just wondering.
The setting is even lighter on the magic than Ravenloft is, and the darklords similarly weaker. However, the potential for realism is excellent and a lot of fun.
I ran a campaign based in Whampoa and Hong Kong, where the British governors were maintaining a fractious hold on the edges of the Chinese empire under the Qing dynasty. The PCs had to make several very difficult decisions, related to the opium trade and to whether they judge according to the wisdom of the day (Christianity is the "true" religion, the white race is the only "dominant" race) or whether they proceed cognisant of the fact that the future holds a very different world.
One adventure had them infiltrating various colonial powers' consulates, trying to piece together a puzzle about a "sleeping demon" that would awaken in a century's time. In the end, their actions affected the final Kowloon ownership clause, meaning that the British government would eventually give it up to the Chinese in 1997. Whether the sleeping demon referred to the British or the Chinese was a metagaming question that I left for them to answer.
has anyone ever run or played this spin-off of the Ravenloft setting? not much material was published, but the fact that it is an earth-based setting lent a lot a material just from history alone (a lot of supernatural phenomenon has been recorded throughout human history).
just wondering.
If you can get your hands on the old material, by all means, get it!
It's not everyone's taste, but to me, it was THE RPG experience. (I had to choose between a mint WoG box and a mint MotRD box; led by some strange dark power, I choose MotRD and read thorugh the box for the next three weeks, forgetting literally everything around me. I can't think of any book or any RPG product that had caught my interest so much in the last 10 years... And still there's no day I do not mourn that I didn't buy the WoG box then. ;) )
So much potential...
So many possible spinoffs (Masque of the Red Death in the Cold War, anyone?)...
Haven't run a campaign on it...yet, but am seriously considering it for next time our group starts up (in about a month...CURSE YOU RL*!!!!). The stuff from the RPGA looks good, and the stuff from some of the old Dragons has got me really inspired. The 1890s were a turbulent time where I'm from, so this i'll work great if it ever gets off the ground.
MotRD really needs more discussion on these boards!
*The RL stands for Real Life, not Ravenloft.
I ran a MotRD campaign long ago, but set at the time of the Roman Empire, not the end of the 19th century. I got the idea from the article that was published in Dragon loooooong ago (forgot which issue) about mixing the books from the (then 2E) HR series and MotRD.
Dragon #249 - "Seeds of Evil." There was also Gothic Earth stuff in the Dragon Annual #2, in Dragon #240, #236, and #215, and #212.
Dragon #249 - "Seeds of Evil."
Right you are, that's the one!
So many possible spinoffs (Masque of the Red Death in the Cold War, anyone?)...
For a while toward the end of the AD&D era, the Kargatane tried to put together a project called Masque of the Red Death: The Great War. Basically a self-contained campaign setting updating Gothic Earth to 1910-1919. Unfortunately, it fell victim to problems common to most internet fan projects -- too ambitious, too much "I'd love to contribute material" from team members and too little "here's some actual material."
If it had worked, in in my pipe dream of pipe dreams, I wanted to keep going, hopping foward by 20-year leaps to present a series of alternative settings:
Masque of the Red Death: Blood, Sweat, and Tears (1930-1939)
Masque of the Red Death: The Red Menace (1950-1959)
Masque of the Red Death: Fear and Loathing (1970-1979)
Masque of the Red Death: ? (1990-1999)
Can't remember what I wanted to call the modern day setting. (At least, it was modern day at the time.)
Masque of the Red Death: The Red Menace (1950-1959)
Yarr, yarr, yarr!
Captain America, The Red Skull, The Sword Man, Namor - Prince of Atlantis! :D
For a while toward the end of the AD&D era, the Kargatane tried to put together a project called Masque of the Red Death: The Great War. Basically a self-contained campaign setting updating Gothic Earth to 1910-1919. Unfortunately, it fell victim to problems common to most internet fan projects -- too ambitious, too much "I'd love to contribute material" from team members and too little "here's some actual material."
If it had worked, in in my pipe dream of pipe dreams, I wanted to keep going, hopping foward by 20-year leaps to present a series of alternative settings:
Masque of the Red Death: Blood, Sweat, and Tears (1930-1939)
Masque of the Red Death: The Red Menace (1950-1959)
Masque of the Red Death: Fear and Loathing (1970-1979)
Masque of the Red Death: ? (1990-1999)
Can't remember what I wanted to call the modern day setting. (At least, it was modern day at the time.)
I noticed the 80s wouldn't have been covered. Not even the Red Death could match the evil of jumpsuits, leg warmers and "A Flock of Seagulls" haircuts.
Though interesting political possibilities with Thatcher and Reagan...
Captain America, The Red Skull, The Sword Man, Namor - Prince of Atlantis! :D
The way I was designing it, the only "real" fictional characters were drawn from novels and short stories. No movies, no radio, no theater, no comic books.
The way I was designing it, the only "real" fictional characters were drawn from novels and short stories. No movies, no radio, no theater, no comic books.
;) I already suspected that - so who would have been included? - *She*, Stephen King's Clown from *It* and the *Shining* crew, Anne Rice's vampires? ... Really, endless possibilities... And what about James Bond?
;) I already suspected that - so who would have been included? - *She*, Stephen King's Clown from *It* and the *Shining* crew, Anne Rice's vampires? ... Really, endless possibilities... And what about James Bond?
Yes, Stephen King would have figured heavily into the 1970s and 1990s versions (though his entire cosmology wouldn't have been adopted). Bond would have been eligable to show up too, as would S.M.E.R.S.H.
Rice's vampires would have taken some work to include (mismatched cosmology).
Significant NPCs in The Great War would have included Dr. Herbert West (who made it as far as being written up), Dr. Fu Manchu, John Clayton III, and Carnacki the Ghost Finder. After that it gets vague. Hannibal Lecter certainly would have been a shoo-in for the 1990s, though.
Would have been really intriguing to see that done... Interesting that you never worked for d20 Modern or d20 Pulp, as far as I know. Do you have any plans to get back into the RPG business again, Mr Mangrum?Those sounded really interesting...
The Great War seems to have been done...I have a copy from the FoS.
New idea (well, rehash of a really old idea): WWII...Who's to say the Nazis didn't really engage in devil (well, Red Death) worship.........
New idea (well, rehash of a really old idea): WWII...Who's to say the Nazis didn't really engage in devil (well, Red Death) worship.........
That was going to be the topic of the final BoS's MotRD framing fiction, had I been able to pull it together. Specifically, 10/31/1943: Himmler and... well, I can't remember their collective name in the setting, but the seven fiends who supposedly act as the Red Death's top brass, so to speak.
Nazi top brass meets Brass Chains!
Maybe the Holocaust was kinda like the Red Sultan's (or someone, can't remembe which) attempt to do something nefarious with a masss sacrifice.
Hmmm...
None whatsoever.
Sad thing. I noticed that you wrote for *Munchkin* as well, and it seems like you had some nice creepy project in mind. However, I spied a bit around the web, and it seems that you got a nice job elsewhere. Have you ever played Ravenloft with the kids during your trips? ;)Have you ever played Ravenloft with the kids during your trips?
I pondered the possibility, but man, let me tell you, at the end of the day you just want to lay your head down and crash. Not a lot of downtime during those trips.
That was going to be the topic of the final BoS's MotRD framing fiction, had I been able to pull it together. Specifically, 10/31/1943: Himmler and... well, I can't remember their collective name in the setting, but the seven fiends who supposedly act as the Red Death's top brass, so to speak.
"El Siete", namely "The Seven", IIRC.
Matthew L. Martin, Renfield to the Kargatane
I pondered the possibility, but man, let me tell you, at the end of the day you just want to lay your head down and crash. Not a lot of downtime during those trips.
:D *Ship of Death* - like scenarios would be a blast, I am sure! I have no idea, how old or respectively young the children on those trips are, but, judging from my recent Halloween experience, a trip through a dark swamp full of monsters can be either very entertaining or REALLY horrifying for the kids! ;)
:D *Ship of Death* - like scenarios would be a blast, I am sure! I have no idea, how old or respectively young the children on those trips are, but, judging from my recent Halloween experience, a trip through a dark swamp full of monsters can be either very entertaining or REALLY horrifying for the kids! ;)
They're generally seventh or eighth graders, for the record. I know we've had at least one D&D gamer onboard so far, but really, the kids just don't have the time.
I know we've had at least one D&D gamer onboard so far, but really, the kids just don't have the time.
Yeah... I've hosted smaller, but equally exhausting youth trips, always with the intention to guide some of them through dangerous and sometimes misty fantasy worlds, but we never found the time.
Hosted a LARP for children a while ago, though. MAN that was a chaos...