Over a year ago I analyzed how Tales of Xadia: The Dragon Prince Roleplaying Game is the perfect game system for Curse of Strahd. This modern-classic Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition adventure reimagines the old-school classic I6: Ravenloft as a big sandbox gothic horror campaign. Now I’m turning my theory-crafting into conversion work, because I’ve got a group of players that have no allegiance to campaign or system, and clearly err on the roleplay-heavy side of the spectrum.
This article’s going to cover the initial prep work and cover some game mechanics retooling necessary for the conversion. It assumes passing familiarity with either or both of Tales of Xadia and the Cortex RPG. It definitely presumes you know a lot about Curse of Strahd, since I assume the audience is going to be Dungoen/Game Masters. You’ve been warned, spoilers abound.
Oh yeah! I’ll refer to the DM as “GM” or “Game Moderator”, which is how Cortex Prime handles it. That’s always been my preference, anyway. (Want to get more familiar with Tales of Xadia? Here’s the Rules Primer.) The one major change to the game’s mechanics I’ll be using is the Doom Pool from the Cortex Prime Game Handbook; if you’re not familiar, I’ll explain it a little in a future article. For everything else, refer to Curse of Strahd; I’ll be using the cool Legendary Edition by Beadle & Grimm, but any version will do, since I won’t be referencing anything but the Chapters by number; no specific page numbers will be called out.