8/5/2007 11:17:28 PM - Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill

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That was the question TSR asked in 1986. Three years earlier,
Glossary Tracy and Laura Hickman’s I6 Ravenloft had set a new
Help standard for roleplaying modules, with its stunning maps,
moody ambiance, and card-based plot randomizer. The castle
Eberron layout (drawn in three-dimensional style by Dave Sutherland)
Forgotten Realms was so complex that it was easy to get lost in the castle’s
D&D Miniatures endless stairs and corridors, just as in a classic horror movie or
RPGA real-world nightmare. Despite employing a few gothic fiction
clichés in the read-aloud boxed text, the story had style and
Message Boards showed that the entire realm of horror film and fiction was now
Chat Rooms fair game for DMs wanting to shake up complacent players. And
a simple, effective way of determining the villain’s true goal from DOWNLOAD
among several options and the locations of various items crucial
Module 2.1mb ZIP
to the plot meant that the story could be played again and again
Maps 1 6.9mb ZIP
with very different results.
Maps 2 1.47mb ZIP

Cover 2.7mb ZIP
So successful, in fact, was the original Ravenloft module that it
Cards 1.3mb ZIP
went on to spawn an entire campaign setting of Ravenloft-style
All Files 14.3mb ZIP
adventures, where the PCs were as sinners in the hands of an
angry god (a.k.a. the "Dark Powers"). By changing the balance of power, Ravenloft became a
place where the player characters no longer had the advantage over the monsters as in the
standard AD&D game but very much the reverse. No wonder the original module not only
fetched high prices at auctions but was revised for 2nd edition AD&D (unwisely hidden under the
title RM4 House of Strahd) by one of TSR’s finest designers, Bruce Nesmith, creator with Andria
Hayday of the Ravenloft campaign setting. Nor that another version (with the original name and
designator now restored) was released in 1999 as part of TSR’s Silver Anniversary series. What
is surprising is that the original sequel to this most famous of adventures, Ravenloft II: The
House of Gryphon Hill, has remained out of print all these years. Never adapted to 2nd edition
AD&D, never fully incorporated into the Ravenloft campaign setting, it has languished despite
all the attention showered upon its elder sibling.

Why this neglect? After all, it shared the magic of the Hickman name -- most of his other designs
for TSR having been reprinted time and again (I3, I4, and I5 as I3-5, The Desert of Desolation;
the original Dragonlance modules as Dragonlance Classics, Volumes I, II, and III; Rahasia first
as RPGA minimodules [RPGA1 and RPGA2], then as B7, then again in B1-9 In Search of
Adventure, etc.). It was a companion piece to one of the bestselling modules of all time, I6. And
it had a natural home in one of the most successful of all TSR’s campaign worlds, the ongoing
Ravenloft setting (which in its ten years spawned eight boxed sets, a hardcover, three MCs, and
forty-seven adventures and sourcebooks, not counting compilations and twenty novels).

The answer is probably twofold. First, the original adventure is a hard act to beat, and any follow-
up was likely to be judged mercilessly. It’s amazing now, in these days of vampire-as-template,
to look back and see how startling was Hickman’s combination of monster and character: Strahd
von Zarovich was both a vampire AND a magic-user, with all the abilities of each. I10 had no
such rabbit to pull out of its hat, no equivalent power-up for the monsters. Instead, it substituted
cunning for strength. Drawing on such icons as Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the 1980s
version of The Thing, it played on the idea of people not really being who they appear, of not

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8/5/2007 11:17:28 PM - Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill
knowing who your friends really are. With the Apparatus, a monster’s personality could be
placed in the body of an ordinary townsperson, while the villager might find herself with all the
powers and vulnerabilities of, say, a vampire, with no idea what had happened.

Also, I6 was a tightly-woven unified whole; I10, by contrast, consisted of several parts poorly
integrated into the overall whole. Each is good by itself, but the pieces are less than cohesive.
For example, Heather House, home of the Weathermays, is populated by an interesting cast of
low-level characters (Virginia, Lord Weathermay, Mistress Ardent, the Alchemist), yet the
basement is home to at least one vampire, six shadow mastiffs, and twenty Strahd zombies,
with no explanation of why the powerful monsters refrain from destroying the hapless folk
upstairs. And the nearby Mausoleum, only a stone’s throw away, contains spectres, wraiths,
Strahd zombies, and Azalin the lich -- the first appearance (unless one counts the anonymous
lich who put in a brief appearance in I6) of what would become a major character in the later
campaign setting.

The reason for these disconnects is simple: I6 Ravenloft was the unified work of the Hickmans,
while a close reading of the credits for I10 reveals that it was a joint effort of no less than six
authors (a lot for only 48 pages). In fact, The House on Gryphon Hill was the final project
Hickman worked on before he left TSR to pursue a career as a freelance novelist in the wake of
the success of the Hickman-Weis Dragonlance novels, and he didn’t manage to finish it before
he left. Hence, although Tracy and Laura Hickman are credited for their outline and having come
up with the overall plot for the adventure, most of the actual writing was done by a hastily
assembled crack team of TSR designers in order to meet the rapidly approaching release date:
David Cook (better known as "Zeb," and later as the lead designer of 2nd edition AD&D and
creator of the Planescape campaign setting), Jeff Grubb (creator of Spelljammer, Al-Qadim,
and the Marvel Super Heroes RPG), Harold Johnson (author of the Slave Lords series [A1-4]
and behind-the-scenes contributor to many other projects), and Douglas Niles (creator of Top
Secret: S.I. and, like Jeff and Harold, part of the original Dragonlance design team alongside
Hickman himself). The work was divvied up among the four authors, each of whom took a
section.

Considering the speed at which the work was done, and the lack of time for the various authors
to co-ordinate with what the others were doing, it holds up remarkably well. Think of it not as a
single unified work but as several minimodules sharing a common theme: the pairing of
opposites, symbolized by the two Strahds, one good ("The Alchemist") and one evil ("The
Creature"). The possibility of switching personalities via the Apparatus offers great potential for
roleplaying to a devious DM, and the setting of haunted moors and brooding seaside hills works
well to capture a very different mood from the original’s Barovia, but still sinister in the extreme.
Also interesting are the Mesmerist and his madhouse, the most atmospheric touch in the
adventure and I10’s attempt to recapture the randomizer of the gypsy reading from I6 (this was a
favorite mechanic of Hickman’s, who also worked similar elements into the Desert of Desolation
series, some of his Dragonlance modules (see DL 8 and DL 13), and even a Gangbusters
adventure (GB5 Death in Spades). Best of all is the way the delirium attacks can be used to cast
doubt upon every revelation and discovery -- if the DM wants, the events of I6 be replayed in
whole or in part as delirium episodes, with the two stories running parallel to each other in all
sorts of interesting ways.

In conclusion, while a lesser sibling than its older brother, I10 is still classic horror roleplaying --
especially the doomed Weathermay family and their retainers, the Mesmerist and Azalin
(combining the two characters gets interesting results), the sinister abandoned titular manor on
Gryphon Hill, and the disorienting dreamlike delirium attacks. Don’t try this one with an
inexperienced group, but experienced gamers devoted to roleplaying can find it extremely
challenging and rewarding, particularly if they’re fans of classic horror. Think Byron/Shelley
rather than Stoker/Lugosi and devote as much time as possible to roleplaying the many NPCs,
from the hapless to the sinister to the wolves in sheep’s clothing.

A final few notes: Some misprints would have been corrected had this adventure ever been re-
released but a casual reader should beware them. On page 29, the notes at the top of the right-
hand column ("Beneath third hearth stone" and so forth) belong under the entry for 43a. The
vampire in entry 43J was once a handsome young seaman (not "handome"). If you’re the read-
boxed-text-aloud type, beware entry 46G: only the first paragraph should actually be boxed,
while the next two paragraphs are meant for the DM alone. On page 44, the final line under
Count Strahd the Alchemist should read "for the life of him cannot remember why, save that it
fills him with dread." And finally, Mistress Ardent, one of the most interesting characters, was

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"found as a baby on the steps of Heather House, abandoned by individuals unknown" and has a
Charisma of 18, not "8" (she’s described as "a stunning young lady, second in beauty only to her
close friend Virginia," who has Charisma 17 herself.

Enjoy!

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