I'm talking about the series that the new Expedition to the Undermountain is in; there's also Expedition to Ravenloft, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and I think there's some other one besides, or in the works.

Are these just remakes of the old products, or are they radically new? Are they interesting? Well designed?

RPGPundit

I picked up the Ravenloft one.  It was okay.  I can see it as a sort of update for 3x but outside that nothing really all that special.  The original Ravenloft was so fucking crazy (I mean Red Dragons in the lobby, how crazy is that shit?).  The expedition I think misses out on the crazy.

I however have not run it yet and only read it, so it may play out great for all I know.

Keith Senkowski

I haven't purchased any myself. Just what I read for myself in the store and reviews on the net. I can say that it seems that Undermountain is not considered well done, Ravenholt is considered the opposite and a worthy addition to the whole Ravenloft Line.

Ravenloft, from what I read seem to be the same type of product as my own Fortress Badabaskor. A greatly expanded version of the original updated for 3.5

The only major negative I heard that the stat block format used in Ravenloft chews up page space like nothing else. Strahd was like two pages for his stat block. The new stat blocks did look more useful for actual play.

I wouldn't want to be the author to have to write those tho. The ones I did for Badabaskor was bad enough.

Rob Conley

I think they're also meant to highlight WotC new idea for formatting adventures, where each encounter area has a 2 (?) page spread, with a map, the NPC blocks, tactics and the like. I guess so that when you enter an area with an encounter, you just lay the book out on that double page spread. (This is from reading about them. I might be wrong or have a faulty memory or summit, on the matter).

Quote from: One Horse TownI think they're also meant to highlight WotC new idea for formatting adventures, where each encounter area has a 2 (?) page spread, with a map, the NPC blocks, tactics and the like. I guess so that when you enter an area with an encounter, you just lay the book out on that double page spread. (This is from reading about them. I might be wrong or have a faulty memory or summit, on the matter).

you got it right.  i flipped through them myself, and that was the layout.  brilliant for running the encounters.  i'm surprised they didn't do map supplements with tiles for all the encounters.  i'd be expensive, but people would buy it.  the ravenloft one looked really neat.  the strahd stat block is imposing, IMO.  awful lot of info.  the demonweb pits adventure i found underwhelming; i wanted to pick it up, too.  the FR one i wouldn't even look at--no interest.  i think a castle greyhawk one is next?

Kudos for the GM advice in Badabaskor!
You should write an entry level module, to teach the newbies the art of dungeon mastering in the old school-non ridicolous way!

I have seen Ravenloft so far. It is the old adventure with few new parts (so it will fill that 200 pages). New format of adventure is well... not exactly what I would like but not bad either. Just consume a lot of space, so in reality the text amount is say 80% of what it seems it is...

Quote from: SettembriniKudos for the GM advice in Badabaskor!
You should write an entry level module, to teach the newbies the art of dungeon mastering in the old school-non ridicolous way!

If a publisher will pay me (Yes I am trolling for work) I will be glad to make a proposal. Otherwise it will have to wait in my "fan work" queue. But it is a good idea thanks for the suggestion, now you got me thinking.


so many ideas so little time.

Rob Conley

Quote from: SettembriniKudos for the GM advice in Badabaskor!

That one of my improvements on the old school format. There were dozens of times when I ran something and months later or years later found it there was X,Y, and Z that I missed out on. Stuff that would have made the original run that much cooler and exciting.

I own Expedition to Castle Ravenloft.  I like the product and if I had a group right now I'd definitely be up for running it.

It appears to be designed to be playable right from the book with minimal prep time on the part of the GM.  Theoretically this is a boon for a busy person like myself, but without actually playing it I couldn't tell you if it works as intended.

The new format is designed to ease the setup and execution of the tactical encounters (of which there are many).  Everything needed to run the encounter is at the DM's fingertips, with barely any page flipping involved.

Overall, I think it's a solid product.  I'm not the pickiest buyer though, and without a playtest... ymmv

I've purchased Expedition to Castle Ravenloft and Undermountain.

Ravenloft was pretty solid, except for the fact that the much-referenced ending to the module doesn't actually exist.  Outside of that exceptionally annoying tidbit, I was pleased with the purchase.

Undermountain, however, is a product best left alone.  It was, to summarize in a single word, dissapointing.  Also, you need to purchase upwards of $100 of supplemental books just to run the stupid thing.  I have no interest in purchasing Monster Manual XXVIII, thankyouverymuch. :mad:

On a seperate but not entirely unrelated note:  why aren't Beholders, one of the most iconic D&D monsters, not in the bloody Monster Manual I?  No, no, don't answer that...I know why.  :greedy:

Uhm.. dude? Unless they took them out in the 3.5 Monster Manual, Beholders ARE in the MM "1".  At least, in my copy of the 3.0 monster manual, they're right there.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Arsenic CanaryRavenloft was pretty solid, except for the fact that the much-referenced ending to the module doesn't actually exist.  Outside of that exceptionally annoying tidbit, I was pleased with the purchase.

:haw: Haw! I obviously didn't read it closely enough.  I'm made from awesome... or the opposite of.

Quote from: RPGPunditUhm.. dude? Unless they took them out in the 3.5 Monster Manual, Beholders ARE in the MM "1".  At least, in my copy of the 3.0 monster manual, they're right there.

You know, that's so weird...I have a 3.0 Manual, and it's not there.

Huh.  Oh well.  I guess I just have a flawed copy.

I have Expedition to the Demonweb Pits. It's not just a reshash. The flow of the adventure itself seems pretty decent, though there are some problems with some of the creature stats and I find the premise a bit hard to swallow.