Good Ravenloft Adventures?

RPGPundit · March 06, 2012, 12:21:32 AM

Quote from: Justin Alexander;519655It's been twenty years since I read it, but the suckiness of Touch of Death had a major impact on my philosophy as a GM. This was a module which had a really amazing plot... which the PCs would never see or hope to understand.

(The entire thing dealt with an immense and ancient power struggle between legendary NPCs. The PCs had no way of learning the history of the conflict or even, in many respects, knowing that there was a struggle going on. If you played the adventure as written, it would consist of the PCs stumbling from one incomprehensible sequence of events to another.)

From that point forward, I've made it a point to virtually never bother my time prepping, designing, or even really thinking about anything that my players can't experience, learn about, and/or appreciate. (I will, on rare occasion, jot down 1-2 sentences to explain the history of something if it will clarify things for me or provide a foundation for building stuff on, but that's it.)

These days, of course, I don't have much of a tolerance for pre-prepared plots, either.

So you're saying it was good as cautionary example, at least?

RPGPundit

Bedrockbrendan · March 06, 2012, 05:49:03 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;519832So you're saying it was good as cautionary example, at least?

RPGPundit

It should have been a setting supplememt with cool background material on local characters rather than a module. Quite a few of the ravenloft modules suffer from this problem of the writers expecting the pcs to go mindleslly fom one seen to the next. And like justin says a lot of background info the players will largely be unaware (though this isnt a huge problem if you keep it a details for characters to learn if they look deeper into things). This is one module I read but never ran. Adams wrath is another one people sometimes have an issue with because the conective tissue is weak (quite a few nice encounters and set ups, but it can be bad if you try to run it through straight as intended).

crkrueger · March 06, 2012, 07:31:59 AM

Quote from: Justin Alexander;519655It's been twenty years since I read it, but the suckiness of Touch of Death had a major impact on my philosophy as a GM. This was a module which had a really amazing plot... which the PCs would never see or hope to understand.

Quote from: RPGPundit;519832So you're saying it was good as cautionary example, at least?

Right on both counts. I remember reading Touch of Death and then somewhere in there realizing this was supposed to be an adventure, not a sourcebook.

For a much better version of the "campaign-module-designed-as-metaplot-reveal-with-epic-storyline" style adventure, look to the 1E Shadowrun module Harlequin.

Teazia · March 06, 2012, 10:03:01 AM

Feast of Goblyns is still available online as a legit download:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080506030618/http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/2/ra1/FeastofGoblyns.zip

Cheers

Bedrockbrendan · March 06, 2012, 10:08:57 AM

Quote from: Teazia;519966Feast of Goblyns is still available online as a legit download:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080506030618/http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/2/ra1/FeastofGoblyns.zip

Cheers

Wow. Good to know. I would still recommend grabbing the print version if possible. It includes some essential maps, the official ravenloft character sheet and a helpful gm screen.

RPGPundit · March 07, 2012, 10:44:51 AM

Well I'll be picking that up, if only to get a look at it.

RPGPundit

JongWK · March 07, 2012, 11:35:52 AM

Quote from: CRKrueger;519936For a much better version of the "campaign-module-designed-as-metaplot-reveal-with-epic-storyline" style adventure, look to the 1E Shadowrun module Harlequin.

Harlequin's Back does it better, IMHO.

Bedrockbrendan · March 07, 2012, 12:00:47 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit;520229Well I'll be picking that up, if only to get a look at it.

RPGPundit

Physically it is one of the most impressive Ravenloft relaese. I suspect there will be plenty of content that irks you, as it is very much a 2E-style module. Like most of them it has an expected path of events (though it does at least have options for parties that go off that course). but when I ran it again recently I simply ignored most of that and used it more as a setting supplement.

crkrueger · March 07, 2012, 03:16:55 PM

Quote from: JongWK;520246Harlequin's Back does it better, IMHO.

The adventures are a lot stronger in 'Back, but it's not quite the same thing, you know the basic story going in. With the original, spacing out the runs between standard runs, it could take a while to realize you were actually involved in something very secret and very old, and you don't find out really any specifics until the end.

Both of them are awesome adventures, my players who went through those still bring 'em up from time to time. Those and Missing Blood.

RPGPundit · March 08, 2012, 10:47:55 AM

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;520247Physically it is one of the most impressive Ravenloft relaese. I suspect there will be plenty of content that irks you, as it is very much a 2E-style module. Like most of them it has an expected path of events (though it does at least have options for parties that go off that course). but when I ran it again recently I simply ignored most of that and used it more as a setting supplement.

I'll keep it in mind. This thread was mostly for two reasons; first to question the quality of ravenloft's material overall (in that you can think of "classic" adventure material for most other D&D worlds, but with Ravenloft, aside from the original, nothing else tends to come up).

The second was as potential fodder (with heavy modification) for my Dark Albion game.

RPGPundit

Bedrockbrendan · March 08, 2012, 10:58:31 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;520515I'll keep it in mind. This thread was mostly for two reasons; first to question the quality of ravenloft's material overall (in that you can think of "classic" adventure material for most other D&D worlds, but with Ravenloft, aside from the original, nothing else tends to come up).

The second was as potential fodder (with heavy modification) for my Dark Albion game.

RPGPundit

For your dark albion game the domains of dread book and the 3e ravenloft rule book may be better for fodder (these aren't as bogged down with some of the assumptions that might interfere with them being useful to your game).

Also you might want to check out the website Fraternity of Shadows. They have a ton of stuff (including reviews) on ravenloft. Basically one of the few ravenloft fansites left.