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
The Masque of the Red Death (1964 film) Red Death" back, because of the similarities, but it was really an artificial reason in my mind," he later said. Eventually he decided to go ahead and do it anyway. Another fact in the delay was that Corman had a great deal of trouble coming up with a screenplay he was happy with. Drafts were written by John Carter, Robert Towne and Barboura Morris, but Corman was not happy with any of them. There were also a number of rival adaptations of "Masque" being mooted around this time. The Woolner Brothers announced a film based on the story as did