One Night Strahd

Witness the end of Ravenloft in this all-new adventure, brought to life in over 200 illustrations and maps. Presenting... One Night Strahd!

Precise and messy as a vampire bite, One Night Strahd (ONS) delivers the spectacle and catastrophe of gothic horror as a consistent and fast-paced short campaign for D&D 5e. It condenses and remixes the 200+ hour campaign of Curse of Strahd into a replayable adventure weighing in at 525 pages with 150+ illustrations, 12 maps, 16 encounters, 27 new magic items, and 60+ quick-play charts. With careful attention to the design of exploration, combat, and role-playing opportunities, our goal has been to make something for every DM and every table. After three years of extensive testing, we're proud to share this explosive adventure with you.

What's inside?

• 17 major encounters, including two hidden bosses.

• An entire set of fast narrative encounters, replacing the classic random encounters while preserving their feel and spirit.

• Enormous set-piece boss fights, including a wolf the size of a mansion and deadly assassin-cavalry.

• Puzzles, secrets, and sprawling exploration-based encounters called Hunts.

• A more accessible approach to designing large encounter spaces, with plenty of well-tested examples.

• A novel reincarnation mechanic that helps make sure no one gets left out at the table.

• A powerful new way to use inspiration that can be reused in any setting. 

ONS can be run a few different ways:

• As a Mini-campaign: Running roughly 16 hours, generally broken into four sessions.

• As a Event game: Running roughly 12 hours, suitable for a live-stream or holiday extravaganza.

• Both versions include rules for playing either with one or two full parties of 6th level characters.

• Optional scoring mechanics are included for those who wish to run this at an event for multiple groups, just like the old days.

16 hours? 

Data from D&D Beyond as well as other sources suggests that most campaigns end after less than seven 3-4 hour sessions. That means most campaigns end around the 25 hour mark, while most “full-length” campaign or adventure books clock in at 50+ hours. This means there’s a definite need for shorter experiences. To be extremely clear, it’s not better or worse to make a shorter campaign, but there weren’t a lot of them out there. So we made one!

Why this? How big is the book?

ONS is what we wanted to play. It’s easy to run and requires very little prep without compromising on depth or fun. We wanted to make an neo-noir adventure that anyone could run, one that dealt with death, hope, queerness, love, and the horror of regret. This is gothic horror by way of neo-noir with a breakneck narrative, a sprawling castle, and massive set-piece battles. In terms of raw size, ONS is 525 pages and just over 100,000 words with tons of lush illustrations by Evangeline Gallagher accentuating an almost completely unique bestiary along with handouts and flowcharts for all major encounters to assist with legibility and speed of play. The campaign may be shorter but the book is actually larger than Curse of Strahd.

Queerness?

It matters to people we care about, including members of The Hedra Group. Practically speaking, we have very few characters to work with, so adding a small love story outside of the doomed romances of the Zaroviches meant adding a queer romance. Additionally, a large portion of proceeds after recoup of development costs will be donated to the Pride Foundation.

Oh, and you fight a wolf the size of a house and a dracolich carrying a vampire's coffin.

Just remember, death is rarely the end in Barovia.