Curse of Strahd

I have a theory that when doing a cover version, reboot, remake, or retelling, it's best to choose something that had good potential but which was significantly flawed in the implementation. If you remake a classic, you have the problem that even if you do everything right, you'll almost certainly end up with something that is as good, but without the originality.

"I6: Ravenloft" is a classic D&D adventure. It is one of, if not the, greatest D&D adventures of all time. Heck, it's one of the best RPG adventures of all time. So the team at WotC were really up against it when trying to remake this. (On the other hand, they practically had to - Ravenloft is one of very few D&D adventures to exist in some form in all the 'main' editions, assuming you count the boardgame as the 4e version. So there's tradition to consider...)

The result is a fine, fine adventure. But it's just not as good as the original, on two counts. The first is simply lack of originality - Ravenloft already had a lot of Dracula about it, and this version cleaves much closer to the original than some of the ones in other editions. That may not be a bad thing for people who haven't seen the original, but for those of us who have...

The second weakness (for me) was one of sheer length. The original module is a densely-packed 32 pages. This version is a slightly less dense 256 pages. Of this, the biggest chapter is Castle Ravenloft itself, which is very close to the contents of the original module. That leaves a hundred pages of extra material that, while good, feels significantly bloated. Quite a bit of it feels like it exists to pad things out and, in particular, to let the PCs build up levels before they start the 'real' adventure. (Of course, part of that is inherent in using a level-based game to tell a story like this. 3rd level PCs can't stand against the BBEG, so there's a need to get them to a point where they can. But, honestly, I think I'd be inclined just to start them a bit higher in level and cut the padding.)

Don't get me wrong - there's an awful lot of good material here. But there's too much that feels extraneous. (Though, ironically, in the past I've complained about 4e adventures having no extra material, leaving only the critical path and thus being a railroad. Hopefully, there's a happy medium there somewhere.)

All in all, I'll recommend this one quite highly - especially to anyone who hasn't experienced the original. In my opinion it's the second-best 5e storyline to date, behind only "Out of the Abyss" (and it doesn't have the big weaknesses of that storyline's climax, which is good). It's just not as good as the original. On the other hand, I'm very much looking forward to WotC's next effort, because the trend definitely seems to be upwards.

One last thing: the binding on my copy has already started to weaken after only a single read-through and no at-table use at all. That's really very poor.