Ravenloft Campaign setting advice needed

[Gerion]

Hi,

I have become interested in the Ravenloft Campaign setting, but rather unsure if I should buy the 3.0 or the 3.5 Books.

I'm more interested in the fluff and backround than actual game mechanics.

anyone out there who could give me some advice on this topic?

[Oblivious]

I've heard people complaining that the 3.5 Ravenloft books were basically identical to the 3.0 versions. I'd say get whatever is easiest or cheapest.

[Pronounceable]

Go for ADnD books then.

Also once you've got official material, find fanmade stuff from Kargatane. They should be somewhere around the net.

[herrhauptmann]

The AD&D Van Richten guides are excellent. About 15$US each for the 3 compendiums. The mechanics are utterly useless outside AD&D, but the fluff is great.
As a DM, do not allow Radiant Servant of Pelor, and DMM cheese. If your characters are built and equipped in ravenloft as if they were in faerun, they'll steamroll your encounters. I watched that get proved in the newest Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. The radiant servant was 2 levels behind the party, and the game said the fight should've been very difficult even if we were all the same level. Instead we flattened Strahd, even after the DM had buffed him a few more levels and 50% more HP than average.

[SilverClawShift]

You barely need the books to do ravenloft fluff.

Mists.
Go in.
No way out.
Domains, ranging from tiny to kingdom sized.
Each domain run by a darklord who has varying
-levels of godlike powers
-personality quirks
-thematicly tied backstories
Gypsies.
Pain.
Fear.
Hopeless struggle.
SOMEHOW YOU WON THE DAY!
Still no way out.

You're now prepared to DM for Ravenloft

[Terraoblivion]

For the basic campaign setting book i'd probably go with the 3.5 one. It is very similar to the 3.0 one, but chances are there are at least a few mechanical changes that needs to be taken into account, it is a small enough difference that the 3.0 one should be fine. Beyond that the only book that exists in both 3.5 and 3.0 versions is Denizens of Dread/whatever it is called in the other of those two editions, here there probably again is no real reason not to get the 3.5 version, though once more they are quite similar.

In regards to fluff i have found that the 3.0/3.5 line of supplements is excellent except for Champions of Darkness which is so godawful that the developers have publicly disowned it and apologized for making it. Depending on what you prefer the guidebooks of the various domains of the core or the new Van Richten's Guides are probably the best places for fluff in the newer books. Like herrhauptmann said the older Van Richten's Guides are good too.

More general advice for running the setting would probably be to mostly stick to material from Ravenloft books for anything but base classes and a few monsters. Optimization should probably also be kept in check, it rather ruins the point of the setting if everybody is a mechanical powerhouse who can kill most things you encounter. The power checks and differences in how spells work does aid this to a degree, but it is still worth keeping in mind. Another possible alternative could be to run it using d20 modern, for more moderate power and especially less magic.

[ZeroNumerous]

Mists.
Go in.
No way out.
Domains, ranging from tiny to kingdom sized.
Each domain run by a darklord who has varying
-levels of godlike powers
-personality quirks
-thematicly tied backstories
Gypsies.
Pain.
Fear.
Hopeless struggle.
SOMEHOW YOU WON THE DAY! YOU DIE HORRIBLY!
Still no way out.

Fixed your mistake there.

[Tsotha-lanti]

Go for ADnD books then.

I actually found the 3.X books superior. The writers seemed to have a more solid grasp on gothic horror and a better idea of how to make the setting a setting in its own right, rather than a horror vacation spot.


Anyway, what sort of fluff are you talking about? There's so many domains, all completely unrelated to each other until they appeared in Ravenloft (and many still completely unrelated to each other), it'd be way too much work to describe all of them.

[bosssmiley]

Ravenloft = The Laws of Thermodynamics as game setting:

1. You can't win.
2. You can't break even.
3. You can't leave.

Any edition will be good for fluff. Mechanics really are an optional extra.

[Tsotha-lanti]

Any edition will be good for fluff. Mechanics really are an optional extra.

In fact, you're probably better off using another game for mechanics. I find Unisystem (All Flesh Must Be Eaten/Witchcraft) is pretty great. Witchcraft has vampires and ghosts already - and it's no trouble at all converting the D&D versions and abilities into Unisystem terms - and AFMBE's zombie creation is an easy way to create zombies, skeletons, ghouls, ghasts, wights, vampire spawn, and other undead monsters.

My conversion, All Strahd Must Be Eaten (... working title) will be upcoming whenever the heck I feel like putting in enough work to finish it, so don't wait up.

[Project_Mayhem]

My conversion, All Strahd Must Be Eaten (... working title) will be upcoming whenever the heck I feel like putting in enough work to finish it, so don't wait up.

If you change that title I will hunt you down, you hear me? It is solidified win.

[Tsotha-lanti]

All Strahd Must Be Eaten now being posted in homebrew as I hammer out my material into postable form. Once I've got it all written up in RTFs, I'll be posting a PDF.

The idea is three-fold:
1. Convert the Ravenloft setting into a system more suitable for horror, but still very suitable for fantasy adventure.
2. Cut out references to D&D cosmology that doesn't affect Ravenloft, making the conversion work as independently of D&D material as possible.
3. Include as much on the theory and practice of running gothic horror as possible.

[Roland St. Jude]

post for later

Go ahead and post later when you're ready. Placeholder posts are minor spam except in very rare instances (like you're writing a guidebook or homebrew that you know is going to take multiple posts). Even then, don't overdo it.