Editing Ravenloft (section)

== Creative origins ==
In 1978, [[Tracy Hickman|Tracy]] and [[Laura Hickman]] wrote adventures that would eventually be published as the ''[[Dungeons & Dragons|Dungeon & Dragons]]'' [[Adventure (Dungeons & Dragons)|modules]] ''[[Desert of Desolation#Pharaoh|Pharaoh]]'' and ''[[Ravenloft (module)|Ravenloft]]''.<ref>{{cite news|last=Hickman|first=Tracy|title=Tracy Hickman's Works with Laura Curtis|publisher=TRHickman.com|url=http://www.trhickman.com/Intel/HandC.html|url-status=dead|access-date=2009-08-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090726054507/http://www.trhickman.com/Intel/HandC.html|archive-date=2009-07-26}}</ref> [[Strahd von Zarovich]] was created by the Hickmans "after Tracy returned home from a disappointing session of ''D&D''. Back in First Edition, the game was less of a storytelling game. [...] It didn't make sense to [Tracy] why a creature like a vampire was just sitting around in a random dungeon with oozes, goblins, and zombies. So he and his wife set out to create a vampire villain with fleshed-out motivations and history".<ref name="cbr">{{cite web|last=David|first=Ari|date=2020-03-15|title=Strahd Is More Than Just Dungeons & Dragons' Dracula|url=https://www.cbr.com/strahd-is-more-than-just-dungeons-dragons-dracula/|access-date=2020-12-28|website=CBR|language=en-US}}</ref> When the Hickmans began work on ''Ravenloft'', they felt the [[vampire]] archetype had become overused, trite, and mundane, and decided to create a frightening version of the creature for the module.<ref name="30Years 114">{{cite book|last=Winter|first=Steve|title=[[30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons]]|publisher=[[Wizards of the Coast]]|year=2004|isbn=0-7869-3498-0|page=114|chapter=Ravenloft|display-authors=etal|author-link=Steve Winter}}</ref> They [[Playtest|play-tested]] it with a group of players every [[Halloween]] for five years<ref name="Dragon 250 120">{{cite journal|last=Varney|first=Allen|author-link=Allen Varney|date=August 1998|title=Profiles: Tracy Hickman|journal=[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]|publisher=Wizards of the Coast|issue=250|page=120}}</ref> on their own game system with the adventure titled ''Vampyr''.<ref name="cbr"/> However, the Hickmans kept being asked about their "Ravenloft game", and so the Ravenloft name stuck. The duo eventually caught the attention of ''D&D'''s original publishers. They were hired to adapt it into the first edition of ''[[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]]'' and it was released as ''Module I6: Ravenloft''<ref name="cbr"/> in 1983 by [[TSR, Inc.|TSR]].<ref name="Dragon 250 120" />