I've always liked Ravenloft -- but this one takes the cake.
I bought the Masque of the Red Death boxed set eons ago when it came out as part of Second Edition AD&D, and liked it, but at the time, my gaming group fell apart (two marriages, two kids and two players moved away out of the group of eight we had) before I could do anything with it.
It sat and mouldered on my shelves.
I just purchased the new version from White Wolf set in 3.0 (but, unless you're no sharper than a bag of wet hair, adaptable to 3.5), and have read it through.
My existing D&D campaign was at a nice stopping point -- they had slain the kraken, freed the town and somehow survived (mostly; we had two fatalities between levels 1 and 11) -- but even were it not, I'd have changed gears for this one.
Deep down, I've felt for years gamers can relate more to more modern systems, but slinging fireballs on modern city streets seemed a little too over-the-top even for fantasy gaming.
But, in the era in which MotRD is set, there is much more leeway.
My players are so very, very screwed. But they'll thank me for it.
Yes, you lose a little resolution to the scanning, but this is the original folio that Gygax, et al, put out those 25-plus years ago. It's still the starting point for any Greyhawk aficionado and is worth getting -- hey, it's four bucks. Come on!
This item is a nice thing on the to-have list, especially since it's really like getting eight or ten modules, depending on how you do it, for four dollars American.
Plus, if you're a collector, it's a lot less hassle than trying to track doen an original.
The content itself -- the nine modules that comprise the compilation -- is excellent, old-school D&D at its best.
