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

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.

 

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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. ;)
 

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.
 

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?"
 


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.
 

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