An October Friday Frivolity: A Ravenloft Retrospective

Bless that good, good woman who hung the crucifix round my neck! for it is a comfort and a strength to me whenever I touch it. It is odd that a thing which I have been taught to regard with disfavour and as idolatrous should in a time of loneliness and trouble be of help.  From Jonathan Harker's Journal, Chapter III, Dracula. 

Released in 1983, Ravenloft was an 'Adventure Module' for the Dungeons & Dragons brand roleplaying game. By 1983, the Fantasy Renaissance kicked off by Star Wars was beginning to fizzle.   It was still there.  Fantasy and Sci-Fi would still find plenty of interest for the next few years.  But it was slowing.  By then, the media's full blown assault on D&D and the collateral damage to the genre as a whole was starting to reveal growing cracks in its popularity.  Perhaps that is why TSR, publisher of D&D, was looking for something new. 

Since I wasn't particularly into the whole D&D/Roleplaying world, the release of this went right by without me noticing.  But in college, I ran into a fellow who played the game extensively.  He had quite a collection of these books, including this one, so I decided to have a look.

I discovered in later years that this was a new approach to the game in at least two ways.  First, TSR hired a new batch of  highly skilled professional freelance artists to give a more credible look to the product as a whole.   Gone were ink sketches and line drawings that looked like they came from a middle school art class.  These were seasoned pros, and it looked it. 

From the original 1974 edition, and the later pro artist version

Second, TSR looked to a new author who decided it was time to move from 'hack and slash and get the treasure in the next room' to something more story centered.  His name was Tracy Hickman.  He already broke with the traditional theme of most modules by writing an adventure module containing a little more atmosphere and story.  Centered around an ancient Egyptian themed setting (and not the usual quasi-Medieval European), the product was called Pharoah (co-authored by Laura Hickman).   

As I said, I was completely unaware at the time, but I guess it was quite successful and made an impression on the TSR management.  Perhaps people wanted more, too.  So Hickman was given the chance to produce another similar module, expanding on what he had done before.  This time, the module, released near Halloween in 1983, would be Ravenloft.  Cool name, huh.  

You didn't have to be a genius to get the basic setting of the module or figure out the genre that it was based upon. Mind you, this was the early 80s.  We were still a somewhat homogenous culture, so we got vampires and Dracula and all.   You didn't have to wonder what someone meant when they said vampire.  Most of us still conjured images of Bela Lugosi, or perhaps Christopher Lee.  A few might have thought of Frank Langella, but not likely.   No Twilight edgy dropouts, Underworld ninja warrior vampires or Rice hipster rockstar types.  Vampires were basically supernatural undead vermin that must be destroyed, looking like an Eastern European nobleman for trappings.  

After I perused the module, there were a couple things that happened. First, it lent a credibility that I felt had been lacking the first time I attempted to get into the game.  I suppose this is what made me more receptive when a mutual friend invited me to a group of students - mostly in the computer science field - getting together and playing games on Wednesdays.  Though different games were played, and I eventually pushed the group to a more strategy game focus, at the time the anchor game was obviously D&D.  Since by then I had seen this and other more professional products (such as the second 'Monster Manual' ), I was willing to give it another shot. 

The second thing that happened was that it encouraged me to track down and buy the original source material behind the module.  That is, the actual novel Dracula.  Even growing up, I was aware that Dracula was originally a novel.  Though my exposure to vampires was typically through the sequel runs of Hammer or Universal or Abbot and Costello.  Back then, the originals, the classics, like the original Dracula, or  The Wolfman, or Frankenstein, were seldom shown.  Rare was the occasion for those to appear on TV.  It was usually Dracula XVII, or Those Darn Vampires or similar fare on Fritz the Night Owl's Friday Night Double Feature. So I tracked down the novel at the old Long's Bookstore at OSU to discover what I might have been missing.  I bought it in small, Penguin Classics form and took to read it. 

I'll admit, it's an acquired taste.  Done up in epistolatory form, the basic premise is that we're looking at diaries, journal entries, papers, news articles, captain's logs, and a variety of written sources that, pieced together, tell this remarkable tale that the heroes of the book experienced.  Of course I needn't go into the details of the story proper.  That's too well known.  But when I first read it, the format and just the basic cultural and social contexts were certainly a trick to get through.

Despite all that, over the years the novel has grown on me.  I wouldn't say it's a regular read.  Though I have read it several times over the decades.  But I will say the opening - Jonathan Harker's entry Journal - is stand alone one of the best pieces of horror fiction ever.  Even if I don't read the whole book, every Fall I will make sure to squeeze in a jaunt through Mr. Harker's experiences visiting Castle Dracula.  I know of few horror novels or stories that hit almost every perfect bullseye the way that section of the book does.  And not only did it leave a mark with me - heh - it also turned me on to an entire genre of literature that I had, up until then, largely ignored.  Not bad for a game module. 

Oh, and one more thing.  I was a long time fan of maps, dating back to when I would pull out the old Mercator projection we had and spread it on the living room floor, spending hours looking over the different countries and places of the world.  I must admit the breakthrough 3-D maps of the module were alone a piece of inspiration for me - even if the game itself still didn't make sense. There was something they triggered by having the small scale inkblot for the castle, which was then unpacked by such a magnificent 3-D, interconnected floorplan. I've always been a sucker for maps, and castles, and just that feeling you get when you look into a dark doorway and wonder what's beyond. That was more than satisfied with the module's floorplans. 

So that isn't bad from an old module to a game that, at that time, I didn't even play.  It made me receptive to the game after a less than stellar attempt to learn it years earlier.  That helped in later decades when, during the age of Jackson and Potter-mania, my boys would be all about this and similar genre based activities.  It also turned me on to reading not only gothic horror, but 19th Century literature in general.  And that, over the years, remains my favorite period for fiction.  I guess it strikes a chord with me that aligns with my general personality and tendencies.  

I seek not gaiety nor mirth, not the bright voluptuousness of much sunshine and sparkling waters which please the young and gay. I am no longer young; and my heart, through weary years of mourning over the dead, is not attuned to mirth. Moreover, the walls of my castle are broken; the shadows are many, and the wind breathes cold through the broken battlements and casements. I love the shade and the shadow, and would be alone with my thoughts when I may.  From Jonathan Harker's Journal, Chapter II, Dracula