Castle Ravenloft Boardgame a Dungeon Crawl?

arscott

First Post

• Feb 1, 2010

• #1

Is anyone else really disappointed that the Castle Ravenloft game will apparently be a Heroquest/Descent knockoff?

When this was announced, I was really excited, because I expected something a bit more like Arkham Horror, or even Shadows Over Camelot. Isn't Ravenloft, after all, more of a story-adventure and less of a dungeon crawl? I expected a bit more dealing with gypsies, and a bit less fighting skeletal bats.

 

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jdrakeh

Front Range Warlock

• Feb 1, 2010

• #2

The original Ravenloft module is very much a dungeon crawl, albeit one with movable goal posts and narrative bookends. If the new boardgame takes its inspiration from that module as opposed to the later setting, the Descent/Heroquest model - with the goal being to explore the castle and kill the baddie at the end - makes much more sense.

 

Mark

CreativeMountainGames.com

• Feb 1, 2010

• #3

arscott said:

Is anyone else really disappointed that the Castle Ravenloft game will apparently be a Heroquest/Descent knockoff?

When this was announced, I was really excited, because I expected something a bit more like Arkham Horror, or even Shadows Over Camelot. Isn't Ravenloft, after all, more of a story-adventure and less of a dungeon crawl? I expected a bit more dealing with gypsies, and a bit less fighting skeletal bats.

Click to expand...

Or something like this?

Betrayal at House on the Hill | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

 

S

Stoat

Adventurer

• Feb 1, 2010

• #4

jdrakeh said:

The original Ravenloft module is very much a dungeon crawl, albeit one with movable goal posts and narrative bookends. If the new boardgame takes its inspiration from that module as opposed to the later setting, the Descent/Heroquest model - with the goal being to explore the castle and kill the baddie at the end - makes much more sense.

Click to expand...

Yeah, this. Once the PC's get into the Castle, they're very much in for a dungeon crawl, complete with wandering monsters and lethal traps. Even the stuff with Ireena is presented more as flavor text than any kind of interactive role playing.

I'm curious to see how the boardgame turns out.

 

arscott

First Post

• Feb 1, 2010

• #5

I'd always wanted to play Betrayal, but the $200 price tag has always kept me away. Reading that link, though, it looks like WotC is bringing it back into print--And an affordable version of BaHotH should more than satisfy my thirst for a horror/adventure boardgame.

As should be clear from my gripe above, I've never actually played the original CR module. Still, I've been getting a lot of "how cool would this be" idea for a less combat-focused, more abstract boardgame set in a mysterious castle. Maybe a boardgame inspired by X2: Castle Amber...

 

Hawke

Explorer

• Feb 1, 2010

• #6

I'm curious how close to the 4E ruleset it will be. I'd love to see a very static ruleset that simply provided pregens, limited some of the "freedom" by making the in-between-combat more rigid (i.e. remove rituals, powers/racial abilities that are outside combat) and allowed for additions to the game via cards only. The idea being you have your character, your cards, and you're set - no need to pay attention to the complex rules.

I'd also like to see it compatible with the other method of play - instead of grabbing one of the pregens, you can play it with your full character. Perhaps the DDI aspect will allow you to use the set for more RP stuff.

All in all, I would love to see WotC provide support for both hardcore roleplay groups and dungeon crawl groups. I can see no easier way to get some folks into D&D if you introduce the ruleset to them in a familiar "board game" setting and then explain how much fun it is to do that except create your character.

 

darjr

I crit!

• Feb 1, 2010

• #7

I love 'house on haunted hill'.
When the traitor came up it was me and I was the blob!

I have to do something like that in an adventure.

I hope the cooperative nature of the board game has room to include a traitor like 'house' or 'camelot'.

 

coyote6

Adventurer

• Feb 1, 2010

• #8

Mark said:

Or something like this?

Betrayal at House on the Hill | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

Click to expand...

Actually, with tile-based maps, varying goals, and the other things they mentioned about Castle Ravenloft, I thought CR sounded like a D&D-ized version of Betrayal at House on the Hill, minus the traitor bit.

 

darjr

I crit!

• Feb 8, 2010

• #9

coyote6 said:

Actually, with tile-based maps, varying goals, and the other things they mentioned about Castle Ravenloft, I thought CR sounded like a D&D-ized version of Betrayal at House on the Hill, minus the traitor bit.

Click to expand...

A traitor mechanic would make this game a must buy for me.

I'd also like to see some use for current D&D mini's in the board game. Some bit of addon rules in the DDI so that I could buy a pack of mini's as an expansion for this game.

 

CharlesRyan

Adventurer

• Feb 9, 2010

• #10

I don't know much about how the Ravenloft game will play, but if you're looking for dungeon crawl, there's another D&D board game in the works: Dungeons of Dragonfire Mountain, releasing 16 November. It does appear, from the brief catalogue description, to be a dungeon-crawly game along the lines of Descent. The component list is nearly identical to the Ravenloft game, so take that for what it's worth.