Now here's where you guys come in...
I don't know about any specific setting aside from dark sun. I would like to show the great contrasts that exist between Oerth, Toril, Krynn, and the other world of D&D. So I would like to know from you what the big differences are on this world(in comparison to the mundane, no-name D&D campeigns that are ever too frequent.)
-Eric Gorman
OTOH, if any darklord finds out you somehow can just leave, your party is going to be in for a rather unpleasant time. Figure captre, interrogation-- and if it's Azalin who caught you, succumbing to torture or trying to commit suicide in your cell won't faze him...
As has already been said, Ravenloft is a demiplane. Therefore, spelljamming isn't the best way to introduce it. However, such a craft couls still pass through a portal to the demiplane, or you could just rule that such travel is possible - since spelljamming technology doesn't exist within Ravenloft, nobody in the world would know of it anyway.
One of the important aspects of Ravenloft is a sense of horror and desperation. While the players should usuallynot feel helpless, they should often feel like they are pushing their limits. This tension is lessened if the characters can escape whenever they like. If you choose to use Ravenloft, I suggest that they be stuck there temporarily. They might be forced to crash-land there (and be forced to live Ravenloft until their ship is repaired - a long time given the rarity of trustworthy powerfulspellcasters in Ravenloft). Alternatively, their ship might be stolen while they are out exploring (for an added twist, you might say that the ship was stolen by another group of "outworld" adventurers; these adventurers aren't malicious, just desperate to escape the Domains). In any case, once the characters land inside Ravenloft, escape should be an adventure in itself.
Considerations:
Ravenloft is a dark world governed by alternative rules of magis and morality.
Spells that discern detect "moral" (good/evil) alignment do not function. Likewise, it is much more difficult to detect or identify the undead.
The undead are augmented by supernatural forces. Turning undead is a little more difficult and you generally can't destroy undead with a turning roll, no matter your level/their hit dice. Spells that create undead create double the normal HD worth, and spellcasters can command twice as many total HD of undead.
Acts of evil (and occasionally just dishonor or "ickiness") draw the attention of dark forces. These percentage chances of "divine" attention are called "dark powers checks" and result in the gradual transformation of the transgressor to a form more suited to his (or her) evil (many eventually become werewolves, vampires, or stranger monsters).
The most twisted of these cursed (and empowered) villains are "dark lords." Not only do they rule the land, but many of them are practically immortal. The demiplane is divided into "domains," and each Domain reflects the lord's personality, sins, and personal curse.
Magic is relatively rare (unheard of in some Domains) and nost of the most powerful spellcasters are evil. On the other hand, firearms and renaissance technology also exist.
Gods are distant; by some unspoken agreement with the "powers" of Ravenloft, they usually don't interfere.
About 90% of the population is human, and almost all the people of any race are xenophobic and not a little racist.
There is almost no way out. The demiplane is cut off from the Astral plane. Travel spells like Teleport now transport characters through the "mists," a mystic phenomena that transports people anywhere within Ravenloft. These same mists also steal things from other worlds, which is where many adventureres (and Darklords) come from.
This means the following:
You never know who's a good guy and who's a bad guy.
Evil is rewarded (in a backhanded fashion) while good too often goes unnoticed.
The deck is stacked in the favor of the monsters.
The villains run everything.
Despite all of this, the moral absolutes of the demiplane are more restrictive.
Once they're there, they should be stuck there until you're done with it.
Brandi, I will have to tell them to stay very far away from the dark lords and limit interractions with the realm's peoples. After all, suicide is painless, but not very fun.
HvF, it is true that most powerful individuals would know better than to come to close to Ravenloft, unless that individual never knew of its existance. going with the demiplane flow, there could be an area in the void of space with similar infamy as the bermuda triangle. and if the captain of the ship accidently enters it, or Elminster braves it, some really freaky shite will happen as the ship find its way crashing into an unseen world. Deffinetely sets a dark, we're-all-screwed kinda mood. Especially when the all powerful wizard with an Intelligence score of 30+ doesnt know what to do.
plus they would be some unique characters if the dark powers change them slightly.
Are there any scites where I can find 3e monster and equipment for Ravenloft?
Originally posted by IL DA BO
Brandi, I will have to tell them to stay very far away from the dark lords and limit interractions with the realm's peoples. After all, suicide is painless, but not very fun.
FWIW, the realm's people will probably find them disturbing enough, especially if they babble on about spaceships and whatnot, that keeping away from them won't be a real issue. The danger is more if the locals decide the PCs are dangerous and decide to chase them out of the area.
Darklords are more likely to pay attention only if the PCs start causing undue trouble. The crash may, in fact, be an example of this, but if, for example, they crash in Darkon and beat feet out of there (hopefully before a border closure) to say, Dementlieu, the darklord there may not really be bothered by them unless too much talk goes around.
Unfortunately, the best sources for 3e Ravenloft material are, for the most part, the 3e books themselves, even though the monster manual equivalent (Denizens of Darkness/Denizens of Dread for 3.5) have fairly large errata.
You might find it amusing, if you have access to older Ravenloft material, to look up the Dark Sun-themed domain of Kalidnay and get the crew stuck there. There is, unfortunately, no official 3.x conversion-- in fact, Ravenloft 3e can't explicitly mention any links with old D&D worlds-- but someone may have done a homebrew job on it.
... You know, I feel a bit odd commenting on this. See, I've never played Ravenloft-- I'd love to, but trying to set up a campaign is tricky, even if my own life wasn't going through a bit of upheaval. I've read and speculated plenty on the setting, though, and I must admit, while I don't want to discourage you, I honestly wonder if some of the qualities that make Ravenloft so special won't, in fact, be liabilities in the kind of campaign you're planning. Well, with any luck, veterans or even current campaigners (MSD might have interesting comments to make here!) will step in as well...
Originally posted by Brandi
... You know, I feel a bit odd commenting on this. See, I've never played Ravenloft-- I'd love to, but trying to set up a campaign is tricky, even if my own life wasn't going through a bit of upheaval. I've read and speculated plenty on the setting, though, and I must admit, while I don't want to discourage you, I honestly wonder if some of the qualities that make Ravenloft so special won't, in fact, be liabilities in the kind of campaign you're planning. Well, with any luck, veterans or even current campaigners (MSD might have interesting comments to make here!) will step in as well...
Well, I'm pretty sure it's not a place the characters would go intentionally.
However, it does make for an interesting "shipwrecked" scenario, in which the PCs are forced to endure this strange, twisted land until they assemble the components necessary to escape (whether that's repairing their "ship," recovering it from thieves, or finding some way out of an otherwise inescapable demiplane). Worse, they might enter the world on an important quest, not knowing that Ravenloft is the roach motel of the planes: "they check in, but they don't check out." However swiftly the quest itself ends, the next quest (getting back out) is already set up.
Could always do a little Event Horizon tribute.
Wow, Darrius Adler, that would very cool. I love that movie, and that would be a fairly messed up game. Even if you wanted to do it fanatasy-style, you could simply have it on a boat.
Great idea!
-Gloom
in fact, Ravenloft 3e can't explicitly mention any links with old D&D worlds
Say, why is that? I was checking out Sword & Sorcery's website regarding Ravenloft and noticed that it did not have any D&D demarkations on it. Compare this to the WarCraft RPG, which is NOT published by WotC but still has the D&D demarkation on it - in fact, the proper title is Dungeons & Dragons WarCraft RPG!
Any reasons for these?
the Commander
Older campaign settings that have been "abandoned" are sold to other companies in the form of a licence that allows use of previous material as long as it doesn't include information from other Wizards property (like mentioning some of the Darklords or thier histories for instance).
Other campaign settings, like Dragonlance, Rokugan (Legend of the Five Rings), etc. have the initial books written up (because these tend to be the better sellers) by Wizards and then the licence is given to another company to produce official material.
That way, it seems, Wizards gets the best of both worlds. They can continue to get money from things that they considered "risky investments" and they maximize profits on other specialty items, like campaign setting sourcebooks.
At least that's how I think it works, I'm probably wrong.
Anyway, long story short, Ravenloft in its current form isn't an official setting anymore and the material written by Swords and Sorcery isn't official, but Warcraft is.
Originally posted by Cyrus_Hunter
At least that's how I think it works, I'm probably wrong.
You got that part right.;)
Ravenloft is official, it just operates under a different license than other products.
(btw... it's correct, Ravenloft does not belong to the family of Dungeons and Dragons );)
And even though Sword and Sorcery can't do anything that mentions old settings, that doesn't stop US as players and game masters from knowing the truth. The Black Rose of Sithicus IS Lord Soth, and I know it, and nobody can stop me from using it. There IS a domain drawn from Athas. Hazlik is restatted in my games to have the freakin' Red Wizard prestige class, cause he's a Red Wizard from Thay. Harkon Lucas is from Faerun, as is the Morninglord and the Lawgiver.
Except it. Legal ramifications stop THEM from saying it, but we know it. Ravenloft is the most connected setting. It has Domains from basicly every setting published.
Hell, it even says so right on the books. (From the back cover of the one on top of my reference stack to my left: "The Ravenloft campaign setting is an officially licensed Dungeon & Dragons property.")
Sword & Sorcery has "official" rights to Ravenloft. However, they have rights to only Ravenloft, and therefore cannot reference other copyrighted settings.