The Masque of the Red Death (play) opium den, a 19th-century French-inspired music hall ("The Palais Royale"), a library, perfumery, morgue, banqueting hall, bedrooms and a crypt. The Gold-Bug Hunt was a game by interactive theatre-makers "Coney" that took place online, in the "real world", and within The Masque of the Red Death. It ran for six months, extending past the end date of the show itself. Participants initially discovered the game by interacting with a mysterious masked and hooded figure within the Palais Royale bar area of the show. Coney transposed a mystery based on another Edgar Allan Poe short story, "The Gold-Bug", onto the narrative
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,