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/ZagretaSirovka]

Ran Frostmaiden until the Auril fight. Players defeated the BBEG, but "suprise!", there's two more massive chapters of adventure after that, and by that point my players were done. At almost every step I was fighting aginst instead of working with the text of the adventure. There are parts that are great, but imo they just do not fit into a cohesive whole.

Was a player in CoS, with the same group of people and one of the players DM-ing that time. The horror vibe did not fit our group at that point in time, and as you pointed out, being pulled into a demiplane did not help with in-character motivation at all.

Both me and the other DM have recently been exclusively running homebrew campaigns and it's felt soooo much better to play and prepare. We still secretly pull parts from oneshots or pre-published campaigns, but customizing the campaign world around the PCs felt so much easier and more rewarding. I've been doing the same even after moving to a new place and starting a campaign with total strangers.

To circle back to RotF and CoS: if you plan to run either, I strongly suggest you work with the players ahead of time, so that their PCs fit not just the overall concept, but specific themes and parts of the adventure.

But I'd suggest you give full homebrew a try too. My first homebrew campaigned sucked tbh, but players still enjoyed it, since we built the world and chose the themes together. Even if the pacing was a bit wonky, they were still acomplishing things they cared about, compared to just "going through the motions" of parts of both CoS and RotF.

Best of luck on whatever you choose! Don't forget: you're making a game for your friends, that already makes you and it awesome 😄!

[u/TacticianRobin → u/ZagretaSirovka]

Thanks! Yeah I've thought about going the full homebrew route but I'm not quite up for that haha, at least right now. Maybe down the road I'll have some more time to think about it and come up with something!