Rating: 
Summary: Bring an open mind...
Review: The Kargatane did an excellent job, in my opinion, of releasing information in the first 3e Ravenloft book that should have been available to players. I'm not a HUGE canon freak, but I do like to control what information my players have... and this work does that very well. The "DM only" information derided by previous reviewers does belong in players' hands, because the Van Richten's Guides were published in Ravenloft for the common person to read. Fear/Horror/Madness checks are logical, and with the popularity of studies of psychology in the time period represented, people would have as much of a concept of how this works as a rudimentary glance-over would allow a player to recall.
I won't game without it, but having an autographed copy ain't hurting my enthusiasm.
Rating:
Summary: Only one thing is missing . . .
Review: The reviewers who have given this book a bad rating due to the lack of darklords are missing the point. The book is supposed to be PLAYER FRIENDLY. It assumes that the PCs aren't going to necessarily know who the darklord of a given domain is. This is a GOOD THING. The only problem that I have with this book, which keeps me from giving it five stars, is the fact that they left the Nightmare Lands out entirely. It's never even mentioned and is absent even in the timeline. Other than that, this is a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Only one thing is missing . . .
Review: The reviewers who have given this book a bad rating due to the lack of darklords are missing the point. The book is supposed to be PLAYER FRIENDLY. It assumes that the PCs aren't going to necessarily know who the darklord of a given domain is. This is a GOOD THING. The only problem that I have with this book, which keeps me from giving it five stars, is the fact that they left the Nightmare Lands out entirely. It's never even mentioned and is absent even in the timeline. Other than that, this is a great book.
Rating: 
Summary: A great campaign setting, and a great book
Review: This book is very good. I don't think that I've ever read a Role-Playing book from cover to cover, but 150 pages in and I haven't missed one. Usually I just skip around, especially in the description of the lands, but so far I have read everything about every country. This book is a must if you wanna play in a darker, different realm.
Rating:
Summary: Not Bad
Review: This is a very helpful book when trying to relate to the novels I have already read on the Dread Realm. Unfortunatly, this is not all that descriptive on running a fully functional world. Lack of Dark Lords is killer to its value. I am a great fan of the realm but I think a few monsters in the back and at least some of the Darklords would have been nice.
Rating:
Summary: Not Bad
Review: This is a very helpful book when trying to relate to the novels I have already read on the Dread Realm. Unfortunatly, this is not all that descriptive on running a fully functional world. Lack of Dark Lords is killer to its value. I am a great fan of the realm but I think a few monsters in the back and at least some of the Darklords would have been nice.
Rating: 
Summary: Nicely done...
Review: To start with the faults in the book itself, this book is missing a decent map (like the one in the Faerun setting) and is not particularly well structured.
Otherwise, I have no experience with 2nd Ed Ravenloft, but I've read the novels and this book certainly captures the mood... not surprising, since it's written by the Kargatane, Ravenloft's lifeline and now, possibly, its saviors. The information is generally clear and useful, and the real meaning of a Gothic campaign is well described. So why only three stars?
It's the price that drives it up. You can make characters with this book, but the DM must have the "Secrets of the Dread Realm" expansion (which should have been bigger and more complete with more darkords, and should have carried most of the DM-only information in this book, like Dread Companions, Power checks, monster stats etc.) and should have "Denizens of Darkness" to run a good campaign, which works out to a lot of money when you add the D&D rulebooks.
All in all, this book is very good in itself, but it holds information it shouldn't (DM-only) and is brought down by its supplements. If "Secrets" had been more complete and this book had had maybe two or three prestige classes, I would have easily given it 5 stars regardless of the lack of a map.
Rating:
Summary: A great book your players can read without being spoiled
Review: What some devoted RL DM's and longtime fans apparently dislike about this book is in my opinion it's greatest strength. You can give it to your players without fear to spoil their fun in the campaign. There are just two exceptions that I ask my players not to read just yet: The History section and the letter from Azalin - and even those only because we're still playing some of the old adventures.This is a player's book and a rules book. The DM's "guide", "Secrets of the Dread Realms" will come in December. The book is nicely written and achieves it's purposes: bring RL to 3e and move the setting forward. There are many new things in there as well: a section on faiths, calibans, new feats and skills, rules for firearms and improvised weapons, the appearance of mistways and many many small things. Compared to Domains of Dread, RL has evolved into something more of a "true world". It feels much more connected. Not only have all the clusters finally been detailed and mistways charted but politics and relationsships (including currencies and tradegoods) have been developed. "Culture" has been given a lot of thought. While the book is significantly shorter than e.g. the Forgotten Realms CS, and comparatively much space had to be devoted to RL-specific rules, I never got such a clear and distinctive picture of the people (how they look and what is important to them)in any other setting before. All this is stuff for a player (and dm) to make interesting characters and stories - and all the informations about the domains is of a nature that could conceivably be aquired by "gather information". There are also sections, especially the chapter about monsters that are more geared for the fangs of the DM. But the "monsters" are "templates" (more in the Van Richten's sense than that of the MM) - and thus the player won't learn much more than "Be careful with everything in RL". The only complaint I have is that it's too short. 300 pages would have been better.
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