Critical Lit

Ravenloft history, Tracy Hickman's Foreword, Introduction, Chapter 1. The mists spirit us away to Barovia, a pastiche of gothic horror tropes and modern vampire mythos. We tackle the important questions, like how to run a spooky game, and is Strahd hot or not? One thing's for certain: he sucks. As a person. But he's a compelling villain, a classic presentation of an abusive narcissist who's been s...

We begin at the beginning, with two false entrances and a green devil face. Grab a 10-foot pole and a spare character sheet and join us as we plumb the depths of Tomb of Horrors, TSR's 1978 1st edition D&D adventure, written by Gary Gygax himself. How does it hold up? What does it tell us about the tabletop community of the day? And how did this handful of black-and-white pages, barely a pamphlet,...