I did forget that one! Yes, you're right. I flicked through it in the shop, but it didn't vibe with me at the time and i never bought it. It was, I think, the last book that Arthaus did for RL (other than the never-officially-published Van Richten's Guide to the Mists), and by that time the creative team that had generated all the best stuff for Arthaus had fallen out with Arthaus and the quality of the line was in free-fall.
Heh, I ran a bunch of 2e modules in the 90s and remember Howls in the Night being an excellent experience in my Ravenloft campaign. One of the best 2e modules I ran.Howls in the Night
This adventure takes place in Mordentshire, in a coastal town. Here, the PCs check into an inn, and learn a little bit about hounds prowling the countryside. At this point, the innkeeper passes a bowl around to collect a bounty to entice the PCs into killing the hounds, which qualifies for the flimsiest hook into an adventure, ever. Failing that, the sheriff will literally force the PCs to help the town or throw them into jail. Wow, ok. Assuming that doesn’t happen, the group follows the sheriff to investigate a murder of a local shepherd. Shortly thereafter, they fight a group of bog hounds. After that, they meet a gardener wandering around outside, who leads them to a nearby manor house. He then tells them that his master hasn’t aged in 50 years, and that the hounds seem to be getting closer. How convenient!
Because it wouldn’t be a 2nd edition module without some detailed map of some sort of structure, we get a room-by-room detail for the entire house, even though the PCs really have no business rummaging through the house in this manner.
I honestly gave up on this module by this point. The entire thing is completely implausible. The start is ok, but in 50 years, no one thought to check out this dude who never aged? And Westcote himself knows the history of the bog hounds because it’s his story. That never slipped to anyone in this town in 50 years? Also, no other adventurers have entered this town in 50 years to deal with this problem? There’s nothing in this entire adventure that would compel the PCs to care about it at all. And despite how original bog hounds are as a monster, they aren’t interesting to fight. The “story” basically just consists of ham-fisted attempts to lurch the party from one combat to another, and then for the GM to stitch it all together with an overly convoluted backstory that, again, the PCs are going to care nothing about.
I bought Hour of the Knife looking forward to a great Jack the Ripper Ravenloft investigation and came away from reading it specifically deciding not to use it for my campaign.Hour of the Knife
Hour of the Knife is a Jack the Ripper murder-mystery type module set in Zherisia. This domain only warrants a small paragraph in the 5e Ravenloft book. But it could be placed in just about any decent sized city fairly easily. It is patterned after London. The PCs are thrust into the city blindly and then are immediately witness to a vicious murder. At this point, despite no one even asking them, it is expected that they will begin solving this crime.
One of the first things the module instructs the GM to do is to outright murder any PC that is left alone with a doppleganger (there are many of them). No dice, no warning, just death to the PC, now you’re playing a doppleganger. Furthermore, that PC is then instructed to murder any other PC if they are given the opportunity to do so. I guess it doesn’t matter if the PC in question has 100 hit points, or not. They are just insta-killed and replaced. This is a sure-fire way to both end a campaign, and to also make your players hate your guts. It also doesn’t make a lot of sense. A Doppleganger generally tries to keep a low profile. They wouldn’t draw undue attention to themselves by leaving a trail of bodies everywhere. Also, what do they gain by randomly killing people? Fortunately, the module provides a way for these PCs to eventually be resurrected, but the taint of the heavy-handed and forced death this creates can’t be erased so easily.
Hour of the Knife was originally a tournament module, and it shows. There, the players won’t be as invested in their character, and the GM could get away with a lot more stuff than you can in your home campaign. As it stands, this module would require a fair amount of rework to make it usable. For starters, I would probably vastly decrease the number of doppelgangers and offer a very compelling reward for the capture or killing of the murderer. That would at least provide some level of incentive to the party for embarking on it in the first place.
I kind of feel like the overall plot of many of these adventures is salvageable, but they need work.
Skipping to the alley scene works well if you want. The main point of the jail encounter is to plunge the players into the howling mood I think. But jailer intentionally locks them there because he is worried they may be infected. So I don't think he simply forgot, he is paranoid the PCs or his men are infected with lycanthropyFeast of Goblyns
The jail scene at the beginning defies logic. Like, ok, a prisoner escapes, and the PCs are enlisted (rather, drafted) to aid the warden, and then after he locks them in the prison just... forgets about them??? WTF? The next section works whether the party is in jail or not, so the whole jail thing is completely unnecessary. You can skip it and it has no effect on the game whatsoever. It makes more sense to run "The Alley" section by having the PCs hear a commotion outside their room at an inn.
Oh absolutely. I didn't like it from a Ravenloft: The Setting aspect at all, but as a spooky castle with a vampire adventure, it was a lot of fun.
