Another year and Halloween passed, and I didn't run anything special for the holiday. However, as I don't want this to happen again in 2023, I better start prepping now...

The most classic adventure I know for Halloween is Ravenloft as a one-shot, so I am working on it (ideas for running it as a one-shot from here https://slyflourish.com/running_ravenloft.html and here https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/359-strahd-must-die-tonight-how-to-play-ravenloft-in-a).

I ask you for some help or ideas with these:

- Maps of Castle Ravenloft: I have the original maps from module I6 (1983) and the newest ones from the adventure Curse of Strahd. I guess the architect made this castle a maze for additional defense, and game designers made the maps slightly confusing. Do you recommend any good maps for free (I saw DMGuild and RPGNow have some for sale, but I would prefer not to pay)? I did some searches and found some, but I am open to suggestions. 

- Pre-gen characters: Please suggest classes/builds suitable for this. For example, Monster hunters, Clerics, Paladins, etc.

- System: The simplest, the better... The original module I6 is AD&D 1e? and Curse of Strahd is 5e, so either AD&D 1e or 5e would be preferred to not have to make conversions. Still, I would be willing to do it in LotFP (B/X) if this keeps it more simple...

Which are your thoughts, feelings, and experiences with Castle Ravenloft? Do you recommend it? Do you have some other modules/adventures/ideas for Halloween one-shots?

I only have 363 days until next Halloween, so please reply asap!

I had a rather ambitious project to recreate Castle Ravenloft in Minecraft at 1:1 scale and ran into the map problem as while the isometric style is cute and all. Its a pain in the ass to line up and I ended up converting the maps by hand to a standard flat format.

So either I got something off. Or they just do not line up in places. I may take another go at it later. Did at least get some of the thing laid out and get a feel for the scale of the place. Its overall layout is not all that complex really. Its just that theres several places that you get to via at times round-about means.

But that is true of some of the real life castles that have similar convoluted architectures.

Quote from: psiconauta_retro on November 02, 2022, 05:15:14 AM
Another year and Halloween passed, and I didn't run anything special for the holiday. However, as I don't want this to happen again in 2023, I better start prepping now...

The most classic adventure I know for Halloween is Ravenloft as a one-shot, so I am working on it (ideas for running it as a one-shot from here https://slyflourish.com/running_ravenloft.html and here https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/359-strahd-must-die-tonight-how-to-play-ravenloft-in-a).

I ask you for some help or ideas with these:

- Maps of Castle Ravenloft: I have the original maps from module I6 (1983) and the newest ones from the adventure Curse of Strahd. I guess the architect made this castle a maze for additional defense, and game designers made the maps slightly confusing. Do you recommend any good maps for free (I saw DMGuild and RPGNow have some for sale, but I would prefer not to pay)? I did some searches and found some, but I am open to suggestions. 

- Pre-gen characters: Please suggest classes/builds suitable for this. For example, Monster hunters, Clerics, Paladins, etc.

- System: The simplest, the better... The original module I6 is AD&D 1e? and Curse of Strahd is 5e, so either AD&D 1e or 5e would be preferred to not have to make conversions. Still, I would be willing to do it in LotFP (B/X) if this keeps it more simple...

Which are your thoughts, feelings, and experiences with Castle Ravenloft? Do you recommend it? Do you have some other modules/adventures/ideas for Halloween one-shots?

I only have 363 days until next Halloween, so please reply asap!

Never ran it. Always wanted to. I bought a gothic tarot to use for the tarot reading if I ever got the chance.
I'd want to use 2e, as it's my preferred system, but I'd run it with anything except 4.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on November 02, 2022, 08:42:16 AM

Quote from: psiconauta_retro on November 02, 2022, 05:15:14 AM
Another year and Halloween passed, and I didn't run anything special for the holiday. However, as I don't want this to happen again in 2023, I better start prepping now...

The most classic adventure I know for Halloween is Ravenloft as a one-shot, so I am working on it (ideas for running it as a one-shot from here https://slyflourish.com/running_ravenloft.html and here https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/359-strahd-must-die-tonight-how-to-play-ravenloft-in-a).

I ask you for some help or ideas with these:

- Maps of Castle Ravenloft: I have the original maps from module I6 (1983) and the newest ones from the adventure Curse of Strahd. I guess the architect made this castle a maze for additional defense, and game designers made the maps slightly confusing. Do you recommend any good maps for free (I saw DMGuild and RPGNow have some for sale, but I would prefer not to pay)? I did some searches and found some, but I am open to suggestions. 

- Pre-gen characters: Please suggest classes/builds suitable for this. For example, Monster hunters, Clerics, Paladins, etc.

- System: The simplest, the better... The original module I6 is AD&D 1e? and Curse of Strahd is 5e, so either AD&D 1e or 5e would be preferred to not have to make conversions. Still, I would be willing to do it in LotFP (B/X) if this keeps it more simple...

Which are your thoughts, feelings, and experiences with Castle Ravenloft? Do you recommend it? Do you have some other modules/adventures/ideas for Halloween one-shots?

I only have 363 days until next Halloween, so please reply asap!

Never ran it. Always wanted to. I bought a gothic tarot to use for the tarot reading if I ever got the chance.
I'd want to use 2e, as it's my preferred system, but I'd run it with anything except 4.

Yeah, Ravenloft with Healing Surges doesn't sound right to me either....

I ran a Halloween scenario where the PCs were supposed to travel to a faraway town and rescue a princess from the monsters that took the place. Last year I had purchased Horrorified (a board game) and painted up the cinematic monsters -- Dracula, werewolf, invisible man, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein monster, etc. -- and my group knew they would be facing these creatures.

The kicker was that I also bought a Wizard of Oz board game, and the Big Bad at the end of the scenario was a combo of Cowardly Lion, Wicked Witch, Tin Man, and Scarecrow. I was careful that they saw the lion first and kept referring to him as a beast-man but some of my players kept looking at the mini strangely. Then when the Tin Man appeared they knew they had been set up. It was a blast, particularly because of the surprise twist at the end. (I had considered making Dorothy the arch-baddie, but we were running out of time and I had to shorten the adventure.)