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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition
Ravenloft Campaign Setting
Terror in the Land of Mists
In the year 351 of the Barovian calendar, Strahd von Zarovich made a pact with Death - a pact that sealed his fate and created a land of nightmares known as Ravenloft.
Other lords of darkness have embraced the Demiplane of Dread as their own, and woe to heroes who wander there.
Creatures of the night prey freely upon the living in this land, and day is but a prelude to another night of horror.
This new edition of the RAVENLOFT game combines the original Realm of Terror boxed set with elements of Forbidden Lore and updated rules from other accessories.
Domains destroyed in the infamous Grand Conjunction have been deleted, new domains added, and key personalities detailed.
This boxes set includes:
Realm of Terror - a 160-page book of rules concerning the reshaping of character classes; fear, horror, madness, and powers checks; curses; spells and magical items,both new and old; psionics; techniques of terror; and more.
Domains and Denizens - a 128-page book describing the dark lands of the Core, the islands of terror, and many nefarious personages.
Two maps depicting the reshaped Core domains and the islands of terror.
A poster featuring a painting by artist Robh Ruppel.
A tarokka deck of beautifully illustrated cards for role-playing fortunetelling.
A DM screen specifically designed to be used with a RAVENLOFT campaign.
In the year 351 of the Barovian calendar, Strahd von Zarovich made a pact with Death - a pact that sealed his fate and created a land of nightmares known as Ravenloft.
Other lords of darkness have embraced the Demiplane of Dread as their own, and woe to heroes who wander there.
Creatures of the night prey freely upon the living in this land, and day is but a prelude to another night of horror.
This new edition of the RAVENLOFT game combines the original Realm of Terror boxed set with elements of Forbidden Lore and updated rules from other accessories.
Domains destroyed in the infamous Grand Conjunction have been deleted, new domains added, and key personalities detailed.
This boxes set includes:
Realm of Terror - a 160-page book of rules concerning the reshaping of character classes; fear, horror, madness, and powers checks; curses; spells and magical items,both new and old; psionics; techniques of terror; and more.
Domains and Denizens - a 128-page book describing the dark lands of the Core, the islands of terror, and many nefarious personages.
Two maps depicting the reshaped Core domains and the islands of terror.
A poster featuring a painting by artist Robh Ruppel.
A tarokka deck of beautifully illustrated cards for role-playing fortunetelling.
A DM screen specifically designed to be used with a RAVENLOFT campaign.
288 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1994
66 people want to read
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September 12, 2022Here I'm going to cover this revised core box set, the 3rd Monstrous Compendium for Ravenloft, and a book of cursed and magical items -- essentially three accessories (i.e., "not adventures") that we got around the middle of TSR's Ravenloft run.
REVISED CORE (1994)
If you remember, my feeling on rereading the core box was that I enjoyed the vibe, but found some of the setting to be inert: multiple realms controlled by vampires or poisoners or ghosts that didn't seem all that distinct, "horrific" scenario ideas that didn't necessarily feel out of place in other worlds. Now I'd like to think that TSR recognized this issue and so planned their first big set of adventures as a metaplot that would remake Ravenloft to address this issue, but I doubt they did. Instead, the bulk of what we get in this revised core (sometimes called the red box set for its red frame) is actually a reprint of the original core and the Forbidden Lore box set. Also, whereas the first box set had some expanded rules on vampires and werewolves, this expands that by incorporating a few pages of info from all the Van Richten's Guides printed to this time.
As for the domains, they do fix some of their mistakes by, for instance, combining the two poisoner lands into one land with two co-lords who now get to plot against each other; but then they fall into the problem we saw in Islands of Terror where they make a culturally-specific island -- here, Rokushima, a Japan-inflected horror land -- without necessarily dealing with that culture's horror stories.
They do, however, tell you when a published adventure takes place in one of those domains and point you to those adventures to learn more. Which is actually helpful, if also nakedly mercenary, and I just have to say: just about everything I see of 2nd edition Ravenloft makes me think they made better choices in 5th edition.
RAVENLOFT MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM 3 (1994)
This one is called "Creatures of Darkness," and after the great rogues gallery setup of MC2, MC3 is just a return to monsters; and as fun as “boneless undead” and “evil fairy” and “virus that turns you into a shadow” are, I miss the full featured personalities of the MC2.
FORGED OF DARKNESS (1996)
I mean, just look at that cover, at the madness in that guy’s face as he swings a hook into the utterly despondent figure on the ground. I find this pretty upsetting, so good job cover artist (Fred Fields).
This is a collection of magic items, but since this is Ravenloft, everything has a story and is at least a little cursed, which I enjoyed as a theme. They decided, I guess, to add some sub-themes here, so we get, for instance, a set of cursed toys made by the toymaker from the adventure The Created; and a bunch of timepieces from the workshop of a watchmaker named Klorr (who has been mentioned before); or (my favorite) just a bunch of magic items that the lich lord Azalin has put into his Black Vault. How to get them out of there is another question, and I do sort of wish Ravenloft wasn't so lord-focused, but at least this does give me some ideas.
Some of the cursed magic here is clear riffs on folklore (like the Hands of Power being variations on the Hand of Glory), which is fine -- I don't need to have all my RPG ideas spring fully-formed from the forehead of -- oh, wait, I'm using a mythological metaphor. But what really makes this less interesting to me is that a lot of the magic items here feel like interchangeable MacGuffins: there's a lot here that feels like I could slip it into the template, "Strahd has stolen the ___ from Azalin and will cause horrific bloodshed with it!" So even though this is supposed to be specifically for Ravenloft, within that ambit, they start to feel a little generic, especially because the book presents these large themes/categories (cursed toys, cursed watches, etc.)
REVISED CORE (1994)
If you remember, my feeling on rereading the core box was that I enjoyed the vibe, but found some of the setting to be inert: multiple realms controlled by vampires or poisoners or ghosts that didn't seem all that distinct, "horrific" scenario ideas that didn't necessarily feel out of place in other worlds. Now I'd like to think that TSR recognized this issue and so planned their first big set of adventures as a metaplot that would remake Ravenloft to address this issue, but I doubt they did. Instead, the bulk of what we get in this revised core (sometimes called the red box set for its red frame) is actually a reprint of the original core and the Forbidden Lore box set. Also, whereas the first box set had some expanded rules on vampires and werewolves, this expands that by incorporating a few pages of info from all the Van Richten's Guides printed to this time.
As for the domains, they do fix some of their mistakes by, for instance, combining the two poisoner lands into one land with two co-lords who now get to plot against each other; but then they fall into the problem we saw in Islands of Terror where they make a culturally-specific island -- here, Rokushima, a Japan-inflected horror land -- without necessarily dealing with that culture's horror stories.
They do, however, tell you when a published adventure takes place in one of those domains and point you to those adventures to learn more. Which is actually helpful, if also nakedly mercenary, and I just have to say: just about everything I see of 2nd edition Ravenloft makes me think they made better choices in 5th edition.
RAVENLOFT MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM 3 (1994)
This one is called "Creatures of Darkness," and after the great rogues gallery setup of MC2, MC3 is just a return to monsters; and as fun as “boneless undead” and “evil fairy” and “virus that turns you into a shadow” are, I miss the full featured personalities of the MC2.
FORGED OF DARKNESS (1996)
I mean, just look at that cover, at the madness in that guy’s face as he swings a hook into the utterly despondent figure on the ground. I find this pretty upsetting, so good job cover artist (Fred Fields).
This is a collection of magic items, but since this is Ravenloft, everything has a story and is at least a little cursed, which I enjoyed as a theme. They decided, I guess, to add some sub-themes here, so we get, for instance, a set of cursed toys made by the toymaker from the adventure The Created; and a bunch of timepieces from the workshop of a watchmaker named Klorr (who has been mentioned before); or (my favorite) just a bunch of magic items that the lich lord Azalin has put into his Black Vault. How to get them out of there is another question, and I do sort of wish Ravenloft wasn't so lord-focused, but at least this does give me some ideas.
Some of the cursed magic here is clear riffs on folklore (like the Hands of Power being variations on the Hand of Glory), which is fine -- I don't need to have all my RPG ideas spring fully-formed from the forehead of -- oh, wait, I'm using a mythological metaphor. But what really makes this less interesting to me is that a lot of the magic items here feel like interchangeable MacGuffins: there's a lot here that feels like I could slip it into the template, "Strahd has stolen the ___ from Azalin and will cause horrific bloodshed with it!" So even though this is supposed to be specifically for Ravenloft, within that ambit, they start to feel a little generic, especially because the book presents these large themes/categories (cursed toys, cursed watches, etc.)
September 11, 2018
Was going to run a retro Ravenloft game for this year’s Halloween marathon but have since decided to hang on to that idea for later. At any rate it was fun to read back through the two manuals in the second edition box set, to me this was the pinnacle of the setting in terms of creativity and presentation. One book here focuses on the domains and darklords, and the other on running Ravenloft and rules. You also get a large map and some cards. Solid if not excellent writing, good artwork and good foundation from which to explore the other setting products.
July 5, 2022
I loved revisiting this edition of Ravenloft - it is very nostalgic for me. I grew up playing D&D, but by the time I discovered Ravenloft, I had nobody to play with. That didn't stop me from reading the books. And it still doesn't! Even if you never played RPGs, this is a great resource that can teach you a lot about storytelling: setting, character, and world-building, especially for gothic horror but really any genre that might dip into the darkness. Skip all that new stuff and read how undead beings and psychological terror are truly supposed to be presented in speculative fiction!
November 27, 2022
Improved update of the original Ravenloft boxed set and the Forbidden Lore material, all compiled in one of the beefier, better-value boxed sets of the 2E era. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
January 12, 2019
Jo det är kul grejer.
September 8, 2025
Had fun reading it. No idea if it plays as well, because I'd say its dreadful ;)
February 17, 2014
One of the finest campaign settings ever, it will teaches you how to tell stories (in particular gothic terror stories) in a very easy way. The setting is amazing, full of mistery and drama, without losing the roots in the fantasy.
March 30, 2012
Five for content, but one for writing style evens the book out to a three.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews