Jürgen Hubert said:
But maybe now is the time to take another look. So what has happened with the setting while I was away? What has changed since "Domains of Dread"? Any new metaplot issues? Which books are good, bad, or must-haves? How does the setting work mechanics-wise under 3E (or 3.5E)?
Well,
Ravenloft initially met with warm reception, being the first old campaign brought back in a new form. Things did cool when a few of the first books released had some noticeable errors (both in mechanics, and in internal consistency with the setting). And, of course, there's the 3E to 3.5E changeover. Likewise, no adventures are being published anymore.
In terms of overarching things happening...well, not too many. Azalin is back, for one. The Kargatane (RL's official fansite) were going to have the adventure that had him return, but circumstances conspired against this, and didn't happen. A new metaplot is that Azalin is having a scholar cross the entire demi-plane, cataloguing everything...this is the in-character explanations for the new RL Gazetteer series.
Beyond the Gaz metaplot, there are a few other things that have changed as a result of the new edition. Calibans are a new native RL race. These things are simply children of normal races that were born deformed for unknown reasons. They're statistically the same as half-orcs. Likewise, you can, in this edition, have native bards, druids, and paladins, something you couldn't before.
In terms of how the books are laid out...the design philosophy there changed. The actual RL campaign setting itself is now a player-friendly book. Don't expect to see any mention or domain lords or such there. It is now something that players can read without learning any setting secrets or major NPC stats...or even names in some cases. While this is good in terms of making new-comers familiar with the setting, it's damnably inconvenient for a new DM who wants everything necessary all in one book.
In terms of what you'll need to run the campaign. You'll need the RL campaign setting (as described above), and quite likely also the
Ravenloft Player's Handbook and
Ravenloft DM's Guide; it's a small comfort that both are 3.5E friendly. Likewise, you may consider the RL monster book,
Denizens of Dread necessary as well (as an aside, be careful that you get
Denizens of Dread and not
Denizens of Darkness, since the former is the 3.5E version of the latter, which is a 3E product).
Several of the earlier books are widely regarded as being less than stellar...to put it nicely. Most people severely dislike
Secrets of the Dread Realms, the second product to come out. While it does come packaged with the only RL DM screen seen so far, the book itself is rather weak. It has one new prestige class, the Witch-Hunter, which is meant to be a 10-level class, with a 5-level table (you can find the corrected table over at the sword & sorcery website). Likewise, that PrC is incongruous to the rest of hte book being filled with (3E) NPC listings, mostly for darklords. Given that not all darklords are listed, and that the gazetteers are revisiting and updating and expanding on these darklord entries...this product has almost no further use.
Likewise, the companion books
Champions of Darkness and
Heroes of Light aren't liked much either. Errors in mechanics and internal consistency abound. There is a PrC that gains power by revering a darklord...and keeps those powers when leaving his domain. There's an order that serves Strahd that's much too brutal for his tastes, making the entire order OOC for him. Jander Sunstar is given stats, but is missing almost a dozen feats, and is listed as being CE. While the books do have some good material (HoL brings back the idea for multiple levels of purity starting out, and the benefits and drawbacks of them, which is a minor point from 2E RL), most don't consider them worth it.
On the other hand, the
Ravenloft Tarokka Deck has been very well received, as have all of the RL Gazetteers to date.
Van Richten's Arsenal was very well done, being the Foxgrove-Weathermay twins' first published work, dedicated to their "Uncle Rudolph", and the subsequent guides (
Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead,
Van Richten's Guide to the Shadow Fey) are even better.
As an aside, the 3.5E RL products so far are the
Ravenloft Dungeon Master's Guide,
Ravenloft Player's Handbook,
Denizens of Dread,
Van Richten's Guide to the Shadow Fey, and
Ravenloft Gazetteer IV (and, I suppose, the
Ravenloft Tarokka Deck, since it's beyond questions of mechanics). The rest are all 3E products.
