How to Run Ravenloft in One Night (Episode
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- Опубликовано: 23 ноя 2020
- Professor Dungeonmaster reviews Tracy & Laura Hickman's classic 1983 AD&D module--Ravenloft.
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Seth Skorkowsky's Review: • AD&D Review: Ravenloft
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Carnevale Strigoi Vampires: www.firestormgames.co.uk/carn...
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"Fury of the Dragon's Breath" by Peter Crowley
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Игры
My favorite is just have Strahd offhandedly mention "have you figured out which of your friends is a traitor yet?" And watch the chaos
Oh, I am going to have to remember this...
(Cackles in Barovian)
Lol. Thats a good one.
OH, that sounds like fun!
A traitor PC in a one shot is always a legit threat. But the plot should be used sparingly or it loses its sting.
@@ksbsnowowl3569 How in the world (of Faerun) do you cackle in Barovian? 🤔
“I went to the doctor. All he did was suck blood from my neck. Do not go see Dr. Acula.” 😄
(A big thank you to the late and great stand-up comic Mitch Hedberg for that one)
Good one!
Hello Dan, thank you so much for recommending my work. It was a much pleasant surprise to hear my name :)
Well done for this video, your narration is awesome!
The prof’s recommendation lead me to your music, and I have to say, it’s awesome!
@@tomyoung9834 Thanks! Welcome on the channel :)
Just discovered your channel through this comment! Amazing audio! 🤩
@@lovelandfrogman2136 Thank you! Be welcome :D
I still have my 1983 Ravenloft module. A friend ran it for us, I played a fighter and my best friend was a thief. I remember finding a cloak of vampirism that allowed me to mimic the powers with a slight chance of becoming a vampire. I thought it was cool and I could fight fire with fire. My best friend didn't think it was so cool and started threatening me to get rid of it. So I used the cloak's power and charmed him. He was not happy. Still to this day, he is not happy about that.
Thanks for sharing!
I still have that module too. IT's the only AD&D thing I still have, actually
Perhaps he was jealous of that charming cloak coming between you... And he was right to be! 🤬
Interesting that you managed to streamline the adventure down to a single session, when looking online, people seem to be saying between 3-6 sessions. But of course, that is what your game style is all about.
👍👍👍👍😎😎😎😎
Have you ran the adventure for more than one group, and did anyone who was Titanias' double go to the dark side?
“The innkeeper is kind enough. He offers them stew, and his daughter...”
Generous innkeeper!
" cough, cough, cough," Offer them stew made from his daughter. The PCs can see butchered people hanging from hooks on the kitchen ceiling.
a.) Let the PCs become aware of this before they eat the stew.
b.) Let the PCs find out after they ask for seconds.
Afroman willingly returns to Barovia with a bag of weed and bottle of wine...
My dad ran it for us, one of the most fun games I've ever done. For any new DM's to the OG Raveloft, you want as much dread leading up to your first meeting with Strahd as you can get. But then try to make him seem charming and almost normal. That's what my dad did, and it added so much more roleplay and enjoyment in finding out his story. Then it made killing him so much more emotional, since we knew how evil he truly was
Dungeon Craft new episodes are like bread piping hot from the oven - irresistible!!
Thanks, Carlos!
Thank you for highlighting where the mini sculpts origins. As a relatively new collector in the midwest it’s sometimes difficult to find out where to look for interesting models.
9:37 That is a spectacular idea.
Thanks! And thanks for watching my best content, not the clickbait crap I'm forced to make so my channel doesn't die.
this is very much a weird comparison but reading through Strahds manifesto reminds me of the episode in Adventure Time when you finally understand the ice king. It's a realization that under all bad guy bravado there was once a person.
It makes him one of my favorite villains in a module for 5e because one of my favorite things about D&D is it asks us questions that we probably would never have the personal need to answer. Like will I ever have to debate with my coworkers whether we should allow one to die to save a town? LOL No, but here we get to ask these questions and feel important because in this world your answer is vital to the lives of many.
He's THE best D&D villain. Thanks for sharing!
You almost had me fooled Professor, what a striking resemblance to Bella Lugosi. I absolutely love this module. I only had an opportunity to run this once during a Halloween party & unfortunately, it was a bit more than the group could handle, but we all had fun, so I suppose it was a success. I like your change on his origins and his curse, it just makes more sense. In my campaign though.\, I would probably still have Tatiana scorn Strahd ( maybe even a arranged marriage & she never loved him?) which is why he has so many "brides' ,his insecurities with women still haunts him as a vampire. Looking back though, I would probably never again run this as a one shot. There is just too much good stuff. I also prefer to make Strahd more like Dracula, he can walk around during the day but not as nearly as strong. Woe be the creature though that attempts to raid his castle before sundown, having plenty of traps and guardians just in case it is past his bed time.
Thank you for watching and sharing your thoughts!
I don't understand how there is no interest, this is one of the greatest modules ever written. I remember DMing it when it was released in 1e.
"whyy does strahd not have any friends? cause hes a real pain in the neck!"
did that horrible pun at least equal deathbringer? no? aww....
Nobody hates puns, they are just jealous they didn't think of them first.
Very good.
that joke sucks
The Sun-Sword? Lords of Light! Who knew that only Thundarr the barbarian could defeat Strahd. :)
THAT was a GREAT show!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 For some reason I have this strange desire to send characters to ruins of a temple of the cat. There players may find a jeweled dagger legends say protected the people there from Ancient Spirits of Evil that rumors say are returning…
I don't know why I'd do this, except maybe sometime after covid to see if I could get some player to stand and in all seriousness attempt to reenact some campy stock animation to roars of laughter from the gaming table and to get everyone in this warehouse-sized FLGS staring that direction asking themselves what the hell they just witnessed.
Especially the 20-somethings who are all but guaranteed to not get it.
This is an outstanding way to run this in a compressed time, while preserving all the thrills and chills.
Digging the new background and the others visuals we’re great. I loved the minis. This was timely for me since I was on my way to set the stage for a horror video Shoot when we turned it on.. Thanks for setting the mood for me.
Thank YOU for watching!
The idea of zones rather than rooms is a great one. it makes running overly complicated maps so much easier.
I love your change in the origin story. The published one was pretty weak, so I would have done the same exact thing! :)
I took your suggestion of zones, and built a 4' Castle Ravenloft. Indy RPG creator here Professor, I played your modules and hope to earn your subscription.
This was the best rpg video I ever watched. I truly immersed on the scenario with his god tier narration. Astonishing.
Thank you. that's kind of you to say. please share it, so it doesn't get buried by youtube's cruel, Strahd-like algorithm.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I would love to share PDM, truly. But none of my RPG friends knows English :(
I'm about to change that! They're missing a lot of fine resources, just like your channel. Keep up the good work, and always wear the Vest of Protection +3 XD
Excellent suggestions. I have been looking to break this old module out again. This looks the a great way to distil the story into a memorable event. I feel almost all story modules need this treatment instead of a slog of meaningless encounters.
Thankyou
Great take on the Dracula/Strahd stories. Happy Fangsgiving! MWAHAHAHAHA
+100xp for that joke.
I’m planning on playing castle ravenloft as a one shot for my birthday next month.I can’t wait.
Let me know how it went?
One of your best videos! Thanks, Professor!
Thanks for the review! It was nice to see this module again
Incredible mini work. Outstanding!
Sweet Video, Thanks for putting in all the hard work.
Great walkthrough and alternate play for one of my favorite adventures ever!
Great module, great advice. Thank you, Professor
i can watch this video like a movie again and again , so interesting and so BEAUTIFUL !!!
Excellent review dripping with atmosphere and creativity!
Love your work Prof. You are an inspiration.
Always love the pics of the painted minis and dioramas
Production values are so high on this video! Impressive work prof
Ran this for some friends, it went great! So much fun.
Great to hear!
Absolutely a great job ! Thanks for another great module. Didn't know that you worked for TSR ... Wow ! Awesome
Thank You Professor. Loved this one.
Thank you for watching and comment, Mark.
Great video. Planning to run this soon and your video gave me several ideas I plan to use.
Great video! A master class in running and playing a classic module in a limited session! Fantastic scenes and excellent effects!
I'll be honest . This is my fav thing he does. The caves of carnage reviews made me look at old modules in a new light. The trim the fat idea is brilliant and simple. Love this review.
Amazing updates. Love the darker atmosphere.
Thanks. This episode was slow out of the gate for some reason. Glad people are finding it.
Great choice using the Carnevale miniatures for this. I thought it was cool that the minis were labelled too, so folk can find them if they like them.
My favorite thing on this channel is the campaign updates… it’s really inspiring
Love your reviews of classic adventures and ways to pair things down and cut out non-essential stuff. More classic reviews please!
Thanks, Dylan!
Amazing work, PDM!
Really great titles in this video! Looked very professional!
Great intro. I need a GM with that much pasion for the game and I absolutely love the grim-dark twist on the Strahd story.
As a fan of the classic module and novelization, this is a great way to introduce them to the next generation of gamers.
Thanks for the video. I hadn’t watched due to family vacation. I never liked the Ravenloft setting, but now I want to get my hands on a copy of the original and modify it like you did. I’ll have this video on a loop tomorrow.
Brilliant! Thanks so much.
Brilliant idea to run it in just one night's session, but to achieve it and show us how is Pretty Darn Magnificent!
Thanks for all the work you put in. The shot of the mini of Strahd on the battlements like the I6 cover was really cool.
BTW - You covered a lot, that must have been quite a long session…
This is GREAT advice for me; I'm currently running a Dracula module that I wrote myself set in AD 1580 (little over 100 years after the historical Dracula died). It's everything you expect it to be, but this video gives me some inspiration on how to run a REALLY creepy dungeon or castle. The PC's are currently in some caves in an ancient Roman aqueduct in Romania, and there's a bunch of skeletons and icky slimy stuff (that's VERY deadly!), not to mention poisonous snakes, scorpions, and centipedes, and a dragon. Hopefully, my final adventure will be as marvelous as Ravenloft is meant to be presented, and with your help from this video, it just might be...
Cross it into the " Castlevania " video game. Have a fire breathing skeleton hydra.
We played it in the 80s as an EPIC mini-campaign, one night a week for several months. The DM wasn't the usual DM (who got to be a player for a change), and he went all out. Three players with 3 characters each and an NPC, so yes, we split the party. When we finally got to the crypts, the DM had a huge map, and had filled the area with black dragons. The whole thing was awesome and one of the best memories of my gaming life. If I had a better memory, I could write a book on the experience. I like the idea of one-shotting it, but imo it pales in comparison to the in-depth journey we had. However you do it, tho, it's a great module worth its weight in platinum.
Great review! Appreciate it
I love the vampire one shot idea.
I think Strahd works best that way.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 yes I've never played ravenloft , but my ideas on it would be heavily influenced by one of my all time favourite films Hammer 🔨 Horrors " Twins of Evil" a classic in every respect
You pulled out all the stops on this one!
Well done, PDM!
Thank you for your continued support, Korg.
Amazing video!!! Best one yet!!!
Brilliant, all the best Garry
Very cool video, great advice as always, and let’s crank the algorithm up!!!
Need to work on my own version of this. Love it Professor!
Thank you! I don’t play dnd, but I get a lot of great ideas from you to use in games I do play. BTW, loved your Vampirella mini.
She's by Ral Partha. Love Vampirella!
Gonna run this sometime soon. Just an awesome twist on the ravenloft module.
excelent PDM, lots of great tips
Amazing work on the lighting! At first I honestly thought this was some sort of colorized footage of Bela Lugosi!
Prof Dungeon Craft could pull off an old school vampire B Movie like a boss
I am absolutely going to give this a shot in 2021!
Dungeon magazine 54 'Unhallowed Ground' ive run that for D&D,Pendragon,CoC,Warhammer Frp,Twilight 'Nightmares 2000. Brilliant!
Thank you. I don't think its brilliant. It's not terrible. GREAT cover, though.
I’m the same vintage as you PDM. I love your DM sensibilities. I have really hoisted aboard 5e, but one thing I needed to do for Curse of Strahd was boost his stat block. Jebus, he’s a former military commander that has “dabbled” in necromancy for centuries. He’s rumour by D&D lore to have been the first vampire. He is the Ancient, he is the Land. Make him so.
Great video for bringing it back to an evening adventure. Love your twists.
" cough, cough, cough," Long time fan of Ravenloft with many campaign stories.
AD&D2e, Strahd was a 9th-level-fighter(warrior) with lordship stronghold special class feature. Then dual- class into wizard. With the background of fighting a 20 year war. In the novel of " I, Strahd" he was capable of casting low level magic in a mail shirt in his early 40's. So one can say AD&D2e: Players Option/ Skills & Powers was used.
D&D3e or 3.5e Ravenloft Core Book with soft cove source book " Dark lords of Dread," Strahd is listed as Fighter4th/ Wizard16th with the Leadership feat.
With my gaming groups and two different gaming shops since the start of the 2000's. Strahd was rebuilt as a
Aristocrat2nd/ Fighter4th/ Rogue3rd/ Wizard6th. ECL. 14 CR:14. Follow with Prestige class Loremaster4th with effective spellcaster level: 10th.
Self crafted magic item: Banner of Leadership. / effects Emotion Spell: Hope/ Courage.
( We ran a mass military campaign as Strahd when he was mortal and the Wedding Massacre. A newly made vampire without their special abilities even if they get their extra strength will still be unable to take down a group of season veterans as written in the novel " I, Strahd.") My group of nit'picks played over nearly ten different battle runs to see how it played out.
Also, .. running AD&D over to early 3e with a four hundred years campaign dealing with the growth of The Core, by the time Van Richten got around to writing his Guides we place Strahd being close to a 30th-level character. We regarded Strahd as a story plot point to be " role " played and not a base XP reward. As a side remark in the " Guide to Werebeasts," Barovia has had werewolves having Pack Wars for a few hundred years over herd grazing rights and dumb dogs trying to over throw Strahd.
So with 3.5e mini maxing power gaming, dealing with a werewolf with the built of Barbarian3rd/ Ranger3rd/ Rogue 3rd/ Fighter4th CR: 13 ECL: 15th. maybe with a few sorcerer/ cleric levels thrown in. Strahd will have the need of some backup dealing with threats such as that.
Hope this helps improve your campaign.
Tales of Ravenloft, a collection of short story from the Demi Plane of Dread.
Strahd travels around by the name von Holtz possing as a lesser noble acting as a messenger for The Count.
@@krispalermo8133 yeah, in my present CoS campaign, the party met von Holtz enroute to Vallaki. They “saved” him from wolves and then stayed with him for a night at his lake side manor. He will pop back up when they get back from the Wizards of Wines and Vallaki in political turmoil
@@drunkenhobgoblin417 Other " nerd " fact, Ravenloft Black Box campaign setting guide book. Strahd has a 6th-level wizard spell the causes him to lose his supernatural strength and vampire powers which allows him the pass as human during the day. It has been over ten years since I read up on it, but I think after he passes off as human for three days of casting, he has to sleep for a full week. Which gives the " others " time to move their political plans along.
I think the broad advice of this video, of taking the module and boiling down to its essence, is great GM advice. A ton of modules suffer from this kind of bloat, along with a lack of real stakes (whoops, didn't intend that pun). Thank you for reminding us that for an adventure, often less is more.
That intro! Amazing.
Great video Dan.
Very nice take on Ravenloft. More and more I am taking the approach of getting to the meat of the story faster and cutting out all the useless fluff; thanks for the additional ideas to help with that. Always nice to see Deathbringer, don't quit your day job. Blood for the blood metric.
Great, nifty hints for running a classic module and it's about vampires.
Really cool video. I would be interested to see this "one session" treatment of other iconic modules.
This is amazing advice. I've run the 5e CoS module but I'd love to rerun it for a new group, trim down to the more critical plot points and take a bunch if Prof DM's suggestions for the overall storyline and castle exploration.
Why do vampires drink blood... Root beer makes em burp.
Why did the Dr. Think that the Count was sick... He said he 'kept a coffin'
My group is a fan of death bringer... Let me join your party... Well played.
I loved your one session ideas for this module. Cudos
Damn dude, you are almost a month too late for inspiration. Ran the whole thing in one night and had a blast! I recommend it to everyone!
Adding this to my notes to come back to for Halloween this year. I know that DNDBeyond also had an article on how to run the 5E version in one night too.
Ty I found the article!
Your dungeon looks great Professor.
Thank you!
The reincarnation of the two lovers in the PCs reminded me of the film Dead Again (1991). Of course, that film added a gender twist which, given a certain maturity level in the players, might make for an interesting plot device with the adventure, particularly given the sexual ambiguity of vampirism (or a gender flipped Strahda). Well done video and plot implementation.
This is pretty awesome. Wish I had watced this before running CoS.
This just might be the best video you've done, Professor. You tied in so many of the ideas you've covered in greater detail elsewhere, showing how they all interplay and feed off each other. Of particular value is all the explanation of reasoning behind the decisions you made, which serve to guide us in our own choices. Well done on this wonderful tutorial that also stands as a thesis defense of sorts for the entire channel.
You've got a fang in me! errr... fan....
Thanks. I was really proud of that video and bummed when it struggled to break 10k. My latest video got more views in 20 hours! So pass this one on. Maybe others will dig it. Peace!
Great video. I especially like the comments about skipping the dull parts of the module and getting to the action.
excellent video! bravo
Wish we had played that on Saturday October 31st. But it was still fun as hell.
Thanks!
I feel like the game group I play with would take a few sessions to get thru the Ravenloft One shot. We always take forever to get things going sometimes. I keep a log of what we do in each session, and some of them are like, we headed up to this other town and visited a weird toad lady and then hemmed and hawed about going into the woods and decided to go back to the first town. Which took about 4 hours.
Lol. Those players exist, I know. Played with some of them today.
sometimes the hemming and hawing can be really fun for the players, if they’re actively debating what to do. if it seems like they just can’t decide, i normally try to light a fire under them. as colville would say: “orcs attack!”
How does a vampire fly?
They use a fang glider.
+100xp for that one
This video is perfect to run the adventure in one night. Have you ever thought about doing more videos on older Ravenloft adventures. Simplify them and condensed to do them in one or two nights? Love the channel 🎃
To be consistent with the D&D rules, the only entity that has the power to create the Barovia situation would be a deity. If Strahd was formerly a cleric or paladin of that deity, but then in his rage/grief he turned against that deity, he could then receive the curse as punishment. You could also tie that in to the party, which would give you a hook as well. Perhaps the church has dispatched the players to resolve the situation in Barovia after the High Priest has had a holy vision.
The book Black Sun Rising by CS Friedman introduces a character with a similar backstory and the entire coldfire trilogy is excellent reading.
He COULD have been a fallen paladin. That would have been even BETTER! If I could afford writers, you'd be hired!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 That's nice of you to say, but we both know you don't really need any help from me. Besides, why would anyone pay me for what I freely give away for the love of the game and community? Cheers.
Great video. Your new set is bad-ass!
It's not just the lighting. Professor Dungeonmaster does kinda look like a mild-mannered version of Bela Lugosi--mild-mannered, that is, until being lit from below causes him to turn evil!
Thanks. I used to read bedtime stories to my kids with that lighting.
Thank you sooo much for this. If I expand on this,I’ll type way too much. Just thank you!
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 no problem. Just keep the well thought out content coming. It’s helpful for me as a new dm.
I've only somewhat recently discovered your channel, but I became a patron and am taking my daughter and her friends through Module B2: Keep on the Borderlands, using many of your suggestions and even starting them out at a festival in the next village over, with the archery contest, cart lifting contest, and a "dance contest" (they're 11, so "courting" wasn't entirely appropriate, since most of them chose to play characters who are 12-15 years old). It's going over very well, so thanks! I've been blogging about their experiences as well.
I fondly remember Ravenloft from my early days of gaming and I loved this video of how to run it in just one session. I'm not seriously thinking of including it as part of my daughter's group's adventures when they gain more levels. Quick question - I really do like your idea of moving past the un-interesting rooms (I've seen you mention this in a few other videos) but I'm wondering how best to handle it so that it doesn't just come across to the players as "We should pay more attention to this room because he skipped passed all the other ones"? How do you best handle that in your game?
Years ago my game shop ran a Castle Ravenloft mini campaign day for 12 hours. We had three DM and around seven groups of players. It end up as teams aiding and competing against each other. At the start of the mass game, everyone drew cards to see which arch type characters we were to play and the players had a short time frame to come up with the multi-class PC with the needed skills to " Survive " the game. The lucky ones got to RP Strahd and the other monsters.
Important rooms versus unimportant rooms, important rooms that hold items of value are normal patrol/ check up on, as for unimportant ones are not checked on.
Just look at the dust on the floor and check for foot traffic. Long robs or ridding coats whip up dust when you walk fast in them. Areas with a lot of settle dust and cob webs show no one has bother to go down that way in a long time. Hope this helps.
Hope you had a good weekend, and God bless.
I would like to get this module! I think I could fit it into my campaign world. Plus I love a cool vampire story.
I ran a 2E one shot for my son and his friends. It's been a while and I forgot how much of a grind these modules were. Helped me adjust on the fly. I had to create some "rules" on the spot since they were used to 5E. It was a fun find the magic item kill the bad guy romp. We all had a good time and it was a good way to play test it before my group plays. (Plus it's been a lifetime since I DMed, so I'm out of practice. )
So good!
Still a great video! I use lots of this like zones especially instead of room by room
Thanks, Jeff. This video did not do well upon release but has proved to have legs. Thanks for watching again!
Dudes channel is so big he actually got Bela Lugosi to do the intro!! Sub'd
Thanks for watching this video. It took me a lot of time and didn't rack up that many views.
Great stuff
Those castle walls and tower are really nice! Maybe a how to video?
Excellent intro!
Bought this in 1983. I always wondered, with the whole "parade of ghostly fallen heroes" thing, why the townspeople aren't more cynical: "Oh, come to kill Strahd, have you? Good luck. Can I hold your valuables for you, keep them safe while you're off to slay the vampire?"