My name is MSD and I've been running my current Ravenloft campaign for one year Real-Time and two years Game-Time. I started with some D&D veterans with no previous exposure to Ravenloft. Essentially, they are virgins to the Domains of Dread. Myself, I've been following Ravenloft for a long time, so I'm pretty familiar with the storylines. I didn't want to plop the players down in the middle of the story, so I started them in the beginning: Summer of 735.
My campaign revolves around the Grand Conjunction (old new now, I know, but I want my players to experience it firsthand). In this case, I made the players native to the land and started them out in Barovia. It's the heart of Ravenloft after all, and every road will lead back to Barovia when it's all said and done.
So if you were running a long-term Ravenloft campaign that BEGINS in the Land of Mists, I would suggest Barovia as the starting point. It's just much deeper that way.
On the otherhand, if you've got pre-existing characters from another world, I would suggest a domain similar to their style of play. Perhaps Darkon, as that is Ravenloft's most "typical" D&D realm (what with Elves and dwarves running around and a less-restrictive outlook on magical powers). That way, it won't be such a rough transistion when the players emerge from the Mists. Either way, I would suggest that the PCs be human or at least near-human (skip the thri-kreen and hill giants).
Language is another big factor, as most domains have their own. Which can lead to problems for those not fluent in the native speak. I circumvented that by making the Core equivelant to the USA (each domain is a state, not a country, and they all speak Common with their own regional accents). That's just something I did for my game.
Yes I allow my players free reign over the lands of the Core, just like it was a regular world. They have advanced from 0-level commoners to 10th level Counts and Lords. Along the way they have encountered a grand-total of THREE magical items, and have made just as many allies as enemies. Don't forget to accentuate the positive as well as the negative, cuz you don't want the players to be overwhelmed by the doom and gloom. The situation is NOT hopless, and the players must believe that Heroes of Light will prevail.
Other than that, do yo thang and keep us abreast of your latest developments!
peace, KismetRose!
MSD
Most of my group has no prior experience with Ravenloft. One player has always admired the setting and has always wanted the chance to play in it. I am just now getting acquainted with it. I am thinking of running something in it because it is new to us, and I am in the mood to try something new.
While the Grand Conjunction may seem like old news to some, it's new to us! I can see why you placed your game where and when you did.
I was thinking of taking characters from the outside and having them get sucked in. I like your suggestion about choosing a place based on the group's style of play. The thing is, I love watching them go through a culture shock. It won't be a horrible thing if the environment is strange; they'll learn to navigate it.
I don't usually let my players play monster races, so they stay close to human.
I did notice that the setting is supposed to have far fewer magical items than "normal," and it interested me to know if folks ran their games that way. If I follow that guideline (and I probably will), my group will definitely be in culture shock - because we've been playing for the last year and a half in Faerun.
I am definitely going to have to keep an eye on myself in regard to balancing the bad with the good. I can get pretty dark sometimes when I run and have driven my players to despair once - and I would rather not do it again. I think I have ideas on how to do that already, but I realize I'll have to be careful.
It would be neat if I could start it on Halloween, but that probably won't work out. Ah well. It'll be a miracle if I can start the game at all soon, given my load of homework...
When choosing a domain, consider the experience levels of the PCs at the time they arrive in the setting: some domains are "higher level" than others. If the PCs are true newbies, pick one of the domains which provide ample opportunities for adventures that have nothing to do with the local darklord (Darkon, Tepest, or the "renaissance" domains are good), because you'll want to keep them "under the radar" of the BBEGs for a good, long time. If they're tougher than that, one of the wilderness domains like Verbrek might be a better starting point, as the PCs will spend some time wandering around in the woods and dodging spooky monsters, before they meet any NPCs who can explain [to the extent that RL natives understand it] where they are (isolation -> fear ;-D).
As for the language difficulty, this may not be as insurmountable as the current books suggest. The terms of S&S's contract don't seem to allow them to name names, when they describe outsider darklords' (WotC-copyrighted) places of origin; however, there's nothing to stop *you* from openly stating that Darkonese is really Common from the Greyhawk setting, or that people in Hazlan speak a language from Thay in FR. If necessary, you can even re-write a particular darklord's backstory so that he/she originated on *your* campaign world, hence the people in that domain speak a language that one or more PCs already know.
Could it also be argued, that since every realm is an expression of the darklord, that the people could speak more than one of the languages that the darklord knows?
Originally posted by KismetRose
Could it also be argued, that since every realm is an expression of the darklord, that the people could speak more than one of the languages that the darklord knows?
Either that, or other native languages of the darklord's original homeland (whether or not the darklord speaks them personally). The books keep it a mystery whether the inhabitants of a new domain are brought in from other planes, or just created on the spot, but either way the Dark Powers probably choose languages that are consistent with the Material Plane land which the domain is based on.
BTW, the original Barovia is not on any of the known TSR/WotC worlds. So Balok is one language that should remain unique to Ravenloft.
Darkon is an especially poor choice since the land has a memory draining effect that is hard to RP properly on the part of the players and Azzie can no read minds and modify memory pretty much at will - not particullarly conducive to a long term camapaign. Its very easy to get in over your head in Falkovnia as well making it a less than perfect launching point. PCs should have some idea of what they're getting into when they travel there.
Often overlooked is Nova Vassa. The fact that Malken works under an unusual curse and is not always "active" makes it one of the more PC friendly domains. Mordent also makes a pretty good launching pad IMO with its mists and haunted forrests...and proximinty to the rest of the "renaissance" realms.
Regardless of where you go may I suggest to you that you change the names to protect the guilty where ever you go? Granted its got to be Strahd as Strahd up in his bleak castle but in many cases the simple act of changing names can throw PCs wildly off. Any Ravenloft buff knows Dominic is the Darklord of Demelieu - but he could just as easily be anyone else associated with the governor and the Council of Brilliance - imagine their shock when "Dominic" dies at a party and (in effect) there is no spiritual upheaval in the realm because you've tranfered Dominic's stats to some other NPC.
-Eric Gorman
I will be looking everything over carefully before I begin, but I at least have had some ideas about how to begin. That's one of the most important things, to me.
It seems unlikely to me that the darklords stay visible all of the time, especially given what some of them are like. Renaming and faking folks out shouldn't be difficult.
The language problem isn't really a problem to me; I don't mind if my players have to rough it and be creative. Eventually, they will find folks that speak some language that they know.
I have to disagree with choosing Darkon unless you plan to get the PCs out quickly due to its memory modifying aspect. Along with Necroplis and the Shadow Rift, Darkon is a great place to go to IMO...and leave fairly quickly. Running a camapaign of non-darkonian natives in Darkon is going to have problems I usually don't like to deal with. As a DM you will at some point have to tell players "what their characters think" (due to the changes in their memories) which I personally dislike strongly as a player and a DM. Necroplois and the Shadow Rift are also unsuitable starting points in my opinion due to the death effects of Necropolis and the fact that the SR is so tenuously connected to the rest of the dread realms. And one of the least gothic in flavor. My LEAST favorite starting points.
Forlorn, Keening and Verbrek make poor starting choices in my opinion. They tend not to be overly popular places anyway. Both are essentially a lot of hostile wilderness with no "safe ports". Goblyns in one, undead then werewolves in the others. If your PCs are higher level when entering this is less of a problem but still there are almost no resources availble to them to help figure out what happened to them, where they need to go, or even NPCs to offer additional plot hooks. These are domains you go to for a specific reason. The next teir of bad launch locations.
I also personally don't like starting in Falkovnia because by the time the PCs twig to how to "get along" there they've got a better than even job of attracting too much attention down on themselves from the military - sometimes of the "overwhelming and unending" type of attention. Imagine your party dropped in Hitler's Germany with no idea how to avoid running afoul of the Nazi political party or the SS. Since all non-humans are considered property of the state imagine the same with a jewish character in the place of each elf, dwarf, halfling etc run by your players. I love running adventures in this realm but PCs need a heads up before hand. Better than the above six but still problematic.
All the other realms have sufficient population ceneters to provide services to the PCs, meet interesting NPCs and dangle mutiple plot threads. Of the others, personal taste is probably most important in choosing a place to go from. Hope that helps.
-Eric Gorman
HvF - Your post was extremely helpful; I love it when folks tell me why they feel as they do. You neatly listed why you don't care for the particular places you mentioned, and your reasoning seems imminently sound. I will be keeping your post close when I get to do the reading I very much wish to do. I may have to read all day for my college courses, but if I have to read all night for gaming, I'll get to it...
Barovia- Detailed, drops you right into the feel of the setting, and has enough going on that you don't have to make a beeline for Strahd.
Kartakass- I just like it. Sue me.
A medieval cultural level s good for straight-up D&D players you want to import- If you're gong for a more "modern" feel, Mordent, Richemulot, and Dementlieu are all good starting places...
Worst?
Bluetspur.
In Mordent they briefly encountered someone named Azlin who they couldn't get a good look at since it was so dark and discovered he was plotting against Strahd so they are convinced he's a "good guy".
Now since they feel secure in that Strahd will never bother them again I'm starting the Grand Conjuncture. Last night we were going to start Feast of Goblyns but we had to postpone the game till next week (damn jobs getting in the way of our social lives again). Once they meet Harkon Lukas word of their defeating Strahd will have reached him and with his past history with Strahd he'll take them in as heroes (they love when NPCs kiss up to them)
Since they have stated Ravenloft seems all about vampires the wolfweres (since plural of wolf is wolves should it be wolfweres?) and werewolves is not something they are ready to handle. They've already geared up with garlic, stakes and even a sword that glows whenever vampires are near (they really started freaking once they really knew what kind of a punch Strahd had... it was like Captain Hook with the tick tock crock). And unbeknownst to them they also have an item that attracts undead so intelligent undead like vampires were able to know where they were at all times (as did Azlin when they thought they were spying on him). I figure the simple intro fight in the jail cell will wake them up to the trouble they are really in once they find most of their weapons are ineffective.
But I'm getting off topic... as I stated the best place to start is Barovia and let them meet Strahd. There are so many plots and subplots that all go back to Strahd (such as the fact Harkon Lukas once tried to take him out) it's only fitting to introduce him first even if your players know about him and gear up for a vampire hunt. Besides that first module will always be a fun adventure no matter how much you know. Who can pass up a vampire hunt?
That said, starting in Darkon can work too. The memory drain that everyone's pointed to isn't much of a problem - if you're starting the campaign there. Just have the campaign start with everyone already having been there a month, and already believing they're native. They won't have to adjust to a massive character history change, and it gives you plot hooks to play around with later on (where are they really from, hmm? Anyone else around that might have gotten brought in with them?) And again, it's a versatile domain, and Azalin's not too likely to pay them much attention until they start causing serious trouble, or else post without paying attention to the forum rules or going through Squalimous.
Worst domain to start in? Well, unless they're all Barbarians, Druids and Rangers, Verbrek will kill them straight off. Bluetspur will kill them, regardless of who/what they are. And most likely, starting them in Gehenna or Saragoss would (at the very least) rough them up a bit and/or give them scurvy.
As for starting in Barovia, well, it is definitely the heart of Ravenloft. But, as someone already stated, all roads lead to Barovia, as well. If you start them there, they probably won't get to see too many other places; whereas if you start them somewhere else, they'll probably end up in Barovia sooner or later.
It doesn't have an effect on true natives. Since the memory drain really just modifies people's memories to make them think that they have roots in Darkon, and then adding to the domain's population, it doesn't prevent them from remembering things like who they are and some such. Granted, non-natives affected by the memory drain view their past differently than they did before, they aren't totally different.
And as for Azalin's Modify Memory ability, if the players are low-level Darkonese natives, what reason does he have for messing with them? He's probably not even going to pay any attention to them for quite a while, at which point they're probably off bothering some other darklord.
Actually, I want to take my players around the core, so they can see a lot and feel the most about RL. Still, if I were to being the group again in some existing domain, I'd pick one of these:
Kartakass (I like it too), Barovia, Richemulot. I'd not start in any Island of Terror because I want them to be in the Core from the start, and I'm all for forests and open land. I just wouldn't pick Verbrek because I don't see much to do there nor Valachan because I never liked the Darklord. Same for Hazlan. Nova Vaasa could be an interesting choice too. For some reason, Darkon does not appeal to me.
W.C.
I actually found the memory drain to be kind of fun in frightening the PCs; an NPC whose Barovian wife had redently lost her memories warned them for fear that they would suffer the same fate, which gave them a lot more incentive to escape Ravenloft as soon as possible . . .
Barovia, Kartakass, Sithicus and Tepest are good ones, too, but you just can't beat Darkon, IMHO.
For worst domains--other than the REALLY obvious ones, like Keening, Necropolis, Dominia, etc.--I'd have to go for Falkovnia and Lamordia. Falkovnia is pretty much for the reasons HvF said, and Lamordia because I don't feel it works too well to establish the feel of Ravenloft. Its focus is too much on mad science rather than the supernatural for my taste; that can be really nifty when thrown into relief against other domains, but I don't think it works as a starting point of perspective. (Falkovnia is actually the same way due to its focus on human evil, but compared to the other problems with starting there, that's barely worth mentioning.)
All have semi-active Darklords that are powerful but not all powerful or obviously the rulers. Good mix of cities and wilderness.
Plus enough ties with western culture than you can have languages overlap and the cultures are simmilar so it won't be transporting heroes from Celtic and Germanic style myth to Transelvania and Slavic countries.
For outlanders Nova Vassa might works really well. From a culture level standpoint it's great as it has the same CL as most fantasy worlds so the PCs will fell at home. Lots of open space and its a big enough area for cities and dungeons to be thrown in. Just simmilar enough to make everyone feel at home and let their guard down.
Hmm...gives me idea. Azalin could fake a false retreat of Darkon, allowing Falkovnian armies to enter Necropolis, perhaps testing the might of Death. BWHAHAHAHAHA!
I know a few players who hate the "You arrive in Sithcus, confused by your knew surouding you stumbled opound a Caravan leaving for Barovia, you immediatly accept and find yourselves afew days later in Barovia, what do you do" If they are outsiders they want to play from the misty border and they don't all go immeadiatly to Barovia.
Metagaming one of my Player from Amn "They have guns in Dementlieu!" Let's go there right now!"