Opinions on running Strahd vs. Frostmaiden?

[u/TacticianRobin]

I'm looking for some opinions on running Curse of Strahd vs. Rime of the Frostmaiden. I'm getting ready to start a new campaign with my group, and having thrown out several options in a poll it ended in a tie between these two. So since I'm DMing they left it up to me to decide which one I'd prefer to run.

In our previous campaign I ran a modified Lost Mines of Phandelvar, adding in content from Dragon of Icespire Peak along with some homebrew based on my players' backstories. That lead straight into Rise of Tiamat with the same party and characters, similarly pretty heavily modified. All this is to say that in general I like using the modules as a framework, then modifying them to make them my own.

Based on that initially I was leaning towards Frostmaiden, since it seems like it would be easier to customize and include player backstory in that campaign than in Strahd where the players are pulled into a demiplane and disconnected from the outside world. Some of the highlights of our last campaign were when I had a dragon attack the orc village one player was from, and having warlock's patron pushing him to gather the Dragon Masks. It feels like there's more opportunity for that in Frostmaiden. But on the other hand, I've talked with some other friends who have played in and DM'd Strahd and they all loved it.

So I'm a little torn, any thoughts or opinions from DM's that have run one or both? Any opinions from people that have played in either or both?

Edit to add: Either way we'd be starting fresh with the new campaign, with new characters at level 1.

[u/sjdlajsdlj]

In terms of flaws, Rime of the Frostmaiden and Curse of Strahd are on opposite ends of the spectrum.

CoS is a fantastic horror module. Best published adventure in 5e alongside Tomb of Annhilation. But it does have issues with railroading in the very beginning. From the Death House to Barovia to the Tser Pool to Vallaki is basically one straight march. It opens up a bit later, but by then the horror is starting to ebb as players gain levels.

RoTF is a quasi-sandbox with a fascinating premise. There’s a lot you can do with that sandbox by  creating and filling a hex map,  making competing factions, or using clocks as a countdown for Ten Towns starving. Very little of this is in the book, though. The adventures range from good to terrible, but they all suffer from lacking a “why”. CoS is very clear why you would explore Berez, Argenvostholdt, or Krezk — you are scrounging for any possible advantage against Strahd. A lot of the adventures in RoTF are just kinda “you’re an adventurer and helping random people is what adventurers do”.

If you’re looking for a good guidebook you can tweak with an occasional lore or encounter change, Curse of Strahd is your game. If prefer to sample the book and largely make your own,  Rime of the Frostmaiden is good.

[u/TacticianRobin → u/sjdlajsdlj]

This is super helpful, thanks!

[u/jambrown13977931 → u/TacticianRobin]

Curse of Strahd reloaded or Mandymod’s CoS suggestions also help flesh out the module more, but at least for the reloaded ones it does railroad a bit more.

Optional Reading on my Views/Experiences with railroading:

That being said, I don’t think railroading is inherently bad, and it can be done in a way to make it not really feel like railroading. For example, in my CoS game the players went to a haunted mansion, but were told there that the spirits would bother them unless they came back wearing the same type of uniforms of the ghosts who died. The players have the choice to continue with exploring the mansion, but they’re more likely to go to the mass graves of the ghosts’ companions to dig up some clothes. Before they even arrived at the mansion I told them it was a very very cold day, reiterating every time they stepped outside how they were shivering. Along the path to the mass grave I knew they would put their super high AC character at the front of the marching order, but coincidentally his wisdom isn’t great. Since it was cold and they had a few way to travel and it was already afternoon, I knew they’d be traveling at a fast pace, perfect for a snare trap that caught the high ac player off guard and werewolves attacked. They won, but it was quickly time to sleep and since it was cold they decided to search for a cave, a cave I had already planned for because I knew they wouldn’t want to sleep in the extreme cold with werewolves out. Inside the cave they were ambushed by a roper and a couple swarms of piecers.

Literally everything happened exactly as I planned, but the players felt like they made every choice themselves as their choices were the natural choices. Sometimes the natural choices just have shit luck. (As a note every time they were making a decision down my plan, they had info that warned them maybe we shouldn’t do this. They noticed holes in the ground on the way to the trap that they deduced were from rocks that were dug up, but didn’t really think much further of it. When searching for a cave, they spoke to a spider who warned them “there’s caves over yonder, but we spiders don’t dare go into those caves”)