What pulled you into the mists?

[The Giamarga]

The boxed set is called Forbidden Lore. I remember buying the Domains of Dread HC new in the shop when it came out. (which was unusual for me as i normally got all my stuff through ebay) That book redefined RL for me, with it's focus on playing natives. A turning point for sure.

[vipera aspis]

being goth and seeing the van richtens guides when i was like fourteen or fifteen. i was hooked after that. i never thought any of the classics were given justice in the normal monster manuals. but the guides expanded on just about everything that had previously clicked in my mind.

once i got a little deeper into the world i fell in love with the deeply fashioned villains and the descriptive texts.

[Murgatroyd]

I'd been running AD&D for the same group every week... I found that they were beginning to take it for granted that they would trash any dungeon they encountered... I decided that they needed to take their gaming a little more seriously. Ravenloft I6 was just the thing...
Other DM's had been a little on the generous side with Magic, and the players usual techniques got them into loads of trouble... They headed straight down to the crypt level, and walked right into the wraith trap... One by one they found themselves naked and unarmed... the ones that survived that initial encounter were petrified, and loved the whole game... There's nothing like the sound of someone rolling up a new character in the background to persuade the rest of the party to treat the game with a little more respect... especially when that persons first character was reckoned to be practically unkillable by the others who had taken turns to DM previous games...

[Igor the Henchman]

Didn't have quite enough money for a Monstrous Manual (2E), so I picked up that other hardcover on the shelf besides it. Hmmmm. "Domains of Dread", eh? A classic AD&D campaign setting all in one book? Sold. Had enough left over to get a VRMHC1, too. Got home, devoured the Darklords' backgrounds, read Van Richten's tragic history, got hooked, craved more.

[High Priest Mikhal]

The boxed set is called Forbidden Lore. I remember buying the Domains of Dread HC new in the shop when it came out. (which was unusual for me as i normally got all my stuff through ebay) That book redefined RL for me, with it's focus on playing natives. A turning point for sure.

THANK YOU! That was really beginning to irritate me that I couldn't remember the name of the boxed set.

Actually I used the Tarokka deck in actual Tarot readings for friends in high school at the time. Aside from giving me serious headaches when I did them too often, a lot of people said my readings were dead on. I still think they were adapting the meanings to fit their own lives. It's the same idea behind horoscopes.

The Guides were--and are--major influences on my views of Ravenloft and even the games I ran. Sadly I never found Monster Hunter's Compendium Vol. 1 before it went OOP.

[BigBadQDaddy]

Most of my current collection I acquired when I was living in Germany. I was pretty impressed at how big a following American RPGs had over there.
I was actually able to get the Ral Partha Ravenloft Darklords box at a descent price.
Sadly enough, now that I think of it, that store was better stocked on Ravenloft stuff than any I had ever seen here in Minnesota. But that was almost ten years ago.

[Jakob]

Hmmm... It was a Ravenloft Campaign Setting (3E) in a discount bin at a comicconvention in Milano.

Fell in love with it as soon as I read it. It was... 22st of March, 2002.
...
Yes, I remember the precise date. NO, I'm not that sick. It was a serie of coincidences.

[Isabella]

The Children of the Night Compendiums. Jezra Wagner... *shivers*

[lostboy]

The ad they put in Dragon magazine for the black box. It was a one page job describing RL and outlining the general ideas with a short mention of Strahd, Lord Soth and Ivana Boritisi I seem to recall.

Yup I was hooked, I picked up the black box within the week....

[Jester of the FoS]

Many different things.

Before I even knew what D&D really was I remember the ads for the avdenture game and Ravenloft at the back of my comics (musta been 12 or so, about the time I discovered the Dragonlance novels).

Then, well after I discovered and started playing D&D, I was playing an almost spontaneous group at a library (we agreed to meet there the next day) and someone gave me an adventure to play. Touch of Death. Possibly the worst adventure to run off the top of your head.

Curious about this world that grabs people with Mists and "where the vampires don't fear sunlight and the mummies don't fear fire" (or something) I found a copy of the Red Box and asked for it for Christmas.
I musta been 15 or so, Winter of '94.

I absorbed about 50% of the information and promptly moved the players of my weekly game to Ravenloft where they remained for the better part of six or seven months before I swapped games to Palladium's Heroes Unlimited (hey, I was 15).

I started-up another campaign that gradually moved between two different homebrew worlds, Dragonlance, and eventually Ravenloft again (conveniently when Domains of Dread was released).

[DocBeard]

I was my old group's DM, and I wanted to throw something a little mean at them. I had heard good things about Ravenloft adventures, so I picked up 'The Created', and enjoyed it so much that I saved up for the boxed set and everything.

[Troile]

I played d&d 2e when I was younger.

Then I played V:tM. The game on paper sounds like a great idea, but it is better for a story than a game. It is all about social intrigue, so really it is probably best for LARP which I'm not really interested in.

I got back into d&d a bit with 3e and 3.5e. I really like the rule system (esp. 3.5e). I like how streamlined it is and how it allows for customization of characters and I find it easy to house rule. My problem was that I'm not really into high fantasy and that is what is most popular in d&d and what Wizards pushes.

It wasn't until White Wolf started doing Ravenloft though that my interest in d&d and RPGs in general was rekindled. I find there is a perfect balance between the potential for an engaging story that will make for a good story and have an impact on the players and good old fashioned dice rolling. The game doesn't get in the way and vice versa.

I've always loved gothic horror and fantasy so Ravenloft is a natural choice for me.

[Paladyn]

I was playing in AD&D and ran WoD. We were on friend's holiday house and two of us were camping in tent. One night we were talking RPg's latelly and he described his freind's RL campaing. Got instantly hooked, borrowed books and read them through. Next day I gathered my pennies and ran to only shop in town (ah... I love my country), bought Black Box, which laid there for about three years. Rest ist history

[dalewin]

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft gave me a taste of the setting and I set out to get all that I could after that. I had already explored and enjoyed Heroes of Horror and was wanting a cursed realm to play in as a Dm and found a perfect fit with the Mists. My best friends brother had always played Ravenloft in 2E and told us how dreadful and tough it was which had always sparked my interest and the EtCR set it off from there.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft gave me a taste of the setting and I set out to get all that I could after that.

Welcome! See, everybody, EtCR is good for something after all!