This was a well thought-out super-adventure for Tier 1 PCs in the Domain of Dread. I found it refreshing to have a Barovia-adjacent storyline that did not involve Strahd directly, and yet laid the groundwork for an ongoing Ravenloft campaign. Players will need to work to thoroughly investigate multiple leads in this very open-ended adventure, and my players enjoy these types of challenges. Highly recommended!

I just finished DMing this (52 hours total session time)

The module is great but it is SO HARD TO RUN in my opinion. On the one hand, the region is chock full of NPCs, each with rumors, backstories, motivations and secrets. Each location is fleshed out, and the story evolves in either fantastic or overly-complicated ways. The main story arch is very good though.

Unfortunately, this module is HARD to run and HARD to play. The amount of effort going into learning the module as a DM is significant. Very significant. The players could not keep track of the information being given to them, were spending too much time taking notes and making spreadsheets! Some of them pulled me aside and told me it was like doing homework or taking a quiz instead of being able to RP, and I had to heavily modify the module, choosing lore and stories to leave out to make the rest of the game stronger and adding combats.

The biggest complaint I have is the way the module is broken down into sections. It is HARD to get this information organized in the DM's mind, it is very very dense with secrets. My ONE NOTE is 40 pages long (with hyperlinks) on this 60 page adventure, which the PDF is also annotated and highlighted, and even with all that this was hard.

The information is just SO spread out. Major pieces of information for any event or conversation are almost always in more than 3 very different locations in the book, requiring EXTENSIVE ctrl+f to find, and a strong background knowledge of crazy details by the DM so that the pieces fit. This can lead to a very disjointed story that is supposed to be a huge web, which leads to extremely forgettable NPCs and locations that are meant to be important.

The main storyline itself is great, but we had some really rough sessions of the players feeling like they were taking a test they had not studied for (despite their extensive note taking).

***tldr;

**If you want an amazing mystery, extreme nuance (literally like 30 NPC's with their own motivations), evolving story and events that make the world really feel alive give it a shot. Just know that both the players and the DM are going to need to make a significant commitment for this to be fun.***

Hopefully my answer helps others. If I would have known the effort and the rough player sessions I would have picked something else.

Well done, nice attention to detail, good artwork added. Its meant for COS, it could have used additional maps.

Hi! This is a great adventure, very well written. Clearly a lot of care and love has been put into it. There are a couple drawbacks to it that I will explain below, but before going into details I must say that the pros outweigh the cons greatly. This is totally worth the money for the amount of details and setting you get in it.

Pros:

• Tons and tons of content and a fun setting your players can go back to, sure to enrich any campaing in Ravenloft. Lots of bang for your buck. For this alone, I totally recommend it.
• The few magic items that are around are meaningful and evocative.
• A joy to read as a DM. There is a great romantic tone to the whole thing that is absolutely on brand with the Ravenloft setting and keeps it interesting, even if you are not playing it.
• Great introduction to the setting, this is a love letter to Ravenloft and it shows, it does a fantastic job in conveying some tropes of the setting and connecting with other stuff (such as Curse of Strahd, for example)
• Coherent and well thought out. There are many many details that follow up cues dropped early in the adventure. That makes the whole thing very immersive and a good sandbox where characters act in logical ways.
• Very useful (and necessary) dramatis personae and GM cheatsheet that will make your life easier.
• Great villains, the Beaste and other NPCs are truly terrifying, and dangerous. (and the DM can choose different options to customize their adventure) Good for horror.

Cons:

• Not so easy to run. As I said, there is a lot of content, a complex mystery, lots of moving parts and different NPCs. Getting to the end of some of the mysteries takes many different encounters.
• Too much plot. For such a small area there is a tremendous amount of plot. For example, a fairly unusual number of children switched at birth, etc.. I think a little bit less plot and more simplicity would have made the adventure perfect.
• Dangerous. Careful with low level characters! This can go south very quickly and because it is open ended the characters might face a dangerous foe too early. What is more, there are magic items and allies that the players can get that are there to help them but they are easy to miss.

I ran this with a group of friends and they all died ! A bit of an unfortunate ending to the adventure but very true to setting and a bit of a consequence of some unfortunate choices and unlucky dice rolls. There are in the text some optional advice to give the players healing potions at a couple instances to make their lives easier. I say it is very good advice, and my recommendation as a DM is that you have to push it a bit and just find a way to give them some, even if it is a bit too early. My group missed a couple of those instances and ended up fighting a very close encounter with a horrible monster who got them. That said, we had a lot of fun and enjoyed many hours of gameplay where everyone was very engaged.

Good fun. I will certainly buy other stuff from this author.

fantastic adventure, one of the best i've read or run. it isn't superbly organized and takes some work, on the part of the dm and the players. but the concept, the flavour, the mechanics of the investigation, the npcs -- all wonderful. heartily recommended vs. the traditional entry to CoS

We just finished this adventure and fully enjoyed it. It made the jump into CoS not as deadly...

We actually enjoyed the Hags more than the Beast...and we had a little side quest on how to get the gentleman out of the oven. Now everytime my PC's see an old women...they wonder if it's a hag... ;)

The only thing I would recommend for the author is an index on what page to find ALL character references and places. I spent alot of time hunting for NPC's and where they where represented in the text, especially for NPC's that have multiple references.

P.S. My group is on a quest to see if they can lay to rest Bruno...

This adventure is fulll of detail and lovingly crafted, but the amount of detail is a little overwhelming and confusing.

Good points: -fun plot, really well done murder mystery. -A lot of work went into the relationships between NPCs, easy to monitor -Fun chase rules in the back! Chase scene went really well. -Clues

Bad points: -scattered presentation, events tucked into random areas in the text. Could use a timeline and list of clues. The DM cheat sheet is a great help, but still presented in a confusing manner. -TOO MANY NPCs! I combined/cut out quite a few characters, and my players still had a really hard time keeping track of everyone. The second time I ran it, I cut out one of the suspects and the players had a slightly easier time keeping track of people. -There is some text in the PDF that repeats on a few pages which just seems unprofessional.

Tips: You really have to read it quite a few times before you run it. Choose the beast early on in your prep, give the players LOTS of clues, and maybe have an NPC present any leads as such, so they know their options on what to investigate. Emphasize the presence of a motive for killings, because in D&D everyone is used to random attacks, and so players might not be looking for it.

I have just read trough this module and is just great... the problem I always have with introducing new players to Ravenloft is which adevnture should I use. This is Top Notch, great for setting the mood of the campaing since this creates a mystery that players should solve using their wits first and muscles after. Great Ravenloft introduction, please write some more, definitely recommended. I'm gonna use it for a Ravenloft campaign with new D&D players that I'm starting in one month!

This adventure was top-notch for a fan-made production. I did modify it quite a bit for my campaign, but that's because I was making lots of changes to Curse of Strahd to begin with. There's almost too much going on in this adventure; I didn't even touch on the bandits or the barrows at all. But what our author has done here is create a well-rounded scenario and cast which you are free to do with what you want. Definitely recommend!

This is really a fantastic adventure. My only complaints (if you can even call it that) is that there is too much stuff for the players to do. I ended up cutting a lot of content out of the adventure, but only because I had a limited time to run it. The town of Graensekov makes for a perfect starter town for a Ravenloft game! There is a TON of advenutre within its walls and in the misty woods beyond. I highly reccomend this adventure if you are looking to run a spooky gothic murder mystery.

Sidenote, I didn't set it in Ravenloft so I had to change a few things. Specifically I had to change the backstory of a few key NPCs (Father Fiofan!). It's a bit of extra work to fit this adventure into a non-ravenloft setting as it does draw on a few Ravenloft specific details for its main plot, but I think it's totally possible and quite worth it!

10/10 would have the Beast rip out the throats of my players again!

I think that this adventure may be the best one I've ever run, in any edition, period.

The NPC's are each well-written, with multiple side-plots and believable motivations that reinforce each other and are reflected in the adventure at large. Its something of a murder-mystery, with enough clues scattered around to give each major learning point several ways to be discovered. There is a well-populated sandbox theme to the game that gives players something new to look forward to through much of their exploration of the area. There are also many reasons given to return to these locations once you have progressed through the adventure. For example, there is an item that lets you discover things about seemingly innocent or mundane areas that can both help with solving the mystery of the Beast as well as just highlighting more of the rich history and side-plots that are threaded throughout the adventure.

I believe that as an introduction adventure to the Curse of Strahd adventure, the Beast of Graenseskov does a good job of tying into some of the many plot-lines and locations that make the larger game so appealing. One thing that I have had to come up with on my own was a reason to stay in Graenseskov long enough to solve the mystery of the Beast, other than simple player determination to finish what they start. That said, my players for two different games I'm running of this adventure have unanimously agreed that they are blown away by the depth of the characters, plot, side-plots, and atmosphere that the Beast of Graenseskov gives them.

The art is decent. Some of it is very very good, while other pieces are more historical than gothic horror fantasy.

I would have liked more pronunciation guides than we got, as I struggle with some of the names.

On my second session in this module and so far its been fantastic. The players love the mystery and I as dmg enjoy being able to throw misdirections and false trails at them. I let them draw the tarokka card without telling them anything about the outcome (obviously) and that alone has set the tone. The amount of NPCs can be a bit overwhelming at first but is easily manageable since the PC dont have access to all locations all the time. We have spent some 6 hours just having the PCs piece together clues and that has been great fun, lots of oppertunities for skill checks, clever roleplay and deception. With out a doubt $5 worth of product here, even if you dont play the module it has so many adventure hooks that it can stand alone as a sourcebook.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t read this entire adventure yet. I did read through select parts of the preview last night, and it was enough to convince me that the $5 price tag is more than justified. As someone who has created a few adventures for the DMs Guild website, I am truly humbled by the amount of work and care that went into making this adventure. The layout is superb. The use of public domain art is inspired and seems to fit the tone and theme of the adventure, which is no small feat. I have not finished reading the adventure, but the writing seems to be high quality as well. I also appreciate you citing the origin of all the art. It’s given me a few ideas where to go for quality public domain artwork for my own adventures.

In closing, I want to urge anyone considering the purchase of this adventure to just buy it! I think the $5 price may cause a little apprehension for some folks, but that would be unwarranted in this case. Fear not, it will be money well spent!