Download Ravenloft 25th Anniversary Pdf

Under raging stormclouds, a lone figure stands silhouetted against the ancient walls of castle Ravenloft. Count Strahd von Zarovich stares down a sheer cliff at the village below. A cold, bitter wind spins dead leaves around him, billowing his cape in the darkness.

Lightning splits the clouds overhead, casting stark white light across him. Strahd turns to the sky, revealing the angular muscles of his face and hands. He has a look of power - and of madness. His once-handsome face is contorted by a tragedy darker than the night itself.Rumbling thunder pounds the castle spires. The wind's howling increases as Strahd turns his gaze back to the village.

Far below, yet not beyond his keen eyesight, a party of adventurers has just entered his domain. Strahd's face forms a twisted smile as his dark plan unfolds. He knew they were coming, and he knows why they came - all according to his plan.

He, the master of Ravenloft, will attend to them.Another lightning flash rips through the darkness, its thunder echoing through the castle's towers. But Strahd is gone. Only the howling of the wind - or perhaps a lone wolf - fills the midnight air. The master of Ravenloft is having guests for dinner. And you are invited.Product HistoryI6: 'Ravenloft,' by Tracy and Laura Hickman, is the sixth module in the long-running Intermediate series of adventures for AD&D. It was released in October 1983.Sources.

'Ravenloft' describes itself as 'a classic gothic horror story.' Tracy Hickman says that he and his wife took particular inspiration 'from the original Brahm Stoker Dracula text and the old classic films.' A Gothic Adventure. Prior to the release of 'Ravenloft,' TSR's D&D adventures were almost all straight fantasies - with a bit of the pulp genre slipping into adventures produced by David 'Zeb' Cook and Tom Moldvay. Thus, the appearance of a gothic horror adventure for AD&D was something entirely new.Of course that raises the question of how gothic the adventure really was. There's certainly a lot of great atmosphere - beginning with the gorgeous cover painting by Clyde Caldwell and continuing on through the descriptions by the Hickmans. However, 'Ravenloft' also includes a dungeon (crypt) and a few monsters like rust monsters and red dragons that aren't really gothic in flavor.

In the end, 'Ravenloft' is probably best classified as a fantasy adventure with a few gothic trappings - just like Cook & Moldvay's modules were often fantasy adventures with bits of pulp.DayStar Origins. The story of 'Ravenloft' begins at DayStar West Media, the small-press company that the Hickmans ran before joining TSR.

They published just two adventures - which TSR later reprinted as (1982) and RPGA1: 'Rahasia' (1982) / (1984).However, DayStar had two other adventures underway when they decided to close up shop. One of them was 'Vampyr.' The Hickmans had started working on it after a friend ran an adventure where a vampire showed up in a dungeon room. Laura and Tracy felt like this didn't give vampires the proper respect (or motivation), so they decided to create an adventure built entirely around a vampire. The result was 'Vampyr,' which they playtested a few times at Halloween, but didn't publish. Until after Tracy Hickman joined TSR.A Dynamic Adventure. 'Ravenloft' begins with a rather unique section called 'Fortunes of Ravenloft.'

This is a 'gypsy card reading' that determines where several things are located in Castle Ravenloft and also sets the goals of the Count himself. This reading clearly makes the adventure less prone to player spoiling and also makes it more replayable - but TSR hadn't really worried about adventure modules getting spoiled since the late 70s.

The card reading is thus probably more notable because it allows the players to experience a non-stacked card reading that genuinely and dynamically predicts the future of the adventure.A Different Sort of Adventure. When the Hickmans published their original adventures through DayStar West Media, they included a 'manifesto' of adventure requirements that explained how their adventures would both expand the medium and stand out from the crowd. One of these requirements was 'an intriguing story that is intricately woven into the play itself.'

Here, 'Ravenloft' delivers in spades. It's an adventure focusing on one NPC, 'Count Strahd von Zarovich,' who has his own goals and agenda, and who will spend the adventure both pursuing those goals and bedeviling the PCs. As a result, 'Ravenloft' is a clear predecessor to the Dragonlance saga (1984-86) that would soon follow - and which would have an even greater emphasis on story. In turn, these adventures would help to define the adventure style of D&D in the 90s.A Different Sort of Map. 'Ravenloft' includes beautiful isometric maps by Dave Sutherland which depict an interconnected three-dimensional castle. These maps tied back to another of the Hickman's 'requirements' for adventures: 'dungeons with some sort of architectural sense.' GMs would later get the opportunity to mimic the style when TSR included blank isometric maps in (1986).Future History.

25th Anniversary Quotes

'Ravenloft' was reprinted in RM4: 'House of Strahd' (1993) and 'Ravenloft Silver Anniversary Edition' (1999) - both of which updated and revised the adventure for AD&D second edition. A facsimile of the original adventure was also included in the TSR Silver Anniversary Collector's Edition slipcase (1999); it was the newest adventure in that box, which mostly included releases from the 70s.The Hickmans outlined a sequel to 'Ravenloft,' I10: 'Ravenloft II' (1986), but more notably this adventure led to an entire horror-oriented setting (1990-99) that was extensively supported during the years of second edition. More recently, the original castle has appeared in (2006) for 3e and in the Castle Ravenloft Board Game (2010).About the Creators. Tracy Hickman wrote four of the I-series adventures in a row - from I3: 'Pharaoh' to I6: 'Ravenloft.'

Shortly afterward, he moved on to Dragonlance. Laura Hickman coauthored all three of the adventures which came out of DayStar West Media, as well as DL8: 'Dragons of War' (1985).About the Product HistorianThe history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.

I've been interested in playing the module for decades, but honestly, I never got over the name 'Strahd von Zarovich'. I mean, it probably sounds somewhat badass for 12 year olds, and we Europeans probably used to to the same thing to american names when we were 12, but it's just such a cheesy mashup. 'Von' is german meaning 'of' and indicates nobility. 'Zarovich' sounds like it's derived from 'tsarevitch' which is a russian title for 'the Tsar's oldest son', with the '-vic' or '-vitch' suffix turning up in many slavic names. So you have a german-russian-slavic last name preceded by a somewhat slavic sounding but actually meaningless first name.sigh.

I guess I'll just call him Steve. Well, by now we have 'Curse of Strahd'. Sadly, it is only released as hardcover with no PDF option.The maps of Ravenloft are the same, down to the numbering. The I6 version is easier to read, the 'Curse' version a bit more artsy, but no real changes have been made. I like referring back to I6 for comparing the 5e text to the 1e maps.' Curse' expands the lands of Barovia a lot, still including the village of Barovia and the castle region intact as depicted in I6. The map in I6 can actually help understand the lay of the land because it shows elevation.

The new module comes with beautifully done foldout map. I recommend to get both and compare.

WHO DARES TO STAND IN THE PATH OF DARKNESS?Five years ago, a group of adventuring companions went in search of the gods who had left the world centuries before. Now these friends gather at the Inn of the Last Home for what they believe will be their final meeting.But what they face is instead a beginning.

For the world of Krynn stands at a historic crossroads: Armies of darkness are sweeping across the land, and legendary evils have returned for a new and terrible purpose.RETURN TO THE WAR OF THE LANCE. FOR THE FIRST TIME!To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the publication of the first DRAGONLANCE adventure TSR proudly presents a retelling of the greatest fantasy roleplaying epic ever.

Players can assume the roles of Raistlin, Tasslehoff, Tanis, and other Heroes of the Lance, or create original heroes.The DRAGONLANCE Classics 15th Anniversary Edition features many all-new scenes, including meetings with Dalamar, Ariakan, and other more recent additions to the Saga. It is fully compatible with both the AD&D and SAGA(r) game rules.Product HistoryDragonlance Classics 15th Anniversary Edition (1999), by Steve Miller and Stan! Brown, revisits the original Dragonlance Chronicles adventures. It was published in May 1999.Origins (I): Celebrating the Silver Anniversary. OD&D was published in January 1974. 1999 was thus the twenty-fifth, or silver, anniversary of the game. Wizards of the Coast decided to celebrate this anniversary by revisiting many of their classic titles.

In all, there would be six silver anniversary releases, running from May 1999 to November 1999. They would return to classic adventures in many different ways.Dragonlance Classics 15th Anniversary Edition (1999) kicked things off by retelling the original Dragonlance Chronicles adventures (1984-1986) with totally new design and development by Steve Miller and Stan! It was one of just two Silver Anniversary adventures that updated a classic adventure to AD&D 2e (1989-2000) without notably expanding it, the other being the RPGA-only Ravenloft Silver Anniversary Edition (1999); of the two, Dragonlance Classics includes the more extensive updates.Origins (II): Celebrating the 15th Anniversary.

The original Dragonlance Chronicles ran through adventures DL1-DL14 (1984-1986) while simultaneously appearing in the Dragonlance Chronicles novels (1984-1985), marking TSR's first multimedia release. Afterward, the line never found a new focus.

Anniversary Gifts By Year

Time of the Dragon (1989), which introduced the continent of Taladas, probably marked the line's most successful expansion, but otherwise it meandered through numerous reboots and new attempts to initiate new players. Ultimately, the AD&D Dragonlance line was cancelled in 1993, but not before TSR decided that classic Chronicles adventures were better sellers than modern takes on the setting. As a result, the original Dragonlance Chronicles were reprinted as the Dragonlance Classics (1990, 1993-1994) despite the fact that they were all written with AD&D 1e rules!Dragonlance: Fifth Age (1996) gave the setting its first chance to lay a new foundation and actually build upon it for a few years. The non-AD&D game was not to everyone's taste, but it was extensively supported from 1996-2000, with a timeline that pushed considerably into Krynn's future. This was the publishing context when Wizards of the Coast decided to produce a Silver Anniversary book for Dragonlance.Except 1999 wasn't just the Silver Anniversary for D&D, but also the Crystal Anniversary for Dragonlance, which began publication in March 1984. Apparently 'crystal anniversary' didn't sound as sexy, so Wizards just labeled it as the '15th anniversary', next to the 'silver anniversary' logo for the game as a whole.Origins (III): Celebrating the Beginning.

So how do you crystallize the accomplishments of Dragonlance, 15 years later? The developers for the Silver Anniversary book decided to 'go back to the beginning'. But, they didn't just want to reprint the original Chronicles but instead 'to add something to the Saga by creating an homage to that original tale'.

The result is a totally new take on the classic story. Some old stuff is cut, some new stuff is added, and the format of the story is totally different.The formatting changes are in part due to the unsettled state of Dragonlance's mechanics from October 1998 onward. Like most of the final Dragonlance supplements, 15th Anniversary is dual-statted for AD&D and the SAGA system.

It may be the most system-agnostic of these later Dragonlance adventures, but its storytelling seems to fall to the SAGA side of things, with a focus on narrative over mechanics, which was quite different from the cutting edge of D&D gameplay back in the mid '80s.What a Difference an Edition Makes. The 15th Anniversary book is a wholescale rewrite of the original Dragonlance Chronicles adventures from the ground up.The biggest change is in the style of the adventure. Whereas the original adventures were full of dungeon crawls and hex crawls, the new book is instead encounter-based, with the classic dungeons glossed over. A few major locales have also been cut, including the Tomb of Derkin, the ruins of Istar, and the Glitterpalace. There also aren't multiple endings any more, and the party probably doesn't split up in Tarsis — omitting one of the most awkward translations between the novels and the roleplaying adventures.

As for additions? You'll find more background, new characters, and a lot of polish, making the adventure smoother and easier to run.There's also a bit of a change in who you play. One of the startling Heroes in the original Dragonlance Chronicles adventures was the need to run the Companions of the Lance, rather than telling a story with your own characters. The 15th Anniversary slightly backs off that idea. It still includes all the Companions, but says 'You may, if you choose, allow players to bring other heroes into the Dragonlance epic.' There's even a short section on doing so.Adventure Styles: Encounters.

The 15th Anniversary is structured entirely unlike the original adventures: whereas the original modules drove the story by constraining choices within the context of hex and dungeon crawls, this new supplement instead uses the standard building block of the '90s: it's one encounter after another in a long series.Despite that, there are opportunity for real player choices. Multiple choices allow players to walk down different encounter paths, even to skip over what were previously large set pieces, like the dungeons of Xak Tsaroth.About the Media Tie-In.

The original Dragonlance Chronicles were tied to the original Chronicles trilogy of books, but there were variations between the two sources. The 15th Anniversary tightens that up by describing precisely how it's different from the novels. The chapters even 'occasionally give tips on how to make the adventure simulate the novels', providing a much closer synergy between the two media.Expanding the SAGA Game. The Fifth Age game system was built to simulate Krynn after the Second Cataclysm, when magic is largely unavailable. The 15th Anniversary, set firmly in the fourth age, has to provide better access to magic. The supplement provides a few notes on this issue, but GMs will likely need to do some serious development work to prepare for clerics and magic-users.Exploring Krynn.

Though the 15th Anniversary covers the same ground as the original Dragonlance Chronicles adventures, sometimes the details of that ground are notably expanded, such as the description of Qualinest in chapter 6.NPCs of Note. The role of various characters has been slightly changed in the new adventure.

For example, Verminaard now returns a few times, becoming a recurring villain, while Kitiara is more of a frenemy than a pure antagonist.In addition, a number of characters who were important in later Dragonlance publications, but hadn't been created yet when the Dragonlance Chronicles were written, are now integrated, including: Ariakan, Dalamar, Ladine Dralathalas, and Morgan di Kyre; three of the 'DLE' adventurers even show up: Bennybeck Cloudbe, Grenden, and Tarr Ravenseye.Blowing Up the Canon. With the plotline of the Dragonlance Chronicles somewhat changed, the uncomfortable question arises, which is the true history of the War of the Lance, the adventures from DL1-DL14, the story from the novels, or the adventure in the 15th AnniversaryI. (Usually, the higher-profile novels have been used as the true Dragonlance canon.)About the Creators. Brown and Miller were both parts of the Dragonlance Fifth Age team.

Brown's authorial work began with Heroes of Sorcery (1997) and most notably included The Bestiary (1998), while Miller had more frequently worked in a supportive role.About the Product HistorianThe history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.