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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Scorpienne" data-source="post: 6834593" data-attributes="member: 39774">Interesting tidbits from Chris Perkins' interview with Fraternity of Shadows. I encourage you to read the whole thing. These were a few things that caught my eye.<a href="http://fraternityofshadows.com/TheParlor/Curse_Of_Strahd_Interview.html" target="_blank">http://fraternityofshadows.com/TheParlor/Curse_Of_Strahd_Interview.html</a>FoS: Without getting into spoilers, does Curse of Strahd assume the events of I6: Ravenloft occurred? Is it a sequel or more of a reboot/re-imagining?CP: Curse of Strahd takes us back to the original story and incorporates nearly all of the material in the original Ravenloft adventure. With the Hickmans' help, we've shone a flickering light on various other locations in Strahd's domain and made them important to the story of Strahd and his fall from grace. In other words, it's a revamp (heh heh). We're telling the original Ravenloft story again, and adding new elements, many of which were born out of Tracy's experiences running the original adventure for his friends and family on Halloween nights.Several smaller stories surround and buttress the main story of Curse of Strahd. For example, it might surprise you to learn that Strahd's manservant, Cyrus Belview, has a family. The Belviews figure prominently in a creepy little side story set in the Abbey of Saint Markovia, near the edge of Strahd's domain.FoS: The original Ravenloft adventure, when it was released in 1983, blew us away with its high quality 3D maps. What can we expect on this matter in Curse of Strahd?CP: We've redone the maps of Castle Ravenloft while preserving their 3D perspective. Doing so gave us a chance to make a few minor corrections and render the maps in a digital format. The other maps in the adventure were rendered by Mike Schley in a more traditional top-down format, for ease of use. Several of the maps, including the castle maps and the map of Barovia, appear on a fold-out poster map that comes with the book.FoS: What about Expedition to Castle Ravenloft or the Castle Ravenloft Boardgame?CP: I gave Tracy a copy of Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, which he hadn't seen before, and managed to pull a couple nuggets out of it and incorporate them into Curse of Strahd. The Castle Ravenloft board game had no influence the adventure.FoS: To long time gamers, the infamous Count Strahd is an icon of D&D. What were some of the challenges involved in taking such a beloved, classic product and bringing it to a new, modern audience?CP: Curse of Strahd shows our titular character to be even more of a monster. Everywhere you go in Barovia, you're reminded of the evil Strahd has wrought and the danger he represents. In writing Curse of Strahd, I was careful to make sure that all of the new material we added to the story reflects back on Strahd in some unflattering way. That being said, the Ravenloft story is timeless. Its story revolves around a man so arrogant that he allowed his lust for power and obsession with beauty to consume him. It's the kind of cautionary tale that, like many Shakespearean plays, echoes through the ages.FoS: Famous Ravenloft character Rudolph Van Richten has been name-dropped a few times in relation to the Curse of Strahd. Can long-time fans of the Ravenloft Setting look forward to any other nods to the past products?CP: Curse of Strahd is a bloodstained love letter to the Hickmans. I was more interested in exploring their creation than the various other works their adventure inspired. However, Dr. Rudolph van Richten is featured in a most unusual way. Depending on where fate takes the player characters, they might never meet him, and if they do, they might not recognize him at first. And like most of Barovia's inhabitants, he has some serious emotional problems. Most of the other supporting characters you'll meet in Curse of Strahd were created by my story team (Adam Lee, Richard Whitters, and myself) in collaboration with Tracy and Laura.</blockquote>

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