Halloween is definitely not as popular over here as it is in the US, but I just had the thought running a horror-themed roleplaying game in the days around the end of October could be a fun thing to do. Last weekend I installed Ravenloft: Strahd’s Possession on my PC and played it for a couple of hours basking in nostalgia while cursing the wonky controls and way too fast combat. So it’s only natural that the idea to run a Ravenloft game slowly formed in my brain.
I own both the original Ravenloft module for 1E as well as two of the boxed sets TSR relased for 2E: Ravenloft – Realm of Terror and Ravenloft Campaign Setting. I also faintly remember that I picked up the Ravenloft Campaign Setting for D&D 3rd Edition, but I couldn’t find it on my shelf yesterday. So it’s probably easier to rely on the AD&D 1E and 2E material I have in digital form.
There’s only one problem: I don’t like AD&D 2nd Edition that much, and I don’t think I have a copy of the AD&D 1st Edition rules. Since it’s 2017 I could probably use one of the many available retro-clones from Swords & Wizardy to Lamentations of the Flame Princess to run a Ravenloft game, but I am actually not sure how easily I could pull this off. From what I understand most of the D&D simulacra I’ve played in the past are based on Basic D&D and older editions.
I am pretty sure there are people much more familiar with D&D in all its iterations among my readers, so I hope you can help me out a bit. How hard would it be to run Ravenloft with – let’s say – Swords & Wizardry, or are there any other retro-clone better suited for the task? Any advice in this matter is highly appreciated!
Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperboria for a easy conversion. It’s a cleaned up 1st a d&d.
swords and wizardry works with pretty much everything with some tinkering.
Lamentations characters might not be powerful enough spell eise to survive without some spell list upgrades
Thanks. I actually didn’t know that Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea was 1E-based. You never stop learning new stuff!
Use Labyrinth Lord and it’s Andvanced Edition Companion. That’s effectively AD&D (but presented in a much cleaner, understandable package).
Thanks for the advice!
Or you download OSRIC, the 1e clone
I ran the original 1E module with BECMI years ago. I had a slightly higher level range for PCs (6th to 8th) and it ran really well.
There is also the White Box Gothic for Sword & Wizardry that you may want to look at. I don’t own it, but seems right up the alley for Ravenloft inspired fun!
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/200487/White-Box-Gothic-Swords–Wizardry?src=hottest_filtered&coverSizeTest=true
Haha! I just noticed that I actually own this as well…
Fantastic Heroes and Witchery might also work. Here is the link to the free version of the pdf. http://www.dcrouzet.net/heroes-witchery/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Fantastic-Heroes-Witchery_screen-2.0.pdf
Thanks! Great idea!
My recommendation would be Fantastic Heroes & Witchery, streamlined 1e and more. There’s a free PDF although it’s not indexed, but good enough to start with.
http://www.dcrouzet.net/heroes-witchery/