Customer Reviews

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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

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!

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.

The original Castle Ravenloft module was published sometime in the 80s and became a perennial fave among DMs in the 1st Edition. In the 2nd Edition it spawn an entire campaign setting that was sold off to the White Wolf subdivision Arthaus and was bought back after about 3 years or so. Fans of the setting are going to be slightly disappointed but you are in for a treat none the less. This is Strahd as he was originally envisioned. Updated to 3.5 Ed. D&D, this is a stand alone adventure rather than a restart of the original campaign setting. In some ways the Vistani are a bastardized version of themselves but this could be something the DM can revise himself if necessary.

Since this is a stand alone adventure there is always the question of where to run it. Fans of Forgotten Realms or Eberron have special notations on where to shove Barovia within the two popular settings that are presented as almost prestige settings. For everyone else you may need to tweak things a bit for your own campaign setting. But all in all if you want to run a quality horror adventure that will last more than a few sessions, get this module.

This module is well laid out in a new format that is easy to run for a dungeon master.Encounter stats are included for every encounter and are seperated to different pages than the story text(which is nice but a smidge inconvenient to flip back and forth).Many of the original module's content is reproduced in this new 3.5 version d20 system.
However the recommendation of this for 6th level characters is a little understated as I have found a group of five 6th and 7th level characters to really struggle with some of the encounters.

This is a very good adventure. It does not rival the original in terms of atmosphere but is a really nice 3.5 adaptation, with lots of new material also.
It is a much better work than the first revision of the original Ravenloft (House of Strahd for the 2nd Edition).
My only complain with this book is that it does not contain a full map of the Castle as in the original and the earlier version. Since this book even mentions that one of the groundbreaking features in the original Ravenloft was the classic Castle Ravenloft map, I would expect that it would contain a full two-page map of the Castle. It does not, though. It only contains small maps of each level, so you never get to see the Castle in all its glory. For me, it does not present a great problem since I own both the original Ravenloft and House of Strahd, but I would expect that it detracts from the adventure for people who only have this book.
Other than that, it is really surprisingly good.
It won't get 5 stars, in my opinion, because of the map issue.

An amazing book. I'm a beginning DM and it lays everything out for you in the new encounter format pretty much as straightforward as possible. Here are the stat blocks for the monsters, here are their places in the encounter, here is how they act. Also very handy that they provide useful information about how to adapt the game to span any desirable length between a one-shot Halloween adventure to an entire full-blown campaign. If you like horror movies or halloween you will love this adventure. It's got everything you want in terms of zombies, witches, werewolves and of course, vampires.

First off, I must give WTOC a big round of applause for this module format. I typically run home-grown stuff, but with a demanding career I haven't had the time to prepare much in the way of a good game. As a result, we haven't gamed as much as I would like.

With the addition of this adventure to my library I have been able to read this while on a plane, and be prepared to run it when I land. The encounter pages are laid out BEAUTIFULLY, I love the stat blocks, and the maps/visuals are to die for.

I HIGHLY recommend this module for anyone having difficulty finding the time to prepare!

This is an incredible adventure. Normally I am a little hesitant to buy a pre-made adventure, but this one is worth every cent. The new format in this book is a very handy feature, providing everything you need to know about the encounter in two pages. Wonderful formatting and maps. This is such a customizable adventure that it fits anywhere. It is reccomended that you buy Three Dragon Ante (Dungeon & Dragons) as well, because there is one part that these could be used. If you don't want to buy this, ordinary playing cards work just as well.

From the story aspect, this has an interesting plot. The adventure can be played multiple times with PCs finding out more things every time.

I look forward to more Expedition books!

Yes, I played the original, the day it came out to boot. Within half an hour, three players (yep, including me) had to make new characters. Then, one of the other new characters was turned, and that vampire killed another character and turned everyone else into vampires themselves.

It was my favourite adventure to hate.

I never had the chance to run the Ravenloft module myself, but I got to play through it four times by three different Dungeon Masters (DM or DMs). Every time, new places were found, and in some cases we didn't even visit all the same place upon character returns. Now, I am prepping to use this tome in a campaign. I've got to say, I love the new Expedition series of adventures.

Two gripes, but neither worth getting bent on: firstly, as it reads, correct implementation requires the DM to railroad (or, in laymen's terms 'to force the players to move their character's in an exacting manner as to not leave the players any choice in the matter) the players here and back again. Worse, the use of 3-d maps makes the whole place seem daunting and hard to pin down which way leads where. The second gripe is the number of pages wasted with 3 full-prints of Strahd's character sheets (three times, and if it has a pic of the non-player character (NPC) it is recycled in the later stat blocks. Other characters are also double printed, at that. Its a waste of paper. Even if they are simply trying to prevent referencing different parts of the book as they are needed again and again. YMMV.

Moving on, the Encounter System, a series of tactical scenes that fit in the narrative, is a brilliantly conceived machine, even with the few off-points. It does rid a DM of the need to constantly turn back and forth between 2-5 books; with this campaign, all you need is this one book. One book to rule them all, etc.... There are story line efforts to illustrate randomness and personal destiny. The Encounter levels vary from very easy to 'it's time to make a new character', and then to 'Wait! We're not Epic level yet!' Strahd as written is a Encounter level 15 with players being level ten or so, as the book is written. DMs need to be sure to keep in mind the coming scenes as to build a sense of horror and leave the players truly feeling fear, even if it is an in-game state of fear.

The book itself is a lot of fun, reminding me of the old Adventures of Lone Wolf and Grey Star - epic, one-man adventures where the hero must rely only upon themselves, and things did not always go the way you expect. The railroading nature of the story does serve the adventure's Gothic and horror plot. Characters start off going off on zombie survival missions, next trying to find weapons that might or might not serve their side with powers for the epic fight. The undead are EVERYWHERE. Since linear plots are the easiest and usually best for horror stories, I can't fault them there. With a little work, the DM can keep the appearance of free thought, but the uncertainty building up from the very first adventure... this is one Expedition that should kill, instead of just threatening the kill. No one is safe, and I think is a great issue in turning this campaign book into a true venture into fear and the unknown. Even knowing a friendly Cleric does not imply part success.

Now, if we could just get a Cthulhu Expedition I'd be happy for live. Now excuse me, I have to figure out how to get 100% total-party kill without things seeming so like a trip down the rails....

Good luck, and may you always roll 20's!