The Realms of Barovia and Forlorn can be fully explored. Both castles, Forlorn and Ravenloft are complete. There are four settlements; a village, two towns and a city. With over a hundred detailed areas in total this is an epic sequel.
Gameplay Length
30 hours estimated, possibly more. Expect to reach 16th-18th level by game end.
Patch 1.68 or later required. The latest version is final12. The content is complete and it can be finished. This is my 'twelfth final' and it may still contain bugs. If you do encounter problems let me know either by posting on this page or messaging me.
Number Players
Adjusts for solo, party or multi party.
Important non-player characters will auto-level to the approximate strength of the player's character but many, and most monsters, do not. Players using very high level characters (20th plus) will find encounters easy and may cause distracting error messages as important npcs try to rise to impossible levels. For these reasons it is recommended that the players stay within the starting level range.
Language
English
Level Range
Recommend use of character from Return to Ravenloft or a new character. Low level characters will be advanced to seventh level and given access to an equiping shop. There is no level restriction.
Races
Any
Tricks & Traps
Light
Roleplay
Heavy
Hack & Slash
Medium
Classes
Any.
Though this module can be successfully played with all PC classes some offer a less difficult gaming experience. As with most Ravenloft modules there are lots of undead so a character with turning powers (cleric, paladin) would find life easiest. Rogues would find the game most challenging.
Scope
Part of Series
DMNeeded
No DM Required
Single or Multiplayer
Single Player or Multiplayer
Max Character Level
09
Max # Players
Any
Min # Players
01
Min Character Level
07
Content Rating
Teen
Alignments
Any. Ravenloft caters for both the heights and depths of humanity.
Gameplay Hours
30
Description
I found myself in a world sliding ever closer to Ravenloft.
In a place called Stone Leigh I first encountered the pull of Ravenloft. It tempts me with power and quick advancement in exchange for a little of my soul. Others here that I see have succumbed to the temptation and the results are plain to see; evilness, madness and disfigurement.
By fair means or foul I have fought against the power of Ravenloft in Stone Leigh. Some of those most effected have been killed or banished. A would-be Lord has been destroyed. But the land still draws toward that nightmare realm and I have made enemies, one in particular: a dark witch called Silktong.
There is a Gate in Stone Leigh. They say it leads into the heart of Ravenloft. Evil seeps out of it and my enemy has escaped through it. I will not wait for her to return but shall chase her down and confront the powers on their own ground. I will travel Beyond the Gate.
In this module the player has just finished Return to Ravenloft and finds themself at the bottom of a dungeon complex called The Dark Well. Silktong's history is revealed and the coven of witches that she manipulates must be confronted. Ultimately the player will decide the fate of Stone Leigh. Will it be freed from the clutches of Ravenloft or will you fight to become its Lord?
Walk-through and SPOILER notes for Ravenloft Beyond the Gate. If you are stuck or you played it and want to see what you missed read this. Click to view or right-click and save to download it.
I noticed on a recent playthrough that a number of encounters are producing a script error, "x (creature) divide by zero..." It doesn't seem to be breaking anything, but it may be affecting creature AI or spawns.
Posted by felicitynight at on04/15/09
I finally get to finish this great module. Thank you for your advices Firestarter, I was late to check up reply. The module feels non-linear and open. I like the whole competition set-up, in which you can choose who to be your friends and foes. My choices actually matter throughout the game. There is usually more than one way to solve a problem. And for the first time, being evil is actually interesting and potentially more rewarding than good! The lure of evil is very tempting in this module. I found I had a hard time keeping my good alignment, and when I did - what a surprise, bonus xp for breaking the goodie-meter, nice touch there. I haven't played PnP so I don't know how close it's to the original. Anyhow I like the design of Castle Ravenloft; it is sprawling and has a good layout - old-school players definitely will love the Castle. Encounters and scripting would have constantly kept me on my toes if not for the overpowered items you can craft by using the anvil. Henchmen are interesting enough. But if you're looking for in-depth character interaction and depiction here, you will be disappointed. Not that it's a requirement to be a great module. I think the henchmen is perfect as they are. They mesh well into the style of the module. The clean and direct writing style is a nice change from the more dramatic style many authors employ. The directness of speech has some coolness factors that appeal to me, especially in this game of schemes and lies. That's very true though, when lies are adorned with reasons that can motivate your enemies, they are no longer feel like lies and can be spoken with boldness and passion. And it is the case with the Covens. The bad: Like many others have already stated, the anvil is too powerful. At first, I thought you have to put every bit of enchantment on your gears to survive, especially after the smack down by the winter wolves. But the difficulty doesn't scale well, by mid game where you can start putting +5 on your gears, the game became way too easy. There are some nicely scripted encounters but they all gone into waste because of the enchanting anvil. If I had known better, I would've restrain myself from using the anvil which I will definitely do so in future playthrough. This module is a multiple playthrough material and I'm looking forward to do so.
Posted by neskind at 2009-04-0223:34:39
Yes my two cents on the overpowered Balinok wolf proablem. 1.Ravenloft doesn't extra powerful winter wolves called balinok wolves they have winter wolves just like everywhere else. 2. The PnP dungeon masters guide has rules on breath weapon damage for challenge level. Judging by the xp I got for killing the lupines id say the problem is that the breath weapon is too damaging for its hit die. Id advise you to look at the winter wolf template as example of a balanced monster (risk vs reward). Cheers
Posted by Firestarter at 2009-03-1813:02:30
>>YY>> There are some glitches so far in my game... >> What you describe sounds like faction issues. I am aware of the ones in Return to Ravenloft but thought that this module had none. Salina and the mephits are in completely different factions so I don't understand that. As are Harmin and the sailor. These issues do crop up more if the difficulty is set to hardcore, all my testing was done in normal (it's quite hard enough) and I never experienced a faction bug. Sorry I can't be more help. _________________________ ------oOo------oOo------oOo------ Do be careful! Don't lose any of that stuff. That's concentrated evil. One drop of that could turn you all into hermit crabs.
Posted by YY at 2009-03-1803:16:54
There are some glitches so far in my game: -All the fire mephits in FirePits became hostile after I killed Salina. -(On another gameplay)The imprisoned sailor in Immol silver mine attacked me after I killed Harmin. Similar problems happened also in Return to Ravenloft(previous chapter). After I finished the wraith quest in Eastern Wood, most of the town folks in Leigh Village attacked me. Had to let my PC died to get by. NWN1.69 with both expansion installed. Got some hands heads model files in override folder. CEP version 2.1. Any idea what happened?
Posted by verminthrax at on02/08/09
Good story, exciting, large, entertaining.
Posted by Bluerazor at on02/07/09
This module was overall great. The story was involved, some areas were very well scripted, and the scale was excellent. We had a lot of fun as a party hacking through all of the areas. However there were a few distracting bugs, including an invincible set of henchmen, and the end combat would have been impossible if not for an absolute fluke which granted us victory in the end.
Posted by Firestarter at 2009-02-0614:48:22
>>>felicitynight>>>..I have trouble beating the winter wolves in Bavoria..>>> I mostly play with a sorceror and those wolves are tricky. It's fine if you have henchmen though. Did you get henchies when you started the mod' - by interacting with the altar in the Dark Well? I think that you can still go back and get them at your level if you want to. If solo you have to approach the encounter really carefully, wait till they separate, hit them hard (they're not that tough in themselves) and don't get cornered by more than one at a time. _________________________ ------oOo------oOo------oOo------ Do be careful! Don't lose any of that stuff. That's concentrated evil. One drop of that could turn you all into hermit crabs.
Posted by beh at on02/05/09
This was one of the top three modules i have played so far. Barovia and Forlorn were great fun to explore and the atmosphere you were able to create in both was incredible. There was a certain nuanced complexity and attention to detail that is rarely found in modules, hall of fame or otherwise. Can't wait to play again once ive forgotten most of the details
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