[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.

 

[Wolvercote]

No interest in this.

 

[jayoungr]

I had thought of the Star Wars parallel too. The thing is, I really didn't like the Force Awakens that much so...

Yes, TFA really made me empathize with 4E fans. (I didn't hate it, I just wasn't as deliriously happy with it as all my friends seem to be. And I actually liked the prequels, which are at least as controversial as 4E.)

 

[jayoungr]

Regardless... Ravenlot!

Yay!

Ravenlot?

Oh, let's not go there. 'Tis a silly place.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

To be fair, a lot of people here wouldn't even know there was something being announced on Monday if it wasn't for the news being posted here on ENworld. I don't think I would have known.

A lot of the people in these forums are biting at the chops for more information. If you think the people posting here aren't going to be racing to the interview and the announcement to analyze every word in detail, then you don't know ENworld very well.

Also, Shelly Mazzanoble is no dummy. She's not sitting at home crying that someone is giving the product free promotion. Like you said, she's a MARKETING person. Turns out most people who work in marketing think that getting people talking about your product is a good thing. There's no such thing as bad publicity.

This here. Only reason I am looking for news on this today is because Morrus posted about it. I would have had NO CLUE otherwise, as I don't visit The Escapist very often anymore. Probably would have first heard about it sometime after the 20th or so when I dropped randomly in to WotC's site to see if they had made an announcement yet.

 

[Grognak]

Which it was a box with a pull out map and cool handouts.

Instead of a book with maps that go into the gutter unless you break the spine.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Different scales, bigger industries.

Who's affected by this? Shelly Mazzanoble. She's the D&D marketing person. This was her hype. She planned the reveal, the teasers, the interview with Geek & Sundry. Will as many people tune into the interview now?
This was her moment.

Holding back for two days isn't toeing the party line, it's a courtesy. The news would still be there on Monday. It wouldn't go anywhere. Getting it out first doesn't win anything.

Shelly knows this is good publicity for her. For example, until I read your post I didn't know about the interview at Geek & Sundry. She needs this publicity to reach people like me who don't frequent other sites that she's also trying to saturate. Difference is they need to reach out and poke a site like The Escapist to get a teaser lead-in; they don't have to poke Morrus to get a mention on Enworld. (EDIT: plus this is the one site where the hardcore fans who already suspected Ravenloft as the next module congregate. Our question is not "what's Ravenloft? Oh D&D I remember playing that!" like at the other sites....we want to know if this is going to be a real Ravenloft book or a FR adaptation and whether its a revamp of I6 or an expansion; and we know what I6 means. So a leak here is probably necessary, even hoped for....marketing loves it when this happens in the right places)

So the answer is: a lot more people will tune in to that interview now that they know about it when they didn't before.

 

[darjr]

I wouldn't underestimate Shelly Mazzanoble. Those earlier sneak peaks were darn smart.

 

[jayoungr]

It seems to me that the key thing you'd need to play Ravenloft is a revised set of XP guidelines. Ravenloft isn't meant to be played Hack 'n Slash, so you need new ways of generating XP in the social/exploration tiers other than staking dozens of vampire spawn. Obviously you could make up your own, but if the sourcebook had an Alternative XP chart for things like "Lay a ghost to rest", "Free slaves from Strahd's dungeon", and "Infiltrate Freemason cult", that would go a long way towards setting the right tone for the setting.

Lost Mine of Phandelver, the Starter Set adventure, did exactly that (well, not a chart, but it did tell you how much XP to award for various non-combat tasks). So there's no reason why Curse of Strahd couldn't do the same thing.

 

[Morrus]

Shelly knows this is good publicity for her.

I'd say most RPG companies would kill to have legions of fans scouring the web for the slightest clue as to their upcoming products. This is a most fortunate thing.

The bad thing is when nobody is doing that. The worst thing in the world is a deafening silence.

 

[JeffB]

For modern D&D editions...i.e. 3.0 to current, this has been my only source of news...the only time I go to another site to read interviews or articles is because I read about here, or on occasion the G+ communities I monitor.

I visit other forums too...like the OD&D proboards for example.. but that is purely for discussion about a specific game or product.

I still often get news on ENorld about products for other games I prefer as well...Dungeon World, 13th age, CoC, RQ, etc...

I don't see the big deal for getting the heads up here..and if it is an issue, the people at WOTC who left the placeholders up should be getting the grief, not Russ.