Starting a new Campaign

[yorik]

Hi, first off I'd like to say I'm relativly new to DMing though I've been playing DnD since 2.5 edition. Recently one of my friends got me to try DMing through modules since I expressed intrest in this, well the effect was good. Since then I have started up a campaign running with the Drow War books and doing quite well according to feedback from my friends.

What I am asking here is I'd like to start a new campaign with my friends to run alongside the Drow War but be completely seperate (so different characters.) I have been looking into the Ravenloft setting and it looks facinating, so the question I have to ask is I'm looking for a way to have a Ravenloftesque campaign using modules (I have the Expedition to Ravenloft Manor) but I don't have access to the campaign books. I'm wondering what some ideas would be for more ravenloftesque modules I can get that would go over a long campaign? Also since there will be new players in the group is it best to start off at lvl 1 with a minimum amount of extra books or a higher lvl (say 6 to kick off the campaign with Expedition to Ravenloft Manor?)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, Castle Ravenloft is the old school version of Ravenloft, where it's just a single backward (and tiny) county. Ravenloft the setting (most recently published by White Wolf) is a whole plane. So they don't really go great together, although you could certainly strand player characters in the plane after they go to the county.

In any case, I think White Wolf's Ravenloft books are, for the most part, pretty good. I especially like the monster book, and use it in my regular campaign.

White Wolf didn't create any 3E Ravenloft modules, that I'm aware of, unfortunately.

That said, there are some good horrific modules out there that could be woven together into a single horror campaign -- at least until level 6 or so.

I would probably start with Paizo's Hollow's Last Hope, then segue into Goodman Games' Legend of the Ripper. That should take you to about level 3 or 4. After that, there are several Dungeon horror adventures that you can probably plug in to get you to six.

Castle Ravenloft can be pretty brutal, so if you want to have the characters start at level 7 or so, have them do Cage of Delirium first.