45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A WORTHY SUCCESSOR TO THE ORIGINAL, November 22, 2006
This review is from: Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement) (Hardcover)
The original Ravenloft module from the 1980's was one of the most popular adventures ever for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Later the Ravenloft boxed set would be introduced followed by dozens of other boxed sets and adventures in the 90's. Now Ravenloft has finally returned in a new hardcover campaign book from Wizards of the Coast, seeking to recapture that magic. While I would have loved to see a new boxed set with great foldout maps, WOC's seems to want to do everything in hardcover format so I guess we will have to live with it.
Once again we meet Count Strahd von Zarovich who has unique powers that make him far more powerful than your average, run-of-the-mill vampire thanks to his unique tie to the village of Barovia, cast right out of a 19630's Universal horror film (although Strahd himself seems less based on Bela Lugosi than in the original Ravenloft module. The randomness and replay-ability of the original module has been faithfully replicated and kept in tact, meaning that this is one campaign that can be repeated with very different encounters and results due in large part to the gypsy fortune teller Madame Eva whose card readings set the stage for random events and encounters.
Another feature which is nice is that the book can be played as one lengthy campaign which will take months to complete, or played in shorter, even one night sessions as guidelines are presented for each type of scenario. Again, this only serves to bolster the replay factor of the campaign. In addition, there are specifics laid out to drop Ravenloft into the Forgotten Realms, Eberron, or even D20 Modern.
The players will begin in the village of Barovia and begin play due to one of several different adventure hooks. They will eventually meet up with Ireena Kolyana, daughter of the late Burgomeister and find themselves smack in the middle of a rampant zombie outbreak that would make George Romero proud. The players will go on to investigate the expansive surrounding lands before arriving at the very gothic Castle Ravenloft.
At over 200 pages, the designers obviously have much more to work with in establishing the setting of this haunted castle and describing the various rooms and encounters in far more detail than in the original module, and they do a wonderful job. This castle is downright creepy and you never know what lurks beyond the next door. In all there are some 90 areas described within the castle, not including the decrepit crypts of Ravenloft which add another 40 areas to explore. While it says its geared towards 4 6th level characters, that strikes me as a bit under powered.
The Appendices describe a couple of new prestige classes, magic items, weapons, and artifacts but they really keep the new equipment to a minimum. As usual the book features fantastic work from numerous artists.
Expedition to Castle Ravenloft has some big shoes to fill but I think it does so quite successfully.
Reviewed by Tim Janson
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great new format, November 8, 2006
This review is from: Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement) (Hardcover)
I'd like to echo J Tucker's review. I picked this book up because I thought it would be fun and nostalgic to run my players through good old Ravenloft. What I got for my money seems to be a complete rework of how Wizard's is publishing their adventures now. Specifically, how they have reworked presentation of combat encounters. It works wonderfully!
I absolutely HATE page flipping when I run a game. I try to have as many things memorized as possible as well as critical notes on a one sheet so that any page turning is kept to a minimum. This new format is great. I have a small map, stats and tactics all on the same page. No need to page turn to run an encounter and no need for notes! Everything is right there in front of me. I can't say enough about this. It's been a long time coming.
I think in the past Wizards and other D20 publishers have tried to show that they are not skimping on content by publishing stat blocks one time only in an appendix and asking the DM to flip back to that page each time that particular stat block is needed. My guess is they decided that republishing stat blocks at each point harkened back to the early 90s fluff, large margin BS that was coming out of TSR.
Wizards take note. There is a balance to be struck and I for one love the balance you've found here. Not only is the adventure fluff less, its high quality, fun and EASY to run. Thank you!
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good horror adventure, November 6, 2006
This review is from: Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement) (Hardcover)
I was really surprised by the quality of this book. I have never been impressed by Bruce Cordell's work, and have always been a skeptic of published adventures. But, as a veteran gamer, I can say this book satisfies. Great wilderness sites, an expansive "dungeon", plenty of dangerous monsters and traps, and good artwork combine to create the chilling atomosphere a Ravenloft adventure should possess. And the new encounter format is one of the best D&D improvements in years, especially for gamers like me who hate page-flipping during combat.
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