Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 julia_of_hillsdown Dec 13, 2006 7:40:50	I was thinking about running the first adventure, Ravenloft, that being the version I can get my hands on. However, that is 1st Ed, and I want to convert it to 3.5. Has anything like this been done already? Or would I be better off with the EtCR, which to my understanding is not all that RL-specific?
#2 Sysane Dec 13, 2006 7:52:54	EtCR is a 3.5 conversion of I6 with some added bonuses.
#3 gotten Dec 13, 2006 8:00:00	EtCR is a 3.5 conversion of I6 with some added bonuses. Hell, yeah, if you want Madame Eva as a hag, and demons and crawling abberations all over the place Not really close to the original spirit IMHO ... ;) There is this file who could help for I-6: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=170766 Joël
#4 julia_of_hillsdown Dec 13, 2006 8:36:19	Cheers for that, Gotten. That was more or less what I was looking for. I could have done it myself, but I have no experience with anything older than 3E. ;)
#5 Sysane Dec 13, 2006 9:04:42	Hell, yeah, if you want Madame Eva as a hag, and demons and crawling abberations all over the place Not really close to the original spirit IMHO ... ;) There is this file who could help for I-6: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=170766 Joël As much spirit as a 32 pg adventure can caputure I guess. ;)
#6 gotten Dec 13, 2006 11:10:04	As much spirit as a 32 pg adventure can caputure I guess. ;) *lol*, sure ;) But I think one of the mistakes the new designers did is filling all the empty room. They said that in interviews, that they had fun filling all the room. But the best part of I-6 was the search, the dusty rooms, the insecurity of never knowing if you'll find something in the next room... And forgetting the artificial "videogame" feel it gives to the whole (i.e. monsters living next to each other, but oblivious of battles in the next room), filling the rooms with abberations and fiends wasn't the best of idea, IMHO, when the original heavily relied on undead. This said, EtCR is a good fantasy adventure, with good ideas, but it's a bad conversion of I-6. Joël
#7 Sysane Dec 13, 2006 11:26:50	I guess its a matter of opinion. Sure, not every once of EtCR is role-playing gold, but it gives a good basis on expanding the adventure to a mini campaign format. I don't plan on using the things I don't agree with or like (i.e Eva hag) and will tailor it to fit and capture the feel of the original adventure. I've ran three sessions of EtCR so far and the players love it. The veterans of the group feel that its capturing the flavor of the original just fine. So I guess its not all bad.
#8 gotten Dec 13, 2006 12:03:44	I've ran three sessions of EtCR so far and the players love it. The veterans of the group feel that its capturing the flavor of the original just fine. So I guess its not all bad. Oh cool! You do a good job Joël
#9 Sysane Dec 13, 2006 13:01:21	I try
#10 The_Jester Dec 14, 2006 8:01:49	They're very, very different things. I6 is a gothic horror with an emphasis on atmosphere. EtCR is a slasher-horror with more in common with Lovecraft and Freddie than Stoker and Shelly.
#11 zombiegleemax Dec 14, 2006 9:14:28	They're very, very different things. I6 is a gothic horror with an emphasis on atmosphere. EtCR is a slasher-horror with more in common with Lovecraft and Freddie than Stoker and Shelly. Really, really well-put. The Lovecraftian aspects will get played down in my campaign, but as much as I dread saying so, I am enjoying the more combat-intensive spin the new adventure puts on everything. Maybe it's just the players I have this time around. Either way, I cliffhangered my group at Madame Eva's card reading last session. Tuesday night, I do the cards and the PCs (probably) head to the church to deal with the... thing. BTW, the... thing in the town square encounter killed my two toughest PCs. They used up their "Insert Coin to Continue" opportunities and haven't even had the adventure properly introduced yet.
#12 Sysane Dec 14, 2006 10:11:37	I left off last session with the end of the second encounter in the village. Its a meat grinder on the players thats for sure.
#13 zombiegleemax Dec 14, 2006 12:26:59	EtCR is a slasher-horror with more in common with Lovecraft and Freddie than Stoker and Shelly. Since when has Lovecraft ever been associated with slasher horror?
#14 The_Jester Dec 14, 2006 19:59:45	Since when has the gothic been associated with the fantastic? Since I6. Lovecraft features the inhuman and alien as well as creatures that destroy the mind. EtCR features much madness, corruption and the inhuman. Slashers feature sudden abrupt shocks and surprises as well as blood and grossout experiences. EtCR sets out to spook the players with sudden zombie attacks and the like. They're not closely related but have some common ground. Just like Lovecraft can have its gothic elements played up in a traditional Ravenloft game it can have its more slasher elements played up in this new D&D update. Personally though, I find most aberrations more laughably silly than scary. Especially that one that's pretty much a winged head that breathes fire or something. Hillarious. But beware, EtCR is build with modern net-savy D&D players in mind. It expects powergaming and solid builds. There was definetly some min/maxing going on.
#15 zombiegleemax Dec 16, 2006 13:01:36	Ah, you're saying they mixed Lovecraftian and slasher together in EtCR. The structure of your sentence, to me, had you implying that Lovecraft did slasher horror, which with the possible exception of "Herbert West, Re-Animator" never struck me as the case.
#16 The_Jester Dec 16, 2006 18:11:37	He's also done gothic (Shunned House) but that doesn't mean the majority of his stuff fits nicely into the 'Loft.
#17 zombiegleemax Dec 16, 2006 19:17:02	No, HPL's not really Gothic, but I think if the original sentence had read more like "EtCR owes more to the impersonal cosmic horror of Lovecraft and the slasher violence of Freddie than to Stoker and Shelly" there would not have been the confusion on my part.
#18 humanbing Dec 16, 2006 21:08:13	I'd be interested in seeing House on Gryphon Hill converted to 3.5, actually. That adventure had a fair level of "whodunit" mystery mixed in with character development. Plus it introduced the first ever appearance of Azalin, with his "-14" Comeliness score. And Azalin's awesome.
#19 zombiegleemax Dec 19, 2006 20:02:04	I'm giving each of you a reading assignment for over the holiday. You are each to track down and read a copy of H. P. Lovecraft's essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature". I will be back after the new year to check in and there will be a quiz. Yes I am serious. Enjoy your break, and Happy Holidays.
#20 humanbing Dec 20, 2006 8:16:34	For Lovecraft, I'd argue you do have elements in canon Ravenloft literature. Mordent and Dementlieu both have high enough Cultural Ratings to resemble Arkham, Massachusetts, and Gwydion the Sorceror-Fiend of the Shadow Rift is clearly a tribute to Cthulhu himself. The main difference from a game plot standpoint that I can see is that the main focus in Lovecraft is on a rational, sane society peopled by inhabitants that run the gamut of Gothic emotions and motivations... but then you encounter one single aberration to the norm and that throws everything off kilter. Imagine an adventure set in Mordent where you meet civilized people everywhere and the end badguy is one single undead or lycanthrope.
#21 zombiegleemax Dec 20, 2006 11:10:16	For Lovecraft, I'd argue you do have elements in canon Ravenloft literature. Mordent and Dementlieu both have high enough Cultural Ratings to resemble Arkham, Massachusetts, and Gwydion the Sorceror-Fiend of the Shadow Rift is clearly a tribute to Cthulhu himself. I would argue that Mordentshire is influenced more by Collinsport (the fictional Maine setting of the old Dark Shadows soap opera from the 1960s), and Mordentshire and Mordent in general have more in common with any Victorian English countryside/seaside town on the moors as portrayed by Hollywood than they do with Lovecraft's 1920s Arkham. Yes there is some Lovecraftian influence in Mordent, but is mostly an indirect influence. Anyhow, don't forget to do your reading assignment folks. ;)
#22 zombiegleemax Dec 20, 2006 18:58:49	I would argue that Mordentshire is influenced more by Collinsport (the fictional Maine setting of the old Dark Shadows soap opera from the 1960s),.. That is how I've always pictured it, as someone who watched the original series when it was first aired! The story arc where they went back in time to the 1780's seemed most appropriate.
#23 zombiegleemax Dec 20, 2006 20:38:29	That is how I've always pictured it, as someone who watched the original series when it was first aired! The story arc where they went back in time to the 1780's seemed most appropriate. Myself as well, although I was very young at the time. My dear old Irish grandmother was a huge fan and I used to watch every day with her. When I first read I10 many years ago, my first thought was, Tracy and Laura Hickman used to run home from school everyday to watch Dark Shadows just like my older cousins did, didn't they? The House on Gryphon Hill is so inspired by the Old House too.