Masque of the Red Death


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Red Death

1 oz. Vodka, 3/4 oz. each: Amaretto, Triple Sec, Southern Comfort, & Sloe Gin, Splash of Orange juice, Dash of Lime juice

Shake with ice & Pour into a Tall glass

-DM Jeff
 

MotRD was one of the most under-reated 2nd edition settings. It only had two products for it - a Boxed set (with a train, and a guy shooting at a skeleton looking dude on it), and a gazateer, which I unfortunately never owned. The latter had timelines of historical events, and figures of note from that period.

It was an awesome setting. My friends and I played it numerous times. Some of my most favorite characters I ever made were from that setting - from an old Jewish antiques collector, to a young Irish Catholic Priest with a double-barrelled shotgun, to a Vaudevillian prestidigitator.

It was awesome.

I will definitely be picking this up, and that's saying a lot coming from me.
 

I never had the main setting, but I had the Translyvania guidebook, which was a very well-written, researched splatbook. It mixed D&D and folklore perfectly, along with the (Ravenloft trademark) evocative bits of the "real story" behind what everyone in the campaign setting knew.
 

Masque of the Red Death had three products during its (un)life:

Boxed Set - Had the basic rules-alterations for the setting, plus 3 adventures: Red Jack (PCs vs. Jack the Ripper), Red Tide (PCs vs. Dracula) and Red Death (PCs vs. ...guess who?).

Gothic Earth Gazeteer - Hundreds of pages mixing real-world VIPs (Mark Twain, Bram Stoker, Winston Churchill) and fictional characters (Sherlock Holmes, Abraham Van Helsing) as if they all existed alongside each other. Also detailed several Secret Societies, including a mysterious gipsy tribe called "Vistani".

Guide to Transylvania - Researched to (un)death, filled to the brim with flavor and campaign possibilities. Included stats for Van Helsing, Johnathan Harker, Vlad Tepes, Mihnea (Dracula's son), among others.
 

I throughly enjoyed the old 2nd edition setting, and I can't wait to check out the update. It was rules light, had a fun concept for the setting, and immediately sparked tons of adventure ideas. All you had to do was pick up any history book, or look back at any world event, and it was easy to cast it in a Gothic light. Kind of What If? version of Earth.
 
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And for those times when you just gotta don plate mail and pound evil creatures with a mace, you could just run a one-shot set in the Late Middle Ages of Gothic Earth. :)
 

I really like MotRD too. I ran several games in it and played a few as well. In fact, just today I was reading about something that got me thinking about playing that campaign again.
 

My only MotRD campaign raged from levels 1-7 (and remember, this is 2e, when levelling up took forever and a day). It was largely responsible for my extensive soundtrack/classic CD collection.

Most used: Silence of the Lambs.

Except for combat. Then I popped out Disney's Fantasia (specifically Night on Bald Mountain, by Modest Mussorgsky).
 

I borrowed this off of a friend a few weeks ago and I really like it except for one small thing... there is one glowing historical inaccuracy that a little, tiny bit of research could have prevented and its not a case of "hey, its fantasy" or "hey, its a game" this is a biggy. Aleister Crowley. Now, I am a follower and it isn't that he is used as a villain that bothers me, far from it. But the default year sets AC as a mid-teen kid living an obscure life with his uncle, but the setting paints him as a power mad occultist BUT he didn't begin his true studies of the occult until about 1897, early 98 when he met George Cecil Jones and became initiated into the GOlden Dawn, barely 23 years of age. Crowley wasn't anywhere near the height of his abilities and intense magickal persona until about 1907 when he rededicated himself to the work and achieved the height of occult awareness in Tunisia in 1910 I believe. This puts him way out of the sphere of influence of the era the game represents as he wasn't even of age or involved in the occult at the time the boxed set takes place, but there he is, supposedly this great evil influence on the world as a teeny bopper.

Jason
 

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