So I’ve been thinking as a Spooky Halloween thing sometime over the next few days of re-reading this antique I have in my TTRPG collection and maybe blathering on about it.
The Vistani (literally “g*psies” in the original) would be an offensive stereotype if they weren’t a one dimensional plot widget.
Then we get to the castle. There’s a very old school mechanism for keeping PCs from straight up leaving; but there’s also a feast with (an illusory) Strahd where you can just talk to the dude. There’s a living tower with a beating heart which is awesome but which doesn’t do anything. There’s a Barovian turned vampire maid which is a missed chance for interesting RP.
and now I'm *cue first notes of Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor* BECK! TO KESTLE RAVENLOFT! BUAHAHA!
Okay so there's a covey of milspec human witches with black cats brewing potions, high in the tower. This flavorless encounter is balanced by Strahd's cannibalistic, insane but still human servant crouching hunched in the larders. Down we go, deeper into the crypts, where PCs face some kinda mechanistic monsters and traps - and might get isolated off to face Strahd himself.
Lower are literally thousands of bats which are basically noncombatant but can foul spellcasting, which feels cool and thematic. The detail given each sarcophagus' treasures and possible undead, feels very D&D, the swap-adventurers-for-wights trap is a potential TPK.
Lessee, a Gothy ending where Sergei von Zarovich and Ireena wander off to be happily dead together, leaving the PCs to worry about things like "hey, did we just get a free castle," items which could help the PCs defeat Strahd, and some monster stats. Eh.
So in summary; the original Ravenloft module is simultaneously bland and inspiring. As is the module would be a slightly Universal-Hammer flavored dungeon crawl, but it's so thematic and cool that anyone who'd run it would try to riff off what's *there* to try and make something truly cool, exactly what's happened in every D&D edition since. That cover art and map only helps this along.
Keep in mind I haven't actually played, run or even read Curse of Strahd. Wouldn't it be cool to have the players face Strahd at low levels, have him wipe the floor with them before bowing and with a mocking smile declare he appreciates their potential, before vanishing before the approaching dawn, set him up as the archvillain starting out? Wouldn't it be awesome to befriend the Vistani and have them provide aid? That village could be potentially full of cultists, werewolves and other informants, some whom would gladly betray the vampire to steal his power. What horrific entity granted Strahd his undeath? Are its servitors still around? Is it lurking under the castle? This is very 5e, but might a warlock PC decide to bargain with it as a new patron?
@Leucrotta A living tower with a beating heart that does nothing? That's a missed opportunity the way the Grand Canyon is a pothole.
@eredien There are significant things all over Ravenloft - Strahd's diary, a sword which can destroy him, a magic icon - so it seems really *weird* that none of them are in that tower. It's not even Strahd's heart - we have no clue why the tower's that way, at least not yet. Something that awesome should have significance.
@Leucrotta I would read spoopy Ravenloft stories.
OG Ravenloft so far is a mixed bag. Strahd’s goal is randomized as are card readings to point characters at useful stuff; very cool! The writers want to rush you to Schloss Ravenloft, which is The Good Part, so Barovia and the Vistani camp are mechanical and rushed; I can see why everyone since has wanted to do more outside the castle first. It’s like watching 2 minutes of a Hammer movie.