Café de Nuit

You can have both if you work for it. It's D&D. "Canon" is a misnomer, given the fact that the game is played, and thus only exists, at one group's table. Communities of fans such as this, as elsewhere, have used the term to refer to ideas, concepts, etc as those existing in official p...

Speaking of Van Richten, I think that sometimes we, as players, characters, and readers, need to keep reminding ourselves that he, although an authority on all things supernatural, is not an infallible source of information. He peppers his texts with such admission: "Unfortunately, there is no ...

actors (the day truly begins with the after hours parties) Actors have to rehearse though. Also a mirror is an essential item in an actors wardrobe which they sometimes share with fellow actors. Unless if it is a vampire troupe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gj3aY4pA2Y Budding actors, or actors ...

In my mind, anything that can, at the minimum, sow doubt in the minds of casual observers or those that the vampire in question takes into its sphere of unlife. It's mimicry (and/or arrogant mockery for some), but calculated. Something with a ready excuse, hand wave dismissal, a chuckle, fake surpri...

Sanguinia could work, what with the Masque of the Red Death analog, though the realm may be a bit smallish for a thick layer of intrigue. To bridge that you could merge Nosos, as Speedwagon kinda but not really suggested, though you'd probably have to knock its CL down so it better meshes, and then ...

Is Strongholds and Followers any good? That's a loaded question really, as it all depends on so many factors. Let me drop some biases first, followed by a few quick thoughts or opinions: 1. Any pdf that's asking for at least half of the price of a physical book with an equivalent page count is not w...

Strongholds and Followers is another good supplement for 5E too. Reminiscent of Basic (Expert/Companion/Master) rules D&D. Nice touch. I thought anyway.

Thanks man. Yeah, World Builder's Guidebook was a great jumpstart. Of course, after we all took a crack at mashed settings like "The Elven Realms" (pretty much FR, though with its paint scraped and without humans), "Dragonburn" (a peace offering to our one buddy who loved Dragonl...

Man, I have forgot how needlessly complex 2e was. Never liked it. Only 4e was worse. I always thought 2E was, by and large, a piecemeal game system. DMs (along with player preferences) added only what they wanted to add in order compliment their game. Hell, every table seemed so unique, so homebrew...

I prefer Falkovnia being about the horror of militarism, and having more hopespots. The "hopespot" in my mind's view of Falkovnia (wherein also lies a good portion of abject horror) lies in the Freemen of Falkovnia, or, a Ravenloftian version of the Special Operations Executive. It's a st...

I think Falkovnia is best served with a focus on the exploitation of human evil. Ravenloft, in general, as a setting that has Dungeons and Dragons under the hood, not a game of Dungeons and Dragons does horror. If the spotlight shines on (or, too much on) anything other than the wretched (every civi...

I'd like to see fresh new ideas for Ravenloft. NPCs, monsters, organisations, locations, a ton of adventure seeds, things of that nature. Maybe under something like "Ravenloft: Legends", but featuring both urban and rural varieties, in which only the reader can determine fact from fiction....

That's the part I get. It's brilliantly simple really. They "give" their game to their fans, but maintain a legally-binding option for quality control (it's not self-help if somebody else wrote the book all the same, so gifting the game like this is equally subject to the harsh judgement o...

I haven't done it, but the thought did cross my mind that Free League's Vaesen RPG could be a cool system to run Ravenloft through. Especially if you want a more basic, grounded/mundane approach. https://freeleaguepublishing.com/en/games/vaesen/ Casting the Runes (Design Mechanism) could be cool too...

Nice optics/turnabout, but is any OGL truly necessary? https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/beware-gifts-dragons-how-dds-open-gaming-license-may-have-become-trap-creators https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2023/01/19/dungeons-and-dragons-open-game-license-wizards-of-the-coast-explained/ Thi...