This is what I've been looking for. Someone to summarize adventures for me so I don't have to read the whole thing cover to cover to decide if I would like to run it. Please do more
Probably a dumb thing to comment on, but I appreciate how your ads are well placed throughout your videos. It actually makes them less annoying. Most creators just let them fall wherever, which can be a bit jarring.
Ab Cd I’m guessing they must. The ads on every one of DM It All’s videos that I’ve seen fall pretty much perfectly between each segment. Even if it comes through a little bit jerky, you’ll notice that the speaker was pretty much done making his point anyway and the next segment starts a little bit afterward. That can’t be random. If it is, I’m impressed!
I love you, DM It All. You are the only person on youtube who would confidently tell your viewers to skip 90% of a video if you think they have nothing to gain from it.
"hearkens back to the opening pages of the novel" - cue video footage of keanu reeves shuffling in front of a rotating green screen sega cd background - perfect
I played through this campaign more than 20 years ago. That nasty trap with the wight indeed stands out as the most memorable. Glad you highlighted how agonizing the level drain was. It made even simple encounters terrifying, let alone without armor!
I loved this campaign! It was dark, mysterious and tragic. That fog! And those goblins! This was by far the second most memorable dnd experience for me. Dragonlance was my favorite.😁 But I'd love to go back through this run one more time.
I'm glad you mentioned the torture viewing balcony. It's one of my favorite bits, but due to all the other iconic stuff in Ravenloft, it tends to get overlooked 😎
Actually, mayors in Germany are called/written "Bürgermeister", with a literal translation being "citizen master" or "townsmen master" or something like that
I just an now getting back in to D & D after a 33 year break. Glad to have found your channel and loved this video about one of the greatest and most challenging modules to hit the AD&D world. I loved all of those modules though.
Kirk Shipp I have been back for 18 months now after an almost identical length of time as yourself. I am loving it and get to both play and DM in a small group every week. I hope you are as lucky as me and find your D&D self again.
Some other people have mentioned this already, but I thought I'd be more specific. 4th edition did have a little Ravenloft material, published in a dedicated "scary" issue of Dungeon magazine #207. "Fair Barovia" by Claudio Pozas is theorized to take place after the events in Curse of Strahd. Fair Barovia features the villages of Barovia and Vallaki and has several links to the newer 5th edition material. While 4th didn't have the typical reboot of the original I6, it did have Ravenloft world material that was published, some of which shows clear ties to the current edition, signaling its importance in crafting the current iteration of the setting. It's not extensive, but it is there.
Do not remove the Roma. Do not rename them. They are Strahd's allies because he is the only person who doesn't try to genocide them. It's an important lesson for people to learn about power dynamics.
Agreed. They not "help" Strahd, they are just trying to survive in a world who distrust them, If a lord can grant them protection against the racist mobs, they will take that chance. Don't remove, and PLEASE don't rename them! That estatement speaks more of a perception of the autor of the video, echoing the ingrained historcal prejudices agaisnt that of Romani people that the name Roma (Or any mention to Gypsies) automatically implie they are "morally ambiguous" and to be distrusted, than of the authors of the adventure.
I think that is a reference to Dracula too. In the novel, he had henchmen of Roma origin, which their underclass nature in Central and Eastern European Society* was pointed out in the book. * For starter, "Gypsy" is considered a racial slur in those regions and generally considered "politically incorrect" at best and a controversial topic if one tries to bring them up.
Vampire of the Mists was my first foray into the DND and Forgotten Realms literature, shortly followed by the Drizzit Do Urden saga. Very good reading indeed.
It wasn't the spectre that got my brother's party, it was the banshee in one of the other crypts. Half his party of 8 failed their saving throws and died from her wail. The remainder of the party had some of the best adventuring just returning their bodies to the village, while I introduced a few new NPCs to help the remainder of the party continue the quest, since there was no high-enough level cleric to resurrect them at that point. By the end of the adventure, two of the NPCs were adopted by my brother and his friend, becoming new PCs, and while they did bring back to life the ones that died, the new ones always stayed more popular with them because of how they were introduced.
And then an ad plays of someone playing that music on a banjo. And it still sounds fucking awesome. I think it was BG Ollie? I'd much rather that sort of ad than the billionth ad for the Pixel 4 I can't skip through.
Thank you very much DM It All for doing such marvelous work for my favorite campaign setting! You make very enjoyable documentary reviews in detail with analyzing in the depth and detail the whole subject, while keeping a fun and atmospheric layout till the end! WONDERFUL WORK Keep it up!
Actually, Stoker's work was supported by the White Court of vampires, including having given him the idea and necessary lore in the first place, in an effort to reduce the power of the Black Court, ruled at the time by Vlad Tepes. It was functionally a manual on all of the Black Court weaknesses and the necessary tactics to eliminate them. As a result, almost the entirety of their kind was wiped out, and only the most cunning and powerful of their kind have survived to modern times.
Huge fan of Ravenloft. I still remember playing a 2E adventure in Ravenloft to find and kill the Lich Azalin Rex. We unfortunately never got to finish it - but it is one of my most treasured D&D PnP adventures.
I played Ravenloft the world setting rather than just this module. Spent many a months there, until I got to level 7 and the lure of Evil sucked my Wizard (Necromancy) Thief in and I became an NPC. Hower before becoming an NPC I had already designed my abode with many a fiendish trap. I have never been so happy to have lost one of my characters, to then see the DM use them to kill two others in the party as they hunted me down. I didn't play for those two weeks of game play, but I did share with the DM'ing for her character portrayal and rolled her dice. She died eventually, but lots of fun was had.
Man, my group just recently finished our Curse of Strahd campaign. Which, man, it's impressive to see what was in the original module and how the 5e adventure was expanded (though, the DM added some great homebrew bits to fit the party better in the adventure). Thanks for the work you guys do and can't wait for the next video!
Loved the original Ravenloft. Your review did it justice! However, my FAVORITE is Ravenloft 2: The House on Gryphon Hill because it took the randomness to another level. I loved what they did with that module. I’m looking forward to your review on it!!! GREAT JOB with all of your videos. They’re highly enjoyable.
13:56 death ward, negative plane protection, protection from evil & good, chant, bless, chaotic commands & a lot of stealth tactics combined with combat intensive tactics that involve..........procurement.
If WotC wants to make D&D Cinematic Universe, start with this one. Jesus, guys, can I get a good official D&D movie before I die, as the unofficial one is still "Hawk the Slayer".
What a fantastic video! I‘m currently unable to play sessions and will be for the forseable future, but I love to hear about adventure modules and the lore. Doesn‘t even matter if it‘s D&D or other RPGs. I hope you‘ll consider doing this again at some point. I‘d especially love to hear about longer campaigns as I will never be able to play through those.
Would be interesting to see Strahd adventuring into The Tomb of Horrors seeking the secrets on how to become a Demi Litch.
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1 why? He is already a vampire. Eternity is already his fate unless he goes for a walk in the sunrise or anything suicidal. 2 he can’t leave. So either the Realm materialises right on top of that tomb for whatever reason or he is stuck relying on others that can travel to defeat the tomb on his behalf.
@ Vampires are not eternal - they are like a Litch, after 600 to 700 years their life force begins to fade and it and it cannot be maintained on the prime material plane. This was the basis of the story of the DemiLitch and his tomb - he had to create the tomb to kill and capture souls to drain to maintain the possibility to remain in some aspect on the prime material plane.
I have run the original I6 Ravenloft many times as a Halloween activity. I did a 3e conversion on my own when 3e first came out, and I get requests to do it every few years. It's truly one of the best D&D adventures ever written. That and the maps are cool.
Lord Soth waves hello! Maybe a video on the Advanced D&D first edition and the core books that came out with it? I have picked up some of the more modern books, the fourth edition, and frankly I find it hard to believe people actually play these versions. IMHO the original AD&D had enough to keep it interesting, it was NOT overly complicated, and it also was not too constraining and could be run as constrained or as open as the DM and Players wanted it to be.
Back in 97' I got ahold of the Ravenloft box set for AD&D 2e and I fell in love with it. My players started begging me to run horror games and my Halloween one shots became legends around my table.
This really is as good as modules get. I played it once, in the mid-80s, over the course of several months, with a large party, and I have stories to tell. It was great, and the whole group was really into it. I only wish I had a better memory. It's also flexible. You can go really deep like we did, or pare it down to a one-shot, or anything in between. And I don't think of the setting as railroading. It's like a Star Trek episode. You land on a strange world, and you play by its rules now. You solve the puzzle, you can go home. Fail to solve it, you die here.
Love you use footage from D&DO because is a good way for people who like RPG games to get into Ravenloft and don't have time to actual roleplaying and likes videogames.
Wayyyy late here, but to anyone interested, if you're able to find a copy of "I, Strahd: Memoirs of a Vampire", I highly recommend reading it. I've never played any version of the D&D module, but that book is simply amazing, imo. Back when I read it, Amazon let you read the first few pages of the book for free, and I was *immediately* hooked on the book. It's very much a gothic romance, and paints Strahd as a sympathetic, if still evil, character. The sequel, The War Against Azalin isn't nearly as interesting, nor is Knight of the Black Rose, a Ravenloft novel featuring Lord Soth from DragonLance (Strahd makes appearances there iirc, but Soth is the protagonist), but Memoirs of a Vampire is definitely worth the time. I haven't read Vampire of the Mists, so I don't have an opinion/recommendation on that one.
It's difficult to overstate what an influence Ravenloft was on my youth. I didn't have the original module(s), but I had just about everything else with the name printed on it. And the novels. And the Victorian version. I was a fan.
Another very fine review. Although not one of my personal favorites, I have run this mode several times and it is frequently mentioned by my players as one of the most memorable.
I was first introduced to Ravenloft when I managed to get my hands on the 2e game book when I was about 12. Spent weeks reading it over and over again, hooked by all the Darklords and started my love of D&D! I was kind of annoyed when they retconned Mordenheims backstory in 5e though. But apart from that, I read some of the old novels which were also great! Apart from Tapestry of Souls. That one started good, but got confusing real quick. But I always loved Gothic horror!
I have never heard anyone play the Castlevania theme on country music instruments,like the guy did in the ad before this video started. Thank you sir;that was some mighty fine pickin.😊👍
Ravenloft was always my favorite campaign setting and though I would call Lord Soth the most iconic villan of D&D, Strahd was always my favorite! Thanks for doing this review!
As big as soth is in dragonlance and his excursion to ravenloft is sadley he is not as well known margret and tracy Hickman didnt give permission to use him in ravenloft but the book and modules that were written featuring him were good
@@LostintheMists yeah I knew James lowder kind of went out on his own with his books on Soths trip to Ravenloft, and I always kind of thought the endings suffered for how it got retconned. I was really meaning he was iconic more from his dragonlance appearance but he fit so well in the demiplane of dread it can't be discounted
@@josephskiles Right you are, still the knight of the black rose did do justice with soth even though the ending was kinda meh Same with the ravenloft adventure "Where black Rose's bloom" if you haven't seen that one you should check it out I thought I was good!
@@LostintheMists I'll do that thanks for the suggestion! I had only ever used Lord Soth in my Ravenloft campaign in self written adventures ,though I did borrow from the short story James Lowder wrote for the short story anthology book that was released in the 90's because I loved that story. Most if my experience as both a player and DM came from 2nd Ed AD&D, and though the system can be archaic and down right frustrating at times I still love it . I don't think any of the editions since have taken advantage of the wonderful settings like 2nd did and I wish more players could have witnessed it in it's Glory days! Thanks again for the suggestion, I have no idea how I missed out on it as much as I loved Soths character!
I bound Doru in 20 foot of silk rope with manacles and a gag to be contained until we could find a cure, and apparently the second I left the church, the priest went down to the basement and instantly got eaten. I was fucking pissed all day after that. I didnt even bother going back.
I've always wanted to meet the author P.N. Elrod and tell her what a great book 'I, Strahd' is. I got it as a present for my 16th birthday, & re-read it several times in the years since. I am still hoping for a film adaption, and the opportunity to play the role of Strahd Von Zarovich. I even used to read it out loud and say all his dialogue in character like a screenplay. It's said in the book that Lord Strahd was forever preserved to appear to be at the age of 42 ; (as this is when the Vampirism took hold) I turn 42 in two months, so …
I got to do just that thing at DragonCon years ago. It was ny first time at a convention. My girlfriend at the time was shocked by how unimpressed I was at the celebrities that were there and then I saw a banner for an author she never heard of and I stopped everything to go see her.
Please do more of these, maybe have series for different adventures where you go through some stuff! Personally I'm much better at, taking in info from videos than from books, and it's really nice to be able to watch through a lot of the info!
10:07 Speaking from my hometown at the foot of mighty Carpathians, let me remark that the "travelling" part of "old stereotypes" is indeed deeply untrue.
Wow, the creators of early D&D adventures must have had pretty carefree lives to make something that's meant to be fun this unnecessarily difficult! :D
As a DM who led several parties throught Ravenloft, I must admit that having the Fortunes drawn during the game was always a pain in the neck to me, as it meant I had to make the requisite adjustments without proper time to think out related issues and to proper preparations to give the players the best discoveries.
As a descendant of the Roma, I can tell you we don't get offended by most of the stereotypes or jokes. We make them too, probably more than anyone else. Go ahead, make the jokes. We laugh at them too.
There is a very Critical Factor that you fail to mention in this breakdown....each edition of D&D Presented this adventure with wildly different power scales levels and numbers of players expected. This critically affects the likelihood of survivability or total party kill.
I'm trying to imagine running this with my old group in 2e, i imagine two things. The amount of punches i receive being directly proportional to drained levels. How strahd would be laughed at as he encounters the literal hundreds of continual light torches the party had.
Straad: "vat iz diz?" Party: pushes a wight forward. it is wearing Ireena's armor and gear Party: "it's, like, your girlfriend, or whatever." Straad: "No, it iz a vight." Party: "We invoke the law of surprise. Surprise! your girlfriend is a wight." Straad: "Damn you, I am powerless against your 'laws of surprize'." Straad and the wight elope together. Ireena: walks in naked Ireena: "what have you guys been up to?"
Party: "Better question: how the hell did you manage to fight off a room full of wights, naked and with your bare hands?" Ireena: "With great difficulty."
Okay, the voice and evil laugh was great, really. Damn. Good work you two. Hate Strahd...Damn Dracula ripoff. But I enjoy watching Merchant's channel's campaign due to just being spooky, funny with the players, and wonderful DM. Keep up the work, fair scholars! And yeah, just a monster in a dungeon is never good for Vampire. Actual Folklore is terrifying and intricate, one of the most complicated Undead of all of Mythology maybe even, though there may be one other...
Great job! Loved the story telling! I recommend Queen of the Spiders. I would love to see you do that one. Or the Judges Guild module Dark Tower, if you're looking for something 3rd party.
But you hated him in a way that made the game non-fun when he was present, or hated him to the point were you got more invested in defeating him? If is the second option, I would say the NPC was well done.
@@DerpinSoStronk Then all it's well, good DM to achieve such goal. I usually am good at make my players hate the antagonists I want hem to hate, generally I make them massive dicks. When I try to make a charismatic one, they almost always start in-fighting about who's right and all that... dangerous stuff.
Ravenloft 2: the relofting. Whereby the hoard of undead are made of insulation materials, and there's a lot of old storage boxes on all 112 twelve levels of the loft. It's a castle with a very large roof. There's a mysteriously rocking rocking-horse on every floor.
I LOVED and HATED this module as a DM. Loved it because I'm a big fan of vampires (my novels have 4 distinct types...so far) and I loved a challenge. I hated it because of the exploded(?) 3D maps, which I was constantly getting my party lost inside! I don't think I ever finished it!
The tall and handsome aristocrat doesn't take its origin in the Dracula novel but in the MGM monster movies with Bela Lugosi. The novel depicts Dracula as pretty ugly and frightening, with a big nose and big teeth (the pointed canines are from the movies too).
I played through House of Strahd in AD&D 2e, which is this one revisited for 2e. While I havn’t played through a ton of modules, this is probably the most deadly one that I’ve played through. Strahd is more powerful in 2e, and by the conclusion of our playthrough, Barovia’s lord remained. We did survive tho
Just wanted to throw this out, but saying there wasn't a 4e conversion of the Castle Ravenloft adventure isn't entirely accurate. Dungeon #207 has the adventure "Fair Barovia", which is set in Barovia and focuses on exploring there, although in this adventure's primary quest, the party is hired BY Strahd to eliminate a rival vampire; Leo Dilysnia. Strahd himself would receive a monster writeup in "Open Grave", the 4e undead-centric bestiary, and both Strahd and Van Richten, Ravenloft's Van Helsing analogue, received a lore article in Dragon #416.
Also as a DM who mastered this adventure, I'd like to know if other DM's have had the same experience: that is, that Ravenloft, handled properly, is THE absolute TPK factory, to a degree that no other published module can match.
If you read I, Strahd: Memoirs of a Vampire, it is noted that Strahd needs no invitation to enter the home of others as "he is the land"
I, Strahd is a fantastic read.
@@louiselockett2905 and a fantastic listen. The audiobook is narrated by Roddy McDowell
A local burger place is named BurgerMaster, and so I'd just call him the mayor instead of making players hungry.
So many idiots who can't pronounce that word correctly. Burger MY STER. Spelled meister. I wish people weren't so stupid today
This is what I've been looking for. Someone to summarize adventures for me so I don't have to read the whole thing cover to cover to decide if I would like to run it. Please do more
Same here XD
Probably a dumb thing to comment on, but I appreciate how your ads are well placed throughout your videos. It actually makes them less annoying. Most creators just let them fall wherever, which can be a bit jarring.
I can't thumbs up this comment enough.
That's not a dumb thing to say at all man! I hate when ads interrupt mid sentence .
Do they have control over stuff like that? I was never sure
Ab Cd I’m guessing they must. The ads on every one of DM It All’s videos that I’ve seen fall pretty much perfectly between each segment. Even if it comes through a little bit jerky, you’ll notice that the speaker was pretty much done making his point anyway and the next segment starts a little bit afterward. That can’t be random. If it is, I’m impressed!
@@mark1A100 far as i heard from a content creator they can even decide how many ads play during the video.
I love you, DM It All. You are the only person on youtube who would confidently tell your viewers to skip 90% of a video if you think they have nothing to gain from it.
D&D Gazetteer style Art
4:50 Vampire
7:17 Strahd
8:54 Ghosts
11:30 Fortune teller
11:55 Stage coach
12:50 Vampire girl
14:40 Playing Organ
16:00 Irina
17:55 Zombie guards
18:35 Cyrus the cook
22:33 Strahd's Coffin
25:22 Tatiana?
25:54 Sergei
"hearkens back to the opening pages of the novel"
- cue video footage of keanu reeves shuffling in front of a rotating green screen sega cd background -
perfect
It's hard to cut to video footage from a book.
I played through this campaign more than 20 years ago. That nasty trap with the wight indeed stands out as the most memorable. Glad you highlighted how agonizing the level drain was. It made even simple encounters terrifying, let alone without armor!
I like to play fighters and I hate level drain and instadeath it sucks so bad.
585805857800080508050790
This trap was also set in the module Roots of Evil. Nasty thing. I dont remember my character being naked though.
I love the inclusion footage from the various games, ancient or modern. Nicely done!
"Ancient" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Finally, I'm going for some popcorn.
I love how this was first uploaded at 1 am and than taken down
Ha I was 2 minutes in when he took it down! Glad its back!
The Count was unhappy with the initial try.
Amazing. Even a vampire lord in a dystopian medieval alternate dimension keeps an accountant.
We were there since Ancient Egypt!
Death and taxes ;)
I loved this campaign! It was dark, mysterious and tragic.
That fog!
And those goblins!
This was by far the second most memorable dnd experience for me. Dragonlance was my favorite.😁
But I'd love to go back through this run one more time.
I'm glad you mentioned the torture viewing balcony. It's one of my favorite bits, but due to all the other iconic stuff in Ravenloft, it tends to get overlooked 😎
Actually, mayors in Germany are called/written "Bürgermeister", with a literal translation being "citizen master" or "townsmen master" or something like that
Loved the Desert of Desolation (also a Hickman creation). The setting was extremely unique and created a lot of great memories.
Great video! Just found your channel thanks to this. As a 5e DM running Curse of Strahd, this was interesting to see how brutal the older version is.
I just an now getting back in to D & D after a 33 year break. Glad to have found your channel and loved this video about one of the greatest and most challenging modules to hit the AD&D world. I loved all of those modules though.
What's your take between the different views, styles ans philosophies between old D&D and new D&D? It has to be quite a shock.
Kirk Shipp I have been back for 18 months now after an almost identical length of time as yourself. I am loving it and get to both play and DM in a small group every week. I hope you are as lucky as me and find your D&D self again.
Holy hannah that's a long break! I was 6 the last time you played.
Some other people have mentioned this already, but I thought I'd be more specific. 4th edition did have a little Ravenloft material, published in a dedicated "scary" issue of Dungeon magazine #207. "Fair Barovia" by Claudio Pozas is theorized to take place after the events in Curse of Strahd. Fair Barovia features the villages of Barovia and Vallaki and has several links to the newer 5th edition material. While 4th didn't have the typical reboot of the original I6, it did have Ravenloft world material that was published, some of which shows clear ties to the current edition, signaling its importance in crafting the current iteration of the setting. It's not extensive, but it is there.
As he watches the display before him, nostalgia washes over the old Paladin. He remembers... (NICE WALKTHROUGH)
Rarely someone succeeds in striking my nostalgia chord. You nailed it...congrats! Great content !
Do not remove the Roma. Do not rename them. They are Strahd's allies because he is the only person who doesn't try to genocide them. It's an important lesson for people to learn about power dynamics.
Agreed. They not "help" Strahd, they are just trying to survive in a world who distrust them, If a lord can grant them protection against the racist mobs, they will take that chance. Don't remove, and PLEASE don't rename them! That estatement speaks more of a perception of the autor of the video, echoing the ingrained historcal prejudices agaisnt that of Romani people that the name Roma (Or any mention to Gypsies) automatically implie they are "morally ambiguous" and to be distrusted, than of the authors of the adventure.
I think that is a reference to Dracula too.
In the novel, he had henchmen of Roma origin, which their underclass nature in Central and Eastern European Society* was pointed out in the book.
* For starter, "Gypsy" is considered a racial slur in those regions and generally considered "politically incorrect" at best and a controversial topic if one tries to bring them up.
They deserve to be genocided
@@powerist209 "underclass"
Interesting way of saying "rob"(i.e. slave)
My family are Roma, they came to England too, so did the Rom.
Vampire of the Mists was my first foray into the DND and Forgotten Realms literature, shortly followed by the Drizzit Do Urden saga. Very good reading indeed.
"Perhaps its most iconic villain ever."
Vecna raises his left hand in protest.
His only hand.
Lord Soth snorts in contempt.
Well, a vampire can't beat a lich
It wasn't the spectre that got my brother's party, it was the banshee in one of the other crypts. Half his party of 8 failed their saving throws and died from her wail. The remainder of the party had some of the best adventuring just returning their bodies to the village, while I introduced a few new NPCs to help the remainder of the party continue the quest, since there was no high-enough level cleric to resurrect them at that point. By the end of the adventure, two of the NPCs were adopted by my brother and his friend, becoming new PCs, and while they did bring back to life the ones that died, the new ones always stayed more popular with them because of how they were introduced.
* enters castle ravenloft, vampire killer intensifies*
And then an ad plays of someone playing that music on a banjo. And it still sounds fucking awesome. I think it was BG Ollie? I'd much rather that sort of ad than the billionth ad for the Pixel 4 I can't skip through.
I never played any D&D, but I would love to. Sounds awesome
You got a discord?
Thank you very much DM It All for doing such marvelous work for my favorite campaign setting! You make very enjoyable documentary reviews in detail with analyzing in the depth and detail the whole subject, while keeping a fun and atmospheric layout till the end! WONDERFUL WORK Keep it up!
Actually, Stoker's work was supported by the White Court of vampires, including having given him the idea and necessary lore in the first place, in an effort to reduce the power of the Black Court, ruled at the time by Vlad Tepes. It was functionally a manual on all of the Black Court weaknesses and the necessary tactics to eliminate them. As a result, almost the entirety of their kind was wiped out, and only the most cunning and powerful of their kind have survived to modern times.
The Neverwinter version of Strahd Von Z looks like Fonzie from happy days.
Huge fan of Ravenloft. I still remember playing a 2E adventure in Ravenloft to find and kill the Lich Azalin Rex. We unfortunately never got to finish it - but it is one of my most treasured D&D PnP adventures.
Damn I can’t wait to watch more of your walkthroughs. I needed these type of Videos. This is the best fn Strahd video on TH-cam
I played Ravenloft the world setting rather than just this module. Spent many a months there, until I got to level 7 and the lure of Evil sucked my Wizard (Necromancy) Thief in and I became an NPC. Hower before becoming an NPC I had already designed my abode with many a fiendish trap. I have never been so happy to have lost one of my characters, to then see the DM use them to kill two others in the party as they hunted me down. I didn't play for those two weeks of game play, but I did share with the DM'ing for her character portrayal and rolled her dice. She died eventually, but lots of fun was had.
Im re-reading this for an epic place where Tegel Manor, and Castle Amber is in Barovia. Cool to see.
The images and stuff help to put me there. This is probably the best Strahd video I’ve seen on TH-cam
Another great video! I know I've asked before, but I'd love to see you do a run-through of 'The Apocalypse Stone'!
Keep up the great work!
Man, my group just recently finished our Curse of Strahd campaign. Which, man, it's impressive to see what was in the original module and how the 5e adventure was expanded (though, the DM added some great homebrew bits to fit the party better in the adventure).
Thanks for the work you guys do and can't wait for the next video!
Looking forward to the second installment.
Loved the original Ravenloft. Your review did it justice! However, my FAVORITE is Ravenloft 2: The House on Gryphon Hill because it took the randomness to another level. I loved what they did with that module. I’m looking forward to your review on it!!! GREAT JOB with all of your videos. They’re highly enjoyable.
13:56 death ward, negative plane protection, protection from evil & good, chant, bless, chaotic commands & a lot of stealth tactics combined with combat intensive tactics that involve..........procurement.
If WotC wants to make D&D Cinematic Universe, start with this one. Jesus, guys, can I get a good official D&D movie before I die, as the unofficial one is still "Hawk the Slayer".
The dwarf with the whip was fire!
What a fantastic video! I‘m currently unable to play sessions and will be for the forseable future, but I love to hear about adventure modules and the lore. Doesn‘t even matter if it‘s D&D or other RPGs.
I hope you‘ll consider doing this again at some point. I‘d especially love to hear about longer campaigns as I will never be able to play through those.
Would be interesting to see Strahd adventuring into The Tomb of Horrors
seeking the secrets on how to become a Demi Litch.
1 why? He is already a vampire. Eternity is already his fate unless he goes for a walk in the sunrise or anything suicidal.
2 he can’t leave. So either the Realm materialises right on top of that tomb for whatever reason or he is stuck relying on others that can travel to defeat the tomb on his behalf.
@ Vampires are not eternal - they are like a Litch, after 600 to 700 years their life force begins to fade and it and it cannot be maintained on the prime material plane. This was the basis of the story of the DemiLitch and his tomb - he had to create the tomb to kill and capture souls to drain to maintain the possibility to remain in some aspect on the prime material plane.
I have run the original I6 Ravenloft many times as a Halloween activity. I did a 3e conversion on my own when 3e first came out, and I get requests to do it every few years. It's truly one of the best D&D adventures ever written. That and the maps are cool.
Lord Soth waves hello!
Maybe a video on the Advanced D&D first edition and the core books that came out with it? I have picked up some of the more modern books, the fourth edition, and frankly I find it hard to believe people actually play these versions.
IMHO the original AD&D had enough to keep it interesting, it was NOT overly complicated, and it also was not too constraining and could be run as constrained or as open as the DM and Players wanted it to be.
Isn't Soth a Hickman and Weis creation?
@@TabooX1984 yup. Dragon Lance.
@@sadwingsraging3044 He was taken into Barovia in the novels KNIGHT OF THE BLACK ROSE, and SPECTRE OF THE BLACK ROSE.
Back in 97' I got ahold of the Ravenloft box set for AD&D 2e and I fell in love with it. My players started begging me to run horror games and my Halloween one shots became legends around my table.
This really is as good as modules get. I played it once, in the mid-80s, over the course of several months, with a large party, and I have stories to tell. It was great, and the whole group was really into it. I only wish I had a better memory. It's also flexible. You can go really deep like we did, or pare it down to a one-shot, or anything in between. And I don't think of the setting as railroading. It's like a Star Trek episode. You land on a strange world, and you play by its rules now. You solve the puzzle, you can go home. Fail to solve it, you die here.
Love you use footage from D&DO because is a good way for people who like RPG games to get into Ravenloft and don't have time to actual roleplaying and likes videogames.
Wayyyy late here, but to anyone interested, if you're able to find a copy of "I, Strahd: Memoirs of a Vampire", I highly recommend reading it. I've never played any version of the D&D module, but that book is simply amazing, imo. Back when I read it, Amazon let you read the first few pages of the book for free, and I was *immediately* hooked on the book. It's very much a gothic romance, and paints Strahd as a sympathetic, if still evil, character. The sequel, The War Against Azalin isn't nearly as interesting, nor is Knight of the Black Rose, a Ravenloft novel featuring Lord Soth from DragonLance (Strahd makes appearances there iirc, but Soth is the protagonist), but Memoirs of a Vampire is definitely worth the time. I haven't read Vampire of the Mists, so I don't have an opinion/recommendation on that one.
It's difficult to overstate what an influence Ravenloft was on my youth. I didn't have the original module(s), but I had just about everything else with the name printed on it. And the novels. And the Victorian version. I was a fan.
Fantastic video AGAIN and AS USUAL!
Another very fine review.
Although not one of my personal favorites, I have run this mode several times and it is frequently mentioned by my players as one of the most memorable.
I love walkthroughs! More classic module walkthroughs, please! You do them so well!
I was first introduced to Ravenloft when I managed to get my hands on the 2e game book when I was about 12. Spent weeks reading it over and over again, hooked by all the Darklords and started my love of D&D! I was kind of annoyed when they retconned Mordenheims backstory in 5e though. But apart from that, I read some of the old novels which were also great! Apart from Tapestry of Souls. That one started good, but got confusing real quick. But I always loved Gothic horror!
Very well done. Keep the classic campaigns coming.
I have never heard anyone play the Castlevania theme on country music instruments,like the guy did in the ad before this video started.
Thank you sir;that was some mighty fine pickin.😊👍
Ravenloft was always my favorite campaign setting and though I would call Lord Soth the most iconic villan of D&D, Strahd was always my favorite!
Thanks for doing this review!
As big as soth is in dragonlance and his excursion to ravenloft is sadley he is not as well known
margret and tracy Hickman didnt give permission to use him in ravenloft but the book and modules that were written featuring him were good
@@LostintheMists yeah I knew James lowder kind of went out on his own with his books on Soths trip to Ravenloft, and I always kind of thought the endings suffered for how it got retconned. I was really meaning he was iconic more from his dragonlance appearance but he fit so well in the demiplane of dread it can't be discounted
@@josephskiles Right you are, still the knight of the black rose did do justice with soth even though the ending was kinda meh
Same with the ravenloft adventure "Where black Rose's bloom" if you haven't seen that one you should check it out I thought I was good!
@@LostintheMists I'll do that thanks for the suggestion! I had only ever used Lord Soth in my Ravenloft campaign in self written adventures ,though I did borrow from the short story James Lowder wrote for the short story anthology book that was released in the 90's because I loved that story.
Most if my experience as both a player and DM came from 2nd Ed AD&D, and though the system can be archaic and down right frustrating at times I still love it . I don't think any of the editions since have taken advantage of the wonderful settings like 2nd did and I wish more players could have witnessed it in it's Glory days!
Thanks again for the suggestion, I have no idea how I missed out on it as much as I loved Soths character!
I bound Doru in 20 foot of silk rope with manacles and a gag to be contained until we could find a cure, and apparently the second I left the church, the priest went down to the basement and instantly got eaten. I was fucking pissed all day after that. I didnt even bother going back.
Another wonderful, first-rate video from my new favorite channel! A+ again, guys!
I've always wanted to meet the author P.N. Elrod and tell her what a great book 'I, Strahd' is.
I got it as a present for my 16th birthday, & re-read it several times in the years since.
I am still hoping for a film adaption, and the opportunity to play the role of Strahd Von Zarovich. I even used to read it out loud and say all his dialogue in character like a screenplay.
It's said in the book that Lord Strahd was forever preserved to appear to be at the age of 42 ; (as this is when the Vampirism took hold)
I turn 42 in two months, so …
I got to do just that thing at DragonCon years ago. It was ny first time at a convention. My girlfriend at the time was shocked by how unimpressed I was at the celebrities that were there and then I saw a banner for an author she never heard of and I stopped everything to go see her.
@@Iamdroopy That's awesome did you get her autograph?
Please do more of these, maybe have series for different adventures where you go through some stuff!
Personally I'm much better at, taking in info from videos than from books, and it's really nice to be able to watch through a lot of the info!
DDO does an amazing job with Ravenloft✌️😎
10:07 Speaking from my hometown at the foot of mighty Carpathians, let me remark that the "travelling" part of "old stereotypes" is indeed deeply untrue.
Wow, the creators of early D&D adventures must have had pretty carefree lives to make something that's meant to be fun this unnecessarily difficult! :D
Excellent video. Can't wait for the next one
I really enjoyed this video its well put together and a clear and easy intro to the lore.
This video made me impulse buy Bram Stoker's book and I commend you for it
As a DM who led several parties throught Ravenloft, I must admit that having the Fortunes drawn during the game was always a pain in the neck to me, as it meant I had to make the requisite adjustments without proper time to think out related issues and to proper preparations to give the players the best discoveries.
Wonderful! Can't wait for the next one!
As a descendant of the Roma, I can tell you we don't get offended by most of the stereotypes or jokes. We make them too, probably more than anyone else. Go ahead, make the jokes. We laugh at them too.
And then along came Lord Soth into Strahds life, he lucky that Soth didnt want to waste his time destroying him.
Your videos are amazing. I cannot wait to watch more of your content.
Loved the video, can’t wait until the sequel
you should do a module history series to help new DM's navigate them and just for the fact i will certainly watch it lol
this map breakdown is really well done. cheers.
Excellent content. You continue to impress! Thanks!
Outstanding, I just love vampires, have subscribed, all the best, Garry
There is a very Critical Factor that you fail to mention in this breakdown....each edition of D&D Presented this adventure with wildly different power scales levels and numbers of players expected. This critically affects the likelihood of survivability or total party kill.
Re reading Vampire of the Mists now....that was the book that got me into DD. Disappointed there was never a sequel with the same characters.
An old wedding cake made me think of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
You are awesome. I like the evil laugh and dracula accent.
I'm trying to imagine running this with my old group in 2e, i imagine two things.
The amount of punches i receive being directly proportional to drained levels.
How strahd would be laughed at as he encounters the literal hundreds of continual light torches the party had.
Between enacting darkness, telekinesis & summoned aberrations as well as assassin Gyspy....
1:32 in the book of vile darkness from 2011 they mention Strahd being in the Shadowfell. I think that’s about all he was in it.
Can't wait to see ravenloft 2: electric Boogaloo
Straad: "vat iz diz?"
Party: pushes a wight forward. it is wearing Ireena's armor and gear
Party: "it's, like, your girlfriend, or whatever."
Straad: "No, it iz a vight."
Party: "We invoke the law of surprise. Surprise! your girlfriend is a wight."
Straad: "Damn you, I am powerless against your 'laws of surprize'."
Straad and the wight elope together.
Ireena: walks in naked
Ireena: "what have you guys been up to?"
Party: "Better question: how the hell did you manage to fight off a room full of wights, naked and with your bare hands?"
Ireena: "With great difficulty."
Okay, the voice and evil laugh was great, really. Damn. Good work you two. Hate Strahd...Damn Dracula ripoff. But I enjoy watching Merchant's channel's campaign due to just being spooky, funny with the players, and wonderful DM. Keep up the work, fair scholars!
And yeah, just a monster in a dungeon is never good for Vampire. Actual Folklore is terrifying and intricate, one of the most complicated Undead of all of Mythology maybe even, though there may be one other...
Ran this classic back in the day.
Great job! Loved the story telling! I recommend Queen of the Spiders. I would love to see you do that one. Or the Judges Guild module Dark Tower, if you're looking for something 3rd party.
I've never hated a DnD antagonist as much as I hated Strahd the entire time we were in Ravenloft.
Odd. Strahd is a dick, but, I can rattle off more sadistic, and horrendous lords easily.
But you hated him in a way that made the game non-fun when he was present, or hated him to the point were you got more invested in defeating him? If is the second option, I would say the NPC was well done.
@@Jake007123 , it was the second.
@@DerpinSoStronk Then all it's well, good DM to achieve such goal. I usually am good at make my players hate the antagonists I want hem to hate, generally I make them massive dicks. When I try to make a charismatic one, they almost always start in-fighting about who's right and all that... dangerous stuff.
Time to grab the holy whip and start playing vampire killer theme
Thanks for the run through!
A Pox upon you, Soth of Darguard Keep! May your home be lost to you, but forever in your reach!!
Ravenloft 2: the relofting. Whereby the hoard of undead are made of insulation materials, and there's a lot of old storage boxes on all 112 twelve levels of the loft. It's a castle with a very large roof. There's a mysteriously rocking rocking-horse on every floor.
Read Dracula to know what the accountant is a reference to.
I LOVED and HATED this module as a DM. Loved it because I'm a big fan of vampires (my novels have 4 distinct types...so far) and I loved a challenge. I hated it because of the exploded(?) 3D maps, which I was constantly getting my party lost inside! I don't think I ever finished it!
The tall and handsome aristocrat doesn't take its origin in the Dracula novel but in the MGM monster movies with Bela Lugosi. The novel depicts Dracula as pretty ugly and frightening, with a big nose and big teeth (the pointed canines are from the movies too).
I played through House of Strahd in AD&D 2e, which is this one revisited for 2e. While I havn’t played through a ton of modules, this is probably the most deadly one that I’ve played through. Strahd is more powerful in 2e, and by the conclusion of our playthrough, Barovia’s lord remained. We did survive tho
Wights used to terrify me in old d&d.
Just wanted to throw this out, but saying there wasn't a 4e conversion of the Castle Ravenloft adventure isn't entirely accurate. Dungeon #207 has the adventure "Fair Barovia", which is set in Barovia and focuses on exploring there, although in this adventure's primary quest, the party is hired BY Strahd to eliminate a rival vampire; Leo Dilysnia. Strahd himself would receive a monster writeup in "Open Grave", the 4e undead-centric bestiary, and both Strahd and Van Richten, Ravenloft's Van Helsing analogue, received a lore article in Dragon #416.
Also as a DM who mastered this adventure, I'd like to know if other DM's have had the same experience: that is, that Ravenloft, handled properly, is THE absolute TPK factory, to a degree that no other published module can match.