Castle Ravenloft Adventure – Hunt For The Fiend

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walmart-dungeons-amp-dragons-castle-ravenloft-board-game[1]By Superfly Pete

Well, as promised, I am releasing my Castle Ravenloft Campaign, “Hunt for the Fiend”, which is the proof-of-concept design that will show you, by example, how to build compelling adventures to extend the lifespan of the Dungons and Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game.

Within is an indication of the level of complexity, scalability, and narrative feel that you can very easily add into the game without changing the “core game” rules.  Others have opted to rewrite the rules to the game, effectively obsoleting the included rulebook and reference cards. I believe this to be a barrier to entry for new players as well as causing paradoxes with existing players who already know Ravenloft and how to play it.

While it’s fun to design and play your own version of a game, this 3-adventure narrative campaign seems the best way to increase the complexity of the game without breaking it by changing the core rules. The fact is that the game was designed to fill a certain gap in the market, the light dungeon crawl, and by changing the order of actions, the allowable actions per turn, and any other factor, the game slowly inches away from the core concept of being an easily accessible light dungeon crawl. I consciously chose to leave the core alone and just work within the confines of the adventure rules themselves.

I do not wish to hear about “balance” in this campaign, because the fact is that what separates a good game from a great game is the ability for the game to throw you curveballs and “Kobiyashi Maru” moments that are exciting, engaging, and most importantly, memorable. I’ve done my level best to make this very difficult, although winnable, and virtually the entire campaign is scalable based on the number of players.

Without further delay, I am quite proud to offer you this campaign for your enjoyment: http://www.box.net/shared/11dyod630i

 

One Response

  1. PMM says:

    This is super! It’s rare that you get a game that can be extended without buying a full expansion. User mods have been the norm for PC Video Games for quite a few years. It’s fantastic that there are now board games that can be enhanced and extended by User Mods. I look forward to cranking my friends through this campaign in a week or so when we meet for board game day. Thank you!

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