Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Review: House of Strahd

RM4 House of Strahd
 How many times will the makers of D&D re-do I6 Ravenloft? Well, they show no signs of stopping. House of Strahd brings Ravenloft to, well, Ravenloft.

RM4 House of Strahd

by Tracy and Laura Hickman, with additional material by  Bruce Nesmith.  Art by Dana Andrews, Clyde Caldwell, James Crabtree, and David C. Sutherland III.

PDF and Print. 64 pages.

For this I am considering the PDF from DriveThruRPG and my original print copy from the 1990s.

This is the original I6 Ravenloft Adventure from 10 years prior. This time the action has moved to the Demi-plane of Dread.

Bruce Nesmith does the "Demi-plane" conversions here which include AD&D 2nd edition conversions, using the fear and horror rules from the Ravenloft boxed set AND the updated Strahd stat block.

Strahd, in I6, was a 10th-level necromancer vampire. Now, he is a 16th-level one.

The text is largely the same as the original I6 but yet it somehow feels like it is "less." I have run Ravenloft many times, and while I have run it using the AD&D 2nd ed rules, I have never used to book save for the updated stat block and some monsters.  For lack of anything I can put my finger on, the I6 presentation is vastly superior.

All versions of Castle Ravenloft

Still, though, I am happy to have it. If I were to run AD&D 2nd Ed Ravenloft I would certainly use this adventure. I'd just use the maps from the I6 version and maybe some ideas from the 3e or 5e versions as well.


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