The best Dungeons & Dragons campaign for beginners (and how to buy it)

Tabletop role-playing games are experiencing an incredible renaissance, with more people flocking to the hobby than ever before. And no game system soars higher than Dungeons & Dragons, which is now in its 5th edition.

If you are planning on trying the latest version of D&D, you’ve probably noticed that there is a lot of material to choose from. There are no less than three current starter sets, a half-dozen rock-solid published adventures, and an entire marketplace of fan-made content to choose from. But one campaign is regularly recommended before all others – especially for beginners. It’s called Strahd’s Curse, and this is perhaps the most welcoming and adaptable way to get into the original role-playing game.

Due to its popularity, there are currently three great buying options Strahd’s Curse. They run the gamut from old fashioned DIY fairy tales to a luxurious collectible set with high production values. I will help you determine which one is right for you.

But first, a little backstory to whet the appetite.

Why this vampire?

Back in the 1970s, when D&D was young, the game mainly focused on exploration, combat, and loot. Rolling dice with your friends meant crawling through an underground dungeon, killing weird monsters, and getting away with magical items. Then, in 1983, the Ravenloft module has been released. Written by Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman, it added a rich sense of storytelling to D&D. The secret was a charismatic vampire named Strahd von Zarovich.

Ravenloft was the first D&D adventure that truly felt like a full story, and it centered around Strahd, a complex villain with his own motivations. Rather than simply describing the action from a distance, Strahd allows the Dungeon Master (DM) to personally engage with the material. and with players at the table through combat and non-combat encounters. Published in 2016, Strahd’s Curse Modernizes these mechanics and expands them from a measly 32 pages to a heavy 256. His version of Strahd is just as menacing as the original and a lot more fun to play.

Why is Strahd such a big bad guy? Not to say too much, but winning his personal bow is definitely worth the time spent playing against him. He is more than just a B movie bloodsucker. Strahd is a fully realized character with a Shakespearean story and enough cunning and cunning to withstand any group of adventurers.

Or Strahd’s Curse differs from the original, in my opinion, is by fleshing out its frame. The action takes place in a grim, pocket-sized dimension known as the Valley of Barovia, meaning you can enter or exit the campaign from anywhere in the D&D multiverse. The valley itself is built like a modern open-world video game. Players can explore the environment at their leisure, browsing its many side quests. All the while, Strahd’s specter will haunt them – sometimes literally – serving as a beacon to bring them irrevocably back to the main questline.

There’s even a mini-adventure built into the campaign, designed to quickly upgrade new characters and get players used to modern D&D mechanics. Quite simply, Strahd’s Curse is the complete package.

So, now that I’ve sold it to you, let’s talk about three different ways to actually buy the thing.

The basics

Strahd’s Curse was first published as a hardcover book, and the most basic version of that book is still in print. You can easily find one at your friendly local game store or online at places like Amazon. Independent booksellers that carry D&D will likely have a copy, as will large retailers like Barnes & Noble.

There are now several digital options for D&D books, and the version you want to get depends a lot on what platform you choose. The best option for newcomers will be D&D Beyond, which sells the campaign and also gives players access to an online character builder. There are also virtual tables (ATVs) like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds, which provide more options for playing the game’s fights with virtual miniatures and dice. ATVs can tend to slow down the action for newcomers, so be sure to familiarize yourself with the tool set before you get together.

Of course, you’ll also need the other three books that make up the heart of D&D: The Player’s Manual, the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and the Monster Manual. All three are also available on D&D Beyond.

Higher level

Strahd’s Curse is now also sold as a box set titled Curse of Strahd: Premium Edition Revisited. First released in October 2020, it has a hefty list price of $ 99.99, and given what’s included in the box, it’s hard to recommend it at that price. Fortunately, you can now find it for sale online at places like Amazon for a little less.

The box itself is actually quite smart. It’s shaped like a coffin and the set includes a full color portrait of Strahd so you can let him rest inside for your players to find out. Another plus of the Premium Edition is that it includes a more robust version of the double-sided campaign map (the same one that comes with the basic hardcover book).

The downside, however, is that the campaign book in this box is a paperback, not a hardcover like the original.

My favorite part of the box is a handy set of tarot cards in fiction called Tarokka cards. The oversized aluminum stamped platform will come in handy for a major plot point in the campaign. Of course, you can also pick up a Tarokka deck of cards – a full-size, un-stamped version – separately for just $ 15.

What the Premium Edition really lacks, in my opinion, is a proper two-dimensional map of Ravenloft Castle, Strahd’s lair, and setting for the final campaign showdown. A 3D isometric version of the floor plan is included on one side of the campaign map (which you will recall comes with the original hardcover book and Premium edition). But it’s up to DMs to draw this 2D floor plan for their players at the table. This requires pen and paper, and can tend to slow gameplay down considerably.

If you are using an ATV solution, plotting the Ravenloft Castle map can also be a real problem. Fortunately, the Roll20 version of the campaign comes with 30 pre-rendered battle maps, including a 2D floor plan of the entire castle.

There is also an extremely well-executed set of 2D Castle Ravenloft maps available on the Dungeon Master’s Guild. For just $ 10, you get everything you need to print this floor plan as several large cards at a commercial printer or on dozens of regular sheets of paper at home. There is even a version of the maps formatted for use with ATV software like Fantasy Grounds.

For my home campaign, I printed every inch of Castle Ravenloft in black and white and then mounted the tiles on a black foam core. After a few nights of working with a glue stick and a cutter, I had Strahd’s entire lair stacked up and stored in a paper grocery bag.

High level game

For those looking for the most luxurious way to live Strahd’s Curse, look no further than Beadle & Grimm’s. The company makes luxury editions under license of many official D&D campaigns, and its vision for the Barovia Valley is extraordinary. Called The legendary edition of Curse of Strahd, it costs $ 399.

It’s also currently out of print, so keep an eye on the website to see if more copies will be available later this year.

Which makes The legendary edition so special – aside from the full color prints of Ravenloft Castle and many other key battlegrounds in the game – are the instants. Not only does it come with extremely well-executed paper documents, including weathered letters from Strahd himself, but it also includes plenty of multimedia items to pass around the table. There is a handful of fake wax seals with Strahd’s personal seal; a set of fictional labels to be applied to real bottles of wine; several coins of the kingdom bearing the profile of Strahd; and even a set of finger puppets in fiction.

Granted, a price tag of $ 399 might seem extravagant. But after running the campaign myself for a whole year, I can’t tell you how much time and energy The legendary edition would have saved me. Hoping that Beadle & Grimm’s will roll out another deluxe version soon, perhaps without as many lavish physical accessories, to help bring the price down. In the meantime, there are a few still available (at slightly inflated prices) in the secondary market.