Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd Review

Like many Ravenloft tabletop adventures, five adventurers are plucked from the realms by the mists to find themselves in Barovia. As usual, Strahd sends one of his minions to invite the newcomers to his castle to enjoy his hospitality, a.k.a. for Strahd to mess with their minds and tempt them.

The characters are:

• Rotrog: An arrogant Orc wizard apprentice
• Kah: A shy Kenku cleric from Waterdeep
• Fielle: A cheerful human artificer from Baldur’s Gate
• Alishai: A moody, hot-tempered Tiefling paladin to Selune
• Chivarion: A good-natured Drow barbarian with a hairless tressym named “Murder” as his pet.

Over the course of the novel, you discover that each one was taken when they were faced with a terrible choice or were poised to take an awful action. That sets the stage for the crux of the novel—which character(s) will succumb to either Strahd’s temptations and/or the malevolent energy of Barovia, embracing their darkest impulses.

Should You Buy It?​

I found Heir to Strahd interesting because while it presented elements of Barovia that Ravenloft players and DMs will be very familiar with, not everything was what I had expected, even though I’ve GM’d Ravenloft adventures. The spirit of Tatyana most notably was presented in a way I did not expect based on the prior information I had read.

I don’t want to explain too much about Tatyana, and how she factors into the plot because it could ruin the mystery of who falls prey to the darkness to become the titular character. I will say that I suspected the doomed character at first, then talked myself out of it, assuming it was a feint to distract from another option. A later character reveal reinforced my original suspicion, but I still thought there might be a twist to go in the another direction. There wasn’t but instead of being unsatisfying, the ending makes me eager for a sequel.

Regardless of how one feels about the mystery and certain aspects of the ending, this Ravenloft novel can be very useful for anyone thinking of DMing an adventure set in Barovia. Dawson, the author of a few Star Wars novels and several fantasy novels, not only sets the tone very well for Barovia but also shows how Strahd could be played by a DM. The audiobook in particular showcased how even a simple conversation with Strahd can be equal parts charming and sinister.

For those who like or prefer audiobooks, the narration by Ellie Gossage was very good. It’s also available in hardcover and ebook editions.

Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd: B+.

 

[JLowder]

Doesn't make a difference, investors still expect a return.

WotC and TSR are/were corporate entities, not people. They do not have "motives".

There is no implied criticism of your skill as a writer, or your ethics.

Which might not have happened, had people spent more time reading Economics textbooks?

I didn't say you were criticizing me directly or implicitly. Again, you seem to be assuming and assigning motives with no actual grounding to do so.

You claimed to know what the companies "cared about," which is assigning motive. So you will want to pick a lane there, if you think companies cannot have motives.

In practice, of course, companies do have motives and motivations, many beyond simple profit. The full array is made up of all the motivations of the individuals working there, along with other interested parties. Motives alone are also not entirely revelatory, as there are many ways to try to seek the same goals. This is especially true with creative ventures such as game publishing, no matter what the A-level books say.

Your summary about TSR's failure is also factually incorrect. There were no shares, no share price, no public investors. Again, the problem was mismanagement of debt, not declining stock price. You are trying to jam the events into the wrong standardized business answer box.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You claimed to know what the companies "cared about," which is assigning motive

Loose language. Apologies.

 

[mamba]

Your summary about TSR's failure is also factually incorrect. There were no shares, no share price, no public investors.

there were shares and there was a share price, albeit a pretty arbitrarily assigned one

 

[JLowder]

there were shares and there was a share price, albeit a pretty arbitrarily assigned one

The stakes held by owners in privately held companies are not the same as publicly traded shares. They operate in very different ways.

 

[BookTenTiger]

The stakes held by owners in privately held companies are not the same as publicly traded shares. They operate in very different ways.

Unlike shares, stakes can be used to kill Strahd.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Today the horror genre drinks from lots of different sources. Let's remember the new "analogic horror" subgenre that you can find in internet, or those indie videogames. Ravenloft is a special franchise because it is a setting, more focused about a group of regions than specific characters besides Strahd. The IP was designed to allow lots of different and independient stories

Ravenloft is fantasy+horror, or action-horror, and this can allow main characters to enjoy more possibilites or survival.

We don't know the future choices by WotC about the metaplot.

 

[mamba]

The stakes held by owners in privately held companies are not the same as publicly traded shares. They operate in very different ways.

they operate in a similar enough way. Not everyone can purchase them freely and their price is a lot less transparent, but you do get the voting rights that come with being a shareholder

 

[JLowder]

they operate in a similar enough way. Not everyone can purchase them freely and their price is a lot less transparent, but you do get the voting rights that come with being a shareholder

It all depends upon how the private company is structured and how the stakes are held. For the purposes of this discussion, comments about TSR's failure were built upon a model for a publicly traded company, the public stock value, and the impact of public trading and shareholder value on the company. That's not applicable here. The root cause of the failure was the mismanagement of debt, as has been laid out in various sources, a problem made much worse because of the private, closely held nature of the company.

 

[mamba]

The root cause of the failure was the mismanagement of debt, as has been laid out in various sources

sure, but that cause is not limited to private companies. There is nothing about TSR’s failure that cannot happen to any company, regardless of its structure

a problem made much worse because of the private, closely held nature of the company.

how so? To me the only difference is that their problem was not reflected in their stock price, but many companies took on too much debt / did not achieve the growth they would have needed to carry their debt

 

[JLowder]

sure, but that cause is not limited to private companies. There is nothing about TSR’s failure that cannot happen to any company, regardless of its structure

Discussing TSR as if it were a publicly traded company is not accurate. That's the larger point here.

As for the debt and the finer points of the deal with Random House, the debt the company accrued and the ways in which it was (mis)handled are less likely to be problems that linger as long as they did in Lake Geneva at a publicly traded outfit. Statutory transparency and reporting requirements would make it harder to conceal and even partial revelations would trigger very different and very public stakeholder pressures unlike those the TSR ownership had to deal with.