Ravenloft Campaign Setting (Box)

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This page is for the 2nd Edition "Red Box" revised Campaign Setting. It is the first version of the campaign setting following the Grand Conjunction.

Product Information

  • TSR# 1108
  • Authors: Bruce Nesmith with Andria Hayday and William W. Connors
  • Type: Campaign Setting
  • Format: Boxed Set
  • Release date: 1994

Contents

Basically a reprint of the Black Box - post Grand Conjunction - and Forbidden Lore boxed sets: Realm of Terror: a 160-page book of rules containing the reshaping of character classes; fear, horror, and madness, and powers checks; curses; spells and magical items, both new and old; psionics; techniques of terror; and more.

Notes

JWM noted on the Kargatane site that 'a minor error slipped into the Tarokka cards for this printing: the artwork on the 8 and 9 of Stars got switched'

David Wise, Kargat Chief at the time:[1]:


"Some have asked how the TSR Kargat decided which domains to eliminate from the Core after the Grand Conjunction. There were two main criteria. The first was purely ecological: We felt that the Core should be more consistent from a natural point of view. Thus, Bluetspur, with its sunless landscape, was too foreign to share space with the Core. Similarly, the formless Nightmare Lands needed their own place to be terrifying, and G'Henna was too barren to rest within the lush countryside around it. Markovia, inspired by the Island of Dr. Moreau, seemed to logically belong in the Sea of Sorrows, and its absence from the Core helped to create the very-cool Shadow Rift. In a related decision, the Kargat judged drow too foreign to the tone of the setting, as are dragons, so Arak became a part of the avaricious lord Azalin's domain (and the drow were discovered to actually be shadow elves and denizens of the new Shadow Rift).

Our second consideration was of the darklords themselves. Which ones were too much like others, or didn't seem quite evil enough to be a full-fledged darklord? Borca and Dorvinia were ruled by cousins whose biographies shared much in common, and it pleased the dark powers to see them at each other's throats, so their domains merged and left them to fight for ascendancy. Arkandale's lord, Nathan Timothy, seemed uninterested in power and lordship, so he was freed to navigate the rivers of any domain.

Meanwhile, several Islands of Terror were judged less exciting than the Kargat deemed worthy, so Farelle, Vechor, and Sanguinia were released from the Mists. In their place, Rokushima provided a new culture of terror, and Captain Pieter van Riese took to the Sea of Sorrows with his ghost ship."

Kargatane.com Review Page[1]

John W. Mangrum

This product started out with two strikes against it. The first started on the back of the box, which claimed "This new edition of the RAVENLOFT® game..." I bought this boxed set hoping for, basically, Domains of Dread, and what I got was pretty much just the Black Box and Forbidden Lore in a new package. Virtually everything in here is reproduced verbatim from one of those two boxed sets. While there are some valuable additions, there are also a lot of peculiar twitches.

For example: the background provided for Frantisek Markov in the Black Box includes a mention of his wife, "a zaftig and kind-hearted gal named Ludmilla." The Red Box includes this same background, except that the word "zaftig" has been replaced with "buxom." Huh? Why the change? It puzzled me then, and it puzzles me now. To be honest, it reminds me of my 6th-grade Country Report, back when 60 pages was a near-unimaginable amount to write, and we youngsters figured as long you changed a few words per sentence from the encyclopedia entry, it wasn't really plagiarism. No, no, I'm not accusing anyone of plagiarism; I'm just puzzled, is all.

The second problem is one I've long since come to accept (although I wouldn't recommend a repeat occurrence): the aftermath of the Grand Conjunction. Domains have been destroyed, shuffled around, the works. With some distance from this release, I can see that most of these changes were for the better: some Core domains didn't really belong where they were. Bluetspur is better off as a Realm Beyond, and Markovia does work better as an island. But at the time, I was only a year into running a long-term campaign centered around Hyskosa's Hexad, and I foresaw a major headache where many adventures would require major geographical changes before I could use them. (Which did indeed come to pass.) Ugh, what a bother.

Essentially, my review can now be summed up like this: all the information in here is fine, but I didn't appreciate spending $30 to buy a box full of info I already had for a few paragraphs of new material. If you didn't own the Black Box or Forbidden Lore, you would have found it better value.

That said, let's go over what you get for your money, and whether you still might want to pick this boxed set up in the wake of Domains of Dread. The box contains:

"Realm of Terror: a 160-page book of rules containing the reshaping of character classes; fear, horror, and madness, and powers checks; curses; spells and magical items, both new and old; psionics; techniques of terror; and more."

Do You Need It: Virtually everything in this book has since been updated in Domains of Dread. Two chapters may still be of use to you, however. Chapter 1, "From Gothic Roots," offers a detailed overview of the Gothic Horror atmosphere, one of the few areas skimped on by DoD. Chapter 10, "Van Richten's Overview," boils the guides to Vampires, Ghosts, Liches, Werebeasts, Golems, and Mummies down to two pages of rules each, which does come in handy for those who can't get their hands on the actual Guides. Some of this info, such as the nature of lycanthropy in Ravenloft, is actually important material, and does not appear in DoD.

"Domains and Denizens: a 128-page book describing the dark lands of the Core, the islands of terror, and many nefarious personages."

Do You Need It: An overview of the domains, the darklords, and the Vistani (including Tarokka rules). Most of this has been updated in DoD, but there are a few exceptions. This book includes Rokushima T�iyoo and its domain lord Shinpi. Neither the domain nor the lord appear anywhere else, and honestly might have been a better choice for inclusion in Domains of Dread than I'Cath. It also includes bios for Azalin, Dr. Van Richten, Arijani, Dr. Dominiani, and Nathan Timothy. If you only want stats for one or two of these NPCs, there are cheaper places to find them (Azalin: From the Shadows; Van Richten and Dr. Dominiani: Bleak House; Arijani: Web of Illusion ; Nathan Timothy: The Evil Eye; not to mention the Black Box for most), but if you want all of them and don't have any of those sources, this is one-stop shopping.

"Two maps depicting the reshaped Core domains and the islands of terror."

Do You Need Them: These maps are the worst thing they could possibly be: useless. They're shown from a 3-D perspective, which not only makes it impossible to use your handy-dandy clear hexmap overlay to measure travel distances, but fooled at least Steve Miller and myself into thinking the scale of the core had been blown up ten-fold.

"A poster featuring a painting by artist Robh Ruppel."

Do You Need It: The poster is the art on the box cover (pictured above), minus the Ravenloft logo. You don't need it per se, but it is very nice all the same.

"A tarokka deck of beautifully illustrated cards for role-playing fortunetelling."

Do You Need It: It's just plain nifty, is what it is. If you don't have a Tarokka deck, you're missing out. On the other hand, a minor error slipped into the Tarokka cards for this printing: the artwork on the 8 and 9 of Stars got switched. It doesn't affect play at all, but it annoyed me. I should also mention that K-B Toys, a mall toy store chain, sometimes carries Forbidden Lore for $3. If you can find a copy, you can get the Tarokka deck on the cheap.

"A DM� screen designed to be used with a RAVENLOFT campaign."

Do You Need It: Some of these rules have been substantially altered with the release of DoD, but it'll still hide your dice.


Andrew Hackard

This is out of print, so my comments will be short.

Essentially, I find this to be inferior to the original Black Box, especially bolstered with Forbidden Lore. Much of what changed were the things that I liked. I do understand the rationale for the changes, but I don't have to agree.

Overall, I felt as though I'd paid $30 for material I already had, and that is my chief problem with this product. If I hadn't already had the setting materials, I probably would have gotten more value out of it.


David Wise - Kargat Chief

Some have asked how the TSR Kargat decided which domains to eliminate from the Core after the Grand Conjunction. There were two main criteria. The first was purely ecological: We felt that the Core should be more consistent from a natural point of view. Thus, Bluetspur, with its sunless landscape, was too foreign to share space with the Core. Similarly, the formless Nightmare Lands needed their own place to be terrifying, and G'Henna was too barren to rest within the lush countryside around it. Markovia, inspired by the Island of Dr. Moreau, seemed to logically belong in the Sea of Sorrows, and its absence from the Core helped to create the very-cool Shadow Rift. In a related decision, the Kargat judged drow too foreign to the tone of the setting, as are dragons, so Arak became a part of the avaricious lord Azalin's domain (and the drow were discovered to actually be shadow elves and denizens of the new Shadow Rift).

Our second consideration was of the darklords themselves. Which ones were too much like others, or didn't seem quite evil enough to be a full-fledged darklord? Borca and Dorvinia were ruled by cousins whose biographies shared much in common, and it pleased the dark powers to see them at each other's throats, so their domains merged and left them to fight for ascendancy. Arkandale's lord, Nathan Timothy, seemed uninterested in power and lordship, so he was freed to navigate the rivers of any domain.

Meanwhile, several Islands of Terror were judged less exciting than the Kargat deemed worthy, so Farelle, Vechor, and Sanguinia were released from the Mists. In their place, Rokushima provided a new culture of terror, and Captain Pieter van Riese took to the Sea of Sorrows with his ghost ship.

I hope you enjoy the insight!


Mark Graydon

I thought this one was pretty good. It was my first product, and was pretty detailed. My only gripe is the lack of domains, but I guess they can't put every one in one product!


Inan Shadowstar, Native Ravenloft Psionicist

Move over Elminster, Go sit on a pike Raistlin, The Lady of Pain is a Wuss, Bring on the coolest character's in the Ad&d; Multiverse , Count Strahd von Zarovich, Azalin, Anton Misroi(my personal favorite.) and the rest of the Darklords. As you can tell I love Ravenloft, it is my all time #1 favorite campaign setting from TSR. I have played most of the other campiagns(except a few i can't get a hold of. Like the Masque of the Red Death *Sound of teeth gnashing.*) and though each one has its own charm, Ravenloft, beats them all out in my book. Well your not here to listen to me babble on about how much I love this setting Its time to get on with the review.

The red campiagn setting box while not my first exposure to Ad&d; or Ravenloft itself( I had read two of the Ravenloft novels previously.) is definitly my favorite out of the two sets of core campaign setting rules that I have had exposure to.(I should have stolen this version of the Ravenloft rules from my friend.) The first thing I liked about this version of the Ravenloft Campaign book is the Art, those black and white pictures that sort of looked like stained glass windows gave me the absoute chills and have given me many a nightmare. The maps were extremely helpful and my friend had them plastered to his wall in minutes of opening the box. The Tarroka deck was not only fun and useful for adventures you could also do readings in Real Life for your friends who had no idea what Ravenloft or roleplaying was just for fun. The Ravenloft DM Screen that came with the set is is the best DM Screen I ever came across for any setting and I have seen many a screen. And the two books that were in the set in my opinion were very well written and gave me the creepiest visions I have ever had from any horror roleplaying game I have ever played. Lastly the fact that Rudolph van Richten was detailed and still alive in this version of the setting gives it help in makeing it my favorite. I have only a few problems with this version of the setting #1 The Native Character situation which was fixed in Domains of Dread. #2 Some of the Domains and Domain Lords in this Version of the Setting were given only a brief look at and then were quickly moved over in favor of leaving more room for the more popular lords. Otherwise this version of the Setting was great and Definitly I would buy it if i could find a copy of it still.


Mad StepDad

After searching high and low for this out-of-print relic of Ravenlofts morbid history, I was not disappointed. True, it is pretty much just a rehash of the Black Box, and Forbidden Lore, however it does have some interesting things which make it unique from the others. First and foremost, I'm big on the whole "mood, setting and atmos-fear" of Ravenloft, so the poster was a welcome addition to my gaming room walls. Next, the DM's screen added a bit more to my overall presentation of the Ravenloft setting to my players. And the Tarokka deck, though already included in Forbidden Lore, has come in handy (it's good to have at least two decks, in case certain cards get mangled or lost). However, the main reason I needed the Red Box, was because I needed poster size maps of the post-Grand Conjunction Ravenloft. Though others may complain about them, they still look great on my walls. Overall, the Red Box set is not essential, but I was able to get it for $10, so it was worth every cent to me. 3 1/2 blood drops.


The Great Brown Cow

What can I say? This is what started it all for me, so I think I may be a bit biased... I can't really think of anything bad to say about this product. The domians were richly detailed, as were the lords. Though I didn't think much of it back then, it sure is helpful to have Van Richten's stats! Also, the Van Richten's overview was a lifesaver until I got my hands on the guides. Of course the new spells and items were helpful (who doesn't like new items and spells?). Overall this is one great product, providing all you need to run a campaign in the demiplane of dread, yet so interesting that you feel compelled to go out and squander all your rent money on every other Ravenloft product you can find! (Hmmm... maybe some form of foul magic is at work here...)


CHRIS WOODS

Just 4 years after the Ravenloft Campaign Setting was introduced a 2nd edition core rules was put out. Well, that is not correct. The Red Boxed Set was not so much a revision, but a review of the 28 products (not includung the novels) since the Black Box was released. The question is was it needed? If you didn't own the Black Box then it was. For $30(ouch) you got 2 rule books, a poster, 2 maps, a DM screen, and a tarokka deck. For some this was a good deal, but for those who already had the old Ravenloft products it wasn't. Now we all know that the Red Box is a rehash of the Black Box and Forbidden Lore(almost word for word) and a short summary of the VR Guides. There is very little new material and even the art is reused art from other Ravenloft products(only a few drawings are new). The only new stuff is on the current status of Ravenloft. The Grand Conjunction is talked about as is the way it has affected the world of Ravenloft. New domains and darklords are revealed and stats are given for most of the darklords(some for the first time). Now in theory this boxed set was supposed to fix the mistakes of the Black Boxed set, yet the biggest mistake of the Black Box is made again in the Red boxed set. That is the exclusion of all the domains and darklords. That mistake would be made two more times (Domains of Dread and the Ravenloft 3rd Edition) and it boggles my mind. Can somebody from Ravenloft please fix this mistake. The updated and new material is the only good thing about the Red Boxed set. The poster was nice but not needed, and the maps were terrible. Whoever decided that the maps would be in that stupid 3-D style should have been fired. The Tarokka deck and DM screen are not needed for most people(since I own every Ravenloft product I already had them and I never use them). When I first read the Black Boxed set I went WOW! After I read the Red Boxed set I went WHY? Why did I pay $30 for stuff I already had. If the producers of Ravenloft just wanted to update the post Grand Conjunction world of Ravenloft they should have just come out with a $10 product describing the changes. This product was not needed, unless you did not have the Black Boxed set and other products, only then was the Red Boxed set a great product. The Red box had everything the Black Box had except charm, and you can't put a price on that.


References