Favorite edition of Ravenloft?

[the Jester]

The classic, original Ravenloft: I6.

The maps were AWESOME.

 

[Klaus]

The classic, original Ravenloft: I6.

The maps were AWESOME.

Dave C. Sutherland III. A true master cartographer.

R.I.P.

 

[jdrakeh]

Dave C. Sutherland III. A true master cartographer.

R.I.P.

And incredibly good impromptu GM an incredible font of cool ideas.

[Edit: I guess it was Kelley who ran the game I was thinking of.]

 

[Shemeska]

Domains of Dread.

I've never seen a physical copy of the 1e modules, but I fell in love with the 2e setting (and I picked up the DoD hardcover before anything else).

 

[Trickstergod]

3.5 was nothing more than the 3rd edition Ravenloft book with poorly thought out rules and rather clear proof that the designers had no right to work as game developers.

Ahem. Anyway.

It's a toss-up between Domains of Dread and the 3rd edition book for me. Both were chalk full of information on the setting. If you factor in more than just the core book, 3rd edition easily wins out - the Core was explained in exceptional detail in a way it hadn't been before.

 

[Treebore]

Strangely my new Ravenloft game looks to have come together today. Should be starting in two or three weeks with at least 4 and maybe as many as 6 players. The day is up in the air, it will either be Saturdays, or alternating Sundays. This will be a combination of face to face and on line players. Should be lots of fun.

 

[WayneLigon]

I6 is probably my favorite edition. I saw no need to make Ravenloft into it's own setting; that was just chasing after the Vampire crowd who probably were not going to play D&D anyway. I like the Expedition to.. hardback; I own it and I've used it.

 

[Voadam]

The Black Box is wonderfully moody for me (in no small part thanks to Stephen Fabian's artwork... best Strahd ever!).

Agreed. Very evocative art and presentation that set a definite mood and style.

 

[Alzrius]

I prefer Ravenloft as a setting (to the point where, if I had made this poll, I wouldn't have put I6 and the Expedition adventure as options), and on that front Domains of Dread is made of win. It was everything you needed to run Ravenloft all in a single book, it was the real beginning of the setting as its own place, rather than relying on the "weekend in hell" paradigm, and it was very flavorful. I don't think the Demiplane of Dread has ever been treated as well as it was there.

 

[Dimitri Mazieres]

[...]I saw no need to make Ravenloft into it's own setting; that was just chasing after the Vampire crowd who probably were not going to play D&D anyway.[...]

Just a note: Ravenloft's first incarnation as a full-fledged campaign setting (the "Black Box") was released before Vampire: The Masquerade (1990 vs. 1991), so it isn't accurate to say that Ravenloft as a setting was developed trying to appeal to Vampire players.

As for my personal favorite, even though I loved the Black Box, with its unique approach to villains, I think that the Domains of Dread era was when the setting matured into a cohesive campaign world, without the need to always drag characters from other settings for a "weekend in hell" whose only purpose was to escape from the dread realms.
After saying that, though, I feel that the highest potential for the setting was achieved with the 3e supplements, when the setting was put in the hands of capable long time fans who continued the work that Steve Miller and William W. Connors started in DoD, developing the world as a viable native world for the PCs, and producing much needed information, like the gazetteers that, as was stated before, detailed the Core in greater depth with political, economical and social relations among the domains, and not just a patchwork of differently themed lands.

And yes, the 3.5 hardcover was just an update to 3.5 rules, with the addition of a smattering of rules that were generally perceived as ill-conceived among the fans.

I don't own the Expedition to... version of the adventure, but from what I've read I wasn't greatly impressed. It seems that it departed from the original adventure's gothic horror roots into a more dark fantasy theme (not to mention the illustration of the Dread Elf Vampire Strahd... )