Favorite edition of Ravenloft?

[Joël of the FoS]

Indeed, the poll mixes adventures and settings.

But on the criteria of the most pleasure I got from reading and playing it, it's the Ravenloft Campaign settings 3.0/3.5. And as another mentioned, most of the 3e era RL settings books are excellent.

Joël

 

[jdrakeh]

Indeed, the poll mixes adventures and settings.

The reason that I included I6 is because it is the first incarnation of the Ravenlioft setting. I6 is set in Strahd's castle Ravenloft and briefly details the surrounding land, which was expanded to become it's own product ala the Realm of Terror boxed set. yes, I6 itself is an adventure module. It did, however, feature a setting (as modules do).

I featured the Expedition module for similar reasons. Though an adventure module, it is set in the Realms of Terror and presents that early genesis of the dark realm in a slightly different light than either I6 or the Realm of Terror boxed set did. Again, yes, it's physically a module -- but (also again) like most modules it takes place in and features a specific setting.

 

[billd91]

I've never been particularly keen on most of the Ravenloft-as-setting products. For my money, the best treatment is, and always has been, I6. The recent Expedition to Castle Ravenloft would come in second.

 

[danbuter1]

I loved Domains of Dread. And I also liked all the books before it. I did not buy the White Wolf books.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

Domains of Dread was my favorite, because it took that all-important step of turning Ravenloft from a weekend in hell to a living, breathing world.

I have the Black Box, which is beautiful and raw, and the 3e player's book, which is beautiful and detailed, but neither quite gives me the satisfaction of Domains of Dread. I believe it was because the world became fleshed out enough to be understood, but hadn't yet been done by Arthaus, which, I don't know, felt like the World of Darkness was kind of lounging on a couch in the background or something. Nothing too overt, but the angstiness was around.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I6 only

The campaign setting felt like nothing more than an exercise in futility.
The most recent module was a waste of our game time.

 

[boerngrim]

Hi
I enjoyed reading the Ravenloft setting in its different forms. To me the characters and their back stories were very engrossing.
As a player, I didn't really enjoy the setting. I felt like our party was always on the verge of destruction, surrounded by doom and gloom. I suppose that was the point of Ravenloft, but as a player I usually like the game to have at least some light moments.
Thanks

 

[Treebore]

Hi
I enjoyed reading the Ravenloft setting in its different forms. To me the characters and their back stories were very engrossing.
As a player, I didn't really enjoy the setting. I felt like our party was always on the verge of destruction, surrounded by doom and gloom. I suppose that was the point of Ravenloft, but as a player I usually like the game to have at least some light moments.
Thanks

Thats a HUGE part of why I like the 3E versions best. The evil hiding behind a very thin veneer of "normal" was strongly stressed. Plus they also made it possible for a Paladin to live from first level on. So when I ran my 3E Ravenloft campaign (the first campaign I ever ran in Ravenloft, the setting) they lasted from first level to 12th. Most of the time it felt like a "normal" campaign that involved fighting an abnormal amount (for my typical campaigns at least) of Lycanthropes and undead. Plus several unique creatures of pure evil. It was only when fighting major figures (Darklords and almost Darklords) that I really used the rules for fear, insanity, etc... or invoked the feelings of near helplessness.

The players handled the setting very well and even got to enjoy the "horrific" feel of the setting since I invoked the feelings only every so often. They even liked the fact that I turned out the lights and had us play by candle light and played ominous sounding classical music.

So that is how I will run this new campaign. In a lot of ways evil simmering below the surface is far scarier than having it thrown in your face at every turn. Doing it that way numbs you to it, or makes you feel too overwhelmed and helpless. Keeping it to where the players still feel hopeful is much better.

Which is why I really like the 3E DMG they put out. It is the best advice on running a horror game I have come across in the D&D genre.