Ravenloft Reading Room - Series Announcement
Hello, new friends. For those of you that are brand new, my name is Aboleth Eye, and I welcome you all to my Reading Room. Here we collect, dissect and digest all the wondrous writings set in our favorite gothic fantasy setting--Ravenloft!
As an eldritch abomination with fathomless lore trapped in my head, I decided to share some of my thoughts with you all; rather than seek power and world domination through an eldritch cult of tabletop roleplaying nerds. (Maybe next year?)
Here in the Ravenloft Reading Room--these special posts that will probably be interjected between the Second Arc recaps--I am challenging myself to read the novels of Ravenloft. As well as any other Ravenloft publications that pique my interest. Or that you lovely viewers wish me to look at. I will give my honest opinions on what stories they had to tell, and maybe what lessons or inspiration you can take from them in your own writing journeys.
But first, let's talk a bit about my journey just to get here...
When I was first getting into Dungeons & Dragons around 2012, I read a PDF copy of the 3.5 edition module "Expedition to Castle Ravenloft" (2006 from Wizards of the Coast, designed/written by Bruce R. Cordell and James Wyatt).
I was still learning how to run games myself at the time, and experiencing some hard knocks firsthand. The huge array of files my first Dungeon Master gave me allowed me to explore how adventures could be run. Learning from the "masters" kinda.
But as soon as I started with this module it felt different. I devoured the module, reading it almost like a choose your own adventure, imaging the possibilities I could evoke.
The module is objectively huge at over 220 pages. So seeing how dense and meaty the setting it laid out was, I realized I was not prepared to run a truly canon setting as of yet. (It's fine though, I've gotten quite good at homebrew settings since then).
But I had never heard of Ravenloft in all my college gaming group's chats. So I looked into Ravenloft, and boy was I surprised. Surprised that there was an entire demiplane of dreadful villains, arcane horrors, Dark Powers and gothic madness to explore. Pockets of entire lands, dragged to this strange amalgamate plane by the despicable acts of one singular person per land.
The realm of Ravenloft as I experienced it was all mostly published by Sword and Sorcery Studios, a part of White Wolf working with D&D's the open gaming license to create new settings, adventures, etc. And Ravenloft was their crown jewel. Barovia, as it turns out, was not the be-all for the entire setting; there were pockets of terror blossoming out like petals from it. And from the S&S Ravenloft came novels!
I began to devour the Mistipedia/Fraternity of Shadows wiki for all the juicy lore collected by fan readers, writers and homebrewers. I also scoured the internet for more PDFs and fan content. I learned about the wider scope of storytelling (and tabletop roleplaying) Ravenloft could have, and I wanted to taste it all.
So, getting out of college and living on my own at the time, I started buying some of the Ravenloft paperback novels online. Thank you, Ebay. I purchased and read three, since their domains and Darklords seemed interesting to me:
- "Dance of the Dead" by Christie Golden
- "Carnival of Fear" by J. Robert King
- "Mordenheim" by Chet Williamson
The novels were pretty surprising. I had read of the realms through the bird's eye view of a Dungeon Master-slash-Fan Wiki Goblin. But the narratives at play within a Ravenloft novel were a whole new experience. None of the other canon settings excited me enough to read their novels or comics (e.g. Greyhawk, Dragonlance, etc..
So it was these Ravenloft stories that shaped my perception on what narratives were like for ttrpg setting novels.
Ravenloft has been a dream setting for me to tell stories in ever since. I just never believed I had the skills to run it the way I wanted to. (With the 3.5 expanded rules and such). And my current singular game group at the time just wouldn't be interested in a horror setting. I tried in the past and it wasn't bad, but it was definitely not their favorite genre. Some people want to play D&D to escape the horrors of reality, and I am the same way most times.
Last year I had the privilege to run a whole adventure arc set in the plane, in the domain of Dementlieu. I just randomly looked at an AD&D/2nd edition monster booklet and just knew when the story called out to me.
You can read all about the campaign here on the blog. Though to be frank the story that inspired this renaissance of Ravenloft is actually only starting in the second arc that is to come, but the first arc is amazing all on its own!
But in the years between my fervor for Ravenloft content and devouring many other great series, my palate for fantasy writing has changed. My standards have evolved from consuming other genres, trilogies of young adult novels and so much more.
And so, as an experiment I am going to dive back into the classic Ravenloft novels and read the ones I missed out on. I was able to collect my original set of Ravenloft novels over the 2023/2024 holidays back home, and purchased a huge swath of some I didn't have.
Here we are now, my friends! As we cross the halfway mark of February, I'm gathering my books together with a plan in mind! I am going to read through my current collection (many for the first time) and will share my thoughts with you. I will discuss the plot premise without spoilers, the domains the story is set within, additional research I with gather, and my thoughts on how successful or good the book was in my opinion.
And, what better way to start this series than with the first Ravenloft novel set in the classic S&S canon!
That's right, my friends! We are reading "Vampire of the Mists" by Christie Golden!
Let us dive into the realm of Ravenloft through the viewpoint of the mysterious outlander Jander Sunstar! No spoilers please, lol!
Stay tuned, my friends!