[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.

 

[JeffB]

Heresy! You must wildly speculate on how much you will hate what you imagine the book's content to be or you will be marked pariah and shunned form the village!

Oh I have done that here. At this point WOTC has alienated me as a customer and I no longer have much desire to run 5e. The new SRD/OGL and resulting products may draw me back in, but if CoS doesnt meet my needs, its no big deal and just more of the same ol same ol since I bought the core books.

 

[Parmandur]

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.

I am quite uncertain; if the AP calls for them, most people who buy the book would not see them.

 

[rooneg]

I am quite uncertain; if the AP calls for them, most people who buy the book would not see them.

I expect that anything in the AP that requires the Tarokka deck will be possible to do with an ordinary deck of cards.

 

[Kramodlog]

Heresy! You must wildly speculate on how much you will hate what you imagine the book's content to be or you will be marked pariah and shunned form the village!

Ridiculus. You must say how much you already love the adventure and pre-order it. That is what you do when you haven't read it yet.

 

[Jester David]

No, it's not doing their job.

ENworld is not a job. It's a hobby.

News sites are not there as parrots repeating corporate communications, but to bring news preferably before everyone else, even the compoanies themsleves.

Don't kid yourself, ENWorld is a fan site. It may be the largest D&D fan site and provide news on the hobby, but it's not CNN. They don't have a journalistic imperative. They're not keeping corporations honest and governments in check.

Really, since most of the "scoops" come from fans on the forums reporting things and sharing rumors, it's arguably a gossip site. It has more in common with TMZ than BBC News. This is the equivalent of leaking something before a press conferance just to get it out their first.

Just repeating what they announced snd hoping to occasionally be thrown a bone by being chosen by them ti receive some tidbit of news first, you're foing a very poor job.

Companies are free to blacklist you, but if you're dependant in their goodwill you're doing a poir job already.

This industry is too small to rock the boat. Being blacklisted or burning bridges would hurt and just create an adversarial relationship. Which, given WotC is a sometimes advertiser, would be bad.

It wins clicks which it what pays bills, not WotC's happiness or good will.

Clicks don't pay bills.
Sustained clicks raise the site's rank and get better ad money. But a spike doesn't. A spike nets nothing.

Just ask car companies how happy they are about prototype hunters getting pictures of the veiled new models into the magazines. The magazines are very happy though and pay premium for pics if the new BMW before BMW unveils it

BMW isn't a department being run by fifteen people. D&D is small and isn't faceless. We know the names of each and every staff member. This isn't sticking it to WotC, the faceless subsidiary of WotC, this is sticking it to D&D department which is run by overworked people who love D&D as much as we do.

 

[darjr]

I assure you ENWorld is Morrus job. Full time.

 

[Mistwell]

Ridiculus. You must say how much you already love the adventure and pre-order it. That is what you do when you haven't read it yet.

I'd think you'd understand. You've had a pretty consistent tone towards 5e for the year and a half since release, being negative to things before you've read them sometimes. Why are you faulting others for their consistent tone?

 

[Mistwell]

ENworld is not a job. It's a hobby.

No, this is a company, and it's Morrus' full time job and has been for many years now. He supports his family from this company. This company publishes serious Kickstarter products, a magazine, and runs an entire RPG company with a line of products, in addition to gaming advertising and some other things. There is a reason most of the WOTC users came here when the WOTC message boards shut down, and why some WOTC employees post here about news. EnWorld is a pretty major player in the RPG news business. It's been many years since this was just a hobby.

 

[Zaran]

This is the first "season" that I'm really just not interested. Hopefully there will be other items besides the adventure that will be useful around my game table.

 

[Wolvercote]

meh