CONFIRMED: Ravenloft for 5th Edition

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Chris Perkins says: "Dr. Rudolph van Richten plays a pivotal role in the Curse of Strahd story. That's all I'll say."

huh... well that was unexpected. Very pleasant surprise...

[Zilfer]

Chris Perkins says: "Dr. Rudolph van Richten plays a pivotal role in the Curse of Strahd story. That's all I'll say."

huh... well that was unexpected. Very pleasant surprise...

I like it. Not sure if he'll be the Van Richten we know, or a Van Helsing sort of character but I like it.

[alhoon]

Chris Perkins says: "Dr. Rudolph van Richten plays a pivotal role in the Curse of Strahd story. That's all I'll say."

huh... well that was unexpected. Very pleasant surprise...

I know already that I won't like his stats and change them.
Also it seems ... weird. If Barovia would be isolated as we more-or-less expect, Van Richten would be ... ? I assumed there would be no Mordent. No Darkon.

[Ender]

Chris Perkins says: "Dr. Rudolph van Richten plays a pivotal role in the Curse of Strahd story. That's all I'll say."

huh... well that was unexpected. Very pleasant surprise...

I know already that I won't like his stats and change them.
Also it seems ... weird. If Barovia would be isolated as we more-or-less expect, Van Richten would be ... ? I assumed there would be no Mordent. No Darkon.

That was my assumption as well... but I'm beginning to question that. Chris Perkins also said: "Curse of Strahd expands the Ravenloft story. It also introduces several new stories." I can no longer tell how much of a reboot this is.

[Ender]

Additionally, Mike Mearls indicates there will be no companion supplement for Curse of Strahd like there was for Elemental Evil.

I may or may not simply be refreshing Twitter feeds waiting for more Curse of Strahd news.

[Joël of the FoS]

Chris Perkins says: "Dr. Rudolph van Richten plays a pivotal role in the Curse of Strahd story. That's all I'll say."

huh... well that was unexpected. Very pleasant surprise...

Very interesting!

[Mortavius]

It's arguably better than Paizo with it's six $20 AP volumes, the related campaign expansion book, the map folio, and pawn set. To say nothing of the dozen books or so expected to run a campaign.

Especially since you can play D&D with just the Basic rules (free) or SRD (also free) and the campaign book. Especially if they release another Basic rules expansion like they did for the first two adventures. You could play both Tyranny of Dragons and Princes of the Apocalypse for just the cost of the adventure.

I dunno if that's the most fair comparison. After all, you don't have to have the campaign expansion book, map folio, or pawn set to play the AP. Those are completely optional. Also, all the rules are online for free on d20PFSRD. I actually run an online pathfinder game where I'm the only one who actually has physical books; all my players use the online resource and it works great.

It's still $120 for the whole AP, but there's a lot more pages. Each one is approx. 90 pages of material. Some of it is story fluff, but not a lot.

Not trying to say one is better than the other, just that it's not really an equal comparison.

[Guardian of Twilight]

Lol nice, I don't know anything of Vecna so it won't really bother me I'm sure. xD I just know he has an Evil eye and a sword particularly hates him.

Edit: Or was it a hand?

If I'm not mistaken, his hand and his eye. The sword was made for one of his servants, which I believe was a vampire, but I'm not completely certain. It's been a long time since I looked into all that, and I've never used them in a campaign.

[Buzzclaw]

Kas, Vecna's top lieutenant, used his crazy magic sword to sever Vecna's hand and eye.

[Zilfer]

^Lol I'd say they had 'bad blood' but that might be a little redundant for a Lich and a Vampire.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

So, do we think the part about Van Richten will reference his past in Darkon and Mordent? Or will he just show up in Barovia as a monster hunter? Or maybe his backstory will be mentioned, but not where it happened...

[Ender]

So, do we think the part about Van Richten will reference his past in Darkon and Mordent? Or will he just show up in Barovia as a monster hunter? Or maybe his backstory will be mentioned, but not where it happened...

I suspect the latter. I'm betting he'll be essentially who we know, but it won't matter if he's from Barovia or from Mordent/Darkon, and no reference to those lands will be made.

[Joël of the FoS]

VR went into the castle to read his memoirs. Guess VR's appearance will be based on that.

Joël

[Guardian of Twilight]

VR went into the castle to read his memoirs. Guess VR's appearance will be based on that.

Joël

I was wondering about that, actually. Also, isn't it possible that they mention Mordent since they wrote the sequel to I6? If so, I'll be incredibly excited, as Mordent is my favorite part of Ravenloft as a campaign setting.

[Ender]

VR went into the castle to read his memoirs. Guess VR's appearance will be based on that.

Joël

I was wondering about that, actually. Also, isn't it possible that they mention Mordent since they wrote the sequel to I6? If so, I'll be incredibly excited, as Mordent is my favorite part of Ravenloft as a campaign setting.

Does I10 mention Mordent, or just Mordentshire? If the latter, it could be assumed that Mordentshire is just part of Barovia. Another interesting point is that I10 also introduced Azalin. Also, didn't I read once that Tracy and Laura left midway into I10's development and the completed module was made based on their outlines and could thus be drastically different from their intent?