Ravenloft-Your Experiences

[RandomCitizenX]

Played in a AD&D 2e game of Ravenloft for many a moon and also ran a few one shots. When 3rd Edition dropped we switched over, but jumped back into the Mists once the books came out. For 3rd edition I ran a campaign based in the western sea, but mainly played in a few different long term games DM'd by the same guy who DM'd for our group back in 2e.

 

[Stoat]

I6 is a classic and an awesome adventure. I've run it using 2E, and a homebrewed 3.5 conversion. In my opinion, the map of Castle Ravenloft is the best dungeon map TSR ever published. The place has a sufficient veneer of realism, and is nonlinear in a way that gives the players a bunch of difficult choices.

I doodled around in the Ravenloft campaign setting back in the day, and I was somewhat less impressed. I don't think D&D does horror very well, and as others have noted, the adventures tended to be fairly blah -- often either railroady, stupid or both.

 

[Zil]

Have always liked Ravenloft and collected most of the setting supplements and adventures, but mostly I plundered it for bits and pieces which I included in other games. I did get a fair bit of repeat use out of the Nightmare Lands 2E box set, most often as part of Planescape games (both 2E and 3E).

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I love Ravenloft. It's my favorite setting, bar none. I play 2e or 3e, but really, the setting is secondary to the flavor.

I even ran one here. Check out Paridon: the Dark Metropolis.

Here are a few posts I've written on how I run Ravenloft.

I love Ravenloft.

Cool, I will start to read through your PBP game.

 

[billd91]

I've run the I6 Ravenloft module 3 times, each in a different edition of D&D. Loved it every time.

I don't love Ravenloft as a campaign setting so much though. I thought Feast of Goblyns was pretty good and things were off to a nice start, but too much of the rest of it got a bit too silly for my tastes. I much prefer basing I6 in a nice, remote backwater location in my own normal campaign world.

 

[Stumblewyk]

I DM'd 2nd Edition AD&D almost exclusively in Ravenloft. I played in it first in several "Weekend of Horror"-style sessions before I DM'd a Ravenloft-only game.

LOVED playing in it, LOVED DM'ing it. The setting allows for some real cool role playing experiences, and really is secondary to the system you're running it in.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

Agreed, when thinking about Ravenloft it's best to leave the system in the background. Focus on the story first and foremost, and try not to railroad too much. That was probably the biggest flaw of the adventures; they focused on the crunch and had only a bare-bones plot that involved heavy removal of players' will.

The Ravenloft accessories, though, were terrific. The Van Richten's Guides opened lots of doors and presaged the coming of monster templates in 3e. Books like Castles Forlorn and Carnival worked well because the focus landed on the NPCs, the land, and their connections to one another, without a railroad to force them down the PCs' gullet.

 

[Vegepygmy]

Have you ever played in or GMed Ravenloft? If so, what system did you use? And how long did the campaign last? Did you enjoy it?

I ran Ravenloft (the adventure) using the 2nd edition DragonQuest system, and my players loved it. I've never run it or played it as a D&D adventure, though.

 

[Ulrick]

I ran the Ravenloft campaign setting in 2e and later in 3e with the Sword & Sorcery books. I loved it each time. I've used elements from the campaign setting (horror and madness checks) in other settings (until I discovered Call of Cthulu's sanity check).

I've run parts of Castle's Forlorn. The players never did figure out exactly what was happening to them. I've also run Night of the Walking Dead and The Created, which were fun.

I've also run the original I6 module, twice, as a one shot. Each time it was a TPK. But the player's loved it each time. One player complained that it took forever for the players to finally get to the castle--a lot of building up to the action.

But it was lots of fun. I should run it again sometime.

 

[Nagol]

Played in it in 2e.

Hated it for the same reason I dislike Call of Cthulu -- I hate "You will lose no matter how much you squirm" game systems. I feel if the best the character can look forward to is my retiring it (before it is killed, goes insane, becomes tainted and part of the problem, or whatever), I might as well get on with that as quickly as possible and play something more cheerful.