Running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft

[Nightfall]

*waits semi-impatiently for Sunday...*

 

[WingOver]

-Spoilers-
...
I also have a paladin in the party (and two clerics), but I’m not sure how that makes a conflict of interest with Ashlyn’s goal of finding the Sunsword…is your player intent on racing her to find it?
...
Even if none of the above happens and Ashlyn is around when the PC’s find the Sunsword, I would most likely have her acquiesce to the party when it comes to the weapon’s use. No need for additional conflict.

My group has already convinced her not to accompany the party to the Church, playing on her concern for the villagers trapped in the town square.
...
-End Spoilers-

After the PC paladin heard about the sunsword, it was clear he wanted it (and I agree he should get it). The adventure states that she's on a quest to find the sword. So if she accompanied the party to Eva, discovered its location, and helped the PCs recover it, it seems implausible to me that she'd willingly relinquish the object of her quest. It would be an interesting roleplaying challenge but I don't want to risk such an important treasure slipping through the player's hands. so, away she goes to bury her friends. (And in my game the PCs also had her stay behind to guard the village square.)

So how are you going to handle Ireena? Is she going to tag along with the PCs?

 

[Nightfall]

*bump for Ravenloft goodness!*

 

[Talmun]

After the PC paladin heard about the sunsword, it was clear he wanted it (and I agree he should get it). The adventure states that she's on a quest to find the sword. So if she accompanied the party to Eva, discovered its location, and helped the PCs recover it, it seems implausible to me that she'd willingly relinquish the object of her quest. It would be an interesting roleplaying challenge but I don't want to risk such an important treasure slipping through the player's hands. so, away she goes to bury her friends. (And in my game the PCs also had her stay behind to guard the village square.)

So how are you going to handle Ireena? Is she going to tag along with the PCs?

-Spoilers-

Ireena and Ashlyn are interesting NPC’s. They share several things in common within the structure of the module; both want to accompany the characters, both can be used to flush out a small party, and both can be replacement PC’s in the event of a death. Apart from that here are my takes on them…

My take on Ashlyn:
In a meta-game sense, she’s primarily there to give the PC’s information. You’ll notice that the adventure admits that she might die in the combat in which she first appears, (indeed, she nearly did when I ran it) and that her journal can fill the party in on anything that she might have told them. Although she says her quest is to find the Soulsword, she and the party are actually on the same ‘side’, especially if the party contains Lightbringers, and she reveres Pelor; for me this reduces the likelihood of her ‘fighting’ against the party over the sword to almost nothing. I am going to further side-step this issue in my game by having her resolve broken by the death of her two comrades, and depending on what the party does, she will either agree to stay in Barovia and continue to act as it’s protector or she will return home to bury her friends, as in your game. My main issue with the latter is that I then loose both the ability to have her become a PC, and the opportunity for Strahd to kill off an NPC that the party cares about.
I’m not sure what’s to be gained by having Ashlyn in contention with the party, so IMO it’s best that events conspire to keep that from happening. It might not be a bad idea to avoid the dilemma entirely by adjusting what she tells the party initially; perhaps she came to Barovia because of whispers of an undead problem and only heard about the Sunsword in passing once she got there.

My take on Ireena:
She hasn’t actually shown up in the game as yet, although it’s very likely the party will seek her out next session, after dealing with the priest et al at the church.
Compared to Ashlyn, I think it’s much more important, dramatically, for Ireena to have a continued presence in the adventure. Not necessarily by joining the party outright, but she needs to be on the minds of the players, especially once they turn their full attention to the castle and Strahd.
She represents (or is) Strahd’s primary motivation, and she is his Achilles Heel (the module says that he will not attack her and neither will his minions).
To be honest, I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to handle her. A great deal of that will be decided by the players. My thinking right now is that I’ll have her stay in the village while they deal with the witches, the Fanes and the rest of the countryside, but once they begin to assault the castle in earnest she will ask to come along, and follow them even if they say no.

I’m sorry for my rather lengthy answer to your short questions…but I’ve been reading and thinking about these very topics the last couple of days.

-Spoilers-

 

[Nightfall]

Tal,

Hey better informed and well written than just utterly meaningless tripe, right?

 

[Joël of the FoS]

But then there are other "Ravenloft" fans who say they hate it, can't stand the halfling Vistani, what they did to the priest, etc...

All I can say is this is the ONLY 3E product by WOTC that I strongly like. My next favorite product is "good", and that is Libris Mortis.

I say get it guys, but others say its sacriledge/blasphemy/just plain sucks, so hopefully this thread will definitely give you a clear decision.

He definitely sounds like a DM I would like playing in a game of.

I like this adventure, it's well made and lively.

But it's a fantasy adventure, not a gothic one like the original aimed to. In fact, I think it's very far from the original I-6 in spirit. While the original relied on gothic fantasy monsters and encounters, there are numerous fantasy crawling / weird monsters in the Castle that removes the gothic atmosphere IMHO.

And I still hate the new encounter format

Joël

 

[Treebore]

I like this adventure, it's well made and lively.

But it's a fantasy adventure, not a gothic one like the original aimed to. In fact, I think it's very far from the original I-6 in spirit. While the original relied on gothic fantasy monsters and encounters, there are numerous fantasy crawling / weird monsters in the Castle that removes the gothic atmosphere IMHO.

And I still hate the new encounter format

Joël

I see what you ar saying, but I feel I can easily put the "Gothic" feel back in it, so that aspect doesn't bother me. Besides, I am looking to run the original I-6 with stuff added in from this book. So I think it will be very easy to get and keep the Gothic feel in my particular case.

 

[Mouseferatu]

You know, I'm a huge Ravenloft fan. I own both the new "Expedition" module and a reprint of the original. And I've read them both recently.

And I have to say, I think any "gothic adventure" feel the original has over the new one is purely a combination of nostalgia and the fact that it hadn't been done before, in D&D, back when the original came out.

Seriously, reread the old one and the new one within the span of a few days. I think the new one's no less gothic than the original--in fact, it's more so in some cases. (No one's a bigger fan of puns than I, but the old joke names on the tombs seriously shattered the mood.)

 

[Vocenoctum]

Cons:
I’m not sure the fake letter from the Burgomaster will always accomplish with it is intended to. The party quickly finds out it’s a fake upon reaching Barovia and is apt to disregard anything it says from that point on. Timing on this might need some tweaking so that the party doesn’t so quickly realize that it’s a forgery.

I think to fit into the idea that Strahd has planned it through, the Burgomaster should have died more recently. Given that he DID send out a letter, I think it's easy enough to insert some doubt as to whether the letter really was his. Having the real letter turn up later, or having Strahd reveal it was all his plan, fits the genre well enough I think.

The book has three zombie encounters before the party reaches the village square, where they stumble into a 4th. It also suggests that for every 40 feet they travel in town there is a 45% chance they encounter more zombies. Add to that the substantial chance that any building the PC’s might enter might also have a zombie encounter. I like zombies, but this is way over the top. I utterly dropped the 40 feet/45% encounters and had only one building encounter, taken with the larger brawl at the village square that was enough.

I cut out all but the first encounter and the town square. Zombie Night is fun, but not fun enough I wanted it to take a month to finish.

 

[Vocenoctum]

(No one's a bigger fan of puns than I, but the old joke names on the tombs seriously shattered the mood.)

See, I never really figured the names (which I loved) broke the mood. Sure they weren't gothic, but like you say, the "gothic feel" was not really that omnipresent to start with. It was Gothic D&D. Besides, I always figured it was some crazy Igor type that chiseled.