I heard about this as well...and honestly with the success of Ebberon I don't think Wizards are going to go anything with Ravenloft with a while, if ever. When WW owned it, it didn't exactly make the most money, and if it's not profitable, then they won't continue to make it. I would really like to see Ravenloft books for years to come, but I think that even if they did, with new writers and how Wizards is much more rules orientated than WW is, it would change everything.
White Wolf never owned the setting, they simply purchased rights to publish it. I doubt we'll see any more Ravenloft products; they've done a wonderful job of printing Dark Sun, Spelljammer and Planescape products after all.
No word yet on whether cut material from previous books might also be made available online, but I gather that it's possible. Gaz VI, Jade Dragon, and any other products that'd been under long-term consideration are vaporware, I'm afraid; we're only getting the Guide to the Mists because it was very close to completion.
No word yet on whether cut material from previous books might also be made available online
Unfortunately, the answer's come in and it's "no."
well now its all in hands of the players and dungeon master not to let it day, i hope a group like the old Kargatane will help support it.
for now the king is dead, long live the king.
Montalve
PD: from now on, no WotC books for me... this has made my mind and i am finally and completly moving to sub sistems like Arcana Unearthed and Warcraft with their own "rules" for D20.
at least my players acepted it comprehensively.... also i would not give them any other option :P
PD: from now on, no WotC books for me... this has made my mind and i am finally and completly moving to sub sistems like Arcana Unearthed and Warcraft with their own "rules" for D20.
at least my players acepted it comprehensively.... also i would not give them any other option :P
I'm curious why you're blaming this on WotC when it's almost certainly Arthaus that should shoulder any blame or resentment you might have about the license not being renewed.
darn, indeed this is a very sad and unfortunate moment...
well now its all in hands of the players and dungeon master not to let it day, i hope a group like the old Kargatane will help support it.
www.fraternityofshadows.com
I'm curious why you're blaming this on WotC when it's almost certainly Arthaus that should shoulder any blame or resentment you might have about the license not being renewed.
easy i believe Arthaus put aan effort and did what it can, but unfortunately this is bussiness and sometimes you need to cut your loses i am sorry for that...
but in the moment it arrives to WotC it would happen 1 of 2 things: 1) they would bastardize the system into an "Van Helsing Action Hero" kind of game or 2) they will just close the box and forgot about it... either, make me resentful...
also WotC thinks its more important just some flash things and lots of mechanics... and don't think a lot of the mood, sometimes i feel they are mostly inclined to hack & slaser and videogamers than Rolplayers in general... and Ravenloft was more in the mood for Roleplayers... thats what i liked of it.
and i thank arthaus because withouts its initial interest & effort we would not have Ravenloft again in the first place...
just that :D
Montalve
www.fraternityofshadows.com
thanks, i suppose it is a good time to join
I'm curious why you're blaming this on WotC when it's almost certainly Arthaus that should shoulder any blame or resentment you might have about the license not being renewed.
.. unless WotC insisted on an absurd sum of money for it (given they could see it as competition for their soon-to-be-published Heroes of Horror...)
.. unless WotC insisted on an absurd sum of money for it (given they could see it as competition for their soon-to-be-published Heroes of Horror...)
Which we don't know.
And how would Ravenloft be a competition for HoH? It was a setting that the book would have slipped right into, that WotC was given risk free money for. Besides, they're letting Arthaus sell the books to stores until June of next year. Taking back the rights won't affect the sales of Heroes of Horror in the least. If anything, this might hurt them.
I am a Ravenloft fan, but I don't see this as the most horrible blow ever. If you just look at the material that Arthaus/S&S/The Kargatane put out, Ravenloft's the best supported d20/D&D setting out there in terms of quality and second only to FR in quantity. There's already plenty to help with your 3e/3.5e games. Sure, I wouldn't have minded seeing Van Richten's Guide to the Mists actually printed along with a couple more Gazateers (and Masque of the Jade Dragon), but it was an excellent run.
you are right, it has plenty of material and they would be seeling their stcok for almost a year from now on... its just sad that they won't publish any other material in the future (until further notice, that is, and i hope they will do in the future).
Montalve
I am a Ravenloft fan, but I don't see this as the most horrible blow ever. If you just look at the material that Arthaus/S&S/The Kargatane put out, Ravenloft's the best supported d20/D&D setting out there in terms of quality and second only to FR in quantity. There's already plenty to help with your 3e/3.5e games. Sure, I wouldn't have minded seeing Van Richten's Guide to the Mists actually printed along with a couple more Gazateers (and Masque of the Jade Dragon), but it was an excellent run.
You know... That is SO true.
When I look back at Ravenloft's life so far, from the original 1E module to the now interrupted 3rd edition incarnation, I see a setting that's been explored and developed to a wonderful degree. From the innovative feeling of the original module and Black Box, to the moral ambiguity and fine details of the Ravenloft Gazetteers, the cheer panorama of brilliant plots, intriguing NPCs, exciting locations and colorful details the setting has accumulated is incredible... and beautiful. It even had enough steam to spawn a brilliant sub-setting (Masque) to crown its achievements. Add to it its devoted and creative fan community and outstanding quality of online supplements... Just wow.
This might be my own very biased opinion, but I find myself hard pressed to wish any campaign setting anywhere a better and brighter lifespan than the one Ravenloft has enjoyed. With all its ups and downs, and including all the bumps along the road.
That's what a really successful setting looks like, people. I only wish there'll be more like it in the coming days.
Well WotC are realising another book in the future for D&D called Heros of Horror (I think), I hope it treats the subject better than the book of vile darkness or as I like to call it 'what 15 year old think evil is'
nah, Book of Vile Darkness is just an exageration of evil, but that what most of the market would be asking...
i don't think Heroes of Horror would do better than BoVD i suppose it would have a feeling of the mix of Super Castlevania with "Van Helsing" Action Hero (i like the videogame and the move is entertaining, but that is not what i hope for a horror game).
and yea, i am with Keg of Ale, what the many developers of Ravenloft have achieved is wondrous and appealing to my "sensitivities" and as any of you i would just have liked there would have been more of it.
Montalve.
I am a Ravenloft fan, but I don't see this as the most horrible blow ever. If you just look at the material that Arthaus/S&S/The Kargatane put out, Ravenloft's the best supported d20/D&D setting out there in terms of quality and second only to FR in quantity. There's already plenty to help with your 3e/3.5e games. Sure, I wouldn't have minded seeing Van Richten's Guide to the Mists actually printed along with a couple more Gazateers (and Masque of the Jade Dragon), but it was an excellent run.
I think you hit the nail on the head (kudos to you), I would have liked to have seen Masque of the Jade Dragon but overall the setting was well covered. Could they have continued selling so many books? I wouldn't think so, but the books they put out were great.
Now if only something like a new Alternity and Star*Drive came out.
I have finally finished reading the Mordent part in GAZ2 (and believe me it's been a hard reading... never before I had to stop so many times because my eyelids fell down) and I noticed the thorough absence of something useful for any campaign in CURRENT Mordent (you get page after page of descriptions of DEAD families! How will they affect Mordent's current state??). So you said many times you would have died to do the writeup for MOrdent but you were instead assigned to Borca.
Now, could you please tell us WHAT you had in mind for Mordent? How would it have been if YOU had written it?
PS: wasn't Lord Godefroy supposed to be considered still living by the other people in Mordent? I got this impression by reading The Briar at the Window in Tales of Ravenloft. But from RLGAZ2 it's clear everyone knows he's dead. Was I mistaken from the beginning?
PS: wasn't Lord Godefroy supposed to be considered still living by the other people in Mordent? I got this impression by reading The Briar at the Window in Tales of Ravenloft. But from RLGAZ2 it's clear everyone knows he's dead. Was I mistaken from the beginning?
mmm from the time between Briar of the Widow in Tales of Ravenloft and the actual timeline there have passed a few years, so maybe they belive he died (don't know for sure, would need to read Mordent, i have the book there, but for the time being i am engaged elsewhere (my players don't like Ravenloft, so i buy just for the pleasure).
now that you mention it, i need to read again Tales of Ravenloft, there were good stories there and good ideas.
Montalve
Update from Gencon:
I talked to people at both the WW and WotC booths about the future of RL, and got a tiny bit of scoop.
I didn't catch the guy's name at WW, but he said it was WW's decision to end the line and that the reason was "We felt we did all that we set out to do, and there wasn't many other places to go with it." Now, I don't know if that's marketing speak for poor sales, or if they thought that non-core Gaz's or MotJH or future volumes of VRA, VRG, LotB, or DT&DL were bad ideas, or what. In any case, since what's done is done, I didn't push any further, figuring my energy was better spent at WotC.
Over there, I spoke to David Noonian, who apparently wrote Complete Divine according to a quick google search. I don't know what else he did. Nice guy. He said that the license reverting to WotC was very new info to them, and they have just barely started thinking about what to do about it. He said that things move very slowly at a company as large as WotC, and there will be many months of meetings and brainstorming before anything is done about it. But encouragingly, he said that he and many of the other designers are big RL fans, and would jump at the chance to do something with the line, if the company decides to do so. Also, RL was a big inspiration for Heroes of Horror, and while not explicitly set in the setting, should be quite useful to us, and parts of it at least should reflect the mood of RL.
I don't know if he will have any say in what happens, but just in case, I made sure to tell him how big a fan of RL I was, and that there were a lot of us out there, clamouring for more stuff. I would imagine our best bet would be letter writing to tell WotC how much we want the line to conitnue. That, and talking up the setting wherever we can that WotC can hear it. (Cons, Dragon/Dungeon magazine submissions, the WotC boards, etc.)
So, unless I was totally lied to, it looks like:
a) it was WW's idea, not WotC's
b) it has nothing to do with HoH, which might actually be a good book.
and
c) nothing has been decided for the future yet, so any small influence we might have should probably be brought to bear soon, while they are deciding...
EDIT:Oh, and one more thing: I asked the WW guy about MotJH and he said aside from VRGttM, they don't plan on releasing any more material, so I guess we can consider it officially dead. Sorry, folks...
Montalve
(reposted from the FoS board...)
Update from Gencon:
I talked to people at both the WW and WotC booths about the future of RL, and got a tiny bit of scoop.
I didn't catch the guy's name at WW, but he said it was WW's decision to end the line and that the reason was "We felt we did all that we set out to do, and there wasn't many other places to go with it." Now, I don't know if that's marketing speak for poor sales, or if they thought that non-core Gaz's or MotJH or future volumes of VRA, VRG, LotB, or DT&DL were bad ideas, or what. In any case, since what's done is done, I didn't push any further, figuring my energy was better spent at WotC.
Over there, I spoke to David Noonian, who apparently wrote Complete Divine according to a quick google search. I don't know what else he did. Nice guy. He said that the license reverting to WotC was very new info to them, and they have just barely started thinking about what to do about it. He said that things move very slowly at a company as large as WotC, and there will be many months of meetings and brainstorming before anything is done about it. But encouragingly, he said that he and many of the other designers are big RL fans, and would jump at the chance to do something with the line, if the company decides to do so. Also, RL was a big inspiration for Heroes of Horror, and while not explicitly set in the setting, should be quite useful to us, and parts of it at least should reflect the mood of RL.
I don't know if he will have any say in what happens, but just in case, I made sure to tell him how big a fan of RL I was, and that there were a lot of us out there, clamouring for more stuff. I would imagine our best bet would be letter writing to tell WotC how much we want the line to conitnue. That, and talking up the setting wherever we can that WotC can hear it. (Cons, Dragon/Dungeon magazine submissions, the WotC boards, etc.)
So, unless I was totally lied to, it looks like:
a) it was WW's idea, not WotC's
b) it has nothing to do with HoH, which might actually be a good book.
and
c) nothing has been decided for the future yet, so any small influence we might have should probably be brought to bear soon, while they are deciding...
EDIT:Oh, and one more thing: I asked the WW guy about MotJH and he said aside from VRGttM, they don't plan on releasing any more material, so I guess we can consider it officially dead. Sorry, folks...
Now, could you please tell us WHAT you had in mind for Mordent? How would it have been if YOU had written it?
It's been years since I've thought about it. I don't have answers for you.