Ravenloft anyone?

[Ashrem Bayle]

I always really liked Heart of Midnight, though Vampire of the Mists and I, Strahd were great too.

 

[ShadowDenizen]

As an avid Ravenloft fan, I have all the novels.
And I'm wondering why they chose to reprint that one?
AS several people have mentioned, it's one of the weaker (if not weakest!!!) novels in the line.

Plus, weirdly enough, the 3.X stuff seemed to lose... something... that Ravenloft had. An almost intangible quality.

While technically proficent, IMO, the 3.x books DID seem to lose something.
I love White-Wolf, and most all of their subsiduaries, but they seemed to lose the true FLAVOR of the setting. Even the Gazeeters were a little lackluster: techincally proficient, but lackluster. And VR's Guide to the Shadow-Fey was not needed at all: I would have preferred to have a physical copy of VR's Guide to the Mists.

I think my favorite supplement put out by Arthaus was the last one, detaliling some standard gothic tropes, and how to twist them into Ravenoft adventures.

 

[Alzrius]

It is bothersome that they're leading off an apparent resurrection of the Ravenloft novel line with what appears to be their weakest book, but at least it's something, which is far and away better than nothing.

My hope is this leads to actual new novels/supplements. I know James Lowder wanted to do another Sithicus novel, and a short story.

 

[Mouseferatu]

And if you did that who would read it?

Blast! You have found the flaw in my plan!

All right. You can all live.

 

[jaerdaph]

The decision was probably based on the name recognition of the author and the success she has had with the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series after Death of a Dark Lord came out.

Edit: She has a huge following, and all those people who bought her Anita Blake books will get that email from amazon.com saying, "As someone who has bought books by Laurell K Hamilton in the past, we thought you might be interested in..."

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I hope they do bring back Ravenloft, preferably returning to prior Azlan's weirdo experiment. Maybe right after the Grand Conjunction.

Sorry, but Arthaus' stuff didn't seem to sell well at the nearby FLGS, where the old first or second boxed set was nearly impossible to grab before someone else wanted it.

Plus, weirdly enough, the 3.X stuff seemed to lose... something... that Ravenloft had. An almost intangible quality.

It's really hard to take your opinion as a fan of Ravenloft seriously when you don't appear to know the name of the darklord in question. I seriously had to think hard as to who the Hell you were talking about.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

The decision was probably based on the name recognition of the author and the success she has had with the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series after Death of a Dark Lord came out.

Bingo.

 

[Joël of the FoS]

In short, Death of a Darklord is a bad Ravenloft novel, but an OK book (not bad, not excellent) if you forget it was made for Ravenloft.

Joël

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I'm personally happy if they put a stake in Ravenloft as a setting ... but I would support bringing back the original I6 Ravenloft adventure as a 3.5 upgrade with 3.5 production values. It is still a fantastic module, and though I've converted it (see the Conversions forum) it's worthy enough for a formal treatment.

 

[Joël of the FoS]

I'm personally happy if they put a stake in Ravenloft as a setting ...

Ahem. Funny way to say it I guess...

If don't like it, just don't play it.

But remember many others do.