Which are your 3 favourite adventures/accessories/novels etc

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Which are your favourite adventure modules, articles or accessories from 2e, 3e, 4e (I know there are a few) 5e (well there aren't many are they?)
Pick 3.

Boxed sets/ Accessories
My all-time favourite is Castles Forlorn boxed set (also for sentimental reasons since it was the first Ravenloft product I bought after the Ral Partha Denizens of Darkness minature box set, I was in the modeling hobbie before playing AD&D). I still remember reading the darklords tragic story many times at night, and love the Goblyn culture.

Then the Gazetteer series was really good, I liked the "historical" info in them and description of the various cultures. I have to say I am between Gazetteer I (with the fleshing out of Hazlan, Kartakass realy good adaptation of Forlorn and of course Barovia) and Gazetteer IV: Borca (nicely done), Invidia (had already been detailed in Evil Eye), Verbrek (at last some info), Valachan (nice inclusions of the Dungeon Magazine adventures), and Sithicus (some really useful info on the changes of the domain). But Number 1 wins cause there is not one single information I 've found there that I don't like. Love the Terg history it fleshes out the domain a lot having more information on it's past and I like the false? connection between the Tergs and Gundarakites. The stories of Kartakass grandfather wolf story suits the domain as well as all the information given. Hazlan at last is described thoroughly and like the whole Eastern/ Ottoman design of the domain with its many aberration mysteries. Forlorn one of my all time favourite boxed sets gets a very good adaptation like the information on it's forests and the way the darklords story is being desribed by the druids, giving hints but not too much. And they continued the local character development in a very creative way compared with Domains of Dread which set the base for this.

Last but not least I would say Realms of Terror Box set (it set everything in the setting I love, domains, darklords, great maps of the various houses of darklords, great images by Stephen Fabian) if it had the secret societies from Forbidden Lore it would have been a powerful combo.

Favourite adventures:
Evil Eye (it set a lot of "ground rules" of how a good adventure is being laid out, and the event's described changed the setting in a very creative way.

I6 Ravenloft (started everything no more comments)

Adam's Wrath (interesting senario were the PC's go around most notable places in the domain, I really like Adam's lair, though it had it's mistakes. Speaking of mistakes if Feast of Goblyns was a bit better written in some parts (especially the begining of the plot) it would have taken this place, competing with House on Gryphon Hill which is nicely laid as an idea but need serious reworking. I had wished previously that it would be rewritten for 5e but after VRGtR I' d rather not, who knows what could happen then maybe they would clone everyone as they did with Jander...

Normaly I would had placed Roots of Evil since I like the plot a lot but I didn't like the high fantasy lair of Azalin so much, so many things have no reason to be there. But I just love that jackal-headed demon and his frustration.


Favourite Novels:
I, Strahd. Memoirs of a Vampire (I really enjoyed Strahd's perspective)

Scholar of Decay (I really liked how the vanity of the darlord is portraid and the whole culture of the domain, on all levels of "society")

Spectre of the Black Rose ( I was an old time fan of as he was my favourite NPC when I started playing AD&D, but the book describes very nicely both Invidia and Sithicus. Didn't know what to expect in the end, the Bloody Gobbler and Whispering Beast were really nysterious, they will be missed)

Favourite Dungeon adventures:
Cat of Felkovic (set some ground rules for Valachan though in the pictures the commoners are white and all the badies not, fortunatelly they set that mistake straight in later editions and we get to see Castle Pantara, plus a possible death of a darklord for those ignorant fools out there, who believe that all darklords are unbitable

Horror's Harvest (very interesting adventure, though lacking the authoritariarism of Falkovnia, but this makes it more interesting as since it is a clue that someyhing is off)

Fair Barovia from Dungeon Magazine #207 (reminiscent of the encounter with Leo in I,Strahd)

Favourite Dragon article:
Van Richten's Legacy: The Cult of Simon Audaire from Dragon Magazine #264. (very original)

The Life of Soth from Dragon Magazine #416 (very good article especially for those who haven't read the dragonlance campaign setting books or novels, has also the song that his entourage of banshees sing, though I don't know if it had appeared before. This is very useful as it can be changed as to show the forgetfulness or frustration of the darklord as he is reminded that he is not home.)

Domains of Dread: The Endless Road from Dungeon Magazine #174 (though this is a Dungeon magazine article it looks more like a Dragon Magazine article since there is no adventure there. The story of the Headless Horseman finally revealed and makes more sense now than just some horseman who lost his head and his spirit haunts the roads of Ravenloft as it was in the Darklord accessory. Probably the best article from Ravenloft 4e.

Land of Spectres from Dragon Magazine #258 goes with Ravenloft: The Shadows of Sithicus from Dragon Magazine #351 (the first describing the characters from Spectre of the Black Rose the other showing the changes later appearing in the Gazetteer series).

[FiranDarcalus]

This is a fun topic Mephisto:

Accessory/boxed sets:

Red Box (that's what started things off for me in Ravenloft), Death of Van Richten (just loved that set so much.....though I realize that it an adventure technically), Gazetteers (specifically Gaz 3 & 4)

Adventures:

Chilling Tales (have really fun memories playing through those adventures w/ my friends), Death Triumphant (same as last one...not a great adventure, but good memories, esp when we woke up in Il Aluk and realized the adventure was continuing and we, along w/ everything else in the city, were undead now.....was really cool moment), Evil Eye (prob the best Ravenloft adventure written)

Novels:

Vampire of the Mists (not going to lie, I get teary eyed still when I read that book), Knight of the Black Rose & Spectre of the Black Rose (I just love me some Soth)

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

Boxed Set:

The Black Box. I was only 15-16 when I got it (so 97-98?) and I fell in love with the setting immediately. It was so far removed from what D&D had been to me up until that point. The artwork was great, the way it made the setting feel unique with powers checks and spell alterations was so new to me, and the Darklords were so interesting.

Adventure:

A toss up between When Black Roses Bloom or The Evil Eye. I love Lord Soth and he’s one of my favourite NPCs in all D&D. And WBRB is a nice way to explore his past whilst making it fresh. But TEE introduces Malocchio, utilises the domain well, has a great hook and a great story and is flexible on how you want to run it.

Novel:

Despite Soth being one of my favourites, and KotBR and SotBR both being great books, my favourite Ravenloft novel is Scholar of Decay. It strikes the right tone between horror and comedy, crosses into camp just enough to entertain but not overbear, and fleshes out Jacqueline and Louise enough that you get as much a handle on them as if you read it in a sourcebook. It adds so much flavour and detail to Richemulot and the Reniers, but in a way where it shows you how deadly their games are, instead of telling you. This is the Richemulot of my Ravenloft, not the Becoming Plague (which I never liked).

[Mephisto of the FoS]

This is a fun topic Mephisto

Thanks and if I may add...

Favourite characters from the Ravenloft Monstrous Compedium II:

VIEW CONTENT:

(very good villain and background)

Jacquellne Montarri (I just like her so much, her collection too, just wished there was an adventure with her. Also liked her in To Sleep with Evil)

Vladimir Ludzig (great addition to the world giving a kind of the daywalker Blade movie flavour to the setting. I like his background and his "houses")

Nostalia Romaine (Although I said three I couldn't resist placing her, I like the story with Camille...)

[Mephisto of the FoS]

This is the Richemulot of my Ravenloft, not the Becoming Plague (which I never liked).

I agree, and don't forget the rat slippers...

And WBRB is a nice way to explore his past whilst making it fresh.

It was my next in the list for the same reasons, but unfortunatelly when I played it I hadn't fleshed out the travels in the mirrors so much. I had no info on the events themselves described therein then and it seemed more like stepping in doing something then getting out instead of obstructing Soth reliving those event's. If I did it now I would keep the PC's longer in the mirrors especially after reading the Dragonlance comics and... watching that awful Dragonlance animation Dragons of Autumn Twilight.

Also the picture of Nedragaard Keep in the module is wrong showing The Tower of the High Clerist. In WtBRB the keep is intact as it probably was before the cataclysm.

"At the heart of Lord Soth's domain of Sithicus is an imperfect copy of the stronghold Soth occupied on the world of Krynn- a keep carved from a mountain peakwhose tampering slopes resemble a rosebud."

The correct one can be found in The Atlas of the Dragonlance World accessory. Nedragaard Keep may mean "not Dragaard Keep" but it doesn't mean it is a totally different building from that setting. The floor plans of Darggard Keep and the keep itself ca be found in the 1e edition adventure DL 16 World of Krynn (TSR#9237) and it is around the same size and general design but the whole layout of the rooms is different, as it should be.

"Soth soon dicovered that the keep was filled with discrepancies that made it subtly different from his original stronghold. Doors were out of place, corridors were shorter or longer than they should be, spiral staircases wound in the wrong direction, and windows gave a slightly different view of the chasm in which the keep was situated. Thus, Soth gave the place the name Nedragaard- not Dargaard in the ancient Solamnic tongue."

In Dargaard Kepp Soth's throne room is behind the massive double doors in the ground level facing drawbridge and is accessed through the courtyard.
In Nedraagard Keep his throne room is in level 5 of the castle.

https://dlcr.forumotion.net/t338-dargaard-keep

[brothersale]

Boxed sets/ Accessories
1. Domains of Dread - still use it now to check details with domains that could not be in the 3rd ed
2. Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume II - Darkon is usually my go to for a start position for new players
3. tricky but i would have to go for Van Richten's guide to Shadow Fey (if they were all in one volume, i'd pick that) as its the most unique of the set

Favourite adventures:
1. Vecna Reborn - i just love that twist at the end with the child's smile - is it Venca, isn't Venca, just great
2. Neither Man Nor Beast - an oldly but a good one and one of the earliest i purchased
3. Children of the Night: Ghosts - to be honest it was a toss up between this one on Evil Eye, but i realised i use this one much more

Favourite Novels:
1. King of the Dead - got to give it to Azalin, its just enraling to see his damantion unfold
2. Tales of Ravenloft - this was the first one i read, and my start into the mists
3. Black Crusade - the last of the novels and one of the most intriging as it does keep you guess to the end as to who will be the darklod

Favourite Dungeon adventures:
1. Last Dance - dancing corpse
2. The Baron's Eyrie - nice little diversion and handy for moving players
3. The House on the Edge of Midnight - some intresting monsters and a ne addition to the sea of sorrows

Favourite Dragon article:
1. Land of Spectres - the build up to Soth's departure by James Lowder
2. Villains of Gothic Earth - while i don't normally play MotRD, these foes are so easily transportable to the Demiplane its just a smorgasbord of foes to use
3. Interview of the Lost Boys in the Dark Shadows of Ravenloft - its Nodwich need i say more

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Boxed sets/ Accessories:
The Black Box - The one that started it all, for me. I hadn't been exposed to I6 or I10, but this weird world grabbed me immediately. The idea that the bad guys of a D&D campaign could be real characters with real motivations and not just sacks of HP to be beaten broke my teen-aged mind.

The Nightmare Lands - It's got tons of flaws, but the idea of taking adventures into a whole other dimension really resonated with me, and the characters introduced here are delightfully creepy and mysterious.

Gazetteer I - Set the bar for the series to follow. Fulfilled the promise raised by Domains of Dread to make the demiplane a real world worth living in and saving. Expertly wove together years of continuity and easter eggs, along with new hooks and threads.

adventures:
The Evil Eye - again, redefined what D&D could be for me. Not a dungeon or a dragon to be seen. Creepy moments, great characters, epic stuff happening behind the scenes. Was a Gazetteer for Karina before we had Gazetteers.

Feast of Goblyns - again, it's a Gaz before there were Gaz's. A deep dive into Kartakass, and some really memorable and creepy scenes, even if the plot needs some work and the dungeon crawl parts are too long and weird.

Pity the Child - from Children of the Night: Ghosts. Really, this is just a representative of all the fantastic mini-modules in the CotN series. I love so many of them, and they are the perfect size to fit in a campaign without bogging things down forever. But I am partial to this one, as I used it as a springboard to start my long-running campaign, so it has a special place in my heart.

Novels:
I, Strahd - fantastic. Really gets in the head of Strahd and makes you love to hate him and hate to love him.

Vampire of the Mists - the flip side of I, Strahd. Strahd as seen from the outside, as the monster he is. Classic side characters, including Jander, of course. I don't hesitate to recommend this one, even to non-D&D fans.

Tales of Ravenloft - cop out answer, maybe. But I find horror really shines in the short story format, and we got so many little glimpses into the world here.

Dungeon adventures:
Ghost of Mistmoor - Ravenloft before Ravenloft, even the author said so. I ran this a few times and loved it each time.

Bane of the Shadowborn - I'm a sucker for all things Shadowlands, and this one really fleshes out the Shadowborn story, especially in concert with the novel.

Horror's Harvest - yup, it's the easy answer, and it's a good one. Just never really understood why Falkovnia. Seemed like someone threw a dart at a map of the core to place it.

Dragon article:
tough choice here. none of them made much of an impression on me. They were... fine... but I don't recall any standouts. I guess:
Heinfroth's Manual of Methods, because I love Dr. Dominiani
Arcane Lore: Tomes of Forbidden Lore, as the source for "The Revelation of the Prince of Twilight", which is super-creepy.
The Mind of the Vampire, because I love monster psychology.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

The idea that the bad guys of a D&D campaign could be real characters with real motivations and not just sacks of HP to be beaten broke my teen-aged mind.

I know what you mean before buying products to start DMing it was most hack-n'-slash for me.

The Nightmare Lands - It's got tons of flaws, but the idea of taking adventures into a whole other dimension really resonated with me, and the characters introduced here are delightfully creepy and mysterious.

Yes it was interesting as to see what was happening in that psychedelic mapped domain (Red Box map of NL) and the characters are interesting. Since I haven't played it yet what are the flaws? are they in game mechanics?

Feast of Goblyns - again, it's a Gaz before there were Gaz's. A deep dive into Kartakass, and some really memorable and creepy scenes, even if the plot needs some work and the dungeon crawl parts are too long and weird.

Yes it would be in my list if it wasn't for those mistakes. Still some of my favourite artwork is in there although mixed badly in designing the book and appear in pages of the book without any context. I remember seeing the cover of it in my local gamestore but never bought it then (I was still buying only miniatures then), when I decided to buy it was out of stock. Although I bought a photocopy of it in the early 90's from an add and played it in the mid-90's, I also bought the original a few years later from e-bay, since I liked it so much. But there was no poster included
Also besides the work that as you already mentioned needs, the ziggurat was a bit out of place and the 180 skeletons (or better tons of skeletons) attacking the group if

VIEW CONTENT:

-that- happened

Well it happened in my campaign and we spent a session for the battle, but the PC's had a good strategy and destroyed them all (it was 2e). Also not many goblyns in it (one of my favourite Ravenloft monters).

Horror's Harvest - yup, it's the easy answer, and it's a good one. Just never really understood why Falkovnia. Seemed like someone threw a dart at a map of the core to place it.

Somewhere in this forum I read and wrote it in a previous post, that "ubnormal" for Falkovnian standards behaviour of the villagers could give clues of what is really going on.

Arcane Lore: Tomes of Forbidden Lore, as the source for "The Revelation of the Prince of Twilight", which is super-creepy.

Yes that could bet in my list only by having that book (which I ' ve already used in my last years article), so I guess it takes the position of The Endless Lonesome Road domain (but only because it was in Dungeon Magazine and not Dragon

The Mind of the Vampire, because I love monster psychology.

Also predating VRGtVampires

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Domains of Dread - still use it now to check details with domains that could not be in the 3rd ed

Yes and there are many small details that where interesting, my upcoming article in QtR on Falkovnia was inspired by one of these

Neither Man Nor Beast - an oldly but a good one and one of the earliest i purchased

Also a good adventure I really like the interior of Dr. Fran's bungalow hut villa first apearing in the Black Box, with many great details as the maps of other places uknown to the Domains of Dread. Speaking of maps really nice map and the whole Order of the Guardians situation really good.

"Dios-amblet! Dios-amblet! Dios-amblet!"

King of the Dead - got to give it to Azalin, its just enraling to see his damantion unfold

Yes I liked this whole concept and Irik being both his brother and later naming his son like that aswell, guilt issues...

Black Crusade - the last of the novels and one of the most intriging as it does keep you guess to the end as to who will be the darklod

Don't have it...

Last Dance - dancing corpse

Was also almost in my list but didn't make it because of fat-shaming Madame Araby Tuvache, describing her as a cannonbal and her name ending as cow "vache" sounds a bit... I don't know maybe I am projecting here the meaning of the name Tuvache "Ruler, Good Person, Influencer", could mean that she may be an influencer for fat punks...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPp75K3ViyQ

[brothersale]

Black Crusade - the last of the novels and one of the most intriging as it does keep you guess to the end as to who will be the darklod

Don't have it...

https://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/BlackCrusade.pdf It was released for free at the end of the last attempt to republish the novel line, it only exists in a digital format.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

The Nightmare Lands - It's got tons of flaws, but the idea of taking adventures into a whole other dimension really resonated with me, and the characters introduced here are delightfully creepy and mysterious.

Yes it was interesting as to see what was happening in that psychedelic mapped domain (Red Box map of NL) and the characters are interesting. Since I haven't played it yet what are the flaws? are they in game mechanics?

Well, if I recall the mechanics weren't the greatest, though that hardly matters to me now since I don't see myself going back to 2e. The included adventures/adventure sketches were good ideas, but not executed all that well. They could have been fleshed out more, and been less railroady. I'm not going to get deep into the portrayal of the Abbers, but there have been complaints about it over the years. I thought just having aboriginal cultures portrayed at all was a big step forward at the time, though looking back, I can see how they could be hitting on stereotypes that real Native Americans or Australian aboriginal people might find offensive. In any case, the product had a lot of creativity, pushed the boundaries of the system and the setting, and inspired a lot of ideas for me, and for that I can forgive a lot.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

https://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/BlackCrusade.pdf It was released for free at the end of the last attempt to republish the novel line, it only exists in a digital format.

Thanks for the book!

[alhoon]

Hard pressed here, but I would go with War against Azalin for favorite book. Gaz II or Gaz III for favorite supplement.

[Charlatan]

FAVORITE BOXED SETS/ACCESORIES

1) Van Richten's Guide to [inset monster name here] They add so damn much to their subject matter, having glorious levels of in-universe 'fluff' to immerse you into the sunject/setting. In order of 'favoriteness', I'd say... Golems, Werebeasts, Ghosts, Mummies, Vampires, Demons, Vistani

2) Ravenloft: Realms of Terror (aka The Black Box) I don't know if I need to say more, but will say this: while the Red box and Domains of Dread hardcover were technical advancements, they also replaced mystery and flexibility with static systems (curses, Dark Powers checks, horror checks)

3) Masque of the Red Death: Terror in the 1890s Essentially an entirely new setting- if you count that (almost) Real World as 'new'

FAVORITE ADVENTURES

1) Bleak House: The Death of Rudolph Van Richten An epic end to Ravenloft's greatest hero

2) Howls in the Night Was never much of an 'adventure' collector/reader. This one is short and sweet, and has a good gimmick IMO- four different possible paths.

3) the various Children of the Night : [inset monster name here] mini adventures. Well, some of them. Again, was not that much into the adventures of Ravenloft.

FAVORITE NOVELS

1) Vampire of the Mists Where things started, and remains a very strong entry to this day.

2) The Enemy Within As non-canon as it is, it's still arguably the best version of Tristan/Malken. Christie Golden's last few Warcraft novels have left me cold, but her early Ravenloft work was running on all cylinders.

3) Scholar of Decay Am pleasantly surprised to see this Dark Horse Contender on so many other people's lists. Personally I think it's because even the minor characters get good characterizations. The Darklord is, surprise! NOT the villain

-I never read Dungeon Magazine-

FAVORITE DRAGON MAGAZINE ARTICLES

1) Vampires, A to Z

2) Villains of Gothic Earth

3) Mysterious Cities

[Gautsu]

This is a hard decision to make. So I am going to cheat

Acessories:
1) The Black Box- barring I6, the O.G. I wish it had less handouts, but I remember the maps, the hand-outs, and the books all being of high quality. I think the red box was better overall, but this was what got me off to the races

2) The Gazeteers- I hadn't heard that Ravenloft was being revived for 3rd Edition. I remember walking into the PX in Mannheim and seeing a Ravenloft book being published for 3rd edition. I bought Gaz 2 and took it home, ordered 1 the next day, and pre-ordered the rest. What I hold to be the exemplars of setting books.

3) Darklords and Islands of Terror- I don't know why but these two books are linked intricately together in my mind. And while both have their share of duds, the highs definitely outweigh the lows. I never ran an adventure in Saragoss , Scaena, or the Wildlands, but I still have them on my bucket list

Adventures:
1) The Book of Crypts- it was the first Ravenloft product I bought. It is a horrible Ravenloft adventure (IMO) because most of the short adventures boil down to dungeon crawls. But plucking the good from the bad worked wonders in my last campaign I ran; Cpt. Alec Rapacion was the military commander of the group from Feast of Goblyns up until Blood on Moondale. The introductory adventure with Victor Mordenheim was my introduction to Ravenloft at the tender age of 12, which is why to me he still is the Darklord of Lamordia. Incidentally, because of the nostalgia with this, the section on Liffe in the Nocturnal Sea Gazeteer ranks right up there with the Arthas gaz's

2) The Evil Eye- just really well written.

3) Dark of the Moon- kind of an outlier, since I never see this on anyone's favorite lists. Vorostokov was something different, Gregor was something different, and my player's loved(hated) having to survive not just werewolves, but the weather and landscape as well. During the portion when the party gets captured and released naked to escape from the werewolves, our mages managed to escape. They had almost no offensive spells, but combining fly and invisibility lead to a daring rescue of their compatriots, and one of my player's struck up a romance with Mikhail Zolnik, so he traveled with them after defeating Gregor

Novels:
1) Carnival of Fear- quite possibly the least "Ravenloft" early novel by the world's rules (Darklord, Curse, borders, etc.) but one that stuck with me afterwords much longer than many others. Carnivals since then (both in Ravenloft and outside) have possibly been overrepresented in horror, but at the time of reading this all I could think of besides this was "Something Wicked this Way Comes". Also, sad and melancholic which I love

2) Tales of Ravenloft- really nice job of picking a lot of variety in the anthology book. Some were really creepy, possibly more so than any of the full novels

3) Heart of Midnight- I like Vampire in the Mists better overall, and Dance of the Dead ended up surprising me with how well it was. I have never liked Lord Soth and Knight of the Black Rose didn't do anything to improve my opinion of him. Heart of Midnight would have been my second lowest ranked out of the first four books, until the ending. Casamir turning human at the end added all kind of pathos and implications that turned something okay, into something I really enjoyed

I don't really ever remember any specific Dragon articles

Dungeon Adventures:
1)Horror's Harvest- awesome adventure. The mages from Dark of the Moon had failed a couple of power checks by now. The radiation caused them to go insance and kidnap the party rogue who was the only one who knew where the doppleganger plant was growing. Having half your party have to stop the sacrifice of a member by other members when the podlings were trying to pick them off guerilla style was awesome. As was having Falkovnians acting relatively "normal" being the clue that something was going on.

2) The Price of Revenge- another great adventure. I guess I like adventures in winter settings. The town on Ungrad was distinct and I liked as a reviewer said how it was integrated into the Gazeteer

3) Felkovic's Cat- combine this with Price of Revenge and you have a lot of information on Valachan, one of my favorite domains.

Definitely hard to choose for some of these. Top 5 would have been easier. Thankfully, Ravenloft has had a plethora of good stuff. Favorite Netbooks would have been really hard to do