Thursday, July 14, 2011
The Ads of Dragon: Ravenloft
Issue #78 came out in October 1983 and contained the following ad obviously that used the month's association with Halloween to its advantage:
My qualms about Ravenloft to the contrary, it's a very well-done advertisement, even if it shows that extent to which D&D in 1983 was casting off its origins. At the time, though, I didn't much care and I was very excited about this upcoming release. Whatever one's feelings about the module -- and the change it heralded -- you've got to give the marketing at TSR some credit in crafting something that grabbed one's attention.
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And $6 was so expensive! I could get two paperbacks for that price, with something left over.
ReplyDeleteI remember this ad. I knew this was a module I had to get and I was not disappointed.
ReplyDeleteToday I still like it, I just like to run it with systems other than AD&D like True20 or Unisystem.
As a kid I was shocked by the cover of Castlevania 2 which brazenly plagiarizes the cover of Ravenloft. http://www.castlevaniadungeon.net/Images/Scans/CV2/box-cv2.jpg
ReplyDeleteKids are more sensitive about these things.
Played the hell out of Catslevania. Hadn't still picked up a copy of Ravenloft. Homebrew enthusiast.
ReplyDeleteHeh. Behind the scenes at old TSR, this was a major thing for the designers, as it was an ad for an adventure module (as opposed to, say, a campaign or rule set), and was done in-house. Designer Tracy Hickman was deeply involved (up to providing the header and text) in making this happen.
ReplyDeleteJones, Konami did this again with the cover of Metal Gear, which features Solid Snake... or is it a shot of Michael Biehn from The Terminator?
ReplyDeleteLoved this module and still do. For a somewhat-scripted adventure, it's exceptionally well done.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why the ad (as opposed to the module) shows D&D casting off its origins. It seems to have always had a strong horror movie influence.
ReplyDeleteEven after all this time whenever someone says 'vampire' to me, this is the first image that pops into my head...
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why the ad (as opposed to the module) shows D&D casting off its origins.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm reading too much into it ex post facto, but the ad strikes me as both very focused on a pet NPC -- Strahd -- which is quite different than most earlier modules, where there were antagonists, yes, even memorable ones, but they weren't what sold the module.
Ravenloft: a module I remember with great fondness, though I never had the opportunity to either play or run it (though I still dream from time to time). Unlike most of my other RPG purchases, I read this one cover to cover several times.
ReplyDeleteWhen they first appeared I thought the Hickman adventures were a quantum leap forward in terms of adventure modules. In many ways, this adventure and the somewhat earlier I3: Pharaoh, still represent for me masterpieces of adventure design.
On a peripherally related note, I was quite surprised to discover on the latest trip to my FLGS (Toronto’s Legends Warehouse, formerly Sci-Fi World) that in the new “Essentials” re-envisioning of 4E (a topic about which I’m still quite ambivalent) the Shadowfell – which as a dark echo of the mortal world was an idea I thoroughly liked – has suddenly morphed into a new version of Ravenloft, complete with Domains of Dread and Darklords. Not a development I expected or really wanted, even though I always liked “Ravenloft” as a campaign-setting concept.