castle ravenloft ... again?
- Thread starter Eben
- Start date
evildmguy
Explorer
Felon said:
Not really, no. That's not how I took it.
Eben said:
This seems like a leading question heading towards no, imo.
However, perhaps that is not what the OP intended.
Part of my answer, though, is that as I understand it the release date was only yesterday. I doubt people have had enough time to read it fully by now, much less play it, to give the full answer this deserves. Again, the OP wanted to know how it compared to the original AS WELL AS years of Ravenloft. How can that be answered within a day of the product being released?
Again, I apologize to the OP if I have misinterpreted anything.
Have a good one! Take care!
edg
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Heh, I JUST got it just now from Amazon. I'm at work, so I can't post much about it for a while, but I'll try to answer some BASIC questions. (I really do have to work. 
)
)I went out to the local BN last night, they didn't even have it out on the shelf yet, had to get a guy to go looking for it in the back.
I'm impressed with it, and I have no intention of ever playing D&D again. It looks like a gold mine of material good for use in many a game, which is how I intend to use it.
The maps are very small, which does suck. It was thinner than I expected, but at $35 retail, I can see where making bigger maps and increasing page count would jump the price to something unreasonable.
It reminds me a lot of Slavelords of Cydonia, in that it's not just an adventure. It's maybe not a full adventure path, but there's LOTS to do. It also already stirred my creative juices for other adventures in Barovia that are not in the book.
One thing that truly does suck was the letters that are sent to the PCs as hooks to get them to come to Barovia. They have 6 different versions of the letter, all saying pretty much the same thing. And they are all printed in 1/4 page or so, written in handwriting, so they suck to read, suck to photocopy (as the book says to do), and probably suck to scan in and print out in color.
In retrospect, I would feel much better if I would have bought it online at 20+% off rather than paying retail, but I wanted it that day.
I'm impressed with it, and I have no intention of ever playing D&D again. It looks like a gold mine of material good for use in many a game, which is how I intend to use it.
The maps are very small, which does suck. It was thinner than I expected, but at $35 retail, I can see where making bigger maps and increasing page count would jump the price to something unreasonable.
It reminds me a lot of Slavelords of Cydonia, in that it's not just an adventure. It's maybe not a full adventure path, but there's LOTS to do. It also already stirred my creative juices for other adventures in Barovia that are not in the book.
One thing that truly does suck was the letters that are sent to the PCs as hooks to get them to come to Barovia. They have 6 different versions of the letter, all saying pretty much the same thing. And they are all printed in 1/4 page or so, written in handwriting, so they suck to read, suck to photocopy (as the book says to do), and probably suck to scan in and print out in color.
In retrospect, I would feel much better if I would have bought it online at 20+% off rather than paying retail, but I wanted it that day.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
First impressions:
GORGEOUS book. Not quite as sexy as Tome of Magic, but it's a (distant) second.
Strahd has feats from Libris Mortis but his spell book doesn't have any spells from that book, which seems like a missed opportunity.
There are new servants of Strahd (well, they're new since I6; I didn't get any specific Strahd-related 2E Ravenloft material, so maybe they came up there -- they'll be a nasty shock for players, I suspect).
For the most part, the tactical maps aren't anything that unusual, it's just each encounter gets a two-page spread with all the tactics, stats and a simple map, along with details of the geographic features. It's a pretty good format, at first glance.
There's also monsters from non-core sources. It looks like Libris Mortis and one of the MM sequels (I don't want to say which monsters), although sufficient stats are available in the book to run the monsters without any supplements.
Taint rules from Heroes of Horror are mentioned as an option.
Warlock NPCs are present. Again, all required rules are printed.
Knight of the Raven PrC has relatively simple requirements to get in (although you have to be in Ravenloft to qualify initially), and looks equally good for paladins and clerics.
The Lightbringers aren't a PrC, but an organization with substititon levels for a number of classes. Retraining rules are briefly reprinted here as a result.
Lots of new anti-undead equipment.
One new spell -- a damaging upgrade to darkness.
Lots of magic items.
GORGEOUS book. Not quite as sexy as Tome of Magic, but it's a (distant) second.
Strahd has feats from Libris Mortis but his spell book doesn't have any spells from that book, which seems like a missed opportunity.
There are new servants of Strahd (well, they're new since I6; I didn't get any specific Strahd-related 2E Ravenloft material, so maybe they came up there -- they'll be a nasty shock for players, I suspect).
For the most part, the tactical maps aren't anything that unusual, it's just each encounter gets a two-page spread with all the tactics, stats and a simple map, along with details of the geographic features. It's a pretty good format, at first glance.
There's also monsters from non-core sources. It looks like Libris Mortis and one of the MM sequels (I don't want to say which monsters), although sufficient stats are available in the book to run the monsters without any supplements.
Taint rules from Heroes of Horror are mentioned as an option.
Warlock NPCs are present. Again, all required rules are printed.
Knight of the Raven PrC has relatively simple requirements to get in (although you have to be in Ravenloft to qualify initially), and looks equally good for paladins and clerics.
The Lightbringers aren't a PrC, but an organization with substititon levels for a number of classes. Retraining rules are briefly reprinted here as a result.
Lots of new anti-undead equipment.
One new spell -- a damaging upgrade to darkness.
Lots of magic items.
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JRRNeiklot
First Post
Crothian said:
Well, WOTC's track record thus far at redoing classic modules is, well, pretty crappy. And undead are just not scary without a real level drain mechanic. Plus, there's probably a half-golem gelatinous cube monk in there somewhere.
evildmguy said:
Well, I"m puzzled as to what other way to take it there is. That he was asking people who didn't know the answer? That he was addressing you, evildmguy, personally?
Well, I figure that if the adventure is basically a retread of the original (which it is), it's a pretty good bet that someone who's already played it won't be up for a five-month-long repeat.
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