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Everything We Know About The Ravenloft Book
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<blockquote data-quote="Bedrockgames" data-source="post: 8210101" data-attributes="member: 85555"><p>If you take away adjacent domains that are part of a core landmass, then you can't have the kinds of things that you saw in saw Falkovnia (where Drakov kept trying to invade Darkon but was always doomed to fail). You also don't have as rich of a horror environment to explore. Keep in mind in the original geography, Islands of Terror were floating in the mists, and those were very navigable (some people could do it, and the vistani seemed to be able to, but PCs stepping into the mists could end up anywhere, and dark lords wouldn't be able to consistently send shipments through them). In the black boxed set you had the best of both worlds because you had a core with connected domains (and that core shifted and evolved from time to time because the land is just a reflection of the dark lords), and you had individual islands or terror (and later you had clusters which were islands of terror that were connected to one another (usually just one or two domains). And some domains were really small, like the size of a house (and could show up anywhere in Ravenloft. Another thing: dark lords are not always the political leaders of domains. They have powerful ties to the land, can close the borders, and the realm is there to torment them, but they don't always hold political power. </p><p></p><p>Obviously tastes vary, and aesthetics change a lot. While CoS and new ravenloft didn't appeal to me, that probably has to do with me being 40+ and not really being that into 5E or D&D cosmology since 3rd edition. My tastes are a bit old. So if you like the new Ravenloft, that is great. If you like curse of strahd, that is great. I won't tell you shouldn't or that your tastes are worse than mine. But I see so much dismissal of the earlier material (sometimes by people who played it at the time and didn't like it, which I think is fair) but also by people who never even really gave it a chance or haven't read it. But there wouldn't be CoS if there wasn't an original Ravenloft module (and the new book wouldn't exist if there hadn't been a black boxed set and van richten books). So these things did something right. People saw enough value in them, and they were popular enough, that WOTC is willing to revisit them. I would definitely recommend reading the original Ravenloft Module, the black boxed set and possibly Feast of Goblyns and one or two Van Richten books (The created, the guide to werebeasts, the ancient dead, and the guide to liches were all good: the originals, not the compiled versions). At the very least, going back to the sources will help illuminate the newer books for you.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bedrockgames, post: 8210101, member: 85555"] If you take away adjacent domains that are part of a core landmass, then you can't have the kinds of things that you saw in saw Falkovnia (where Drakov kept trying to invade Darkon but was always doomed to fail). You also don't have as rich of a horror environment to explore. Keep in mind in the original geography, Islands of Terror were floating in the mists, and those were very navigable (some people could do it, and the vistani seemed to be able to, but PCs stepping into the mists could end up anywhere, and dark lords wouldn't be able to consistently send shipments through them). In the black boxed set you had the best of both worlds because you had a core with connected domains (and that core shifted and evolved from time to time because the land is just a reflection of the dark lords), and you had individual islands or terror (and later you had clusters which were islands of terror that were connected to one another (usually just one or two domains). And some domains were really small, like the size of a house (and could show up anywhere in Ravenloft. Another thing: dark lords are not always the political leaders of domains. They have powerful ties to the land, can close the borders, and the realm is there to torment them, but they don't always hold political power. Obviously tastes vary, and aesthetics change a lot. While CoS and new ravenloft didn't appeal to me, that probably has to do with me being 40+ and not really being that into 5E or D&D cosmology since 3rd edition. My tastes are a bit old. So if you like the new Ravenloft, that is great. If you like curse of strahd, that is great. I won't tell you shouldn't or that your tastes are worse than mine. But I see so much dismissal of the earlier material (sometimes by people who played it at the time and didn't like it, which I think is fair) but also by people who never even really gave it a chance or haven't read it. But there wouldn't be CoS if there wasn't an original Ravenloft module (and the new book wouldn't exist if there hadn't been a black boxed set and van richten books). So these things did something right. People saw enough value in them, and they were popular enough, that WOTC is willing to revisit them. I would definitely recommend reading the original Ravenloft Module, the black boxed set and possibly Feast of Goblyns and one or two Van Richten books (The created, the guide to werebeasts, the ancient dead, and the guide to liches were all good: the originals, not the compiled versions). At the very least, going back to the sources will help illuminate the newer books for you. [/QUOTE]
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