Into The Dark - A Brief History Of Ravenloft

Tracy Hickman came across a Vampire in a early game of Dungeons and Dragons, and felt something felt very wrong. Why was something as powerful as vampire a random encounter? Vampires are seductive characters, in fact, they are usually the powers behind stories, rather than cannon (sword?) fodder. Tracy spoke about this on the official D&D podcast.

“Where did you come from” he mused “You’re a vampire, for cryin’ out loud! You should have an enormous castle and an entire setting built around you.”

Hickman began to ponder this random encounter, originally creating the game “Vampyr” that Tracy and his wife Laura would playtest with friends and family throughout the Halloween season, until releasing it in October 1983 as the Dungeon Module 16: Ravenloft for TSR. This publication unleashed upon the world the classic setting of Castle Ravenloft.

The Castle is a highly complex dungeon, located in the village of Barovia (or the plane in the multiverse, depending on how you want to look at it), replacing the high-fantasy tropes of Dragonlance for a Gothic Horror atmosphere with the adventure packed to the rafters with such themes. In order to address the thematic shift, Ravenloft presented a modular story that changed beats and structure with each playing, with the DM setting up key elements of the adventure before the game began, or using the random generator that was Madam Eva, The Fortune Teller

Then, awaiting in the shadows in the antagonistic shape of Strahd Von Zarovich. No mere dungeon boss or final challenge, Strahd is a fully formed character with goals (and the means to achieve them), He constantly has the upper hand, and swoops in to attack and torment the party at any given time, thus giving every adventure an unsettling, paranoid feeling. The original module actually holds a full page on how to run Strahd as expertly as the players ran their own characters, as he was no crazed, evil bloodthirsty Necromancer or Dragon, but a fully-formed tragic player in his own right. Strahd is loaded with pathos, which fuels each and every monstrous act he commits. As the adventure continues, the tale of von Zarovich unfolds, revealing how his obsessions cursed him forever

It has been more than thirty years since the original publication of Ravenloft, and the setting is still highly regarded today. The captivating villain, the mist shrouded lands and the modular tale created an iconic module that still sees the dust being blown of it's covers as a Halloween tradition. Ravenloft has been placed on multiple lists as at least as one of the best modules for D&D of all time, if not taking the top spot. However, when 2nd Edition began to rise it's head, the Count began to also make plans for a reappearance.

2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons leaned into the Multiverse concept like there was no tomorrow, with these modules and smaller stories into fully fleshed settings, filling each with flavour and choices for running campaigns, with Ravenloft becoming the de-facto horror setting. The Mists of Ravenloft blew throughout the Multiverse, calling to dark and twisted hearts, and stealing them away to The Demi-plane of Dread, ruled over by abstract entities of evil named The Dark Powers. These beings hold absolute power in Ravenloft, corrupting all to evil and turning evil into monstrous.

This new setting offered long time players a very different experience to the well trodden worlds of Greyhawk, or Forgotten Realms. All that entered were strangers in a strange land, beset at every angle, outmatched and ill-equipped from the get-go. Unlike in the more established settings, death was not the worst that could happen as the players could very easily become the evil that they set out to destroy.

The setting endured throughout 2nd Edition, and when Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR and set about the release of 3rd Edition D&D, Ravenloft began to fade into the background. WotC licenced White Wolf, the design studio behind Vampire: The Masquerade, who updated Ravenloft to 3rd Ed, but it was a decade before Ravenloft made a new appearance with the fittingly named Curse of Strahd

The Curse takes the setting back to the beginning, with Tracy and Laura Hickman guiding the players through the Mist into Barovia, adding new depths of lore and a wealth of information that both admitted to wishing they could have done with the original release. The Count himself is woven into the very fabric of the setting, with each place, person and prize connects to Strahd in some manner. The Count is cursed, and so each place he steps, each body he touches and every trinket he grasps shall also be likewise cursed.

Have you played any of the Ravenloft settings? If so, please let us know about your adventures and tell us your tales!