Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Promotions/Press
The Beast of Graenseskov: An Introductory Ravenloft Adventure [DMs Guild]
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Koren" data-source="post: 6876149" data-attributes="member: 6802236"><p>I'll be doing a complete review of this product after I run it. My full review will cover the mechanics and balance of the challenges in the adventure after I've had a chance to run it. My blog's campaign reports should also cover my group's experience with the story week-by-week which will provide some feedback. Until then, I'll post my initial reactions after purchasing it the day it was released.</p><p></p><p>I'll be running this for my CoS group immediately after they finish Death House. The adventure itself gives simple advice for altering the challenge for weaker/stronger parties, and I like the idea of sending swarms of wolves at my group, as I plan on playing up the wolves vs. ravens themes found in Curse of Strahd, and that ties in nicely with this adventure. </p><p></p><p>Assuming even a minimal amount of narrative play during a gaming session, this adventure looks like it will provide at least 5 or 6 four-hour, standard "gaming sessions" worth of material as written. With groups that like to act out every interaction with an NPC, I could see that increasing to 11 or 12 sessions. The amount of material makes is a solid value for its price tag. If you're running it before, or within a Curse of Strahd campaign, it fills the gap in content appropriate for 3rd-4th level characters, and offers several interesting tie-ins with that adventure to send your parties to Volchykrov manor and into this story line. Many of the hooks can also be used as the start of a campaign independent to Curse of Strahd, but set in the canon Demiplane of Dread from earlier editions. </p><p></p><p>The area map appears to fit quite nicely just east of the Barovia regional map used in Curse of Strahd. As such, it opens up more ground to explore a larger campaign set in the region. Like the CoS map, it's sparely-enough populated to drop in a few more home brewed or published adventure sites/points of interests as part of a larger Ravenloft campaign. It's inspiring me to think about downplaying the Defeat Strahd aspect of CoS and running a game where the characters aren't led to feel like their best chance of "getting home" again is a castle crawl ending with "staking teh vampyr". </p><p></p><p>The adventure also reinforces an investigative style of game-play which should put your characters in the right frame of mind for a Ravenloft game. The enemies are supposed to be more powerful than the party, coming back again and again, just when you think they're defeated, unless you find their secret weakness and exploit it. From reading the introduction, the Beast (or Beaste as it's referred to by a few NPCs in the text) is that sort of villain. Whether it lives up to it, or gets played as a simple bag of hit points to be overcome, falls squarely on the shoulders of the DM who runs this. That means that to get the most out of it, you should expect to put some work into prepping it. There's a lot of clues and evidence to be found and multiple ways to find it (good use of the 3 to 1 rule), mechanics for randomizing the adventure with Tarokka cards (excellent!), and a lot of freedom given to how the party can accomplish these things. Most importantly though, is knowing how it all goes together so that you can swing with your players going off-script, trying something not anticipated for in the story.</p><p></p><p>The only fault I could find with it, so far, if you can can call it a fault is the amount of prep work. It's not going to appeal to everyone, because it's not a "buy and run that night" adventure. But for those DMs and players that want to tell a good story with their game, but aren't necessarily the "make it up on the spot" types, and are willing to put a little work into getting there, this adventure facilitates telling a damn good tale that pays tribute to some of the classic fiction that directly inspires Gothic horror fiction and gaming. Successful parties come out of it the heroes of a Grimms' fairy tale, which may be exactly the inspiration they will need in order to be heroes in larger tales set in Ravenloft.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>A couple questions/comments about the text:</p><p>The grid is missing on the lower floor of the map on page 55. </p><p>What's the 6th riddle? Is it supposed to be impossible? Or do I just not get an allusion in it which leads to the answer?</p><p>Any chance of a "DM cheat booklet" added to the download which summarizes the decision points, clue lists, and Tarokka results in a single place?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Koren, post: 6876149, member: 6802236"] I'll be doing a complete review of this product after I run it. My full review will cover the mechanics and balance of the challenges in the adventure after I've had a chance to run it. My blog's campaign reports should also cover my group's experience with the story week-by-week which will provide some feedback. Until then, I'll post my initial reactions after purchasing it the day it was released. I'll be running this for my CoS group immediately after they finish Death House. The adventure itself gives simple advice for altering the challenge for weaker/stronger parties, and I like the idea of sending swarms of wolves at my group, as I plan on playing up the wolves vs. ravens themes found in Curse of Strahd, and that ties in nicely with this adventure. Assuming even a minimal amount of narrative play during a gaming session, this adventure looks like it will provide at least 5 or 6 four-hour, standard "gaming sessions" worth of material as written. With groups that like to act out every interaction with an NPC, I could see that increasing to 11 or 12 sessions. The amount of material makes is a solid value for its price tag. If you're running it before, or within a Curse of Strahd campaign, it fills the gap in content appropriate for 3rd-4th level characters, and offers several interesting tie-ins with that adventure to send your parties to Volchykrov manor and into this story line. Many of the hooks can also be used as the start of a campaign independent to Curse of Strahd, but set in the canon Demiplane of Dread from earlier editions. The area map appears to fit quite nicely just east of the Barovia regional map used in Curse of Strahd. As such, it opens up more ground to explore a larger campaign set in the region. Like the CoS map, it's sparely-enough populated to drop in a few more home brewed or published adventure sites/points of interests as part of a larger Ravenloft campaign. It's inspiring me to think about downplaying the Defeat Strahd aspect of CoS and running a game where the characters aren't led to feel like their best chance of "getting home" again is a castle crawl ending with "staking teh vampyr". The adventure also reinforces an investigative style of game-play which should put your characters in the right frame of mind for a Ravenloft game. The enemies are supposed to be more powerful than the party, coming back again and again, just when you think they're defeated, unless you find their secret weakness and exploit it. From reading the introduction, the Beast (or Beaste as it's referred to by a few NPCs in the text) is that sort of villain. Whether it lives up to it, or gets played as a simple bag of hit points to be overcome, falls squarely on the shoulders of the DM who runs this. That means that to get the most out of it, you should expect to put some work into prepping it. There's a lot of clues and evidence to be found and multiple ways to find it (good use of the 3 to 1 rule), mechanics for randomizing the adventure with Tarokka cards (excellent!), and a lot of freedom given to how the party can accomplish these things. Most importantly though, is knowing how it all goes together so that you can swing with your players going off-script, trying something not anticipated for in the story. The only fault I could find with it, so far, if you can can call it a fault is the amount of prep work. It's not going to appeal to everyone, because it's not a "buy and run that night" adventure. But for those DMs and players that want to tell a good story with their game, but aren't necessarily the "make it up on the spot" types, and are willing to put a little work into getting there, this adventure facilitates telling a damn good tale that pays tribute to some of the classic fiction that directly inspires Gothic horror fiction and gaming. Successful parties come out of it the heroes of a Grimms' fairy tale, which may be exactly the inspiration they will need in order to be heroes in larger tales set in Ravenloft. A couple questions/comments about the text: The grid is missing on the lower floor of the map on page 55. What's the 6th riddle? Is it supposed to be impossible? Or do I just not get an allusion in it which leads to the answer? Any chance of a "DM cheat booklet" added to the download which summarizes the decision points, clue lists, and Tarokka results in a single place? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Promotions/Press
The Beast of Graenseskov: An Introductory Ravenloft Adventure [DMs Guild]
Top