by John Blank
I have Ravenloft, Ashardalon and Drizzt. When I first got into these games I thought they were absurdly difficult until I recently realized I was playing them wrong. What I mean by "playing them wrong" is that I was playing them more like a video game. Trying to kill monsters before moving on and exploring more. This tactic causes tons of event cards to come out, which we know is a bad thing. Once I started playing the game as intended it became much more fun. By "as intended" I mean, always be moving and exploring every turn. If you are moving and exploring on every turn you will pull less event cards. This also causes the pace of the game to move faster and feel like less of a grind.There are also two very good and simple ways to make the game easier without breaking it. One is to remove a couple of black arrow tiles so that there are equal amounts of black and white arrow tiles before you randomize and draw your tile deck. This causes less events, of course. Also, you can remove some of the more egregious event cards that you particularity don't like. This really wont unbalance the game as all of the event cards are bad. This just has the effect of eliminating some of the aspects of the event deck that specifically bug you, thus making the game more fun. Also, play with four characters. One or two is not enough and it will negatively effect your play-through. Also, playing with Drizzt and Cattie Brie makes the other D&DAS games easier.
All that being said, I feel like Ravenloft is the best of the series because the game mechanics fit the theme the best. Merely being inside Ravenloft's castle, surrounded by it's evil aura is enough to sap your life away. Makes a bit more sense than volcanic vents constantly blasting you.