One could argue it was over when three players left the group, but last night, we wrapped up what was left of the campaign I had been operating for years.
A hundred or so NPCs, a robust setting, multiple paths of adventure, all culminating in a quick and final set of battles that saw the campaign wrapped up. Some have said I should publish my world as a supplement and perhaps in due course I will.
With a brief after math description, along with the insinuation that Eddard has some bent motivations surrounding the Mythil, the campaign comes to a close that I can revisit it later on the way I intended before I was gifted a copy of the Curse of Strahd.
For those wondering, the next step of my campaign world was to explore a sort of 'Hell on Earth' scenario where the players filled the role of 'Hunters' who sought and destroyed evil machinations that were consuming the world and its people.
I have been looking forward to operating the Curse of Strahd for some time now.
As a merry band of four, I'm excited to operate the adventure but disappointed that I won't have the chance to include everyone as I'd hoped.
Curse of Strahd is a robust setting (as it ought to be) that I have never experienced before. While Paul has the Ravenloft boxed set, my reading of Curse of Strahd is my first foray into Barovia and its secrets.
Conversely, Castle Ravenloft, the original D&D board game from 2010, was the original reason I fell back into the hobby. It is what pulled me to try pencil and paper again, and start buying 4th edition books. While I had 3rd edition books, I had no idea what 4th edition offered, but a bit of searching around showed me a few tools that helped get me and my victims, I mean, friends onboard efficiently.
I still have Castle Ravenloft (along with several others) although it sits derelict with no miniatures in the box; the game used a lot of 4th edition miniatures, but included them unpainted to cut costs. Back in 2010, Wheezehards were still trying to make everything D&D commercially similar to Magic the Gathering.
I'm surprised they didn't try to sell the core books in blind boxes (oh shit, another Dungeon Masters Guide).
So memory lane and my viscera aside, we're starting anew, and for the first time in ever I'm using a published adventure for my main game.
This ought to be good <3