When i was young, we had an older family friend who ran a campaign for us. He also ran it as lower magic when it came to items. Our characters were aware of such things as magic swords but they were all high family heirlooms. When he felt it was time for us to get out first taste of them he didn't have us just find them or buy them. We had met an ancient Dwarven weaponsmith who felt he owed us a debt for saving his descendants village. This dwarf sent us out on several quests to find components such as special metals, potions, scrolls so that he could craft our reward for us. This also allowed us to choose what weapon we wanted (sword or bow or staff, etc). While they were effectively generic +1 weapons, they were special and precious to us.
I find it interesting that a lot of people forget that they’re used to be a morale check that used to be used for horror as well. But this game and games like it made it front and center rather than a rule that a lot of game masters either forgot or didn’t understand or purposefully ignorant, or purposefully, not remind the game master
All of the 2E settings and splat books are S tier stuff. Super well researched and just full of excellent flavor. It makes sense why they're so good based on that core three of leads. Crazy how overlooked a lot of this stuff is/was for "old schoolers". Masque of the Red Death is an amazing box. Didn't have it until Gencon 2011 for 10 bucks at a booth in nearly mint condition. So much cool stuff to do in the 1890s. Occultism/theosophy, radical politics, burgeoning industrialism mixed with evil, magic, guns and necromancy. Can't go wrong. You can do your own "DARK" history campaign (city, town, village) of an area you know with your players. Dig up old historical sites, events, people and folk tales and turn them into mysterious and horrific adventure. Props to Connors for making that box. 74-89 holds a lot of magic and nostalgia to it for me in terms of products and mid-80s memories with my brothers and their friends... but 2e is legit some peak AD&D.
That's awesome that you picked up a boxed set of Masques for only $10! I got a shrink-wrapped Greyhawk boxed set (the one from 1983) for $10 at my local game shop about 20 years ago. But now I feel that people have realized this stuff is worth something and it's much more difficult to find deals these days. Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@daddyrolleda1 I honestly think the original Ravenloft is close to an ideal module. The story is rich, tight and it's self contained. Now it is big--so it might take two sessions to get through it. In my personal opinion--Curse of Strahd is a bloated mess comparatively.
Realms of Terror was an interesting vehicle. It took many major villains of D&D like Lord Soth or other major Universal monsters or classic horrors into a setting. A horror setting which was a flavor sorely needed to be added to RPGs.
It definitely seemed to strike a chord with folks, seeing as how it's still popular all these years later unlike some of the other settings which kind of fell by the wayside.
My best friend loved gothic horror and he was the other GM in our group so you better believe we sent about two years in Ravenloft. Thanks for the memories.
We can hope that whoever has your old boxed set got (or is still getting) many hours of fun times playing! Sorry you don't have it any more. Thanks for watching and commenting!
I ran curse of strahd several years ago and we all love it. I even made a full sized castle out of plastic foam and printed out maps. I hope to play the OG one day
Oh wow, that castle you made sounds awesome! I hope you can play the OG one as well one day! In the meantime, thank you very much for watching and commenting!
I started listening to When We Were Wizards at your suggestion in a video I watched a couple weeks back. Kinda glad I did. It's a fascinating story. So, thanks!
Thanks fantastic! Glad to hear it. I quite enjoyed it and there was a lot in there that was new to me, or at least added a different interpretation to things I already knew. Thanks for watching and commenting!
I don't even know how to start ... Ravenloft is my favorite setting of all time. I have every product ever published (including the WW's ones) and a map not sold but sent to members of Ravenlot Email List Group from OneList in 1998 (Cindi sent me, in Brazil !). Always loved every thing Connors did, specially Gazeteers. That Boxed Set from 1990 was my first AD&D 2e product (I have 3 of them today) and I did 3 very long campaigns in the last 34 years, almost non-stop. Von Aubrecker was the main antagonist in 2 of these Campaigns, my absolute favorite villain. About the Kargatane, there was an official website that retained the mission of keeping Ravenloft going before White Wolf got the license : The Secrets of Kargatane.
Thank you so much for sharing all of your experiences with me! I really appreciate it, and I'm glad that my video maybe sparked some fun memories for you. How cool that you got that special map! What a cool thing to have! I also really liked William Connors' Gazetteers (but I also just like that line in general - lots of great stuff). I had forgotten about the Kargatane but now that you mention it, I do remember how they were the official site for keeping the property alive. Thanks again for watching and commenting. Saúde!
I6 Ravenloft was one of the touchstone adventures that massively influenced my campaign world years afterwards. I revisited those elements every chance I could get, despite having increasingly convoluted explanations for why Strahd kept returning. I had just done a revised, alternate reality version of the original module when I heard TSR was dropping an entire Ravenloft world setting. Back to the gothic drawing board. It was a nice surprise to see New Order on your bonus content. One of the best bands ever. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend 2002's 24 Hour Party People. It's the story of Factory Records founder Tony Wilson, played by Steve Coogan, and it is a hoot.
Interestingly, despite having owned the module since it first came out, I'd never played nor run it until I ran it for my friend's birthday as a one-shot a few months ago. We had a great time, and I really liked the gothic horror elements. It's made it interested in exploring more of the 2E Ravenloft line to add some of those elements to the game I run for my daughter and her friends. I really got into New Order back in high school in the mid-late 1980's and I've continued to listen to them over the years and have seen them in concert with my wife (sadly in the post-Hook era, but it was still great). And yes! I saw "24 Hour Party People" at an indie arthouse movie theater near me. It was great! Listening to the podcast has made me interested in checking it out again (I only ever saw it that one time). If you liked that movie, you'll definitely love the podcast.
There were a lot of groundbreaking things about I-6, but compared to others like Against the Giants, Tomb of Horrors, what sets it apart is that it was a huge hit on release. As you've discussed in other videos, Giants, ToH, etc were released as the hobby was young, were re-released and became legendary for people who came into the hobby in the 80s. But I-6 those people loved it from day 1.
Oh, how cool! I'm sure he'd be happy to know that. From my conversations with him, I think he often "under-values" his contributions to the hobby. Thanks for watching and sharing your memories!
I got introduced to Ravenloft as a pure setting, since Sword and Sorcery, apparently, did not have the rights to publish straight up adventure modules due to... reasons. And my discovery of the classic modules was drip fed to me via little notes about "past events" in the various sourcebooks, and it genuinely felt like I was doing research on like, ancient and forbidden knowledge, as this was back around 2009 and I only knew like... a dozen people online or off who even knew about DND, much less Ravenloft, so finding out about I6 and the (mostly) wonderful "Hexad" modules became like a retroactive discovery. I've yet to actually run I6, but now that I'm a big Shadowdark fan, I think I've found my ideal system to run it, and my favorites, "Night of the Walking Dead" and "Ship of Horror".
I occasionally ran Masque of the Red Death for the RPGA Living Death convention circuit back in the day. The 5th edition Guide to Ravenloft is just about the best sourcebook they made for that edition. And Curse of Strahd is such an interesting compare and contrast with its origin Ravenloft.
Oh, that's good to hear! I don't currently play 5E and I haven't really checked out a lot of the supplements, but I'm glad to hear the sourcebook was well-done. Thanks for watching and commenting!
They screwed up the dark lords pretty bad and really watered them down, but the changes to the domains were very good and some of the best of Ravenloft.
Fun fact: The Red Death is one of the Dark Powers of Ravenloft (not to be confused with the Domain Lords). He was cast out by the Dark Powers for being evil and ended up sucked into Gothic Earth.
Wow that's so interesting! I feel like a lot of prevailing wisdom/ discussions from players I've seen think of the "Dark Powers" as this nebulous entity so to hear about some individuality within them is neat 😮 e.g. I know that's sort of the negativity I saw around 5e's VRGtR intro of Osybus "joining" the Dark Powers as an individual who became one with them (idk lots to unpack about 5e's take on the lore but anyway), perhaps there's more to their conception than some may have thought? Would love to hear anything more about the conceptualization of the domains of dread :D Also thanks for a great video!
Thanks for the video! Ravenloft was never my jam despite being a fan of the early Universal horror films and the monsters therein. Also, I prefer my D&D setting to remain pre-gunpowder, so some of the material tied to Ravenloft takes it beyond that. Still, some interesting ideas. The graphic from Unknown Pleasures might be one of the most iconic to ever grace a t-shirt, often without the words from the original album cover. "The cover artwork was designed by artist Peter Saville, using a data plot of signals from a radio pulsar." -- Wikipedia (needs citation)
Yes, Peter Saville was the album cover artist for all of Joy Division's and New Order's albums (at least up through Technique in 1989). The podcast talks a lot about his designs and influences and why he chose the images he did, etc. But yes, his design for Unknown Pleasures is perhaps his most iconic! I'm okay with some modern stuff, including rudimentary firearms, in some D&D campaigns but it would be preferable if it were a shorter game (maybe just 4-5 sessions) rather than a long ongoing campaign. Lots of the ideas in that Masque of the Red Death boxed set sounds like it would be a ton of fun to play. Thanks as always for watching and commenting!
Mike Shea (Sly Flourish) has run an original Ravenloft one-shot adventure every Halloween for at least the last few years. He speaks about it in a UA-cam video with some detail about how he manages to run it in 1 night. To start with, he has the characters showing up at the castle at the start of the adventure, bypassing the pre-castle stuff.
I have seen that video, but for my version, I really enjoyed roleplaying the pre-Castle stuff. That's actually what we spent more of our time on, as there are a lot of fun things to do in the village to foreshadow what's going to happen with the castle. I'd planed for about a 5-hour game time but we went closer to 7, but still finished the entire thing including a set-up I did to drop them into the action. I'd be interested to hear your take of how I did it versus Mike's version. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Y'know the 90s attitude DnD campaign settings are my favorite. Unfortunately some of my gaming buddies just weren't interested in campaign settings like Ravenloft, Dark Sun and Planescape.
You just named three of my favorites! Actually, I'm just a sucker for campaign settings in general, although I almost never play them as intended. Instead, I look to them for inspiration (whether story-based or mechanics-based) for my own homebrew campaign setting. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Wasn't it Mercedes Lackey that wrote a forward regarding name pronunciation that basically said, "pronounce them how you want, you're the one reading the book." I remember reading that in the 90's somewhere. Maybe it was Elaine Cunningham.
I don't recall that specific quote but I *LOVE* it! I've had quite a few people drop into the comments to make sure I knew that I was pronouncing things incorrectly. So, now I just proactively say, "If that's wrong, let me know in the comments." 😀 Thank for watching and commenting!
The domain in the Ravenloft module "The Created" (based on Pinocchio's Italy) is said to have been drawn from Masque of the Red Death. Also, Masque has the Vistani who can cross from one setting to the other (i.e. standard Ravenloft to MotRD).
Ah, I'd forgotten that about the Vistani (traveling between realms/domains/settings). I've not played or read that module, but a horror adventure based on Pinocchio's Italy sounds really intriguing!
I played a pick up game of 5e Ravenloft at a local game store around the beginning of COVID. I absolutely hated it. I haven't really played D&D since. But I'd like to try the one shot Ravenloft you made for your buddies birthday.
@@daddyrolleda1 it was very linear and everyone went up levels on a milestone system so progress was automatic and the storyline moves forward regardless of player interaction
Ah, yes, that'd do it! A lot of folks have dropped into the comments saying that they really liked Cursed of Strahd (I think that's the name of the 5E version) but it sounds like it has some of the same problems as the original (aside from the milestone leveling stuff you mentioned). Interesting!
I just finished up a standard Ravenloft campaign where the PCs used character classes and kits From MotRD (used kits that were appropriate to a standard Ravenloft setting, ignoring those that were too advanced). The campaign lasted several years.
That sounds like so much fun! I'd really like to run a MotRD campaign sometime, or as you suggest, use it as a basis for running other classic adventures. Cheers, and thanks for watching and commenting!
Oh, that's very cool! I've never played or seen Dragonstrike but it seemed like an interesting idea. I see that you had it - did you ever play it? Did you enjoy it? Thank you for watching and commenting, and for your support of the channel!
Radio Theater! Good for entertainment and learning how to narrate or voice act characters (as GameMaster of Player.) On shambling mounds, I had the old AD&D rubber sambling mound toy. It was scaled to the action figures, so it made a great giant, toxic waste monster for superhero RPGs when using norrmal sized minis on the table map. Bonus comment: Joy Division/New Order band history and music, good stuff.
You are the first to comment on the bonus content! Thanks, I appreciate it! Listening to the history in this podcast and learning how they came up with their songs, how they didn't get paid half of what they made because their record label funneled the profits back into a nightclub that was bleeding money, and today finding out that the reason "Substance" exists is because the head of Factory Records had bought a new car with a CD player and he wanted an album he could listen to that had all of New Order's hit singles on it... it's amazing! It's like these guys just flew by the seat of their pants and luckily figured stuff out along the way to make some of the most influential music of the late 20th Century!
@@daddyrolleda1 I try to add a comment on the bonus material so you know somebody is watching to the end. That, and I actually appreciate it. Great content and good memories.
27:00 Youre thinking of trademark. Trademark needs to be used and renewed frequently for them to retain it. Copyright is currently 100 years after date of publication for corporations, so Strahd and Ravenloft are safely in WotC's control until 2081.
Yes, thanks for the correction! A couple other folks mentioned that as well, and while I was editing, I did have a second thought wondering if it was trademark, but I didn't look it up to double-check. In hindsight, I should have. Thanks for watching and commenting.
27:25 Just an FYI since such stuff is a pain to wrap one's head around: Having to publish every so often is part of trademark rather than copyright. More specifically, for a trademark, such as Ravenloft, to be maintained you have to be able to show it's being used in commerce and that you are protecting your mark by pursuing legal action if you find that others use the mark without approval.
Thanks for this! When I was editing the video, in the back of my mind I asked myself, "Wait, is it copyright or trademark?" I only knew to ask that much at all due to conversations with my local comic book shop owner, who talked with me once about how companies will periodically resurrect obscure B-and-C-list characters for a short mini-series, and he mentioned it was for legal reasons. That was in the back of my head when I made the "copyright claim" but I should have done my due diligence and looked up the actual law. Thanks for the details! I appreciate it. And, I appreciate you watching and commenting!
@@daddyrolleda1 Yeah, I only know about this stuff because companies in various hobbies I enjoy have ended up on one side or the other of these kinds of cases. Most recently for trademark it was Hasbro/WotC's case involving Ernie Gygax and co's Star Frontiers remake.
1:00:00 I figure it's best I not separately post twice in quick succession on topics in this video, so... Having met several people who were insiders at TSR during Lorraine Williams time (yay random convention and online encounters), and especially when the Blume brothers sold out to her, my understanding is that while she had a certain, fairly common of the period, disdain for this type of hobby she also understood how to sustainably and professionally manage the business way better than any of the Blumes or Gygax.
That aligns with my understanding as well. I think a lot of folks blame her for "stealing" the company, without also understanding the actions Gary took that resulted in that outcome. From what I understand, they both bear responsibility for their parts, as well as the desire of the Blume Brothers to cash out their shares to make as much money as possible.
I had actually jotted a note in my bullet-point list in my notebook to mention how V:tM came out a year after Ravenloft, but I began improvising while I was talking and I completely overlooked my note. I was really focused this time on trying not to use filler words/phrases like "um" and "you know?" because apparently, according to one viewer, he can't watch my videos because I do that too often. I was so focused on trying to pause and not use filler words that I accidentally forgot to refer to my notes. And on top of all that, I still said "um" and "you know?". Thanks for watching and commenting!
Hey, that crappy Dragonlance movie was one of the first examples of Celebrities "getting in on" D&D. Kieffer Sutherland is the big name star of that film, and he DIDN'T play the "Hero" Tanis, he was cast as Raistlin, the character who no one wanted to play when the first module came out, but the one EVERYBODY wanted to play after the books came out.
Although a fan of vampire movies as a kid, this module just fell flat with me. Never liked it. Could be the rail-roady aspects of it, but never liked it or played it. Maps were very cool though.
I can see that. Interestingly despite owning it since around the time it first came out, I'd never played or run it until earlier this year when I ran it for my friend's birthday. I changed a few things to allow for more player agency and I increased the creepy factor (an idea I took from the DungeonCraft channel, but I added three "brides of Dracula" in the house, similar to the ones from the Coppola movie; I also made one of the PCs to be the reincarnation of Strahd's brother and a another one Strahd's former wife, so they had a more personal connection to the story). It was a one-shot and I used pre-gen characters so I was able to design their backstories a bit. As part of an ongoing campaign, just sticking it in the middle of a game, I think it wouldn't really be successful as it does require a lot of forcing the story along.
Yes! I saw that in the theater when it came out (at a little indie theater near my house). Fun movie! If you liked that, you'll really dig the podcast I mentioned. Cheers!
Making multiple attacks (e.g. attacking 3/2, 2/1, etc.) in both 1st and 2nd Edition AD&D have always been handled RAW where your first attack is made on your turn in the initiative order, then any remaining attacks are made after everyone else has gone (with the exception of bows and monster's natural attacks like claw/claw/bite). So handling firearms in that same way is nothing unique or innovative.
That was a great video. I’ve toyed with the idea of Ravenloft and the realms etc. but never looked into it very closely because I didn’t understand it. After this video I know I now have zero interest in it. The reason I know I’m not interested is because you did such a great job covering it. This is not something that appeals to me in a D&D game. Victorian era D&D is very much not my thing. Thanks though the video was very well done.
Thank you so much for your generous support! Just in case I wasn't clear, the Victorian era stuff I talked about was only for one specific campaign setting boxed set (Masque of the Red Death). Ravenloft as a whole, while influenced by stuff like Bram Stoker's Dracula and other 1800s era horror novels, is very much a "standard" D&D setting with regards to magic, classes, etc. And in general, I think it has a lot of great ideas for how to include horror elements in a game even if you don't want to play in the demiplane of Ravenloft.
I dont like brain in a jar as monster design. If it's supposed to be the mastermind behind the curtains that you're not supposed to fight, then don't put stats on it. It works as a NPC, but as a monster that dies in a single hit it is waste of a page.
Oh no, you too? UA-cam has been displaying webshops/offerings from videos in the homefeed on the app and I've been DNRing those channels out of frustration. But even Daddy Rolled a 1 is part of youtube's new nonsense?! 😢
UA-cam doesn't really pay out enough on views alone; selling merch can help these creators. The presentation might annoy or rub the wrong way, but I wouldn't blame the content creators for taking advantage of the system, hope you won't hold it against them😅
When i was young, we had an older family friend who ran a campaign for us. He also ran it as lower magic when it came to items. Our characters were aware of such things as magic swords but they were all high family heirlooms. When he felt it was time for us to get out first taste of them he didn't have us just find them or buy them. We had met an ancient Dwarven weaponsmith who felt he owed us a debt for saving his descendants village. This dwarf sent us out on several quests to find components such as special metals, potions, scrolls so that he could craft our reward for us. This also allowed us to choose what weapon we wanted (sword or bow or staff, etc). While they were effectively generic +1 weapons, they were special and precious to us.
I love that! It makes the items so much more special, as you said. That's some great world-building and role-playing right there! Cheers!
Very cool
I find it interesting that a lot of people forget that they’re used to be a morale check that used to be used for horror as well. But this game and games like it made it front and center rather than a rule that a lot of game masters either forgot or didn’t understand or purposefully ignorant, or purposefully, not remind the game master
Oh my goodness, I have no memory of that! I think I must fall into the either "didn't understand" and/or "ignorant" (but not purposefully)!
All of the 2E settings and splat books are S tier stuff. Super well researched and just full of excellent flavor. It makes sense why they're so good based on that core three of leads. Crazy how overlooked a lot of this stuff is/was for "old schoolers". Masque of the Red Death is an amazing box. Didn't have it until Gencon 2011 for 10 bucks at a booth in nearly mint condition. So much cool stuff to do in the 1890s. Occultism/theosophy, radical politics, burgeoning industrialism mixed with evil, magic, guns and necromancy. Can't go wrong. You can do your own "DARK" history campaign (city, town, village) of an area you know with your players. Dig up old historical sites, events, people and folk tales and turn them into mysterious and horrific adventure.
Props to Connors for making that box.
74-89 holds a lot of magic and nostalgia to it for me in terms of products and mid-80s memories with my brothers and their friends... but 2e is legit some peak AD&D.
That's awesome that you picked up a boxed set of Masques for only $10! I got a shrink-wrapped Greyhawk boxed set (the one from 1983) for $10 at my local game shop about 20 years ago. But now I feel that people have realized this stuff is worth something and it's much more difficult to find deals these days.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Thank you for bringing original Ravenloft to the public.
And, thank YOU for watching and commenting! I really appreciate it. Cheers!
@@daddyrolleda1 I honestly think the original Ravenloft is close to an ideal module. The story is rich, tight and it's self contained. Now it is big--so it might take two sessions to get through it. In my personal opinion--Curse of Strahd is a bloated mess comparatively.
Realms of Terror was an interesting vehicle. It took many major villains of D&D like Lord Soth or other major Universal monsters or classic horrors into a setting. A horror setting which was a flavor sorely needed to be added to RPGs.
It definitely seemed to strike a chord with folks, seeing as how it's still popular all these years later unlike some of the other settings which kind of fell by the wayside.
My best friend loved gothic horror and he was the other GM in our group so you better believe we sent about two years in Ravenloft. Thanks for the memories.
Sounds like a fun two years! Glad to have sparked some memories for you, and thank you very much for watching and commenting!
Oh goodness - I wish I still had my boxed set - was a favorite of my D&D books back in the day.
We can hope that whoever has your old boxed set got (or is still getting) many hours of fun times playing! Sorry you don't have it any more. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Still love that artwork
It's so good! Clyde Caldwell is a master!
I ran curse of strahd several years ago and we all love it. I even made a full sized castle out of plastic foam and printed out maps. I hope to play the OG one day
Oh wow, that castle you made sounds awesome! I hope you can play the OG one as well one day! In the meantime, thank you very much for watching and commenting!
I started listening to When We Were Wizards at your suggestion in a video I watched a couple weeks back. Kinda glad I did. It's a fascinating story. So, thanks!
Thanks fantastic! Glad to hear it. I quite enjoyed it and there was a lot in there that was new to me, or at least added a different interpretation to things I already knew. Thanks for watching and commenting!
I don't even know how to start ... Ravenloft is my favorite setting of all time. I have every product ever published (including the WW's ones) and a map not sold but sent to members of Ravenlot Email List Group from OneList in 1998 (Cindi sent me, in Brazil !). Always loved every thing Connors did, specially Gazeteers. That Boxed Set from 1990 was my first AD&D 2e product (I have 3 of them today) and I did 3 very long campaigns in the last 34 years, almost non-stop. Von Aubrecker was the main antagonist in 2 of these Campaigns, my absolute favorite villain. About the Kargatane, there was an official website that retained the mission of keeping Ravenloft going before White Wolf got the license : The Secrets of Kargatane.
Thank you so much for sharing all of your experiences with me! I really appreciate it, and I'm glad that my video maybe sparked some fun memories for you. How cool that you got that special map! What a cool thing to have! I also really liked William Connors' Gazetteers (but I also just like that line in general - lots of great stuff). I had forgotten about the Kargatane but now that you mention it, I do remember how they were the official site for keeping the property alive. Thanks again for watching and commenting. Saúde!
I6 Ravenloft was one of the touchstone adventures that massively influenced my campaign world years afterwards. I revisited those elements every chance I could get, despite having increasingly convoluted explanations for why Strahd kept returning. I had just done a revised, alternate reality version of the original module when I heard TSR was dropping an entire Ravenloft world setting. Back to the gothic drawing board.
It was a nice surprise to see New Order on your bonus content. One of the best bands ever. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend 2002's 24 Hour Party People. It's the story of Factory Records founder Tony Wilson, played by Steve Coogan, and it is a hoot.
Interestingly, despite having owned the module since it first came out, I'd never played nor run it until I ran it for my friend's birthday as a one-shot a few months ago. We had a great time, and I really liked the gothic horror elements. It's made it interested in exploring more of the 2E Ravenloft line to add some of those elements to the game I run for my daughter and her friends.
I really got into New Order back in high school in the mid-late 1980's and I've continued to listen to them over the years and have seen them in concert with my wife (sadly in the post-Hook era, but it was still great). And yes! I saw "24 Hour Party People" at an indie arthouse movie theater near me. It was great! Listening to the podcast has made me interested in checking it out again (I only ever saw it that one time). If you liked that movie, you'll definitely love the podcast.
There were a lot of groundbreaking things about I-6, but compared to others like Against the Giants, Tomb of Horrors, what sets it apart is that it was a huge hit on release. As you've discussed in other videos, Giants, ToH, etc were released as the hobby was young, were re-released and became legendary for people who came into the hobby in the 80s. But I-6 those people loved it from day 1.
Ah, very true! This is good way of looking at it. Thanks!
Thanks! I have been reading through the Ravenloft content through the editions. It is interesting to see how it evolved
This is such a generous gift. Thank you so much! I really appreciate your continual support of me and my channel. Cheers!
I ran Ravenloft games for almost 20 years, and the first adventure I ever played was Rage of the Rakasta, also by William Connors.
Oh, how cool! I'm sure he'd be happy to know that. From my conversations with him, I think he often "under-values" his contributions to the hobby. Thanks for watching and sharing your memories!
@@daddyrolleda1 I have messaged him to thank him, he was very nice!
D&D and New Order... Perfection
Glad you enjoyed! Thanks!
I got introduced to Ravenloft as a pure setting, since Sword and Sorcery, apparently, did not have the rights to publish straight up adventure modules due to... reasons. And my discovery of the classic modules was drip fed to me via little notes about "past events" in the various sourcebooks, and it genuinely felt like I was doing research on like, ancient and forbidden knowledge, as this was back around 2009 and I only knew like... a dozen people online or off who even knew about DND, much less Ravenloft, so finding out about I6 and the (mostly) wonderful "Hexad" modules became like a retroactive discovery. I've yet to actually run I6, but now that I'm a big Shadowdark fan, I think I've found my ideal system to run it, and my favorites, "Night of the Walking Dead" and "Ship of Horror".
Thanks for another Ravenloft video. I am considering running a campaign there with Chaosiums BRP rules set.
Ooh, I bet that will be a blast! I look forward to hearing about it!
I occasionally ran Masque of the Red Death for the RPGA Living Death convention circuit back in the day. The 5th edition Guide to Ravenloft is just about the best sourcebook they made for that edition. And Curse of Strahd is such an interesting compare and contrast with its origin Ravenloft.
Oh, that's good to hear! I don't currently play 5E and I haven't really checked out a lot of the supplements, but I'm glad to hear the sourcebook was well-done. Thanks for watching and commenting!
They screwed up the dark lords pretty bad and really watered them down, but the changes to the domains were very good and some of the best of Ravenloft.
Perfect Kiss is one of my top five songs of all time!
It's a great one! Hearing about how the song came together on the podcast was really interesting.
Fun fact: The Red Death is one of the Dark Powers of Ravenloft (not to be confused with the Domain Lords). He was cast out by the Dark Powers for being evil and ended up sucked into Gothic Earth.
THANK YOU SIR for the best villain of all time ! Von Aubrecker is the best, I use him all the time in my Ravenloft games.
Thank you for the additional detail and commentary! I really appreciate it, and I know my viewers will, as well!
Wow that's so interesting! I feel like a lot of prevailing wisdom/ discussions from players I've seen think of the "Dark Powers" as this nebulous entity so to hear about some individuality within them is neat 😮 e.g. I know that's sort of the negativity I saw around 5e's VRGtR intro of Osybus "joining" the Dark Powers as an individual who became one with them (idk lots to unpack about 5e's take on the lore but anyway), perhaps there's more to their conception than some may have thought? Would love to hear anything more about the conceptualization of the domains of dread :D
Also thanks for a great video!
Thanks for the video! Ravenloft was never my jam despite being a fan of the early Universal horror films and the monsters therein. Also, I prefer my D&D setting to remain pre-gunpowder, so some of the material tied to Ravenloft takes it beyond that. Still, some interesting ideas. The graphic from Unknown Pleasures might be one of the most iconic to ever grace a t-shirt, often without the words from the original album cover. "The cover artwork was designed by artist Peter Saville, using a data plot of signals from a radio pulsar." -- Wikipedia (needs citation)
Yes, Peter Saville was the album cover artist for all of Joy Division's and New Order's albums (at least up through Technique in 1989). The podcast talks a lot about his designs and influences and why he chose the images he did, etc. But yes, his design for Unknown Pleasures is perhaps his most iconic!
I'm okay with some modern stuff, including rudimentary firearms, in some D&D campaigns but it would be preferable if it were a shorter game (maybe just 4-5 sessions) rather than a long ongoing campaign. Lots of the ideas in that Masque of the Red Death boxed set sounds like it would be a ton of fun to play.
Thanks as always for watching and commenting!
Mike Shea (Sly Flourish) has run an original Ravenloft one-shot adventure every Halloween for at least the last few years. He speaks about it in a UA-cam video with some detail about how he manages to run it in 1 night. To start with, he has the characters showing up at the castle at the start of the adventure, bypassing the pre-castle stuff.
I have seen that video, but for my version, I really enjoyed roleplaying the pre-Castle stuff. That's actually what we spent more of our time on, as there are a lot of fun things to do in the village to foreshadow what's going to happen with the castle. I'd planed for about a 5-hour game time but we went closer to 7, but still finished the entire thing including a set-up I did to drop them into the action. I'd be interested to hear your take of how I did it versus Mike's version.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Y'know the 90s attitude DnD campaign settings are my favorite. Unfortunately some of my gaming buddies just weren't interested in campaign settings like Ravenloft, Dark Sun and Planescape.
You just named three of my favorites! Actually, I'm just a sucker for campaign settings in general, although I almost never play them as intended. Instead, I look to them for inspiration (whether story-based or mechanics-based) for my own homebrew campaign setting.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Thanks!
Thank you so much for your support!
Tis the Season
I hope you're liking the "spooky stuff" this month!
The 5e Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is a good sourcebook.
Glad to hear that! You're the second person who has mentioned that. I'm happy that the new book is resonating with fans of the property.
Wasn't it Mercedes Lackey that wrote a forward regarding name pronunciation that basically said, "pronounce them how you want, you're the one reading the book." I remember reading that in the 90's somewhere. Maybe it was Elaine Cunningham.
I don't recall that specific quote but I *LOVE* it! I've had quite a few people drop into the comments to make sure I knew that I was pronouncing things incorrectly. So, now I just proactively say, "If that's wrong, let me know in the comments." 😀
Thank for watching and commenting!
The domain in the Ravenloft module "The Created" (based on Pinocchio's Italy) is said to have been drawn from Masque of the Red Death. Also, Masque has the Vistani who can cross from one setting to the other (i.e. standard Ravenloft to MotRD).
Ah, I'd forgotten that about the Vistani (traveling between realms/domains/settings). I've not played or read that module, but a horror adventure based on Pinocchio's Italy sounds really intriguing!
I played a pick up game of 5e Ravenloft at a local game store around the beginning of COVID. I absolutely hated it. I haven't really played D&D since. But I'd like to try the one shot Ravenloft you made for your buddies birthday.
Oh, no! I'm so sorry to hear that! What didn't you like about it? Was it the rules system, the DM, the other players, or something else?
@@daddyrolleda1 it was very linear and everyone went up levels on a milestone system so progress was automatic and the storyline moves forward regardless of player interaction
Ah, yes, that'd do it! A lot of folks have dropped into the comments saying that they really liked Cursed of Strahd (I think that's the name of the 5E version) but it sounds like it has some of the same problems as the original (aside from the milestone leveling stuff you mentioned). Interesting!
I just finished up a standard Ravenloft campaign where the PCs used character classes and kits From MotRD (used kits that were appropriate to a standard Ravenloft setting, ignoring those that were too advanced). The campaign lasted several years.
That sounds like so much fun! I'd really like to run a MotRD campaign sometime, or as you suggest, use it as a basis for running other classic adventures. Cheers, and thanks for watching and commenting!
You got the lich's name right. "As-a-lynn" - BTW.
Oh great! I often get pummeled in the comments for my lack of proper pronunciation of made-up words that I've never heard spoken aloud before!
We never played this 1e module. I may get a copy posterity
It's a really fun read if you can find a copy for a reasonable price (or alternatively pick up a POD copy). Thanks for watching and commenting!
What a cool video
Thank you so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching and commenting. Cheers!
I ran the modern ravenloft and I also had dragon strike .
Oh, that's very cool! I've never played or seen Dragonstrike but it seemed like an interesting idea. I see that you had it - did you ever play it? Did you enjoy it? Thank you for watching and commenting, and for your support of the channel!
@@daddyrolleda1 it was ok. It was similar to heroquest.
Radio Theater! Good for entertainment and learning how to narrate or voice act characters (as GameMaster of Player.)
On shambling mounds, I had the old AD&D rubber sambling mound toy. It was scaled to the action figures, so it made a great giant, toxic waste monster for superhero RPGs when using norrmal sized minis on the table map.
Bonus comment: Joy Division/New Order band history and music, good stuff.
You are the first to comment on the bonus content! Thanks, I appreciate it! Listening to the history in this podcast and learning how they came up with their songs, how they didn't get paid half of what they made because their record label funneled the profits back into a nightclub that was bleeding money, and today finding out that the reason "Substance" exists is because the head of Factory Records had bought a new car with a CD player and he wanted an album he could listen to that had all of New Order's hit singles on it... it's amazing! It's like these guys just flew by the seat of their pants and luckily figured stuff out along the way to make some of the most influential music of the late 20th Century!
@@daddyrolleda1 I try to add a comment on the bonus material so you know somebody is watching to the end. That, and I actually appreciate it. Great content and good memories.
27:00 Youre thinking of trademark. Trademark needs to be used and renewed frequently for them to retain it. Copyright is currently 100 years after date of publication for corporations, so Strahd and Ravenloft are safely in WotC's control until 2081.
Yes, thanks for the correction! A couple other folks mentioned that as well, and while I was editing, I did have a second thought wondering if it was trademark, but I didn't look it up to double-check. In hindsight, I should have. Thanks for watching and commenting.
27:25 Just an FYI since such stuff is a pain to wrap one's head around:
Having to publish every so often is part of trademark rather than copyright. More specifically, for a trademark, such as Ravenloft, to be maintained you have to be able to show it's being used in commerce and that you are protecting your mark by pursuing legal action if you find that others use the mark without approval.
Thanks for this! When I was editing the video, in the back of my mind I asked myself, "Wait, is it copyright or trademark?" I only knew to ask that much at all due to conversations with my local comic book shop owner, who talked with me once about how companies will periodically resurrect obscure B-and-C-list characters for a short mini-series, and he mentioned it was for legal reasons. That was in the back of my head when I made the "copyright claim" but I should have done my due diligence and looked up the actual law.
Thanks for the details! I appreciate it. And, I appreciate you watching and commenting!
@@daddyrolleda1 Yeah, I only know about this stuff because companies in various hobbies I enjoy have ended up on one side or the other of these kinds of cases. Most recently for trademark it was Hasbro/WotC's case involving Ernie Gygax and co's Star Frontiers remake.
that might also explain why 5.24E DMG is using Greyhawk....
1:00:00 I figure it's best I not separately post twice in quick succession on topics in this video, so...
Having met several people who were insiders at TSR during Lorraine Williams time (yay random convention and online encounters), and especially when the Blume brothers sold out to her, my understanding is that while she had a certain, fairly common of the period, disdain for this type of hobby she also understood how to sustainably and professionally manage the business way better than any of the Blumes or Gygax.
That aligns with my understanding as well. I think a lot of folks blame her for "stealing" the company, without also understanding the actions Gary took that resulted in that outcome. From what I understand, they both bear responsibility for their parts, as well as the desire of the Blume Brothers to cash out their shares to make as much money as possible.
yes, she managed to also run it into the ground. yay. Gygax minus Kevin Blume might have kept his company.
1990-TSR: Let's turn Ravenloft into whole campaign setting, and corner the horror RPG market!
1991-White Wolf: 🧛🧙👻🐺🤣🤣🤣
I had actually jotted a note in my bullet-point list in my notebook to mention how V:tM came out a year after Ravenloft, but I began improvising while I was talking and I completely overlooked my note. I was really focused this time on trying not to use filler words/phrases like "um" and "you know?" because apparently, according to one viewer, he can't watch my videos because I do that too often. I was so focused on trying to pause and not use filler words that I accidentally forgot to refer to my notes. And on top of all that, I still said "um" and "you know?".
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Got to watch out for those bunyips and drop bears mate.
Hey, that crappy Dragonlance movie was one of the first examples of Celebrities "getting in on" D&D.
Kieffer Sutherland is the big name star of that film, and he DIDN'T play the "Hero" Tanis, he was cast as Raistlin, the character who no one wanted to play when the first module came out, but the one EVERYBODY wanted to play after the books came out.
Although a fan of vampire movies as a kid, this module just fell flat with me. Never liked it. Could be the rail-roady aspects of it, but never liked it or played it. Maps were very cool though.
I can see that. Interestingly despite owning it since around the time it first came out, I'd never played or run it until earlier this year when I ran it for my friend's birthday. I changed a few things to allow for more player agency and I increased the creepy factor (an idea I took from the DungeonCraft channel, but I added three "brides of Dracula" in the house, similar to the ones from the Coppola movie; I also made one of the PCs to be the reincarnation of Strahd's brother and a another one Strahd's former wife, so they had a more personal connection to the story). It was a one-shot and I used pre-gen characters so I was able to design their backstories a bit. As part of an ongoing campaign, just sticking it in the middle of a game, I think it wouldn't really be successful as it does require a lot of forcing the story along.
Check out the movie "24 Hour Party People" has a lot about Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays..
Yes! I saw that in the theater when it came out (at a little indie theater near my house). Fun movie! If you liked that, you'll really dig the podcast I mentioned. Cheers!
Making multiple attacks (e.g. attacking 3/2, 2/1, etc.) in both 1st and 2nd Edition AD&D have always been handled RAW where your first attack is made on your turn in the initiative order, then any remaining attacks are made after everyone else has gone (with the exception of bows and monster's natural attacks like claw/claw/bite). So handling firearms in that same way is nothing unique or innovative.
That was a great video. I’ve toyed with the idea of Ravenloft and the realms etc. but never looked into it very closely because I didn’t understand it. After this video I know I now have zero interest in it. The reason I know I’m not interested is because you did such a great job covering it. This is not something that appeals to me in a D&D game. Victorian era D&D is very much not my thing. Thanks though the video was very well done.
Thank you so much for your generous support!
Just in case I wasn't clear, the Victorian era stuff I talked about was only for one specific campaign setting boxed set (Masque of the Red Death). Ravenloft as a whole, while influenced by stuff like Bram Stoker's Dracula and other 1800s era horror novels, is very much a "standard" D&D setting with regards to magic, classes, etc. And in general, I think it has a lot of great ideas for how to include horror elements in a game even if you don't want to play in the demiplane of Ravenloft.
I dont like brain in a jar as monster design. If it's supposed to be the mastermind behind the curtains that you're not supposed to fight, then don't put stats on it. It works as a NPC, but as a monster that dies in a single hit it is waste of a page.
.... You sound kind of like the lock picking lawyer
Oh no, you too? UA-cam has been displaying webshops/offerings from videos in the homefeed on the app and I've been DNRing those channels out of frustration. But even Daddy Rolled a 1 is part of youtube's new nonsense?! 😢
UA-cam doesn't really pay out enough on views alone; selling merch can help these creators. The presentation might annoy or rub the wrong way, but I wouldn't blame the content creators for taking advantage of the system, hope you won't hold it against them😅
Thanks!
Thank YOU for the continuous support. IT means the world to me. Cheers!