D&D 5E (2024) The Crooked Moon - an alternate Ravenloft?

[bedir than]

The credits for Crooked Moon include many recognizable names. Avantris flexed to bring in quite a few people who were at the tops of the freelance field at the time. I think Dan Dillon is now in-house with them while Merwin and Haek are no Wizards.

Credits

Every Avantris project is the result of dozens of creative minds: writers, artists, designers, editors, and partners from around the world. This page collects the credits and acknowledgments for our major publications and projects, ensuring everyone who helped bring these worlds to life is...

avantris.com

 

[DEFCON 1]

If that is true, you could easily make the same argument for the various Crooked Moon species, all of which are essentially "play a monster" types. There aren't just elves or tabaxi, they are gargoyles, bog trolls and living dolls.

Probably true. I've not read Crooked Moon so I can't speak with any specificity on the subject... but I will say just imagining the situation that I suspect I would have a harder time letting myself get scared while playing a bog troll, than if I was a human. I know the kind of stuff that can F a human up and which I would be scared of... the same can't be said for a bog troll.

 

[KoolMoDaddy-O]

I've heard the PC options are a little on the weak side, so take that for what you will.

Running a Circle of Wicker druid RN (not in the Crooked Moon campaign) and loving it. Very much fits into my character concept of a buff/bane support caster. Can't speak for the rest, although the Sinner rogue is intriguing.

 

[I'm A Banana]

It's not insurmountable by any stretch... but that split focus is still there. And at least for me personally... there's a certain amount of "goofiness" that comes with most of the various species one can play in the game, and thus I get held even more at arm's length to what is meant to be scary. I'm wandering around Barovia and I look over to see a 7 foot tall grey-skinned Goliath standing next to an Aarakocra flapping their wings and squawking... my suspension of disbelief to what is meant to be scary has to work just a little bit harder, LOL.

DM: "Strahd von Zarovich grabs you by your shoulders and twists your body, exposing your neck and your jugular vein. He leans in for a bite."
Player: "I'm an autognome, so I guess it's like when you bite aluminum foil?"

 

[Distracted DM]

It’s not just Ravenloft. when a gang of heavily armed strangers walk into any village in any world they will be met with fear and mistrust. Adventurers are the fantasy equivalent of a biker gang.

That's a great comparison I haven't seen before, I'll try to remember it!

 

[humble minion]

I like Crooked Moon, but I find the tonal shift between the resource and setting material and the adventure a bit jarring. You get a whole interesting campaign world laid out, with all these different puppet- and yeti- and troll- based races and a variety of culturally different regions - and then (as far as I can tell from my limited reading so far) the adventure which takes up a huge chunk of the book is restricted to one tiny valley.

I've heard the PC options are a little on the weak side, so take that for what you will.

For me, they're a mixed bag. There's some which look very potent, and some which are definitely on the limp side. Of course, I'm evaluating from a 5e player's perspective - they would probably look weaker by 5.5 standards. There's some excellent flavour and ideas though. I'd love to play a College of Whistles bard, or a Sinner rogue. Pestilent Haze monk has some great mechanics though would be a tricky one to roleplay. Great Fool Warlock or Occultist wizard also look like fun, but might be a bit much over the course of an entire campaign.