CURSE OF STRAHD Is Out Today (In Some Stores)

Elodan · Mar 6, 2016

GX.Sigma said:
Got my copy. The quality of the artwork blew me away. The format is as obnoxious as ever, but there's a whole internet out there for me to rant about that.[sblock]View attachment 75194[/sblock]This adventure is a huge step up from OotA. It actually has an introduction with an overview and synopsis.

Can you clarify what you mean by "...The format is as obnoxious as ever..."?

Thanks.

Queer Venger · Mar 6, 2016

Just got back from my FLGS, browsing through this book and already Im getting ideas for incorporating other multiverse settings into my FR campaign, (reminds me a bit of Planescape). This book's got it right, the art is top notch, the pull out map is probably the best any D&D product has released yet, and while I never played the original Ravenloft campaign, Im now coming up with ideas to make Ravenloft a regular stop for my FR campaigns. Wizards has nocked this one out of the park, which is awesome because this is their first AP for 5e produced in-house. I think what is best here is that it does not matter which setting you DM in, this book is a great example of how to incorporate multiverse stories into any game.

If you are waiting to pick this up on the 15 believe me, its very much worth the wait. If you are on the fence I say check it out and Im confident you'll make up your mind on your own.

Mistwell · Mar 6, 2016

Barachiel said:
It really sucks that WotC won't invest in full campaign settings anymore with ongoing supplemental material. Heck, new people to these settings wouldn't have any clue about their history unless WotC actually advertises their old stock to them, and then they have to be willing to purchase old edition material to supplement the new edition. Which I do not believe many will want to do.

They should go back to licensing. Let them make the core rules and material and let others continue their settings. I don't understand why they won't work with that model, it worked well before. As long as they have consultants helping out, I wasn't entirely keen on White Wolf's Ravenloft because of how much material they avoided for whatever copyright reasons, which make no sense, but Dragonlance turned out pretty good.

I just don't get it. I miss the days of 2E. 2nd Edition was the Golden Age of campaign settings.

I am not understanding your complaint in the context of this book. This book is about Ravenloft. They DID open the Ravenloft license up! It's been added to the DMs Guild for anyone to produce books for it. Green Ronin for example just held a poll asking if people want them to make more D&D 5e stuff, and the overwhelming answer was yes (though it did not mention Ravenloft specifically). How much more do you want than opening the license up to anyone to make such a setting book? And, why do you have no comment on this book itself, since you're posting in this thread?

Queer Venger · Mar 6, 2016

Barachiel said:
It really sucks that WotC won't invest in full campaign settings anymore with ongoing supplemental material. Heck, new people to these settings wouldn't have any clue about their history unless WotC actually advertises their old stock to them, and then they have to be willing to purchase old edition material to supplement the new edition. Which I do not believe many will want to do.

They should go back to licensing. Let them make the core rules and material and let others continue their settings. I don't understand why they won't work with that model, it worked well before. As long as they have consultants helping out, I wasn't entirely keen on White Wolf's Ravenloft because of how much material they avoided for whatever copyright reasons, which make no sense, but Dragonlance turned out pretty good.

I just don't get it. I miss the days of 2E. 2nd Edition was the Golden Age of campaign settings.

May I ask brachiel why aren't you playing 2e?? Why wax nostalgic when all the 2e books are still available and now on pdf as well?? 5e is not 2e, I think that's evident. But it sounds like you want it to be. Wizards has proven (and the market supports this) that the old model of rag books simply does not work. After what Ive seen with 5e I am not going to buy a setting book just to add another book on my shelf. I want my $$'s worth, not another massive tome that gathers dust for 15 years.

I for one am glad its not.

Leugren · Mar 6, 2016

I thought it interesting that Mordenkainen makes an appearance in this module. I won't spoil it except to say that he fought a colossal duel against Strahd.

EDIT: Just noticed that this was already mentioned above by HonorBoundSamurai632

Xavian Starsider · Mar 6, 2016

While I enjoy the tone and style of this adventure, I'm finding myself a little dissatisfied with the new version of the tarokka reading. In the original, you got significant advantages fighting Strahd in the indicated location with the indicated items.

In the new one, I don't see any advantage to fighting Strahd in the room indicated, other than the certainty he'll be there. Having the tome of Strahd confers no mechanical advantage; it merely makes you a target. And I don't see the advantage of the ally. What makes the indicated ally more useful than any other? A good example is Esmerelda. She's one of the possible results of the reading, but can be convinced to join the party regardless of whether she was indicated.

I would love to see fans expand on this reading to give some meaning to the results. Perhaps the ally should be the only one willing to assist against Strahd, with all others refusing. An expanded version could also bring back drawing for Strahd's motivation, which affected his tactics in the original. The ally might be important to some motivations as either a target or a resource..

How do you guys feel about the reading? Do you feel it modifies the adventure enough to provide the replay the original had?

Edit: I'm retracting some of my concerns. The indicated ally gets a unique ability and Strahd fights without allies in the indicated room. But the Tome of Strahd is still pointless.

GX.Sigma · Mar 6, 2016

Elodan said:
Can you clarify what you mean by "...The format is as obnoxious as ever..."?

Thanks.

OK, you asked for it.

I believe the traditional adventure format is outdated, inefficient, and not terribly helpful for DMs who actually want to run the adventure. By "format" I mostly mean information design. An adventure module is an intricate tool for a difficult job (help the DM run this adventure for a group of players), and the way the information is physically arranged on the pages can greatly help or hinder this task.

For example, take a typical small dungeon, with a map and a key with some room descriptions. In a WotC adventure, each room description will have a big block of read-aloud text and a big block of descriptive text, and will probably take up a few inches of page space. So the key always takes up multiple pages, even if there's not much going on in the dungeon. Those pages are arranged carelessly, with room descriptions being broken up across page turns and column breaks, major sections starting halfway down the page, etc. (As opposed to the Monster Manual, where each monster fills one or more entire pages, and stat blocks are always confined to a single page.)

This causes 2 major problems for the DM:

Firstly, when you're preparing to run the adventure, you have a lot of text that you have to read through just to understand the basics of what's going on. (Or, more likely, skim through, and maybe miss something important.) Every WotC adventure says "read this entire 250-page book before you run the adventure." With better information design, that wouldn't be necessary.
Secondly, the in-game result is that the DM has a lot more information to process, and has to constantly physically flip through the pages. This makes it a lot more difficult than it needs to be, and has a negative effect on the players' experience. The DM is already dealing with a lot of things during the game. I want the book to be working for me, not against me.

In my opinion, there's no reason they can't fit all the important information onto one page. Maybe delete some of the redundant text (you seriously don't need to explain how many doors there are, the map is literally right there). Maybe just have a little "short version" on the same page as the map, so the DM can quickly grok what's important, and doesn't need to check the full description every time. Suffice it to say, there's a lot of room to improve. It's really frustrating to me that they keep updating the rules every 5-10 years, but the presentation of the adventures is still stuck in 1979.

Curse of Strahd is especially bad in this regard. Seemingly every page is full of paragraphs describing empty rooms where there is nothing interesting or important and nothing happens. A huge amount of space is given over to describing in words what the map clearly shows (I bet if I counted, it would be more than 50 pages altogether; and that's a very conservative estimate). And, most egregiously, every single statue or sword that is mentioned in the boxed text comes with an additional sentence explaining that it's nonmagical, harmless, or otherwise uninteresting (as though the DM might otherwise assume that every statue comes to life and attacks). Such a waste. Of ink, paper, and my time. Some poor tree died for this!

UngeheuerLich · Mar 7, 2016

Yes, I don´t have the new book but it drives me insane with pota or poee. It took me quite a while to understand what is really going on. I need maybe two pages with a useful synopsis.