This might be better for a general DnD reddit but I figured I'd try here.

So I have been running CoS for a couple months now with weekly sessions and my party has just gotten the Tarokka reading and made it to Vallaki. The problem im starting to face is I am horrible at roleplaying.

This wasn't too bad during the death house which had very limited social interactions. I think I am pretty good at describing settings, actions, and giving a feeling and ambiance to whats going on but when it comes time to have social interactions with NPC's I kind of clam up. I got through Morgantha and Bildrath pretty well, even giving them specific accents and personalities but I feel like my Ismark, Ireena, Donavich and even Strahd came up pretty flat, which kind of put me in a panic.

Then into our last session they got to the Tser encampment and the general Vistani i feel I played poorly although I was happy with Madame Eva strictly because I had a defined script I had memorized and kind of railroaded them through.

Now the party has reached Vallaki and I had them meet Rictavio as soon as they walked through the gates and when it came time for them to talk I just went blank and this super important character kind of fell into a very generic QnA session. We were at the 3h30m mark so I called an end to the night so the party wouldn't see I was internally panicking as I know they are entering into a place with so many unique and interesting characters and I didn't want to play them so poorly.

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Basically what I'm asking is if anybody has any tips as to how they jump into the skin of each character in the moment when you are at the table. I've been basically living CoS since the campaign started, i watch and rewatch other peoples campaigns, take hordes of notes, fall asleep to youtube vids of people discussing the lore of Barovia, etc. and all week long I feel confident but when thursday comes around and im sitting there and the party meets a character I kind of lose it all and go dull. With the characters being such a vital part of this campaign I am kind of terrified to continue if I cant give some semblance of life to them in the moment.

So if anyone has any tips for how they get into character in the heat of the moment I would love some advice cause I am very seriously stressed out now for next session. >.<