Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Devilman" data-source="post: 2008522" data-attributes="member: 18857">OverviewAh.  Finally, Ravenloft has been converted to D&D 3E.  Cover ArtI can’t say that I’m too crazy about the cover.  There’s the gem with a vampire (likely to be Strahd).  I kind of wish that there had been more art on the cover.  I could have done without the white blotches all over the borders of the book.  The back cover text could have been more centered.  By the way, can they call this thing a ‘Core Rulebook’?Interior ArtThe first piece of interior art I noticed were the maps on the inside covers.  For all you hardcore Ravenloft loyalists, the Core domains have not been rearranged.  The artwork in this book is great.  I think that Talon Dunning does a wonderful job of portraying the look(s) of Ravenloft in the player character drawings.There are a couple things that I dislike however.  The first page shows the now-classic mirror (or picture) frame that was featured on the cover of Domains of Dread.  It’s quite fitting and nostalgic.  But then it is used for four pages in a row…The next complaint is with the same piece of art.  On each chapter division, they take that piece of art and stick a letter on top of it (written by one of Ravenloft’s famous personalities) but it looks messy and obscures parts of the frame.  My advice would be to either remove the background art or reduce the size of the letter to fit within the frame.LayoutOverall, the book is well layed out.  The fonts used are nice and always readable.  The only thing I would change would be to make the tables under the Fear, Horror and Madness checks into real tables.  By that I mean that they should be overlayed on a separate background and be properly indexed with the rest of the tables.ContentWhile going through this book, I thought to myself, “What does this book want to be?”  The book seemed to have an identity crisis of sorts.  It looked like a player’s guide – it listed the various races and classes with the appropriate modifications, there were revisited skills and new feats, and it gave nice overviews of the various domains.  I would have added prestige classes and more spells.But then, it looked liked a DM’s guide – I consider the Fear, Horror, and Madness checks to be DM material, there’s the Path of Corruption, and the abridged Van Richten’s Guide section (dubbed Horrors of the Night).  I would have added more monsters, some darklord stats, secret society information, and perhaps more information regarding Azalin’s return.Now don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t have to be one or the other exclusively.  It could be both.  It fails in that respect though.  Just to be clear, I did not find any of the content to be bad.  I was just hoping for a little more.Campaign SpecificIt’s a campaign setting book, so if you’re running a Ravenloft d20 game, this is a nice buy.  I can’t find myself calling it a must-buy however, largely for the reasons I gave in the previous paragraph.AdaptabilityFear, Horror, and Madness checks can easily be ported into your own homebrew or published campaign setting.  The variations on favorite supernatural baddies make for a fun addition to any game.  If you want firearms in your game, go for it!Licensing IssuesLooks like they’ve removed most references to the other D&D settings (alive and dead).  Bane is known as the Lawgiver now.  The oriental domains are gone.  No more Kalidnay.  Lord Soth’s name is nowhere to be found.  Who was that Vecna guy again?  It remains to be seen if non-Darklord NPCs with otherworldly ties are phased out as well.OverallIt’s hard for me to justify the purchase of this book if you already own Domains of Dread.  You can't help but compare this book to other campaign setting books.  If you don't already have the Ravenloft campaign setting (in any edition), then this book is a nice buy.</blockquote>

Verification