....the gender swap doesn't really matter to me here, but I don't understand what about this is supposed to be a) horror or b) a curse for this Hiregaard. Nothing about this actually sounds *interesting* in the Ravenloft setting and also skirts a little bit too close to Diamabel in my opinion. Also takes away one of the better parts of Hiregaard, that he wasn't the political ruler of Nova Vaasa. Too many darklords are the political leaders of their domains and that's boring and predictable, when nearly all of them are.Igor the Henchman wrote:Not so much, it would seem:Mephisto wrote:I saw somewhere that the new Hiregaard is the daughter of Sir TristanAn unparalleled warrior, Myar Hiregaard united the nomadic tribes of the vast plains of Nova Vaasa. But, while respected as a soldier, Myar made a poor peacetime leader. When brutal games could no longer keep her interest, she incited hostilities between two of her vassal tribes, then led her own forces to crush them. Subtly, she did this again and again. After Myar's greatest massacre, the Mists enfolded all of Nova Vaasa, splitting Myar's personality in two when they did. Now she rules her people with strict fairness, but when her bloodlust is piqued, she transforms into the raging knight called Malken and sows discord across the plains.
Some of the new ideas are definitely interesting and I'm debating if I want to shell out the cash to buy this. Since I'm already thinking of a way to back-port the new Dementlieu into the original as a second, major city in the nation that is a separate domain (I'm thinking along the lines of New York High Society, as opposed to Port Lucine's Philly-as-capital, which allows for that 'everyone struggles to maintain the facade for fear of exposure' without...affecting the rest of Dementlieu society entirely).
Overall, they've clearly put thought into what they want this version of Ravenloft to be. Some of that was already constrained by WOTC and some of it is from the RL team's decisions and its definitely...a mixed bag over all. Honestly, my complaint with the race/gender changes is mostly the seeming randomness, especially in light of the fact that they changed some of the existing characters, some were just replaced by other characters (with or without the same names), and others had their stories 'progressed' to provide natural replacements. Its just strange to me that they'd advance, like, half the domain and character plots and leave others completely untouched by time.
The reason this kind of thing baffles me is that splitting the difference like that is just about guaranteed to split the existing fanbase on a product, which for an already niche product is rarely a good thing. You have to appeal to new buyers, but a big part of that is endorsements and praise from the already existing fanbase. Not fully committing to one or the other version for the existing fans won't be magically problem-free, but it would at least be a commitment, I think? Its less egregious than some other media companies have been with their brands, but I am still a bit confused why some people occasionally think the best plan is to throw everyone a bone, but also kick their dog in the process. Probably haven't really explained what I mean in this paragraph I'm realizing, but trying to explain it better seems to be eluding me.