a few suggestions please

[artent]

I just started a game a few weeks ago in the same situation as you(pretty much)

Walking dead turned out really good, I didn't even have much time to prep for it, ran it pretty straight by the book and things still went very well. The situation is so familier(ahhh..zombies) that it makes it easier to really get into the new world.


I havn't found much use from DoD, besides the classes, dark power and madness stuff(the Ravenloft rules pretty much), but I don't really have time to get into prepping adventures. I wouldn't really bother since you have the red box.


I wasn't sure how well VRG's would work in game as player aids. But since I gave the party acess to a few I found it really helps them get into the setting. They had mostly been hack and slash, but when they got the Guide to Ghosts and they were on Howls in the Night they started investigating around and probing to try and get as much back info on the goings on as possible....I like it.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

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

As others have said, Night of the Walking Dead, either that or The Created, though they may be a little tough for Ravenloft Newbies to negotiate and does have some nasty happenings for the PCs.

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

Bleak House, if you don't already have it, Carnival, Islands of Terror, The Evil Eye (the best adventure ever), and Domains of Dread (the final 2E edition of the campaign setting and it includes nearly all of the domains). Tje Monstrous Cmpendiums are worthwhile purchases, but you can get away with te Monstrous Manual on its own, later versions of it contained many Ravenloft-based creatures, as did that Monstrous Compendium Annuals.

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

You can run a campaign without them, though they do throw interesting twists on the creatures each books covers. Though it is better o get the Van Richten Monster Hunter Compendiums instead as they are updated versions and Volume 3 has the Guide to Witches, that is unavailable elsewhere.

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

Some are good, some are bad. Night of the Walking Dead is the only one I really enjoyed running out of the set.

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?

If you have the Red Box, you alredy have Forbidden Lore contained in that. However, as I said earlier, Domains of Dread is worth having, trust me on that

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

This is not necessary but is a bonus, and it is useful for everyone to at least own at least 1 d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and a d20, multiple d6 are better and are easy to come by, you can even buy packs of them at a reasonable price (Games Workshop sell red and black ones in pack of 20 for about £5). Owning your own dice does speed things up when you don't have to ask to borrow someone elses each time you need to make a roll. Another option is for people with large quantities of dice (like yours truly here) to loan others dice for the duration of the session.

[ballsetto]

Right on guys! My game starts in 2 or 3 weeks!!!! I've decided to dl and print Night of the Walking Dead and buy House of Strahd, Carnival, Bleak House and Gazeteer 1 in the next few months. I would also down the line like to buy the rest of the Gazeteers, the 3 Van Ritchen Monster Hunter series, and the Evil Eye module. Domains of Dread remains a confusion to me. Its just a bunch of money and makes me somewhat upset I bought the red box. Is there similar information throughout? How truly different is it in terms of the writing at least (is there completely recycled parts from the box?) I also think I'm going to skip out on the compendiums and try and get a late version of the Monstrous Manual, what exactly is the best version to get in terms of maximum Ravenloft potency? Let the evil flow.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

Domains of Dread covers and number of changes and includes many domains, cluster, etc that were not in the Red Box, it also presents the charater classes for 2E at the time, like the Arcanist, Avenger, Gypsy and so on and changes to each character class to make them better suirted to the demiplane of dread. t is a worthwhile purchase if you find it for a price you are willing to pay

I have always been glad that I bought it.