Ravenloft Campaign Setting (Box)

This page is for the 2nd Edition "Red Box" revised Campaign Setting. It is the first version of the campaign setting following the Grand Conjunction.

Product Information

• Authors: Bruce Nesmith with Andria Hayday and William W. Connors
• Type: Campaign Setting
• Format: Boxed Set
• Release date: 1994

Contents

Basically a reprint of the Black Box - post Grand Conjunction - and Forbidden Lore boxed sets: Realm of Terror: a 160-page book of rules containing the reshaping of character classes; fear, horror, and madness, and powers checks; curses; spells and magical items, both new and old; psionics; techniques of terror; and more.

• Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Domains and Denizens: a 128-page book describing the dark lands of the Core, the islands of terror, and many nefarious personages.
  • Ravenloft Campaign Setting: Realm of Terror-
• Two Maps: Depicting the reshaped Core domains and the islands of terror.
• A Poster: featuring a painting by artist Robh Ruppel.
• A Tarokka Deck: Beautifully illustrated cards for role-playing fortunetelling.
• A DM Screen: Designed to be used with a RAVENLOFT campaign.

Notes

JWM noted on the Kargatane site that 'a minor error slipped into the Tarokka cards for this printing: the artwork on the 8 and 9 of Stars got switched'

David Wise, Kargat Chief at the time, said on the Kargatane site:

"Some have asked how the TSR Kargat decided which domains to eliminate from the Core after the Grand Conjunction. There were two main criteria. The first was purely ecological: We felt that the Core should be more consistent from a natural point of view. Thus, Bluetspur, with its sunless landscape, was too foreign to share space with the Core. Similarly, the formless Nightmare Lands needed their own place to be terrifying, and G'Henna was too barren to rest within the lush countryside around it. Markovia, inspired by the Island of Dr. Moreau, seemed to logically belong in the Sea of Sorrows, and its absence from the Core helped to create the very-cool Shadow Rift. In a related decision, the Kargat judged drow too foreign to the tone of the setting, as are dragons, so Arak became a part of the avaricious lord Azalin's domain (and the drow were discovered to actually be shadow elves and denizens of the new Shadow Rift).

Our second consideration was of the darklords themselves. Which ones were too much like others, or didn't seem quite evil enough to be a full-fledged darklord? Borca and Dorvinia were ruled by cousins whose biographies shared much in common, and it pleased the dark powers to see them at each other's throats, so their domains merged and left them to fight for ascendancy. Arkandale's lord, Nathan Timothy, seemed uninterested in power and lordship, so he was freed to navigate the rivers of any domain.

Meanwhile, several Islands of Terror were judged less exciting than the Kargat deemed worthy, so Farelle, Vechor, and Sanguinia were released from the Mists. In their place, Rokushima provided a new culture of terror, and Captain Pieter van Riese took to the Sea of Sorrows with his ghost ship."