What Projects Are Still Going On?

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What Projects Are Still Going On?

Post by DeepShadow of FoS »

Can I get a list of all projects in the works right now that still need help?
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Post by DeepShadow of FoS »

Should I take this to mean all current projects are full?
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Post by Nathan of the FoS »

Well, I speak only for the Nocturnal Sea Gaz. and the Van Richten Files, but both of those are at the "combining things and editing the results" stage, so opportunities there are limited.

I'm thinking of making a New World Order, with almost all canon and many non-canon domains combined into a "true" world (near-spherical, capable of circumnavigation, the works!) if you're interested in brainstorming about that.
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Post by DeepShadow of FoS »

Nathan of the FoS wrote:Well, I speak only for the Nocturnal Sea Gaz. and the Van Richten Files, but both of those are at the "combining things and editing the results" stage, so opportunities there are limited.
Good to know. Perhaps the bits I'm working on would best be sent to the next QtR.
I'm thinking of making a New World Order, with almost all canon and many non-canon domains combined into a "true" world (near-spherical, capable of circumnavigation, the works!) if you're interested in brainstorming about that.
Sounds very interesting! Tell me more.
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Post by Nathan of the FoS »

DeepShadow wrote:
I'm thinking of making a New World Order, with almost all canon and many non-canon domains combined into a "true" world (near-spherical, capable of circumnavigation, the works!) if you're interested in brainstorming about that.
Sounds very interesting! Tell me more.
It's an idea that's appeared here several times, mostly in the context of making "new Cores". It's the logical extension of that--to take most of the Ravenloft domains and make a semi-functional "real" world--one that would be less obviously jury-rigged to an outsider arriving in it.

I have the Core pretty well mapped out, but the other areas are a little more difficult to work with.

The Core consists of the following political units: The Darkonese Empire, the Holy Protectorate of Nidalia, the United Principalities of Nova Vassa, Falkovnia, Mordent, Ricoba, Borca, Valachan, Barovia, and Hazlan (kool names pending for these). There are large stretches of ungoverned and essentially savage territory in the north (the White Waste of Vorostokov), the center (the Thousand-League Wood, or Faerie), and the south-center (the Wolfwood, dominated by bandit captains such as Yan Bakholis, Gabrielle Aderre and her son Malocchio, and by the towns of the Kartakan League).

More to follow; this is only, as they say, the tip of the iceberg. :)
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Post by Undead Cabbage »

Cool idea Nathan.

I must ask, how does Zherisia fit into this? How about places like Shri Raji or Har Akir?
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Post by Nathan of the FoS »

Nathan of the FoS wrote: The Core consists of the following political units: The Darkonese Empire, the Holy Protectorate of Nidalia, the United Principalities of Nova Vassa, Falkovnia, Mordent, Ricoba, Borca, Valachan, Barovia, and Hazlan (kool names pending for these). There are large stretches of ungoverned and essentially savage territory in the north (the White Waste of Vorostokov), the center (the Thousand-League Wood, or Faerie), and the south-center (the Wolfwood, dominated by bandit captains such as Yan Bakholis, Gabrielle Aderre and her son Malocchio, and by the towns of the Kartakan League).
So, those are the political divisions. The domains break down as follows:

Vorostokov is Vorostokov, plus maybe some other bits, depending on later decisions. The North Pole actually lies near the center of Vorostokov.
Darkon contains Darkon, a pathway to Necropolis, Sanguinia, Lamordia and Keening.
Mordent contains Dementlieu, Mordent and Paridon.
Falkovnia is Falkovnia, and also claims large parts of the Thousand-League Wood.
Nova Vaasa contains Nova Vaasa and Nosus.
Nidalia contains Nidalia, Avonleigh, Shadowborn Manor, Tepest, and claims large parts of the Thousand-League Wood.
Barovia consists of Barovia, Forlorn, and claims parts of the Thousand-League Wood and the Wolfwood.
The Wolfwood consists of Verbrek, Invidia, and Kartakass.
Ricoba, Valachan, Borca and Hazlan appear as themselves.
Then something else--Kislova, maybe--between the Wolfwood and the Coral Sea, which lies south of the Core, and communicates directly with the Sea of Sorrows and the Nocturnal Sea. (I need to draw this...it's only going to get more confusing as I go on.)



I think that's everything there...

The rest of the domains are temporarily lumped together on the basis of nominal historical/geographical origin, as follows:

"New World"--lying across the Sea of Sorrows from the Core to the southwest. Consists of Arkandale (Andrew Wyatt's "Southern" version), Souragne, Nueva Aragona, Mictlan, and Cumbre de Oro, plus possibly some other stuff to round it out a bit (see below).

"Africa/Asia"--covers a lot of territory, there. Lies across the Nocturnal Sea from the Core. I'm considering (going from north to south and east to west) Vechor, as an island, then Rokushima Taiyoo (also islands), then Sri Raji (mainland). Then some mountains, and al-Kathos and Pharazia, with Sebua and Har'Akir south and west of that and Kalidnay south of them.

South of Kalidnay lies Saarkaath, and south of that Annaes (both homebrew, Saarkaath appeared in the BoS, Annaes has never appeared anywhere before.) Annaes is far enough south that it's temperate again.

Tsuu-y-Teke lies at the south pole.

The world is tilted on its axis in such a way that Tsuu-y-Teke never sees the sky get truly dark, and Vorostokov always gets no more than two or three hours of sunlight a day (the moon and the Northern Lights mean that the illumination level is often similar to daylight, though).

That means that nights are always longer than days in the northern hemisphere (hello, Barovia!) and shorter than days in the southern hemisphere (hello, Kalidnay!)

More to follow on general points of interest and topics I'd like to discuss, but let's start with this one: How should the non-Core domains be grouped? Is my grouping natural and effective, or is there a better way to do it? I'm putting domains into four categories: "Core," "New World," "Africa/Asia" and "Exotics".

Whoops! I forgot to talk about the Exotics. More on that when we return...after these messages...
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Post by Undead Cabbage »

Think Odiare might make a good little add on to Borca?

Love it! Especially what you have done with Vorostokov.

I take it the Thousand League Wood is an alternative to the shadow rift? Hearing that name I can't help but think of a messed up version of Winne the Poo. And what's Ricoba? (I'll guess it's replacing Richumelot)

I'm a little curious why Paridon, Dementlieu and Mordent are considered 'Mordent'. Is it that Mordent is a larger landmass, the the other two smaller parts? Does Paridon get to become part of the core :D? A group like this, you might want to name them something like 'The Common-wealth".

I'd say, as I think you're already doing, treat the 'core' as sort of a Europe equivalent, and then expand in such a way that you quite literally go full circle.

Another idea (as is apparent in some of your structure) is to keep type with type: the current core is kind of meshed with random neighborhoods of ghosts at one border and werepanthers at the next. It might be cool to have things structurally organized so that you wouldn't have to go across the world to find similar campaign styles (as you have already done by putting Nidala near Tepest).
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Post by Nathan of the FoS »

Undead Cabbage wrote:Think Odiare might make a good little add on to Borca?
Yeah, that's a good spot for it. Maybe on the Borca/Barovia border.
I take it the Thousand League Wood is an alternative to the shadow rift? Hearing that name I can't help but think of a messed up version of Winne the Poo. And what's Ricoba? (I'll guess it's replacing Richumelot)
Well, I wasn't quite going for the Winnie-the-Pooh effect, but I guess these things happen sometimes. It's hard to produce cool names consistently. :P Yeah, it's the Shadow Rift, except not a gaping hole in "reality", which is something I've never been that fond of. "Ricoba" is Andrew Wyatt's version of Richemulot.
I'm a little curious why Paridon, Dementlieu and Mordent are considered 'Mordent'. Is it that Mordent is a larger landmass, the the other two smaller parts? Does Paridon get to become part of the core :D? A group like this, you might want to name them something like 'The Common-wealth".
It's called Mordent because Mordent was there first. :) I figured that since Dominic was a native of Mordent it would have primacy over its "offspring" domain in people's minds. It's ruled by a House of Lords (mostly the old Mordentish aristocracy) and a House of Commons, who choose the Council of Brilliance from among their number.

I kinda like the Commonwealth of Mordent. Sounds good.

Another idea (as is apparent in some of your structure) is to keep type with type: the current core is kind of meshed with random neighborhoods of ghosts at one border and werepanthers at the next. It might be cool to have things structurally organized so that you wouldn't have to go across the world to find similar campaign styles (as you have already done by putting Nidala near Tepest).
Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do--put some similar things together.

For example, the northeast core gets Religious Fanaticism!!!, with Bastion Raines, Elena Faith-hold, and the Black Duke (now in charge of the Church of Bane) maneuvering for an epic throw-down.
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Post by DeepShadow of FoS »

Whoa, hold it.

Okay, so is there an overarching theme for all of this? Any general guidelines? I did "RL w/o DP's" and ended up with something quite similar, but I started with rules that led to everything that followed. Is this RL after the Mists have retreated? Are there domain borders? Are DL's still chained?

I understand that "put like things together" can be a perfectly good guideline, but I have a couple of concerns:

a) this does not explain all changes, such as putting the Black Duke in charge of the Church of Bane.

b) like things don't always go best together. There are deserts on many continents IRL, so why lump them all together here?

I'd like to see if we can hammer out some guidelines before plunging in full-force.
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Post by Nathan of the FoS »

DeepShadow wrote:Whoa, hold it.

Okay, so is there an overarching theme for all of this? Any general guidelines? I did "RL w/o DP's" and ended up with something quite similar, but I started with rules that led to everything that followed. Is this RL after the Mists have retreated? Are there domain borders? Are DL's still chained?

I understand that "put like things together" can be a perfectly good guideline, but I have a couple of concerns:

a) this does not explain all changes, such as putting the Black Duke in charge of the Church of Bane.

b) like things don't always go best together. There are deserts on many continents IRL, so why lump them all together here?

I'd like to see if we can hammer out some guidelines before plunging in full-force.
So, here are the guidelines I've been thinking of:

1) Ravenloft could pass for a real world in the sense that Krynn, Faerun, etc. are real worlds. It isn't, of course, but it isn't immediately obvious to an outsider. So--a consistent geography and no outright bizarreness (chief offender: the Shadow Rift).

2) The Mists. They still exist, but they're no longer overtly omnipresent; essentially, they just blend in better.


3) Tir-na-Nogth. One can transition between the "normal" world and a shadowy world overlaying it (how and when this happens varies from place to place, although there are some commonalities). By day the Thousand-League Forest is a rather dangerous forest of the ordinary kind, just like the Wolfwood; but on moonlit nights one can transition into Faerie without realizing it, and (if one is unlucky) never get out.

At most points Tir-na-Nogth simply mirrors the waking world, but not everywhere. Faerie and the Nightmare Lands are the two most important examples of this, although others might exist. For example, I'm thinking of making Necropolis another one--in the "real" world, Azalin just destroyed Il Aluk, much as if he'd detonated a small atomic weapon there, but the inhabitants and buildlings were wrenched into Tir na Nogth, where they continue their "life" as they did before the Hour of Ascension. Il Aluk can't be resettled, though, because the boundary between the waking world and Tir-na-Nogth is extremely unstable there and if you're in the Shroud after nightfall...

Tir-na-Nogth is umbral, rather than ethereal, in nature; it represents the transition between Ravenloft and the Plane of Shadow. (I believe John Mangrum refers to this as the Umbral Curtain, but Tir-na-Nogth has better connotations for the way I want to develop this particular idea.)

4) How to group things: yet to be determined. The Core demands to be kept together, and I'd like to keep existing clusters together, but beyond that I have only a few, rather vague ideas. I like the "New World" idea, and I think it works pretty well to keep Arkandale/Souragne/Nueva Aragona/Mictlan together, but I'm not all that pleased with my other ideas on this point, as given above.

I was thinking of grouping Kalidnay, the Burning Peaks (with just Kas; Vecna's goodbye present was closing the door behind him and leaving Kas trapped in Ravenloft) and Saarkaath, because they're kinda weird and because the terrain transition (mountainous Saarkaath to mountainous Tovag, desert Tovag (formerly Cavitius) to desert Kalidnay) works pretty well, and because they'd have a jolly time killing each other.

5) Which leads to another point--limited flexibility of domain borders. It really is possible to enlarge one's domain at the expense of another; it's just hard. If you, as a warring darklord, can kill your opposite number, you may get the whole thing.

So, for example, Kas' troops overrun Saarkaath; the surface is now his. Hakaan na Uruk retains the underground; the boundary between them is now at the domains' surface.

That's a bit disjointed, but I think it offers something to start from, anyway.
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Post by Le Noir Faineant »

:) Don't forget the NPC netbook!
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Post by Undead Cabbage »

Smile Don't forget the NPC netbook!
Yay daisy! :D
b) like things don't always go best together. There are deserts on many continents IRL, so why lump them all together here?
When I was talking about type with type, I was referring to adventure type. For instance, like how Nathan has linked Paridon and Dementlieu together for two realms that are more political or witty than brash-n'grab.

Tir-na-Nogth sounds wicked cool Nathan.
4) How to group things: yet to be determined. The Core demands to be kept together, and I'd like to keep existing clusters together, but beyond that I have only a few, rather vague ideas. I like the "New World" idea, and I think it works pretty well to keep Arkandale/Souragne/Nueva Aragona/Mictlan together, but I'm not all that pleased with my other ideas on this point, as given above.
I'd say if you wanted to you could even break up the core a bit, and add onto it as you please.

Although what would be cool is either a history of Ravenloft as if it has always been this way, or a global event that caused it to be this way.
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Post by Joël of the FoS »

DeepShadow wrote:
Nathan of the FoS wrote:Well, I speak only for the Nocturnal Sea Gaz. and the Van Richten Files, but both of those are at the "combining things and editing the results" stage, so opportunities there are limited.
Good to know. Perhaps the bits I'm working on would best be sent to the next QtR.
Well, send it our way first, if you think it can make a good dread possibility / adventure hook. Those we can add up to the last minutes and are very appreciated by fans.

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Post by Lost Heretic »

I must say that this is a very interesting and massive task, but I'm not sure if it's the correct project to tackle. I've only been paying attention to this site and reading it's material for a few months, but a common problem I have found in the articles (Note, I've only read the first six QtR) is that the vast majority of the articles are player-oriented or just tool-kits for Dungeon Masters. I have yet to an article which is solely oriented towards providing tips and insight. Most of the articles are really just ideas that someone's been playing around with and wants to share.

Deepshadow has brought up an excellent set of points:
Deepshadow wrote:Okay, so is there an overarching theme for all of this? Any general guidelines?
This got me thinking as to the immense potential that this project holds. I, personally, struggled with the canonical Core as I was creating the game that I'm now running. I personally threw out the canon material and opted to make a continent solely passed off of central and eastern Europe. (If you're wondering, my game includes a butchered Sanguinia, Vorostokov, Barovia, dark ages Lamordia, Falkovnia, an island version of Tepest that's more akin to Corsica, a less developed version of Borca and Hazlan) I personally recycled a lot of ideas presented in the basic campaign setting (Hazlik now has some traits of Azalin, Borca is a fusion of Richemulot, Borca and Dementlieu, etc) but the world became some thing different.

This was a lot of work and I struggled quite a bit along the way, but the fact that the various Domains are so modular, allowing Dungeon Masters to plug-n-play the regions where they want, provides a great potential for creating your own unique setting. As such, rather than just providing DMs with inspiration as to how they can rebuild the setting by showing them your own rebuilt setting, why don't we take it a step further?

A book to provide Dungeon Masters with the motivation, ideas and guidance to create their own version of Ravenloft could be a very powerful tool for the community. The netbook could provide essays on choosing themes, developing the lands geography (maybe even some information of making your own maps!), as well as text concerning developing new political tensions and trade between regions that have never had any canonical relations. Additionally, examples throughout the netbook would be very useful, and using your personal New World Order idea could be very useful for explanations as well as developing it as well. :)

So, is this too monstrous a task? Does anyone think it has some merit?
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