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1053 Ravenloft: Realm of Terror Box Set Review

Everyone knows that I6 Castle Ravenloft (a very well documented module) inspired a very financially successful line of products that is still being published to this day, be it in a very diluted form compared to what came before it, new players introduced to Strahd von Zarovich in later editions of the game have no idea just how short changed they have been.

Written by Bruce Nesmith and Andria Hayday; 1053 RAVENLOFT: Realm of Terror was first released in June of 1990. It not only expanded the realm of Count Strahd von Zarovich, it created a new style of play and a new way to look at an old product.

A quick search of this blog will reveal that I have done a lot of writing in regards to Ravenloft, most over-critical or grossly inaccurate; I wasn’t always too keen on doing real homework and did a lot of speculations. This blog has been a learning experience and you can see me grow as a DM and as a blogger through the passage of time.

To be clear, I am reviewing what we refer to as “The Black Box”, this is the original 1^st printing that sold out very quickly, it was repackaged, redesigned, and republished as 1108 Ravenloft Campaign Setting, or “The Red Box” in 1994 which updated the timeline (a flaw), and included information from product 1079 Forbidden Lore Boxset supplement that had been released in 1992.

It is also worth saying, right from the start, that the Black Box is beyond rare. I am not even going to bother placing a value upon it, that is a collector’s item and because those that purchased this boxset fell in love with it, I don’t think that it is even possible to find a truly complete set. By 1995 this was already a rare item. It came with lots of stuff that really isn’t necessary to play the game, namely a stack of loose card-stock pages that had color pictures of building, castles, and people on one side and stats on the other, a few of these cards were cheat sheets to the rules system which is a heavily modified version of the 2e ruleset, as well as a fold-out castle. You don’t need any of this stuff to enjoy the product, all you need is the maps, there were four, but you can get away with just having a map of the core, and the 144 page booklet Realm of Terror. You can sometimes find this stuff loose on the web, but in this case, a PDF file is probably preferred to the physical copy as you can just print off what you need from it, and paste together your own maps.(Upon investigating my links, it appears that Drivethru RPG only offers a legal copy of the Red Box, which is a bummer, but serviceable).

What is most important is the book! So, let’s open it up and see what we find.

CHAPTER I: From Gothic Roots

Hands of Orlac (1924

Ravenloft has an identity crisis, the suits in charge of TSR didn’t have much faith in it, and it was too different. They figured that people would pull it out once or twice a year, have a one-shot adventure, and then return back to where they came from. That isn’t what happened, players of AD&D found Ravenloft to be something new and totally different and fresh! Ravenloft was moody, it was dark, and it showed us how to go about making a new system that isn’t just Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk with different names. Instead of playing high fantasy, this was gothic horror, and it was a big departure from what we players of AD&D had been doing up to that point.

This chapter quickly gets down to the business of telling you that this is not Dracula with swords and sandals; the land itself is alive, the npcs require special treatment, the laws of physics and magic don’t always work here, this is different! It also included something that wasn’t different, but a throwback to 1^st Edition, including a list of books that it suggests that you read to properly understand the mood and setting.

CHAPTER II: The Demiplane of Dread

The land itself is unusual; the entire world is unstable, and bizarre. Here you will find the original Timeline, and a definition as to what exactly is going on in this place. This chapter tells a story, it doesn’t tell you why this is happening, who caused this to happen, it just tells you that it is. At this stage of the game it did not support native PCs, all of the PCs had to begin play in their own worlds and were somehow drawn into the mists. This goes back to the belief that the system couldn’t stand on its own, but, for many of the people who bought it, they would rather do this for a while. It was a true campaign setting that suggested that you don’t have campaigns there; well, we did. Since the rules didn’t support this, much like what took place in the 70’s, where everybody was inventing their own house rules, Ravenloft users got to experience the same sense of fun and exploration as they tweaked things here and there so that they could game here full time. More on this later.

CHAPTER III: The Reshaping of Characters

This was a new concept which works well, by slightly altering how some classes work, and not telling the players about it, allowing them to find out for themselves, it allows the players to feel like they are learning a new game, without having to learn a new game.

This chapter also introduced Powers Checks, if the player violates any of the secret lists of actions, a 1d100 is rolled to see if the dark forces notice or not; it is a fun mechanic, but I think that 1d100 is a bit too small of a window, bad things happen when a player fails a powers check! And while it is fun for a one-shot campaign, for full-time enjoyment this needs to be altered. You want it in play, just not at the frequency suggested in this book. At least that has been my experience; the Powers Check is definitely wonky.

CHAPTER IV: Fear and Horror Checks

Another wonky mechanic that requires tinkering, but it is effective. If the player role-plays fear, or horror, this can usually be bypassed, unless the DM has a reason for using it. This is one of those Ravenloft mechanics that actually gives the DM permission to control a PC. It does have its place in the game, but it is a prime example of a rule in the wrong hands.

CHAPTER V: Werebeasts and Vampires

This chapter is one of those that changed how I played the game, though this chapter is dated, as it was written before the Ravenloft monster compendiums were published; the DM had to modify his own monsters to allow them to do what we want them to do. If you look in the MM under mummy, you’ll see Greater Mummy, this is a Ravenloft monster that was altered, it took a common monster and made him very difficult to handle, but it didn’t stop there, we were instructed to write a history for the mummy, a full-fledged back story that provided motivations for what he does. He isn’t a high-fantasy baddy, he should be almost pathetic in some way, he was wronged and if the story was written from his perspective, he’d be the hero . . . except he’s a killer.

It gave attention to lycanthropy and vampires to get us started.

CHAPTER VI: Curses

Attention to detail: that is the lessons of Ravenloft. Avoiding all mention of mechanics and focus on storytelling. Curses are typically what takes a normal mummy found in the MC, and makes it the exceptional mummy found in the MM. It teaches you to fuss over the right details, players probably can’t handle the mummy in the MM, but they might be able to break the curse. You can tell many different stories using curses, and since you are modifying monsters, this is an easy way to account for it. While in normal AD&D all vampires are the same, in Ravenloft, they are all different and unique because the curses placed upon them are different and unique.

CHAPTER VII: Gypsies

In this book, gypsies are a new race and class, later publications would allow you to play a half-vistani (gypsy), this goes back to the one-shot premise, and gypsies were mysterious and powerful beings that moved our stories along, much like the Dungeon Master character in the 80’s cartoon. They could be evil, or they could be good, or neither. It suggested to use gypsies to talk to your players, as these people knew all of the mysteries of the world, and could be cryptic enough to point the players in a helpful direction (else betray them). We are delving into a world that supports DMPCs, this was a way out of doing that.

CHAPTER VIII: Telling the Future

Because it sounds like it is telling you to railroad the players (cause it is), just like the module that inspired the setting; they thought that this mechanic would help randomize things, or at least give the illusion of it. Telling the Future is hard, especially when a player attempts to do it, you don’t want to give away too much information, but you don’t want to give them nothing either. The Divination spells in the AD&D system are basically more fleshed out here, you don’t want any mechanics showing, and since we were told to use gypsies as story-tellers, this chapter can be helpful for quickly informing the players what their goals are.

Another example of: In the wrong hands. During full-time play, this will quickly turn into a cliché.

CHAPTER IX: Spells in Ravenloft

Many spells, and we are talking about major spells, don’t function as written in the PHB. During one-shot games, this can lead to the players feeling like they are playing a new system without having to learn a new system, but if you are playing full-time here, you are going to have to make some judgement calls. If you play this section to the letter, all the time, it won’t be fun, it will be frustrating. Just allowing the priest to cast cure light wounds can be an issue, if the party is someplace safe to lick their wounds, I allow it, however if they are in our mummy’s tomb, in the heart of darkness itself, then I’ll stick to the modified version of the spells.

This game can either make or break you as a DM. The potential to really abuse PCs is there, it is in their face, and you want it to be or what’s the point? But you want them to have fun too.

CHAPTER X: Magical Items in Ravenloft

These things must also confirm to the laws of Ravenloft, or at least to the laws of the Darklord. It also has some spooky and fun magical items that are native to this setting. Unlike the other D&D settings, magical items are rare here, just like we pay special attention to crafting our monsters, we must pay even closer attention to crafting magical items. What the players would refer to as their +2 Sword, must have a back story because if the Darklord found out about this thing, he’d destroy it. Somebody had to secret it away, and finding a weapon capable of harming a monster is a big deal. Attention to detail! This can and should apply to all games.

CHAPTER XI: Lands of the Core

This is it. This is the whole reason why you want this specific book. All of the lands of the core are here, in their original form, with all of their mistakes and errors for you to adjust as you see fit. There is political turmoil going on in this version of the setting, and I feel that it is more interesting to see where this goes at your table rather than it being dictated to you from a module or a TSR driven time-line.

Each land is quickly described with broad strokes to maximize its potential role in your game. It has a great templet that you can use to create your own domains, and gives you some guidelines to do just that. Want to try your hand at world building? Well here is the perfect environment to try it out!

CHAPTER XII: Islands of Terror

This is a demiplane, so you have stuff floating around out there, maybe it will connect to the core, and maybe it won’t. These are just smaller versions of Ravenloft that aren’t politically connected to those in the core. How one gets there, who knows? The Dark Lords in these places aren’t as powerful as those found in the core, so your chances of destroying them are much higher if that is what you want to do.

CHAPTER XIII: The Who’s Doomed of Ravenloft

This chapter helps you designed your own Darklords, or modify the existing darklords to fit your campaign, but it more than that as Ravenloft has its heroes as well. Crafting NPCs is a big deal here; every major character requires his own backstory, motivations, and personality to make him a full-fledged character. The character template is very useful here, even when gaming outside of Ravenloft, you can take these lessons to make your game stronger. There are a couple of characters found in this book that never reappear again, which was kind of a shame.

CHAPTER XIV: Bloodlines

How advanced are these NPCs? So advanced that some of them have a family tree in the core rule book! The idea behind Ravenloft is that it is a patchwork of many different worlds, and a few Darklords were so evil that they had doomed their entire bloodline. While they themselves are among the undead, their families live on for generations. Even just creating one of these things can lead to interesting scenarios.

CHAPTER XV: Techniques of Terror

The last chapter is the most inspirational, while some of the ideas are hokey and cheesy, some of them are not. Many of these ideas took the way we game into the direction that it is today. What Greyhawk did for Wilderness Exploration, Ravenloft does for adventure design. It is interesting to be able to really pinpoint something like this. The ideas were there, but ravenloft taught us that our adventures can be more polished, that we can get really creative with DMing and provide actual experiences or a form of art for our players to enjoy. It emphasized the importance of setting and pacing. It isn’t a perfect system, it requires you to filter it, to refine it further and make it playable, which is fun as hell! In some ways, Ravenloft challenged the DM a lot more than it ever challenged the players. If you have a weakness, this system will find it and expose it so you can work on it. It gives you all of the tools necessary for you to hang yourself, friend. It really does, but if you can master it, it makes it all worthwhile.

SUMMERY

No other product that TSR ever produced has been such a huge inspiration for me. I cannot praise it enough! Now I will admit that your players are going to have to put up with you screwing up from time to time, but the investment is worth it. They’ll get a DM who can modify things on the fly, who isn’t afraid to break the rules when they should be broken, and knows when to follow the rules when they should be. While it appears that Ravenloft promotes railroading, it doesn’t. This aspect isn’t necessary, not if all of your ducks are all in a row. It teaches you the art of storytelling, and applying it in a way where the players are drawn in, they don’t HAVE to complete story goals, they are drawn in and they want to see were this goes. They want to understand what is going on. They want to live within a mythology, and that is what this turns into.

This setting is only as strong as the DM wielding it. If you are uncomfortable with adjusting mechanics yourself, or just get overwhelmed with the idea, find a hard-copy of 2174 Domains of Dread, it contains much of the modifications that we applied to the setting over the years, including creating PC’s that are native to the setting, which is a good deal. I’ve been overly critical of the DoD through the years, and it had nothing to do with the mechanics of it, it was the timeline.

Ravenloft: Realm of Terror, as primitive as it is, will always get an A+ out of me. Next time your players say, “Man, it’s trolls again.” Or “Not another Dragon, please!” it is time to download this PDF, gather up the mists, and try something different for a change. Who knows, you might just decide to stay!

Pitfalls & Triumphs of the Realm of Terror

Our friend and scholar, James Maliszewski from Grognardia (a slightly popular blog, maybe you’ve heard of it?) reviewed a module that runs deep for me, the original Ravenloft Module put out in 1983.

I had originally tried to post a comment on his blog, but evil Internet fairies ate it, which I suppose is for the best, as I do have a lot to say, and I really shouldn’t be wasting his bandwidth with my drivel.

I purchased this Module years after it was released. I haven’t ever ran the story that came with it, but I bought the thing for its map of Strahd’s castle. This amazingly popular module spawned it’s own setting, also named Ravenloft. It is this setting which I cut my DMing teeth upon. I must admit that I really don’t “get” fantasy. I mean, I read it from time to time, but never anything new. I value my time to much to read anything that can’t be told in a book or two. I don’t understand fantasy, but I do have a firm grasp upon Gothic horror. This is my favorite genre! And to be able to run a Dungeons and Dragons campaign in a setting such as this . . . Well it was a natural fit for me.

Ravenloft was an experiment. In some ways it was a huge success, and in many ways it failed utterly. The basis behind the setting was an interesting one. The greatest evil beings of all time were drawn into the mist, an astral world which was a prison, or perhaps it was a weapon of mass destruction? Nobody really knows, THAT was left up to the DM to figure out.

Strahd became just one of the Dark Lords of this realm. He controlled the land, and all within it, as did the other Dark Lords, whom were all blessed with land however suffering some curse that was debilitating to them. Time was ignored, as were seasons; The realm of Adam (read Frankenstein) was based during a time of electricity in a very German world, while G’Henna run by a knock off of Mr Hyde was Midevil and perpetually Summer.

This was brilliant! Complete with all of the 2nd Edition fluff that one would expect, a DM could have a field day with this kind of atmosphere! It originally got expanded in a box set that was one of the greatest boxes of all time. Realm of Terror (1990): It was chock full of nothing but fluff and atmosphere. It gave a creative DM enough fodder to keep a table happy for many many years.

If they would had stopped there, I doubt that we would be having this conversation. Modules were written, that were absolutely terrible. A great world changing catastrophe which they called, “The Grand Conjunction”. Much like the plot of the original Ravenloft Module, the players could not stop this from happening in any way.

The Box Set went from, Giving a DM just enough information to fuel his imagination, to coming out with these monstrosities that were so big and powerful that if you wanted to play the Cannon world, then you were stuck dealing with. Game masters became too afraid to use the adventure hooks supplied in the box set, because once they did run a game of their own creation, TSR would put out a map and module set that completely destroyed what you did.

THIS ISN’T ROLE-PLAYING!!!! There were no choices to be made, DM’s had to buy these products or else they simply weren’t running Cannon. This was the greatest failure of Ravenloft. Like Forgotten Realms before it, Ravenloft simply got to big and could make too much money, and pretty soon, that was all it was good for, making money.

The Grand Conjunction literally tore the map apart. Dark Lords died, different lands joined the Core, while others floated off into the Sea of Sorrow. This world takes place on the Astral Plane, this kind of stuff can happen, but it did it in such a way that it did ruin it. Players couldn’t effect this, it happened on its own and they were just in for the ride.

Probably the best book to come out for the setting was Domains of Dread, it was probably the last Ravenloft sourcebook to come out for 2e. It was awesome, but it too had its failures, the maps were unreadable, but other then that, it was a great book! Which was needed since TSR tore the heck out of it.

Now Ravenloft is not without it’s triumphs! It is a world that is not level appropriate. Players knew that the deck was stacked, and that it wasn’t stacked in their favor. They were the minority, they had to fight against incredible odds, survival was never guaranteed. Magical items were not handed out like candy in a chocolate store, but death was! This led to some truly heroic deeds. If Ravenloft has one lesson, it teaches players how to be a hero. Good vs. Evil in a realm completely dominated by evil. If a player fails, or resorts to an evil act himself, then he runs the risk of being taken by the realm. THAT is cool, and is still a theme in all of my games.

Ravenloft also taught DM’s how to make truly living and breathing NPCs. In the hands of a talented game master, these NPC’s are tools to better convey a story, a bridge between the DM and his players. Unfortunately, these NPC’s still don’t help cover up bad behavior on the part of weak Dungeon Masters. Were the NPCs abused? You betcha, but weak Dungeon Masters abuse everything that they have at their disposal, so we really can’t judge Ravenloft for that.

If I could do it over again, as I’m never going to go back into the realms of Ravenloft, I wish that I had the knowledge that I have now.

Screw Cannon! It is just a marketing ploy. Players don’t read up on settings, and you can do just as good, if not better then any company when drawing up dungeons.
Don’t WRITE UP dungeons. Material should be written up for sittings, not settings. Isn’t that clever? Yeah, I hate it too, but it makes sense. I put so much work on writing modules that I never used. It was fun, but a total waste of my time.
And finally, Scenarios are meant to be interactive. I used those Ravenloft modules as a basis for writing my own adventures, and that was a huge mistake that I repeated over and over until I identified the problem.

Not bad for something that I really enjoyed when I should had been going to collage!

A Look Back at the History of Ravenloft

October has always been my favorite time of year. I simply love Autumn, the scent of Fall always reminds me of happy times, but it is Halloween which in my house, is like those crazy Christmas lovers. Around here in never really ever goes away. Our house is decorated for Halloween year round.

Nothing says Halloween more wonderfully, then a day excursion into the Domain of Dread, or the 2e fantasy setting better known as Ravenloft!

Ravenloft was first brought into being in a module which features a gothic Vampire Hunt! A mysterious dark and foreboding castle inhabited by a generic Dracula!

A sequel followed, however this Modules was one of the worst pieces of trash that TSR had ever put out. It lacked everything which the former had, but let’s not dwell on the failures of Ravenloft, but on its good side.

The first box set was released for the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, and it was packed full of goodness! A huge map which greatly expanded the Domain of Dread, revealing that the lead character which we know as Straud was just a bit part in this land.

The Boxset contained pictures of some of the buildings in the realm, family portraits of major NPCs and their families, and other cards which were designed to help the DM play a game within its misty borders quicker and more effectively.

It also came with a great booklet which described each of the different domains of the Core, as well as giving a few ideas about how to build your own Isles of Dread! And, much like the original Module which inspired this world, there was a lot of experimentation going on on the part of the writers. THIS was a highly unique product, which not only showed you a brand new realm in which to have adventures, but presented its own, very unique set of rules!

As a teaching tool, this was very different! It taught us how to really modify a world and make it completely unique. Now, not all of these changes were “good”, or useful, this product was originally intended for short, one shot adventures, however it must had just kept growing and growing into a full fledged world by the time that it was all done.

It had it’s own unique effects on spells. Some spells no longer functioned as written, and a player never really knew what would happen if he cast something. This spell list was secret, the players were not supposed to know what changes had taken place, but some of the spells changed were required to keep a party alive! Most horribly effected were the priests spells. In the Domain of Dread, the clerics lost contact with their gods, and it was a mystery of who or what was granting their spells, or why they would change the effects. Healing spells no longer functioned and did terrible things to those who expected to benefit from them. Again, this rule is intended for short one-shots, however with all of the cool domains in Ravenloft, many DM’s wished to run campaigns full-time within the dark borders.

Ravenloft also had a unique look at evil. Evil forces were the norm here, not the exception. For the first time, the forces of good were the minority, while the forces of Evil had the final say in anything. The players were over-whelmed, and if they strayed to the dark alignment, then their bodies would suffer as the forces of Ravenloft consumed them. Evil acts caught the attention of the mysterious forces which ran this place, forever known as “The Dark Forces”. If somebody’s actions caught the attentions of the Dark Forces, then they would be rewarded, yet at the same time cursed terribly. This was strange and a really clunky mechanic at first. Again, this rule was established to add some mystery to one-shot adventures. To me, it also effected how I see evil in the game. Adding a Satanic Master of Evil to the world, as well as overlaying a sense of morality to the environment.

One of the strangest rule changes was the “Fear Check”, of course it became one of the most misunderstood concepts of the game, and all of these rules truly appealed to DM’s who had the nasty habit of being mean to players. Crappy DM’s loved it! It gave them even more power to hold over players who may not have had the option of finding a better Dungeon Master. However, for fair and smart DMs, it gave us a ton of tools which we could incorporate into our games to really get in and challenge ourselves, and our players.

Now, the original Boxset was a thing of beauty. On it’s own, it was full of ideas for adventures centered around ideas instead of hack and slash. The setting was the star, and it catered to role-players, vs. guys sitting around a table rolling dice. Combat was secondary, when it did take place, the encounters were with more powerful monsters, but fewer of them. Instead of fighting an entire horde of orcs, you were pitted against a mastermind, and you had to solve a mystery to uncover your true enemies identity if you hope to win.

Of course this simple concept was destroyed instantly once it got itself in the hands of too many cooks in the kitchen. The very first module presented for the new, expanded Ravenloft was one of the greatest Hack & Slash adventures ever put out by TSR, titled Feast of Goblyns. A two-edged sword right from the get-go.

Feast was definitely NOT a short, one-shot adventure, but so big that it could take months of full-time play to complete it. The setting was wonderful, and the adventure ran well, however it forced the DM to let many of the secret spell effects to slide, as a healer was definitely required company! Later modules also required a healer on call, however in the core book, it crippled them. Not very good planning, and if we overlook this spell mechanic, then why not overlook others?

Feast also started an idea which led into other modules. Those folks at TSR were always figuring out ways to make money with providing inferior products, which was stupid, because as far as Accessories go, Ravenloft had some of the best! The Van Richton Guides were superb, and could be used system neutrally to really flesh out monsters and make them do what you want them to do. Werewolves, Vampires, Ghosts, the series went on and on and featured some of the best writing to ever come out of the TSR sweatshops.

Also released for 1e was a second boxset which was both cool and full of crap. It came with some cool toys, a deck of Tarot Cards and a set of dice which a DM could either use to stack the deck or, if he had a huge set, could use them to dictate the adventures themselves.

The Tarot deck, I apologize, I am writing from memory alone, I can’t recall the exact name of the cards, featured some excellent art, each card having its own unique picture, something that not even most real Tarot Cards have! Even for Tarot Cards, this was a really unique product. I guess that they used them in an issue of Dragon Magazine to present a new cardgame that could be played with them (bah!)

Along with the toys for divination, it came with some little booklets, most of them junk, but a few were cool. Ideas on creating Curses, Straud’s Spellbook full of unique and never before seen spells which, honestly, were crap that only a vampire who wanted to impress people would use. Secret Societies of the realm, and some other book which included modified rules for running psionic characters, which worked excellently for lining birdcages as long as the cover was removed first.

RAVENLOFT 2E

Once the 2^nd Edition books were released, Ravenloft really didn’t need to be edited to suit it. All of the changes which it made to the 1^st edition rules were also easily compatable with the 2^nd Edition, however this didn’t stop TSR from wanting to repackage it to make more money. The Redbox combined the two 1^st edition boxes into one product. You didn’t get the divination dice, but you got the tarot cards. It also removed many of the cards, which made the original box set so cool, but hey, the product was usable!

It was during the Second Edition which much of the work that destroyed the setting took place. Now don’t get me wrong! This is where I personally walked into the hobby. I wouldn’t had started a 2e blog if I didn’t have a deep love and respect for the time period. I discovered the original box set just prior to the release of the red box. It was in the clearance isle and the owner of Dragonslair wanted to clear it out to make way and discounted it heavily. We gamers love our good deals don’t we!

My problem isn’t with the setting, but with the modules. They were horrible! A few were good, it destroyed my game with a problem that I couldn’t put my finger on for years. It gave me big and bad NPCs to play with, and instead of centering the game around the players, I wrote them for NPC’s. BAD BAD BAD!!!!

The original boxset, and the red box are perfect, stand alone products. They are much in the spirit of Greyhawk, were they present nothing but ideas to a DM. This is the world, and it is now in your hands to do with as you will. It had mysteries for the DM to solve, and tons of hints to inspire brand new games and themes. GOOD STUFF!

Many of the Accessories covered topics which just didn’t fit in well with other settings, but could be used to put Vampires that drained blood instead of levels in Dragonlance, Infect players with lycanthropy in Dark Sun, or add a Demon mastermind to Forgotten Realms. The point was that the accessories were about themes and inspired the reader to rethink different aspects of the monsters which they used regularly, and add a sense of class to them which the Monstrous Manual didn’t have the space nor the resources to add.

It also inspired 3 new Monstrous Compendiums, the first being the best, the second being nothing but even more NPCs to drop into your world, and the 3^rd a bunch of high level and very dangerous monsters.

While the accessories were great, other forces were working against it. Modules revolved around either NPC’s or the greatest disaster to ever infect a setting. Again, all of the failures resulted from the original concept of Ravenloft, which was exploration and experimentation, however it didn’t go into directions which were all that entertaining. Again, only a few of them were One-Shot adventures. Most were outright abusive to players, the craziest ideas involved killing them fast and bringing them back. In The Children of Adam, the characters are slain and brought back as Flesh Golems. In the finally to the Grand Conjunction storyline which crushed the Domain of Dread forever, and took it away from the DM, the players were again killed quick and woke up as disembodied heads in the castle of the Demi-lich lord Azalin, where he sent you over and over into the past as you possessed people and witnessed the fall of Straud over and over again until you accomplished the goals set out by the lich in a scene that is a pure nightmare to DM.

Now the theory behind Ravenloft is brilliant. It is without borders, and it expands and grows and drifts in the Astral Plane. New lords are created, and those evil enough join the core, while minor Dark Lords drift in isles and clusters around the core. If a Dark Lord is destroyed, then either the land seeks a new Dark Lord within the domain, or ceases to exist.

This experiment is a success, in my oh so humble opinion. There are areas where you can have straight, balls out Dungeons and Dragons sessions, and there are areas where that are highly specialized to achieve a specific flavor of a game. I literally took different worlds and pieced them together in a way that was a Dungeon Masters dream to work with. A countries neighbors are not just a different language, or culture, but of a different time-period and level of advancement as well. BRILLIANT! How does this effect trade? How does this effect later races from interbreeding? How do higher societies treat neighbors who are so technically different from themselves? It invited wars, the Dark Lords bickered with one another, the people themselves were incredible, and it was fun to figure out how a society like this would function, but the beautiful thing was that the Ravenloft Setting Handbook let you answer these questions and more on your own!

Enter the Nightmare of published adventures purposely altering the map itself, giving the Dark Lords even more power and making them not just Super-NPCs which break games, but also making them indispensable. It also killed Super-NPC’s which maybe you liked, and wanted to explore more?

It gave you so much information that it made the Death of Straud sound like so much fun that it just screamed to be written, however at the same time, it forbid it from ever happening.

You’ve got the grand conjunction which resulted in the destruction of half of the core, a prophesy which started fulfilling itself right from the get-go with Feast of Goblyns, and is present in all of the great Ravenloft Modules, but it goes some place that takes all of the cards away from the DM, and places the winning hands firmly in the grip of TSR. What destroyed Dragonlance began having the same effect on Ravenloft, what with all of the Novels hitting the shelves, and Modules that did nothing but break campaigns.

To me, a module should be able to be laid over the top of what you are doing, to give the DM a break from writing his own material, and the Ravenloft modules made this impossible. They dictated and required too much from the DM. It shatters all plans, and requires so many specific things just to run properly. Many were written badly, or didn’t even bother to disguise the fact that it was a railroad job from hell. They also were hard to run, not only did you have a separate spell list from any other campaign setting, but you also had the weird ideas that might look good on paper, but in the end required much more paperwork on the DM’s part then if he had just written his own material, which in hindsight, I should have!

I think that for ever good idea that Ravenloft had, the horde of cooks in the kitchen present three bad ones, and fans were no better really. Or at least that is what the bigwigs of TSR would have you believe. Folks debated about what is Gothic terror, and if you don’t run it this way then you are doing it wrong and might as well just be running a normal campaign! I suppose that all settings featured a few noisy, obnoxious, pig-headed, elitist fans, after all, tis the nature of the hobby, right? The domain of Darkon, the largest and coolest Domain was wiped out, an experiment which not only killed everybody in the domain, including the PCs, but allowed the PCs to create and come back as forms of Undead Monsters! PC Vampires? Really? Now on the serface, you might be saying COOL! But at the table, and in play, there is a reason why Monsters aren’t Player Characters, once you are identified as such, the amount of games which you can now play are severely limited. How do you challenge a Vampire? Maybe it would make for a fun 1 shot, but again, they put out an entire box set on the subject which destroyed a damned cool lord that many true fans of the setting really didn’t want to lose. It also took all of his history and personality and replaced it with an empty Grim Reaper character with no personality what so ever. Now that might confuse folks who have never played the game. They’re probably saying GOOD! But the Demi-Lich could really inspire more stories then even Straud could! He was an interesting character and an example of just how far you can go with something as basic as a Lich.

ENTER THE GOTHIC EARTH

Getting away from the problems of Core Ravenloft before I suffer total brain failure and fall off my stack of soap boxes, a new experimental project was released, one that was largely ignored at the time but in recent years has become almost a cult hit with players.

This Box Set was WAY before it’s time. It was originally hated because it was so different. What it essentially did was take the rulebook and totally threw it out the window. All of the D&D classes were reworked and redefined, even the list of supplies and mechanics for combat were rewritten to cater to factor in guns.

Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death placed players in the world of Count Dracula, Dr. Jeckle & Mr. Hyde, and Sherlock Holmes, just to name a few. It was a brilliant mix of fiction and history and unlike the core rules of Ravenloft, this setting was kept untouched. A few magnificent Accessories were published to help flesh out the time period, but other then that the box set stands alone. It contained a world map, and a poster with calanders dating from 1890-1899. It contained the Rule book which is complete enough to get a game up and running in an hour or two, and 3 short modules that you can either run or easily modify to fit your personal needs. While it was taunted at the time as ANTI-D&D, today, this is a refreshing and unique kind of game which is honestly ripe with unique possibilities and fresh enough to keep even the most die-hard player guessing and having fun in a totally new way.

THE RETURN TO THE DOMAIN OF DREAD: Death Rattle

Just before the thing wrapped up, the last great Ravenloft book was released. It was a hard-bound titled “Domains of Dread”. This book was a godsend! While it updated the map, the map itself wasn’t published with the book. It was made to replace the boxsets but it failed at this job, the map was unreadable due to it being printed way to dark, and on such a small scale that you really couldn’t do much with it. What changes were made were improvements! The modified spell list was finally altered to one which was more expectable, and would actually function as is. It also added mechanics for Dark Powers checks, as well as improved the mechanics of Fear Checks and Madness Checks in a way which was much clearer then the original incarnation.

It updated all of the Dark Lords, and finally offered pictures and stats for ones that didn’t get much attention before. Besides the map, it made the setting better, and stronger then before, but it also allowed the DM to do something that he’s never been officially allowed to do before, CREATE PC’S WHICH WERE NATIVE TO THE SETTING! Awesome! Why, this almost makes the loss of Darkon forgivable . . . almost, but not quite.

3E, THE COFFIN NAILS

3^rd Edition of Dungeons & Dragons did not interest me. It was too different, and I never was willing to go there. The Setting of Ravenloft did make the jump to the 3^rd edition, however it was never as glorious or as rich as the original 1e box set. It was reduced to a few overpriced pamphlets which gutted the world to cater to the new mechanics.

Overall, Ravenloft as a setting had a good run. It had its ups and its downs. It had its triumphs and its faults, but after all of these years, most of the folks who had the fortune of playing with the system have fond memories of it, I know that I do! For better or for worse, it taught me how to DM, and it has given me a style which I and my players seem to really enjoy. I did have to find its faults to identify my own failings, and attempt to eliminate them . . . well, as I can identify them; but overall I feel that Ravenloft has left me stronger then what I normally would had been had I only played standard AD&D.

9298 RA1 Feast of Goblyns Adventure Review

9298 RA1 Feast of Goblyns was published in January of 1991. It was designed by Blake Mobley and features some excellent cartography by Karen Fonstad. This module was the first to be published for the Ravenloft Campaign Setting, and came with some goodies that probably should had been in the box set, namely an official Ravenloft Character Sheet that you could photocopy, and the card-stock cover was a Ravenloft DM Screen.

While this module sees good reviews, it also has some curious issues, namely the author, Blake Mobley wasn’t one of TSR’s top designers. Ravenloft designer Bruce Nesmith was a busy guy, but his Ravenloft module (9338 RA3 Touch of Death) wouldn’t be published until November. Feast of Gobyns had a lot of work to be done, and to be designated to Mobley, says something. What this something is, I have no idea. Mobley is best known for “The Complete Bard’s Handbook”

The most glaring issue is Goblyns’ inconsistency, while much of it is Gothic Horror, there is a huge section that is notably not, and this thing was play-tested! It was featured and play-tested at The GEN CON®World Fair in Nov-Dec of 1990, which brings to mind more questions than answers. RA1 was clearly in development at roughly the same time as the BlackBox. According to its own description, Ravenloft was designed for short one-shot adventures, and Feast of Goblyns is huge! This is not a one-shot at all. This giant thing will take you a long time, and right out of the gate, it is impossible to play core to Ravenloft because the weird fantasy section is hack and slash. Blake didn’t have access to all of the setting rules when he wrote it. That much is clear. But what also is clear is TSR’s lack of faith in the Ravenloft product, and then they turn around and feature it at GEN CON? Was this influenced by sales? I don’t think so, The Black Box had only been in stores for a couple of months prior to GEN CON. I suspect that it was stuff like this that was driving the TSR employees absolutely crazy. The inside story of Feast of Goblyns is probably more intriguing than the module itself!

The Module: This thing is a mixed bag. It has amazing work, its influence can still be felt at my game today, and it provides information that is core to the setting and that you can’t get from any other product, and this module is absolutely terrible. I’ve never ran into a product like it.

It does a much better job of explaining how the DM can change his behavior to better run gothic horror games, this has carried over to every game that I play, as the mantra is a simple one: Describe the world as your PC’s see it. This module was critical to me learning the art of DMing, even if I never ran the thing as written. Like many 2e era modules, this one definitely over-steps its bounds. It is one of those traps that allow players to “experience events” which increases sales but destroys a new DM’s ideas on what the game is about. If you chop it up, and just use sections for your own purposes, this is an excellent module! If you run it, or attempt to run it, it is an utter failure.

One of the greatest things that it gives you, is the map of a huge inn. This thing can be recycled over and over again, even if it is a forced perspective map (which I detest), it maps a large tavern/ inn that one would find in a large city or along the side of a major road.

Another influence that it has had on my game is the STAT Blocks, it has a great template that I still mimic today, it changes the order of the stats found in the MM so that important info is easier to find fast, yet also contains things that may come up during play, but it is kept out of the way. I am sure that this wasn’t the first time that this specific STAT format was used, but it was the first time that I had seen it. I own lots of modules, and in my opinion, the formula presented in Feast of Goblyns is the best, and the one I use to make my own NPC and monster notes so I don’t have to flip through the MM all game.

MONSTERS

What really sets Ravenloft off from the other settings is the encouragement to modify the monsters, Feast added two good ones; it added a Greater Wolfwere, maxing it out so that it is very formidable, but it also took a monster that was a very interesting choice.

Before we play Dungeons and Dragons, the Goblin is a terrifying monster of legend and lore that has survived all the way up to today, which says something. Adults may not believe in goblins, but children do! Once we play D&D we reevaluate our thinking of goblins, to us they are very minor and low level things, all of the horror has been stripped from them and to a jaded D&D club, just the mentioning of them insight groans and complaints. The D&D goblin is the lowliest of the low level monsters, so I find it interesting that that is exactly where (I presume) Blake Mobley started, which I really like. It took the weakest monster in the DM’s arsenal, and it restored it to the terrible goblins of our youth, and made it once again the nightmare that it once was. Because it gets you thinking about this, and it does a good job of it, it silently encourages the DM to look at all of the monsters in the same light. Many of the creatures that we use predate the game itself, the creators of the game gave them stats, and some of these stats were muted down to challenge low level players, they had become only mechanical things. Giving these monsters a deeper look, and to modify their stats to better reflect their legendary attributes, while considering why our ancestors feared these creatures, and then put them into their own environment, forcing your player characters to enter the world of that monster, in all of its terrible glory! That makes a monster NPC really come alive.

Unfortunately Feast of Goblyns didn’t do that. They took higher powered goblins and put them into your typical D&D goblin environment, and made them somebody else’s stoolie, changing nothing. You’d figure by the title that they would be the centerpiece of the module, but they really aren’t, which is unfortunate. I think that Goblins were a great choice to modify. In many cases we can leave the monster stats alone and improve how we describe them, just because a monster has more hit points and an easier time hitting doesn’t make the creature scarier, it just needs to do what it has to do, and in the case of goblins, their low stats were more of a hindrance and inaccurate to start with.

SUMMARY

Actually rating this thing is tough, on one hand it is amazingly inspiring and contains great material that a DM can use for a very very long time, but as far as its function as a complete game, it falls flat on its face. I believe that much of this module was never intended for this specific product. I think that it was thrown together very quickly using material that had already been completed for other projects that had been canceled. The designer, Blake Mobley was given a pile of fantasy maps and told to make this gothic horror, and he wasn’t given a sufficient deadline to complete the project. The gothic horror stuff is excellent, and stands out. All of the good things give this product a C from me, and that is kind of sad, because it should be higher, yet because of problems, it should also be much lower.

I would recommend this to a new DM, but as a trick. It will give him many suggestions on how to run a game, but it will also prove to the DM that not all modules are even functional as is. It is best to break them apart, dissect them, and know that all modules are full of errors and not worthy of any of the trust that you want to give them. Buy a product, but ~~steal~~ borrow what you want from it for your own games. Feast of Goblyns really helps you develop your critical eye, there is a lot of chaff to be found among the wheat.

For advanced users, this product is awesome, just for the maps alone. Even the fantasy stuff is great if your players found some hole in the wilds and spontaneously choose to go inside. It works! It has lots of potential, and can save you lots of time in building maps that you really don’t want to, and that are interesting and unique. I still use it today! Not for its intended purpose, but I still use it.

Before closing, I do want to make one more quick comment in regards to the DM shield that comes with this product, it is designed for the original Black Box, and can also be used with the Red Box. It can be used while running the updated versions, but not all of the material will be accurate. It is nice if you are just learning the Ravenloft system, and you are a total noob, but it is so limited that I quit using it years ago in favor of the Core AD&D Screen.

I would go cheap on this one. The physical copy ($20-$30) is a nice to have, but since you’ll be ripping it apart anyway, the PDF is just as good. You don’t need the Ravenloft PC Sheets, those are just stupid, as part of the point of running a Ravenloft game is to keep your players in the dark in regards to mechanics, and the PC sheets have some right on them.