CONFIRMED: Ravenloft for 5th Edition

[Jester of the FoS]

My review is up: http://www.5mwd.com/archives/3376

[thepoorman]

Great review! I think I agree basically 100%. I was especially heartbroken at the changes to Strahd's backstory and stat block. Without going in to too many spoilers, it was disappointing that they changed him from being weathered and (in a way) prematurely aged from decades of warfare against the Tergs to being kind of an evil conquering jerk to start.

Mother Night is cool, but changing the Morninglord wounds me to my core.

Baba Lysaga is a very good addition, though. I'm definitely using her somehow. And the Barovian witch-cult is fun.

[alhoon]

My review is up: http://www.5mwd.com/archives/3376

Hmmm...

This is easily, hands down, the best set of dungeons published for 5e, being far more interesting, unique, and evocative than the straight fights of Princes of the Apocalypse.

Bold words. Not sure I'll agree. Out of the Abyss was one of the best ever adventures I've had the luck to read. If CoS tops that... then it would be among the best adventures ever written for D&D in the past 45 years surpassing the original I6 although it goes without the originality that accompanied I6. Out of the Abyss felt absolutely original and magical. Too magical at some places.


About your "ugly" part:

To give a few examples, the ring of choking fog no longer encircles the Village of Barovia but instead the province, and Vistani potions do nothing against the fog. Madame Eva is an entirely different character, and not the Raunie of the Zarovan Vistani (but at least she’s not a hag like in Expedition). There’s no mention of Sturm von Zarovich, the middle child between Strahd and Sergei, and the von Zarovich lineage is dead.

Aside of Madam Eva, I kinda agree with all the changes mentioned there. I reserve judgment on Madame Eva, since I don't know how the new Madame Eva is, but I don't care that she's not stated as a Zarovan anymore. That could always be added later.
As for Morninglord? I never liked the vampire origin as I didn't add Jander in my campaign. I always played Morning lord as an ancient deity.

What I didn't like... was the Strahd changes you mention. That's not Strahd! I liked the original version of the once-noble patriot that had his humanity eroded by war and I would keep it even if it means sacrificing half this adventure. And the dark powers being\having proxies some vestiges you can talk to in a temple??? Noooope. That goes out of the window. If you want to talk to the Dark Powers, you fail till you eventually create a special Zakata friend.
So, while I don't mind most of the changes you mention, these one are kinda deal-breakers for me. Unacceptable. Strahd and the Dark Powers were the core, the heart and soul, of the adventure. The castle? A nice big dungeon around it. Changing Strahd and revealing the Dark Powers (or their secretary vestiges) changes the adventure. Of course, this new adventure is probably as good adventure as you describe, but still, I'll go with the original heart-and-soul of the adventure.

As far as the missing monsters: It's not 15th yet. I bet we will see them by then.

The question burning in my mind though is... are the red dragon guards still there? Not sure how I feel about them. On one part, they're kinda silly. On another part, they're fun.

[Jester of the FoS]

Bold words. Not sure I'll agree. Out of the Abyss was one of the best ever adventures I've had the luck to read. If CoS tops that... then it would be among the best adventures ever written for D&D in the past 45 years surpassing the original I6 although it goes without the originality that accompanied I6. Out of the Abyss felt absolutely original and magical. Too magical at some places.

I loved Out of the Abyss as well. But the crazy characters really make that adventure. If I could only run one, I might pick OotA above Strahd. But I've run I6 a couple times already.

What I didn't like... was the Strahd changes you mention. That's not Strahd! I liked the original version of the once-noble patriot that had his humanity eroded by war and I would keep it even if it means sacrificing half this adventure. And the dark powers being\having proxies some vestiges you can talk to in a temple??? Noooope. That goes out of the window. If you want to talk to the Dark Powers, you fail till you eventually create a special Zakata friend.

There's enough vagueness that you could argue the Powers are mysterious. And it's not really essential to the plot. It'd be easy to ignore the changed Strahd backstory, changed Eva backstory, van Richten acting wildly out of character, and the like.
But we shouldn't have to, which is the issue.

The question burning in my mind though is... are the red dragon guards still there? Not sure how I feel about them. On one part, they're kinda silly. On another part, they're fun.

They're there. Red dragon wyrmlings.
When not in combat, they return to their perch and turn to stone.

[alhoon]

I agree that we shouldn't have to change them. Glad that we can.
And Madame Eva is also mysterious. What I mean is that I want the DP completely untouchable and incomprehensible; not entities that have secretaries you bargain with. You do what you do and they come down hard, dissolving your eyes.

Of course, we could easily say those entities in that temple are NOT the dark powers but different entities whatever the new adventure suggests and that Strahd's murder draw the ire of the Dark powers and he got Barovia. But as you said, we shouldn't HAVE to.
It would be IMO very, very easy for the developers to never clear if those vestiges were the dark powers, or acting on the orders of the Dark Powers or were completely unconnected. Leave it to the DM.

I... kinda have to assume that the Hickmans wanted their personal view of the story prevalent there to keep us in line so to speak.

[alhoon]

http://www.dmsguild.com/product/2478/Ra ... ters=45471

3rd edition Ravenloft core book is for sale again!

Now people can bask on the info there and expand on the 5e material

[Ender]

http://www.dmsguild.com/product/2478/Ra ... ters=45471

3rd edition Ravenloft core book is for sale again!

Now people can bask on the info there and expand on the 5e material

They're selling the 3.0 version... instead of the updated 3.5? Or did they just fail to differentiate when they say 3.0?

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

They're selling the 3.0 version... instead of the updated 3.5? Or did they just fail to differentiate when they say 3.0?

Pretty sure it's 3.0. The 3.5 version has a different name. (Ravenloft Player's Handbook). They might not realize it's 90% the same book.

[Zilfer]

Did most people not have the book?

[alhoon]

Here yes. But that way people interested because of the Curse of Strahd adventure can get into the setting with a kinda-modern system most know.

[Five]

Smart. Now all editions are linked, to cover all generation gameplay.

Bases covered.

[frandelgearslip]

Also this is just the tip of the iceberg. They will almost certainly be adding most of the 3rd edition Ravenloft product line the same as they did for Dragonlance and Gamma World. Over at DriveThruRPG.com the Wizards of the Coast page has added a seperate 3rd edition Ravenloft section (as opposed to the already existing Ravenloft section), which they would not be doing unless there was a lot more releases coming down the pipe.

Also it has been like 10 years since I last posted, but I never forgot Ravenloft.

[alhoon]

WELCOME BACK!

Unfortunately for you, Ravenloft didn't forget you either. No escape from the mists.


Anyway, so we can have the Gazetteers in PDF at last?

[frandelgearslip]

The Gazetteers are the number one thing I want to see. I can live without Champions of Darkness

In the last year they have released both the White Wolf Gamma World line and the Soveriegn Press Dragonlance line. I was beginning to worry that maybe there was contractual problems that was keeping it from being released. I should have known that they were just waiting for the Curse of Strahd to be released.

The entire Gamma World line was released and the vast majority of the Dragonlance line was released (though weirdly not the base Campaign book)

Their releases can be extremely idiosyncratic sometimes, so I would not put it past them to release Gazetteer 4 first, then Gazetteer 2, then Gazetteer 5 and never release Gazetteers 1 and 3. Hopefully they will release all or the vast majority of the line (including all the Gazetteers).

[Jester of the FoS]

http://www.dmsguild.com/product/2478/Ra ... ters=45471

3rd edition Ravenloft core book is for sale again!

Now people can bask on the info there and expand on the 5e material

They're selling the 3.0 version... instead of the updated 3.5? Or did they just fail to differentiate when they say 3.0?

The 3.0.
I guess they're going in order.