Adventurers are mysteriously drawn to the realm of Barovia which is surrounded by deadly fog and ruled by the vampire wizard Strahd von Zarovich.

This gothic horror adventure takes the players on a course through Barovia that culminates with a vampire hunt inside Castle Ravenloft.

Using a deck of tarokka cards, the Dungeon Master can randomize parts of the adventure such as the identity of a powerful ally, the placement of important magic items across Barovia, and Strahd's location within Castle Ravenloft.

[...] Tracy and Laura have been hosting nearly annual sessions of the original Ravenloft at their home, for friends and family, over the course of decades.

[8] Wizards of the Coast stated that "the adventure includes the latest errata and a revised depiction of the Vistani" who are based on stereotypes about the Romani people.

[8] Chris Perkins, Dungeon & Dragons Principal Narrative Designer, in an interview with IGN said, "We don't do a tremendous number of box sets.

We did want to make sure that if Beadle and Grimm [a company that specializes in high-end D&D box sets like this one or this one] [sic], for instance, were doing their own version of it, we wouldn't eventually be duplicating what they would do.

There is, as always, a driving main quest that keeps the action moving forward, but each stop along the way brings moral and ethical dilemmas to the party—and Strahd is always watching, waiting to see which party members evidence a dark side that he can play off the others".

[14] Rory Bristol, for GeekDad, wrote "Fair warning: the book features a lot of death, blood, and general horror.

[16] In a review of Curse of Strahd in Black Gate, Andrew Zimmerman Jones said "Curse of Strahd is really a mix of setting manual and adventure module in one, with a storyline that is extremely open-ended, with endings that (assuming the players survive) allow for continued adventures centered around the consequences of the players' actions in Castle Ravenloft.

[19] Julie Muncy, for Io9, criticized the "granular changes" to the Vistani people as not very extensive and that "while there’s a real opportunity here to do better work—the aforementioned diversity pledge also mentioned future works that will feature the Vistani people and aim to complicate their depictions—starting that work with a fancy collector’s edition feels less like a promise to do better and more like a victory lap".