An important disclaimer; I bought this second hand, without the box. It came with 2 books, a DM screen, several maps and the tarokka deck. If I failed to mention a product that was included in the set, it’s because I don’t have it and don’t know I’m supposed to.

The Revised Ravenloft Campaign Setting is a bit of a mixed bag. In terms of game-worthy material, particularly for AD&D, it was weak – that role was filled much better by the slightly incongruous Domains of Dread. In terms of advice for running a horror campaign, it is completely stacked. Most of it seems to be written with the “Iceberg Method”, where for every 10% that is said, the remaining 90% is unsaid. I got a ton of ideas reading both books that weren’t explicitly stated in the text, and considering this usually doesn’t happen when I read RPG products (at least to this degree), I have to assume it’s the quality of the writing and not my hypothetical ability to draw threads of gold from crap.

The meat of the set is in the Realm of Terror book, while Domains and Denizens is mostly game material with some useful ideas that can be drawn out. That isn’t to say that the latter isn’t useful, it’s just that it’s heavily overshadowed by the former.

Realm of Terror has 10 chapters and an introduction. The chapters that are least useful are the game mechanic ones (obviously they’re useful in a different way, but that aspect is overshadowed by the inspiration for horror campaigns), on how magic and psionics are altered in Ravenloft, magical items in Ravenloft and modifications of staple monsters. You can still get some good ideas from those chapters, but they’re certainly not nearly as packed with them.

The introduction reveals the authors have gone to good effort to research gothic horror, and have framed it nicely in comparison with how AD&D is traditionally played. They address the source of fear – uncertainty – as compared to the thrill of slasher fiction which would seem to be more obvious in D&D. They address problems in an RPG for this type of horror, as the PCs won’t be making the stupid mistakes that we all know and love (hate) that protagonists make in horror movies or books. Most importantly, I got a lot of ideas on how I’d run a horror campaign, just from the first few pages.

-Make the PCs afraid of the dark. As long as the sun is out, things are quite normal, encounters are with regular animals, there aren’t any particular threats to the PCs, the world isn’t twisted, and people are even cheerful. The moment night falls, the monsters come out to play, they stalk the characters, the woods become twisted, distances change, everyone shuts their doors and windows, and when fights do occur they’re actually dangerous. The PCs will very quickly (assuming they’re predisposed to the genre) take to avoiding any travel that lasts longer than a day, much like in dungeon crawls they take great pains to check for traps in every room – only much less tedious.

Some of these things are hinted at, but most of that is an extrapolation. Often when I read reviews, especially capsule, I appreciate the inclusion of a character the reviewer has generated. I hope my ideas from reading the book carry the same benefit.

The one thing that struck me immediately towards the end of the introduction is that the AD&D alignment system just isn’t suited for this campaign setting or this kind of play. While I defend the alignment system for the setting which D&D assumes, I’m fully aware that it isn’t appropriate in all situations. More glaring is that while in most settings the alignment system can be included without being a pain in the ass, as long as you don’t give it much credit, I get the feeling that it seriously impedes the game. Further sections in the book reinforce the feeling.

Chapter 1 is a brief overview of the Demiplane of Dread. It gives the history, a timeline (including the Grand Conjunction, where the entire place nearly fell apart), and some explanation. The interesting part is on the dark powers. They’re not explained or statted in any fashion, whereas the Darklords of the domains are described in Domains and Denizens, usually the rule is that really powerful villains shouldn’t be statted, the dark powers are only vaguely described. On the one hand, as the DM, it’s annoying not knowing what exactly is going on, it gives a sense that you’re supposed to buy a supplement. On the other hand, the fact that the DM doesn’t know exactly what it is lends to helping convey the unknown. Since as far as I know, it’s not described in any more detail anywhere, I’ll go with the second one. The dark powers are like the force in Star Wars, except they’re not cheapened like the force was in Episode 1. Essentially what the dark powers are is a license for the DM to do anything as long as it’s not particularly obvious.

Chapter 2 is an overview of how the character classes change from how they usually work in AD&D. This chapter is also the only one that goes against my feeling that alignment is completely inappropriate for Ravenloft. Paladins, and optionally Lawful Good priests, end up being a beacon to Darklords the moment they show up. I get the feeling that this was included because Paladins don’t fit the genre well, so there had to be a mechanical reason why a Paladin would get wiped out pretty quickly the moment he shows up in Ravenloft. There’s also mention that nonhuman races are for the most part treated with heavy suspicion in Ravenloft, which while it can be interesting strikes me as a bit of a cheap excuse for not figuring out how to integrate demihumans into gothic horror.

Chapter 3 covers fear, horror and madness checks. They’re essentially a new form of saving throw. Fear is when you think something might hurt you now, horror is when something causes intrinsic revulsion in you, and madness speaks for itself. As the rules are written, they seem weak, but they are introduced with a mention that ideally players will roleplay their fear, horror and madness instead of requiring rolls. While madness is justified in the realm of mind-fucking, I felt that fear and horror were unjustified forms of it. Something a lot of players hate, and something I feel takes away from the atmosphere is losing your will. So instead of requiring fear checks where when they’re failed the character runs away uncontrollably, I figured to handle them via physical results that encourage running.

-Instead of an abstract description of fear, the characters start feeling sluggish like in a nightmare, their heart seems gripped and is pumping in an irregular rhythm, they can’t hear anything but the beating of their heart and maybe the horrifying sounds that are appropriate to the situation, they get tunnel vision focusing on the source of their fear and they feel  a cold paralysis. If they don’t clue in, mention that it carries with it some serious mechanical penalties – except to movement. The players will realise that they have two options, run, or be cut down by whatever’s coming after them.

This is a rather interesting part of the book, in that the best ideas I got were inspired by a bad example that I felt I had to outdo. The madness section gave me some interesting starting points. While the tables to roll for madness are weak, the ideas were strong. The multiple personality disorder (which is incorrectly called schizophrenia) is particularly interesting, and the only one I’d want to use as is.

Chapter 4 is on the Ravenloft Powers Check. Essentially, when you do something evil, you attract the attention of the dark powers. If they take sufficient notice, you’re given a gift that’s mixed with a curse. The theme of curses is strong in Ravenloft, the gift might seem enticing at first but it’s usually not worth the loss that goes with it. Initially it appears to be a game balancing tool, if a character does things that are too evil, they become under the control of the DM – essentially players are railroaded into playing good characters. Personally, I love the idea of tempting the players with extra powers that come with a heavy price, and giving them a mechanical reason to be evil is fun, especially when there’s a fine line they have to walk before losing their character. I also like how it frames the Darklords of the domains in Ravenloft well, although certain ones, like Lord Soth and Strahd von Zarovich are done much better than others.

The only down side to this section that I can see, is hardly getting the opportunity to use it. Players would probably wisen up to the fact that they’ll lose their character pretty quickly, and will avoid taking any actions that attract the attention of the powers.

Chapter 5 is on Curses. I really liked this chapter as it introduced powers that aren’t described directly in terms of game mechanics. It also gives 0-level commoners a great deal of power (although at the price of attracting the dark powers). With the idea that anyone can lay a curse that’s powerful enough to cause you serious harm, you think twice about crossing them, even if they are a lowly commoner. Curses are also open to player characters, and laying and receiving curses introduce some very interesting roleplaying opportunities. The framework is essentially free-form and allows the laying of some very interesting curses. For example, a spurned lover could say “when the blackness of the night matches the blackness of your heart, you will forever be alone” – if clouds come over head, or mists rise up from the ground, the recipient of the curse is going to be quite afraid of the dark – moreso than adventurers normally would be.

-As a side note, while I feel being described purely in words is the strength of curses, I don’t feel that a statless system is the best option with them. When your stats very clearly limit your power, having unlimited potential with a curse is that much more significant. AD&D might not be the best system for it, but some stat based system to set them apart.

Chapters 6 through 8 are, as mentioned earlier, on spells, psionics and magic items changing in Ravenloft. There isn’t much to go through here in the review except that the modified spells, psionic powers and magic items are pretty comprehensive and are changed appropriately for the setting. There are some interesting new magic items which are great for flavour, and potentially fiction, but would only go as far as tormenting the players. After a couple of these they probably would stop taking any magical items for fear of what they might do them, a highly appropriate reaction, but it’ll take away a DM tool.

Chapter 9 is Techniques of Terror. I feel it would have been better at Chapter 6, with the related mechanics chapters being 7-10. It’s only 9 pages long, but it’s 9 pages chock full of goodness. It covers the important part that horror has to be believable to instil fear, it covers the importance of details of the mundane to contrast with the horrors – a popular technique of early 20^th century ghost stories. I could cover each heading with a summary, but that would take up quite a bit of space. This chapter gave me as many good ideas as the rest of the book combined, and it’s also more stated explicitly than me getting my own ideas from what’s hinted at. If they ever release this in PDF form chapter by chapter, this would definitely be the one to buy.

Chapter 10 is a brief overview of how some of the staple monsters change in Ravenloft. There are different powers of Vampires, all the way up to ones that are immune to sunlight, different magnitudes of ghosts and mummies, etc. They’re useful in different ways. Players used to high powered campaigns can come in with their powerful characters and find enemies they thought were simple to beat to be quite a bit more powerful than them.

Domains and Denizens has two “useful” chapters, in the sense of running horror campaigns. While having outlined descriptions of the domains and their lords is certainly useful for the setting, the big chunk of this book falls under the category of splat books.

Chapters 1 and 2 don’t need to be read in full. If the DM wants to run a campaign in one of the domains, just reading up on that domain is sufficient. If the DM isn’t sure, reading a few and then picking a good one is enough. In the long term, going back and picking up additional domains is worth it, but it definitely doesn’t have to be read through. The biggest pain in the ass of this part of the book is that it’s essentially required to have the Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium vol 2. The only bright side is that pretty much everything that’s referenced (90%? I didn’t count exactly), is from the compendium, so at least it’s only one more supplement that’s required instead of a bunch of them (although obviously Van Richten’s guides would also be valuable, at least the powers of the creatures in them were outlined in Chapter 10 of Realm of Terror, Domains and Denizens doesn’t at least do the decency of giving a basic outline – perhaps there were some sheets like the ones included in the Spelljammer boxed set, Dragon mountain or the Forgotten Realms Boxed set that didn’t come with my package, but I doubt that’s the case).

Chapter 3 is similar, it covers the domain lords. Obviously the lord of the domain the game is set in should be read in detail, but additionally the domain lord backgrounds are worth reading. The backgrounds explain how they ended up in their current role, and go the furthest to really fleshing out the setting. They (some better than others) illustrate that the core point in Ravenloft is these lords are cursed to not have whatever they want most. In the case of Lord Soth, Azalin and Strahd this is really obvious. In the case of Harkon Lukas, I have a hard time seeing the down side for him.

Chapter 4 is on the Vistani. I was really interested in this chapter as they were not described at all in Domains of Dread, and they’re an integral part of the campaign. Their powers of curses are briefly expanded on, but the key point is fortune telling. This ties in with the tarokka deck. The deck has been designed to tie in well with the setting and the AD&D system (although it’s not tied to it to the extent that it’s useless elsewhere, there’s an article in Dragon Magazine #240 that illustrates a much better use of the tarokka deck using the Saga system). It explains the “backstory” of each of the cards, and explains several ways in which they can be used by DMs to further the plot. While the chapter only goes over using the tarokka deck in game, for making predictions of the future and integrating them into the adventure, I had the idea to use them for adventure preparation. While Realm of Terror discusses the importance of detailed and well planned encounters, getting the ideas for them from randomly selected cards is perfectly valid. This is particularly the case for me, I have a hard time coming up with a really well fleshed idea without having some prompting. I like a random score generation system, or a semi random one that forces compromise, like the SAGA system. Using the tarokka deck to generate adventures (which is a step away from using them to dictate the flow of adventures or enhance them that’s discussed in the chapter) assists in a similar fashion of coming up with the base idea on which to expand.

The maps are in colour, large enough to be useful and have an appropriate style, I haven’t looked at them in detail, but I definitely prefer them to the ones in Domains of Dread. The DM screen has a back for the players to see that is just mists, very appropriate for the setting, and has 4 panels with various useful tables for a DM in Ravenloft.

The style of both books is excellent. There is very little colour, just red borders. There is a faded horrific frame to each page that doesn’t detract from the reading, and most importantly, while the theme is gothic horror the books aren’t actually written in gothic script. The style of the artwork is very appropriate, although they’re not always appropriate to the material being discussed. I’m guessing they hired a single artist and gave him a general overview, but forgot to tell him some important details like that while the Vistani are modeled on gypsies, they’re not supposed to have fair skin. I definitely have to give the whole set a 5, writing quality was good, it was engaging, and the maps and DM screen added nice touches while the tarokka deck added even more of a nice touch.

Substance wise, that was the meat of my review. Neither one has an index, which normally pisses me off, but Domains and Denizens has information structured in such a way that the table of contents is actually sufficient. Realm of Terror is overall organised in such a fashion, but the various useful horror techniques are spread throughout the book, even though the meat of them is in Chapter 9, which is where an index would have been appreciated. Reviewing the setting from the point of view of usefulness that one expects from a setting like the Forgotten Realms, the Ravenloft Campaign setting would be somewhat less disappointing as at least it supports atmosphere.

 After buying the Forgotten Realms campaign set I felt kind of burned, in that I was expected to get a bunch of additional supplements to make it worthwhile – that was mitigated by not too long afterwards 3^rd edition being released and a ton of FR material being released for free on WotC’s website. In the sense of game material, I would feel equally burned if it weren’t for the fact that there’s a good number of Ravenloft modules also for free on WotC’s website, and that Legends & Lore, briefly mentioned in one of the domains as a good source of inspiration, is also for free and is an excellent source of game material, given that Ravenloft has a lot of its domains based on stereotypical human cultures. On its own I’d give it a 2 or a 3 for game value, leaning towards 3 because of the atmosphere, the big offender that would drag it down to 2 being the requirement of Ravenloft Monsterous Compendium vol 2. Taking into account all the free material that’s available, including Legends & Lore and, the FR material that is excellent for using Cormyr to model Harkon Lukas’ domain, and the potential to drag any random module with an appropriate background and make it a domain, that goes up to a 4 or a 3, considering how the key personalities mentioned in most of the domains require the compendium or additional supplements to expand. Maybe half the domains are doable with the Monster Manual and nothing else. Domains and Denizens is the book that covers most of this, so you can take a 3 as an appropriate rating for this book, including a couple chapters from Realm of Terror.

In terms of ideas and inspiration for running a good horror campaign, the boxed set, or more specifically Realm of Terror, scores a clean 5. There’s so much to work with for any horror game in any campaign setting for any system that makes it well worth the price I paid for it ($15 canadian plus tax). Even if you only get this book and it costs up around $25 (maybe $20 US), it would still be worth it. In terms of useful advice, this ranks up with Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering, and is in some ways better due to being more specific. Paizo.com has a PDF download for $4! I doubt that whoever you are, you won’t find information in there that’s at least worth that much.

Given that I went to the effort to write this review because of the ideas and inspiration I got, I’m scoring it according to that, and giving it a nice fat 5/5!