Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Mar 23, 2006 8:05:22	hi guys I need a way to get my players into Ravenloft and I was wondering if any of you had any interesting and/or creepy ways to get them in? thanx
#2 gonzoron Mar 23, 2006 9:38:07	There's a thread going on right now with the same subject here: http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=3168
#3 Mortepierre Mar 26, 2006 15:08:30	If you settle down on using the "mists", do yourself a favor and pick a way that will be easier to swallow for your players than the usual "you're walking in the forest, mist rises around you, when you walk out of it you're in the middle of a desert". For instance, get your players on a boat for a sea journey. If they encounter a fog bank, they won't freak out. If they come out of it still on the sea (albeit a different one, but they won't know that immediately), it will be easier for them to "accept" they have arrived in RL when they later run into a terra incognita that happens to be the Core.
#4 zombiegleemax Mar 27, 2006 0:36:46	If you settle down on using the "mists", do yourself a favor and pick a way that will be easier to swallow for your players than the usual "you're walking in the forest, mist rises around you, when you walk out of it you're in the middle of a desert". The Mists don't have to be mists per se; in the deserty domains it often manifests as blinding sandstorms...
#5 Mortepierre Mar 27, 2006 2:28:55	That wasn't my point. The point was that the mists (or whatever replaces them) often provide the transition point between a normal setting and RL. Using them to make the players go from their normal setting to in RL is so badly handled in general that the players have a kneejerk reaction of "what kind of trick is the DM trying to pull on us?!?" By using the mists at sea, you put your players at ease and make the transition from one world to another easier to "swallow". I mean, it's not as if the seas on medieval worlds are completely charted, so finding a new land seemingly by chance is believable. Incidentally, it also helps create gradually a climate of fear when the players finally understand things aren't as they thought they were (something impossible to achieve when they realize from the start that they aren't "home" anymore).
#6 zombiegleemax Mar 27, 2006 15:36:24	For instance, get your players on a boat for a sea journey. If they encounter a fog bank, they won't freak out. If they come out of it still on the sea (albeit a different one, but they won't know that immediately), it will be easier for them to "accept" they have arrived in RL when they later run into a terra incognita that happens to be the Core. Wow... I think you must've read my mind. I sent them on a boat trip to a supposedly haunted island :evillaugh , but I could easily turn that place into a trip to RL. Thanks for the idea!
#7 zombiegleemax Mar 30, 2006 11:21:51	Well, aside from the Mists method, I have used two. One has already been mentioned, a sea journey that takes you into an impenetrable fog, which of course takes you to the shores of an Island of Terror. Although when I did it, I threw the ship off course first with a particularly bad storm. The other way I got my players to Ravenloft is I had them investigate a nearby town who's dead weren't staying dead. They investigated the cemetary, witnessed the reanimation for themselves, and traced it to a tomb who's door was wide open. Inside they found a portal which was filled with mist. They entered it, in the interest of further investigation, and ended up entering Ravenloft. Basically, the negative energy from Ravenloft was reanimating the dead. So, in a way, the Mist is still the catalyst. However, it was presented in a more interesting way than just "You are swallowed up by a strange mist."
#8 zombiegleemax Apr 25, 2006 19:20:40	I've often used an idea I actually picked up from the Lankhmar book. In the Lankhmar setting there is a location known as the Caves of Ningauble (spelling?). These caves have the ability to transport PCs to another plane (or possibly even a demi-plane hehehe).
#9 evil_dm_mk3 Apr 27, 2006 11:43:53	When our lot got transported to raveloft there was no mist, al least none we could see. We had been tracking down this madman with an obession about time, we entered his lab to find a dust and cobwebs everywhere and a large (well, Huge size category at the base) long case clock with the door open. Well call us the brave family muggins but we went through, the door slams shut and when we open it again. We find the lab nice and clean. Thinking we time traveled we tried to find the guy (and did) to send us back (he couldn't). Turns out that his obssession got him pulled into ravenloft and the born in a barn idiot left the door open behind him. Oh and he had fallen all the way and almost TPKed us, my paladin (with a real all or nothing justice problem, so a valid ravenloft candidate himself) got aged 30 years... We find out where we are three sessions later. Damn clockmaster.
#10 rotipher Apr 27, 2006 14:39:46	That wasn't my point. The point was that the mists (or whatever replaces them) often provide the transition point between a normal setting and RL. Using them to make the players go from their normal setting to in RL is so badly handled in general that the players have a kneejerk reaction of "what kind of trick is the DM trying to pull on us?!?" Very true. OTOH, if your own group consists of players who've never even heard of Ravenloft (e.g. if they're all newbies to D&D), and thus aren't familiar with the setting's cliches and reputation, then there's nothing wrong with using the Mists in a conventional fashion. Before it became trite, in the minds of gaming-veterans, that good ol' staple of coming out of a fogbank and realizing that you no longer recognize the countryside ... or the constellations, when night fell ... or the language, when you finally met some people ... had a great suspense-building, 'Twilight Zone'-ish, "Where are we?" feel to it.