Large parts of the DMG and MM are now available via the open Systems Reference Document (SRD), which is a free to download 400+ page PDF. There are some sites that have organized this document into a Wiki format which will make it even easier to find the stuff you need.
For example, the Curse of Strahd features a special magic weapon. That weapon is not in the book, but is available in the SRD.
sunblade
Things like Werewolves and Vampire Spawn are also available in the SRD. Overall you should have all of the required material available via the CoS + the SRD.
As an extra note, digital versions of the maps are available for purchase from the artist, Mike Schley. These maps include "player-friendly" and "grid-free" versions which are a step beyond just "scanning the book". There are also some free B&W maps of the region available for free.
Also note that the a quest covering the first 3 levels of CoS was released for free by Wizards. The Death House can be downloaded as a 12-page PDF. Again, larger maps are available from the source above.
UPDATE: I manually walked through the book to double-check for magic items not in the SRD. Here's a list of what I found:
- Elixir of Health (available in PotA supplement)
- Potion of Invulnerability (also available in PotA supplement)
- Daern's Instant Fortress is available as Instant Fortress in SRD
- Rod of the Pact Keeper is not available in any open supplement that I can find. If you substitute with a Wand of the War Mage you should satisfy a similar spot in the party without a major change.
Legendary Dude is right, in that the nature of Curse of Strahd doesn't lend itself well to prospectively breaking it into "episodes" or "adventures." It's designed for the players to be able to meander along their own path, following such leads as they like.
But we've got lots of data from other AL materials to inform a scheme. Specifically, I tabulated the downtime and renown rewards from the twenty-three (mostly seasons 2 & 3) Expeditions modules I had on hand. These included five 1-hour adventures, eight 2-hour adventures, and ten 4-hour adventures.
All of the 1- & 2-hour adventures rewarded 5 downtime days. One 4-hour adventure also rewarded 5 downtime days, while the other nine rewarded 10 downtime days.
Most (18 of 23) modules reward 1 renown point to any faction member participating.* 13 of those 18 also conditionally reward another renown point to members of some specified factions. On average, it works out just over 1 2/5 renown points available per 4-hour adventure.
Summing this all up, AL practices would indicate the following scheme:
Award 10 downtime days per 4-hour session. Award one renown point to all faction members per 4-hour session. (Story-)conditionally award another renown point to members of 2 factions, on average, per 4-hour session. (And spread the love among the factions.)
Personally, I think that's too complicated. I've gone over to "rewarding" downtime as real time. That is, for every day that passes in real life my players earn a downtime day. (That way they've got more to play with when we have to miss a session!) I also think that's way too much renown--remember that the Expeditions format contemplated casual less-than-every-week play, the likelihood that a player would be using different characters week to week, &c. I would recommend dropping the "flat" 1 renown per session, and just stick to 2 or 3 conditional ones, as it makes sense in the story.
So, my best recommendation, after a few years of running AL games:
Award downtime as above, or as real time. Award renown points to two or three factions-worth of players, conditioned on meeting story "goals" keyed to each faction, per session.
* - the five that don't are the five linked 1-hour adventures. Each of these are aligned to a different faction and reward members of that faction 1 renown point at its completion. In other words, if we consider these as one 5-hour adventure, it's another one which gives all faction members 1 renown point.
Best Answer
This is explained in Appendix D, in the character’s background section.
In Appendix D, The Character has his own section. The answer to your question is in the “Imperfections” paragraph: