Masque of the Red Death and Other Tales carbines" and for its rules on magic, "Reduced reliance on magic further nudges Masque in the direction of realism." He commented on the three adventure booklets, saying that they "answer most of the questions about staging campaigns. Red Tide serves up few surprises—anyone who can't anticipate the plot twists hasn't seen enough late shows—but plenty of action and a lot of fun. Red Jack, a Jack the Ripper take-off, put my entire party in the cemetery—consider that a recommendation. Red Death uses Edgar Allan Poe as a springboard for a tricky mystery. Swan contended that graphically, "the Ravenloft campaign remains
Masque of the Red Death and Other Tales setting's fine, but it's a sidebar to the system overhaul. "Masque of the Red Death" makes a persuasive case for reality-based role-playing, where wits count more than muscle and a shotgun packs more punch than a fireball. Endearingly human, these are the only "AD&D" game characters I'd consider using as investigators in a "Call of Cthulhu" game or, for that matter, as adversaries in a "Vampire" campaign. And nitpickers who've been clamoring for a streamlined, skill-based "AD&D" game ought to be dancing in the streets. "Masque of the Red Death" doesn't qualify as the Third Edition of the "AD&D" game,