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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition
Carnival: Ravenloft Accessory:
Mysterious Carnival rolls into town from out of the Mists, where it astounds, entertains, and occasionally repulses the locals for a while before disappearing again.
This eerie sideshow is an infamous feature of the Demiplane of Dread, yet Carnival can appear and inspire dread in any AD&D(r) campaign looking for a little horror to spice it up.
Includes the freakish inhabitants of the traveling sideshow, adventure hooks, and rules for turning player characters into terrifying freaks if they linger too long among the tents and wagons of Carnival.
Freak show or sanctuary?
It's all a matter of perspective when you're at Carnival.
A carnival offers a glimpse of abnormal and unnatural things most genteel folk never talk about, much less see. This carnival is not a simple sideshow, though, and its performers are far more than freaks on display.
Carnival is a wandering haven for those who have no place else to go - including adventurers who made enemies of the wrong people.
Under the protection of its mysterious mistress Isolde, it offers refuge to those rejected by the world.
Outcasts and lost souls of all kinds can find solace here, and sometimes even a second chance at life... but nothing at Carnival comes without a price.
This accessory draws back the curtain on dark secrets that will enrich any AD&D campaign with a touch of the bizarre and horrific.
Included are over a dozen richly detailed NPCs, details on "the price" that Carnival exacts from those who travel with it, and story seeds to lure unsuspecting heroes into a web of mystery and trickery.
This eerie sideshow is an infamous feature of the Demiplane of Dread, yet Carnival can appear and inspire dread in any AD&D(r) campaign looking for a little horror to spice it up.
Includes the freakish inhabitants of the traveling sideshow, adventure hooks, and rules for turning player characters into terrifying freaks if they linger too long among the tents and wagons of Carnival.
Freak show or sanctuary?
It's all a matter of perspective when you're at Carnival.
A carnival offers a glimpse of abnormal and unnatural things most genteel folk never talk about, much less see. This carnival is not a simple sideshow, though, and its performers are far more than freaks on display.
Carnival is a wandering haven for those who have no place else to go - including adventurers who made enemies of the wrong people.
Under the protection of its mysterious mistress Isolde, it offers refuge to those rejected by the world.
Outcasts and lost souls of all kinds can find solace here, and sometimes even a second chance at life... but nothing at Carnival comes without a price.
This accessory draws back the curtain on dark secrets that will enrich any AD&D campaign with a touch of the bizarre and horrific.
Included are over a dozen richly detailed NPCs, details on "the price" that Carnival exacts from those who travel with it, and story seeds to lure unsuspecting heroes into a web of mystery and trickery.
64 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1999
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October 6, 2022Perhaps the last TSR-published item with the Ravenloft logo -- though note that little text on the front that declares this good for any campaign setting, which was how they tried to get more people to buy some of these late-period Ravenloft products. Given that it was at the end of the run, when print-runs historically went down, it shouldn't be too surprising that this is one of the rarer and more expensive Ravenloft products on the second-hand market -- Noble Knight has it listed for $195! But is it worth it?
No, what the heck would be worth that? But is it worth reading the pdf (currently on sale for $2.99)?
Again, and more in sadness than in anger -- but with a little anger -- no, not really. Ever since there were carnivals, there were dark carnivals full of scary freaks; and sanctuary carnivals, where freaks could gather and maybe have community. This is a bit of both: there's a carnival and if you spend too much time there, you undergo a freakish change; but most of the freaks here are actually good and supportive. And there's a shadowy ringmaster and a potential usurper, but which one is evil?
This sort of falls out of a tree and hits every branch on the way down: the carnival performers are pretty ordinary for the setting; there's stuff here about how to use this as a campaign, but I don't see it; I don't see how you would use this as is for an adventure; the info is presented as if you were hearing from one of the carnival members, with game text in blocks, which gives this an unnecessary bloat; and it doesn't feel very Ravenloft-y, but it also doesn't feel very generic.
Maybe I might return to this to get my $3 worth, but I don't see it.
So with all that said, here's some wrap-up on Ravenloft:
> There were so many adventures and so many elements repeat (like usurper vs. Darklord)
> It makes some sense that all these adventures takes place in a special realm with its own metaphysics, to explain why no one casts _detect evil_ or why people don’t leave, but
> I think trying to make this a coherent demiplane with lots of domains doesn't work, and that a better approach would've been to think of each of these as a pocket domain that could ensnare the PCs or even invade the world, which would give definite stakes to why you have to defeat this vampire/werewolfetc. In other words, take a lesson from the OSR adventure _Halls of the Blood King_.
> A lot of the art is still great.
No, what the heck would be worth that? But is it worth reading the pdf (currently on sale for $2.99)?
Again, and more in sadness than in anger -- but with a little anger -- no, not really. Ever since there were carnivals, there were dark carnivals full of scary freaks; and sanctuary carnivals, where freaks could gather and maybe have community. This is a bit of both: there's a carnival and if you spend too much time there, you undergo a freakish change; but most of the freaks here are actually good and supportive. And there's a shadowy ringmaster and a potential usurper, but which one is evil?
This sort of falls out of a tree and hits every branch on the way down: the carnival performers are pretty ordinary for the setting; there's stuff here about how to use this as a campaign, but I don't see it; I don't see how you would use this as is for an adventure; the info is presented as if you were hearing from one of the carnival members, with game text in blocks, which gives this an unnecessary bloat; and it doesn't feel very Ravenloft-y, but it also doesn't feel very generic.
Maybe I might return to this to get my $3 worth, but I don't see it.
So with all that said, here's some wrap-up on Ravenloft:
> There were so many adventures and so many elements repeat (like usurper vs. Darklord)
> It makes some sense that all these adventures takes place in a special realm with its own metaphysics, to explain why no one casts _detect evil_ or why people don’t leave, but
> I think trying to make this a coherent demiplane with lots of domains doesn't work, and that a better approach would've been to think of each of these as a pocket domain that could ensnare the PCs or even invade the world, which would give definite stakes to why you have to defeat this vampire/werewolfetc. In other words, take a lesson from the OSR adventure _Halls of the Blood King_.
> A lot of the art is still great.
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