D&D 5E Curse of Strahd 'Revamped' Boxed Collector's Edition

If you're in the market for a revamped (geddit?) edition of Curse of Strahd (which is my favourite of all the D&D adventures so far) in a coffin-shaped box with additional material, you're in luck!

This boxed set is coming out in October and costs $99.99.

There's a whole bunch of stuff included:

• Updated softcover of the adventure itself, including errata and presumably some of the other adjustments to Vistani talked about recently.
• A short 20-book of monsters called Creatures of Horror.
• Double sided poster map of Barovia and Castle Ravenloft.
• A Tarokka deck and 8-page booklet.
• Handouts for players.
• A dozen 'postcards' from Barovia.
• A DMs Screen.

Updates to the original adventure include errata, minor tweaks, and sections of text which have been identified as problematic regarding the Vistani.

IGN has a video looking inside the box.

 

[Sunsword]

I already own the hardcover, GF9 DM screen, and Tarokka Deck and they set me back $75.

I get that they had to reprint Curse of Strahd anyway, but why so expensive? I'd much rather had a new cover by Hydro74 and a reprint like what they did for Tyranny of Dragons.

If I'm going to get a box set make it a Domains of Dread set and bring back more Darklords and their Domains.

 

[Sunsword]

This is more evidence that WotC is looking to make its 5E library evergreen. Good. A lot of people have suggested that 5E is the "last edition" of D&D, and if that's rue that means even the early adventures need to stay in print for a long time. And given the attitude changes in the community based on larger societal changes, it's no surprise they wouldn't take the opportunity to make some edits. I expect when they get around to reprinting the hardcover they will use the same insides as this boxed set softcover.

Maybe when they do Dragon Heist they will revise it and actually put a heist in the adventure...

I don't think this is the last edition of D&D but I also don't think we will see 6E for a few more years.

However, products like this worry me about how well the current team is maintaining the line.

 

[TheSword]

Looks good. It’s a great campaign. One of the best I’ve DM’d the props all help. I mean I bought the book, screens and cards anyway and it probably came to a similar amount. Makes a lot of sense.

 

[Retreater]

I'm not inherently against reissues, boxed sets, soft cover books, etc. I would have loved to have seen a Ravenloft campaign setting boxed set with the necessary cultural revisions.

 

[MNblockhead]

Interestingly enough, I already knew that Curse of Strahd is the top-selling adventure on Amazon's lists consistently, but didn't know what the 2nd best-selling is... and it's shockingly Dungeon of the Mad Mage.

I'd be surprised if the next box set like this is for the Mad Mage, but I didn't expect this at all anyway so who knows...

Despite what the reaction to DOTMM was on many discussion groups, there are many of us who love an old-school, fun-house dungeon crawl. I bought DOTMM...but haven't run it yet. Currently running Rappan Athuk. DOTMM is not a sufficiently mega, mega dungeon.

 

[Retreater]

Despite what the reaction to DOTMM was on many discussion groups, there are many of us who love an old-school, fun-house dungeon crawl. I bought DOTMM...but haven't run it yet. Currently running Rappan Athuk. DOTMM is not a sufficiently mega, mega dungeon.

Speaking as someone who likes mega dungeons (and also probably spoiled by running Rappan Athuk), Dungeon of the Mad Mage is a bad mega dungeon and bad adventure overall. It's boring monsters in boring environments and a bunch of blank space. There is - overall - no character, charm, or wit about the place. You would be better served using a random dungeon creator with a wandering monster chart.
I have tried to run it for my group. When we found it utterly lacking in challenge, theme, or intelligence, I just had a corridor teleport them into The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan.

 

[Charlaquin]

They changed some of the story for the Vistani and some story of the disabled character. See the video on IGN with Chris Perkins.

They didn’t really change the story, they just removed a small amount of insensitive text.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Keep in mind that those rankings are current sales, updated hourly, not historical. The Adventures jump up and down fairly wildly, actually.

Yeah it moved again, but now it's Dragon Heist as #2, Avernus #3, and Mage Mage #4.

 

[Reynard]

• Flowcharts, like all the recent campaigns have them

If only these had lived up to the promise. I was excited when they said they would be in Avernus (which I am running pretty successfully currently with a reasonable amount of modding).

So -- if the "flow chart" is just a vertical list of the scenes/dungeons in order, it's not particularly helpful AND indicates just how linear the adventure is. A flow chart should exist to tame the chaos of a complex adventure web or dense open world. it should give the GM a visual tool with which to guide play and anticipate and respond to player choice. If it is "Chapter 1 -->> Chapter 2 -->> Etc"it isn't a flow chart, it is a table of contents.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

As much as I'd love to see an OAR of Queen of the Spiders, the G part being in a recent Wizards' book is probably a sticking point. Even if Wizards was okay with Goodman Games taking the ball and running with it, I imagine that there are legal and contractual issues present that would make some other re-release choice more appealing.

WotC putting Against the Giants into Tales from the Yawning Portal could complicate that. Or, who knows, maybe Goodman will just write an introduction that says "so, you can start them at a secret entrance inside a fire giant's hall, or any old damn place."