D&D General Should I buy any old Ravenloft books?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Van Richten's Guides would be my suggestion, most of which have some interesting ideas that can easily be adapted to your game of choice.

 

[jian]

The question for me is: did anyone buy and use Masque of the Red Death back in the day, and how was it?

 

[Tinker Gnome]

The question for me is: did anyone buy and use Masque of the Red Death back in the day, and how was it?

Not back in the day, but it is AMAZING. Though I would probably still tweak the spellcasting rules if I ever ran a AD&D 2E game using it.

 

[R_J_K75]

Is there anything good you'd recommend buying?

if I can only grab, say, 3, what 3 should I get?

The 2e Von Richen Guides were pretty revolutionary at the time because they treated monsters as characters in their own right, fully customizable and diverse.

Out of all the Ravenloft books I owned from 1E-3E The ones that stick out for me we're the 2E books, Domains of Dread (the hardcover - TSR 2174), Carnival (TSR 11382) and Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium Volume's One-Three (TSR 11447, 11507, 11613) immediately come to mind as ones that were good and wished I'd kept.

Domains of Dread is a good one book summation of the setting. Only drawback I can think of is that the maps weren't all that great. It was the first Ravenloft book I ever bought and read; and if you own the 5E Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft it's a good comparison.

Carnival is Carnival that travels through the Domains IIRC. It's pretty unique and easily dropped into any campaign. I never played or fully read the 5E adventure Wild Beyond the Witchlight but from what I did read of it I think one could draw some parallels between the two books at parts. Carnival is a quick 64 page read too.

I agree with @Celebrim about the Van Richten's Guides, but I'd opt for the compiled Monster Hunters Compendiums, might save you some money.

The various 2E Ravenloft Monstrous Compendiums are worth a mention too, think there was a combined Vol 1 & 2, and then a Vol 3. The 2E AD&D Monstrous Compendium Annuals Vol 1-4 had some good Ravenloft monsters spread throughout the 4 too, among other creatures.

 

[R_J_K75]

Boy do I wish I still owned my original I6 module.

Over the last 25 years I did 3 great purges of my RPG collection, I'm talking about 15-20 boxes. Every time a conversation like this comes up, I always regret getting rid of a good portion of what I did, even though I'd never read or use them again, I still miss them for nostalgias sake.

 

[Ashton van Richten]

I have several of the old Van Richten's Guides and they have some really fun things in them that if I ever DM would want to use, and even without that, just reading through the books is really fun. I love reading through them and getting little snippets of lore and Van Richten's personality through his writing. It's neat!!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Carnival is Carnival that travels through the Domains IIRC. It's pretty unique and easily dropped into any campaign. I never played or fully read the 5E adventure Wild Beyond the Witchlight but from what I did read of it I think one could draw some parallels between the two books at parts.

The Carnival is discussed in Van Richten's and briefly discusses how it's originally from the Feywild and switched places with a Ravenloft carnival, which is the one in Wild Beyond the Witchlight.

The Witchlight Carnival in the opening chapter of that adventure (and the free prelude on DMs Guild that, IMO, really ought to be included in the book) are channeling Something Wicked This Way Comes vibes.

If you want a really horrific carnival (who knew so many designers were into carnivals?), you probably want Heckna! from Hit Point Press. At the very least, it's got monsters and spells worth swiping for other spooky carnivals you might use. I believe the PDF version is now free on their site.

 

[Tonguez]

Domains of Dread,
Van Richens Guide to Ghost - good advice on turning ghosts into full mystery adventures

Night of the Walking Dead is a great adventure on its own and the start of the Great Conjunction Saga metaplot (Feast of Goblyns, Ship of Horror, Roots of Evil)
Castle Forlorn - a great use of time shifting in a dungeon
Bleak House Adventure is pretty cool too

Note that Fraternity of Shadows use to have a lot of fanmade material including advice on how to 'improve' adventures, but I havent checked it for a couple of years now

 

[Ashton van Richten]

Domains of Dread,
Van Richens Guide to Ghost - good advice on turning ghosts into full mystery adventures

Night of the Walking Dead is a great adventure on its own and the start of the Great Conjunction Saga metaplot (Feast of Goblyns, Ship of Horror, Roots of Evil)
Castle Forlorn - a great use of time shifting in a dungeon
Bleak House Adventure is pretty cool too

Note that Fraternity of Shadows use to have a lot of fanmade material including advice on how to 'improve' adventures, but I havent checked it for a couple of years now

Fraternity of Shadows my beloved and absolutely seconding VRGT Ghosts

 

[Alzrius]

Fraternity of Shadows my beloved and absolutely seconding VRGT Ghosts

Their take on Meredoth, in their Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer, made him one of my favorite darklords.