D&D 2E 2E RAVENLOFT

[Bedrockgames]

I came to Ravenloft by way of Knight of the Black Rose, right when it came out (I remember seeing the cover when they put it on display, recognizing Soth, but finding the dark colors on the cover intriguing). I was hooked the moment Soth had his first run in with Strahd. From there I bought the boxed set and Feast of Goblyns. Devoured the black box (that box set just had me glued). Started running Ravenloft right away and had many long campaigns all through the 90s and into the early 00s.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Original Box Realms of Terror 2e. Fantastic vision of the gothic horror and the D&D gothic horror experience it was going for. My favorite and I kept using it even after the later ones came out. Stephen Fabian art throughout for the win. Loved the family trees and intertwining of families and villains and domains. Lots to build off of.

I am glad you brought up the family trees. Those get overlooked but they were a great source of adventure content (I used to sift through them to find ways of bringing in new NPCs connected to dark lords), and they also revealed some of the secrets of Ravenloft too if I remember.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft 3.5 was the WotC 3.5 Curse of Strahd. I played it in the 3.5 era and enjoyed it a lot, but it was an adventure and not the setting. I eventually got the PDF as well.

I have to admit this one really landed badly with me. Maybe it was just me. I felt it seemed very gamey (parts of the plot felt like a computer rpg to me), and I didn't understand some of the changes (like what they did with Madame Eva). I was really not into the tactical set up of many of the encounters (I always ran Ravenloft as theater of the mind).

Curious how others felt about this one

 

[Voadam]

I have to admit this one really landed badly with me. Maybe it was just me. I felt it seemed very gamey (parts of the plot felt like a computer rpg to me), and I didn't understand some of the changes (like what they did with Madame Eva). I was really not into the tactical set up of many of the encounters (I always ran Ravenloft as theater of the mind).

Curious how others felt about this one

For me it was a play by post game I participated in here as a player.

I remember a waves of zombies feel that was effective and a Lovecraftian tomes thing that I went with that I felt worked well.

The game died after about 850 posts so we did not finish the module, in fact it ended with us meeting Eva.