Close
Close
Advanced Search

Hour of the Knife (2e)Click to magnify
Full‑size Preview
https://watermark.dmsguild.com/pdf_previews/17507-sample.pdf

Hour of the Knife (2e)

ADD TO WISHLIST >

A madman stalks the fog-shrouded streets of Paridon, killing with gruesome precision - and always at midnight.

A party of brave adventurers witnesses the most recent of these brutal murders. Now that they've seen the killer's face, they're sure to be his next targets.

Who can be trusted in this city where the residents are not what they appear to be?

Those who dare to track the killer will find strange allies -and even stranger enemies. The adventurers must investigate the ancient mystery behind the murders that take place when the clock strikes the "Hour of the Knife."

The adventure is based on the popular RPGA Network tournament by Bruce Nesmith.

Product History

"Hour of the Knife" (1994), by Bruce Nesmith and Lisa Smedman, is the fourteenth Ravenloft adventure. It was published in September 1994.

About the Cover. The cover to "Hour of the Knife" is shockingly modern. It shows what appears to be a Victorian gentleman in a bowler hat skulking about an alleyway. It's a good representative of the adventure, and a sign that D&D was entering a different time.

Continuing the Ravenloft Adventures. Following the release of the Ravenloft Campaign Setting (1994), the Ravenloft line began a second era of publication that would feature more adventures than ever. From 1990-1994, adventures had comprised almost half of the line, but now they were almost two-thirds of the total Ravenloft> publications. Thus, it's no surprise that the second new adventure, "Hour of the Knife", appeared just a month after the first, "The Awakening" (1994). There would be many more in the next two years.
Origins. "Hour of the Knife" started life as an RPGA Network tournament adventure written by Bruce Nesmith. There, it was one of many RPGA Ravenloft adventures that were run throughout the '90s. They would later be supplemented by the Gothic Earth "Living Death" RPGA campaign (1996-2007).

Adventure Tropes. Pure investigation adventures are somewhat rare in D&D, but they'd occasionally appeared starting in the early '80s; early examples include N1: "Against The Cult of the Reptile God" (1982), L2: "The Assassin's Knot" (1983), and N3: "Destiny of Kings" (1986). "Hour of the Knife" confronts the adventurers with a series of murders and gives GMs lists of clues and NPCs that they'll need to run the non-linear plot.

After a bit of a right-hand turn halfway through the adventure, "Hour of the Knife" becomes a more traditional macguffin quest, but it still maintains its open-ended style of play thanks to events that keep players on their toes.

This is all played out against an atmosphere of horror and paranoia that makes good use of the Ravenloft setting; players are probably even driven to go on the run from overpowering forces during the course of the adventure — a real change from the heroic tropes common to more traditional D&D games.

Adventure Tropes: And Then They Woke Up. The Ravenloft line was fond of abruptly and surprisingly killing off PCs — usually to resurrect them either in a different form, in service to a particular foe, or both. RQ3: "From the Shadows" (1992), RM2: "The Created" (1993), and "Adam's Wrath" (1994) were all past examples of this trope. "Hour of the Knife" repeats it, offering a small bit of railroad in an otherwise open adventure.

Expanding Ravenloft. "Hour of the Knife" was the first supplement to take an extensive look at the domain of Zherisia. The entire adventure takes place in the city of Paridon, which had expanded to fill the entirety of the domain of Zherisia during the Grand Conjunction. The use of Zherisia explains the surprising cover of "Hour of the Knife", because Paridon is essentially a Victorian London deposited in the demiplane of Ravenloft.

Monsters of Note. "Hour of the Knife" is the Jack the Ripper adventure for the Ravenloft line, fulfilling a promise from Ravenloft; Realm of Terror (1990), which told of "frequent and grisly murders, which are committed with a surgical blade."

However, it's also the doppelganger adventure; it introduces the "Ravenloft doppelganger", a monster that's more effective and aunthetic in its mimicry than its lesser cousin — which is exactly the sort of thing you need in a horror adventure focusing on suspense and paranoia.

NPCs of Note. As was frequently the case in Ravenloft adventures, one of the main actors in "Hour of the Knife" is a domain lord: Sodo, the doppelganger ruler of Zherisia. He's changed a bit from his original conception, as he no longer commits murders with a knife as suggested by Realm of Terror; instead, his appearance here is consistent with the updated descriptions of the Ravenloft Campaign Setting.

Future History. The Ravenloft line kept with its modern theme of Victorian horror throughout the rest of the year. First, it presented its Gothic Earth masterpiece, Masque of the Red Death and Other Tales (1994), then it turned back to the main Ravenloft line with the publication of "Howls in the Night" (1994) — an adventure based on Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902).

About the Creators. Nesmith wrote the original RPGA adventure for "Hour of the Knife", which was then brought to the tabletop by Smedman, TSR's most prolific Ravenloft adventure writer at the time.

About the Product Historian

The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.

We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (0)
Discussions (1)
Customer avatar
Colin P December 09, 2016 4:31 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I love this mod, but like many of these old scans, it is missing the poster map (of the city of Paridon). I really wish WotC would revisit and add them back in.
Narrow Results
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!
 Recent History















Product Information
Electrum seller
Rules Edition(s)
Pages
70
Edition
1.0
Publisher Stock #
TSR 9456
File Size:
34.29 MB
Format
Scanned image Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Information
Watermarked PDF Click for more information
Watermarked PDF

These PDF files are digitally watermarked to signify that you are the owner. A small message is added to the bottom of each page of the PDF containing your name and the order number of your purchase.

Warning: If any files bearing your information are found being distributed illegally, then your account will be suspended and legal action may be taken against you.

Here is a sample of a page from a watermarked title:

File Last Updated:
August 12, 2019
This title was added to our catalog on July 29, 2014.