Thank you for reading this.
http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/Main_Page.html
and click on "The Study" link on the left of your screen. All the answers to questions about RL.
Happy reading & gaming!
Do not hesitate to ask other questions you may have after reading the FAQ
Joël
I was was curious about the darklords after I read the line about the one called Strahd looking forever for his lost love. Classic. How many are there? What are their stories? Is there any artwork of what they would look like?
Picture & background for nearly all of them have been published in several accessories over the years. The most up-to-date version can be found in the Gazetteer (3.Xe) series published by Sword & Sorcery.
Copying it all here would be akin to copyright violation, so no can do.
BTW, Tatyana is Strahd's "lost love" only from *Strahd's* POV. If you ask *her* about it, the truth of the matter (think "obsessed homicidal stalker") becomes lamentably clear. All darklords are cursed in accordance with the nature of their crimes, and the horrible things Strahd did, in a self-deluded attempt to possess this woman against her will, earned him precisely the curse that Ravenloft's grim, Gothic justice says he deserves.
I was curious about the one called Strahd. Is there any artwork of what they would look like?
Look at the top of this page, the vampire on the balcony with his back to the lit castle window between the logos for D&D and Ravenloft is Strahd.
Incidentally, it's drawn from the cover of the old (1e) module which started it all: I6 Ravenloft.
You can see it better here:
http://www.clydecaldwell.com/large_images/ravenloft.html
Also, a good summary of what/who the majority of the darklords are (though the art isn't that great) can be found in this book:
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=47_66
Stats are 3.0 though and were updated to 3.5 in the Gazetteer series, but it's a decent start.
Of course, if you're really interested in the background of the darklords, then nothing beats the old (2e) accessory:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1570&
It was full of info on the domains, their lord(s), etc...
The best part was that, being published at the time of TSR (the company which owned D&D before WotC acquired it), it still had all the references to the various settings from which the darklords were drawn (which made it easier to understand their background in some cases)
EDIT: forgot to add that while there are bits of info about some darklords here and there on the FoS website, there isn't some complete listing of them with background info. That would be copyright violation.
what page?
The forum you are reading right now. Scroll up to the top.
It says page not found on both links.
Darn blasted WotC boards and their mishandling of links.
There, fixed now. For the first link, the book I'm talking about is Secrets of the Dread Realms. Just click on its cover when the link takes you to the RL line webpage and you'll get a summary.
Incidentally, it will also show you what other (3.Xe) accessories were released.
From what I gather you can only enter Ravenloft by accident and for some reason the mists never let you leave. Has anyone ever done a campaign or have they ever made a supplement where somebody managed to get out?
That's far from the truth but that's because you're not familiar (yet) with the setting.
However, short of copying/pasting here the content of the books (which we can't do), you'll always have more questions to which we can offer only partial answers.
Long story short: there are two kinds of "RL campaign". The "weekend in Hell" type, where the PC are "snatched" by the mists and have to remain in RL till a certain goal has been reached. And the "native" type, where the PC are all born in RL and don't even know other worlds exist beyond the mists.
In its 1e/2e version, RL was focused mainly on the former. When it was converted to 3.Xe, there was a shift to the latter.
Why? Simply because players had become afraid of the setting. Rumors and misunderstanding combined to give it the rep of a place where the DM could **** his players at will. A "killer DM" dream, if you will.
Making the players start as natives solved the problem. Their characters would no longer be strangers in a weird world but locals used to the regional customs. They would no longer spend all their time trying to find a way out but concentrate on problem-solving. Plus, as natives, they would actually have a logical excuse to care enough about the situation to intervene.
Some DM still use the first type but that's no longer the norm.
Many modules were published, mainly for the 2e. Some (few) offered ways out, though it wasn't always clear if it was out of RL or out of a particular domain.
When Black Roses Bloom is a good example.
If you're interested, here is a list of every pre-3.Xe RL accessories:
http://home.flash.net/~brenfrow/rv/rv.htm
And, yes, many have run campaigns there. Quite a few campaign logs can be found on the FoS website and serve as good examples.