iv'e been reading alot of novels about RL during the last years. I have also bought the RL gazzetta and enjoyed reading them.
now finally i have persuaded my friends to join my very first Ravenloft campaign.
how ever.. i really dont know where would be a good place to start? All the domains are cool in their very own unique way!
personally i like Tepest... but im not sure if Tepest is a good place to start a first time campaign, maybe it will limit my options for a campaign?
im sure alot of you peeps know about some good domains to start your very own first campaign? Maybe even a few good advices about a stater plot?
your buddy
Ellefsen.
That said, if you want things to start small and easy, Tepest is a good place to start. It's one of the more primitive and isolated domains, which means you don't have to drop players straight into a great deal of Ravenloft-specific knowledge. Likewise, it has goblins, which are both very good starter monsters and familiar to non-ravenlofters.
On the other hand, Tepest has the Ravenloft atmosphere in spades. Gloomy forests? Check. Paranoid villagers? Check. Evil things lurking in the woods? Check.
For campaign ideas in Tepest, you can start off with something small, then work your way up. I find that a good ghost story can set the mood very well, while not requiring much in the way of combat skills from players. Likewise, some forlorn spirit, perhaps a drowned lover or some such, can tell the PCs that not all things are solved by swords.
Afterwards, you can raise the stakes with some goblin raids, to let the PCs cool off and perhaps gain a bit of reknown.
Then you can introduce the Inquisition, to make the PCs realize that people can be their own worst enemies. For added fun, insert a werewolf into the mix. The PCs will be trying to slay the monster in time to prevent the inquisition from killing some innocent.
For higher levels, you have Hags, which to my mind are a horribly under-used foe (and yet so cool). A green hag is a fiendishly clever foe, capable of subtrefuge and evil magic, while at the same time quite nasty in a fight. Alternatively, you can make use of the Shadow Rift nearby. Read some original fairie stories. A black-magic wielding Fey knight can be an incredible foe.
Tepest is actually a very good start location. If you get tired of the backwoods aspect, it neighbors two of the most populated domains in the Core, Darkon and Nova Vaasa, both of which have very distinctive styles (though I personally prefer Dementlieu and Borca for my urban wanderings).
I would say that normally we do not fight very much in our small group of players. usually we have a small fight every second time we play. We all agree that we would rather have hard and well thought enemies than just the standart from the monster book...
your ideas have inspired me alot, some times you just need a kick in the right direction to get started and you did just that (and a very good kick indeed.... auch
) so thank you.
any more input would be appriciated though.
your buddy.
Ellefsen.
Well, elaborating on the little ideas I put out in view of that...
Ghosts are easy this way, one of the reasons I love them as low-level villains (a good ghost encounter is one of investigation, piecing together generations-old mysteries.)
You'll probably want to start the PCs off in some village and let them gain a level or two puttering about the place before they start going into the woods. So why not introduce them to some old haunter? Let me think... Well, your imagination might be better then mine (I don't think well in mornings), but a murder story might be good.
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The Murder of Fiona
At the far edge of the village, right at the forest, is an old cottage. A very old, rather abandoned cottage in fact. The thatched roof was long since gone, the wooden door had long since rotted away, and what the weather hadn't destroyed, goblins had stolen in the night. Now, nothing but the wind blew there. The catch though, is that every time there is a storm, people hear think that the howl of the winds takes the form of a young womans voice, wailing in sorrow. One or two close-mouther villagers think they've even seen something moving during a storm.
Well, one way or another, the PCs need to investigate. Perhaps they're treasure hunters and heard that buried treasure was there, or perhaps they're simply new comers and need some shelter during a storm. One way or another, they get into the cottage during a storm.
And see a ghost. An ethereal young lady, very beautiful, if not for the rather unfortunate fact that there seemed to be a knife sticking out of her breast. She sings or speaks or otherwise enigmatically hints that she was murdered, and cannot rest. If the PCs are nice people, they'll jump to help, if not, she might lay a curse on them to do so (or promise a reward of some sort).
Now the PCs have to solve a sixty year old murder. This not being CSI, the only way to do this is to ask around until they piece a picture together of the events. The problem, however, is that the villagers aren't thrilled at the idea of old secrets being dredged up, with one old man doing his best to harass the PCs right out of town. (Shaking his walking stick at them and generally being a nuisance).
Eventually however, they piece together the story (to do so, they'll probably need to gain the trust of the oldest villagers). They learn, in a piecemeal fashion, that the girl Fiona was the sixteen year old daughter of the old blacksmith, and that at the time of her death, she was walking out with her father's apprentice, a young scalawag name Rafe. She disappeared however, and the villagers blamed goblins. Rafe, griefstricken, formed a militia and pushed the goblins back, but they never found Fiona's body.
Which the PC's need to do. Either through a great deal of use of a shovel, or with a bit of divination, or with the help of Fiona, they find the body buried beneath the floor of the cottage, with the knife still embedded in the skeletons ribcage. Not this is murder.
With a bit more detective work, the find out the murderer, either by asking around the villagers some more (whereupon the find out that the only evidence of goblins they had was Rafe's word) or by showing the rusted knife around (whereupon they find that its the sort of thing an apprentice would make). Either way, young Rafe was the murderer.
Except that now he's old Rafe. Very old in fact. He's the old geezer who had been trying to chase the PCs out of town. Confronted with the knife, sixty years of guilt breaks loose and he falls to the floor crying, and in the midst of begging forgiveness, stammers out his story. Fiona had been an incredible flirt, and had managed to charm the young apprentice with ease. Rafe had even asked her father for her hand in marriage, and they'd been bethrothed. Unfortunately, Fiona was not a girl given to fidelity, and Rafe found her having an affair with another man. In a cold rage, he followed her and killed her, and buried her under the smithy. And tried to get on with his life.
Which leaves the PCs with a severe dilemma. Tepestani have a rather strict view on these things, and the punishment for murder is death. So do they let an old man die for a sixty year old crime commited in a moment of passion? Or do they let a murderer walk free and leave Fiona never to rest in death?
If you want to be nice and give the PCs an out, you can have the ghost appear at this point, and have a touching scene wherein the old murderer pleads forgiveness from his victim, and the ghost grants it. Whereupon the 78 year old Rafe suffers a heart attack, and dies with his soul in peace.
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Or at least thats an idea. I'm barely awake here, but if you like it, I could probably come up with more.
1- Cultural Level is at least Chivalric even in the most backwater of places meaning intrigue is easy to intergrate
2- Non-human pcs are accepted into common society because Darkon is multi-racial. In fact Azalin's homeworld is Oerth (Greyhawk) if I remember well allowing for pcs very close to the Standard DnD. Darkon has several non-human cities
3- Magic is accepted and not necessarily considered evil
4- Azalin is the coolest Darklord ever
other good choices would be Richemulot, Borca, Dementlieu, Mordent for intrigue and intense role-playing...