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<blockquote data-quote="Bedrockgames" data-source="post: 9375433" data-attributes="member: 85555">For me where Ravenloft really started to shine in play was during the 2E era when I began evolving my style to fit the Van Richter Guide books more. Basically focusing more on monster hunts but also really taking the advice in the black box to heart and approaching individual monstrous villains as microcosms of the dark lord phenomenon. The perfect tone for em and the perfect level of detail is the black box (I also prefer the core from the black box to the changes across red box and DoD). The perfect style of play is explored&nbsp; more in example in the van richten books than explicitly. I definitely like Ravenloft that leans harder on the gothic horror inspiration, leans away from straight forward hack and slash, and puts emphasis on atmosphere. Typically when I run most games these days, they are more in the style of a sandbox. With Ravenloft my preference is more structured around adventure built on monster hunting and investigations (so not sandboxes as there is often 'an adventure' but within that framework letting the players do whatever they want. Something I would also point to are the novels. Some are very good like Knight of the Black Rose or Tapestry of Souls, others less so. But they were a great way to see how someone else imagines the setting (I would go to them less for plots and more for world building). Knight of the Black Rose is also good because it seems to take some of the advice horror in the black box and apply it to Soth's situation</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Bedrockgames, post: 9375433, member: 85555"] For me where Ravenloft really started to shine in play was during the 2E era when I began evolving my style to fit the Van Richter Guide books more. Basically focusing more on monster hunts but also really taking the advice in the black box to heart and approaching individual monstrous villains as microcosms of the dark lord phenomenon. The perfect tone for em and the perfect level of detail is the black box (I also prefer the core from the black box to the changes across red box and DoD). The perfect style of play is explored more in example in the van richten books than explicitly. I definitely like Ravenloft that leans harder on the gothic horror inspiration, leans away from straight forward hack and slash, and puts emphasis on atmosphere. Typically when I run most games these days, they are more in the style of a sandbox. With Ravenloft my preference is more structured around adventure built on monster hunting and investigations (so not sandboxes as there is often 'an adventure' but within that framework letting the players do whatever they want. Something I would also point to are the novels. Some are very good like Knight of the Black Rose or Tapestry of Souls, others less so. But they were a great way to see how someone else imagines the setting (I would go to them less for plots and more for world building). Knight of the Black Rose is also good because it seems to take some of the advice horror in the black box and apply it to Soth's situation [/QUOTE]

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