Recently I
discussed the idea of redoing the Castle Ravenloft game a little to try to make it a little better. So here is the my first attempt for the first Adventure which is a solo, Escape the Tomb. The premise of the adventure is that a solo hero wakes up at the base of Strahd's crypt and needs to escape the dungeon before dusk. The original rules called for the escape tile to be placed 10 deep in the pile and that the timer for the approach of dawn was determined by the color of the arrows on the revealed tiles during the exploration phase. A white arrows moved the time counter while the black just caused the annoying encounter cards.
To try to improve the adventure, I have built a dungeon and hidden the target tile in a group of 6. I built a symmetric dungeon where all of the possible exit tiles are like 6 tiles away from the start. I choose pretty basic monsters except for the garagolyes but then have card text that has them just sitting and waiting unless the adventurer gets close so a smart adventurer might be able to get by them without too much damage. The sun timer is controlled by revealing possible exit tiles and a die roll every turn.
So for setup you need to find all the stuff in the book suggests. You also need to draw out the cards for 2 rat swarms, 2 gargoyles, and 2 skeletons. Place the Secret Stairway tile aside and set up the dungeon as above with the six monsters already on the tiles shown. You will note the 6 upside down tiles. After building the rest of the dungeon you need to take the secret stairway upside down and shuffle it in with 5 other tiles(3 black arrows and 2 white arrows) and place them as shown upside down. These upside down tiles are the only one which are explored in the traditional way. This includes placing a monster and and encounter for black arrows. Encounter cards are never drawn in this adventure for not revealing a new tile in a turn. On the turn you reveal one of these tiles move the sun marker 1 step.
At the start of each player turn roll a d6 and consult the table:
1-3 Nothing
4,5 Draw a Monster Card, Roll the d6 Again and place the monster on that possible exit tile, revealed or not counting right to left.
6 Draw an Encounter Card and Move the Sun token.
Special Rules:
Moving Monsters: when monsters move to a tile without a specific placement required place them on the bone pile unless it is occupied. If it is occupied place them next to the bone pile.
Moving the Hero: The Hero cannot move out of a square that is next to a monster.
