Am I the only one who thinks it is kinda sad that a great module, which spawned a great campaign setting has been reduced to a mere board game? Ravenloft is an amazing setting, with so much atmosphere and character, and this is what it's been reduced too? Such a waste.

My guess, and it is only a guess, is that this is a revamped and rebranded version of Avalon Games "Haunted House on the Hill" which is a really unique game (with a few issues) that makes for a really fun night of play. The idea behind Haunted House on the Hill is you area group of cliche archetypes who've gone to the spooky mansion to look around, and then cliche bad things happen. It can be really entertaining, and there is nothing wrong with that. If anything its the Ravenloft brand that risks bringing to much baggage to just a fun, spooky night with friends.

Brakkart, totally agree with you. But Ravenloft is a great setting with AD&D rules, it wouldn´t be the same with 4E rules, that´s the really sad point, like they´re doing with Dark Sun; Shame on WOTC¡¡¡¡
They´re destroying TSR´s legacy, defiling the very esence of these great settings, a huge waste.

I'll order it.

I agree it's not Ravenloft - the module, I don't expect it to be.

I expect it to be a challenging and fun mix between House on Haunted Hill and (Advanced) Hero Quest with fast gameplay and nice miniatures.

I see it more as a Castlevania-esque game though (Dracula but Strahd instead) than pure horror.

@Brakkart & fatelux;

Settlers of Catan isn't the same as taking night classes in The History of Trade.
Playing Roborally isn't going to get you a job designing AI systems.
What's your point?

How about you review the game on its own merits?

It is sad. What also is sad is that Wizards can't find the time to be bothered to make a quality product that can be used for D&D without making you make a horrible face. They don't paint miniatures anymore? I was so excited to see that the set contained 40 miniatures. I was thinking "Surely this is amazing! I can finally get the undead I needed." Then I watched the video and the rage hit hard. Unpainted miniatures. <Insert angry string of incoherency here>

It is sad. What also is sad is that Wizards can't find the time to be bothered to make a quality product that can be used for D&D without making you make a horrible face. They don't paint miniatures anymore? I was so excited to see that the set contained 40 miniatures. I was thinking "Surely this is amazing! I can finally get the undead I needed." Then I watched the video and the rage hit hard. Unpainted miniatures. <Insert angry string of incoherency here>

I've seen a couple people complain about the minis in this game not being painted. I may be missing something or may be uninformed, but what board games DO come with painted minis? My copies of Descent and Spacehulk both came with unpainted minis.. where is this precedent coming from?

Torun Axecleave wrote:

It is sad. What also is sad is that Wizards can't find the time to be bothered to make a quality product that can be used for D&D without making you make a horrible face. They don't paint miniatures anymore? I was so excited to see that the set contained 40 miniatures. I was thinking "Surely this is amazing! I can finally get the undead I needed." Then I watched the video and the rage hit hard. Unpainted miniatures. <Insert angry string of incoherency here>

I've seen a couple people complain about the minis in this game not being painted. I may be missing something or may be uninformed, but what board games DO come with painted minis? My copies of Descent and Spacehulk both came with unpainted minis.. where is this precedent coming from?

I think it is because they are reusing sculpts of DDM minis that were painted, either that or Heroscape. Although I have no problem with them being unpainted personally.

Jam412 wrote:

Torun Axecleave wrote:

It is sad. What also is sad is that Wizards can't find the time to be bothered to make a quality product that can be used for D&D without making you make a horrible face. They don't paint miniatures anymore? I was so excited to see that the set contained 40 miniatures. I was thinking "Surely this is amazing! I can finally get the undead I needed." Then I watched the video and the rage hit hard. Unpainted miniatures. <Insert angry string of incoherency here>

I've seen a couple people complain about the minis in this game not being painted. I may be missing something or may be uninformed, but what board games DO come with painted minis? My copies of Descent and Spacehulk both came with unpainted minis.. where is this precedent coming from?

I think it is because they are reusing sculpts of DDM minis that were painted, either that or Heroscape. Although I have no problem with them being unpainted personally.

I use them for actual D&D not for a board game. They're reusing all the old miniature molds for the pieces in the game, except for that one dragonborn with the axe. I own several of those miniatures painted and I would love to have more painted. I'm not talented at painting otherwise I'd do it myself. I just think Wizards is getting lazier and putting out less than quality products. Look at, for instance, the Heroes set of D&D miniatures in comparison to the old Angelfire or Giants of Legends. The Heroes set (purposed for 4e) have horrible paint jobs. Their eyes I've seen on some are on their cheeks, and yet they cost more than the randomized quality ones.

Okay gotcha, I'm not very familiar with the DDM or Heroscape lines. I was just thinking along the lines of board game standards. Also, welcome to the boards Torun!

I've been reading the forums and buying stuff off this site for a while. Just haven't said anything until I needed to rage about Wizards utter fail.

I played this game at Gen Con, and I was really impressed. It was a great deal of fun, and the comparison to House on Haunted Hill is very apt. I knew immediately upon drawing our scenario (fight a dracolich) that this was not an attempt to represent the original Ravenloft module or campaign setting, and so long as you take that in stride, the game is really fun.

I plan to pick this one up for my personal collection, and I think people who are bagging on it so hard ought to give it a shot before writing it off completely.

It's a really fun game.

I would rather have unpainted minis instead of the price going up $10-15. Board games aren't cheap to produce. The only people who produce anything comparable is Fantasy Flight Games, and they only sell unpainted minis with their board games.

40 painted minis at heroscape prices would be $68. So add on more for boards and cards and rulebooks. At D&D Minis prices it would be even higher.

From what I've seen the game has about the right amount of stuff for its price point in comparison to other board games. If it is half as fun as Betrayal at House on the Hill it will be an excellent game.

Are all of the players co-operative or does one player play the bad guys? Or does one switch half-way through like Betrayal?

It's cooperative. You go around the table, and (almost) every time you explore a new room, a monster is drawn from the monster deck. From that point forward, the player who drew that monster "controls" the monster on his turn (there is no GM). It's an interesting mechanic and very definitely different from D&D, but it's pretty fun for what it is.

I played only one (of I think more than a dozen) scenarios, so while there was no "betrayal" in my session, I suppose such a thing is possible in one of the other ones.

I really enjoyed the cooperative nature of the game. It reminded me of the Lord of the Rings boardgame in that regard, which is a good thing because that game is awesome.

House on Haunted Hill is a horror movie starring Vincent Price (and a subsequent remake).

Betrayal at House on the Hill is the Avalon Hill board game... and Wizards is about to release a new edition of it in October. (In my opinion, it was a great concept with some seriously messed up rules in the original release; Wizards issued some revised rules ( http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/downloads ) and a lengthy errata/FAQ ( http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/faqs/hoth) that helped a lot, but hopefully this new edition will bring it to where it deserves to be.) Interestingly, the new edition does actually come with prepainted plastic minis—but then again, there are only six of them.

Honestly, if Wizards were to put 40 prepainted minis into Castle Ravenloft, I bet they'd have to price it at $80 or more, and I'm sure there are a lot of people already counting it out of their budget at the current $65 price tag. (Having seen the components, I think $65 is a pretty fair price. There are a *lot* of bits here.)

I just played my first game of Ravenloft the boardgame It was fun and seemed a natural extension of where WotC have been taking D&D - it looks like a boardgame, it plays like a boardgame, so it might as well be a boardgame. Much closer to Heroquest and Descent than House on Haunted Hill. Nice sturdy components and lots of them. The minis are a bit of a dissapointment but I believe the reason for them being unpainted is so that each type can be recognised more easily by their colour. I don't know how much replayability there is once you've worked through the given scenarios but I can see this being a hit with youngsters and old hands alike. One of my main gripes about D&D 4E is that it feels too much like playing a baordgame, but now it is one I quite like it!

I just played my first game of Ravenloft the boardgame It was fun and seemed a natural extension of where WotC have been taking D&D - it looks like a boardgame, it plays like a boardgame, so it might as well be a boardgame. Much closer to Heroquest and Descent than House on Haunted Hill. Nice sturdy components and lots of them. The minis are a bit of a dissapointment but I believe the reason for them being unpainted is so that each type can be recognised more easily by their colour. I don't know how much replayability there is once you've worked through the given scenarios but I can see this being a hit with youngsters and old hands alike. One of my main gripes about D&D 4E is that it feels too much like playing a baordgame, but now it is one I quite like it!

What he said!

Played it, loved it, want more (Ashardalon!!).