We need a books & stories list

cure · Post by **cure** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 4:52 pm

Rotipher of the FoS wrote:Yippeee!!! Great work, Lord Cyc!

This ought to be added to the Mausoleum's permanent collection of lists, ASAP. What do you think?

Absolutely right, on both points.

Lord Cyclohexane · Post by **Lord Cyclohexane** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 6:59 pm

cure wrote:
Rotipher of the FoS wrote:Yippeee!!! Great work, Lord Cyc!

This ought to be added to the Mausoleum's permanent collection of lists, ASAP. What do you think?
Absolutely right, on both points.

Yeah, I've thought about that since coming back, that I left this project unfinished...

I still want to go back through the completed list and come up with some descriptions for all of the books, regardless of whether I have to make 'em up or not. Then I'll get it into Microsoft Word and then change it to a PDF and get that over to the Fraternity.

Sorry about having basically left this project for dead... I'll clean up my mess soon.

Sylaire · Post by **Sylaire** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:11 pm

That's what I love about this board: a thread rises from the grave and all of a sudden I have fifteen happy minutes of reading. Yes, by all means it should be in the Mausoleum!

I was all ready to pat myself on the back for finding an additional non-canon source: the kid's gamebook Curse of the Werewolf, from the same series as Master of Ravenloft but a lot more...actually Ravenloft-y (maybe it's the Stephen Fabian art? And some part of me just gets a kick out of the idea that Alfred Timothy's Wolf God is called "Lar-Tal-Bot" *snicker*)...but unfortunately the only reference in it was the unique spellbook The Tome of Time by the Mages of Eternity (I have no idea why they named it that; from what I can tell it's more The Big Book O' All Magic Shapeshifting Stuff since it covers doppleganger creation, werewolf curses, and out-and-out polymorphs...). Darn.

Lord Cyclohexane · Post by **Lord Cyclohexane** » Thu May 21, 2009 2:57 am

Lord Cyclohexane wrote:--- Romance from Beyond the Grave - Trash novel series, containing
.... --- A Love Beyond Death (VRGttWD p80)
.... --- The Dead Travel Fast (Gaz3 p19, SoD p249)

I've only just now caught the reference of "The Dead Travel Fast" in my current rereading of Dracula, by way of the new comic book adaptation adapted by Leah Moore, daughter of Alan Moore. The quote is from early in, as Jonathan Harker is met by the carriage of Count Dracula in the Borgo Pass, just after the carriage driver refers to how swift his horses are.

"As I climbed aboard the horrific caleche, I heard one of my travelling companions say something to another. 'Die todten reiten schnell' - the dead travel fast."

<><><><><><><><>

One of these days I'll come back and finish this Books And Stories List. A pity that I left it, so long ago, in the hopes that someone else would compile it into a PDF. Would that, instead, I'd just taken the time to learn how to make a PDF myself rather than hoping someone else would do it for me.

Nevermorrow · Post by **Nevermorrow** » Thu May 21, 2009 8:27 pm

The word processor in the free OpenOffice suite has a "save as pdf" function that works great. It also opens .doc formatted files just about as well as Word, so you don't have to spend time trying to get the formatting to look right. You don't have actually install openOffice.org either. You can get a portable version here.

The Giamarga · Post by **The Giamarga** » Fri May 22, 2009 1:44 am

Lord Cyclohexane wrote:Does anyone have the Dragon Annual 1 (for the Vampires A-Z article) and the Dragon Annual 3 (for the Denizens of Dread article, just extra kits for Ravenloft 2E)?

Has anyone looked up the Annuals? Else I will.

The Giamarga · Post by **The Giamarga** » Fri May 22, 2009 1:59 am

Rotipher of the FoS wrote:And out at the extreme fringes of "official" publication, here are the kiddie pick-a-paths:

Castle of the Undead (canon, if VRA's reference to the Bloodknife is taken into account)

The Legends of the Vistani**, by Ayre, royal librarian of Maridrar -- p. 66-67 (discussion with author's ghost; illustration of book's cover on p. 67); 113 & 159 (quotations)

[** - In-character, this book is either a primary reference-source for the more recent Ancient Tales of the Vistani (cited by Balfour in VRA, in his description of the Bloodknife), or else Ayre's book was rediscovered and published under a different title. The events in CotU appear to have taken place two hundred years ago, and Ayre's text was written 15 years before that, so this could well be the oldest of the various 'Vistani tales' compilations in the Ravenloft products: barring Mist-born chronological twists, it would've been written before any of the more literate domains joined Ravenloft.]

Slightly off-topic, but i have to ask: How did you deduce that it took place 200 years ago ? Also the canon status is still kind of undefined, as the book has several different endings. Which one of the story paths is canon is still to be determined.

Lord Cyclohexane · Post by **Lord Cyclohexane** » Fri May 22, 2009 6:20 am

The Giamarga wrote:
Lord Cyclohexane wrote:Does anyone have the Dragon Annual 1 (for the Vampires A-Z article) and the Dragon Annual 3 (for the Denizens of Dread article, just extra kits for Ravenloft 2E)?
Has anyone looked up the Annuals? Else I will.

Er, no, looking back on this thread, it appears that was missed...

Great catch, Giamarga! Thanks! And yeah, if you're willing to take a look through those Dragon Annuals, I'd be much appreciative!

SpiritCaller wrote:The word processor in the free OpenOffice suite has a "save as pdf" function that works great. It also opens .doc formatted files just about as well as Word, so you don't have to spend time trying to get the formatting to look right. You don't have actually install openOffice.org either. You can get a portable version here.

Excellent! Thanks for the suggestion, SpiritCaller! Being able to make a PDF without actually having to learn anything new will definitely make this easier. (If, that is, I can get myself moving again. Considering that I finished the list over two and a half years ago, and made it no further, I make no promises on when/if this may be completed...)

Rotipher of the FoS · Post by **Rotipher of the FoS** » Fri May 22, 2009 1:29 pm

The Giamarga wrote:Slightly off-topic, but i have to ask: How did you deduce that it took place 200 years ago ? Also the canon status is still kind of undefined, as the book has several different endings.

The 200-years-ago date comes from VRA and its description of the Bloodknife. Although the original book had several possible outcomes, the only ones that necessarily can't be considered canon (in light of VRA's contents) are those in which Velkaarn and/or the Bloodknife are permanently destroyed.

True, there's always an element of uncertainty when we incorporate a reference that had multiple possible pathways. But given that this is also true about Bleak House, House on Gryphon Hill, and even the original Ravenloft adventure that started it all, that shouldn't pose much of an obstacle, IMO.

DilisnyaRevenge · Post by **DilisnyaRevenge** » Fri May 22, 2009 3:10 pm

Hey guys... I'm glad this thread got bumped. It is really good stuff!

I noticed that there was some mention early on of a spreadsheet, but no one had the time nor desire to do it. I actually do database admin stuff for a living, so I'm used of dealing with data cleanup etc. and it didn't take me that long to scrub it up and import it into MS Excel. I figured it was the least I could do since you guys already did all the heavy lifting of finding everything.

I put it up for download from my old Geocities account:

http://www.geocities.com/tarokka/Ravenl ... s_List.xls

(I think Geocities is getting shut down later this year, so this link might not be good forever.)

Hope you find it useful!

PS - I hope nobody minds that I did this...

The Giamarga · Post by **The Giamarga** » Sat May 23, 2009 7:29 am

Dragon Annual 1
none (at least no in-campaign one, Bill Connors gives realworld sources for his Vampire A-Z research.)

Dragon Annual 3
none

Oh and I found an omission:

Van Richten's Wicked Garden (Dragon 273)
mentions Van Richten's Herbal Notes part 2 of 3, a secret herbal journal which in essence is the article itself. The other two journals were lost during a hazardous river crossing in Nova Vaasa. The remaining herbal journal consists of ten sheets of well-waxed vellum kept loose in a leather case marked with the initials "RVR". Some pages are illegible due to water damage, the others describe 12 herbs. They are in the possession of the WF twins.

Lord Cyclohexane · Post by **Lord Cyclohexane** » Sat May 23, 2009 10:36 am

DilisnyaRevenge wrote:I noticed that there was some mention early on of a spreadsheet, but no one had the time nor desire to do it. I actually do database admin stuff for a living, so I'm used of dealing with data cleanup etc. and it didn't take me that long to scrub it up and import it into MS Excel. I figured it was the least I could do since you guys already did all the heavy lifting of finding everything.

I put it up for download from my old Geocities account:

Excellent! Thank you, DilisnyaRevenge! I downloaded a copy, took a look at it, and it looks pretty good. This will definitely make it easier to update and collate the information.

I may, however, still switch this to a DOC/PDF file, mind you, just for ease of printability. I know that there are many people on the boards who prefer to have things in print format (not me, my house has enough clutter as it is) and unless it fits in Landscape, the database doesn't look directly printable.

The Giamarga wrote:Oh and i found an omission:

Van Richten's Wicked Garden (Dragon 273)
mentions Van Richten's Herbal Notes part 2 of 3, a secret herbal journal which in essence is the article itself. The other two journals were lost durig a hazardous river crossing in Nova Vaasa. The remaining herbal journal consists of ten sheets of well-waxed vellum kept loose in a leather case marked with the initials "RVR". Some pages are illegible due to water damage, the other describe 12 herbs. They are in the possession of the WF twins.

Thank you for double-checking on that, Giamarga!

Unfortunately, though, I've decided to not take entries like that. In short, I was mostly just looking for books that had been mass produced. This is what I wrote back in the past:

Lord Cyclohexane wrote:I haven't been putting journals, diaries, etc in my listing of books, unless that journal/diary/etc happens to be mass-produced. So even though there are a bajillion references to The Journal of Dr. Illhousen, I'm not putting that on the list as there is only the one copy floating around Ravenloft.

Why did I decide against that? Because the Van Richten Guides are drowning in personal diaries, all of which would be inaccessible to PCs, Ravenloftian natives who aren't inclined to raiding Van Richten's shop, etc. As such, doesn't seem like they're all that important.

DilisnyaRevenge · Post by **DilisnyaRevenge** » Sat May 23, 2009 12:21 pm

Lord Cyclohexane wrote: I may, however, still switch this to a DOC/PDF file, mind you, just for ease of printability. I know that there are many people on the boards who prefer to have things in print format (not me, my house has enough clutter as it is) and unless it fits in Landscape, the database doesn't look directly printable.

Awesome! I glad it will be of some use. Please feel free to make whatever changes you need...and if you or anyone else needs help with this or anything else like it, please just let me know and I'd be glad to lend a hand.

~ DR

The Giamarga · Post by **The Giamarga** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:50 am

Lord Cyclohexane wrote: --- Finley, Nigel. The Mind of the Vampire - Treatise on vampire psychology (VRGtV p78)

For those who might have missed it, this is a reference to the article of the same name in Dragon#162 (October 1990) by the late Nigel Findley who is curiously misspelt in the FoS RL Dragon article index as Nigel Finley too. I havn't checked if he was misspelt in the actual dragon magazine too.

Joël of the FoS · Post by **Joël of the FoS** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 10:41 am

My mistake, unless Dragon misspelled it too. I'll ask Ron to correct it.

Joël

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We need a books & stories list