a few suggestions please

[ballsetto]

Hi, I'm new to the forums and new to Ravenloft, however I am about to start DMing a new game and would like a couple of suggestions from the seasoned users. First of all I'm playing in 2nd edition, this is out of personal preference so that much is set in stone. I own: DM guide and Players Handbook 2nd edition, the Ravenloft box (Red 1994), the Castles Forlorn Box, and the Children of Darkness module.. (And will be getting the monstrous manual 2E, and the Ravenloft supplements (3) to it)....I am also planning on making at least a few more purchases now or as the game gets going in a few weeks. All my players are starting fresh and there is little experience in the group (I played 10 years ago a bunch). If a few people would share their opinions it would help me out:

1) What is a good first adventure...an introduction to Ravenloft? A self designed adventure using the box? Something published?

2) What are some other books and boxes to get...recommend me 1 or 2 adventures and 1 or 2 supplements or boxes.

3) Van Ritchen's Guides, how important to a campaign, how important to own them all?

4) The free adventures online (grand conjunction)....are these worth printing out and using, what are the best ones (or rank them in order)

5) Should I think about getting the "Forbidden Lore" box, or the Domains of Dread books keeping in mind I own the red box...how essential are these?

6) Should everyone playing own thier own dice, including the DM?????

[alhoon]

One line: Night of the Walking Dead. Free download from WotC.
Just rush up the first encounters in the swamp.

[Bloody Morgan]

I'll answer what questions I can actually add something worthwhile to.

1) What is a good first adventure...an introduction to Ravenloft? A self designed adventure using the box? Something published?

That really depends. Are you planning to run the entire campaign in Ravenloft, with native PCs, or are you going to have them as outlanders captured by the Mists?

2) What are some other books and boxes to get...recommend me 1 or 2 adventures and 1 or 2 supplements or boxes.

The Gazateers. I know that they're 3rd ed, but they're mostly fluff, and they bring the Core to life in ways the Forgotten Realms can only dream of.

3) Van Ritchen's Guides, how important to a campaign, how important to own them all?

They're hard to get, and not essential, but they're nice. Especially as they exit IC, so you can actually let your players read them and come up with their own goals and desires based on the contents. They also help with tactics - if the players come across a Liche, you could have them make Knowledge checks to see what they remember, or the players could actually argue amongst themselves about what it said in that book they read six months ago. The latter is much more fun.

6) Should everyone playing own thier own dice, including the DM?????

Nah. Share and share alike.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

1) What is a good first adventure...an introduction to Ravenloft? A self designed adventure using the box? Something published?

Most folks around here recommend Night of the Walking Dead (free download from WotC) or the Created (old and out of print) as starting adventures. You could make up your own, but it helps to at least read few to get the mood right first. You probably don't want to start with Castle's Forlorn because although it's fantastic, it's really tough to run.

2) What are some other books and boxes to get...recommend me 1 or 2 adventures and 1 or 2 supplements or boxes.

Some of my favorite modules are Feast of Goblyns (free download from WotC), The Evil Eye (best ever), and Children of the Night: The Created and Children of the Night: Ghosts (anthologies of short adventures). I heartily second the Gazateers. Just ignore all the 3e jargon and they have plenty of info for 2e. After that, I'd go for a VRG or two.

3) Van Ritchen's Guides, how important to a campaign, how important to own them all?

You've got the major crunchy bits from the first 6 in the Red Box. So they're not crucial, but they are very well written. Pick up only the ones that will be useful to you if you're on a budget. If you're not using a lich, for example, skip that one. The Vistani guide is essential if you are using the vistani, in my opinion, it really fleshes them out. Walking Dead is a good choice for low-level adventures, but it is 3e. The Monster Hunter's Compendiums are reprints of these (the 2e ones), so if you can't track them down individually, keep an eye out for those.

4) The free adventures online (grand conjunction)....are these worth printing out and using, what are the best ones (or rank them in order)

NotwD is great, as noted. Almost universally loved. Feast of Goblyns is a personal favorite, but needs a lot of reworking. The rest have their moments, but none are that fantastic overall.

5) Should I think about getting the "Forbidden Lore" box, or the Domains of Dread books keeping in mind I own the red box...how essential are these?

Forbidden Lore was printed mainly to fill gaps that appeared after the Black Box (psionics, Tome of Magic, etc.) The Red Box reprints both the Black Box and FL combined together for the most part.

A quick scan of both tells me this: (I may have missed something)

Forbidden Lore contains 5 Books, a poster Map, a Tarokka Deck and Dikesha Dice.

This you have in the Red Box:
The Tarrokka deck
The Waking Dream: Directions for using the tarokka, which you have in the Red Box "Domains and Denizens" book.
Oaths of Evil: A book on curses, mostly reprinted in Chapter V of your "Realm of Terror book, including the 3 cursed items reprinted in Chapter VIII
Nova Arcanum: A book on magic, including Ravenloft alterations to Tome of Magic spells (reprinted in Chapter VI or RoT), new spells (also reprinted in Chapter VI) and new magic items (all in Chapter VIII)
Dark Recesses: A Book on on Ravenloft changes to psionics (Chapter VII), and Madness checks (Chapter III).

All you're missing is:
The Dikesha fortune telling dice and directions for use in the Waking Dream book.
A book on secret societies, (Cryptic Allegiances) which doesn't seem to be reprinted in the Red Box
A chapter in the Psionic book on Dark Sun/Ravenloft crossovers, including the island domain of Kalidnay.
The Poster map, including the headquarters of the Secret Societies in Cryptic Allegiences and the domain of Kalidnay.

If any of that interests you, go for it, but you have 90% of it.

Domains of Dread is a very good update, but not really essential if you have the Red Box. I'd spend my money on some VRG's, modules, or Gazetteers first.

6) Should everyone playing own thier own dice, including the DM?????

your call. It's nice to have enough for everyone to have their own. But passing them around works too.

[ballsetto]

great help so far! anyone else? the gazeteers sound really tastey even though im a 2E purist...I think that I am going to have the whole campaign be Ravenloft not start somewhere else unless it was an arbitrary world or possibly earth, and have the 1st adventure bring them in...this actually might be good. Yeah ignore the Forbidden Lore, because its covered in the Red box...domains of dread on the other hand...who else thinks this would be worth it for me?

[ballsetto]

oh also, just a little tid bit, I'm a professional writer and composer and I have these strange prolific streaks (as im sure many of you do as well as thoughtful and experienced DM's) I was thinking about writing some horror and with the enthusiasm that the Ravenloft world is generating in me, I very well may spit out a novel based in this world. If this happens i will certainly let all of you guys know (especially if it's good, heh) I'm working on wrapping up details to a new movie that involves to some degree, role-playing culture but unfortunately i cant disclose any info about it just yet. But if it ends up happening once again you will know about it. cheers

[Tobias Blackburn]

great help so far! anyone else? the gazeteers sound really tastey even though im a 2E purist...I think that I am going to have the whole campaign be Ravenloft not start somewhere else unless it was an arbitrary world or possibly earth, and have the 1st adventure bring them in...this actually might be good. Yeah ignore the Forbidden Lore, because its covered in the Red box...domains of dread on the other hand...who else thinks this would be worth it for me?

The Gazetteers (and Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead/Shadow Fey/Mists) would be of great use to you, even though you're using 2e. They flesh out the setting and characters involved far better than they ever were in the second edition and give you an actual living land to run around in (as opposed to a bare idea). For example, they explain why Dominic deserved his domain (it goes beyond simply leading his family into the Mists) and Verbrek becomes more than a simple spot of woods that Non-vistani are killed on sight in.

Oh, I just realized that you're using a Pre-Grand Conjunction version of the setting. Hmm... Unless you can track down Domains of Dread the actual current geographical and political situation is different. Still, the current books give a lot of flavour to the Mists. If you'd like even a hint more information beyond "Vlad puts people on stakes; Jackie hoards secrets and turns into poo gas" you should look the Gazetters up. At least they'll give you a feel for the domains, even in the earlier time periods, and give you ideas about events that could occur as the years go by. Plus lots of NPCs.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

great help so far! anyone else? the gazeteers sound really tastey even though im a 2E purist...I think that I am going to have the whole campaign be Ravenloft not start somewhere else unless it was an arbitrary world or possibly earth, and have the 1st adventure bring them in...this actually might be good. Yeah ignore the Forbidden Lore, because its covered in the Red box...domains of dread on the other hand...who else thinks this would be worth it for me?

The Gazetteers (and Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead/Shadow Fey/Mists) would be of great use to you, even though you're using 2e. They flesh out the setting and characters involved far better than they ever were in the second edition and give you an actual living land to run around in (as opposed to a bare idea). For example, they explain why Dominic deserved his domain (it goes beyond simply leading his family into the Mists) and Verbrek becomes more than a simple spot of woods that Non-vistani are killed on sight in.

Oh, I just realized that you're using a Pre-Grand Conjunction version of the setting. Hmm... Unless you can track down Domains of Dread the actual current geographical and political situation is different. Still, the current books give a lot of flavour to the Mists. If you'd like even a hint more information beyond "Vlad puts people on stakes; Jackie hoards secrets and turns into poo gas" you should look the Gazetters up. At least they'll give you a feel for the domains, even in the earlier time periods, and give you ideas about events that could occur as the years go by. Plus lots of NPCs.

Hee-hee.

Poo-gas.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Oh, I just realized that you're using a Pre-Grand Conjunction version of the setting.

Well, the Red Box is post-conjunction, actually, so he'll have most of the basics, at least.

[CorvusCornix]

I'm pretty new to Ravenloft myself, but I'll gladly share the knowledge I've gained by now - although it may be faulty, I hope somebody will correct me if I say something stupid . First of all, what I really like about Ravenloft is that the books contain very little rules, so any 3e book should be useful even for 2e.

I'd say you should decide on where to put your players first. Otherwise, the information just gets overwhelming. In the FAQs on this site, there is an excellent list of which domain is based on which real world land:
http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/FAQ/ ... is_basedon

This should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect of a domain. Not all of them appear in the books you have, as the Grand Conjunction changed some of the layout of the land. So basically another decision to make is whether to place the players before or after the Grand Conjunction. Bear in mind that the Gazetteers describe the world as it is AFTER the GC, and I would even go so far as to say that the Gazetteers are the ONLY books you need (don't misunderstand me, there are a lot of other books I liked, but they mostly give you ideas for your adventures, while the Gazetteers give you the feeling for the domains).

The problem with the GC is that the first 4 adventures barely touch the event, so you can play the adventure NotwD even if you don't want to reenact the GC. The adventures in which the GC really occur ("from the Shadows" and "Roots of Evil") really aren't worth playing, in my opinion, so your players won't miss anything if you place them after the GC...

So, my advice: choose a domain, and buy the one Gazetteer that describes it. You can buy the others later, when you want your players to leave their "home". Furthermore, I really liked "Children of the Night: The Created" and "Carnival", but they aren't really necessary, they just contain some very good ideas! I've bought a couple of the older adventures, like "Web of Illusions", but I was really disappointed, I hadn't expected so much dungeon crawling. So, essentially I'd say have a look at a few adventures, but don't hesitate to create your own. If you need more ideas, there are lots of excellent and free netbooks to read, like the "Undead Sea Scrolls" and the Books of S...!

Felix

[ballsetto]

Does anyone know if there is a pdf version of domains of dread available ofr around 5 bucks? I would like the info but enjoy the red box for its carrying functions and overall vibe. Also I think I am looking at Barovia, Forlorn and one more domain right now as the main (or at least first destinations) so I belive gazeteer number 1 is on my list to purchase. What do people think of "the house of Strahd" adventure? I may have the adventurers start in Barovia only to bring them elsewhere and then confront Strahd when they have increased levels. What is the 2nd best free adventure to NotWD in your opinions?

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

Most, if not all of the 2E RL releases are available on PDF, just not sure where they are available these days.

[Jack of Tears]

Myself, I prefer to run adventures of my own design ... I'm not fond of published modules.

Personally I would recommend all of the Van Richten's guides, though if you were to avoid any I'd say forget the Guide to Demons (by far the worst of the lot) and possibly the guide to Witches. (not one of the best) Guide to the Walking Dead added some interesting depth to the lesser undead and is surely useful despite the fact that the writing isn't as good as that in the earlier works ... I couldn't get into Guide to the Shadow Fey, however, despite the fact that I'd been most excited when I learned of it ... the book was simply dull, compared to those it followed.

I, myself, am very fond of boxed sets and am glad to see you already have Castles Forlorn - by far one of my favorite suppliments. Aside from that I'd suggest you pick up the Nightmare Realms boxed set, if you can find it.

The Creatures of the Night series is hit and miss, but generally worth the price. Forgidden Lore was worth having at the time, but most of the information has since been duplicated.

I did not care for the Gazeteers myself ... but I am by far the minority here, so they seem to serve their purpose for most. Honestly I've not been fond of much 3E material, however, I would highly recommend Legacies of the Blood, as a nearly invaluable resource.

[Marziti]

Most, if not all of the 2E RL releases are available on PDF, just not sure where they are available these days.

www.rpgnow.com has most of the material for a couple bucks... also eBay has a fair amount though usually costs more.

http://www.rpgnow.com/search.php?query=ravenloft is the search to find all their stuff. Most is around $4.95.

Marziti

[ballsetto]

thanks, no carnival or domains of dread, but i may very well by the monstrous compendiums and or/house of strahd from this site. is it pdfs of the real thing? because if its the real book it is mch cheaper than ebay.