It really depends on what kind of campaign you want to run. If you want to have a lot of action and combat and cool monsters, I'd recommend Denizens of Darkness. If you want to run something heavily atmospheric that has a distinctive Ravenloft flavor and doesn't really move around from one domain to the next, go for the Gazetteer that covers the domain you're interested in. (In a nutshell, Gazetteer 2 is best for a high-magic, "dark fantasy" campaign because of Darkon and Gazetteer 3 is best for a campaign focusing on political intrigue because of Dementlieu and Richemulot, while 1 and 5 have all kinds of crunchy monsters and paranoid, superstitious peasants if torches and pitchforks are your style. 4, IMHO, has a lot of more "supplemental" domains that probably aren't the best place to base your first campaign out of.) If you really just want tips on how to run a horror game and are okay with making up a lot of the details of the campaign world by yourself on the fly, consider the Ravenloft DMG. The others are good, but not the first things that I'd recommend for purchase.kelnage wrote:Okay, one last question...
I've seen the following books I might be interested in, however, I'm on a very limited budget right now. Other than the Ravenloft PHB, which I'll obviously be getting first, from these, which do you think would be a good next choice?
I personally would recommend a Gazetteer most strongly, unless you're reallynervous about the idea of running a horror campaign, in which case I'd go for the DMG. Denizens of Dread is great, but a creative DM should have no problem adapting standard lycanthropes, vampires, and ghosts from the Monster Manual into chilling villains for the first few sessions, especially with all the tips on salient powers from the PHB/core rulebook.