[3.5]Expedition to Castle Ravenloft

[Tyrmatt]

While browsing eBay, I came across a lovely copy of Expedition to Castle Ravenloft at about half the price it was anywhere else and I couldn't resist supplementing my collection with it.

I was thinking of running it as a Halloween module for a few friends who are curious about D&D but have no real personal inclination to become attached to a character yet. While starting at 6th level probably isn't ideal for 3.5 newbies, they have played other RPGs and similar games so they aren't totally lost, just unfamiliar with d20. The atmosphere would hopefully be king here, with a full Tarot reading being in effect to determine the location of numerous artifacts but that runs the risk of deeply extending the module. Is there any effective way to include part of the start of the module but move on a decent chunk of the castle before the end of an evening?

Would also welcome any stories of full runs, Halloween nights or just any experimentation with EtCR.

[Kaww]

Well that is not impossible, but is difficult to achieve without a loss in terms of roll play and fun (this also depends on what is fun for your group).

You may have loads of fun in the beginning of most modules. If it was fun your players should want to continue the game from there. Also I agree new players should start from the beginning (that is lvl 1, the module starts with 5/6, I'm not sure) or at least a level lower than 3.

This should be a game not a forced march.

My .02$