What I would like for QtR#30

[IanFordam]

A treatise on diseases, brought to you by Malus Sceleris and Ladislav Mircea.

Or a collection of letters with Mircea arguing for the ability of alchemy to overcome disease and Sceleris arguing for the ability of disease to overcome alchemy. All things considered, I'm positive Mircea would lose that debate, and badly. On the other hand, oh, it might be fun to read.

[Speedwagon]

A treatise on diseases, brought to you by Malus Sceleris and Ladislav Mircea.

Or a collection of letters with Mircea arguing for the ability of alchemy to overcome disease and Sceleris arguing for the ability of disease to overcome alchemy. All things considered, I'm positive Mircea would lose that debate, and badly. On the other hand, oh, it might be fun to read.

Darklord PenPals (well more like PenFoes)! Regardless, I do think it's an interesting concept, KingCorn, as reading a script in a Darklord's voice is helpful to roleplaying and understanding how to better 'play' the character as a DM. Honestly, something like roleplay tips for each Darklord could be a helpful QtR article in and of itself.

[IanFordam]

Darklord PenPals (well more like PenFoes)! Regardless, I do think it's an interesting concept, KingCorn, as reading a script in a Darklord's voice is helpful to roleplaying and understanding how to better 'play' the character as a DM. Honestly, something like roleplay tips for each Darklord could be a helpful QtR article in and of itself.

Or something told in the voice of a character close to a darklord. I know I've brought up Baron Camar D’Marosso from The Book of Souls before, but I maintain that D'Marosso's sycophantic hero worship of Marquis Stezen d'Polarno made the Marquis more interesting than anything else I had read about him.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Bluebeard's treatise on "Beauty, Faithfulness and Decomposition".
Duke Tristen Hiregaard's philosophical essay "On the Duality of the Soul".
Yagno Petrovna's "Revelation".
Elena Faith-hold's analysis on torturing devices "The Scourge of Belenus".
Dr, Dominiani's scientific article "Phobias and other Disorders of the Psyche".
Dominic D'Honaire's political treatise "Le Dauphin".
Gabrielle Aderre's autobiographical manifesto "Motherhood, raising a monster"

[KingCorn]

Bluebeard's treatise on "Beauty, Faithfulness and Decomposition".
Duke Tristen Hiregaard's philosophical essay "On the Duality of the Soul".
Yagno Petrovna's "Revelation".
Elena Faith-hold's analysis on torturing devices "The Scourge of Belenus".
Dr, Dominiani's scientific article "Phobias and other Disorders of the Psyche".
Dominic D'Honaire's political treatise "Le Dauphin".
Gabrielle Aderre's autobiographical manifesto "Motherhood, raising a monster"

Thing is, my weird personal canon is the idea that Ivana has actually published several books of horticulture and botany, but under pseudonyms. Its just one of her hobbies, like Markov with is journals. I just like the idea of the little hobbies of darklords

[IanFordam]

Bluebeard's treatise on "Beauty, Faithfulness and Decomposition".
Duke Tristen Hiregaard's philosophical essay "On the Duality of the Soul".
Yagno Petrovna's "Revelation".
Elena Faith-hold's analysis on torturing devices "The Scourge of Belenus".
Dr, Dominiani's scientific article "Phobias and other Disorders of the Psyche".
Dominic D'Honaire's political treatise "Le Dauphin".
Gabrielle Aderre's autobiographical manifesto "Motherhood, raising a monster"

Those are awesome.

Thing is, my weird personal canon is the idea that Ivana has actually published several books of horticulture and botany, but under pseudonyms. Its just one of her hobbies, like Markov with is journals. I just like the idea of the little hobbies of darklords

So is that.

Darklord PenPals (well more like PenFoes)!

BWAH!

[Speedwagon]

I really do wonder what the reviewers and book critics of the realm would have to say about such literature. They'd better watch their words...

Another idea I had for something we'd like for QtR #30: maybe some of the Kargatane or other Ravenloft authors to see what will be written? It's the 30th QtR, and I feel like that's a pretty big accomplishment. People have come and gone from the Fraternity of Shadows boards as the editions have changed like seasons have passed, so it might be nice to get an even stronger feeling of the community coming together to celebrate this particular rendition of the FoS' time honored netbook tradition. It might be cool to see the likes of the Kargatane like Naylor, Mangrum et. al see see what's been released? The same also goes for emeritus Fraternity of Shadows members! I don't know, I'm just brainstorming here.

[Manofevil]

In doing all of this, we should also clarify the publication situation in the demiplane. Writing things is great but unless they're published they just sit in a drawer someplace. Here's an article on how Shakespeare's stuff got published:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/ab ... 514CBC9EFD
Who's the printer? Where is he located? How did they become the printer of all these things? There can be more than one, too.

[Mistmaster]

In doing all of this, we should also clarify the publication situation in the demiplane. Writing things is great but unless they're published they just sit in a drawer someplace. Here's an article on how Shakespeare's stuff got published:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/ab ... 514CBC9EFD
Who's the printer? Where is he located? How did they become the printer of all these things? There can be more than one, too.

Zherisia, Lamordia, Darkon, Dementlieu, Borca and Mordent(shire) surely have publishing house, and in Falkovnia there are state ones.

[KingCorn]

Speaking of Books, maybe an explaination of effects on the Books of the Mists.
In the Nine-of-Hearts we see the effects of the Books-of-S, so what about others?
What do you get for reading Van Richten's Guides?
What are the benefits of a Falkovnian War Manual?
Or meredoth's notes?

[Speedwagon]

Speaking of Books, maybe an explaination of effects on the Books of the Mists.
In the Nine-of-Hearts we see the effects of the Books-of-S, so what about others?
What do you get for reading Van Richten's Guides?
What are the benefits of a Falkovnian War Manual?
Or meredoth's notes?

That’s a great idea! I feel like Falkovnian war manuals are either the most galaxy-brain/500 IQ guides to warfare ever seen or the most restricted and rigid and inflexible understandings of military doctrine ever published. Maybe both.

[Five]

I'd like to see fresh new ideas for Ravenloft. NPCs, monsters, organisations, locations, a ton of adventure seeds, things of that nature. Maybe under something like "Ravenloft: Legends", but featuring both urban and rural varieties, in which only the reader can determine fact from fiction...

If ground is to be retread, then maybe a "Year One" version of some the fanbase's favorite Dark Lords too (forget the novels). Yeah, level tier (Tiers of Play, PHB, p.15) the Dark Lords for DMs to ponder and throw at their PCs. Can the protagonists prevent Evil from growing too fast, too high, and too far? Will they make the so-called "canon" timeline an alternate future by chopping down and tearing up Evil's very roots?

Hacking at the fingers of the Dark Powers to release their death grip on lands and people torn from other realities can be a campaign of epic hero proportion, especially if the PCs know or feel they are fated/doomed to stay behind and face repercussions, Ravenloft-style:


That's pretty specific, yes. But I'd like to see it.

Ultimately, I'd like to see Ravenloft grow for yet another year. So do what you all do, regardless of pitches from people like me. Heh

[Pizza]

If people are going to do ocean stuff, could someone make carnivorous seaweed? Maybe it has some sort of natural sticky substance that can also induce torpor if it touches the skin, and it grows some sort of digestive pod around its victim. Not terribly dangerous except in a TPK type situation.

Also the werehippo discussion should be included somewhere. Maybe a very large freshwater lake somewhere.

[KingCorn]

Somewhat related to the expansion of the Trade Embassies, but what about an in depth explanation of how Falkovnia conducts its trade, especially when it comes to the rivers. Because besides the embassies basically functioning as a mixture of market, military camp, and science lab, Falkovnia could also have a series of levees, pumps, and resoviours to control access to the rivers. After all, if Dementliue wants to trade with Richleumont, it either goes through Mordent and into Verbrek, or goes briefly through Falkovnia. And while Drakov is not the smartest guy, he would milk this for all its worth.

The history of the embassies could also lead into weird-science layer of Falkovnia. Because the horse-trade with Nova Vaasa has become much more...inconvient, Falkovnia has had to focus on the genetic lines of the few non-gelded horses they managed to acquire (through illicit means), and actually take great pains to acquire quality horses where they can. Or the Invidian Trade Embassy could be shipping captured Verbrekian werewolves to have more research subjects to impove the Primal Serum. Oh just plain helping Invidia do some colonizing of that frontier.

[IanFordam]

I just realized what I'd like to see for QtR#30: Short articles and/or articles by new contributors.

I mean, Rock, Mephisto, Mistmaster, and I have demonstrated that we can fill up pages, and I suspect that we'll do so in the forthcoming issue. However, I just want to state my fondness for articles which focus upon a single person or site or creature. Take "Simon LaFleur" from The Book of Sorrows as an example, or "To Granny's House" from QtR#21.

I do enjoy the longer-form articles as well, but I'd hate for anyone to be discouraged from writing up an idea just because it isn't Core-shatteringly grand.