#AtoZChallenge2024: R is for Ravenloft

 This has been a favorite feature of my A to Z posts over the years, with two of my earliest A to Z posts covering the same topic.

• 2011: R is for Ravenloft
• 2012: R is for Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death

One would think I didn't have any more to say, but those are just two of 56 posts I have here about Ravenloft (soon to be 57). But yet here I am with more to say.

What is Ravenloft?

Ravenloft was originally an adventure for First Edition AD&D, released back in 1983, and written by Tracy and Laura Hickman's husband and wife team. It was part of the "I" or intermediate series of adventures. Most of these were not linked and only shared that they were higher level than beginning adventures. Ravenloft, given the code I6, was for character levels 5 to 7. 

Ravenloft was a huge change from many of the adventures TSR had published to that date. For starters the adventure featured an antagonist, Count Strahd von Zarovich, who was no mere monster. Yes he was an AD&D Vampire, but he was meant to be run as an intelligent Non-player Character.  Prior to this the vampires have been the unnamed Vampire Queen of the Palace of the Vampire Queen, Drelnza the vampire daughter of Iggwilv in The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and Belgos the Drow Vampire in Vault of the Drow. By 1983 the amount written on all three of these vampires would not even be as long as this post will be. Strahd was different.

Strahd had a backstory, he had motivation, and he was intelligent and ruthless. Destroying him was the goal and that was not an easy feat by any stretch of the imagination.

The adventure also introduced some new elements as well. The dungeon crawl was gone, replaced by a huge gothic castle and a nearby village. The adventure could be replayed ab unique given the "Fortunes of Ravenloft" mechanic that allows key items, people, and motives to change based on a fortune card reading.

And there were the iso-morphic, 3D looking maps, that helped give perspective to many levels of Castle Ravenloft. 

The adventure was an immediate and resounding hit. This adventure, along with the Dragonlance Adventures also by Tracy Hickman (and Margaret Weis) led to something many old-school gamers call "The Hickman Revolution" and claim it marks the time between the Golden Age and Silver Age of AD&D, with the Silver age coming after 1983. While yes there was a change, a lot of it was for the better.

For me, it was a dream come true. Vampires had always been my favorite creatures to fight in D&D, and I was an avid Dracula fan. I bought this adventure and then threw it at my DM, saying, "Run this!" 

I grew up on a steady stream of Universal Monsters, Hammer Horror, and Dark Shadows. That's my Appendix N. So, an adventure set in pretty much the Hammer Hamlet where I get strange locals and have to fight a vampire? Yeah, that is what D&D was to me.

I find that the people who don't like this adventure don't see what makes it great. This is not Lord of the Rings, Conan, or some other Appendix N pulp fantasy. This is Hammer Horror. Strahd has to be played with a combination of charisma, scene-chewing villainy, and absolute brutality. In other words, it is exactly like Christopher Lee playing Dracula.  Even the nearby village is filled with terrified, but the pitchfork in the ready village is a Hammer Hamlet. 

Original, 25th Anniversary Edition, Print on Demand Edition

I even got my original module from 1983 signed by Tracy Hickman.

This adventure was so popular that it spawned a sequel, Ravenloft House on Gryphon Hill and an entire campaign setting.

Ravenloft: The Setting

I mention that in college, I played AD&D 2nd Edition. The biggest selling point of AD&D 2nd ed was the campaign settings. There were a lot of them. Too many. But my favorite was Ravenloft. They took the events of the 1983 adventure and built an entire world around it with people, magic and lots of horror monsters. It was Gothic horror, to start with, but soon expanded into other realms of horror using the AD&D 2nd Ed rules. Not always a perfect fit, but I made it work.

It even expanded it to Earth in Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death. 

It has been so popular that it is one of the few settings to see publication across all five major editions of D&D.  4th Edition made some changes, as did 5th Edition. But that is all within the same vein (so to speak) as all Horror movies, and Dracula in particular, get reinterpreted to fit the times better. Horror is always about what people in the here and now are concerned with. Ravenloft follows suit.

Ravenloft has been listed as one of the greatest adventures of all time and Strahd as one of the greatest D&D villains ever. 

I have run this adventure many times under many different rulesets, and it has been a blast every time. 

Even if I am not playing D&D, I return to this adventure and this setting. 

Tomorrow is Sunday, so a break from A to Z, but not my posting. I will cover Dungeons 7 Dragons 4th Edition.

This is also my next entry of the month for the RPG Blog Carnival, hosted by Codex Anathema on Favorite Settings.

Character Creation Challenge: Raven Ebonflame for Wasted Lands

While I am done with the various versions of Johan Werper, I am still working on his family. Today, the girl that Johan Werper III fell in love with and their adventures in "Ravenloft."

Bit of a background first. The period between 1986 and 1989 or so was a transition period for me and for my games. I was leaving High School and headed to University so I wanted to wrap up a lot of different loose ends in my game world. This was one of the reasons why I wanted to merge my world with my DM's world in what would become our Proto-Mystoerth. This was also a time I wanted to do a new world, one that was more horror-focused. Eventually, I would find this with the AD&D Ravenloft campaign setting, but for the time before that we were just calling it "ShadowEarth."  This is where Johan III would end up.

Part of the problem was the girl he was in love with. A girl known as Raven.

Now I will be truthful here, my Raven (full name Morgan "Raven" Ebonflame) began as little more than a copy of the infamous Richard Kirk's "Raven Swordmistress of Chaos," a book I had seen but had never read (yet). So my mind was already primed for this character idea.

Back in 1986, my DM Michael Grenda wrote up a new class he was calling "The Riddle Master," which was essentially a Psychic-powered class that looked like a combination of a fighter and wizard. They were more than that, but that is the overall gist. It was an experiment in class creation. This was the same time I was making my first witch class. While I had made one Riddlemaster already, I wanted another one. Someone that fought undead (sorta my thing then) and in particular, vampires (very much my thing then). Combine all of these together, and 1987 Raven Ebonflame was born.  She was the daughter of my assassin character and, what I said then, an angel. Though he did not know the woman he was with was an angel. Raven then was a supernaturally strong girl with blond hair, who's task was to destroy vampires.

Look. I am not going to sit here and tell you I invented the idea of the Vampire Slayer. 

I am going to sit here and tell you the idea was not as original as some Vampire Slayer creators might want you to believe. Hey, maybe if my father and grandfather had been big-name Hollywood writers, I could make this claim. Plus, I also know at least two other creatives who did similar things and, in one case, had published their work before the Buffy movie and series.

So Raven was a slayer hmm hunter of vampires. I used the Riddle Master class for her as a test bed for what would later become the Shadow Master class. NOTE: Don't expect to see the Riddle Master, Shadow Master, or Beast Master classes anytime soon. They were grossly overpowered even if the XP per Level were excessive. 

Fast forward to the early 2000s. I would revisit my Raven using the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG. She would even be a part of my Buffy "Season" The Dragon and the Phoenix. 

I did a version of the Richard Kirk Raven (her "Godmother") for Wasted Lands last year, I figure I should do my Raven now.  There is no Riddle Master analog in the Wasted Lands, so what is she? I thought maybe I could build her out XP for abilities like I did her namesake. It would be fitting given how the Riddle Master class came to be. But the more I thought about it the more I kept coming back to the same conclusion.

Morgan "Raven" Ebonflame is a Chosen One from NIGHT SHIFT.

Morgan "Raven" Ebonflame

Class: Chosen One (NIGHT SHIFT)
Level: 8
Species: Human*
Alignment: Light 
Background: Warrior (Wasted Lands p. 185)

Abilities
Strength: 17 (+2) A
Agility: 18 (+3) N
Toughness: 18 (+3) N
Intelligence: 16 (+2) 
Wits: 16 (+2) 
Persona: 18 (+3) 

Fate Points: 1d8
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 87
Degeneracy: 0
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +4/+3/+1
Melee Bonus: +5 (base), +2 (STR)
Ranged Bonus: +5 (base), +3
Saves: +3 to all Saves, +2 to Toughness (Warrior background)

Chosen One Abilities
Brutal Warrior, Melle Combat, Stunning Blow, Killing Blow, Supernatural Attack, Difficult to Surprise, Improved Defence, Ranged Combat, Survivor Skills (Level 2), Mental Resistance, Regeneration

Heroic/Divine Touchstones
1st Level: Sense Evil
2nd Level: Favored Weapon: Sword
3rd Level: 
4th Level: Smite
5th Level: 
6th Level:  Great Smite
7th Level: 
8th Level: Destroy Undead
9th Level: 

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Protection

Gear
Longsword, leather armor, vampire hunting kit

Wasted Lands as D&D and Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Ok. THIS is Raven. At least this is the Raven I imagined she was when I made the character so long ago. Wasted Lands + NIGHT SHIFT gives my the perfect combination of Fantasy plus Horror that I really enjoy in my games.  Here stats are high because her mother was a freaking angel after all. 

Of course, now I am a little sad I don't get to share this one with Grenda. He would have loved it. In fact I can hear him now saying "Oh shit! That IS her!"

I am going to have to go through my various folders of characters and see who else I have in this Dark Fantasy Horror theme and see if they are as equally improved by this conversion. 

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.

#RPGaDay2023 Favourite PUBLISHED adventure

 I have a few, to be honest. Sometimes I run them as is, other times I alter them. But one of my all-time favorites has to be the original I6 Ravenloft.

I grew up on a steady stream of Universal Monsters, Hammer Horror, and Dark Shadows. That's my Appendix N. So an adventure set in pretty much the Hammer Hamlet where I get strange locals and have to fight a vampire? Yeah, that is what D&D was to me.

Ravenloft was TSR's great experiment.  Take the central monster and make him a fully realized character.  Seems odd to ask to do this now, but back then, that was crazy talk.  Gothic Horror in Heroic Fantasy?  Crazy! But it worked.   Sure, Strahd can be thought of as a poor man's Dracula, but he has since become his own monster.

I know some old gamers bemoan "The Hickman Revolution," as it it called, but I loved it. Ravenloft was a literal game-changer for me. Finally, an adversary worth fighting and a REAL vampire too, not the D&D one. 

Original, 25th Anniversary Edition, Print on Demand

I even got my original module from 1983 signed by Tracy Hickman.

I have run this one a lot and even in other game systems. It is a lot of fun.

#RPGaDay2023 Favourite DICE

 Favorite dice??? How do you choose that? I have different sets for different needs.

This is the set I use when playing Ravenloft of any other Horror themed D&D-like game. Made up my black and red dice with some Castles & Crusades dice thrown in.

These are my main D&D dice right now.

My Ghosts of Albion Dice.

I got a bunch of Drow Dice at Gen Con and have used at Gen Con when running the GDQ series.

Some of my oldest dice. Used these throughout highschool.

Various witch-themed dice.

Halloween-themed dice!

More old dice to add to my collections.

Some "Holmes-themed" dice, including some Gary Con ones.

A box of character-themed dice with their minis.

Various dice bags from my years of playing.

These though are my best sets. Original TSR-era Dragon Dice from the Basic and Expert sets. These are my "showcase" ones. These are the rules and dice that don't get played. I have plenty of other copies for the table. 

So you see...how can I choose?

#RPGaDAY2022 Day 21 - Setting Sunday: Share an intriguing detail from a game setting you enjoy

Setting Sunday!

It is said that AD&D Second Edition was the king of settings and campaign worlds.

One I always found interesting was the AD&D 2e setting Red Steel. 

Essentially "Fantasy Australia where even the rocks can kill you." Credit to TSR for trying something so new so late in the game development.

I always liked the idea and wanted to explore it a lot more, just never got around to it.  Though with my Mystoerth setting I could likely find a place for it.

Another great 2nd Edition setting was Masque of the Red Death, an attempt to bring AD&D to the Victorian Horror genre. For a while, this was my absolute favorite setting even if the system (AD&D 2nd Ed.) never really worked well with the setting (Victorian Era earth). 

In both settings there are things in the world that can corrupt the PCs.  And as it turns out both are red.

In Red Steel it is the dust and rocks, but there is also the red steel to protect you.

In MotRD it is the eponymous Red Death, the evil force that haunts Gothic Earth.

Both came out at similar times and I have to admit I wanted to explore more connections between the two other than the superficial. 

See what I mean when I said I could just play D&D and never run out of ideas!

Monstrous Mondays: The AD&D 2nd Ed Monstrous Compendiums, Part 5

Fiends, Fiends, Fiends!

Today I delve into a dark subterranean world filled with long-forgotten creatures that have not seen the light of our sun for ages. Of course, by that, I mean the Usenet, and that age was the early 90s.  

What I think was one of the first big battles of the Edition Wars was the one concerning demons and devils.  Namely, where the hell were they for AD&D 2nd Edition?  They have not appeared in any of the Monstrous Compendiums so far and the official word was they were no longer needed.  Which everyone knew was a smokescreen for TSR caving into concerned, busy-body mothers and the religious right.  The discussions on Usenet had a LOT of opinions on why they were gone and then what to make of them when they finally came back.

Thankfully this did not last and by the start of 1991, we got demons and devils back, albeit in the names Tanar'ri and Baatezu. Ok, the names were changed but they were back.  In truth, I never minded the name change and it opened up the lower planes to have more than one type of demon or fiend. Something we are still benefiting from today.

MC14 Monstrous Compendium Fiend Folio Appendix

PDF 64 pages (70 with dividers and covers), Color cover art, black & white interior art, $4.99. 

While not full of fiend per se, the Fiend Folio has always had a place in the games of many 1st Ed AD&D players.  It was the second "Monster Manual" and it collected a number of creatures from various modules and the White Dwarf Fiend Factor column.  It was also either really loved or really hated, depending on who you asked.  Maybe that is the reason it did not get published until much later (1992) and was the 14th MC to be published.

This MC contains 65 monsters, Aballin to Zygraat, and is a fairly good representation of the monsters listed in the original Fiend Folio.  Some new (the aforementioned Aballin) but a few notable ones had appeared in other volumes already.  Drow appeared in the main Monstrous Compendium. Death Knights were moved to Dragonlance (a loosing their demonic heritage in the process) and Styx Devils had been published in the MC8 (see below).  The "oriental" Dragons are not here, but Gem Dragons are. There is no flumph here though. We don't see those again until Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Two. 

Also there are no explanatory notes here that many of the others also had.  I guess at this point you are expected to know how to read the stat blocks. Not a complaint at all, merely an observation.

It is a mostly generic compilation of monsters and I mean that is a positive way.  These monsters can be used anywhere.  For example, I pulled out the Penanggalan and put it in my Ravenloft collection.

MC8 Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix

PDF 96 pages (102 with dividers and covers), Color cover art, black & white interior art, $4.99.  

This collection has 90+ monsters (Aasimon to Zoveri) from the various outer planes.  There are good and evil ones here so plenty for DMs taking the characters out of the dungeon and into new worlds.  There are a lot of old familiar faces and some new ones.  The "named" Demon Princes or Dukes of Hell are not here. Many, like Orcus, will never even get AD&D 2nd Ed stats. Most of the 1st Ed converts feel buffed up in stats. Even the succubus, a demon with little desire for combat, feels tougher with all her powers defined.

Demons and creatures from the Outer Planes in general really feel like they benefit from these expanded monster entries. While the Planescape Setting is still a bit away, we get tidbits of information about the Blood War and more.  Reminding us that when it comes to settings, 2nd Ed really was quite superior. 

Monstrous Compendium Planescape Appendix III

PDF, 128 pages. Color art. $9.99

This book was one of the bound softcover Monstrous Compendium Appendices and it took on the trad dress and style of the Planescape line rather than the Monstrous Compendium line. The monsters inside conformed to the standard of the Monstrous Compendium stat blocks, but there was no doubt what line this belonged to.

This volume has 128 pages and 71 monsters from Animental to Xill.  Many of these monsters appear on both sides of the page, usually due to the larger art elements, and expanded details including a bit of fluff for each one.  This makes this book actually better for use in the three-ring binders.  Even though this one was never designed to be added!  Again another point for the PDFs.  That is if you don't mind printing out all the full-color pages this one has.

Interestingly enough the Xill appears here and the Fiend Folio MC 14.  In fact, many monsters from the AD&D 1st Fiend Folio also make it here. Cases in point the Quasi-elementals, the khargra (with much improved art), thoqqua, and trilloch.  The Khargra and the Xill appear in all three (1st ed and both 2nd Ed books).

This one does have explanatory notes and it also covers the ecology of the outer planes.  By this time the Planescape setting had been in pretty wide use so the "Planescape" view of the Outer Planes has superseded, for good or ill, the AD&D 1st Edition Manual of the Planes version.

AD&D 2nd Ed may not have started out with fiends (of any sort) but they ended with not just a few, but a whole new outlook on them that changed how D&D would use them for the next 30 years.

Monstrous Mondays: The AD&D 2nd Ed Monstrous Compendiums, Part 4

Back at it today with more monsters from AD&D 2nd Edition.  I have to say that going through all of these has put me in the mood for an AD&D 2e game at some point. 

I have mentioned this many times before but for me AD&D 2nd Ed was synonymous with Ravenloft for me. For most of AD&D's heydays, I was at university, either as an undergrad, in grad school, or working on my first Ph.D. So both money and free reading times were limited. I focused my efforts on the campaign world that I enjoyed the most, though I did dabble a bit into Planescape.

While I bought the Monstrous Compendiums as I could, I made an effort to get the Ravenloft ones. 

MC10 Monstrous Compendium Ravenloft Appendix

PDF 64 pages, Color cover art, black & white interior art, $4.99

I don't remember when exactly I bought this product the first time, but I do remember I was living in my first apartment after the dorms.  I thought it was amazing and I could not wait to use some of these monsters.   This product also expands on many of the monsters that had been briefly mentioned in other products, namely the Ravenloft boxed set and some early adventures.

This compendium appendix covers 55 monsters "Bastellus" to "Zombie Lord" and includes the "demi-human" vampires.  Up to this point, I had argued that only humans could become vampires, but I guess the Demiplane of Dread is such that any race can become a vampire. 

In addition to all the monsters, this book includes an "Encounters in Ravenloft" that is helpful for the different rules that monsters can follow here. 

MC15 Monstrous Compendium Ravenloft Appendix II: Children of the Night (2e)

PDF 64 pages, Color cover art, black & white interior art, $4.99. Covers just 20 monsters from "Brain, Living" to "Vampyre."

This second compendium draws from many of the adventures and books published for Ravenloft at this point.  It has similar monster types to the first one, but all of these monsters are unique NPCs. For example, the MC10 had the Ermordenung creature, this one has the specific entry for Nostalla Romaine. Some, like Desmond LaRouche, the Half-golem and Jacquelline Montarri, even get 4 pages of treatment each.  This is part and parcel of the nature of monsters in Ravenloft, each and everyone has the potential to become a unique encounter and a specifically planned one.  This is one of the reasons I really don't do "random monsters" anymore.  In Ravenloft, there never should be a random encounter.  Even "non-Ravenloft" creatures get a unique Ravenloft treatment like Althea (medusa) and Salizarr (a meazel).  

This might make the utility of this book a little less than the others, it is a book of NPCs really, not just monsters.  The advantages though are a way to show how nearly any monster can get the "Ravenlot" treatment and expand to something more than a collection of HP to be traded for XP.

Monstrous Compendium - Ravenloft Appendix III (2e)

PDF 128 pages, Color cover art, black & white interior art, $9.99

This is one of the first "bound" Monstrous Compendiums I ever bought.  By this time TSR had learned that the three-ring binder experiment was over.  So no attempt here is mad to keep up that pretense. 

This book is larger, 128 pages, and takes on the trade dress of later (middle era) Ravenloft products.  This one does feature a guide of what monsters from other Monstrous Compendiums are suitable for Ravenloft.  Additionally, the "Climate/Terrain" section lists which Domain they are found in or even when they are found on other worlds.

This book covers 120 monsters from "Akikage" to "Zombie, Wolf." Some are repeats, but all are updated. We get newer versions of Flesh Golems and Strahd Zombies, and yet another version of the Baobhan Sith.  Some more vampires (Drow and Drider) and a bunch of Liches.

Monstrous Compendium - Ravenloft Appendices I & II (2e)

PDF 128 pages, Color cover art, black & white interior art, $9.99

This product features the final Ravenloft trade dress and is one of the last Ravenloft products to be wholly TSR and not TST/Wizard of the Coast.  Again, like the Ravenloft Appendix III, this is a 128 page book that first appeared as a softcover.  The monsters are the same as Appendices I & II; even dividing them up into two sections of Part I Creatures of Dread and Part II: Children of the Night.

If your goal is to print out pages for your own Monstrous Compendiums, then the original MC10 and MC15 might be the better choice.  If you are collecting the PDFs to have all the monsters then this product is the better bet. 

I am a Ravenloft fan. So I have all four.

I also find quite a lot in these I can still use in my 5e games and in my OSR/Old-School games.

Review: She is the Ancient: A Genderbent Curse of Strahd

A couple of months ago, beginning of September I think, I was made aware of a new title on DMsGuild called She is the Ancient: A Genderbent Curse of Strahd by Beth the Bard. 

I checked it out and liked it. Hopped on to Twitter to offer her congratulations and mentioned that she would hit Gold Best Seller status.  Well, this past month she did it!  I thought with Halloween coming up and so many people running the 5e Curse of Strahd this would be a great time to review it.

She is the Ancient: A Genderbent Curse of Strahd

by Beth the Bard

157 pages, color art, PDF.

To start with you will need the 5th Edition version of Curse of Strahd to use this resource. Though I am going to also talk about how this can be used with the original AD&D 1st Edition adventure I6 Ravenloft.

She is the Ancient is more than just giving us a distaff Strahd. You don't need a guide for that.  This guidebook shows how changing the gender of Strahd, but keeping her as a strong warrior figure, changes the nature of her relationship with, well everyone. The most interesting is her new rivalry and even hatred of Tatyana.  These new relationships take up a good bit of this guide. 

Beth the Bard reminds us that this IS a horror adventure and to assume that bad things can't happen to, well, everyone, is unreasonable.  So yes there is still violence here and it's directed at everyone this time.

The changes are largely of these sorts:

Characters/NPCs.  Several characters get changes, some minor, others are major.  Strahd is now female, as is Van Richten.  Others get minor changes. Any of these can be used optionally.  Many of these are much more interesting than the ones we get in Curse of Strahd. 

Relationships. Related to the characters are new relationships.  These are very well detailed and even if you never change a single character according to this guide this is a very useful tool for Curse of Strahd.

Encounters.  There are also changes to various encounters all over the Curse of Strahd adventure.  This takes the shape of some encounter rewrites and others with tips.  Additionally, there are encounter "flowcharts" that show how the various encounters are related to each other.  There are also new handouts that you can print out to give to players.

That is overly simple, there are 157 pages here after all, but this is the gist of it. 

The layout is clean and clear and the art is rather fantastic.  It is on sale right now, but even at its regular price of $19.99 is a good deal, especially considering all we are getting here.

The overall feel is the same I get from watching a classic horror movie.  "Dracula" is a horrid monster, someone that kills pretty much everyone in his path.  "The Bride of Dracula" is just as evil, and likely kills as many people, but for some reason, her story seems more tragic.   This new guide turns even this around.

Strahd is tragic, his love for Tatyana has driven him to become a monster.  In this new Strahd, she is still a tragic figure, but it is nothing so prosaic as love that drives her, but hate and betrayal and yes jealousy.  THIS Strahd is motivated by more violent emotions and desires.  You anger her at your peril. 

There is an accessible version of this adventure available. Link included in the PDF.  There are tokens and NPC portraits you can use with this OR with the original Curse of Strahd if you choose.

I6 Ravenloft

Curse of Strahd is the newest iteration of the classic Ravenloft tale.  This is "Dracula Untold" with Luke Evans.  "I6 Ravenloft" is Hammer Horror with Christopher Lee.  SO it stands then that "She is the Ancient" applied to I6 Ravenloft is Ingrid Pitt, in her "Countess Dracula" role. 

I have not sat down with this new guide and Ravenloft and analyzed it line by line, but I have run Ravenloft several times since I purchased the original shortly after it was released.  I have run it for every version of D&D since 1983, including D&D 5e before Curse of Strahd was released.  My feeling here is that She is the Ancient can be used with the classic module just as easily. 

Much of what is presented in the She is the Ancient is relationship-based. So conversion to or from 5e and 1st Ed is not an issue.  There are some 5e stat blocks, but nothing that can't be easily replaced or swapped out. 

Honestly the next time I run I6 I am going to give this a try.

What I like best about this is an attempt to do something different with what is now can be considered a classic sort of tale. It shows that like love, the topics of hate, revenge, and undying purpose are universal and can transcend simpler concepts of gender. 

I had thought, originally, that this would give me some ideas for my own Darklord and Domain, Darlessa and Arevenir.  Thankfully, She is the Ancient is not only NOT distaff Strahd, it is also NOT just a generic female vampire Darklord.  I will, however, adopt the adventure flowchart idea and the relationships as they are modeled here.  There are some great ideas to be honest.

Who should buy She is the Ancient?   Anyone who has run and wants to re-run Curse of Strahd and wants to try something different. Personally, I feel the DMs that have run Curse of Strahd already will benefit the most from this.

I also think that first-time DMs of Curse of Strahd will enjoy this, but there is a LOT going on in both Curse of Strahd AND She is the Ancient.

Once you have this you can adopt/adapt as much or as little as you like.   Or even just use the flowcharts and relationships to flesh out all the characters more.

I would say my ONLY complaint is that there is no POD option, but in truth, the layout and design are such that any page or collection of pages can be printed out and slotted into your Curse of Strahd book. Though a POD would be nice. 

She is the Ancient: A Genderbent Curse of Strahd is not going to be for everyone and that is OK.  BUT, for the people that are inclined to use it is a great resource and guide.  It is well written with great art and layout.  A lot of work went into this and like the original Ravenloft, it provides yet more options for replayability.  

Mail Call, Part 2: Another Return to Ravenloft

Well, I had forgotten I ordered this, but I am glad I did.  Waiting for me on my front porch after getting groceries today was a Print on Demand copy of I6 Ravenloft. 

It was not very expensive really, just under $9 for the book. I had bought the PDFs when it first came out so I just grabbed the Print on Demand version this time.  Getting both is $2 more than just the print but still cheaper than getting them separate like I did. 

It was about $4 for shipping and a buck something for taxes.  All in all, it came in just $15.   Sure more expensive than my original, but relatively speaking still cheap.

The scan is really nice. Not exactly what I would call crisp, but perfectly clear.

The maps are in the back of the book, as the pictures below will show. So not really useful. But when you buy it with the PDF you can print them out.  

It's not like I needed another copy of Ravenloft.  I have ran it so many times now already I don't think I'll run it again as is.  But it is nice to have this.  It does compare well to my original edition and my 25th-anniversary edition.

Not to mention the AD&D 2nd Edition House of Strahd, the D&D 3rd Edition Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, and the 5th Edition Curse of Strahd.  All of which are essentially the same adventure with tweaks to their respective systems.

I am likely to give my new copy to my oldest son who LOVES Ravenloft now.  This kid hated anything horror growing up and now can't get enough.

Maybe one day I'll run it with a distaff Strahd.  OR maybe Darlessa?

#RPGaDAY2021 Day 24 Translate

Heading into the back end of the challenge. What do we have for today and how does it relate to NIGHT SHIFT?

Day 24 Translate

Continuing on the ideas in Simplicity and Substitute, I often try to Translate material from one game system to another for different sorts of experiences. 

In many ways, the ultimate representation of this is NIGHT SHIFT.

NIGHT SHIFT began as a way to take something my co-author Jason and I loved; the games we worked on and played back in the 1990s and early 2000s and translate it to a rule system we also loved.

The simplest way to describe NIGHT SHIFT is "Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Basic D&D rules" but that doesn't really capture all of it.

In the 1990s my game world of choice for AD&D 2nd Ed was Ravenloft. I loved the horror elements, I loved the trappings of Gothic Horror, and I loved that I could bring in characters I have been playing for years over to it.  The Masque of the Red Death Gothic Earth supplement was a dream come true since it also brought in my beloved Victorian era.   It was perfect...almost.

Near the end of the 90s I was getting really burned out on D&D.  Thankfully I had discovered C.J. Carella's WitchCraft RPG.  Here was yet another "Gothic Earth" only this time coming at from a different angle.  I loved it.  Of course, as the supplements for WitchCraft were released I thought of many ways to "translate" Ravenloft over to WitchCraft.   In a way, I got my wish and wrote Ghosts of Albion.  A horror-soaked Earth, in a Victorian setting.

Still as perfect as I think WitchCraft and Ghosts of Albion are, they still didn't give me something.  Sure it was a minor thing, but there was still something I was looking for. 

Jason did something similar.  While I went for the themes I wanted, he took the Unisystem rules found in WitchCraft and went a different direction with Dungeons & Zombies; a way to translate D&D experiences and adventures into Unisystem.  Like myself, he also had a few "fan" based products.

We really have been dancing around NIGHT SHIFT for decades.

I wanted a game where I could translate anything I have done over the last 30+ years to a single game system.  I feel NIGHT SHIFT does this.

Don't forget our Kickstarter going on right now for The Night Companion.