First 2 reviews (c) the Dragon's Hoard, followed by a rebuttal from me. Then we have 2 more reviews from Chua Hak Lien This review set includes reviews of: Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium Touch of Death Night of the Walking Dead Bane of the Shadowborn (a Ravenloft adventure from Dungeon #31) Info from the Dragon's Hoard Electronic Magazine. The following are not my opinions, and may be at odds with my opinions but are offered up as a sample of what I hope to see on RL-L. MC10 - MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM: RAVENLOFT APPENDIX Accessory 6.99 Contents: 64 looseleaf pages 4 dividers The RAVENLOFT setting is one of the most interesting that TSR have come up with for the AD&D game, and while being a completely new idea in itself, it has a great deal of material on which to draw, in the form of gothic novels, Hammer horror films and a whole host of 50s B-movies. This product does quite a good job of combining the uniqueness of the RAVENLOFT world with the background sources from which it came. All the things you might expect are here - more lycanthropes, aquatic fish-monsters from the deep, seductive but deadly things that look like women, and a whole sectio on Vampires, including Vampires of various demi-human races, including Kender vampires! The broad nature of the campaign is shown by the fact that Mummy comes soon after Madman, but strangly enough these entirely different horror genres do not seem incongruous when placed together. In short, this appendix gives much as you would expect - a wide variety of nasties, interspersed with a few benign creatures, all of which would fit fairly easily into a running RAVENLOFT campaign. If you're running such a campaign then it would be improved by you buying this accessory. If you're running a normal campaign. you could manage just as well without it. RA3 - TOUCH OF DEATH by Bruce Nesmith Module 6.95 Contents: book (32 pages) cover screen This module is pitifully thin, in several senses. RAVENLOFT material published so far has been slick and sophisticated, with clever plot twists and well-developed NPCs, which makes the simply hack-and-slay plot presented in this greatly underdeveloped module all the more disappointing. It would take agreat deal of DM research and expansion to make this module something more thana mummy hunt. The artwork is good, something common to all RAVENLOFT products so far,but that does not save the module. The Egyptian settings could be played up much more, and while there is a town setting, there is precious little for the PCs to do there except kill inhabitants. The only advantage this product has is that it is for low-level characters, and thus would serve as a good way of breaking players in gently to a RAVENLOFT campaign, and could even serve as an interesting, totally different one-off adventure for players bored with more "mundane" adventure settings. ------ FROM LEE-- NOTE: DO NOT let the review of Touch of Death scare you away from buying this module. It is for low level characters. If you have the Dark Lords set then you could easily use the Dark Lord of Har'Akir to juice things up, turning mummies into greater mummies etc. It's very flexible, as like many of the other Ravenloft adventures, the plot is what's important and not how many HD the beasties have. Well played this would add something to the flavor of a campaign that had too many gothic castles and not enough variety. ---------- From: c9e-al@danube.berkeley.edu (Chua Hak Lien) A couple of reviews pertaining to Ravenloft adventures.... ( You don't have to agree with them. I haven't run these scenarios, and am interested from hearing anyone who has.. ) *=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=* RQ1: _Night_Of_The_Living_Dead_ By Bill Slavicsek [ For 4-6 players, levels 1-3 ] [ 32 pages - US $6.95 ] This is an introductory level module. The players are transported to Ravenloft to avert a zombie invasion of a Vishanti village. Anticlimaxes, swamp beasts, ancient prophecies, red herrings and of course, zombies all figure in the plot. ( To say more would be telling.... ) The storyline is pretty rigid, with one series of events pretty much following one another, no matter what the PC's do. Some interesting set encounters and situations here, but experienced PC's may find the adventure a cinch if the module is played as is. ( No, this module doesn't have much to do with the movie of the same name... ) Pluses *=-=-=-=* Some good NPC development here. I'd think this is particularly important for the Ravenloft setting, to generate a feel of real individuals caught in strange circumstances. Stock characters should be avoided in such settings. A complete village. Useful for lazy DM's like me. Good artwork. The cover by Robh Ruppel is appropriately gruesome, while Stephen Fabian manages to convey the dark atmosphere of the setting in his interior artwork. Minuses *=-=-=-=* Poor proofreading, as usual. For example, one of the creatures has a damage listing of 2-4/2-4, while later we are told that it has "two attacks per round, 2d4 damage each". This adventure probably could fit into 20-22 pages if it were published in Dungeon, as it is in your typically LARGE Ravenloft type, complete with the wide grey borders on every page. Lots of wasted space here. Overall *=-=-=-=* A fairly interesting module, and a good introduction to the Ravenloft setting. Suitable for an afternoon's worth of gaming. Three skulls ( Out of five skulls ). *=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=* _Bane_Of_The_ShadowBorn_ ( From Dungeon #31 ) By William W. Connors [ For 4-6 players - Levels 6-9 ] [ 21 pages - Dungeon costs $3.75 ] Written by the designer of the Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium, this Ravenloft adventure is the first one I've seen in Dungeon. The players find themselves transported to a manor house in Ravenloft, and have to conquer the malevolent evil within in order to find their way back. But they are not alone in their battle against this entity. Within their adversary's domain is a force of good that will aid the party... ( just a little ). Basically a dungeon-crawl adventure, the players try to find clues about the nature of the realm, and how the foe can be defeated. This adventure is more suitable for problem-solvers, and there is not enough to interest players who prefer role-playing situations. Pluses *=-=-=-=* An interesting villain, though readers of heroic fantasy will spot the inspiration for it right away. Minuses *=-=-=-=* As above, problem-solvers will have a nice time playing in this. Not getting some of the clues is fatal, and while the puzzles aren't that hard to figure out, the players have to be really careful in finding out what the solution refers to. Else, it's Doomsville.... Overall *=-=-=-=* Worth getting, if only because of the unusual antagonist. Two skulls and a broken collar-bone ( Out of five skulls ). *=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=* Chua ==== "Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who Before us pass'd the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us of the Road, Which to discover we must travel too." - The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerald ( tra. ) *=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=*