PREVIEWS FOR EtCR RELEASED!

[Dion of the Fraternity]

Wizards is now previewing generous samples of Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, including:

- all the art found inside the book;
- descriptions of the Castle gate;
- stats for Strahd (10th level vampire necromancer);
- adventure options (using EtCR in Eberron, Faerun and d20 Urban Arcana).

Also included is an interview with the adventure's writers, and a brief paragraph about the RL campaign setting and its licensing to White Wolf. Read carefully: Barovia in EtCR is not part of any demiplane, it is simply a small wooded area that could be infused into virtually any D&D setting.

It's a complete retcon for I6, and all are encouraged to take a sneek peek into how Wizards views its own (pretty good, IMHO) version of the original Land of Mists. Check it all out at:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20061006a

By the way, this is what Strahd looks like:




Cheers.

[Joël of the FoS]

Yes, you are right, they promised all this stuff for October 6th!

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Gallery look nice. I guess I'll make a few avatars out of this

Great Mme Eva. No clue as to what she is.

Strahd again has this Fabio look, but I prefer this to the dead cover.

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Strahd as a CR 15 monster, with 10 level of Necromancer, as the original. Great, I prefer this to my fear of Strahd being an epic creature in EtCR.

Interesting weakness with light, for this kind of quest. New. It says in a few place the heroes have to cut the connection of Strahd to the land. Mmmm...

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The designer interview confirms it has no link whatsoever with the setting. It's a standalone adventure.

The maps look gorgeous, of course...

Joël

[Malus Black]

And it's back on the top of my to-buy list . I'm really liking the excerpts. Yes, there's stuff I'm not too fond of (halfling Vistani? What?), and there seems to be some oddities in the background (probably because it's an excerpt, and we're not getting the whole story at once), but overall I'm happy with what they've done.

The fanes are a neat idea, giving the PCs a chance to take down some of Strahd's defenses before facing him, although I'm not too sure about the Dayheart. Also, from the excerpts it appears that the PCs are handed the "go there, find this weakness" information on a platter, but I suppose it's more fleshed out in the adventure proper.

The art looks, as a whole, really good (although the insistence on portraying Strahd as youthful is kinda odd, but nothing new there), with some minor exceptions in the interior art. It will be interesting to see how the tactical encounters work, but I'm optimistic.

[Joël of the FoS]

From another board, I read a review from somebody who got lucky and received it two days ago.

There are 3 separate rituals to "unconnect" Strahd with his land - hinted in Strahd's posted stats.

Success by the heroes diminish his CR by one each time.

Joël

[Darkknight]

Still on my to buy list, but somethings as we all have hinted to will be changing. I think the best one will be explaining to characters why the Strahd they nknew and loved has changed so much. "hey he fingered of deathed me last time.... what is going on?"

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Looks good. In fact, it looks fantastic!


The business with the "Fanes" and "Dayheart" is a bit odd, but it might actually be cool to add them to the setting's version of Strahd's history. It'd show that the old boy hadn't just been sitting around sulking, all those decades before the Mists brought the other darklords in for him to bicker with: he'd been experimenting with Legacy-magics.

[Brandi]

Look, I know it's been thin times for Lestat now that Anne Rice has found Jesus again, but...

[Jester of the FoS]

By Dayheart I'm assuming they mean the heart of the castle atop the central stairwell.

Pretty much what I expected other than that.

[Malus Black]

Yeah, it's the artifact that makes him immune to the effects of sunlight:

[Jakob]

As long as I forget about "our" setting, I like it.
...
Just tell me Eva ISN'T telling future using Three Dragons Ante!

[tec-goblin]

I am extremely excited. Actually I plan to play it in two ways:
once as a one-night session, with Smurf adventurers
once as a big part of a long dark matter campaign
The hooks and options for d20 modern and action points are quite nice, and the feeling will be entirely different (if you are from Hoffman institut, and you have played well the start of the campaign, setting the mood of an "almost normal" world, then the revelations will be horrific, and even the encounters with the zombies can be amazing).

Mechanically, the previews are amazing. Taint, nice use of the good parts of Libris Mortis, nice sense of balance and use of the rules to enhance the mood. I am still not 100% fond of self-contained encounters, but it will be a different style of play (my campaigns are usually a net of npc relations, and more often than not, I don't know in advance where the players will combat/interact with a particular NPC).

[Luke Fleeman]

The new picture above is cool; not quite what i think of when I think of Strahd, but a nice touch.

It is most certainly better than the horrific would-be corpse on the cover of the book.

BTW, the art of Strahd(not the cover) is by a fantastic artist named Wliiam O'Connor. Look him up, he does some great work.

[Luke Fleeman]

Whoa!

Sorry to double post, but reading the intro, there is this:

"In addition to adventure material, the appendix of this book contains information for player characters, including special items and magic items, new feats, and a prestige class specific to the Ravenloft setting"

It does note the "Ravenloft setting" so there may be some glimmer of hope, and some recognition. It may be nothing, but there is some reference to a setting, even if just for the book. Maybe we'll see where this goes.

[tec-goblin]

As long as I forget about "our" setting, I like it.
...
Just tell me Eva ISN'T telling future using Three Dragons Ante!

She does. Actually it's one of the options, as said in last Dragon magazine, if I remember correctly.

[Desertrising]

Wow this is one rocking adventure. I am really happy with how they have done it. Now if only I could find the link to the maps.