Castle Ravenloft: Some Brief Impressions [Archive] - Wizards Community

Castle Ravenloft: Some Brief Impressions [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
ottofromire
02-14-07, 02:53 AM I've gotta say, I bought the adventure for a quick romp in the proverbial horror hay, but I pulled back a bloody stump of awesome!

...In other words, neat book.

They included how to incorporate the game into nearly any setting, which I loved, though I don't think they played around with the game much in the way of "Castle Ravenloft takes place in the Ravenloft setting."

Only problem I found is that a few times in the book, they reference the "conclusion" part of the book, which you must refer to to see how certain things turn out. there's no such section in the book. Irritating, and a bit depressing, (this WAS a big project, how can you just MISS a conclusion section?)

Overall, good adventure, no matter what world you run it in. Anyone else have any bad or good experiences with the adventure?
Millennium
02-14-07, 08:49 AM Pretty much my thoughts exactly; great book, but it's kind of a shame they forgot to put in the ending.

Any chances of a Web enhancement to correct this? The original (and, admittedly, optional) ending from I6 doesn't quite work as-is; it requires some reflavoring of one of the NPCs.
d20diceroller
02-14-07, 12:11 PM I just ordered this... read some other favorable reviews...

and now I learn that they left out the conclusion!?

:nonono:
pukunui
02-14-07, 04:29 PM I read through the module in its entirety when I first got it, and I don't recall seeing any references to a missing conclusion ... :confused:

I'll have to go back and check, but I'm pretty sure it's all there.
Millennium
02-14-07, 04:35 PM I just ordered this... read some other favorable reviews...

and now I learn that they left out the conclusion!?

:nonono:
Yeah; it's a rather serious flaw. However, it's the only real flaw I could find in the thing, and by 'ending' I mean more in the sense of an epilogue. Everything up to the final confrontation is there; it's just what you do after beating the BBEG that they forgot to put in. Honestly, I'd still recommend the module to most people, with the caveat that you might want to grab I6 from RPGNow or something for the ending.
ottofromire
02-15-07, 01:54 AM The rest of the book IS good, yes. But the lack of the conclusion made a little piece of me die inside. HOW could you forget SUCH an important part of the story? Really, up until I saw that, I had been pretty forgiving. Races of Eberron messed up? Oh well. I took something from it, used the splat materials a bit, and moved on. But a big thing like Castle Ravenloft missing a crutial section? For shame.
greatamericanfolkhero
02-15-07, 01:55 AM I've been running this as a d20 Past side game for some of my players on Saturdays and I'm enjoying it. I changed a few things around, like a mostly different beginning which ties a little more directly into Strahd's main goal (which is also different, especially since the party abandoned the town to it's fate.) I ran with the day-walker goal and added a few twists to it. So far it's been really fun.
Solik
02-15-07, 11:46 AM There's more stuff missing -- for instance, there's nothing that tells you where to put artifacts if the cards place them in Lysaga Hill.

There's also print errors like you wouldn't believe. Secret door markers in a forest map for no reason with no notes about them, entire statistics blocks erroneously created, and a high chance for a cheap TPK in chapter 1 that isn't even a legal setup.

It's pretty good otherwise, but seriously rushed, and the editing was purely abyssmal. Only experienced DMs should mess with this thing, and you should do a search for "Expedition to Castle Ravenloft errata" to find things that users have noticed and fixed.
ottofromire
02-15-07, 01:45 PM I went searching for an unofficial eratta, and I found one, and, depressingly, I realized how much is just wrong here in the book.

http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=review&reviewid=3221768

Here is a short list of some problems with stat blocks and spelling found here in the book. Now, like I said, I'm normally not one to get so up in arms about errors like this. But really, this is abyssmal. Every couple of pages there's incorrect stat blocks, (I mean, Strahd has 12 feats when he should have 13! WTF is that all about?!) The book PROMISES that it provides everything here in the book that you need for the adventure, yet fails to provide many of the feats Strahd and other creatures use, and just the lack of proofreading make me realize that no matter what was said, this was a rushed and frankly, in my mind at least, bumbled product.

My favorite line from this review, by the way, is a quote from page 216: "By her late twenties she had was had priest, and had gained a reputation that no evil could stand before her." I agree that this might mean that she was a head priest, I suppose, but I've got absolutely no way of knowing for sure.

It depresses me so much that the more I read into this adventure, the more I feel like I had a sweet chunk of change stolen from me. (I won't go into the fact that they changed some very Ravenloft concepts, like the fact that Vistani are NOT humans, much less Halflings) Don't get me wrong. There are some neat encounters here, and, like I said before, they lay out some good secondary goals for Strahd, and I really do enjoy asome of the artwork. I'm stil going to be running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft sometime soon, as I'm not going to have spent $30 for nothing, but overall, I'm just so dissapointed.
d20diceroller
02-15-07, 04:24 PM I went searching for an unofficial eratta, and I found one, and, depressingly, I realized how much is just wrong here in the book.

http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=review&reviewid=3221768

Here is a short list of some problems with stat blocks and spelling found here in the book. Now, like I said, I'm normally not one to get so up in arms about errors like this. But really, this is abyssmal. Every couple of pages there's incorrect stat blocks, (I mean, Strahd has 12 feats when he should have 13! WTF is that all about?!) The book PROMISES that it provides everything here in the book that you need for the adventure, yet fails to provide many of the feats Strahd and other creatures use, and just the lack of proofreading make me realize that no matter what was said, this was a rushed and frankly, in my mind at least, bumbled product.

My favorite line from this review, by the way, is a quote from page 216: "By her late twenties she had was had priest, and had gained a reputation that no evil could stand before her." I agree that this might mean that she was a head priest, I suppose, but I've got absolutely no way of knowing for sure.

It depresses me so much that the more I read into this adventure, the more I feel like I had a sweet chunk of change stolen from me. (I won't go into the fact that they changed some very Ravenloft concepts, like the fact that Vistani are NOT humans, much less Halflings) Don't get me wrong. There are some neat encounters here, and, like I said before, they lay out some good secondary goals for Strahd, and I really do enjoy asome of the artwork. I'm stil going to be running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft sometime soon, as I'm not going to have spent $30 for nothing, but overall, I'm just so dissapointed.

"...she had was had priest..."

Seriously. Come on. Someone needs to stop relying on automatic spellcheck/grammer check so much. It doesn't always catch everything.
Stormonu
02-16-07, 01:45 AM Yeah, I'm getting ready to run this thing, and having run the old Ravenloft module, I'm seriously depressed. This module is no longer "Dracula", it's a Lovecraft uber-revision, and I'm not sure its for the better. There's a lot of stuff I intend to change back toward the feel of the older module (Madame Eva (WTF?????), Visanti, Leif Lipseige, the shadow demon, etc.).

BTW, anybody catch the easter egg in the Codex Advocare? ..Ricardus Bakari.. - Richard Baker, author of Complete Arcane and the warlock?
Solik
02-16-07, 06:24 PM Regarding the Vistani and such--

You comparing it to the 1E or 2E version? Because this module is built around the original 1E version, NOT the 2E campaign setting (where I know the Vistani were something else).

I haven't read the 1E one either, though, so maybe they changed that too.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ottofromire 02-14-07, 02:53 AM	I've gotta say, I bought the adventure for a quick romp in the proverbial horror hay, but I pulled back a bloody stump of awesome! ...In other words, neat book. They included how to incorporate the game into nearly any setting, which I loved, though I don't think they played around with the game much in the way of "Castle Ravenloft takes place in the Ravenloft setting." Only problem I found is that a few times in the book, they reference the "conclusion" part of the book, which you must refer to to see how certain things turn out. there's no such section in the book. Irritating, and a bit depressing, (this WAS a big project, how can you just MISS a conclusion section?) Overall, good adventure, no matter what world you run it in. Anyone else have any bad or good experiences with the adventure?
Millennium 02-14-07, 08:49 AM	Pretty much my thoughts exactly; great book, but it's kind of a shame they forgot to put in the ending. Any chances of a Web enhancement to correct this? The original (and, admittedly, optional) ending from I6 doesn't quite work as-is; it requires some reflavoring of one of the NPCs.
d20diceroller 02-14-07, 12:11 PM	I just ordered this... read some other favorable reviews... and now I learn that they left out the conclusion!? :nonono:
pukunui 02-14-07, 04:29 PM	I read through the module in its entirety when I first got it, and I don't recall seeing any references to a missing conclusion ... :confused: I'll have to go back and check, but I'm pretty sure it's all there.
Millennium 02-14-07, 04:35 PM	I just ordered this... read some other favorable reviews... and now I learn that they left out the conclusion!? :nonono: Yeah; it's a rather serious flaw. However, it's the only real flaw I could find in the thing, and by 'ending' I mean more in the sense of an epilogue. Everything up to the final confrontation is there; it's just what you do after beating the BBEG that they forgot to put in. Honestly, I'd still recommend the module to most people, with the caveat that you might want to grab I6 from RPGNow or something for the ending.
ottofromire 02-15-07, 01:54 AM	The rest of the book IS good, yes. But the lack of the conclusion made a little piece of me die inside. HOW could you forget SUCH an important part of the story? Really, up until I saw that, I had been pretty forgiving. Races of Eberron messed up? Oh well. I took something from it, used the splat materials a bit, and moved on. But a big thing like Castle Ravenloft missing a crutial section? For shame.
greatamericanfolkhero 02-15-07, 01:55 AM	I've been running this as a d20 Past side game for some of my players on Saturdays and I'm enjoying it. I changed a few things around, like a mostly different beginning which ties a little more directly into Strahd's main goal (which is also different, especially since the party abandoned the town to it's fate.) I ran with the day-walker goal and added a few twists to it. So far it's been really fun.
Solik 02-15-07, 11:46 AM	There's more stuff missing -- for instance, there's nothing that tells you where to put artifacts if the cards place them in Lysaga Hill. There's also print errors like you wouldn't believe. Secret door markers in a forest map for no reason with no notes about them, entire statistics blocks erroneously created, and a high chance for a cheap TPK in chapter 1 that isn't even a legal setup. It's pretty good otherwise, but seriously rushed, and the editing was purely abyssmal. Only experienced DMs should mess with this thing, and you should do a search for "Expedition to Castle Ravenloft errata" to find things that users have noticed and fixed.
ottofromire 02-15-07, 01:45 PM	I went searching for an unofficial eratta, and I found one, and, depressingly, I realized how much is just wrong here in the book. http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=review&reviewid=3221768 Here is a short list of some problems with stat blocks and spelling found here in the book. Now, like I said, I'm normally not one to get so up in arms about errors like this. But really, this is abyssmal. Every couple of pages there's incorrect stat blocks, (I mean, Strahd has 12 feats when he should have 13! WTF is that all about?!) The book PROMISES that it provides everything here in the book that you need for the adventure, yet fails to provide many of the feats Strahd and other creatures use, and just the lack of proofreading make me realize that no matter what was said, this was a rushed and frankly, in my mind at least, bumbled product. My favorite line from this review, by the way, is a quote from page 216: "By her late twenties she had was had priest, and had gained a reputation that no evil could stand before her." I agree that this might mean that she was a head priest, I suppose, but I've got absolutely no way of knowing for sure. It depresses me so much that the more I read into this adventure, the more I feel like I had a sweet chunk of change stolen from me. (I won't go into the fact that they changed some very Ravenloft concepts, like the fact that Vistani are NOT humans, much less Halflings) Don't get me wrong. There are some neat encounters here, and, like I said before, they lay out some good secondary goals for Strahd, and I really do enjoy asome of the artwork. I'm stil going to be running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft sometime soon, as I'm not going to have spent $30 for nothing, but overall, I'm just so dissapointed.
d20diceroller 02-15-07, 04:24 PM	I went searching for an unofficial eratta, and I found one, and, depressingly, I realized how much is just wrong here in the book. http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=review&reviewid=3221768 Here is a short list of some problems with stat blocks and spelling found here in the book. Now, like I said, I'm normally not one to get so up in arms about errors like this. But really, this is abyssmal. Every couple of pages there's incorrect stat blocks, (I mean, Strahd has 12 feats when he should have 13! WTF is that all about?!) The book PROMISES that it provides everything here in the book that you need for the adventure, yet fails to provide many of the feats Strahd and other creatures use, and just the lack of proofreading make me realize that no matter what was said, this was a rushed and frankly, in my mind at least, bumbled product. My favorite line from this review, by the way, is a quote from page 216: "By her late twenties she had was had priest, and had gained a reputation that no evil could stand before her." I agree that this might mean that she was a head priest, I suppose, but I've got absolutely no way of knowing for sure. It depresses me so much that the more I read into this adventure, the more I feel like I had a sweet chunk of change stolen from me. (I won't go into the fact that they changed some very Ravenloft concepts, like the fact that Vistani are NOT humans, much less Halflings) Don't get me wrong. There are some neat encounters here, and, like I said before, they lay out some good secondary goals for Strahd, and I really do enjoy asome of the artwork. I'm stil going to be running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft sometime soon, as I'm not going to have spent $30 for nothing, but overall, I'm just so dissapointed. "...she had was had priest..." Seriously. Come on. Someone needs to stop relying on automatic spellcheck/grammer check so much. It doesn't always catch everything.
Stormonu 02-16-07, 01:45 AM	Yeah, I'm getting ready to run this thing, and having run the old Ravenloft module, I'm seriously depressed. This module is no longer "Dracula", it's a Lovecraft uber-revision, and I'm not sure its for the better. There's a lot of stuff I intend to change back toward the feel of the older module (Madame Eva (WTF?????), Visanti, Leif Lipseige, the shadow demon, etc.). BTW, anybody catch the easter egg in the Codex Advocare? ..Ricardus Bakari.. - Richard Baker, author of Complete Arcane and the warlock?
Solik 02-16-07, 06:24 PM	Regarding the Vistani and such-- You comparing it to the 1E or 2E version? Because this module is built around the original 1E version, NOT the 2E campaign setting (where I know the Vistani were something else). I haven't read the 1E one either, though, so maybe they changed that too.