[UPDATED AGAIN!] CURSE OF STRAHD Will Be Available March 15th

The new Dungeons & Dragons storyline will be called Curse of Strahd. I'm hearing that Tracy and Laura Hickman, who wrote the original 1983 Ravenloft adventure, have some involvement, and it will be set in Castle Ravenloft. The PCs will be sent to Strahd's realm by Madam Eva (using a tarokka deck). While the Ravenloft name is being used, I don't know if it's actually set in a demiplane or if it's set in the Forgotten Realms, but the land of Barovia certainly exists. More if I hear it!

Ravenloft was originally an adventure in 1983, and later became an entire campaign setting set in a pocket dimension called the Demiplane of Dread. The original adventure, for AD&D 1st Edition, has Strahd von Zarovich, master vampire, as its main villain. The land of Barovia is surrounded by a magical fog, and Strahd rules the domain. The adventure featured an interesting card-based random generation process which determined the locations of items, NPCs, and Strahd's motivation, making the adventure replayable. Strahd was an intelligent villain who loomed over the entire adventure, taunting the PCs throughout. Strahd is probably one of the most well-known D&D characters, after Drizzt and Elminster, and possible some Dragonlance characters.

I don't know how much of that old adventure matches the new storyline. I hear that Strahd's love story is at least cited, if not part of the adventure, and that it is shorter in scope than the previous adventure paths. WotC has sent some preview images to various outlets, as I reported yesterday, and the announcement is coming on Monday.

Personally? I am really excited about this. I can't wait to run it! Out of the storylines so far (and I really liked the Underdark whimsy), this one probably hits me right in the sweet spot. I was hoping for this.

The book is on Amazon already, albeit with no cover image, and is available for pre-order. 224 pages, $49.95, March 15th , 2016. With these 'placeholder' Amazon pages details sometimes change; but here's the product description:

Unravel the mysteries of Ravenloft® in this dread adventure for the world’s greatest roleplaying game

Under raging storm clouds, the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich stands silhouetted against the ancient walls of Castle Ravenloft. Rumbling thunder pounds the castle spires. The wind’s howling increases as he turns his gaze down toward the village of Barovia. Far below, yet not beyond his keen eyesight, a party of adventurers has just entered his domain. Strahd’s face forms the barest hint of a smile as his dark plan unfolds. He knew they were coming, and he knows why they came — all according to his plan. A lightning flash rips through the darkness, but Strahd is gone. Only the howling of the wind fills the midnight air. The master of Castle Ravenloft is having guests for dinner. And you are invited.

Some more snippets of info:

• There's going to be a twitter campaign hashtag thing called #DNDFortune during the lead up to the adventure. You can get a 'reading' each day from Madam Eva using her tarokka deck.
• The tarokka deck will be produced by Gale Force 9 and should be available when the adventure releases. It can be used to randomise locations in the adventure.
• ​The adventurers are trapped (I assume in Barovia by the mists, but maybe in the castle itself; not sure).
• Mike Schley has strongly hinted that he worked on maps for the adventure, as he did for the previous 5E adventures.

 

[mach1.9pants]

I like Strahd.

I like I Strahd. Has a fond place in my heart, even tough I'm not the hugest RL fan!

Report for Old School Re-Education.

Ravenloft is the setting that holds my heart, and it's most of the reason I've paid attention to D&D over the years. But this sounds like Yet Another Return to the Castle, which they've done every edition (albeit only as a boardgame in 4th, although a Barovia-centric setting relaunch was planned before the Great Panic and Mearls' seduction by the Dark Side of the OSR ).

I'll keep an eye on it, but I'm not sure whether or not I'll buy it right away--and I doubt that even this will be enough to get me to buy into 5E instead of relying on the SRD and my friends' copies for playing.

On the bright side, Accursed for Savage Worlds is scratching a lot of that same itch. Check out the current Kickstarter today!

You might want to check out Frog God Game's The Blight. Closing soon! https://www.kickstarter.com/project...e-blight-richard-petts-crooked-ci/description

I admit, I'm morbidly curious what led to the choice of MLK day for the announcement. It does seem like a super weird time to do it. Is there some sort of significant gaming convention going on this weekend or something?

I'm idly curious what MLK is? Mid Life Krisis Day?

More snippets re. tarokka, etc:

There's going to be a twitter campaign hashtag thing called #DNDFortune during the lead up to the adventure. You can get a 'reading' each day from Madam Eva using her tarokka deck.

The tarokka deck will be produced by Gale Force 9 and should be available when the adventure releases. It can be used to randomise locations in the adventure.

The adventurers are trapped (I assume in Barovia by the mists, but maybe in the castle itself; not sure).

Mmm I don't have a tarokka deck, and like the idea of randomising things to make my life as DM more interesting. The same resaon I like random encounters and sand-boxing.

 

[Staffan]

Except that Raveloft isn't just a campaign setting, it's a different world than Faerun, is it not? I find it really hard to have an adventure based on say, Athas, without having a book with its own monster manual and game rules.

That depends on which Ravenloft you're talking about. There's the classic 80s adventure, which mostly goes "You get surrounded by mists and when they part, you're somewhere else", and then goes on to describe Barovia and Castle Ravenloft. Then there's the campaign setting, which consists of multiple domains like Barovia but with different themes and Dark Lords. When some people say Ravenloft, they mean the adventure and when others do it they mean the full setting.

That said, the differences between even the full setting and regular D&D are far smaller than the differences between Dark Sun and regular D&D.

 

[rooneg]

I'm idly curious what MLK is? Mid Life Krisis Day?

Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A national holiday in the US.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A national holiday in the US.

Ah I could have Googled, but wanted to see if I could figure it out myself. Totally failed

 

[gweinel]

Did you noticed that the description on the Amazon site is almost the same with the description at the backcover of the original module (Ravenloft I6)?

 

[Kramodlog]

32 page folios is standard in the industry.

I know. I still find it interesting that a block is "missing" compared to the other APs while it is still the same price.

Best guess, Margaret Weis Productions. They've been quiet since they published the new Firefly RPG in late 2014 but are ENnie award winning, had a prior licence with WotC during 3e to produce Dragonlance, and have a lot of good people on the staff. And Ms. Weis has a working relationship with Tracy Hickman that could bring him into the mix.

They are the ones who made the original adventure, so that could work.

They fought against Lord Soth being in Ravenloft instead of DragonLance, if I remember correctly. If WotC imposed that Barovia was in the FR, I wonder what was their reaction.

 

[Sunseeker]

This is particularly useful to be since I've been working on a Return to Ravenloft styled game, set after the fall of Strahd and I'm looking forward to having to do less conversion from older material.

 

[Parmandur]

To be fair, the Amazon info is more provisional than the marketing campaign info; and if the book comes with the Tarrock cards, may account for the price difference.

 

[Parmandur]

Pretty sure the AP will be in Ravenloft as described in the core books (a demiplane deep in the Shadowfell), with a framing device on the Sword Coast and a nod to other settings.

More interesting question: will the AL modules be in the Domains of Dread, too, or in the Moonsea with a Shadow theme...?

And will we see the Shadow Sorcerer and Light Warlock, as we did with the Storm Mage and Swashbuckler...?

 

[Nikosandros]

To be fair, the Amazon info is more provisional than the marketing campaign info; and if the book comes with the Tarrock cards, may account for the price difference.

Morrus posted that the tarokka deck will be produced by Gale Force 9, so I'm almost sure that it will be a separate purchase.