Stringing Together Old Modules

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Keith Senkowski
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Stringing Together Old Modules

Post by Keith Senkowski »

Hi,

I'm looking to run a short Ravenloft campaign (6 to 8 sessions) and was thinking of stringing together a few of the old modules together. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on which ones flow together nicely (without having to always use the mists to wisk people to new locations), which ones are great period and which ones are real dogs.

Thanks,
Keith
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Post by Kel-nage »

I'm doing something similar right now, but I have no problem with using the mists to move around my players.

If it wasn't so short, I'd say running the Grand Conjunction, seeing as you can get them all for free from the Wizard's site, would be your best bet, however, to use them together you would need to use the mists for each one.

Why so afraid of the mists? (Apart from the obvious reasons, of course...)
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Post by Keith Senkowski »

Hi Kel-nage,

The idea of the mists really just annoy my players and I understand why. It is a kinda deus ex machina sort of thing. They have no problem with it introducing the manor house on the hill that wasn't there a moment before, but the notion that traveling into it might wisk them from a renaissance type domain to the desert just doesn't sit well.

I heard the Grand Conjunction was really just a standard fantasy quest dressed up in Ravenloft clothes. What about those adventures are all gothic horror-ish?

Thanks
Keith
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Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Check out the reviews in the Drawing Room section of this site. That should help you seperate the good from the bad somewhat.

None of the adventures really flow together except for From the Shadows which leads directly to Roots of Evil. And there's Shadow of the Knife as a sequel to Hour of the Knife, but it's 13 years later. There are some connections to the mini adventures, such as Emil Bollenbach showing up in Chilling Tales (or was it Book of Crypts?), CotN:Vampires, and CotN: Created. But it could be pretty boring just chasing after Emil and his latest creation.

The trick I use is splicing my own adventures between the modules to lead from one to the next. If you don't want to do that, you'll at least need a hook to pull them from one adventure to the next. If you want to avoid over-using the mists (which I agree with), it's best to do it geographicly. When Black roses Bloom (Sithicus) can lead to The Evil Eye (Invidia) to Barovia for I6, to Forlorn for Castles Forlorn, which can lead back through time, to Kartakass for Feast of Goblyns, etc. (Just as a quick example from my head).

The GC campaign is not really linked together as much as it could be. It's spread out across the whole world, and aside from the prophecy, there's nothing linking them. They also vary wildly in quality. NotWD is almost universally loved. FoG is great in my opinion, but needs a lot of modification too. SoH has some great stuff in the begining, but an inexplicable dungeon crawl at the end. ToD bored me enough that I don't remember much, but it had a lot of dungeon crawl, IIRC. If you're into Egyptian mummy horror, I suppose it's ok. FtS has an entertaining opening with time-travel to THE wedding that started it all, but after that, a huge dungeon crawl, with little motivation. RoE puts the PC's as spectators for the Clash of the Titans, running around retrieving objects and putting them in the right place at the right time.

Two of them take place in Islands of Terror, so you're almost forced to use the mists. The ship in Ship of Horror could dock in Sourange at the end of Notwd and bring you to the core. Then you've got to get off Graben island, to landlocked Katakass (all the way in the south Core), and then to Darkon (all the way in the north Core). (although the official openning of FtS helps there, since you could put the Headless Horseman in Kartakass. And that's if you don't mind changing the order of the Hexad.


Other options besides mist-snatching include: running one or more adventures in Scaena (I did this and the players loved the concept objectively, but were pissed on behalf of their characters), or using Carnival or the Vistani to mist-travel.
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Post by Rotipher of the FoS »

Instead of linking the adventures, themselves, together, you could create a running theme for the campaign which takes the PCs from one domain to the next, getting them involved in "local trouble" along the way, but always with an overarching goal in sight. The PCs might be pursuing an NPC or monster across the Land of Mists -- could be an established non-darklord like the Gentleman Caller, or a character created solely for your own campaign -- who leads them into all sorts of perilous regions in an attempt to shake them off his or her trail. The Eberron setting's materials do this a LOT, with PCs chasing down fugitives, stolen property, kidnap victims, etc.; that semi-decent TV show "Supernatural" does too.
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Post by artent »

well NotWD takes place in swampland as does Howls in the night. Though they officially take place in different domains it wouldn't require much tweaking to move the westcots to souragne. It also helps that both adventures are close to the same lvl and pretty fun.
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Post by Fido »

My group used more than 15 (fifteen) sessions to play Feast of Goblyns. *nods*

I did expand it a little, but not thát much.



If you play it slowly, one or two of them will give you enough for a whole campaign :)
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