Review of “One Night Strahd”
I’ve recently been asked to run D&D at a feminist/lesbian/queer festival, but I wanted to do it on my own terms, if it meant resetting my 437 days since I last ran D&D. I’ve run Curse of Strahd and another Ravenloft campaign in the past and it’s something I’m extremely familiar with. I wanted to run something special, something that’s not just another fantasy one-shot. So I decided to run “One Night Strahd” in three hours. What could go wrong?
For those unfamiliar, “One Night Strahd” is a condensed and reimagined version of the campaign “Curse of Strahd”. It has some neo-noir sprinkled into the default gothic horror genre and runs about 10 to 15 hours instead of the usual 160 to 240 of a campaign. I thought to myself this could easily be condensed to 3 hours. For inexperienced players. With level six characters. Easy, right? …Right?
I was mistaken, but it still was a fun session.
But enough about me and on to reviewing the module itself. It’s impossible to review this without spoilers, so players beware!
Some quick facts.
- Game Designers: Jake Kurzer, Adam Seats
- Publication Year: 2021
- Genre: Gothic Horror, Neo-Noir, Fantasy
- Page Count: 523
- Website: hedra.group/ons
- Best For: people who don’t have the time for full campaigns, people looking for a game for a ~10 hour streaming event, people who want to delve back into Ravenloft, people who are into pretty art
The Vibe
The general look and feel is different to default Curse of Strahd and Ravenloft in general. It’s weirder and it’s queerer and I absolutely love that. There is an item the players can find, that is just a manga adaptation of Curse of Strahd (that gives players in-character permission to use out-of-character knowledge). There is a death slaad that kinda is just there for the most part (occasionally singing). There are apparitions out of neon light, and infinite libraries. References to real life books. And most importantly, women actually get to play a meaningful role; with Patrina, Getruda and Ireena (among others) being central figures in the module that’s not just a damsel to be rescued.
The descriptions of scenes are evocative, to the point and sometimes whimsical or really weird, in a good way.
Old Acquaintances and New Faces
There is a lot in there that’ll be familiar, if you know the original module(s). The abbot is still a fallen angel, but the details are different. Neferon has been replaced by another delightful Arcanaloth named Bur (and his clone Burr). Getruda is now the envoy of the dark powers, and ex-lover to Ireena. Patrina is in there and a lot more fleshed out than in the original module. Ez (and the Vistani in general) are planar travelling fire giants. Sergei is a skeleton. Rahadin and/or Van Richten are in there, but in very different situations than we are used to.
There still is a dinner with Strahd, although with a twist.
And there’s also a few new faces, although not that many and not in major roles. The brides are new. Some norse mythology sprinkled in for good measure, too.
The game is set hundreds of years after the module of “Curse of Strahd” so it’s possible or even intended to be played with previous knowledge of the module. Which is really neat.
Structure
This book is a beast. At 523 pages you’ll be thinking: how is there so many pages for just 10 hours of play?
This module is made primarily for streamed content; for playing this in a crazy marathon for charity or similar. And it’s made to be run at two tables simultaneously, even interacting with each other at times. This means this is “intended” to be run at an extremely strict schedule. To make this work in 5e, this needs to foresee every possibility, give an out for every problem that arises. To facilitate this, everything is extremely planned through with flowcharts galore. Combat plans for all NPC combatants. Backup plans for weak and strong parties. Ways to cut back on time.
Will this be necessary for all tables? Probably not. But I think it’s neat to have and I can always ignore parts of a book if they don’t fit my GMing style and/or table. And they do acknowledge that most tables won’t be playing it in a crazy game marathon on stream.
Streamlining 5e
There are some really neat ways to streamline playing 5e in there.
The provided premade level 6 characters (18 characters in total) have simplified stats that fit on a single page. The only thing missing are spell descriptions (and my guess is that’s for license reasons). They are even sorted by increasing difficulty. Also, one of them is a cat with a shotgun, so do I need to say more?
Random encounters have been condensed into “resource sinks”. Every encounter costs a randomized amount of resources and players just quickly describe what the combat looks like. Neat!
A dying character can decide to do a “Last Stand”. This means going down immediately (and getting a new character), but doing some radiant damage in the process, as well as granting allies inspiration.
Certainly my favourite part is the “fight” against Patrina. How to streamline a fight against an archmage? Make it a narrative skill challenge - the Game of Forms. If you’ve seen or read Sandman, you’ll know what I’m talking about: the goal is always to one-up whatever the opponent is shapechanging into. There are easy rules where players choose from a pool of forms and roll on skill checks corresponding to their form; taking damage on failures and they also have some small tactical considerations. Mechanically it’s a great resource drain without straight up combat and players can stretch their creative muscles (or just rely on the mechanics alone).
Fighting the Bad Gals and Guys
In the end the players are going to fight against Strahd, right?
Yes!
No!
Maybe!
The final fight can be Strahd, but it also can be Ireena. Ireena has made a pact with the dark powers when she was to marry Strahd and now they are in an eternal struggle for power. Her fight was once just, but this domain of despair has corrupted her, to the point of no return.
In two-table-games, each table will fight one of them.
As mentioned before, fights are thought out for you in extreme detail for each and every round, intended to evoke a very specific and plannable experience. I can see this working quite well, but haven’t tested it myself.
Conclusion
It does what it tries to do really well - providing an outline on how to run this module in the exact way it’s intended to be run. Following this exact outline will probably lead to a surprisingly low-prep experience; while running it your own way, might lead to having to butcher this absolutely huge book into parts to make it your own.
It has some really unique and fun ideas and captures a part of the Curse of Strahd experience, while also adding its own spin on it.
There are some things I haven’t seen done that way in 5e before, which I liked and might even take with me for future games (should I find myself running D&D again).
I will certainly add running this as intended in a two-GM-event to my never-ending list of things I want to do, but don’t have the time for.
