This isn't a handholding campaign. I'm going to try and kill you as fairly and quickly as I can.

Edit: Found our members, thanks for all who reached out :)

Hi folks, with the tone-setting for the campaign out of the way, let's chat about what I'm picturing for this campaign and what I'm looking for in players.

Let me just get the important stuff out of the way so you don't waste your time reading my post looking for it: * My time zone is EST. * I am looking to play on Tuesday evenings, Thursday evenings, or Sunday evenings * I intend to play weekly and I intend to play until the campaign ends. I am not setting a number of weeks to fit this into, but also, there is no epilogue; when the module ends, it ends. * Character death is a part of this table. Combat and tactics are a part of how I like to play. I'm not looking for battle simulation masters, but, I won't hesitate to go for the player character kill. Character death doesn't mean you're out of the table; by all means, let's work together and get you a new character and bring you back next week. * I'm not looking for new players this go around. You don't need to know your class and spell list by heart, I'm happy to work through character things together, but I am not looking to teach new players the game. * Roll20 for gameplay, Discord for voice chatter, music, and out-of-session communication

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First thing's first, about me. I'm currypotter! I'll likely switch to just using my real name once the group is set, but for now, online pseudonym it is. I'm a 20-something DM and player. I've been engaged in the hobby for 6 years. I've DMed in person via theater of the mind, I've DMed through COVID virtually, I've DMed in person using a TV to display our battlemaps. I've DMed two campaigns from 1-20, each spanning a couple years. I've DMed homebrew stuff, I've DMed modules.

I'm not the brightest at drawing up the most convincing characters, but I can play the part when handed to me decently well. What am I good at? Making good combat. In the beginning when there are little stakes beyond surviving, the battle is just kill or be killed; "Hit it 'till it dies." But once relationships are forged, bonds are made, promises sworn, suddenly there's so much more to combat. You can't just kill the enemy, you need to kill them while keeping the son you just rescued alive because if the enemy can't have their way, they at least want to die making sure you don't get yours either. Oh, you cast shatter in a dilapidated building? This combat is now on a clock because the building's integrity is crippled and I am not afraid to let it break your skull in.

Obviously, I'm not genuinely this brutal, I try and keep my rulings fair and give you time to deal with consequences. There's no time where I'm going to take an action you did and say it kills you or deals flat damage back at you. That kills the game and removes the incentive for taking risks. But I do try and adhere to the idea that actions have consequences, and give you ample warning and narrative nods to perceived threats.

Next, the campaign. As the title states, I want to run Curse of Strahd. It's my favorite module, it has stories I find the most compelling, a BBEG I find to have compelling motives and isn't just evil for the sake of being evil, and has a variety of monsters and challenges I like throwing at my players. I don't plan to run CoS 100% by the book. I have some of my own homebrew storylines written into it, leading to new enemies and encounters. I have also thrown out some stuff. I like to advertise it as a "refresh" on CoS - fundamentally, it is the same module.

I don't intend to pull my punches with descriptions. Please expect violence, gore, body horror, and the like. Of course, we will have a boundaries discussion as part of session zero to figure out if anyone has something they would deeply rather avoid, but this is your heads up that I am generally looking to get vivid.

And now, what I'm looking for in players; what kind of table I want to build with you.

Firstly, I want to say, I know my post seems to take itself rather seriously, but I don't want to discourage fun in a table and in a party. Please, come banter and laugh; crack jokes in character to cope with the mental fatigue. Laugh Strahd away like a pansy if you catch me slipping in my RP. This is still a game.

Second, please be 18 years old or older. Do I anticipate NSFW content that is only intended for adults? No. Do I feel comfortable playing with minors in a campaign that toes lines of morality? No.

I respect you, and show it by putting this ad together, by coming to session prepared, by finding maps, tokens, monster sheets, talking to you outside of session to make sure the game is going okay for you. Please respect me by investing time into understanding your character, your class features, your abilities. Please respect me by showing up to session or letting me know well ahead of time, by paying attention during session, by not planning your combat turn only once it gets to you. All of this also is part of respecting your fellow players. Don't waste their time please.

I try not to be a draconic DM, but two absences without prior notice and I will boot you. I don't care if you tell me 10 minutes before session, that's still enough because that means you respected me enough to tell me before it was too late. I don't care if your reason for not showing up is you just had an awful day at work and have no energy to play tonight. I don't care if you double booked and have social plans IRL. Just have the respect to lay it out for me, and I will respect you in return. This is my only absolute.

You and your character! I don't ask for you to use voices/accents. I will not for most NPCs save for big ones. I try and give them unique speech patterns, phrases, etc., but I suck at voices frankly. I don't ask you to, but you are of course welcome to. Your characters should be adults, respectful, and intentional. Their motives should generally align with party motives - otherwise, why are they in the party still? If their motives change over time as the RP progresses and they grow, that's different and we can talk about it, but basically, please no lone wolves.

I have some race bans and class/subclass bans. I'll talk more about it in session zero type conversations, but up front, if you're a hardcore artificer fan, this probably isn't the table for you.

I invite smart players. I don't invite powergamers. I love powergaming and powergamers. I don't want that kind of play for this campaign. Make smart spell choices of course, but make intentional spell choices. Example, I'm going to turn you down if you take fireball when your character has a fear of fire. I'm very liberal with the term "smart play" and what it entails, I give you a lot of leeway with it. Mix and match feats, multiclass or take a Hexblade dip, by all means. Don't break character or story canon for the sake of improving combat prowess.

I've been talking for quite a while, I'm sure you're either tired of me or very interested and looking for something similar to what I am. I promise I'm not this obtuse in real chatter, I just want to give you as much information as I can up front so you can make the best decision on if this is the game for you.

If you're interested in joining this game, message me on reddit. Chat or DM works. Tell me about you, about the games you like to play, about what you're looking for from a CoS game. Tell me if you have played this module before or if you're new to this. Tell me what appealed to you about my post. Tell me your availability, your time zone, all that fun stuff. These aren't suggestions - actually tell me this information part of your message please. I want to learn about you and the kind of game you want. And of course, if you have questions for me, send them my way!

Finally, the usual warnings.

Racism, sexism, homophobia, general bigotry, excessive foul language, foul play, NSFW content, metagaming, and the like are the fastest way to get kicked from my table. That list is not exhaustive; if you are disrespectful or make anyone uncomfortable, I will not hesitate to remove you.

Cheers folks, happy dice rolling!