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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hawken" data-source="post: 3117398" data-attributes="member: 23619">I'll be running this as a one shot at the end of the month and as is, I don't see it being on par with the original either in terms of scariness or enjoyability. In fact, there are so many things that are different (Madame Eva, for example), that its practically a different game with some old, familiar names slapped on it. The artwork of Strahd is disappointing, especially with him wearing the blue and looking more like a crack-addicted elven pirate than anything else and much of the rest of the art looks like cuts from a very poorly drawn cartoon. The illustration of Ireena is probably one of the worst I've seen--she looks like a guy with boobs; none of the haunted beauty of the original.  And there are few illustrations of the enemies you fight, at least the more interesting ones anyway--the ones that are there do not convey any sense of danger, horror, or menace; you'll just think, "damn, that's one ugly mother--". For those of you that don't know, for a campaign style game, your players are supposed to start around 5-6 level and work up to 9-10 before even encountering Strahd (if they do before then, they should pretty well be slaughtered). However, as he is written, Strahd would be incredibly easy for a group of 10th lvl characters to take down--even more so if they were actually prepared for him and even got his rid of his special ties to the land (which is actually the purpose of the campaign style of playing this). The big flaw is this plan is why would Strahd sit around while you foil his plans and get more powerful in the process to the point where you actually threaten him? He has so many spies at his beck and call that it is ridiculous to think that he doesn't know where the PCs are or what they are doing at almost any given time. He would come down out of his castle and finish the PCs off. Even an overconfident necromancer vampire is not going to sit idly by while paladins, clerics, a holy order of paladins and clerics, and their riff-raff friends go trolling around his backyard getting stronger by the fight and picking up magic to use against him. Actually, there are some surprises, but they are along the lines of "what the hell is this?" There is no sense of horror or tragedy and virtually no gothic elements. Its a monster hunt, plain and simple this time around, just with a lot more wierder monsters. There is no real sense of isolation or entrapment and even the poisonous choking fog from the original adventure (and the campaign setting) is gone. I'll have to disagree on the incredible. It's an ok update, but I feel bad for my friend having to pay full price to get it for me (I'm happy to have it as an early birthday present since I'm obsessive about any Ravenloft material, even this), definitely not $34.95 worth of material in here. As for it being a watershed, yes, if by that you mean having to pay more for a single adventure than for many supplemental books and goodies already out there. This is true, but the two feats in this book have made the energy drain thing nothing more than a minor annoyance. You get to ignore the effects of a negative level for 1 min/Con mod and you get to keep making a Will save to get rid of the negative levels each round until you succeed. Which means in less than 2 minutes after combat is over, that negative level is gone. The Knight of the Raven is a good PrC but the requirement (spending a night in the chapel of Castle Ravenloft) is just utterly ludicrous. No way in any stretch of even the most generous DM's imagination would Strahd allow a paladin or cleric to spend a night praying in the chapel in his own castle! "Hmm, that paladin is praying in my chapel. If I don't do something, come the dawn, he'll have even more power and be an even greater pain in my butt! And maybe bring some friends along too next time! He can Smite Evil and he'll be able to Smite Undead too and that could really hurt! Even me! Nah...he can stay. It'll never happen!" Yeah, right! Anyone trying that would wake up undead!Overall, it's ok for a one shot game--which is what I'm going to do with it--but a campaign is not just plausible. Strahd would not just sit around in his castle waiting for paladins, clerics and whatever else to gain 4-5 levels running around in his backyard before squashing them. They don't even really need to go after him either, they can just sit around Ireena, wait for Strahd to show up to try and turn her (into a vampire) and dust his ass. Wash, rinse and repeat until powerful enough to waltz into the castle and take him out for good.</blockquote>

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