

But first, a little background story to whet your appetite.

Why this vampire?

In the 1970s, when D&D was young, the game focused mainly on exploration, combat and looting. Playing dice with your friends meant crawling through an underground dungeon, killing strange monsters and running away with some magical items. Then, in 1983, the Ravenloft module has been published. Written by Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman, it added a rich sense of narrative to D&D. The secret was a charismatic vampire named Strahd von Zarovich.

Ravenloft it was the first D&D adventure that really felt like a complete narrative, and centered on Strahd, a complex villain with his own motivations. Rather than simply describing the action from a distance, Strahd allows the Dungeon Master (DM) to get personally involved with the material and with players at the table in both combat and non-combat encounters. Published in 2016, Curse of Strahd it modernizes these mechanics and expands them from a meager 32 pages to a hefty 256 pages. Its version of Strahd is as threatening as the original and much more fun to play.

Why is Strahd a great villain? Not wanting to reveal too much, but the reward for your personal bow is definitely worth the time spent playing against it. He’s more than just an ordinary B-film blood sucker. Strahd is a fully realized character with a background story of Shakespeare and cunning and cunning enough to face any group of adventurers.

Where Curse of Strahd different from the original, in my opinion, is to embody its environment. The action takes place in a sinister dimension known as the Barovian valley, which means you can join or leave the campaign from anywhere in the D&D multiverse. The valley itself is built like a modern, open-world video game. Players are able to explore the environment at their leisure, examining its numerous side missions. All the while, Strahd’s specter will haunt them – sometimes literally – serving as a beacon to irrevocably pull them back to the main mission.

There’s even a mini adventure included in the campaign, designed to quickly level up new characters and get players used to the mechanics of modern D&D. Simply put, Curse of Strahd is the complete package.

So, now that I’ve sold you, let’s talk about three different ways to actually buy the thing.

The basic

Curse of Strahd it was first published as a hardcover book, and the most basic version of that book is still in print. You can easily find one at your local friendly game store or online in places like Amazon. Independent bookstores selling D&D are likely to have a copy, as will larger retailers like Barnes & Noble.

There are several digital options for D&D books now, and the version you want to obtain depends a lot on the platform of your choice. The best option for newbies will be D&D Beyond, which sells the campaign and also gives players access to an online character creator. There are also virtual table tops (VTTs) like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds, which offer more options to represent the game’s combat encounters with virtual thumbnails and dice. VTTs tend to slow action for newcomers, so be careful to learn the toolkit before getting your group together.

Of course, you will also need the three other books that form the core of D&D: the Player’s Book, a Master’s Guide, and the Monster Manual. All three are also available at D&D Beyond.

Level up

Curse of Strahd is now also being sold as a box entitled Curse of Strahd: Revamped Premium Edition. First published in October 2020, it has a hefty list price of $ 99.99 and, given what is included in the box, it is difficult to recommend it for that price. Fortunately, you can now find it for sale online in places like Amazon for a little less.

The box itself is very smart. It is shaped like a coffin and the set includes a colorful portrait of Strahd so you can leave it resting inside for your players to discover. Another advantage of the Premium Edition is that it includes a more robust version of the campaign’s double-sided map (the same that comes with the basic hardcover book).

The downside, however, is that the campaign book in this box is a paperback book, not a hardcover like the original.

My favorite part of the boxed set is a practical set of tarot cards in fiction called Tarokka cards. The oversized deck with leaf print will be useful for an important plot point in the campaign. Of course, you can also pick up a set of Tarokka cards – a full-sized, leafless version – separately for just $ 15.

What is really missing in the Premium Edition, in my opinion, is a suitable two-dimensional map of Ravenloft Castle, Strahd’s lair and the setting for the campaign’s final showdown. There is an isometric 3D version of the floor plan included on one side of the campaign map (which, you must remember, comes with the original hardcover book and the Premium Edition). But it is up to the Masters to draw the 2D floor plan for their players at the table. This requires pen and paper and can slow the game down significantly.

If you’re using a VTT solution, plotting the Ravenloft Castle map can also be a real hassle. Fortunately, the Roll20 version of the campaign comes with 30 pre-rendered battle maps – including a 2D map of the entire castle.

There is also a tremendously well executed set of 2D maps of Ravenloft Castle available in the Dungeon Master’s Guild. For just $ 10, you get everything you need to print the floor plan like several large maps on a commercial printer or on dozens of regular sheets of paper at home. There is even a version of the maps formatted for use with VTT software such as Fantasy Grounds.

For my domestic campaign, I printed every inch of Ravenloft Castle in black and white and then mounted the tiles on a black foam core. After only a few nights of work with a glue stick and a box cutter, I had all of Strahd’s lair stacked and stored in a grocery paper bag.

High level game

For those looking for the most luxurious way to experience Curse of StrahdLook no further, Beadle & Grimm’s. The company makes licensed luxury editions of many of the official D&D campaigns, and its approach in the Barovian valley is extraordinary. Called The Legendary Edition of Curse of Strahd, it costs $ 399.

It is also currently sold out, so keep an eye on the site to see if more copies will be available later this year.

What does the The Legendary Edition so special – in addition to the colorful prints of the entire Ravenloft castle and many other important battlefields in the game – are the ephemera. Not only does it come with extremely well-executed paper handouts, including worn-out letters from Strahd himself, but it also includes many mixed media objects to distribute around the table. There are a handful of fake wax seals with Strahd’s personal seal; a set of fictional labels to apply to real wine bottles; several kingdom coins stamped with the Strahd profile; and even a set of fictional toy finger puppets.

Admittedly, a $ 399 price tag may seem extravagant. But, having run the campaign on my own for an entire year, I can’t say how much time and energy The Legendary Edition would have saved me. We hope that Beadle & Grimm’s will release another luxury version soon, perhaps without so many of the luxurious physical accessories, to help lower the price. However, there are still some available (at slightly inflated prices) in the secondary market.