| Post/Author/DateTime | Post |
|---|---|
| #1zombiegleemaxNov 25, 2003 17:13:07 | Are there any books people think are required/recommended to run 3rd Ravenloft? I'm thinking about stepping up and trying a hand at DMing since my usual DM is about to take a break from running. I've already got a lot of used second ed materials for ideas, and I've got up a Tome of Vile Darkness to help me stat out some of the NPCs I've got kicking around the back of my head. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about 3rd ed Ravenloft, and I can't even find a decent product listing anywhere. Any suggestions, guys? |
| #2b4realNov 25, 2003 17:17:25 | Originally posted by redtwin *The 3e RL CS book(Look on Ebay). *The 3e RL Gazettes if you want to flesh out the domains. *Use any 2e RL stuff you have to flesh the RL world out. There is a conversion manual located on the wizO's site to show you how to upgrade from 2e to 3e. ~B4Real |
| #3keg_of_aleNov 25, 2003 17:24:09 | The Ravenloft DM Guide is a very helpful product for any Ravenloft master. Also look forward to the upcoming Denizens of Dread, a book of monsters for Ravenloft. |
| #4zombiegleemaxNov 25, 2003 19:16:54 | On the PHB that everyone seems to despise: Is all the source material in the CS present in the PHB? If I'm not losing anything and gaining a few more rules that I can ignore or modify if I don't agree with them, then I don't see any reason not to buy it. Unless I can find the CS used for a lower price, of course. Of particular interest to me are the spell changes when one enters Ravenloft. I remember them from the black box, but are they also present in both the CS and PHB? I haven't been able to track down the 2cd to 3rd conversion guide. Can you put up a link to it? Edit: Didn't notice the PHB thread 4 below this one, modified a bit to take it into account |
| #5zombiegleemaxNov 25, 2003 21:20:52 | Originally posted by redtwin This is true. I think many people here were worried that new RL players may not realize that the new rules of the RLPHB are seen as dubious... |
| #6The_JesterNov 26, 2003 0:43:40 | Until they use a message board or talk to a regular player. And its not like there wasn't dubious or undefined rules previously. |
| #7zombiegleemaxNov 26, 2003 6:30:33 | It would depend on where you were planning on running it. Most of the RL novels are brilliant at explaining the feel of the area, and assuming oyur players ahven't read them, can be a source of inspiration for game ideas. I'd particularly suggest Lord Soth ones, if only because he was a great Darklord and White Wolf can't/don't write anything about him. At all. They barely even mention him. I'm also a bigger DL fan than RL, so I'll toddle back off to my regular board... |
| #8zombiegleemaxNov 26, 2003 10:07:43 | I think many people here were worried that new RL players may not realize that the new rules of the RLPHB are seen as dubious That won't be a problem, since I won't be telling the players that they're in Ravenloft. They'll start out in Forgotten Realms, and I'll do a few really minor quests which will be intentionally slapdash and shoddy for contrast, and then I'll slip them into Ravenloft. Let them figure out what happened; since that's really a big part of the system anyway. Not to mention that calling it a Player's Handbook seems a little incorrect to me in the first place. Things like powers checks and the results thereof are strictly a DM thing. Of course, that means I won't have the sourcebooks on hand early on, but that doesn't particularly bother me; I just need to solid handle on the rule changes first. |
| #9zombiegleemaxNov 26, 2003 10:13:30 | It would depend on where you were planning on running it. Most of the RL novels are brilliant at explaining the feel of the area, and assuming oyur players ahven't read them, can be a source of inspiration for game ideas. I'd particularly suggest Lord Soth ones, if only because he was a great Darklord and White Wolf can't/don't write anything about him. At all. They barely even mention him. I'm also a bigger DL fan than RL, so I'll toddle back off to my regular board... If you're running an adventure in Barovia, in my opinion, you should own Vampire of the Mists. |
| #10zombiegleemaxNov 26, 2003 10:16:02 | I've actually read and owned almost all of the novels, so getting a handle on the atmosphere isn't all that hard; though expressing it might be. *Shrug* Edit: To Carnival of Fear, one of the few books that's ever made me feel physically sick. |
| #11platinumwarlockNov 27, 2003 16:28:43 | I think the reason that it's called the Ravenloft Player's Handbook, is simply because contained therein are all the essential rules any player needs to run a Ravenloft game. Having the VRGs, the Gazes, and other books are nice, but....not completely essential. Kind of...self-contained, if you will. That said, I'll offer my recommendations as to what to buy, to get started: 1) Ravenloft Campaign Setting--yes, the 3.0 version. From what it seems, it's nearly identical to the RL PH, and doesn't have the weird nuances that really don't fit with the rest of the setting. Pick it up, if you can still get a hold of it. 2) Van Richten's Arsenal--Useful, useful book for both players and DMs. Gives wonderful atmosphere to the world of Ravenloft, and lots of crunchy bits to satisfy all your needs. My favorite product to date. 3) RL Dungeon Master's Guide--Second only to VRA, it's a beautiful product showing you How To Run A Horror Game. More info than you can shake a stick at, and if you come out after reading this book without having half a million adventure hooks, I'll eat my coffee mug. 4) Call of Cthulhu d20--No, it's not a Ravenloft product. It's not even D&D. However, it's supremely useful in terms of monsters, spells, items...and the all important Sanity rules. Imho, Madness isn't dealt quite enough with in game terms in Ravenloft. CoC is your answer to this. Fantastic book....probably one of my favorite gamebooks of all time. 5) Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead--For low-level parties (or even high-level ones!), this book is a must. Not quite as good as VRA, but a very solid product. If your players didn't fear skeletons or zombies before, they will now... Now, for some non-gamebooks.... 1) the "I, Strahd" books--P.N. Elrod did an absolutely gorgeous job of detailing the life and times of everyone's favorite Dracula-wannabe. Captures the feel of the setting very nicely... 2) Spectre of the Black Rose--the precursor to this one, Knight of the Black Rose, is good as well, but much of the time in it is spent wandering around, so you don't get a very good feel for any of the domains. SotBR, though, is set entirely in Sithicus (with minor portions on the border of Invidia), giving some nice detail into this easily neglected domain. 3) Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus"--the basis for golems (and Lamordia) as we know them today. If you haven't already, read it. 4) Lovecraft--Want to know what a failed Madness check will do to you? Go read some of this....you probably have, but go read it again, and pay attention to the narrator's voice. 5) Stephen King's short stories--No, not the novels. No "The Shining" or "Carrie"....those are good, but nowhere near as good as his short stories. "Skeleton Crew" and "Night Shift" are absolutely fantastic. No one will ever till me otherwise that the story 'Graveyard Shift' is anything but a dungeon-crawl... Those will get you started...hope they help! |
| #12bob_the_efreetNov 27, 2003 17:45:51 | I add to the suggestion of books the Gazetteer series. You probably don't need all of them, and it's very unlikely you'll need all of them at once, but you should pick up the one(s) pertaining to the domain(s) your campaign will be happening in. |
| #13zombiegleemaxNov 28, 2003 12:23:51 | I've got most of the old Van Richten's books, so I'll probably hold off on either of the new ones until I know the campaign will run for a while. I've also got the old black box, which has fairly good descriptions of the various realms, so that should be enough get me started. For now, I think I'll get the the PHB or CS, depending on which one I can find used at a good price first. For atmosphere and realm descriptions, I'll delve into the old material. I'll probably run an intro campaign, and put the players through the old Hexad modules, with my own material tieing them together. That should give me a chance to cut my teeth and see how things go. If the players ask me to keep running, I'll pick up the DMG, maybe a Gazeteer, and a few more modern books and run a new campaign with new characters. Ideally, I'll end up with a bunch of players who fondly recall being part of the conjunction which had such a profound impact in the modern Ravenloft they're parading around in. |
| #14zombiegleemaxNov 29, 2003 18:08:44 | I still use most of my old 2E Ravenloft books since most of them only contained information about Ravenloft and very little actual rules content. I currently own the main campaign setting book, the new 3E monster manual for Ravenloft, and Champions of Darkness (which contains the stats for most of the Dark Lords, so it's useful to own). Otherwise, the 2E books still give a lot of what you need to run a 3E adventure. |
| #15zombiegleemaxNov 29, 2003 18:46:39 | Originally posted by KingOfChaos You mean Secrets of the Dread Realms contains stats for most of the darklord. |
| #16zombiegleemaxNov 30, 2003 2:20:08 | Originally posted by Charney Yep, you're right. I had just been reading about Champions of Darkness and was letting my unconcious mind type :P |