If you’ve ever taken an interest in Dungeons & Dragons, even if only to watch Critical Role videos or even the movie from three years ago, you’ve probably heard of Ravenloft or its 5E version, Curse of Strahd, a module in which you play a genuinely terrifying adventure in the role-playing game that has been so influential that Netflix has decided it’s the perfect story to adapt into a TV series. Are they right? Well. Only partly.
Dragons and vampires, a hellish world
Actually, it depends entirely on how you see the game, because it doesn’t look like Netflix and Hasbro are going to do some kind of Abbott and Costello Meet the Ghosts with Ravenloft, giving the saga a parody twist. It looks like it’ll be a serious, scary adaptation of the module, perfect for players who never stray from the setting but that doesn’t quite adapt D&D as a whole. The movie perfectly captured what it’s like to eating chips, drinking soda, and constantly making the wrong decisions: are we sure we’ll be able to see something like that in a vampire series?
I admit that, as a D&D player and DM, I have one enormous flaw: I’ll always play for laughs. Always. Do you want to try to seduce the dragon? Go ahead, roll the dice. Do you want to eat some garlic and blow your breath at the vampire? You can certainly try. Maybe that’s why I have such a hard time imagining how a Ravenloft series would differ from any other vampire series, beyond the name. It makes sense, because horror is popular right now. But this didn’t need all that extra baggage: it’s a great campaign at the table that’s hard to adapt well into a series. That’s how it is.
Of course they’re going to put it out. And of course (no doubt about it) they’re going to get millions of views, because it’s impossible for them not to by mixing horror with one of the biggest franchises around today. For now, despite its many adaptations, there’s only been one good version of D&D. They have to experiment, sure, but… Why are they so resistant to repeating the tone that worked? Oh. The things you see.
