Café de Nuit

So, Alhoon has got it right!

The Curse of Strahd will be available March 15th! Wondrous news! Tracy and Laura Hickman will be involved in its production!

http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.ph ... pr-ZzaJWJo

"All of you come to the game with 4 or 5 character sheets each. You'll need them all."

Is Ravenloft in the Feywild or a self contained demiplane in 5E? I hate what they did to RL in 4E.

Rucht Lilavivat wrote:The Curse of Strahd will be available March 15th! Wondrous news! Tracy and Laura Hickman will be involved in its production!

WOW! That's ... that's very good news. Of course because it will be Ravenloft but also because T&L Hickman return at least to a degree, to WotC. If D&D next brings back the talented people that sailed elsewhere but to D&D it's a great gain for everyone.

Given the recent (Out of the Abyss) quality of D&D stories, I'm optimistic about it.

Rucht Lilavivat wrote:So, Alhoon has got it right!

Ahem, you mean, alhoon thankfully got it wrong... I thought it would be giants.

Could be promising, but I am not holding my breath; the Hickmans did one great module (I 6), and one so-so module (I 10). The Ravenloft we know and love is Bruce Nesmith's and William W. Connors' baby; not to speak about the owners of that suspicious little bookstore in Valaki.

- Not to sound like the usual internet nerds, who tend highly critical of others, but poorly productive by themselves. One has to ask, though, what exactly the Hickmans are supposed to bring to the table. There are designers active in the field that have worked extensively with modern Ravenloft, and with FR. Why not hire one of them? - P. N. Elrod is still writing, Nesmith is probably the highest-paid ex-TSR designer still in the industry. Bruce Cordell is around, even Andria Hayday and James Lowder are still working. Each of them might have been a better choice than the Hickmans, at least on paper. - And that's just naming a few of the 2e designers.

This news feel a bit like when your grandparents tell you that they're going to buy your prom dress for you: Whatever they come up with, it will always have *that* special place in your wardrobe.

Don't be a cynic Raf!
And the Hickmans are involved, they're not the ones writing the module.

tomokaicho wrote:Is Ravenloft in the Feywild or a self contained demiplane in 5E? I hate what they did to RL in 4E.

Nobody knows yet. But (based on previous 5E adventures) it will probably be divorced from the campaign world and will instead be a Shadowfell reflection of a Forgotten Realms location.

Andria Hayday has long since moved on from writing role-playing products. I wish she could be involved. That would be amazing.

Alhoon's comment about Tracy and Laura Hickman is right, though. When people say that so-and-so is "involved" it means that they will be likely coming up with the basic story and outline. Other folks will be coming up with the mechanics, hardcore design, etc.

As to which folks will be doing that, I would suspect it would be some of the current WotC designers. That's how things of this nature are done. You keep the people in-house and paying the rent.

The recent 5th Edition D&D adventures have been pretty good, so I have real hopes for this one.

Do we know whether this is another rehash of I6? If so that would explain the Hickmans involvement

edit: I just posted on his fb page asking if he can talk about it so we'll see

Ha Ha! Time For Happening!

I wouldn't get too excited too early, though. It could end up like "Expedition to Castle Ravenloft" which was only very, very loosely tied to the Ravenloft campaign setting.

Actually, I'm incredibly excited to hear this news, especially that the Hickmans will be involved. Perhaps they are weighing in on Strand's motivations, theoretical goals for what the story is that the writers devise, etc. There are too many things that they could be adding insight and feedback on to just guess. I think they want to make sure that the original designers are weighing in to be sure that the original spirit (no pun intended) and feel of Ravenloft is done justice.

This year's GenCon will find me with my copy to ask them to sign for me. I also hope that I can meet a few of you there this year, too!

tomokaicho wrote:Is Ravenloft in the Feywild or a self contained demiplane in 5E? I hate what they did to RL in 4E.

Ravenloft is still in the Shadowfell like in 4e, but it's defined more as a sub-plane of that. So it's moved from being a demiplane in the deep ethereal to a demiplane in the Shadowfell.

Dion of the Fraternity wrote:

tomokaicho wrote:Is Ravenloft in the Feywild or a self contained demiplane in 5E? I hate what they did to RL in 4E.

Nobody knows yet. But (based on previous 5E adventures) it will probably be divorced from the campaign world and will instead be a Shadowfell reflection of a Forgotten Realms location.

I think it'll be just that the PCs will be mistnapped from FR...

I'm interested in what happens as well. Another Tarrokka deck!?!??! o.o'

If you want to know what the format will be like, I think you can look at the Tyranny of Dragons series of adventures from D&D. It's not just Expedition to Tiamat. It's a series of adventures. They've seen that that works for Paizo and they are emulating that format.

So, we'll see a wide-range of things the PCs will be doing. My bet is that it will culminate in a foray into Castle Ravenloft.