Ravenloft in GURPS

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Cool, more time for you to mess around here!

Good luck with the bar exam, HMB! Once you've passed, maybe we'll all chip in and buy you a T-shirt with the slogan: "Yes, actually, I am a rules lawyer."

[HuManBing]

Yes! And then I can finally change my "location" field in my profile to read "Everything I do is fully legal!"

I'm also going to finish The Bladeforge when I have more time.

[HuManBing]

Chapter Two: in which HuManBing attempts to port Ravenloft over to GURPS

Ravenloft Background Rules:

Tech Levels:

Most domains are TL 0 (Stone Age) to 4 (Age of Sail, as per the coastal advanced medieval near-Renaissance domains). Most of the populated Core will be TL 3-4 (Medieval Age to Age of Sail), with the northwest regions at 4, and the inland regions at 3. Large domains like Darkon could be at 3 inland and 4 at the metropolitan coastal areas. Sparsely populated domains could be lower, and some special domains would be higher, closer to TL 5 (Industrial Revolution for Nosos), TL 6 (Mechanized Age for Masque of the Red Death campaigns), and so forth. Conceivably, a Fallout-era 1950s "Red Scare" campaign could take place at TL 7 for Nuclear Age, and a 1980s thriller/horror like Silence of the Lambs or No Country For Old Men could be TL 8 for Digital Age. Some intra-domain variations of the actual Tech Level is certainly possible, e.g. Lamordia may have Tech Level 6 in medicines (antibiotics, blood typing, safe transfusions) but only a Tech Level of 4 in weaponry (muskets and pikes).

Culture groups:

In GURPS, Culture Groups are not as finely divided as languages are - the keystone example is that Americans and Italians in modern Earth both identify fairly well with a single cultural group (although they may have some minor differences) but they're quite different from Arab or Asian nations. Here I decided to go with the two predominant European flavors - the "enlightened" west European scientific realms (Lamordia, Dementlieu, Richemulot) and the "superstitious" realms like Barovia and Gundarak etc. The famous cultural misunderstandings between Gundarak and Barovia are still relatively minor and not quite great enough to count as a cultural paradigm shift in the GURPS sense.

• Coastal (roughly German/French post-Enlightenment, higher tech level, religious skeptics).
• Central (more eastern European, rural, medieval, superstitious).
• Darkonian stands alone because of its high-fantasy roots (multi-racial, multi-ethnic, higher-magic-level melting pot). Some other domains from clearly different homeworld backgrounds will also have their own minor culture category (Valachan, Hazlan, Sri Raji, Rokushima, Har-Akir etc.).
• Demihuman races (dwarves, elves as per Sithicus, fey of the Rift, and the Forfarian goblyns in Forlorn) have their own cultures, as do the Vistani.

Nations:

Many of the Ravenloft nations are given names with wry meanings in other European languages. While faintly entertaining, these do not lend themselves well to serious Gothic play. I have changed a few place names around:

• Lamordia becomes Nortenmark ("north reach").
• Dementlieu becomes Marésotes (corruption of Marées Hautes - "high tides", in honor of its many lakes)
• Mordent becomes Cosabel (corruption of Côtes Sables - "black coasts")
• Richemulot becomes Praquadie (corruption of "like Arcadia")
• Darkon is unchanged but the etymology has some backstory to it. The original name was just a title - The Darcalus Conclave, dating back to when Azalin's predecessor Darcalus loosely united the earls and barons. Azalin himself is not eager to remind the populace about the past and so "Darkon" fell into more regular use.
• Invidia becomes Întradevâr (pseudo-Romanian for "in truth")

Languages:

• Baloch: Barovia, Gundarak, Invidia
• Vaasi: Nova Vaasa, Hazlan, Kartakass
• Darkonian: Darkon
• Paradel ("noble tongue"): Marésotes, Cosabel, Praquadie, Borca
• Trecht: Falkovnian (low), Nortenmark
• Dvoryrech: Falkovnian (high - the homeworld language of Vlad Drakov and his family)
• Tepestani: Tepest
• Sithican: Sithicus
• Valachani: Valachan

[HuManBing]

The Fright Check - replacement for fear/horror/madness checks:

• Fear checks: Make a Will roll, with various modifiers (and max cap of 13). If it fails, simply roll on the Fright table as normal.
• Horror checks: Make a Will roll. If it fails, roll on the Fright table but add +10. On average, this will net a result ranging from fainting away with a fatigue penalty, up to a light coma - with a series of mental disadvantages in between (mostly in the -10 point range).
• Madness checks: Make a Will roll at half the usual target - furthermore, all IQ-based bonuses to this roll are capped at +4 (meaning that most people with normal Will scores will have a modified 9, or less than 50%). If this fails, roll on the Fright table with +15, and use the Sanity-blasting Fright check mechanic (below).

All the effects of Fear, Horror, and Madness checks in d20 Ravenloft are present in GURPS' Fright Check mechanic B360. The Fright Check table goes from 4 to about 40 or so, with the results steadily increasing in severity, from stunning to fainting and retching, to increasingly profound mental effects like disadvantages.

The DM should prepare effects for major situations the PCs are likely to encounter (as per Call of Cthulhu). Mental disadvantages (B119-166) are a good place to start, including Quirks (a 1-point penalty that's very minor eg a small delusion or minor dislike, etc.), Delusions (eg "the King can see me through every single coin - I saw his eyes move in the metal!" therefore PC can't use Darkonian currency), and Phobias (GURPS has a list, with a points listing for each one, so Autophobia, the fear of being left alone, is far worse than Ailurophobia, the fear of cats).

This mental disadvantage can be "bought off" slowly by using character points. The DM may require other in-game exercises as well, such as the type of psychotherapy seen in the Forbidden Lore boxed set, or may set up a method for the PC to confront and prevail over his inner demons (eg finally standing up to that Falkovnian soldier and learning not to fear the Falcon's crest).

Citizens of each domain can have different flavors of mental disadvantages. The Phobia list of disadvantages is especially colorful, and I can see a Darkonian citizen having quite different triggers for outright panic than, say, a Falkovnian citizen. The former might react poorly to hints of grave desecration or other undead-related triggers. The latter might cringe and cower when hearing armor plates clink, and completely go to pieces when challenged by a military type.

Sanity-blasting Fright checks:

I have checked the 4th Ed. of the Horror supplement, and this mechanic no longer exists. I'll "spoiler" tag the text, in case it's useful, but it's from an unsupported edition and I'm not sure how well it works with current rules.

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In the 3rd ed. Horror supplement book, there is an optional type of Fright Check called the Sanity check, which basically halves the entire target roll value (so a total of 14 would become 7), and it also limits all IQ-based bonuses to the Fright Check to a maximum of +4. Failure means the victim also permanently loses Will, which affects his ability to resist future such rolls. After looking at the effects of the Fright check table, I would even add a +15 modifier to the table result, which would cover the average range from 25 (gain a new Phobia or have a preexisting one get one step worse) to 33 (total panic, complete loss of control over character and utterly chaotic behavior).

This is a very tough mechanic, and is only suggested for Cthulhu-style campaigns, where the players discover Something That Simply Cannot Be. It would probably correspond to a Malignant Paradigm Shift in standard Ravenloft rules - something that happens very rarely even in Ravenloft. A key example of this might be a Darkonian PC who has just personally witnessed Azalin's true state, after a lifetime of believing the official line that he is humanity's last bulwark against the Gray Realm. A Falkovnian might be forced to take this check upon confronting Vladimir Ludzig in his lair - especially if the Falkovnian has been a skeptic all his life about the existence of any supernatural beings whatsoever.

[HuManBing]

Powers Checks:

• Converted to a 3d6 roll instead of d20's d% roll.
• GURPS does not have a Law/Chaos, Good/Evil alignment axis. Instead, compare the list of crimes vs. the type of victims.
• Crimes marked with (*) are crimes of trust - your action was wrong because the victim had some degree of trust in you. Note that this may be inapplicable to hostiles: if you owe them no duty of trust to begin with, you cannot conceptually betray them.
• Crimes marked with a carrot (^) are crimes which can be mitigated by self-defense. If there is a valid and genuine self-defense concern, then reduce the relevant number by 1.
• Take the worse of intent or outcome. The DPs will punish mens rea even without actus reus if it's bad enough.

Crimes against people or property
Note: this table does not list a separate category for crimes committed against Dependents. The GM should handle those on a case-by-case basis, perhaps assigning it a flat 10 (50% failure rate), or even assigning a failure right then and there.

Violation name	Against hostile	Against neutral	Against friendly
Battery, non-grievous^:	3 (0.46%)	4 (1.85%)	5 (4.63%)
Battery, potentially grievous^:	4 (1.85%)	5 (4.63%)	6 (9.26%)
Betrayal, social*:	4 (1.85%)	5 (4.63%)	6 (9.26%)
Betrayal, physical*:	5 (4.63%)	6 (9.26%)	7 (16.2%)
Murder^:	5 (4.63%)	6 (9.26%)	7 (16.2%)
Torture:	6 (9.26%)	7 (16.2%)	8 (25.93%)
Theft*:	3 (0.46%)	4 (1.85%)	5 (4.63%)

Violations against ideals

The violations for Tenets, Oaths, and Vows all sound like behavioral disadvantages under the GURPS system, so we'll go with those instead. These include Code of Honor, Disciplines of Faith, Duty, and Vow disadvantages - all of these are objective (or at the very least, externalized) constraints. It can include Pacifism and Sense of Duty, which are normally just subjective internalized constraints, especially if they have been declared or otherwise form the basis of a faith relationship or similar.

The base chance of powers check failure for violation any of the above is 3. Add +1 for each full 5 points of the disadvantage. Thus, a disadvantage totalling -15 points will give you a modifier of 3 to the roll. The powers check roll is against 3+3=6 (9.26%).

The ideals roll is generally a little less serious than the violence roll above. Religions and philosophies in Ravenloft are generally less absolute than they were outside of it - the Dark Powers are not nearly as interested in a priest's violation of a faraway god's edict than they are at how the same priest treats other parishioners here in his diocese within the Demiplane.

At some point I'm going to try to tie this in with Spirit-Assisted magic or black magic casting, which should also attract the Dark Powers' attention.

[HuManBing]

Curses:

A curse is closely related to the powers check - in many ways, a curse functions similarly as a "prayer" to the Dark Powers. As such, curses usually take effect more reliably than simple Dark Powers checks, although their end result is unlikely to be as dramatic. Most curses give effects that can be expressed in terms of disadvantages, and the equivalent cost of the disadvantage will affect the likelihood.

The formula for resolving curses is a Quick Contest of the invoker's Will vs. the victim's resistance (usually Will, although HT and Per sometimes count), reduced in likelihood for the severity of the curse, and increased in likelihood for the severity of the violation.

Invoker's Will: This is straightforward - the invoker may use their Will score, plus any levels in Voice of Wrath (see feats, above).

Victim's Resistance: This depends on the GM's call and the campaign flavor. The three stats usually used to resist a curse would be Will, Per, or HT.

Severity of the curse: Calculate the curse as a Disadvantage and price it accordingly. For each full or partial multiple of [-5] points of the disadvantage, the curse has 1 level of severity. Each level of severity reduces the likelihood of success by 1. Thus, a curse of permanent Blindness (value [-50]) would be at -10 likelihood to take hold. A curse that strikes somebody dead would be at least that serious, if not moreso. Note that disadvantages can have modifiers that limit when they occur, so Blindness could be modified with "while harboring lustful thoughts" or "while attempting to commit larceny". These reduce the penalty of the disadvantage, and thus make the curse more likely to succeed. Somebody who carefully tailors a curse to punish a specific violation is thus much more likely to see it succeed than somebody who just calls on the Dark Powers to strike somebody blind forever.

Some curses have mitigators or escape clauses. These usually require some duty, code of behavior, or other form of restitution. These usually count as disadvantages too. Where a curse allows a mitigator, calculate the two disadvantages separately and then average them as a mean.

Severity of the violation: This draws on the Powers checks table above. Consider the violation that the invoker perceives they have suffered by the intended target of the curse.

Violation name	Against hostile	Against neutral	Against friendly
Battery, non-grievous:	+1	+2	+3
Battery, potentially grievous:	+2	+3	+4
Betrayal, social:	+2	+3	+4
Betrayal, physical:	+3	+4	+5
Murderous or Fatal:	+3	+4	+5
Torture:	+4	+5	+6
Theft:	+1	+2	+3

These are rough guidelines - the assumptions for the Murderous/Fatal and Torture crimes require that the perpetrator (or a reasonable person in their position) had some idea that their action would cause the curse-invoker such pain. A man who jilts his bride at the altar may be guilty of Betrayal, Social at the very least - if he knew that she loved him to the point where she could not live without him, then he might well be guilty of Murderous or Fatal acts (especially if she was known to be likely to contemplate suicide as a direct result of his actions).

"Torture" is a special case - here it can encompass psychological torment as well as physical.

Where the invoker has no reasonable basis for laying the curse on a particular victim, there is no modifier for violation. Thus, curses which are flippant or frivolous rarely work well... but any individual who has enough ranks in Voice of Wrath (such as Gabrielle Aderre or Madame Eva) would be rightly feared by all folk.

Multiple violations in one curse: Where a perpetrator has committed several violations, take the most serious violation, and add +1 for each other related violation within 1 of the most serious violation. Thus, if somebody has stolen a knife from a Neutral (+2) to commit murder against a Neutral (+4) and torture against a Neutral (+5), it's the murder at +5 and torture at +4 that count, not the piddling offense of stealing the knife. In that example, the Torture gives its full modifier of +5, and the murder gives a further +1 to that. The theft of the knife gives nothing.

Example: Breszvard, a Talon in Falkovnia, slaughters a farmer after violating and killing his wife and daughter. The farmer, with his dying breath, curses the Talon with debilitating fatigue whenever he raises his hand against an innocent. The farmer pleads that Breszvard suffer this curse unless he atones and becomes the protector that a soldier should be. "Let the moon wash his crimes clean", the farmer says, and dies.

The farmer's Will is 10. The curse affects Breszvard's physical strength, but the act that caused it was one of his own brutal judgment. The GM decides to go with Will instead as Breszvard's resistance. His Will is also 10.

The curse's main focus is to reduce Breszvard's ST. The GM can decide how many points to actually reduce, but for most people, a reduction of 8 points would render him useless as a fighter. This is a disadvantage of [-80]. However, it occurs only when he is engaged in combat or use of force, and only against innocents. The GM rules that this is an Accessibility modifier, and in Falkovnia this would be middling common, so worth (-30%) for a total of [-56]. Also, the GM decides that the line about the "moon washing crimes clean" refers to a grace period (Onset modifier) which can be arbitrarily set at a week (for -40%) [-24]. Breszvard won't feel the effects of the curse for a week, allowing him to make amends before then if he so wishes. Making amends and "behaving like a protector, as a soldier ought to" counts as a permanent disadvantage equivalent to a Code of Honor (Chivalry), which is worth [-15].

The curse's final modifier is the mean of [-24] and [-15], which is [-20], so the severity is -4 (divided by 5, rounding up any fractions).

Compare this against the violations committed by Breszvard. The farmer was Neutral to Breszvard, and Breszvard violated the farmer's women in front of him, which certainly qualifies as Torture. He also killed both women, which qualifies as two counts of murder. He finally killed the farmer, for a third count. The worst count is the +5 for Torture against a Neutral. Breszvard also incurs a +3 total for the three murders, for a total of +8. (Arguably, the Torture could be three separate counts for each family member, for a total of +10.)

The final tally is a Quick Contest between the farmer's Will at 10 and Breszvard's Will at 10, with a -4 for severity and a +8 for violation. The farmer gets a total of +4 to his roll, and Breszvard doesn't.

A Quick Contest requires the first mover to actually succeed on their roll, and then the respondent must succeed to an equal or greater margin. The farmer's mean die roll will be 10, against a score of 14, meaning a margin of 4. Breszvard needs to roll 6 or lower on 3d6, which is roughly a 10% chance...


Note also that a failed curse does not necessarily forestall a Powers check. Although the Powers check may be overkill in the case of a successfully laid curse, it could be entirely appropriate in the event of a failed curse. Even though the Powers did not answer the prayers of a mortal, they could still quite feasibly decide to take action on their own against a particularly bad specimen.

[HuManBing]

Combat

In GURPS, combat is handled differently from d20. Each round only lasts one second, so a player will often have to spread out his actions across several different rounds, when he would normally do it in one via d20 combat. Armor in GURPS affects combat by reducing the damage taken, but it's a testament to the balance of the game that very few types of armor will provide full invulnerability to a given attack. Also, weapons tend to do more damage than in d20 (usually a dice range for the weapon, plus a dice range for the user's STR), and most firearms will very likely kill or incapacitate in one hit.

In Ravenloft, this is exactly the sort of mechanic you want for combat. Combat should be dangerous, risky, and with the possibility of permanent or longterm debilitating effects.

• Shock: Each time a character is hit for damage, he suffers a shock penalty to all DX and IQ related skills for the next second. The penalty is equal to the amount of damage he took, maximum of -4. This does NOT affect movement or active defenses such as Dodge, Block, and Parry (which are dependent on DX, but are not technically speaking skills). It DOES affect most weapon attacks, most noncombat skills, and most rational-based IQ skills. What this means is, if you're hit one turn in combat, you're best off going completely defensive for a turn until your shock penalty wears off, rather than trying to counterattack with a significant penalty! (A -4 penalty on a 3d6 dice roll is very significant, unlike the d20 flat probability roll.)
• Bleeding: This is an optional rule, but it fits Ravenloft well. If you've taken damage, then for every full minute after suffering damage, you roll against HT with a -1 per 5 HP taken. Failure means you lose an extra 1HP to bleeding, or 3HP on a critical failure. Not all wounds will bleed - GMs usually rule that cutting, impaling, and piercing weapons bleed, but crushing usually doesn't.
• Reeling: Optional rule. If you're at 1/3 HP or less, you're reeling from your wounds. Halve movement and Dodge. Note that this is a significant change from D&D 4E, where being "bloodied" means you have certain bonuses! In GURPS, as in real life, taking punishment makes you less effective, not more. The only thing you're better at while badly wounded is dying.
• Hit Locations: Depending on the GM, the campaign may feature hit locations. Limbs have a different amount of HP to the main body, and if a hit would normally have caused serious damage to the body, a kind GM may handwave it as a limb hit. Other GMs who like realism will incorporate hit locations to the attack roll. Armor protects hit locations differently, and some locations will be less armored than others.
• Major Wounds: Anything that deals over half total HP is a major wound, with special rules for stunning and knockdown. Any strike that hits the head, vitals, or groin (males only) with enough damage to deal a shock penalty (above) also can cause stunning and knockdown.
• Crippling Injury: Like Hit Locations, GMs who prefer realistic deadly combat can also follow these rules, which allow for disabling of limbs and organs with sufficient damage. These rules can also make combat less deadly if the GM is running a more cinematic campaign - he can "fudge" the dice rolls to inflict limb hits instead of more deadly torso, vitals, or head hits.

Gunpowder weapons and Tactical Dodging:

GURPS has three defenses: Block (as with a shield), Parry (as with a weapon), and Dodge. Against gunpowder weapons, Parry is entirely ineffective and Block is generally ineffective (riot shields not having been invented yet). Dodge allows the player to reactively attempt to avoid a blow, even one that happens on somebody else's turn. However, gunpowder projectiles move much faster than arrows or sling stones, so "dodging a bullet" is not really possible. Instead, GURPS Tactical Shooting allows a player to select one attacker and then to dodge on that attacker's turn as a free action, if the attacker shoots at the player. The dodge roll is effective against that one attack only - all other attacks done during the turn are at standard chances.

Gunpowder weapons in GURPS otherwise follow all the rules of standard weapons. GURPS' damage tables are calculated such that most gunpowder weapons carry a significant risk of critical injury or death with each hit - which is well-suited to Ravenloft's lesser focus on combat.

[HuManBing]

Heroes of Ravenloft:

Character Points:

Most campaigns in Ravenloft will want to stay no higher than 100 points for characters. In GURPS terms, this puts them at roughly the same level of achievement as star athletes, seasoned soldiers/policemen, or talented scientists and doctors. Campaigns with PCs as outsiders from other worlds can feature higher point totals, and those featuring PCs as normal inhabitants of Ravenloft may even want to go as low as 50 or 25 points to begin with.

Notes: GURPS does not have class levels. Each character, NPC, or creature is constructed from the ground up using Character Points, a universal system that dictates attributes, skills, innate advantages and disadvantages, and so forth. This allows for a large degree of customizability that d20 system didn't have.

For comparison's sake, "high fantasy" characters featured in the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy line of books have about 250 Character Points, for clearly larger-than-life personalities. GURPS Monsters lists Dracula at 993 points and Frankenstein's Monster at 273.5 points. GURPS Who's Who 2 lists Josef Stalin at 120 and Adolf Hitler at 61.

Attributes: GMs should stick fairly close to the guidelines - no more than 50% of the CP limit in disadvantages, no more than a +/-30% variation in secondary attributes from primary (so a ST of 10 should not yield more than 13 HP). ST may be significant, but DX, IQ, HT, Per, and Will all should fall in the 7-12 range, because most skill checks will be a roll of 3d6 against such an attribute. Raising the attribute beyond 15 will mean the PC fails very infrequently. Remember that a +1 or a +2 to a skill check in GURPS is much more of a bonus than in d20!

[ewancummins]

Will you be limiting mages [and power-Invested clerics] to certain schools of magic, by magical tradition or ethos?

[HuManBing]

Advantages:

As a general rule, Ravenloft is not a "cinematic" campaign setting. This applies to advantages and disadvantages as well, so any that have "cinematic" in the description should be considered off-limits in Ravenloft... at least for starting PCs. (Some NPCs and many Darklords would have these, and some PCs might be able to acquire them, but they should be treated with a fair bit of plot-line gravitas.)

Suitable advantages for PCs and allies: (* shows special notes below)

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Ambidexterity, Animal Empathy, Appearance, Blessed, Breath-Holding, Catfall, Channeling, Charisma, Clerical Investment, Combat Reflexes, Common Sense, Danger Sense, Daredevil, Destiny*, Double-Jointed, Eidetic Memory, Empathy, Extra Attack, Fashion Sense, Fearlessness*, Fit, Flexibility, Gadgeteer*, Hard to Kill (capped at 2), Hard to Subdue (capped at 2), High Manual Dexterity, High Pain Threshold, High TL (especially suitable for PCs from another world), Higher Purpose, Independent Income, Indomitable, Intuition, Language Talent, Less Sleep, Magery (starting cap 1 level, can go up higher but needs plot rationales), Medium, Mimicry, Night Vision (cap at 2 - we still want PCs to be a little afraid of the dark), Oracle, Perfect Balance, Pitiable, Power Investiture, Precognition, Resistant (generally limited to 5-point variant), Signature Gear, Silence, Single-Minded, Social Chameleon, Social Regard, Spirit Empathy, Talents, Temperature Tolerance (2 ranks cap), True Faith*, Unusual Background, Versatile, Very Fit, Voice, Wealth.

Social advantages might be better gained through play than granted upon creation. Ravenloft has many societies and groups that PCs may find interesting to explore and befriend. These are: Allies, Alternate Identity, Claim to Hospitality, Contact Group, Contacts, Favor, Patrons, Rank (all types), Reputation, Status, Tenure, Zeroed. Of course, a DM with a specific backstory in mind can allow these at creation.

Notes by advantage:

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Fearlessness: capped at 2 ranks (for a +2 to the roll, maximum). If higher levels are used, then the Sanity Check mechanic becomes more useful because it limits the maximum bonus to +4 and then halves the entire roll. Otherwise, use the Sanity Check only in situations of extreme duress.

Gadgeteer: suitable for a mad-scientist style game, and so I would mostly confine it to the Coastal nations.

True Faith: This threatens to short-circuit the entire threat of undead. GURPS rules have it that undead immediately flee from the person showing a holy symbol. In d20, it allows a "turn undead" roll. One possible workaround is to allow the undead to make a Quick Contest against the True Faith character, using their Will scores. Another potential issue is to make the undead more susceptible to any symbols of religions that it observed or respected during its life. (So a Christian priest would get a bonus if using a Crucifix to hold a former Catholic undead at bay, but would not get a bonus if trying to turn a Confucian vampire.) I'll try to expand the rules of clerical magic in a separate post.

Assume any advantage not listed above is a counterindicated advantage that probably would cause problems in a Ravenloft horror campaign. One especially important one is Unfazeable, which may be fine for some of the NPCs or Darklords, but which would essentially kill the horror aspect of the game dead.

Feats:

Most feats can be replicated using the GURPS Advantage system. Unlike DnD, the feats can generally be bought at any time by the player, as long as they have enough spare points to buy them. This allows the player to more flexibly alter their characters with GM consent, rather than fulfill arbitrary prerequisites. GMs, of course are welcome to experiment with prerequisites that fit their campaigns.

Ravenloft Core Rulebook 3.0 feats:

• Back to the Wall: You get a +2 to muscle-powered weapon damage (so no guns or crossbows) and to your Parry defense when your HP is 1/3 or lower, at a cost of 1 FP per turn. Striking ST x2 [10]; Enhanced Parry x2 [20]; Emergencies Only (hp at 1/3 or less) [-30%]; Costs FP [-5%]. Total cost [20].
• Cold One: Undead have difficulty identifying you, you bleed out more slowly when critically injured, but heal more slowly too at roughly half rate. Invisibility (Undead only, intelligent undead get a Per check at -1, modified for PC suspicious behavior) [40] [-30%]; Hard to Kill x2 [4]; Slow Healing [-5]. Total cost [27].
• Courage: Simply translates to Fearlessness, giving a bonus to Fear checks, although the GM should enforce a maximum cap of 2 or so, otherwise Fear checks may become pointless.
• Dead Man Walking: Once your HP reaches 0 or below, or you succeed at a Fear check, you get a bonus to saves and skill rolls. Saving throws don't exist in GURPS, but skills do. The closest thing to a saving throw might be a defense roll (Dodge, Block, Parry) or a bonus to attribute checks (HT, DX rolls etc.). The +2 bonus on a d20 roll is a flat +10% improvement, but in GURPS a +1 can be as high as +12.5%. Thus, this advantage only gives a +1 to skill checks, defense rolls, and attribute checks. It's modeled on Daredevil (+1 when doing something daring) and increased in cost because it's more versatile as it applies to stat checks as well. Total cost [20].
• Ethereal Empathy: You can sense emotional scenes at this location. Detect (ethereal emotional resonances) [10].
• Ghostsight: You can see spirits. Medium, with the limitation that you cannot necessarily communicate or call spirits - merely see them [5].
• Haunted: Gives a ghostly ally, which bestows some perception bonuses but drains a bit of user's attribute. Buy this as an Ally worth 1 point base, Constantly available [x4], summonable (+50%), costs 1 FP to manifest (-5%), with limitation (accessibility: only when nobody else is around, -50%). The ally costs [4].
• Jaded: translates to Fearlessness, granting a bonus in a horror check.
• Lunatic: gives a +1 to attacks, ability checks, and Will-based skill checks during the full moon. Gives a -1 to all the above during new moon. [0]
• Open Mind: Translates to Fearlessness, applied to Madness checks.
• Redhead: a zero-point feature [0], usually taken at character creation. To add in the freebie spells, build them either as powers, or learn them as spells using the spell system of your choice.
• Reincarnated: the skill selection aspect of this is meaningless in GURPS, where all skills are theoretically open to all PCs. The remainder of the feat can be modeled by a perk-level form of Destiny, granting interaction bonuses with one single creature. [1]. Alternatively, to more closely model actual Reincarnation, use Reawakened [10].
• Voice of Wrath: gives a bonus to curses. In GURPS terms, each level of Voice of Wrath bought allows an extra bonus to granting them, equivalent to a +1 difficulty for the recipient's check. Curses are essentially an Affliction with Malediction, and the cost will vary per type of curse. [variable]

Disadvantages:

Crunch: These are good disadvantages for Ravenloft. Usual limit of 50% starting Character Points applies. Many of them make for good failed Powers Checks as well.

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Absent-Minded, Addiction, Alcoholism, Amnesia, Appearance, Bad Back, Bad Grip, Bad Sight, Bad Smell, Bad Temper, Berserk, Blindness, Bloodlust, Bully, Callous, Charitable, Chronic Depression, Chronic Pain, Chummy, Clueless, Code of Honor, Colorblindedness, Combat Paralysis, Compulsive Behavior, Confused, Cowardice, Curious, Cursed (usually after roleplay), Deafness, Debt, Delusions (usually after roleplay), Dependents, Destiny, Disciplines of Faith, Disturbing Voice, Divine Curse, Dread, Duty, Dyslexia, Easy to Kill, Easy to Read, Enemies (roleplay, or could be Unknown at creation), Epilepsy, Extra Sleep, Fanaticism, Fat, Fearfulness (especially good for Ravenloft), Flashbacks, Gluttony, Greed, Guilt Complex, Gullibility, Ham-Fisted, Hard of Hearing, Hemophilia, Hidebound, Honesty, Hunchback, Impulsiveness, Incurious, Indecisive, Innumerate, Insomniac, Intolerance, Jealousy, Kleptomania, Klutz, Lame, Laziness, Lecherousness, Light Sleeper, Loner, Low Empathy, Low Pain Threshold, Low Self-Image, Low TL, Manic-Depressive, Miserliness, Missing Digit, Mistaken Identity (especially effective in doppelgänger adventures), Motion Sickness, Mundane Background (very suitable for some native domains and some outworld visitors, depending on origin), Mute, Neurological Disorder, Night Blindness, Nightmares, No Sense of Humor, No Sense of Smell/Taste, Oblivious, Obsession, Odious Personal Habits, One Arm/Eye/Hand, Overconfidence, Overweight, Pacifism, Paranoia, Phantom Voices, Phobias, Post-Combat Shakes, Reputation, Secret, Selfish, Selfless, Sense of Duty, Short Attention Span, Shyness, Skinny, Sleepwalker, Sleepy, Slow Eater, Slow Healing (maybe as a curse), Slow Riser, Social Disease, Social Stigma, Squeamish, Stress Atavism, Stubbornness, Trademark, Trickster, Truthfulness, Unfit, Unluckiness, Vow, Wealth, Workaholic, Wounded.

[ewancummins]

That makes sense to me. I might suggest limiting Healing College spells to 'holy' casters, like clerics, with a few exceptions. It fits the D&D aspects of the game, and also keeps healing magic from being ubiquitous.
Personally, I would not bother trying to model memorization- although it's not hard to do in GURPS. GURPS Powers might be a useful book for various weird magic, psionics, supernatural abilities,etc.

The species [races] should be easy to do. The templates from GURPS Fantasy Folk [3e] have been updated to 4E and are freely available on the web. You might keep them more or less as is, or modify them a bit to fit your conception of demihumans in RL.

[HuManBing]

Skills:

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Accounting, Acrobatics, Acting, Administration, Alchemy (magical domains only), Animal Handling, Anthropology (Enlightenment domains only), Archaeology, Architecture, Area Knowledge, Armoury, Artillery, Artist, Astronomy, Autohypnosis (Enlightenment only), Biology, Blowpipe, Boating, Body Language, Bolas, Bow, Boxing, Brawling, Breath Control, Camouflage, Carousing, Carpentry, Cartography, Chemistry, Climbing, Cloak, Combat Art/Sport, Connoisseur, Cooking, Counterfeiting, Crewman - Seamanship, Criminology (Enlightenment only), Crossbow, Current Affairs, Dancing, Detect Lies, Diagnosis, Diplomacy, Disguise, Dreaming, Economics, Engineer, Enthrallment, Erotic Art, Escape, Esoteric Medicine, Exorcism, Falconry, Farming, Fast-Draw, Fast-Talk, Filch, Finance, Fire Eating (!), First Aid, Fishing, Forced Entry, Forensics (Enlightenment only), Forgery, Fortune-Telling, Freight Handling, Gambling, Games, Gardening, Garrote, Geography, Gesture, Group Performance, Guns (Muskets and Pistols only, and only in Enlightenment), Heraldry, Herb Lore, Hidden Lore, Hiking, History, Hobby Skill, Holdout, Housekeeping, Hypnotism, Interrogation, Intimidation, Jeweler, Jumping, Knot-Tying, Lance, Lasso, Law, Leadership, Leatherworking, Lifting, Linguistics, Lip Reading, Literature, Lockpicking, Makeup, Masonry, Mathematics, Mechanic (Enlightenment), Meditation, Melee Weapon, Merchant, Metallurgy, Meteorology (Weather Sense in most domains), Mimicry, Mind Block, Musical Composition, Musical Influence, Musical Instrument, Naturalist, Navigation, Net, Observation, Occultism, Packing, Panhandling, Parry Missile Weapons, Performance, Pharmacy (herbal only), Philosophy, Physics, Physiology, Pickpocket, Poetry, Poisons, Politics, Professional Skill, Prospecting, Psychology, Public Speaking, Religious Ritual, Research, Riding, Ritual Magic (magical domains only), Running, Savoir-Faire, Scrounging, Search, Sewing, Sex Appeal, Shadowing, Shield, Shiphandling, Singing, Skating, Skiing, Sleight of Hand, Sling, Smith, Smuggling, Soldier, Spear Thrower, Speed-Reading, Sports, Stage Combat, Stealth, Strategy, Streetwise, Surgery, Survival, Swimming, Symbol Drawing (magical domains only), Tactics, Teaching, Teamster, Thaumatology (magical domains only), Theology, Throwing, Throwing Art, Thrown Weapon, Tracking, Traps, Urban Survival, Ventriloquism, Veterinary, Wrestling, Writing.

This is just a "cast an eye down the list and blink" exercise. For actual Ravenloft domains and ethnicities, some will be more suitable than others, but that will be a later post.

[HuManBing]

Races:

There is a far greater amount of distrust and tension between the human and demihuman races. In the Coastal-culture domains, they're virtually nonexistent, and the general populace might see them in a circus or other spectacle. In the Central-culture domains, they're around, but the superstitious xenophobic nature of humans makes it dangerous. Only Darkon tolerates them, and even there they are treated as second-class citizens. Certain nations have laws against them - most notably Falkovnia.

Zwergen (dwarves): [0 point template]

Concept: A stout, brawny race of humanoids often associated with the earth and stoneworking. Lives longer than humans but reproduces more slowly, too. Most Zwergen live in Darkon's outlying villages, especially those southeastern ones near the mountains of former Arak, but occasional Zwergen can be found wandering the rest of the Core.

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• Attributes: ST +1 [+10] (considerably stronger than humans proportionally, slightly stronger than humans absolutely), DX -1 [-20], HT +2 [+20] (higher tolerance for fatigue, poison, etc.).
• Secondary characteristics: Basic Move -1 [-5] (slower than humans, thanks to shorter legs). HP and FP get no further bonus here, because these are automatically higher thanks to the ST and HT bonus.
• Size modifier: 0 - although they're about a foot shorter than most humans, they're stout enough to be the same size. Zwergen armor, though of fine quality, is generally impossible for humans to wear, and vice versa.
• Advantages: Extended Lifespan (lives about twice as long as humans do) [+2]; Fit [+5]; Night Vision x5 [+5]; Resistant to Poison +3 [+5]; Lifting ST x2 [+6]. Perks: Alcohol Tolerance [+1]; No Hangover [+1].
• Disadvantages: Greed (12) [-15]; Stubbornness [-5], Social Stigma (minority group) -2 (in most of the Core, they're seen as greedy, mean, violent subhumans, except in Darkon where they're just seen as second-class citizens at -1, and to other Zwergen they have no such stigma) [-10].

Ygwerin: ("Y-Gwerin" or "Of the folk", i.e. elves who were born of humans, half-elves) [0 point template]

Concept: In urban areas, Ellyll-y-Gwerin (or just "Ygwerin", "of people") are much more common than full elves, owing in part to their stronger similarity to full humans. They still have a faint Social Stigma in places, but they do get a human Cultural Familiarity as part of their background.

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• Attributes: as human.
• Advantages: Cultural Familiarity (one human culture) [+1], Extended Lifespan x2 (lives roughly four times as long as a human being) [+4].
• Disadvantages: Social Stigma (Half-Breed) -1 (no penalty in Darkon) [-5] (this applies to dealings with full Ellyllon too).

Ellyll-y-Coedwig: ("Elves of the forest") [0 point template]

Concept: Ellyllon (plural of "ellyll") in Ravenloft lead very separate lives from most humans, tending to live much more individualistic lives in their natural environments. Ellyllon are naturally attuned to magic, with a baseline Magery level. Ellyllon are not generally considered "beautiful" by humans, but are considered backwards and potentially dangerous (perhaps like historical European colonists viewed native peoples in faraway lands). They have a full society in Sithicus, and loosely governed clans of blood relatives in Darkon. Individual Ellyllon may be encountered around Nova Vaasa, as splintered fragments of the diaspora of the disappearance of Arak. In general, Ellyllon distrust humans, but in Darkon they do have trade dealings with them at arm's length. Some Y-Gwerin have made their living acting as go-betweens for the two ethnic groups. Because Ellyllon tend to be more magic-sensitive than most humans, Azalin likes to keep them around in his domain, hoping to find the next bright student in their midst.

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• Attributes: ST -1 [-10]; DX +1 [+20].
• Secondary Characteristics: Basic Move +1 [5].
• Advantages: Extended Lifespan x3 (lives about 8 times as long as a human) [+6], Magery 0 [+5] (this lets them sense magic, but they cannot use it unless they buy higher levels of Magery), Night Vision 2 [+2].
• Disadvantages: Sense of Duty (nature) [-15], Social Stigma -2 (brutal savages skulking in the woods, likely to kill you and eat you or scalp you - everywhere except Darkon, where they're viewed at -1 as second-class citizens - other ellyllon do not have this feeling to them) [-10].
• Quirks: Likes artifacts made of wood [-1]. Uncongenial (tend to act in individual actions rather than group projects) [-1]. Dislikes items made of metal [-1].

The quirk is to show cultural biases or racial differences without actually translating into a hard-and-fast rule. An ellyll forced to use a sword to stab a guard, or forced to use a metal shield to block arrows, would probably do so with muttered protests and an expression of disgust, and would drop the offending item as soon as he could safely do so.

Ellyllon are too thin to use most human armor... but they also dislike metal so they'd rarely want to anyway. Ellyllon in battle generally stay out of melee combat, preferring to snipe using arrows. For this reason, they rarely wear any armor heavier than cloth. In circumstances where they have no choice but to take a few blows, they might wear leather. There is no such concept as "elven chain" in Ravenloft.

Fleetfoot: (Halflings, aka "Furfoot" derogatory) [0 point template]

Concept: Halflings in traditional fantasy seem to be yet another stocky, short race of "could be gnomes or dwarves but we're not quite sure". In DnD 3rd ed., there was an attempt to differentiate them in appearance by making them slender, childlike creatures that appeal to the parental instincts somewhat. In Ravenloft, I'm using the latter - minus any sympathy points from humans. Fleetfoot are short, slender demihumans who are seen as guttersnipes and wastrels, most likely to be thieves or impish tricksters, and in many places are treated just as poorly as Ellyllon or Zwergen. Darkon, as usual, is the main exception to this, where they are more tolerated.

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• Attributes: ST -3 [-30], DX +1 [+20]
• Secondary characteristics: SM -2, Basic Move -1 [-5]
• Advantages: Silence 2 [+10], Enhanced Defense (Dodge) [+15]
• Disadvantages: Social Stigma (malicious, thieving tricksters - deeply untrustworthy) -2 (except in Darkon -1 second-class citizens) [-10]

Caliban:
Concept: A human, warped in the womb by magic, Fate, or a curse, to have abnormal features.

Stats: The extreme flexibility of GURPS means that there is no "standard" Caliban. In fact, a Caliban may well be a simple social term describing anybody whom the rest of society finds "not quite right". Use this label if the PC wants a weird Supernatural or Exotic advantage - it will give him something few other human PCs have. But be sure to buy it off with disadvantages too. Suitable disadvantages include - Bad appearance: depending on the nature of the advantage. Extra Arms may be worth a Hideous penalty, but Dark Vision may have only a minor bearing on the appearance (maybe Ugly if the physical manifestation is cats' eye slits); Unnatural Features; Odious Personal Habits. There should definitely be a Social Stigma disadvantage, and this may be even harsher than a demihuman's stigma (because demihumans at least have a racial concept of "normalcy" - Calibans do not, being warped individuals).

A Social Stigma for Calibans is typically the "Monster" variant of the disadvantage, which gives a -3 to all reaction rolls (but a +3 if trying to intimidate in certain situations), which applies to 100% of all reaction rolls: all nations and all races consider them bizarre or repulsive at first sight - even other Calibans. (Compare against demihuman Stigmas, which are at -2 in most places "Barbaric" and -1 in Darkon "second class citizens".)

[HuManBing]

Classes

The idea of a class is much looser in GURPS than in DnD. Accordingly, players who are familiar with the system will usually disregard any class templates and discuss their character build directly with the GM. Nevertheless, here are a few suggestions for classes and prestige classes in Ravenloft.

Man-At-Arms:

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• Stats: ST and HT will help increase HP and FP. A high DX will help land hits more often, although even an average DX can get by with skill points spent in specialized weapons.
• Advantages include Ambidexterity, Combat Reflexes, Danger Sense, Daredevil, Extra Attack, Fit, Hard to Kill/Subdue, High Pain Threshold, Recovery, Resistant (e.g. certain toxins, disease, seasickness, etc.), Signature Gear (weapons, armor, horse, etc.), Trained by a Master, Weapon Master. Extra HP and FP are handy.
• Disads: Addiction (tobacco, alcohol, snuff), Bad Temper, Berserk (for barbarian types), Bloodlust, Bully, Callous, Chronic Pain (old war wound), Code of Honor, Compulsive Behavior (gambling), Enemies, Fanaticism, Gluttony, Greed, Hidebound, Impulsiveness, Intolerance, Nightmares, On the Edge, Overconfidence, Paranoia, Phantom Voices, Phobias (magic, undead, monsters), Post-Combat Shakes, Selfish, Sense of Duty (companions, battalion buddies), Social Stigma (uneducated), Stubbornness, Wounded.
• Skills: Animal Handling (war dogs, horses), Armoury, Blind Fighting, Bow, Brawling, Crossbow, Fast-Draw, First Aid, Guns (for gunpowder-age nations), Heraldry, Hiking, Intimidation, Lance, Leadership, Melee Weapon, Power Blow, Riding, Running, Scrounging, Search, Shield, Sling, Soldier, Strategy, Survival, Swimming, Tactics, Teamster, Thrown Weapon, Tracking, Urban Survival, Zen Archery. Ranged combat skills will want to be fairly high to account for range penalties to hit.
• Techniques: Disarming, Dual-Weapon Attack, Feint, Horse Archery, Off-Hand Weapon Training, Retain Weapon.
• Equipment: a combat-ready horse costs around $4000, which the average soldier (assuming Status 1 at $1200 per month) cannot afford - same goes for heavy armor at $1800+ (DR6 torso, 4 elsewhere) or even medium armor at $810 (DR4) (DF12: Loadouts p. 20). The Signature Gear advantage could come in handy to allow the warrior to cover the cost of armor or a mount. Armor gives a negative reaction penalty, and also imposes encumbrance penalties.

Rogue:

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• Stats: DX is important, but also PER, Basic Speed, and Basic Move.
• Ads: Ambidexterity, Catfall, Danger Sense, Double-Jointed, Flexibility, Gizmos, High Manual Dexterity, Perfect Balance, Peripheral Vision, Striking ST (limited to surprise attack only, -60% for [2] per level).
• Disads: Callous, Code of Honor (Thieves), Compulsive Behavior (gambling, lying, carousing), Curious, Kleptomania, Laziness, Loner, Overconfidence, Post-Combat Shakes, Skinny, Social Stigma (past arrests).
• Skills: Acrobatics, Area Knowledge, Carousing, Climbing, Counterfeiting, Disguise, Escape, Fast-Draw, Fast-Talk, Filch, First Aid, Forced Entry, Forgery, Gambling, Gesture, Holdout, Knot-Tying, Lip Reading, Lockpicking, Merchant, Observation, Pickpocket, Poisons, Scrounging, Search, Shadowing, Sleight of Hand, Smuggling, Stealth, Streetwise, Traps, Urban Survival. Weapon skills to suit, including Garrote, as well as defensive skills Cloak or Main-Gauche.
• Techniques: Disarming, Retain Weapon, Rope Up, Scaling, Set Trap, Slip Handcuffs, Work By Touch.
• Equipment: Lockpicks $50 or $250 for good quality, Grappling Hook $80, Camouflage garb for +1 Stealth $300, contacts agent poisons vs. armored foes, leather armor (DR2 torso).

Wizard:

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• Stats: High IQ is crucial, and decent DX won't hurt either. Most spells will be powered off of FP or (depending on GM) Energy Reserves (essentially, FP that can only be used for magic, and cannot be drained by usual FP-draining effects - cost is still 3 per point). A high Will means the wizard can resist enemy influence spells more easily.
• Ads: Magery is a must - most of Ravenloft has a penalty to casting spells, and Magery levels give a bonus to help offset that effect. Eidetic Memory, Gizmos, Intuition, Language Talent, Languages (any), Mind Shield, Spirit Empathy, Wealth.
• Disads: Absent-Mindedness, Bad Temper, Clueless, Curious, Combat Paralysis, Cowardice, Frightens Animals, Greed, Hard of Hearing, Light Sleeper, Loner, Low Empathy, Low Pain Threshold, Miserliness, No Sense of Humor, Oblivious, Obsession, Overconfidence, Paranoia, Post-Combat Shakes, Selfish, Skinny, Stubbornness, Stuttering, Supernatural Features, Unfit, Unnatural Features, Weirdness Magnet, Workaholic, Xenophilia.
• Skills: Alchemy, Archaeology, Astronomy, Cartography, Climbing, Detect Lies, Diplomacy, Expert Skill (various), Fast-Draw (reagents), Fast-Talk, First Aid, Gesture, Group Performance (for Ceremonial Magic), Hazardous Materials (magical), Hidden Lore, Hiking, History, Innate Attack (beam spell, gaze spell, etc.), Linguistics, Literature, Mathematics, Mind Block, Observation, Occultism (by monster type), Pharmacy, Philosophy, Physics, Physiology (monsters), Research, Ritual Magic, Savoir-Faire (high class), Scrounging, Sling, Speed-Reading, Staff, Symbol Drawing, Teaching, Writing.
• Equipment: Much as standard DnD, but consider paut, introduced in GURPS Magic, which is a means of replenishing FP or ER spent on magic. One potion restores 4 FP/ER and costs $135.

Ranger: (or Archer, Scout, Bounty Hunter, etc.)

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• Attributes: DX will be important to be able to hit anything at range, especially as range penalties for ranged attacks can be pretty severe for those used to DnD's more lenient margins. However, in GURPS, the actual range of the muscle-powered weapons is highly dependent on ST, so a good ST score will be important too. Finally, points for Per and Speed bonuses will round out the trope.
• Ads: GURPS' core rules are based on realism, so firing a bow quickly is hard (it takes two rounds to even ready a bow, not counting the time taken to look for an arrow). A new advantage "Heroic Archer" (DF1 p.14) allows for faster ROF, up to once per turn if you have Fast-Draw (Arrow) skill. Absolute Direction, Acute Senses (smell, hearing, vision are good ones), Ambidexterity, Animal Empathy, Catfall, Combat Reflexes, Danger Sense, Daredevil, Discriminatory Smell, Extra Attack, Fit, Hard to Kill/Subdue, High Pain Threshold, Intuition, Perfect Balance, Peripheral Vision, Recovery, Resistant (poisons, diseases), Sensitive, Speak with Animals, Temperature Tolerance, Weapon Master (Bow) (this reduces the -3 penalty to the Heroic Archer shot-each-turn down to -1).
• Disads: Intolerance (city folk), Loner, No Sense of Humor, Odious Personal Habit ("unwashed wildman"), Paranoia, Social Stigma (disowned), Vow (sleep outdoors always, or own no more than what you carry).
• Skills: Animal Handling, Blowpipe, Bow, Camouflage, Cartography, Climbing, Cloak, Crossbow, Escape, Fast-Draw (arrow), First Aid, Fishing, Gesture, Hiking, Holdout, Jumping, Knot-Tying, Melee Weapon, Mimicry, Naturalist, Navigation, Net, Observation, Tracking, Pharmacy (Herbal), Physiology (Monster), Poisons, Riding, Running, Scrounging, Search, Skiing, Stealth, Survival, Throwing, Tracking, Traps, Veterinary, Weather Sense.
• Equipment: Leather armor elements (DR1 to 2), Longbow, Shortsword or Broadsword, Camouflage heavy cloak (stealth bonus and shield defense bonus), optional metal helm or mail shirt for sharpshooter or bounty hunter types.

For other classes, like Bards, Druids, Clerics, Paladins, and Martial Artists, check out Dungeon Fantasy 1.

[HuManBing]

Spellcasting in Ravenloft:

Mana/Sanctity and Magery/Power Investiture levels:

• You cannot cast wizard spells without Magery, and you must be in a place with Mana. You cannot cast clerical spells without Power Investiture, and you must be in a place with Sanctity.
• Fantasy campaigns tend to have Normal Mana, where you cast spells with no penalty, and regain your Energy Reserve normally. This is unsuited to Ravenloft, and only a few select secret locations in the Demiplane will have Normal Mana.
• Most of the Core is at Low Mana, which means that all spells are cast at -5. A lot of casters will need to spend longer and use more energy reserve to cast spells.
• Certain select domains may have Very Low Mana. Casting gets a -10 penalty to the skill level, and costs an extra Fatigue Point (never from Energy Reserve or Powerstones) before you even make the dice roll. Magical items need a Power of 25 or more to work, and cost the user 1 FP to activate. This applies to the Coastal "enlightened" domains where rationality has discredited faith in magic or religion.
• A few domains may be No Mana areas, where nobody can cast spells at all, and magical items generally don't function. These could be modern-style horror domains, or even domains so backward or alien like Bluetspur that magic simply shouldn't function.

Ravenloft in d20 has high-magic domains and low-magic domains. In 3E, there was an actual game mechanic assigned to societies like Lamordia where the post-Enlightenment rationality actually counteracted the effectiveness of spells. In GURPS, there are two aspects of this. First is the Mana issue, which is how magical the actual campaign setting is. Second is the Magery/Power Investiture issue, which determines if and how a given individual can manipulate magic. For wizardly magic, the term is Mana. For priestly magic, the term is Sanctity. These are separate and distinct concepts, and in places like G'Henna you may find Very Low Mana but normal Sanctity for priests of Zhakata.

Situational bonuses to casting:

Because Ravenloft is low-mana and low-sanctity, all casters will be looking for ways to improve their casting chances. This gives rise to some good role-playing possibilities! Most of these will have to be determined by the GM, but here are a few ideas to get started.

• Time: Certain times of the day, month, or year give bonuses to casting certain colleges of spells. This can be a +1 casting bonus, or it can be an entire shift in mana levels for especially significant events.
• Sympathetic materials: Blood, likenesses, names, and contagion all give bonuses when casting.
• Sacrificial casting: Giving a blood sacrifice, lethal or nonlethal, gives a bonus to casting. Watch out for Powers checks, though.

Time: A caster can time the casting of the spell to a certain hour, day, or even month for a bonus to casting. One example would be seen in the novel I, Strahd where the Count mentions that during the longest night of the year, various spells are more effective.

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Significant-but-common times (e.g. night time) could give a small +1 bonus. Significant and rare times (e.g. All Hallow's Eve) could even shift the entire mana rating up one level for a specific school of magic. Very rare times (e.g. a Grand Conjunction of all the relevant astronomical bodies) could give even greater bonuses. (You might even argue that the Grand Conjunction was the only time that the blanket forbiddance on exiting the Demiplane was lifted - hence Azalin could only have tried his escape plan then.)

Sympathetic materials: Finding something that's similar to the target of the spell gives bonuses.

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Blood: spilling your own blood in casting a spell gives a flat +1. If you're casting a spell to affect another person, then using the blood of that person will give +2, cumulative with using your own. E.g. A mage in Darkon (low mana) wants to protect a warrior. He gathers the warrior's blood ahead of time, and casts the spell, pricking his own thumb. He casts the protection spell at -2 total. (-5 for Low Mana, +1 for own blood, +2 for subject's blood.) Other bodily fluids or body parts may work too, but "dead" things like hair, clippings, and the like are only worth +1 and do not stack with using the subject's blood. Family members of the target (child or spouse) grant a +2 if they're present and unresisting (unconscious qualifies as unresisting, much to villainous casters' delight).

Likenesses: Depending on quality, could be anywhere from +1 (for an accurate sketch of the target's face) to +2 (3D sculpture of the target). If the subject is physically present (willing or not), apply a +3 to the roll. Note that most spells cast by the caster on himself will get this bonus automatically (so the majority of combat buffs in Ravenloft will be at total -2 if cast in low-mana areas). Having the person present will supersede any bonus from having their blood or hair, etc. because it's assumed all those things are present in the person as well.

Names: Magic works better when you know the true name of the target. A public name is worth no bonus. A full name that's publicly accessible is worth +1. A private name known only to a few, perhaps as a pet name, is worth +1. The True Name is worth +2. These bonuses stack, so good research on your part can give a permanent +4 to casting spells against any given target! This may explain why wizards and liches guard their true names so zealously.

Contagion: ...meaning "items sharing affinity to the target". Things that are possessions of the target could grant a bonus anywhere from +1 to +3, with the highest bonuses going towards items that are irreplaceable, which the target immediately misses, and which may even share an intergenerational bond with the target's family.

Sacrifice bonuses: Spirit-assisted (Black Magic) casting, Ritual Magic (Vistani Magic) casting, and some Ceremonial castings (especially divine magic) get bonuses from sacrifices.

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For specially-made materials with relatively limited or mundane uses outside of casting, like incense, food, alcohol, or tobacco give a +1. For materials which have significant uses outside of casting, like valuable goods, jewelry, or gold, give a +2. Live sacrifices give anywhere up to +3 depending on the whims of the divine/mystical/spirit grantor. Live human sacrifices could grant up to +5 depending on the importance of the person sacrificed, the preferences of the grantor, and other effects. (This will also trigger a Powers Check for murder at the very least.)

Sacrificing of yourself can also give benefits. Beyond the +1 for a caster using his blood, the caster can inflict damage on himself for further bonus. Every 25% of HP the caster sacrifices gives a further +1. (So assuming the caster deals himself a potentially mortal injury for 100% of HP, he gets +5 total, taking into account +4 from HP loss and +1 for blood.) Obviously this is something most casters attempt very rarely. For most living candidates, it happens exactly once. Special cases like Azalin could conceivably use this much more often, as HP is usually only a temporary problem at worst.

All the sacrifice bonuses are contingent on the approval and acceptance of the spirit, deity, or mystical power being petitioned. If your deity will not accept human sacrifice (yourself or anybody else) then no bonus accrues for offering it in the first place.

All the magical styles could benefit from this, but Ritual Magic (the Vistani magic system) benefits the most. They start off with a hefty penalty to all their castings, because they pick a spell and then assume a penalty equal to the spell's prerequisite count. This makes Vistani magic generally much more likely to need bonuses from materials, time, and other sources like the true name of the target in order to work.