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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 8211040">First, the van richten books like any other supplement, can be kludged to another setting or game. But the books are largely written in the first person from the perspective of Rudolph Van Richten, and all the accounts he gives are of things happening inside ravenloft. So while you can use the tools elsewhere, they are designed with Ravenloft in mind, and the flavor of all the accounts are happening in the setting. I reject the idea that the draw is Strahd. I think you can say strahd is a kind of mascot or figurehead, but in terms of what you are meant to do in ravenloft, you are very much meant to have adventures with all kinds of other monsters other than domain lords. Domain Lords are meant to be used very, very rarely. They help provide the backdrop. The purpose of the Van Richten books is largely to equip the GM with tools so they can run long term campaigns featuring monsters like vampires, flesh golems, lycanthropes, ghosts, etc. You can get so much more mileage out of those books than you can with domain lord confrontations. But the van richten books were released when the setting came out. They were part of the line. They elaborated on material in the black boxed set. They are essential for understanding what Ravenloft was all about and how you were supposed to craft villains and monstrous opponents. This is not a controversial opinion. Yes these were made for 2E. But we are talking about a setting based on the 2E material. That is where it comes from. And one thing an old fan can help provide is an understanding of why that setting worked. One of the things that worked well about it was the van richten books. If the new setting material isn't providing the tools that the van richten books provided, then it is truly missing something essential.</blockquote>

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