# What is the "Best. Ravenloft module. Ever?"



## reveal (Mar 31, 2003)

I want to run my group through a Ravenloft module.  Having never run one, I am looking for advice.  If you had only one Ravenloft module to run a group through, or play in, which one would it be?


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## Harlock (Mar 31, 2003)

Ravenloft


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## A'koss (Mar 31, 2003)

The original.   



Cheers,

A'koss.


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## Arnwyn (Mar 31, 2003)

I6 Ravenloft.

Oh, that's been said already (how 'bout that?).

I also liked "Ship of Horrors".


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## Ruined (Mar 31, 2003)

Yeah, the original was pretty good. I also liked 'Adam's Wrath', but I'm a fan of the whole Frankenstein schtick...

If you haven't checked out the Kargatane website yet, you may want to. They're the official Ravenloft site, pretty much. They have reviews of most modules, which would probably be of interest to you.


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## Mercule (Mar 31, 2003)

I6.

Barring that, I'd recommend "House of Strahd".


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## Kid Charlemagne (Mar 31, 2003)

I'll second the Ship of Horrors recommendation - it's a nice, atmospheric, spooky adventure...  I'll also second the original Ravenloft suggestion (or third, or fourth it).  It's a classic, and one of the first to ever veer out from the simple dungeon crawl/linear quest paradigm.


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## Ashrem Bayle (Mar 31, 2003)

Dark of the Moon was good.


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## Marius Delphus (Mar 31, 2003)

I6 was updated and re-released (for 2nd Edition) as RM4? House of Strahd.

UPDATE: Also have to put in a recommendation for "Feast of Goblyns" and "The Evil Eye." 

"Feast of Goblyns" can be downloaded for free. It's not a PDF package; the graphics and text are all separate. But it's free! (Actually, all the Grand Conjunction series modules are free downloads, but "Feast" is the one I liked best.)

"The Evil Eye" presented a very harrowing plot, which could lead to several alternative results depending on how the PCs deal with things.

Go to www.kargatane.com and look at all the reviews to see which adventure best suits your taste. (N.B., I'm not involved with the Kargatane folks, I just like 'em.  )


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## Savage Wombat (Mar 31, 2003)

My favorite has and always will be "Castles Forlorn", although it's not so much a module, as a campaign-in-a-box, y'ken.

It's brilliance even completely overshadows the fact that it would be an utter nightmare to run.


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## Plane Sailing (Mar 31, 2003)

I'd recommend which ever adventure is *least* like the abysmal mind-flayer based adventure which was awful, awful, awful. At best the PC's are placed against foes which would annihilate them, at worst they just stand around and watch a deus ex machina solve the plot for them.

That was the worst, most unusable adventure I've ever seen.

Which means the inverse of it must be pretty good


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## Assenpfeffer (Mar 31, 2003)

I6.

Though quite a few of the 2E Ravenloft modules were pretty good.  Generally, I thought they were the best adventures TSR was doing at that time.


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## DaveMage (Mar 31, 2003)

My players enjoyed "Feast of Goblyns".  Pretty easy to run too.


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## JeffB (Mar 31, 2003)

Barring the original , I really liked Carnival, though I don't have a ton of experience w/RL.


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## Angelsboi (Mar 31, 2003)

Hour of the Knife if you like mysteries and cool Jack the Ripper stuff


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## diaglo (Mar 31, 2003)

I6 Ravenloft.

there is no substitute.

lost my favorite character there.


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## reveal (Apr 1, 2003)

Thanx for all the advice so far!

How about modules for geared towards characters of level 3 or 4?  Also, how hard is it to scale down the modules mentioned above?


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## Piratecat (Apr 1, 2003)

Plane Sailing said:
			
		

> *I'd recommend which ever adventure is *least* like the abysmal mind-flayer based adventure which was awful, awful, awful. *




I knew I liked and respected you for a reason.  

I concur; let it be known that if anyone says that their favorite Ravenloft module is "Thoughts of Darkness," I'm officially banning their ass from the boards in fear that they'll accidentally pollute others!


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## Davelozzi (Apr 1, 2003)

Thoughts of Darkness.


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## Drunken Master (Apr 1, 2003)

i have zero ravenloft experience except for this:
i was gonna run a ravenloft adventure where the villain was a rakshasa, and it seemed really cool (i've always dug rakshasas), but we never got around to playing it. it had a nifty india/jungle thing going on. if my old 2e stuff wasn't in my parents' basement 3000 miles away, i'd convert it and run it now.


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## Olgar Shiverstone (Apr 1, 2003)

I6, the original, having killed many parties and had many characters killed therein.  I have two copies


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## Mirth (Apr 1, 2003)

Davelozzi said:
			
		

> *Thoughts of Darkness. *




Sorry to see ya go, Davelozzi  Ummm ... can I have all your stuff? 

Back to the thread, I6 Ravenloft. Accept no substitutes. I've must have run that one a dozen times back in the day and I'd gladly run it again tomorrow. Best module ever. Also had the worst sequel ever.


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## HellHound (Apr 1, 2003)

I am a HUGE fan of the original. Played through it twice, and ran it once.  AWESOME piece of work.


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## Mr Fidgit (Apr 1, 2003)

I6 Ravenloft, without question. i've also probably run that mod a dozen or more times


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## Endur (Apr 1, 2003)

You can run I6 for a party of 3rd or 4th level characters.  

Just remember that you are not playing "hack and slash".  Instead, you are playing "Scooby Doo" or a "vampire movie", so the party is supposed to run and hide whenever they encounter monsters.

And the vampires sleep during the day.  

Just make everything very spooky, and you can't go wrong.

After all, if the party defeated the vampire, that would ruin the fun. 

(Also, I6 has various items to allow them to defeat Strahd without using min maxed combat characters).

Tom



			
				reveal said:
			
		

> *Thanx for all the advice so far!
> 
> How about modules for geared towards characters of level 3 or 4?  Also, how hard is it to scale down the modules mentioned above? *


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## ColonelHardisson (Apr 1, 2003)

I didn't get a chance to read the whole thread, but Thoughts of Darkness is my absolute favorite.

Uh...whut?

Actually, I like Islands of Terror, particularly the adventures about, respectively, the sword Ebonbane and the giant crocodile. They aren't full=blown adventures, though. There was an adventure about Ebonbane in issue 31 of Dungeon - Bane of the Shadowborn - that would take some converting, but is actually worth it, I feel.


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## Piratecat (Apr 1, 2003)

Davelozzi said:
			
		

> *Thoughts of Darkness. *




You know, I know where you live.


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## Nightfall (Apr 1, 2003)

Does that mean if you kill him PC I get his stuff?


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## Piratecat (Apr 1, 2003)

Do you want his new avatar and title, too?


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## Nightfall (Apr 1, 2003)

No just his collection of RPG stuff. I'll sell the stuff I don't want and keep the rest. That way I have money for all the S&SS Player's Guides and other stuff.


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## Trevalon Moonleirion (Apr 1, 2003)

Barring that fine literary masterpiece Thoughts of Darkness.... 

Definately I6--it's a marvelous adventure.  It was rereleased to the RPGA as a 25th anniversary TSR thing, and i think also as House of Strahd.


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## 7thlvlDM (Apr 1, 2003)

Go to www.kargatane.com and look at their reviews.

My personal favorites are

Castles Forlorn
Carnival
Children of the Night: The Created

-7th


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## ascendance (Apr 1, 2003)

Nobody posted the Death of Rudolph van Richten?  Y'know, the highest rated module on www.kargatane.com for a good long while?


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## Marius Delphus (Apr 1, 2003)

I read "Bleak House: The Death of Rudolph van Richten" but never played it. At the time, my impression was that it required more DM hand-holding and PC railroading than I was comfortable with. I also got the strong feeling that my players would feel like spectators and/or minor functionaries to the plot. YMMV.


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## reveal (Apr 1, 2003)

A few people have recommended kargatane.com.  But it seems to be down.  Any idea when it will be back up?


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## Davelozzi (Apr 1, 2003)

Sorry, Nightfall, if PC kills me, mirthcard already called dibs on my RPG stuff. 

But seriously, my real favorite is the original, I6.


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## L0rd_Dark0n (Apr 2, 2003)

I6 Ravenloft.  Which has, of course, already been mentioned.  But if you want something of a lower level nature, I recently ran a party through Night of the Walking Dead (which you can download for free at http://www.kargatane.com/index.html ).  It's geared for levels 1-3, but is easily upscalable to the level you're talking about.  Oh man, what a zombie bashing good time that was!  It's a mystery that turns into a hack n slash at the end.  The module needs a bit of work on the DM's part tho.  For instance, in the module, the party "finds" two +1 shortswords in an empty boat...I think not.  There are Ju-ju zombies in the adventure, and I'm not sure if there is a conversion for that monsters stats.  I just had to make them up based off their earlier stats, but it all worked out really well.


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## Voadam (Apr 2, 2003)

Feast of Goblyns

Followed by the Ghost dog one (I forget the name) which has alternate plot options.

Ship of horrors had some great material but serious underdevelopment in areas, the lebontod powers are never used, the whole first island set of bad guys you get their family chart but no stats on them or their place even though the party has to go in there.

The rakshasa one is pretty good but the whole hidden western girl plot is lame and the distances for the island are all screwed up.

Book of crypts has some great short adventures in it.


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## Arken (Apr 2, 2003)

Savage Wombat said:
			
		

> *My favorite has and always will be "Castles Forlorn", although it's not so much a module, as a campaign-in-a-box, y'ken.
> 
> It's brilliance even completely overshadows the fact that it would be an utter nightmare to run. *




Agreed the story and setting in that one is great, really creepy whilst being a bit unique. How on earth someone is supposed to run a free ranging adventure over an entire realm with the possibility of multiple time traveling events is beyond me though 

That being said it is my favourite


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## Orryn Emrys (Apr 2, 2003)

The 2nd Edition _House of Straad_ revision of the original _I6_ module also recommended a kinda cool application of the _Tarokka_ deck that came with the 2nd Edition boxed set...  In any case, I6 was the coolest....

I also really liked _Hour of the Knife_, and _The Created_ was probably one of the most horrific experiences my players have ever undergone in D&D.  Also _Howls in the Night_ was really good...  and I think all of those are slated for the general level range you referred to.

_Sea Wolf_ was a really good short adventure from an old issue of _Dungeon_.


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## Remathilis (Apr 2, 2003)

Requiem was a descent module, as was When Black Roses Bloom


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## Plane Sailing (Apr 2, 2003)

Davelozzi said:
			
		

> *Thoughts of Darkness. *




Davelozzi, your avatar is soooo great 


edit: what happened to that smiley? Ah, there he is!


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## Mirth (Apr 3, 2003)

Davelozzi said:
			
		

> *Sorry, Nightfall, if PC kills me, mirthcard already called dibs on my RPG stuff. *




I see PC has already taken a step in the right direction too  You better start packing it all up.


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## Mangrum (Apr 3, 2003)

reveal said:
			
		

> *A few people have recommended kargatane.com.  But it seems to be down.  Any idea when it will be back up? *




Some people apparently have connection problems accessing the site, but www.kargatane.com itself hasn't had any outages recently.


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## Nine Dragons (Apr 3, 2003)

I DM'ed several Ravenloft modules, and the two that seemed to be most memorable were the Castles Forlorn boxset and Hour of the Knife. Hour of the Knife was fun for the first half, but I think it degenerates in its second half. Castles Forlorn wasn't particularly interesting until the PC's got into the castle, and then it was really fun as everyone tried to figure out what was going on.

Avoid Adam's Wrath. Any module which kills off the players in the very beginning and forces them to automatically fail a Ravenloft Powers Check (or whatever it was called) is bad news.


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## Sammael99 (Apr 3, 2003)

Not to hijack teh thread, but I have real fond memories of I10, the 1st edition sequel. Ok, so it was as far from a dungeon crawl as one can imagine, but I loved it and ran it successfully. Yet I've seen it slammed several times on various boards and reviews and I was wondering if my memory was skewed or if I just had different tastes...


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## green slime (Apr 3, 2003)

I6 definitely, but also I10 (which I also liked, but it requires a large amount of DM work, IIRC). The rerelease RM4 was a good read, it improved the flavour of some of the original encounters.


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## reveal (Apr 3, 2003)

Mangrum said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Some people apparently have connection problems accessing the site, but www.kargatane.com itself hasn't had any outages recently. *




Yeah, I tried it from home and had no problem accessing it.  But I can't from work.  Weird.


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## Schmoe (Apr 3, 2003)

L0rd_Dark0n said:
			
		

> *But if you want something of a lower level nature, I recently ran a party through Night of the Walking Dead *




Agreed.  With just a little bit of DM work, Night of the Walking Dead is just plain _*fun!*_  It has all the necessary elements: mystery, general creepiness, growing suspense, climactic weather, and a memorable final showdown.

Easily one of the most enjoyable adventures I've run.


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