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.
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.
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.
@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.
