Fan CotNs?

Discussing all things Ravenloft
Post Reply
The Dark
Arch-villain
Arch-villain
Posts: 167
Joined: Sun Jul 23, 2023 1:32 pm

Fan CotNs?

Post by The Dark »

Lately I've been going back over the Van Richten's Guides and Children of the Night books, and wishing there was more. Has anyone done or considered doing Children of the Night style fanbooks for the major villain categories that didn't get one from TSR? There are books for vampires, ghosts, werebeasts, and the created, but using the Van Richten's Guides for inspiration, there's room for CotN books for the ancient dead, witches/hags, liches, and fiends (and Vistani, but an entire book of Vistani villains feels like a bad idea).
User avatar
Mephisto of the FoS
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 1850
Joined: Sat Oct 03, 2020 3:55 pm
Location: Athens-Greece
Contact:

Re: Fan CotNs?

Post by Mephisto of the FoS »

The Dark wrote: Tue Jun 10, 2025 8:47 pm Lately I've been going back over the Van Richten's Guides and Children of the Night books, and wishing there was more. Has anyone done or considered doing Children of the Night style fanbooks for the major villain categories that didn't get one from TSR? There are books for vampires, ghosts, werebeasts, and the created, but using the Van Richten's Guides for inspiration, there's room for CotN books for the ancient dead, witches/hags, liches, and fiends (and Vistani, but an entire book of Vistani villains feels like a bad idea).
The Kargatane had made this more than two decades ago
http://www.zayix.com/Media/netbooks/Rav ... Demons.pdf

Don't forget Shadow Fey and Walking Dead
"I am not omniscient, but I know a lot."
-Mephistopheles from Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
User avatar
Joël of the FoS
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 7097
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2003 1:24 pm
Gender: Male
Location: St-Damien, Québec

Re: Fan CotNs?

Post by Joël of the FoS »

The Dark wrote: Tue Jun 10, 2025 8:47 pm (and Vistani, but an entire book of Vistani villains feels like a bad idea).
I have that pet project of statting a "generic" vistani tribe - statting all NPCs, powers, items, secrets, habits, etc.
"A full set of (game) rules is so massively complicated that the only time they were all bound together in a single volume, they underwent gravitational collapse and became a black hole" (Adams)
User avatar
Teravala
Arch-villain
Arch-villain
Posts: 182
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2025 12:10 am
Gender: Male
Location: United States of America

Re: Fan CotNs?

Post by Teravala »

idk if it is exactly a long the lines you're describing, but I've been working on incorporating Incarnum into my games, and the ethics of those that harness the power of the soul (their own, or others), as well as psionics. There might not be enough base material there for an entire book, but if you were to group psionics, incarnum, and maybe something like true naming, and binding (as in the binder class and vestiges) into something like practitioners of the obscure arts?
IanFordam
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 507
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2021 10:39 am

Re: Fan CotNs?

Post by IanFordam »

A number of CotN suggestions have been made over the years, including the following:

Ancient Dead [https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/v ... php?t=7131]
Elementals [https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/v ... 34#p240734]
Giants [https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/v ... hp?t=11229]
Liches [https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/v ... hp?t=10578]
Walking Dead [https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/v ... hp?t=11226]
Wild Things [https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/v ... 14#p254814]

Many great ideas have been floated! However, I suspect that what has been missing is someone willing to drive this particular haunted carriage. If you're interested in doing so, I would recommend picking a subject and tossing out some possibilities related to that subject. If people seem engaged, recruit volunteers and come up with a "table of contents". And then herd the cats! Or, if someone else seems more interested in running the show, offer to help them in whatever way you feel comfortable.

I'm glossing over many complications, I'm sure, but my main point is this: Fan-led books don't happen without fans leading them.

Any takers?
User avatar
Jeremy16
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 323
Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2005 1:38 am
Location: Louisville, KY

Re: Fan CotNs?

Post by Jeremy16 »

IanFordam wrote: Wed Jun 11, 2025 7:57 pm A number of CotN suggestions have been made over the years, including the following:

Ancient Dead [https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/v ... php?t=7131]
Elementals [https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/v ... 34#p240734]
Giants [https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/v ... hp?t=11229]
Liches [https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/v ... hp?t=10578]
Walking Dead [https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/v ... hp?t=11226]
Wild Things [https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/v ... 14#p254814]

Many great ideas have been floated! However, I suspect that what has been missing is someone willing to drive this particular haunted carriage. If you're interested in doing so, I would recommend picking a subject and tossing out some possibilities related to that subject. If people seem engaged, recruit volunteers and come up with a "table of contents". And then herd the cats! Or, if someone else seems more interested in running the show, offer to help them in whatever way you feel comfortable.

I'm glossing over many complications, I'm sure, but my main point is this: Fan-led books don't happen without fans leading them.

Any takers?
I too dreamed about doing this throughout the years... even wanted to redo the IMHO chintzy ghosts / vampires that we were given in the published COTNs. The best I could do before I petered out was to come up with were 4 NPCs for ancient dead and ghosts!

Completing the full twelve just screams out for a group project, but I'm definitely not volunteering to herd the cats around here!
doctornecrotic
Criminal Mastermind
Criminal Mastermind
Posts: 147
Joined: Sat Sep 21, 2024 5:05 pm
Gender: Male

Re: Fan CotNs?

Post by doctornecrotic »

I remember reading a lot of these, but I've also chatted with a number of the thread authors. All fantastic ideas well deserving of space in the mists.
I muse of grim fates in The Lands of the Mists. You can see more here.
KingCorn
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 348
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2019 5:47 pm
Gender: Male

Re: Fan CotNs?

Post by KingCorn »

Limited to the Van-Richten's Guide, we would need Ancient Dead, Liches, Witches/Hags, Vistani, Fey/Shadow Fey, and Mist-Creatures.
Technically we already did Fey with the old Fair-Folk thread, though the project to give them stats (if not adventures) never really got to far.
Fair Folk : https://www.fraternityofshadows.com/for ... ilit=cecil
Post Reply