Anyone know what was revamped in the just-released Curse of Strahd boxed set?

[Adar]

Like the post title says... Anyone know what was revamped in the just-released Curse of Strahd boxed set? That's how it's being billed - as a revamped version.

[Unoriginal]

I can't answer the question as I do not know the answer, but I have to salute the wonderful "revamped" pun.

[Xervous]

Well they advertised they were doing a rewrite on the Vistani so... my guess is that’s the meat of the revised product differences.

[saucerhead]

Only thing I've heard is that it is a soft cover book inside.

[Adar]

I can't answer the question as I do not know the answer, but I have to salute the wonderful "revamped" pun.

Right there with you! 😂

[x3n0n]

Like the post title says... Anyone know what was revamped in the just-released Curse of Strahd boxed set? That's how it's being billed - as a revamped version.

There are publicly-available errata of less than a page, mostly (but not entirely) around the handling of the Vistani characters, as others said. The softcover inside reflects those changes (as does the D&D Beyond electronic copy).

https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/d...CoS-Errata.pdf

In addition, there are the things advertised on the tin: map, packaging, Tarokka deck, and whatever else it says.

[Unoriginal]

There are publicly-available errata of less than a page, mostly (but not entirely) around the handling of the Vistani characters, as others said. The softcover inside reflects those changes (as does the D&D Beyond electronic copy).

https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/d...CoS-Errata.pdf

I understand most of those changes, and am kinda horrified that the original version made it into print for most of them, but I don't get why they edited the part about the enemy being drunk.

[SiCK_Boy]

I just received mine today.

The box is HUGE! Won't really fit on any regular bookshelf; it's about 1.5 time as high as a regular sourcebook, plus the thickness 2-3 times that of the PHB (and obviously, the coffin shape makes it a weird fix on a tablet alongside regular books).

The main book inside is soft cover rather than hard cover, and they have separate booklets for the monsters and the tarokka cards.

The box also comes with a large tarokka deck. It's the same as the one sold by Gales Force 9, but double the size (so the images could be kept at the same ratio). The cards have a nice shiny back, and come in a small cardboard box, but I found them to be quite thin (both the box, and the card themselves), and I fear they may easily crease when used. I would have prefered a "real" tarokka format, with hard cardboard cards (it's not like you need to shuffle it that often, so doing a pile shuffle before your reading should be easy).

The poster map is almost plastified; not sure how if it's enough to use dry erase or wet erase markers directly on it, but it's not just the solid paper used on the maps found in various hardcover books (ToA, CoS, RotF).

Finally, it comes with a large coffin-shaped image of Strahd with his stat block on the back, 12 flimsy postal cards, and a weird DM screen. The painting style on the DM screen seemed weird to me; like it's a bit abstract - not like the realistic depiction of Strahd himself on the cover of the book or inside his coffin. I would have prefered if they'd dug back in their archive and put some of the old Ravenloft images, but I guess those would have been showing too much flesh for their taste... still, the screen is solid cardboard and contains various references on the DM side, like most of the adventure module-related DM screen released to this point (again by GF9).

I haven't started reading through the book to identify all the changes, but as others have pointed out, WotC indicated the revamping mostly concerned how the Vistani were presented in the original book.

All in all, feels more like a "deluxe" product than any of the other things WotC have directly released to this point since the launch of 5e; if you're not a collector and you already own the original release, I doubt it's worth buying. Even if you don't own the original, it's probably better to just buy the original book (I haven't seen any of the 5e products go out of print yet, so I assume it's still easy to find in any game store) rather than shelve the extra cash for this big box.

I don't know if they'll keep expending in this line of products; if so, they'll probably end up cannibalizing Beadles and Grimm's sales at some point.

[Dragonsonthemap]

I understand most of those changes, and am kinda horrified that the original version made it into print for most of them, but I don't get why they edited the part about the enemy being drunk.

In some areas, especially in Europe, there's many offensive stereotypes calling Romani people drunkards.

[Adar]

Sounds to me like the set might be worth getting the set since I don't have the 2016 edition?

If you add up the cost of components it's probably more cost effective bundled, and the cards, map, and DM screen are useful. Having the latest edition is nice and some of those may not be available outside of the bundle, like the map. Downsides: Sounds like the postcards are more of a collectible than useful, the picture of Strahd is kind of silly and the box will be difficult to store.

Sound about right?

I'm seriously thinking about getting it since CoS was on my short list to buy, anyway.

[J-H]

Review/details here:
https://www.enworld.org/threads/stra.../#post-8110973

[SiCK_Boy]

Sounds to me like the set might be worth getting the set since I don't have the 2016 edition?

If you add up the cost of components it's probably more cost effective bundled, and the cards, map, and DM screen are useful. Having the latest edition is nice and some of those may not be available outside of the bundle, like the map. Downsides: Sounds like the postcards are more of a collectible than useful, the picture of Strahd is kind of silly and the box will be difficult to store.

Sound about right?

I'm seriously thinking about getting it since CoS was on my short list to buy, anyway.

The boxed set did not come with the usual Amazon rebate from "regular" books, so that's another thing to factor in when looking at the price (I buy in Canada).

The original book did come with a detachable map; the maps are the same in both versions, but the map from the boxed set has a more plastic texture that may allow you to use dry erase directly on it, although I have not tested it out.

If your intent was to buy the original Tarokka deck and the original CoS DM Screen aside from the book (I think the deck was 10-15 $, and the DM screen are usually 15-20 $ (CAD), then yeah, at that point, you may just as well buy the new box (the box will still be more expensive, but you get additional goodies). But if you're just looking for the cheapest way to get the CoS full experience, you can easily have it with the original book.

It's a collector item.

[Adar]

The boxed set did not come with the usual Amazon rebate from "regular" books, so that's another thing to factor in when looking at the price (I buy in Canada).

At this moment (and it being Amazon, this may change at any time) they are selling it for 19% off or $80.99 USD for shipment in the US. I'm probably gonna do it.