Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Aug 24, 2005 13:35:14	what exactly makes Ravenloft Ravenloft...i haven't been "educated on this one...perhaps you could
#2 gonzoron Aug 24, 2005 14:03:45	Take a look at the Ravenloft FAQ here: (question 1) http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/FAQs.htm Hope you like what you see. Welcome to the mists!
#3 gotten Aug 24, 2005 15:53:13	Hey, welcome! If you have other questions after reading the FAQ, please let us know! Joël
#4 Prof._Pacali Aug 24, 2005 20:51:15	Ravenloft is a setting that combines gothic horror with the high fantasy of a regular D&D campaign. The central conceit is that the mysterious Dark Powers have taken the most evil beings in the D&D multiverse (such as vampires, liches, mass murderers, and Lord Soth the Knight of the Black Rose of the Dragonlance campaign) and imprisoned them in a demiplane. No one knows why, whether to punish them, or to reward them and nurtutre their evil. In each domain there are usually innocent people who are terrorized by the Darklord imprisoned there, and there is a need for heroes to protect these innocents. The heroes are either "outlanders", people snatched up by the Mists of Ravenloft, or they are natives of one of the Domains. These are the two styles of RL, the "Weekend in Hell", where PCs from Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, Ebberron, or your home campaign, arrive for short doses of horror, or the "Land of the Mists" style, where the PCs are natives, who may not know they live in a demiplane. The "Weekend in Hell" was the default style of the original 2E campaign, but after a while the "Land of the Mists" style became popular, and is the default style of 3.5 RL. Hope this helps.
#5 zombiegleemax Aug 29, 2005 19:05:26	so basically it is like a plane of Bad mofo's that don't take crap from all the settings and are willing to make the game a living horror...SWEET, i'll have to make my current eberron campaign (incorperating spelljamming) go into the 'dreadhold prison' and find out a portal to ravenloft is where their dumping all of the baddies that are too powerful to be contained...thanks for the sweet intro...
#6 Prof._Pacali Aug 30, 2005 19:11:03	It's a little more complicated than that. Most of the "prisons" are populated with normal humans (and occaissionally dwarves, elves, gnomes and halflings) who mostly live their lives normally. However many live in fear of the things that go bump in the night, while others have decided to take up arms against these horrors. Sometimes that leads to excesses, like the Tepestani Inquisition, which supposedly targets evil fey, but winds up killing arcane spellcasters and elves. In other cases people don't realize that the local ruler is a Darklord, and might get upset with people who try to come in and kill the "bad guy". I don't know a lot about Ebberon, but an Ebberon based domain would be an interesting way to get the PCs involved. If these prisoners are being sent to RL, there may be heroes interested in stopping them, such as George Weathermay (a major NPC ranger) before they terrorize the innocents of Ravenloft.
#7 gonzoron Aug 31, 2005 9:05:01	Indeed. Keep in mind that despite being a demiplanar prison, the place looks like a real world. And all the Darklords are imprisoned not only for their bad-ass evilness, but for their tragic fall from grace, and a certain gothic flavor. We're not talking the Abyss, here. So from a DM's perspective, it may be a prison full of bad mofo's. But that's basically just a bit of artistic license to create a world that reflects gothic horror. From the player's perspective, it's a land of haunted castles, gloomy moors, political intrigue, cries in the dark, monsters under the bed, bogeymen in the closet, crazed zealots, mad scientists, and gypsy curses. Like halloween every day.
#8 zombiegleemax Aug 31, 2005 18:03:19	I ran my best adventure in ravenloft "NIGHT OF THE WALKING DEAD" a module set in a swamp area. My players were on a raft and I scared the crap out of them with a crocodile which kept bumping the raft and knocking them in the dark water then when they reached the zombies mwua hahah
#9 zombiegleemax Sep 01, 2005 15:56:51	yes, now that i have done a bit of reading on ravenloft, i have become much more interested in it. I am obsessed with modifying everything, so i figured out some characters...Vol is a prime example of a lovely character. She was the beacon of hope to end a war between dragons and elves. The house of vol (mark of death) was working with the dragons to make a solution and BAM...Erandis d'Vol came into being. She was brought up to be the solution to war, be the head of her house, and also be incredibly talented wizard. However, they were found out and this was saw as a horrific abomination by most (and she was always told she was a beautiful becon which elminate the fog of war). She then was turned into a lich by her mother so that she could save her daughter's "life". That was teh beginning of her fall...She then went on to start an evil religion which took control of a country, created undead as a path of divinity, and then led her life contorting the world to her schemes... that seems like the fall from grace that fits the setting. She would be the "mistress" of her domain...because currently she has sort of a megalomania and would never miss the oprotunity to rule something without risking the chance of her immediate destruction (whole country of elves, then a continent of dragons after her kinda limit that on Eberron). My eberron game takes place 123 years later then what the book provides, letting me throw in the stuff which i want the world to look like. So if they develope a technique which uses a prison which developes some sort of taint as a planar portal which will forever keep the baddies inside...along with some tragic heroes which are eventually pulled in (it will then be something as a plot device) and it should turn out good...I hope none of you are horrified for me making these alterations...but as i see it...dnd is all about your own thoughts...and if you can add onto your own thoughts with that of others...that is wonderful