Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2024/10/review-house-of-strahd.html

How many times will the makers of D&D re-do I6 Ravenloft? Well, they show no signs of stopping. House of Strahd brings Ravenloft to, well, Ravenloft.

RM4 House of Strahd

by Tracy and Laura Hickman, with additional material by Bruce Nesmith. Art by Dana Andrews, Clyde Caldwell, James Crabtree, and David C. Sutherland III.

PDF and Print. 64 pages.

For this I am considering the PDF from DriveThruRPG and my original print copy from the 1990s.

This is the original I6 Ravenloft Adventure from 10 years prior. This time the action has moved to the Demi-plane of Dread.

Bruce Nesmith does the "Demi-plane" conversions here which include AD&D 2nd edition conversions, using the fear and horror rules from the Ravenloft boxed set AND the updated Strahd stat block.

Strahd, in I6, was a 10th-level necromancer vampire. Now, he is a 16th-level necromancer.

The text is largely the same as the original I6 but yet it somehow feels like it is "less." I have run Ravenloft many times, and while I have run it using the AD&D 2nd ed rules, I have never used to book save for the updated stat block and some monsters. For lack of anything I can put my finger on, the I6 presentation is vastly superior.

Still I am happy to have both in my collection.

This is the conversion of the classic I6 Ravenloft module from 1st Edition to 2nd Edition, incorporating some of the rules in the Ravenloft boxed sets released to date.

It's largely an excellent adventure. If you liked the original, this is a perfectly fair adaptation to 2nd Ed. It adds fear and horror checks at the appropriate points, provides the more powerful Strahd of the Demiplane of Dread (but also includes options to scale it back to the original), and updates the Fortunes of Ravenloft reading to alternately use the Tarokka Deck provided in the Forbidden Lore boxed set. One of the most notable improvements is the "Strahd's Opportunity" sections, suggesting places and times where the vampire may attack, using his extensive spells or vampiric powers to good effect.

The problems are due to the PDF itself. Unlike the I6 pdf, it (a) does not have the poster map as a single viewable (instead having it cut into individual 8.5"x11" pages), and the text itself is not OCR'd. You can't search the text or copy any of it out.

With those caveats taken into consideration, it's an excellent value for $4.99, but you'll probably want to pick up one of the other versions of Ravenloft (I6, 3rd Edition's Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, or even 5th Edition's Curse of Strahd) or find maps of the castle posted online.

Ordered the POD for it, in my first ever order and was really happy with how things turned out. The pages are crisp and clear and the texts came out perfectly

Reviewing the PoD copy I received. This one is one of the better PoD copies I've gotten from DTRPG, as the text is almost perfect. I really, REALLY wish that we could somehow get professional-level copies of the maps that came in these old modules and box sets, but I understand the limitations. The poster map is at the back of the book, spread across 4 pages, and it's of course not ideal but in this instance, it's there and it looks decent. The module itself fantastic, and it gives you a lot of options for making Strahd your own and giving you options for how he engages with your players. This module's status as a legendary adventure is well-deserved.

Hard to not suggest this for anyone looking to run a Ravenloft/horror campaign. The print quality is higher than most of the PoD copies I've ordered; the module is, despite a few "on-rails" segments, a lot of fun to run and to play. As a nice bonus, the module features the original stats from the module, plus newer "boosted" stats for higher-level/larger parties. I would also suggest this module over the original Ravenloft, unless you just want that one for nostalgia. This is definitely the superior iteration.

ALL MAPS ARE IN THE MODULE ! All maps are in the module ! and IT MAKES ME HAPPY!

No maps? Are you serious? I wanted to run this tonight, and just wasted $5 on a module with no maps... I'm extremely disappointed.

The adventure updates the original I6 to 2nd Ed. The scan of the book has a few wonky pages, and unfortunately the poster maps are missing. It would be difficult to run this adventure without the map of Castle Ravenloft!

It is a great book. I am happy I downloaded it and that I have it now.