Curse of Strahd apparently coming in March. Somewhat smaller in scope than previous adventures is the word.

Well, it's not like Strahd wants to take over the world, is he?  That makes it smaller in scope.

Quote from: One Horse Town;873902Curse of Strahd apparently coming in March. Somewhat smaller in scope than previous adventures is the word.

I might actually buy 5e for that.

Quote from: rawma;873849So far everything 5e has been Forgotten Realms

Quote from: One Horse Town;873902Curse of Strahd apparently coming in March. Somewhat smaller in scope than previous adventures is the word.

The original Ravenloft module was set in Greyhawk. The old Strahd's Possession PC game from SSI had PCs start off in the Forgotten Realms only to be quickly whisked away to the Demiplane of Dread. There's no reason to believe a chunk of the new module won't be set in the Realms, with the action eventually moving to Strahd's home turf.

If they keep the 2E Ravenloft Material intact, then there is nothing to stop Strahd from appearing in the realms. Pretty much any place in Ravenloft can have a conjunction with another world and appear temporarily. Though it is possible this is a complete reboot (maybe they are going to start Strand in the realms and work from there if they want to expand it).

According to the ENWorld writeup of this, the PCs are sent to Strahd's realm by Madam Eva (an existing Ravenloft NPC), through the use of a tarokka deck.

I guess the idea is that the PCs are summoned from the Realms (or a pre-existing campaign world) using the deck, and then either go home at the end of the adventure or stay in Ravenloft depending on how things go and the desires of the group. That'd let Adventurer's League folks play for a bit in Ravenloft without having to mint all-new PCs, and it'd also help sell the campaign to people who might not be interested in a long-term Ravenloft campaign but might want to run it as a momentary departure from their existing campaign world, whilst at the same time premiering Ravenloft for 5E and paving the way for a setting book.

Quote from: Warthur;873961According to the ENWorld writeup of this, the PCs are sent to Strahd's realm by Madam Eva (an existing Ravenloft NPC), through the use of a tarokka deck.

I guess the idea is that the PCs are summoned from the Realms (or a pre-existing campaign world) using the deck, and then either go home at the end of the adventure or stay in Ravenloft depending on how things go and the desires of the group. That'd let Adventurer's League folks play for a bit in Ravenloft without having to mint all-new PCs, and it'd also help sell the campaign to people who might not be interested in a long-term Ravenloft campaign but might want to run it as a momentary departure from their existing campaign world, whilst at the same time premiering Ravenloft for 5E and paving the way for a setting book.

That sounds pretty good to me.

I'd love if WotC did something similar for Planescape!

Quote from: Akrasia;873968That sounds pretty good to me.

I'd love if WotC did something similar for Planescape!

It feels like that's their strategy.

Considering that any major storyline they put out needs to be joined at the hip with a set of Adventurer's League adventures, and since Mearls has cited Planescape along with Ravenloft as being amongst the top tier of settings in terms of popularity, it makes sense to do it this way:

- Start out with the Realms to establish the League, and to have a setting you can easily crank out small self-contained League adventures for to keep things ticking over between major storylines.

- Roll out Ravenloft to test the waters for doing world-hopping adventures with the Adventurer's League, and to have a sharp change of pace and tone after the run of Realms adventures.

- After that (and after any Realms stuff that could do with being put out in the interim), do Planescape to establish a more wide-ranging basis for world-hopping.

- Once Planescape is in the mix, rolling out other campaign worlds is simple: Adventurer's League PCs originating in other campaign worlds can simply be assumed to have travelled there via Sigil.

I agree. It does feel like a serious testing of the waters going on here.

Boom, here we go. Press release and product page.

Gale Force 9 will apparently be producing a physical Tarokka deck as a tie-in product, which I imagine will be handy even for Ravenloft old-timers whose old decks are either lost or battered by the rigours of play (or who never got a physical deck back when they were available in the old boxed set to begin with).

As expected, there'll be a run of Adventurer's League adventures set in Ravenloft too. No word on a setting book yet, but given the way the Forgotten Realms release schedule work that's no surprise.

Incidentally, I love the cover art - it's a real aesthetic shift from the Forgotten Realms adventures, Strahd looks like an utter badass, and with that costume he manages to look like a truly archetypal vampire without just turning into "Count Dracula transposed to D&D", which a lot of the earlier Strahd art made him resemble.

In particular, I like that the cover art isn't "kewl powerz unleashed during a badass combat sequence" - Strahd is sat back in his throne, scattering cards to the wind, with a sardonic smirk on his face radiating dark power. It absolutely screams Ravenloft to me, and for the new generation coming to Ravenloft for the first time via this route seeing that cover art will instantly say "You aren't in [whatever the Realms equivalent of Kansas is] any more, kiddo".

Quote from: Warthur;874100Boom, here we go. Press release and product page.

Gale Force 9 will apparently be producing a physical Tarokka deck as a tie-in product, which I imagine will be handy even for Ravenloft old-timers whose old decks are either lost or battered by the rigours of play (or who never got a physical deck back when they were available in the old boxed set to begin with).

As expected, there'll be a run of Adventurer's League adventures set in Ravenloft too. No word on a setting book yet, but given the way the Forgotten Realms release schedule work that's no surprise.

Oh man, I need a new Tarokka Deck for sure.

This clinches it for me. I will be running 5E after all.

Quote from: Warthur;874101Incidentally, I love the cover art - it's a real aesthetic shift from the Forgotten Realms adventures, Strahd looks like an utter badass, and with that costume he manages to look like a truly archetypal vampire without just turning into "Count Dracula transposed to D&D", which a lot of the earlier Strahd art made him resemble.

In particular, I like that the cover art isn't "kewl powerz unleashed during a badass combat sequence" - Strahd is sat back in his throne, scattering cards to the wind, with a sardonic smirk on his face radiating dark power. It absolutely screams Ravenloft to me, and for the new generation coming to Ravenloft for the first time via this route seeing that cover art will instantly say "You aren't in [whatever the Realms equivalent of Kansas is] any more, kiddo".

Uh...  he looks like Dracula transposed to D&D to me...  It's got the classic languid pose of the prototypical vampire god, the calmness of knowing he's the master of his realm.  Just like Vlad Tepes should be.  Yes, pretty badass, but...  I'm not seeing why this isn't Dracula in D&D.

The issue I think will be exactly as you describe, though.  It will PLAY like a romp in any other dungeon, only this time there's a famously named gamer NPC at the end of it.

People will look at the cover and be surprised that it'll play nothing like the cover suggests.

Hope I'm wrong...  But I doubt it.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;874114Uh...  he looks like Dracula transposed to D&D to me...  It's got the classic languid pose of the prototypical vampire god, the calmness of knowing he's the master of his realm.  Just like Vlad Tepes should be.  Yes, pretty badass, but...  I'm not seeing why this isn't Dracula in D&D.
t.

To me it looks like Lestat transposed to D&D, wearing a dracula cape  But whatever the case, Strahd has always been Dracula with a thin coat of D&D paint. Originality was never a hallmark of Ravenloft. It was more about capturing the Hammer and Universal vibe. I kind of liked that Ravenloft split the character concept though, so Vlad Tepes is Drakov while Strahd is the more iconic Bela Lugosi type Dracula.

Quote from: Warthur;874100As expected, there'll be a run of Adventurer's League adventures set in Ravenloft too. No word on a setting book yet, but given the way the Forgotten Realms release schedule work that's no surprise.

Typically the player's guide is released right before the season, which will start in mid-March; I don't know how much advance information stores and GMs get. I didn't expect that Adventurer's League would do Ravenloft, since organized play always has at least a strong connection to the Forgotten Realms factions (depending on your rank in your faction, you can use downtime for various benefits) but I suppose faction contacts can also be in Barovia.

Quote from: Warthur;874101with that costume he manages to look like a truly archetypal vampire without just turning into "Count Dracula transposed to D&D", which a lot of the earlier Strahd art made him resemble.

I didn't play Ravenloft back when, but a quick search of images of Strahd made me think of cosplays of the Count from Sesame Street. There's enough in that cover to suggest typical vampires without being a Bela Lugosi caricature.

QuoteIn particular, I like that the cover art isn't "kewl powerz unleashed during a badass combat sequence"

"You'll have to do something other than gigantic battles" is probably a good message to send.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;874114It will PLAY like a romp in any other dungeon, only this time there's a famously named gamer NPC at the end of it.

People will look at the cover and be surprised that it'll play nothing like the cover suggests.

Hope I'm wrong...  But I doubt it.

Ultimately characters are going to swing weapons, cast spells, and use class features; but the first three AL seasons all played differently from each other, at least in my experience. "In between fighting, interact with minions of evil in ways that aren't always kill or be killed" would be enough to match the tone of the cover.