OSRing & Running Ravenloft's RA1 'Feast of Goblyns' By Blake Mobley For An Old School Campaign

"In Feast of Goblyns, a party of adventurers must use all their skills to escape the manipulations of one of Ravenloft's most powerful lords as they attempt to seek out the accursed Crown of Soldiers. If all goes well, they just might live long enough to escape this dread land and return to their homes."

RA1 'Feast of Goblyns' By Blake Mobley marks the first real expansion & explosion of Ravenloft material that came out right out after the Box of Terror box set in 1989. "RA1: "Feast of Goblyns" (1990), by Blake Mobley, is the first of the "RA" Ravenloft Adventures. It was published in September 1990.", according to the Drivethrurpg entry. 'Feast of Goblyns' is the first part of the 'Grand Conjunction' Ravenloft meta plot campaign adventure first hinted about in the Box of Terror in '89. 
The 96 page domain book is the first real expansion of the domains of dread & it shows we get lots of details in  the realm of Kartakass, including the towns of Harmonia and Skald. These are exceedingly important if the DM is going to run the Grand Conjunction meta plot adventure. We talked about that in the  Notes On Running RQ1: "Night of the Walking Dead" (1992) By Bill Slavicsek For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition Ravenloft Setting.

This is one of the best adventures besides I6, the material here is top notch & the side slices of the Grand Conjunction makes this a well pressed & welcome expansion of the existing Ravenloft campaign set. Unlike other more 'railroady' adventures for  Ravenloft & second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventures  'Feast of Goblyns' gives the player's PC's much more latitude to destroy themselves! I'm not kidding when I say this. 


The PC's can easily die as the dark fantasy in the encounters, the combat, the design, etc. are turned up to 'eleven'.  The party finds itself increasingly fighting for their very lives as the prophetic events surrounding RA1 'Feast of Goblyns' By Blake Mobley tick away. The goblyns themselves are really dangerous & the adventure will give even vampire or supernatural creatures a real problem. But what about those gobylins? According to the Ravenloft wiki; "Goblyns are nasty little Goblin like creatures that typically serve evil Mages. Goblyns come into being when humans are twisted by evil magic. They can attack the faces of victims in an attack called Feasting. Radaga and Tristen Apblanc used goblyns as henchmen."
I've seen these hench goblyns give many a player's higher level PC a problem or two. My advice is to avoid the goblyns & their masters.

If I was running RA1 'Feast of Goblyns' By Blake Mobley today I'd switch it up a notch or two & bring in an a far more OSR flavor to the adventure. There are three things I'd do with RA1 'Feast of Goblyns' By Blake Mobley. One I'd take Dark Albion by Rpg Pundit and bring that setting in as my stand in Ravenloft & instead switch it up to a dark Europe. Using this set up for the Lion & Dragon rpg might be really pushing it. That's not to say that the DM couldn't draw upon it as an occult resource though. 


Because of the nature of RA1 'Feast of Goblyns' By Blake Mobley I'd switch out second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons for something a bit more contemporary like Troll Lords Castles & Crusades to make the whole works run smoother. 


 But I'm not done yet.  Because of the dark nature of the realm of Kartakass, including the towns of Harmonia and Skald. I'd bring in X2 Castle Amber By Tom Moldvay! The Grand Conjunction could be used as a spring board for the death of the lord of Amberville & the  Province of Averoigne! The mists are only the beginning as the terror &  darkness breaks down civilization  around the PC's! They find themselves face to face with the events of X2 right after RA1 'Feast of Goblyns'. 



There are a couple of adventure elements that could be used to create a boundary between a dark European setting & Ravenloft. RA1 'Feast of Goblyns' has all of the makes of a solid OSR campaign. But what about the rest of the 'Grand Conjunction' modules? We've got all month to get to those! Stay tuned!