With two sessions of Strahd under my belt, I can honestly say I'm loving it.
I was a bit stumbly with the first session, and much smoother the second time, even managing to get a dramatic chase sequence fit into play.
I was very nervous last Friday, being it my first session with a complete work to reference, and I messed up a lot of things by my count.
Moving forward I hope to grow more and more comfortable with referencing the book and knowing where to go.
My second session I was a bit more practiced.
I tend to over act a lot. I imagine these characters, and the pain of their personal circumstances, and the drab and hopeless world they're victimized by. I'm confronted with a demanding emotional state to portray and I choose to act it out for the players 'benefit'. I provide the role in the play.
Of course that's just me and my choice to portray to the players that this character is dead inside, or wracked with loss, or what have you.
Each character is hopeless, first and foremost. So much so that some of the characters have been driven mad in some fashion.
Mad Mary, is mad with loss. Donovich, is dead inside, and his portraiture is perfect.
Needless to say, the characters are the reason I wanted to operate this adventure. I read Out of the Abyss and while it was an ..exciting adventure (I bought it for the stats), it lacked the heart of Curse of Strahd.
CoS is about a villain. OotA is about the players and the world around them.
Conversely, CoS is about saving the world while OotA is about saving your hide, and taking out some demons along the way.
CoS just has more character in my humble opinion and more over the sorts of characters that I want to portray; that I have an interest in portraying.
Tune in on Mondays and Fridays at 7pm to catch the next episode.