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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stormonu" data-source="post: 9342761" data-attributes="member: 52734">I ran I10 Gryphon Hill and I6 Ravenloft simultaneously back in 2E (using the "Dreams of Barovia" advice in I10), and I agree that the latter needs a lot of work - the latter is attempting to replicate some of the events when Strahd gets to London with a bit of Invasion of the Body Snatchers/Jekyll & Hyde thrown in to keep the PCs off their game.  Years later I'm convinced they were heavily drawing on the Call of Cthulhu RPG because its so different in tone (especially deciphering clues from the Shipping Manifest - such a CoC staple).But overall, that module is a confused mess and the staged ending very unsatisfying.  As I said above, it plays so unlike a typical D&D adventure and they players have to really buy into the gothic atmosphere and tropes hard time to sell it an make it work (and that is difficult to do when your hard-earned character's rear is on the line).   And I think the same thing goes for Ravenloft as a whole - playing much better under the likes of Masque of the Red Death PC creation than standard D&D.The original Ravenloft box set was deliberately campy, and until 5E was very much a "DM's playground" where the DM gets to have their fun and thrills reading about and playing NPCs who have backgrounds and minions as rich and intricate as the PCs, and set-piece encounters that are dramatic works of art meant for the DM to drool over than actually be fun to be involved in.  It makes it a "weekend in hell" and frankly unfun to be on the Player's side of the screen (mostly because you don't ever get to see the side of the story behind the screen), and the one redeeming quality of 5E's Van Richten's guide was that it made a serious attempt to make it enjoyable for both sides to have fun, engaging adventures that have a proper fantastic gothic bend in the dreaded lands of the mist (even if it did royally screw up some of the established Dark Lord entries) and not be a "humans only club" where everyone will lynch the wizard on sight because that's the only way to keep magic from ruining the horror aspect of the campaign.</blockquote>

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