The Reviews for the Review Section thread

[Willowhugger]

I was noting the review section is rather bare and I was curious if anyone was interested in basically giving their reviews of products that have not been reviewed in this thread for hopeful postage?

[Willowhugger]

Circle of Darkness

Summary: An adventure module where PCs accidentally kill a Vistani woman and are sent by her curse into the starvation ridden domain to find her lost son. Over the course of the adventure, a powerful fiend will be released and they must choose whether or not to aid the Dark Lord or the luxury bringing incarnation of evil.

Circle of Darkness is an adventure that is absolutely spectacular. The problem with Circle of Darkness is the fact that G'henna really does not fit the theme of Ravenloft. G'henna makes an ideal domain in Dark Sun, Eberron's Mournlands or Demon Wastes, or even as a Seeker Priest near Tarsus in Dragonlance. However, starvation cults in the middle of a huge desert are more difficult to justify in the domains of Ravenloft. If you want to preserve the subtle mystery of Ravenloft, open tribes of Mongrelman created by miracles performed by Yagno are also a bit over the top as is a huge wizard's tower. Nevertheless, the domain of G'henna is beautifully well crafted and illustrated with Yagno's insanity making him one of the more pitable Darklords yet also no less evil. The adventure is also emotionally well deveoped and with many highs and lows.

The adventure opens with the railroading of the players with them accidentally causing the death of a Vistani woman and the mists to transport them to G'henna. I admit I used it and the players were on edge for hours due to the fact they'd broken a major Ravenloft taboo. However, I didn't use the "mists" of Ravenloft to transport the players but just said that the arid wastes of G'henna had been cut off from the rest of the Core by a series of natural disasters including Earthquakes, famine, blight, and plenty of more disasters that the Core just forgot about them.

The players dealt well with the idea of the "Weird" religion of G'henna and I did only a few minor tweaks to the surroundings to make them less fantastic and more European. I used the Quevarri for the first time in my game by making them a people that worship the Devourer and having offered up their 'sins' to happen all at once and thus native to the land. I also made the opposing sect to Zhakata actually worshippers of every other land surrounding the Core that were driven into Exile and Zhakata was a religion that more or less took over every other native Church in the region when Yagno came during the famine (which is not imagined, part of the land's curse in my write up is that there really IS a huge famine and Yagno chooses to make people starve to help alleviate it and has made it a religious offering so the people are enthused about killing themselves). Plus, I ditched the Re-animators that duel because frankly while cool..it's a distraction from the narrative.

The creep factor of the Mongrelmen, all religious folk themselves, and the fact the PCs were mostly "unbelievers" and non fanatics to any religion was a nice contrast and Rega is probably the only "normal" person with a healthy attitude towards faith (abet, he's of course evil). I drew a parrallel between the Mongrelmen and Lepers to make the work more patable. Having Rega die comically is something that probably shouldn't show up in a Ravenloft module but I'll be damned if it wasn't the best part of the Module.

The final confrontation with Malistroni was wonderful though and fairly Apocalyptical. The whole "random ending thing" that appeared in Bleak House is something that sucks though and I just chose an ending (Yagno destroys himself and the domain dissapears-though I just had it absorbed into Tepest). This is one of the few occasions where the death of a fiend is justified and the confrontation is delightfully appropriate. You just need to be prepared to figure a way to get the players to flee at the start since mine wanted to fight Malistroni when he first freed himself.

4.5 Blood Drops, Great Adventure but needs "Tweaks" to be usable in a RL context.

[Willowhugger]

The Shadow Rift

Summary: An adventure module where the PCs find themselves stumbling on a town where everyone's souls have been taken away. Following the cause to the source, they find themselves wrapped up in fairy politics and a plot to free the most powerful Darklord in Ravenloft from his prison.

The Shadow Rift is one of those games that fits Ravenloft's mood very well but you wonder who in the Hell designed RPGing wise. The adventure is a death trap with dozens of treants and Blackroot trying to kill the players, a creek that will automatically kill you, and a final confrontation with what amounts to Cthulhu. The adventure is a death trap from start to finish and a lot of combat all round. The only other module that has this much battle to roleplaying (and admittedly is much much much much worse is Thoughts of Darkness).

The basic plot can be summarized is that the faeries are stealing a bunch of human souls to work for them as their slaves and the PCs stumble into what effectively is a massive fight from everything from the Lochness Monster to Treebeard til they meet Maeve who gives some plot speculation and then sends them through a glorified Dungeon Crawl through the Shadow Rift where they basically fight their way to the Portal of Gwydion and hopefully prevent his entry into the physical world.

The adventure has atmosphere in spades with the Shadow Fey being somewhat of a cross between a Midsummer's Night's Dream, the Brother's Grimm, and D&D elves on amphetimines. This module, if played right, is SCARY and you never know what will happen in the warped version of Oz that the players have found themselves in. However, too much emphasis is on combat and not enough on interacting with the locals whom little chance is given to interact with.

Finally, Gwydion is a poorly designed Darklord in the fact that while he's certainly a threat with his near godlike power...it's somewhat questionable what exactly he can do while he's cooped up to warrant Lordship. I would have preferred that some abilities be given him or he's even worse than Haiki Shinpi, the GEIST Dark Lord of Rokishamyo Taiyo (I know I spelled that wrong).

3.5 Blood Drops.

[Willowhugger]

Thoughts of Darkness

Summary: The PCs wake up in Bluetspur and are assaulted by lightning, forcing them into the Illithid caverns below where they discover a plot by the Illithid High Master and Lyssa Von Zharovich to create a host of Illithid Vampires to massacre the God Brain. Then they intend to try and take over Ravenloft.

Hey! Do you want to send your PCs to the Hell? Then play A Paladin in Hell. If you want to come damn close, play Thoughts of Darkness.

Thoughts of Darkness is a big ass Dungeon that the PCs face a damn near unkillable foe in Bonespur during along with illithids, drow, duegar, broken ones, and finally Vampire Illithids (?!) along with Lyssa Von Zharovich (!?!?!) with a side order of a gigantic brain (!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!). Unless you're PCs are combat monkeyed to the max then they are going to be tested to their limits by this adventure and the sheer alieness of the region should drive any halfway decent roleplayer insane by player's reactions to it really. There's some damn weird choices in this module honestly. I mean, the most dangerous foe the PCs will face by far in a domain inhabited by Illithids is a human being? What's up with that?

Weirdly, the adventure isn't a total loss and I reluctantly recommend it for the simple fact that it is one of the few adventures that can scare the Hell out of my PCs by it's mere mention. Simply put, the twisted nightmarish mockeries of people that the PCs come across along with the impliciteness of the fate that likely awaits them is something that should terrify even the hardiest players. Properly played; exhaustion, nightmares, and the hallucinatory nature of the atmosphere should wear on the hardiest souls.

My solution was a somewhat simple one and I thank Clive Barker and Hellraiser. Instead of the "you wake up in Hell" (which actually might work for this adventure because it fits the chaotic and alien nature of the place), I used a "Puzzlebox" that according to the notes of a 'missing person' is an object that has passed through the hands of hundreds of Core residents who subsequently dissapear but for some reason is still passed along as people want the Ebony Box. Of course, the object is a tool for bringing people to Bluetspur and I listed Bonespur, Lyssa Von Zharovich, an Order of Guardians (who were guarding the apparatus), The paladin who investigated their dissapearence, and others amongst them. Effectively ditching much of the background of their reasons for being here.

I also made the plot a bit different by making the High master an Alhoon (because when am I ever going to use an Alhoon again) and wanting to make an Army of Vampire Illithids to take over the domain and thus the rest of the world. I never personally thought that making Illithids into Vampires (Or Liches for that matter) was particularly scary though.

Nevertheless, the adventure played well and the PCs escaped the Puzzlebox (that was made to bring people to their "pocket Dimension" which is the only time I've ever described an island of terror like this rather than a distant land) with the devil at their heels. Scary stuff and they had nightmares even in real life.

2.5 Blood drops out of 5 but potential for 4.

[Steve Miller]

It's neat to see someone reviewing the old Second Ed. adventures!
I particularly like that they're coming from someone who got creative with the material.

But why do you say the variable endings "suck"?

(And something for the "designer notes" section... the death of Rega and pretty much everything relating to Malistroi in the adventre [except the initial concept of the trapped fiend that needs to be released] came from my keyboard. I think the dueling animators were something Harold Johnson [last seen in Ravenloft in "Dark Tales and Disturbing Legends] came up with.)

[Willowhugger]

It's neat to see someone reviewing the old Second Ed. adventures!
I particularly like that they're coming from someone who got creative with the material.

But why do you say the variable endings "suck"?

This is just me being anal retentive Steve. I'm a DM who doesn't particularly like chance. These are some pretty big changes between the types of adventures. Basically, depending on where the PCs pull a card, they effectively determine whether

1. G'henna and thousands die.
2. Yango wins
3. Malistroni wins

And so on.

In Bleak House it's not so bad because basically all of them lead to Point B. I still have to recommend a DM just pick one he likes though.

[Steve Miller]

Can't argue with that. I'd recommend that should be the case ALWAYS. Although I've probably contributed to most of the 'modern' "variable" Ravenloft releases it's an approach that goes all the way back to I6 and I11, and it's an approach I admit to never having used myself. I pretty mch pick the ending based on what I think will bring the adventure to the most satisfying close for the players.

I DO like the idea of variable endings, because I HATE adventures that dictate everything to the DM. Canon is for staff writers and it should never be forced upon game groups.

(I plot my campaigns very loosely, and I'm constantly modifying the storyline based on PC actions and player interests.)

[Willowhugger]

Noted Steve.

I personally agree with the set up for Multiple Endings. My only real problem is the set up for "random events" can really throw off a person's game in a story and the storytelling can be disrupted.

I take requests by the way since I've pretty much played, DMed, and used everything.

Next Ship of Horrors, From the Shadows, and Roots of Evil

[Steve Miller]

I take requests by the way since I've pretty much played, DMed, and used everything.

I'm a raging egomaniac who enjoys reading reviews of products I've worked on, be they good reviews or bad reviews.

[Willowhugger]

I take requests by the way since I've pretty much played, DMed, and used everything.

I'm a raging egomaniac who enjoys reading reviews of products I've worked on, be they good reviews or bad reviews.

Consider it done after the next three reviews Steve.

Bleak House, Children of the Night: Vampires, The Evil Eye, Carnival, and the rulebook right?

[Willowhugger]

Ship of Horrors

Summary: The players find themselves on a ship cursed with a graverobber captain whose unrestful victims assault him before the players help him lay them to rest. Later, they find evidence of necromancers shipping corpses to a terrifying island ruled by Meredoth the Dark Lord.

The Grand Conjunction series is a great idea for Ravenloft and I honestly think that it is one of the few 'metaplots' ever successfully pulled off in a series. The Prism Pentade and Faction War ended the Dark Sun and Planescape lines effectivel while the Time of Troubles were well done but the modules rellied too much on NPC leadership. There is a frustrating element to it sometimes in the randomness of the adventures to it. While I certainly can understand that the modules are where the signs should appear. Touch of Death, Night of the Walking Dead, and Ship of Horrors aren't exactly apocalyptical. Feast of Goblins has nothing to do with the Modules Roots of evil and From the Shadows but it's certainly overthetop enough to be demiplane changing. I also use it for the "ending" of the adventure to be the PCs killing Duke Gundar since the Death of a Darklord is a wonderful start.

Ship of Horrors typlifies pretty much every problem with Ravenloft's early years while also strangely showing some of the signs of greatness. I couldn't be paid to run the module as is but there's at least two halfway decent adventures involved in the storyline and possibly three. However, linked together they're practically nonsensical and requires incredible railroading (a common enough complaint).

The first complaints about the adventure is the fact that the PCs have some reason to sign up as Seamen. My players have never played Seamen, they're likely not interested in becoming Seaman, and they have no sea experience. The next fact is that it is one of those "and you find yourself trapped in Ravenloft" moments. Most PCs I think are natives now so the threat of being stuck in Ravenloft is not a large one.

The next complaint is the fact that the PCs have found themselves onboard with a grave robber whom is haunted by some fairly righteously ****ed off spirits. My PCs are as likely inclined to dump the fellow over with the disgust grave robbers elicit in my games (it's ironic that the opener of the game encourages the Pcs to take over Meredoth's domain and loot the necromancer's location afterwards!). Nevertheless, the assumption is the PCs will spare the snivelling little man and furthermore help him resolve his curse by the various ghosts. There's some rather bizarre encounters interspersed as well like an attack by a pirate ship of Ghasts and Skeletal sharks that appear for no real reason.

However, ironically, the ghosts are all well described and sympathetic. If I had to modify this material, I'd probably just have the PCs have a reason to get on the boat and make the captain more obviously a victim haunted by the various ghosts with also some halfway decent courage/honor to his names. Thankfully, I'd just seen "Pirates of the Carribean" and I made the Ghast Attack that much more terrifying with the crew mostly slain and turning on their captain to kill him (which the PCs endeavored to prevent). The PCs in my game were forced off the ship and onto a liferaft as the Ship drove off to its almost doom (I made Meredoth's domain alluded to with it being the Ravenloft "Bermuda Triangle").

The PC's cleric performed some simple blessings to suspend the disbelief of recovering bodies at the bottom of the sea and the adventure ended with them being able to escape the ghost's curse.

The plotline of Necromancers shipping bodies to Meredoth is well done as well and stopping them at their activities is entirely salvagable for the PCs. You don't need any of the tie ins to the adventure to use the villains or their activities but just can. It's almost usable as is. However, at the end, and I stress WHOSE IDEA IS IT TO CAUSALLY INSERT A 20TH LEVEL NECROMANCER INTO RAVENLOFT? The modules of Ravenloft's worst problem are the assumption such ridiculously high level people must be stupid if they can't defeat nearly ANY level of adventurer at that level.

I kept the Island of the Undead largely (I more or less wholesale inserted Keening into the Domain) and had Meredoth living in a Lighthouse (why? Because Lighthouses are cool) while lowering him to 13th level. I also gave him the tragic background that he made the city of the undead he ruled over because he wanted to build a truly static society since his family had all left him as an old man (it made sense in the game). I also made it clear he wasn't a Dark Lord.

Some good stuff here.

1.5 Blood drops. Needed SERIOUS reworking.

[Willowhugger]

From the Shadows

Summary: The PCs are killed by Azalin the Lich or die horribly in some manner before they are awakened as heads in his laboratory with their bodies preserved elsewhere. Azalin wishes to recruit them for a time travel experiment to Pre-Vampire Strahd Barovia to retrieve the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. The players then must get themselves out of Castle Avernus with Azalin's psylantery to fill the final part of the Hexad.

From the Shadows is what I call a "Dragonlance" module. It's somewhat of an unfair criticism but I consider From the Shadows to be little more than a map of a location in Ravenloft that you pop the PCs in and more or less let them fight their way through until the end. As a joke, I actually ran this after House of Strahd and called it "House of Azalin" (and had the players killed by the dragon in the first five minutes in the ONLY time I've ever done the ressurection cliche of Ravenloft).

(FYI for anyone interested. My Hexad is 'Feast of Goblyns', 'Evil Eye', 'Bleak House', 'House of Strahd', and THEN 'From the Shadows' to 'Roots of Evil.' Strahd's temporary death was a huge climax to the series)

This is where the fairly infamous Ravenloft railroading of killing all the player characters in the first five minutes begins. In this case, it leads to a fairly effective moment where the PCs heads are re-animated by Azalin who has a conversation with them in one of those peculiar moments for RPGing where everything can be spoken of freely because it's just THAT bizarre.

I more or less ditched the entire 'escape' element of the plot and had Azalin hold them to their 'honor' that in exchange for ressurecting him that they'd do a mission for him that was not serving the cause of "Evil" (I did heavy mockery) and gave them the illusion of choice. Of course, in Azalin's opinion, what he's doing is not evil at all. I let them wander around Castle Avernus unmolested for abit and got plenty out of the weird environment than I ever would have if they'd been trying to fight their way out.

The Time Travel bit of the story is a bit weak honestly but it's a great idea to tie the PCs to the origins of Ravenloft. I made the adventure far longer by running House on Gryphon Hill as one of Azalin's experiments in time travel. I also made the most of the time travel adventure by having Azalin's goal change. Instead of just a minor bit of petty theft, I had Azalin send the PC's back in time to prevent Strahd from becoming a vampire. My rationale was that Azalin figured it would cause a paradox and in combination with the Hexad would result in the Grand Conjunction as Strahd was the fabric of the land and the lynchpin of the Demiplane (already severely wounded in it's borders by his 'death' in my game).

This climax seemed to be much better than the "we take Azalin's psylantry over the border" though the ONE opportunity to fight Azlain mano a mano makes sense in the context of the storyline and it's a pity to miss it.

4.0 out of 5.0 blooddrops, great setting for adventures even if the adventure is weak.

[Willowhugger]

Roots of Evil

Summary: Ravenloft is toast with the Grand Conjunction having freed the Dark Powers (probably) and loosed all the Dark Lords from their prisons. The Demiplane's domains are slowly sliding into the Prime Material across the lands with evil everywhere. Brought before Prime Material Tatyana and her husband the King of Barovia, they must reverse the effects of the Grand Conjunction before it's stable and save the universe.

Roots of Evil is a module that unfortunately has incredible build up but is extremely underwhelming in the context of the storyline. The PCs are treated like garbage by the Tatyana of this adventure (who has no right to judge their actions or their heroism) and there's some serious hints to the Dark Powers true nature spread liberally throughout the text (all the gods of the universe are ticked at Ravenloft dissolving) but there's very little the PC's see that indicate how massively bad the situation is honestly. The text seems to indicate that a world like Greyhawk would be overwhelmed with the evil that was present in the setting when it seems to be just a few more ghouls here and there. Some apocalyptical imagery would help the adventrue considerably.

I think Roots of Evil best works with the PCs largely exploring how the world has gone mad honestly and the ending being altered so what the PCs do to "fix" the situation Azalin has done make more sense than putting the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind on an altar. In my version, the Pcs had to ressurect Strahd to become a vampire in the past then ressurect him in the future so that he could slay the "good strahd" whom was unwittingly destroying the entirety of the Demiplane with the Paradox. The reprehensibility of the action was a nice conclusion to the adventure as the PCs to save the world had to condemn a soul to darkness and how many others to become his victims.

Still, a great closure.

4 out of 5 blood drops.

[Willowhugger]

The Evil Eye

Summary: The PCs find themselves in Invidia where they have a chance encounter with a Vistani man haunted by his dead wife and whom serves as a guide through a nightmarish plot by the Gentleman Caller to incarnate the Dukkar into the world. Mallochio Aderre has been born by his seduction of Gabrielle Aderre and is wrecking havok in the capital as she lays insane. Will the PCs help the Vistani bind him or allow him to free all the Dark Lords from their prisons?

The Evil Eye and Bleak House are together the two best adventures in Ravenloft. The Evil Eye may have an edge over Bleak House because the PCs aren't distracted by the sheer oddity of their surroundings but can just proceed through the domain of Invidia with very few "unnecessary" side plots into the story. There's no random encounters really or off the wall elements. The story is a straight forward "There's a Half-Fiend being born in Ravenloft" and "he's going to do very bad things unless he's stopped."

I'll honestly tell you how much I enjoyed the adventure simply by the fact that I didn't have to modify it at all, save for a few connections to the PC's main campaign being made.

The first benefit is the fact that Mallochio Aderre is a lot more effective darklord than Gabrielle Aderre herself and she herself is a great darklord (certainly much better than the almost parody of her in Inza over in Sithicus). The whole "Omen" vibe is almost completely untouched in Ravenloft and like "Van Ritchen's Guide to Fiends" helps fill out the role of demons in the world of Ravenloft that had been almost completely untouched to this point but are a powerful element of horror. Mallochio makes some early appearences to help establish a personal connection to the players but like Damien, operates through accidents and knows well enough to stay the hell away from their blades.

The Midnight Slasher's appearence in the story along with Nathan Timothy and Matton are perfectly appopriate to the story. Nothing is gratituous and it's perfectly understandable if the Midnight Slasher murders Gabrielle at the end of the story as a climax. Matton's love actually makes the wolfwere to be a sympathetic character and his feelings all the more tragic because Gabrielle will never be able to return them. On a related note, Gabrielle herself is someone the players will have to have hearts of stone not to sympathize with given the subtext of what was done with her (it was no erotic lovemaking if her memories drove her insane).

I also love the "Werewolf Bar" and I think it's a great idea to have the 'monsters' have some place to basically sit back and cool down with the dogfights being a fun moment in the context of the story that is a favorite of every player whose ever played the story honestly. In my current RL game, I'm having fun with the fact that the player is dating the blonde waitress and they routinel visit without knowing it's 'true clientale' (the player characters love dogfights)

I will admit, that the Vistani Ghost Story at the start of the story honestly interrupts the flow of the story really and I've never included it in the game but instead run it as another adventure entirely. I even liked the Vistani camp's games.

Great sourcebook for Ravenloft's invidia, awesome art with genuine beauty for the characters, and a great plot.

5 drops of blood out of 5.

[Jester of the FoS]

I take requests by the way since I've pretty much played, DMed, and used everything.

I'm a raging egomaniac who enjoys reading reviews of products I've worked on, be they good reviews or bad reviews.

I think all writers are. I get a huge thrill reading reviews of anything I've written.

I used to write reviews for the site methodicly working my way through the products. Then I changed jobs three times, had my free time killed, underwent MAJOR stress and got otherwise distracted by life. I forgot where I was in the book I was reading so now I need to re-read it to remember by thoughts plus the two books I had read prior but didn't review because I wanted to do them in order.
Maybe I should get back into it...

In the meantime it's nice to see someone else feeding the ol' review section of the site.