Some of you may be wondering what all this Ravenloft nonsense is about when you find yourselves on the games page. Well, I've dug up some pictures that might help explain it. Back when I was living in Kalamazoo, Michigan in the early to mid 80s, my parents bought me the red box D&D Basic set (despite warnings from church officials that it would make me a devil worshiper). Some friends of mine down the street where into D&D and I wanted to be into it as well. One of the favorite modules among these guys was Ravenloft written by Tracy and Laura Hickman. It is basically a Dracula ripoff with some D&D action in it. Instead of Dracula you have Count Strahd Von Zarovich, who any good DM can turn into an unforgettable villain. The first Ravenloft was so successful that it spawned a sequel aptly titled Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill. Which was basically a rehash of the first one.

As the years progressed and PC games became more prevalent, a game company called SSI picked up the rights to TSR D&D modules and began putting out what is now called The Gold Box Games. Some of these games included Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Death Knights of Krynn, Eye of the Beholder, and other very nerdly titles. However, no sign of a PC Ravenloft. But then, SSI finally realized their error and released Strahd's Possession, which went on to do very well, and, along with Lucasarts first iteration of X-Wing and the Ancient Anguish MUD, managed to keep me out of my college classes all too often. Strahd's Possession did well enough to garner its own sequel Stone Prophet, which did not do as well and the series quickly died on PC along with the entire role-playing genre.

In the world of D&D, however, Ravenloft continued to thrive and became its own "realm" joining the ranks of the other big realms, namely Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Darksun, Planescape and several others. The Ravenloft realm was typically not one we played much in college due to the ability to come out of an adventure several levels less than when you went started. The world of Ravenloft is well stocked with level-draining vampires and undead. Sometime last year the 3rd Edition rules were released and D&D nerds the world round rejoiced. I have not sat down to play a game of D&D since my early days in college, but I would secretly flip through the 3rd Ed Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide in stores when Kim was not looking. As an aside, she later bought them both for me. There is a 3rd Edition Ravenloft sourcebook coming out as well.

When Bioware and Interplay released Baldur's Gate on Christmas Eve 1998, the RPG genre was reborn in PC. Yes, I'm aware that Blizzard released Diablo in 1996, but it was more of an action game and did not pave the way for the hardcore story-heavy RPGs that followed after Baldur's Gate's release. So Bioware rode the wave of success with Baldur's Gate and released Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, Icewind Dale, and the expansion for Baldur's Gate II, The Throne of Bhaal. Bioware has Icewind Dale II coming out soon. SSI has since lost the D&D license and there is no sign of a new Ravenloft release.

When I first began to hear about Bioware's Neverwinter Nights and the promise to include a DM toolset to craft and run your own adventures, the first thing I did was to email one of my old DMs from college and have him mail me my bag of D&D stuff. The first module that popped into my head to do was Ravenloft. So, there it is...a not so brief history on why I decided to do Ravenloft first. After a second Beta test, I am happy to announce that the game is quite playable and I am currently running a party through the Beta build. It will be finished soon.