Going Back to Ravenloft...You All Benefit

[Rucht Lilavivat]

So, after a long, long time, I am returning to the Mists. I'll be running a Ravenloft game. This time, professionally.

The reason I'm making a post about this is because whenever I run a professional campaign, I put in far more work into it than, say, a regular home campaign. So, usually, I make a lot of artifacts, drawings, and maps for the game. I'll be posting a lot that here for your benefit. Please feel free to steal my ideas, use my maps, etc.

A few starting premises:

1) Yes, I will be using Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.
2) The land will still have the Core, and I will use the map of the Core, but for each of the Domain's internal maps, I will be using what's in the VRGtR. I find those maps more interesting geographically.
3) For this reason, travel from Domain to Domain is possible and predictable. You just have to pay a Vistani guide a fee.
4) As for the information and background, I will keep some Darklords the same (from 3rd Edition) and I will change some to match VRGtR. It will simply depend on my player's storylines and what seems most interesting.

[Speedwagon]

Thanks for being willing to share your work with all of us here! Is there anything in particular from the 5e Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft that you're excited to be running professionally? Are you using Roll20 or is it an in-person campaign?

[alhoon]

Welcome back Rucht! Which Darklords would you keep and which would you change?

[Rucht Lilavivat]

Thanks for being willing to share your work with all of us here! Is there anything in particular from the 5e Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft that you're excited to be running professionally? Are you using Roll20 or is it an in-person campaign?

Well, I love what they did with the House of Lament. I've now run that adventure 5 times (two of those times ongoing). The House of Lament is one of my favorite things in all of Ravenloft and I thought their treatment of it was fantastic. The idea of a seance, the idea of a timed adventure where stuff happens on a clock, the very Ravenloft-ian aspect of begin able to run the adventure differently each time....there's a lot there.

I am using the House of Lament in this campaign, and it will be set in Borca. More on that later...

I really like how they talked about the different kinds of horror. That's information we've all known for years, but to have it spelled out that way so succinctly was pretty awesome. It really helps me when it comes to planning for adventures in the campaign.

I like a lot of the changes they made to Ravenloft in the new edition. (Many here do not.) There are some changes that I dislike. It's pretty simple - I will throw out the changes that I didn't like and keep the old material. So, the Encyclopedia of the Mists will be very helpful for that part.

I run most of my games through Zoom, because most of my clients are folks who are looking for a game. So, most people who are looking for a game can't find people in the city in which they live, so they have to reach out to other folks in other cities to get a game together. And that's where I come in.

I use a mapping tool called Dungeon Fog.

[Rucht Lilavivat]

Welcome back Rucht! Which Darklords would you keep and which would you change?

I'll be posting my own review of VRGtR later, where I go into detail on that, but just very quickly....

I really like what they did with Ivana Bortisi and Ivan Dilisnya. Basically, they advanced their timeline and moved it to the next logical step. The callout on p. 78 of the new book totally encapsulates it. I especially like how they made Ivana and Ivan's torments and personalities even more refined. I really like Ivana's new torment in that she feels that she has to be perfect all of the time. It's a torment that's a lot more modern and relatable. Before, her motives were very Gothic - true love, etc. But that is sadly not very relatable to our times. To be frank, most people in the 21st century are smarter about love and their feelings, and it is difficult for them to relate to people from a time period where there was genuine love-at-first-sight, and that sort of thing.

And Ivan...obviously he's sank into some serious depravity. That's going to be a fun character to play. Wow, that character is totally amazing for me, now. They just took what was cool and interesting about him and turned it up to 11 by advancing his timeline. This is always where he was going to end up.

I've always loved those Darklords and I love how they've been updated. I think that they are much better characters now with more depth and breadth and possibilities. I can't wait to see what kind of machinations they come up with in the campaign.

[Rucht Lilavivat]

So here's something fun. This is a large scale map of Levkarest that I just mailed out to my players. This will be the central location of the campaign. Later this week I'll share the full map with you guys along with a map key.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

There is already a canon map of Levkarest from the Black Box and I found also a new illustration of it here https://preview.redd.it/25couasrsx881.j ... 1b7e98b283

[Rucht Lilavivat]

There is already a canon map of Levkarest from the Black Box and I found also a new illustration of it here

Thank you for this! I should have looked in my Black Box! Shows how we've changed over the years. I couldn't find it on the net, so I stopped looking. Sheesh!

Looking at the map, the only sad part is that all of the labels are street names. Really?

My map has locations. Hmmm. Maybe I can do a second draft of my map and make it more canon? I can definitely use the Black Box map as the template.

[Joël of the FoS]

Hey Rucht, good too see you around

I'm using the same map, on which I added more stuff:

Capture d’écran 2022-05-25 144545.jpg (182.03 KiB) Viewed 1228 times

More info in here: http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/Libr ... st_map.pdf

From the original, some of the streets have changed names because of what I added:
1. should be Crimson Hwy anyway, not “Vein St”
36. Gallery Row (where I implanted most galleries)
And some other as they sounded weird in French


On this thread, you also have a Cathedral map, should you need it: https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/v ... hp?t=10275

[alhoon]

I am looking forward to learn more about your campaign, Rucht.
My tastes on Darklords don't seem to align with yours, but that's OK. I will not start an edition war. I will discuss my views when you post your review of VRGtR.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Looking at the map, the only sad part is that all of the labels are street names. Really?

Don't worry the original has no info at all so you can add what you want, probably I'll use Joels info (to have some consistency in the Fraternity

[Rucht Lilavivat]

More info in here: http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/Libr ... st_map.pdf

From the original, some of the streets have changed names because of what I added:
1. should be Crimson Hwy anyway, not “Vein St”
36. Gallery Row (where I implanted most galleries)
And some other as they sounded weird in French


On this thread, you also have a Cathedral map, should you need it: https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/v ... hp?t=10275

Very cool. I think I will incorporate some of this in my Draft #2.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

I managed to combine it in 200dpi for anyone who is interested. I noticed though that the aqueduct and water reservoir are missing in this map as some circular towers in the keep where the fen bridge is and the west gate. Also there is no mention of a ferry and east side of the city the one on the other side of the river is missing. MAybe some additions are in order...

[Joël of the FoS]

I wish I could do maps like this Very nice visual.

[Rucht Lilavivat]

I managed to combine it in 200dpi for anyone who is interested. I noticed though that the aqueduct and water reservoir are missing in this map as some circular towers in the keep where the fen bridge is and the west gate. Also there is no mention of a ferry and east side of the city the one on the other side of the river is missing. MAybe some additions are in order...

Oh, that is gorgeous! I love that! Thank you very much!

Yes, I would love to a higher resolution pic of this.