Curse of Strahd Reloaded Update: Arc Q is Imminent
Added 2024-08-09 01:44:33 +0000 UTCGood news: We're officially on-track to finish this thing - hopefully by Halloween. I've written nearly twelve thousand words since I started work on v2.0.9 on July 26, and Arc Q: A Shining Beacon is pretty much complete, including (1) the players' return from the heist, (2) the players' confrontation with and redemption of the Abbot, (3) the players' fight with Kiril, and (4) the lighting of the beacon of Argynvostholt.
As of last night, I've also finished the two-phase statblocks for the Abbot and Kiril. (Vlad's, of course, is already complete from Arc M.) My only remaining tasks before v2.0.9 goes live (likely within the next ten days) are to (1) add/tweak a few small snippets to Arc Q (e.g.,, wrap-up at the werewolf den, some extra flavor text @ lighting the beacon), (2) make edits/revisions to older arcs, (3) add in-line design notes to arcs A + B, and (4) add goal diagrams to Act I and arc A (you'll find out what these are when they go live).
As per usual, unreleased drafts/notes/outlines/etc. are available to paid patrons on the Bronze Masterpost. (Did I mention we also have a Discord server full of several hundred DMs running the guide?) Feel free to join if you'd like an early sneak peek and/or support the guide!
In other, unrelated news, I'm pondering posting articles/blogs about the game/narrative-design theory of DMing I've developed while writing Reloaded/Re-Reloaded (similar to the Alexandrian's blog or Sly Flourish's), but I'm not sure whether to post them here or somewhere else (e.g., Substack). If anyone has any interest in that, as well as where you might prefer to find it, feel free to let me know in the comments.
Cheers, and hope to bring you the next release ASAP!
- Dragna
Comments
You should be treating each phase as a totally separate creature - they don't share anything. Hope that clarifies things!
DragnaCarta
2024-08-20 11:49:51 +0000 UTCHi, this is a really random question but I wasn't sure where else to ask this. In regards to multiphase stat blocks with abilities that are once per day (such as Izek's legendary resistance), are those refreshed with the second phase or does that once per day count for both phases? Cheers!
Blaze
2024-08-19 22:40:04 +0000 UTCBrilliant! Thank you so much!
Matt
2024-08-15 12:19:11 +0000 UTCThank you! And (while I haven't done the exact math yet) Strahd was in his thirties or forties around that time - he hadn't yet succeeded Barov to the throne, but was attending some sort of religious ceremony hosted by Markovia, which the Abbot attended in disguise.
DragnaCarta
2024-08-15 12:08:11 +0000 UTCAbsolutely love your work, sir, it's staggeringly good! One very random question because I just know my PCs and it will come up - in Arc K, the Abbot mentions meeting Strahd twice before, the first being "four hundred and seventeen years, eight months, and three days ago". Can I ask how old Strahd was then?
Matt
2024-08-15 10:47:53 +0000 UTCAwesome! I'm very glad to hear you're all enjoying the guide. Best of wishes for the rest of the campaign! :)
DragnaCarta
2024-08-14 12:11:13 +0000 UTCThank you so much for all the work you‘re doing! I’m sticking very closely to your guide (only that I translate everything to German) and so far it’s going great, my players are very happy- they’re now in Vallaki, about to have dinner with Lady Wachter. I’m very excited for everything that’s still in front of us!
Cookie Chemist
2024-08-13 09:47:28 +0000 UTC<3
DragnaCarta
2024-08-10 04:57:22 +0000 UTCI’ll read em anywhere you toss em dragna! Patreon, Reddit, Twitter, random website I’ve never heard of, anywhere!
Orna Cosplay
2024-08-10 01:37:37 +0000 UTCFANtastic!
Gray Embry
2024-08-09 21:36:03 +0000 UTCSweet! I'll definitely look into sharing them, then. Do you think there would be substantial interest in video-form content as well as text?
DragnaCarta
2024-08-09 19:06:42 +0000 UTCAwesome! I'll definitely look into it, then.
DragnaCarta
2024-08-09 19:06:03 +0000 UTCThank you very much! I do my best :)
DragnaCarta
2024-08-09 19:05:51 +0000 UTCThank you! And excellent; I might definitely do that. Best of wishes with the new campaign!
DragnaCarta
2024-08-09 19:05:42 +0000 UTCThe whole thing! Or at least that's the goal 😉
DragnaCarta
2024-08-09 19:05:12 +0000 UTCWhen you say "officially on-track to finish this thing - hopefully by Halloween.", do you mean Arc Q, or the whole thing? I've just started running this, and would love to know if I am going to run out of finished content (I feel that up to Arc P will take us well into next year, but still).
Gray Embry
2024-08-09 17:57:04 +0000 UTCI think having your narrative design articles here would be great, and I think that making them public and cross-posting the links to Reddit would be helpful to the community at large. Also, thank you so much for your work on Curse of Strahd! I ran your original Reloaded version and the players loved it. I'm eager to try out the Re-Reloaded on another group of players.
Damon Gallaty
2024-08-09 15:07:37 +0000 UTCWould love to see that. Also, just have to say that I appreciate how you consistently and systematically put out a lot of content . Your productivity is impressive. Thanks!
Jonathan (Bender)
2024-08-09 02:06:55 +0000 UTCSeconded! Would love to see your work. Preferably on here
Hunter Wooten
2024-08-09 01:57:21 +0000 UTCYour thoughts on narrative design for DMs would be rad! I'm a big fan of Sly Flourish and usually listen to his content like a podcast, which helps break up the DMing prep.
ChickyBisky
2024-08-09 01:49:23 +0000 UTC
