But after Keep on the Shadowfell, Wizards went right back to doing it to the broken way they’d been doing it before.) (Most of these problems were solved by Keep on the Shadowfell, which simply keyed the adventure to the tactical encounters. Rather than making it easier for me to find all the information I need, you’ve got me flipping back and forth through the module just trying to orient myself. What happens if the battle with the ghouls goes poorly and the PCs decide to retreat towards the church? Now I’m forced to go back to the adventure key, reorient the encounter within the context of the other geographical features around it, and then flip to delve format presentation of E7 in yet another section of the book.
For example, encounter E6 here takes place just one block away from Barovia’s church, which is encounter E7. Attempting to isolate a tactical encounter from the context in which that tactical encounter occurs, in my opinion, results in a very choppy, ineffective style of play.īut even if you moved that information into the tactical encounter itself, the problem still wouldn’t be solved because encounters shouldn’t be taking place in a physical vacuum. That information is, in my opinion, rather crucial for running the encounter. They are upset by the quick conversion of zombie victims to yet more zombies, but they are so hungry that they consume even the rotting undead. After venturing out of the cemetery (area E8), the ghouls are moving from house to house in search of valuables and still-living creatures. Tactical Encounter: E6: Ghoul Foray on page 38.ĭevelopment: These ghouls are not part of the necromantic infection, but an independent pack of undead taking advantage of the chaos. This encounter takes place the first time the PCs enter this crossroads from any direction. This tends to fatally sabotage the entire point of the delve format to begin with.įor example, take encounter E6 in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft: But in practice, the delve format suffers from two problems:įirst, it artificially isolates the “encounter”. But this isn’t just a matter of growing pains: This kind of “so prepackaged you can just turn off your brain” method of designing encounters has remained a staple of WotC’s adventure design right up through today.Ĭonceptually, there’s one thing I really love about the delve format: Putting everything you need to run an encounter area in the description of the encounter area. Is there a reason why we’re treating modern Dungeon Masters as if they were only barely more competent than an inanimate piece of cardboard?Įxpedition to Castle Ravenloft was one of the earliest adventures to use the “delve format”. If an adjacent character drops to -1 hit points or fewer for any reason, a carcass eater uses its rend fallen ability. A zombie behind a door opens it as part of its first move action.īoth carcass eaters attack the closest PCs. On its turn, each zombie moves from its starting position toward the closest enemy it can attack. Place a figure for Balam in the close circle. Have the players place their figures at the end of the tile, with the single circle closest to them and the other two farther away. Otherwise, the Skeleton moves 1 tile toward the closest hero.Īnd here’s some text from Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (pg. If the Skeleton is within 1 tile of a Hero, it moves adjacent to the closest Hero and attacks that Hero with a charging slice. If the Skeleton is adjacent to a Hero, it attacks that Hero with a scimitar. When a Hero reveals the Laboratory place Klak on the bone pile. Place each Hero on a square adjacent to the stairway on the Start Tile. But let me give you a sampling of the text from the boardgame: (Since you know what the monster will do when presented with a given set of stimuli, you can exert some degree of “control” over them in a semi-prescient fashion.) It’s a relatively simple mechanic which provides some interesting strategic wrinkles. When the monster is activated, it simply follows the program and takes the actions described. Out of necessity, therefore, it is forced to provide a “program” for each monster in the game. The Castle Ravenloft boardgame is a dungeon-crawler without a Dungeon Master. And this has, in turn, forced me to ask a simple question: This has put me in the rather interesting position of comparing all three. As I mentioned a couple days ago, the fun I’ve been having with the Castle Ravenloft board game has recently inspired me to read (or re-read) I6 Ravenloft and Expedition to Castle Ravenloft.