Playing the Monstrous

[Hell_Born]

Ravenloft has many obstacles to struggle with in its status as the Dark Fantasy/Gothic Horror setting for Dungeons & Dragons, as D&D's basic precepts and those of Gothic Horror often clash. A particularly notable area of conflict comes in the form of playable nonhuman races; to sum things up, Ravenloft has a well-earned reputation for being very unfriendly to players who don't want to play humans - the less human, the worse they get it. Which isn't a great thing for a setting also traditionally defined by an emphasis on players starting out in other settings before being drawn into the Mists... especially because other settings are a lot more accepting of playing nonhumans.

In this thread, I want to discuss ways of working around this, of being able to include monstrous PCs in a game of Ravenloft without making it simply annoying for the player, and perhaps even possible races that might be a good fit for the less human options of Ravenloft.

This is not about just simply removing all the racism from the setting like the 5e version largely does. As annoying as it can be when taken to the extreme, the closemindedness of the Demiplane of Dread's human inhabitants is part of the setting for a reason - even Grim Hollow, a Dark Fantasy setting with a far more morally ambiguous basis than the relative black & white morality of Ravenloft, still features a lot of racism in its lore.

To get things started, one thing that I have been contemplating, something that gave me the impetus to start this thread in the first place, is the idea of exploiting the canonical fact that the Dark Powers mess with the minds of the demiplane's natives. More then that, it's rooted in one of the fundamental precepts of Gothic Horror that isn't based on Christian moral precepts - the idea that part of the setting's horror is the dissonance between what people (humans) believe reality to be and what reality actually is. This attitude is all over the canonical version of the Demiplane of Dread; Lamordia may be a particularly extreme example, but most civilized domains, apart from Vechor, Darkon and Hazlan, are stated to largely believe magic and monsters are nothing but stories, myths, and superstitions... even as monsters typically walk amongst them without fear, such as the wolfweres of Kartakass or the wererats of Richemulot.

In short, this idea I had, which I'm tentatively calling The Veil of Ignorance, is that non-evil "monstrous humanoids" - anything that is more visibly inhuman than a traditional demihuman (elf, dwarf, gnome, halfling, planetouched, caliban, etc) that enters a Domain of Dread where it is not an accepted part of reality will be cloaked by the Dark Powers in an illusory veil that gives them the semblance of being human. This veil is not perfect, and so such a being will probably be mistaken for a caliban or perhaps a very similar demihuman - but even so, that does at least spare them the hostility that walking around as something overtly monstrous would.

For example; in the Domain of Kalidnay, a realm torn from the burnt lands of Athas, packs of thri-kreen are canonically present. In Kalidnay, thri-kreen are not perceived as monsters; they are considered dangerous and given respect, but they're not an inherently terrifying thing. A Kalidnayan would be confused as hell by a traveler from Nova Vaasa breaking down gibbering in terror at the mere sight of a thri-kreen hunter. Should a thri-kreen pack wander into the mists and end up outside of Kalidnay, or a thri-kreen from Athas be deposited anywhere in the Demiplane of Dread other than Kalidnay, then the Veil of Ignorance will take effect. Natives of the Demiplane will not see a giant bipedal preying mantis; instead, they will see what appears to be a very tall and eerily slender, wiry, androgynous humanoid, with subtly overlong arms and large, unblinking eyes, wearing a suit of armor made from what looks like insect chitin and moving with unccanny motions reminiscent of an insect. Creepy, yes, and definitely earning an Outsider Score penalty, but not something to immediately presume is a monster... at least, not unless the thri-kreen does something to break the Veil, such as entering combat, whereupon the illusion of being human will melt away and the true horror beneath will be revealed.

[Mistmaster]

I have always distinguished beetwen cities and countryside. Cities are more cosmopolitan and while hostility is possible pitch and forks wont happen. Country village if not ruled by open-minded leader might be a risk. Of course it depend by the nation/domain. Zeindost is built to subvert that logic, and Verbrek, Lazendrak, Invidia and other nations have monstruos citizens.

[HyperionSol]

When I would DM Ravenloft, I would have Domains like Mordent, Borca, and Dementlieu be more open about nonhumans. Depending on what they are, people may see them as an amusing distraction, perhaps even a new fashion trend like a model or something. Most people there focus more on their own affairs and if it doesn't affect them, they don't try to deal with it.

More rural places like Barovia and Tepest, the people are superstitious and afraid. Anything out of the ordinary is a potential danger considering the supernatural is much more apparent in places such as that. The only exception is perhaps Darkon, Hazlan, and Valachan which have Darklords pulled from High Fantasy worlds.

Your Veil of Ignorance seems to bring this up to a higher level and I think it is a good vessel for bringing more exotic races to Ravenloft. I would definitely involve some mechanics to it, ways it can fail, a heat of the moment such as if there is a battle, taking damage, or being exposed to dispelling magic. If it is dispelled in front of anyone, it can never come back in front of those people. The veil itself can regenerate over time, forcing nonhuman characters to hide themselves until it does, or if it is dispelled in patches, hide those parts of themselves until the veil returns. It can even be stronger or weaker depending on the Domain the character is in. For the higher culture, which believes less in the supernatural, the veil is stronger. In more superstitious and magic-based domains, it is weaker and easier to dispel. If the Domain was made for nonhumans, like Verbrek and Richemulot, it may not even activate at all since to the Dark Powers, the 'denizens' of those Domains don't need it.