Quoth the Raven #30 reaction thread.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Thanks. Shreck reference? The Puss in Boots was intended as a reference to the original fairy tail and ...

The happily-married Ogre Mage Rogue, immediately followed by the Paka.

[Mistmaster]

Thanks. Shreck reference? The Puss in Boots was intended as a reference to the original fairy tail and ...

The happily-married Ogre Mage Rogue, immediately followed by the Paka.

That was a reference to Tom Thumb's Ogre.

[Mistmaster]

Tepest, land of fairytales and folklore:

The Golden Apple seems like a particularly frightening possibility. I wonder what keeps the hags united. Even with Grimhilde at the helm, I'd expect some of the members to either jockey for advancement or else slink off to set up their own little fiefdoms. What are the group's benefits like, for them to stick together?

Never replyed to this, well, more hag in a coven, more powerful it gets; An hag of the Apple covenat have access to far greater power and knowledge then any unaffiliated one; combine it with Grimhilde political power, and you get your answer.

[Manofevil]

DID I OR DID i NOT TELL YOU THAT 'Codename Requiem -The Strange Fate of Gunnison, Colorado 2004 (Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem) ' WAS TO BE CREDITED TO M. T. KELLY?!!
https://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/v ... il#p253367

With that shouting, now it is well known.

Sorry, but it's just not the first time. MIstakes will happen so let's consider the matter handled and dropped.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Fantastic work this year with the Masquerade Article Mephisto. Its little flavor things like that, with named pcs and rumors to put in any event, and a way to keep track of them, the nitty-gritty part of storytelling that means so much.

Thanks!

Edit: In fact, I'd just like to say, guys Ian, Jeremy, Rock, and Mephisto are what carry this netbook on after so many old settings fan support would have died with the original netbook founders. When NeoTiamat and others stepped down, they have stepped up and each provide a new interpretation of the mists and its relation to the dnd-setting multiverse.

If it wasn't for Ron and Joël of the FoS to keep up with the project none of this would have been possible though.

May I one day make stuff half as good as they make.

https://media.tenor.com/ECeWUkBE2m8AAAA ... ed-shy.gif

Thanks to everyone for all the high praise. I really appreciate it. I'm glad my small contributions to the setting have proven both fun and useful to others. Ultimately, this is a group effort and this community is extremely blessed with a lot of talented and passionate people. I'd like to thank the members of the fraternity for all the behind-the-scenes work they have put in editing and formatting everything for our perusal. I'm only a few articles in so far, but it looks wonderful. Good job, guys!

Sorry for not making the images for your Ill reputed people Jeremy, I didn't even have time to finish the two articles I intended to release with QtR#30. I will try to make them (the images that is) to be published with the errata corrections for QtR#30 version 2.

[IanFordam]

If it wasn't for Ron and Joël of the FoS to keep up with the project none of this would have been possible though.

An excellent point. To Ron and Joël! Raises a glass of G'Hennan red.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

If it wasn't for Ron and Joël of the FoS to keep up with the project none of this would have been possible though.

An excellent point. To Ron and Joël! Raises a glass of G'Hennan red.

Hear, hear.
Raises a goblet of Barovian red.

[Mistmaster]

Hear, hear raise a goblet of Invidian white.

[Speedwagon]

A few initial thoughts on this year's Quoth the Raven! It is nowhere near in order...

1. The Conquista Gazetteer by Rock is a lovely continuation of his Wartorn Cluster work. I've kept up with it so far and though it's complex, that complexity is what really shows the amount of thought put into it. At first, when I saw the name of the domain was Conquista, I was expecting a Conquistador Spain sort of vibe, like Ryan Naylor's Mictlan andCumbre de Oro or Dion Fernandez's Ukhu Pacha and Igid Rabi-I. So I was (pleasantly) surprised to see it was a MUCH more advanced domain than I would've predicted and filled with a lot more themes than the title of "Conquista" would suggest. The locations in the domain, from the Wrathwall to the borders of Lillend and Masogan to the cities of Hughrest and Las Zorras, all show a significant amount of thought put into them and have their own subtle and not-so-subtle adventure hooks and opportunities for DMs to implement directly or to take bits and pieces for their own games from. Though the domain is of such an advanced CL, it's really interesting to see how they deal with their more primitive Masogani neighbors with the barren nature of the southern cánton and disparity in gunpowder vs. no gunpowder. The worldbuilding thus draws the reader in, as it's such a departure from the usual Ravenloft style but very charming in how it marries various concepts that, alone, would seem perhaps "too much" or "incompatible" with the setting but together complement one another very well (a great example being the fey, or lack thereof, in Conquista). The discussion of hope in spite of Conquista's political situation was a very necessary one, as that's something that is often forgotten about with Ravenloft. And the more that message is hammered home, the better off the setting is in my opinion. Finally, the furthering of the metaplot involving the Red Haunt only makes me even more interested in future updates from Rock!

2. The "Register of Monsters" is always cool to see show up, though I'm sad to say that I haven't yet had a use for them in my games. The art is always super cool and I'm really jealous of the amount of creativity put behind each one's design and lore, and I think it's good to break-up especially big issues of QtR like this one with a diversity of written text and drawn imagery.

3. Chibiloft! I honestly didn't think we'd see any of these adorable goobers this year but we did, and I'm very thankful that we got to see them. Their adventures in the Mists and appearances at the end of articles is always a welcome break from reading such big PDFs and I'm curious to see how their adventures continue, especially with that interesting cliffhanger.

4. Mistmaster returns to the Mistworld with Blaustein (and Tepest but I'll cover that later)! I enjoy the Tortuga and Berber state influence on Blaustein, as I've always thought that the melange of "pirate paradise island" and "Ottoman" suited Bluebeard's vibe best and showed just how diverse the Ravenloft campaign setting could be, as it didn't need to skew religiously towards a 1:1 or 1:2.5 adaptation of real life lore (the latter would be more like 7th Sea). Though I already really liked the Fraternity of Shadows take on Blaustein and its locales, the introduction of new settlements like Portplasse, Portlant, and more gives me a bit more to work with in my own home games. Even better that they're all relatively distinct from one another in terms of trade resources and overall outlook! I'm also tickled pink with all the references to famous pirate captains and figures in the Golden Age of Piracy and beyond that are given easter-egg style naming conventions and references. As usual, the Famed and the Infamous sections are overflowing with interesting NPC ideas and adventure hooks, and I really have to tip my hat to Mistmaster on consistently not running out of ideas or repeating similar concepts after some time, especially when it comes to making an adventure hook for each and every character shown. I can come up with characters, yeah, but that's on a whole other level. Bravo!

5. Wolfglide's "Font of Mercurial Tears" is a real masterclass in thematic writing! Not only does it keep Hauptschrei's cold and analytic voice throughout the work (until our other, more fortunate and savvy commentator takes over) but it really manages to immerse the reader in caring about all of the little details in a way that doesn't sound dry or textbook-y like most scientific or academic papers steeped in high level jargon run the risk of doing frequently. And the ultimate story behind the Font is truly something "gothic" and worthy of Ravenloft, and a good use of elves!

[Joël of the FoS]

Thank you all, soon I'll have time to write as well for QtR (but I'm looking forward to you reading my Blaustein 2.0 ).

This year was a slightly stressfull end for Qtr30, as Mephisto's computer melted two weeks before the release date, so I took over from "main continuity formatter" to "full netbook editor". This explains the back to the old look for QtR30 instead of the gorgeous feel of Qtr29. I had help to pinpoint booboo's from the work in progress netbook from my friends at the FoS, and that was very helpfull. All helped in scrubbing the texts.

Great team work to get the thing done on time. I'm very happy to be part of such a team.

Joël

[Rock of the Fraternity]

A few initial thoughts on this year's Quoth the Raven! It is nowhere near in order...

1. The Conquista Gazetteer by Rock is a lovely continuation of his Wartorn Cluster work.

Thank you! ^_^ I put a lot into Conquista, and some of it I had to dig deep for.

I've kept up with it so far and though it's complex, that complexity is what really shows the amount of thought put into it.

I'm really happy to know there are people who enjoy my Cluster and metaplot.

At first, when I saw the name of the domain was Conquista, I was expecting a Conquistador Spain sort of vibe, like Ryan Naylor's Mictlan andCumbre de Oro or Dion Fernandez's Ukhu Pacha and Igid Rabi-I. So I was (pleasantly) surprised to see it was a MUCH more advanced domain than I would've predicted and filled with a lot more themes than the title of "Conquista" would suggest. The locations in the domain, from the Wrathwall to the borders of Lillend and Masogan to the cities of Hughrest and Las Zorras, all show a significant amount of thought put into them and have their own subtle and not-so-subtle adventure hooks and opportunities for DMs to implement directly or to take bits and pieces for their own games from. Though the domain is of such an advanced CL, it's really interesting to see how they deal with their more primitive Masogani neighbors with the barren nature of the southern cánton and disparity in gunpowder vs. no gunpowder. The worldbuilding thus draws the reader in, as it's such a departure from the usual Ravenloft style but very charming in how it marries various concepts that, alone, would seem perhaps "too much" or "incompatible" with the setting but together complement one another very well (a great example being the fey, or lack thereof, in Conquista). The discussion of hope in spite of Conquista's political situation was a very necessary one, as that's something that is often forgotten about with Ravenloft. And the more that message is hammered home, the better off the setting is in my opinion.

At a certain point, I felt the opportunity for positive change in Conquista needed to be pointed out. Like I said before, I put a lot into this domain, much of it dark. But it's not meant to be a hopeless slog. The Demiplane also holds great beauty, it is a world worth fighting for, and heroes can make a difference.

Finally, the furthering of the metaplot involving the Red Haunt only makes me even more interested in future updates from Rock!

Stay tuned for the Vieuxlyons Gazetteer, coming to an issue of Quoth the Raven near you.

3. Chibiloft! I honestly didn't think we'd see any of these adorable goobers this year but we did, and I'm very thankful that we got to see them.

Many thanks to Joël and Mephisto for allowing me to make some late entries. With all the work on Conquista, I didn't think I'd have time for Chibiloft this year, but I'm glad I did.

Their adventures in the Mists and appearances at the end of articles is always a welcome break from reading such big PDFs and I'm curious to see how their adventures continue, especially with that interesting cliffhanger.

Please stay tuned!

[Mephisto of the FoS]

If it wasn't for Ron and Joël of the FoS to keep up with the project none of this would have been possible though.

An excellent point. To Ron and Joël! Raises a glass of G'Hennan red.

Hear, hear.
Raises a goblet of Barovian red.

Hear, hear raise a goblet of Invidian white.

Mephisto raises his glass of fine Andaas Brimbubbly ‘27...

[Jeremy16]

Thanks to everyone for all the high praise. I really appreciate it. I'm glad my small contributions to the setting have proven both fun and useful to others. Ultimately, this is a group effort and this community is extremely blessed with a lot of talented and passionate people. I'd like to thank the members of the fraternity for all the behind-the-scenes work they have put in editing and formatting everything for our perusal. I'm only a few articles in so far, but it looks wonderful. Good job, guys!

Sorry for not making the images for your Ill reputed people Jeremy, I didn't even have time to finish the two articles I intended to release with QtR#30. I will try to make them (the images that is) to be published with the errata corrections for QtR#30 version 2.

That's alright. I understand that life sometime gets in the way of things. I was tempted to throw in the art direction for my NPCs into this thread just so people could see the original references, but I will hold back on that for now!

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

5. Wolfglide's "Font of Mercurial Tears" is a real masterclass in thematic writing! Not only does it keep Hauptschrei's cold and analytic voice throughout the work (until our other, more fortunate and savvy commentator takes over) but it really manages to immerse the reader in caring about all of the little details in a way that doesn't sound dry or textbook-y like most scientific or academic papers steeped in high level jargon run the risk of doing frequently. And the ultimate story behind the Font is truly something "gothic" and worthy of Ravenloft, and a good use of elves!

Thank you! It does me wonders to hear that. I'm in the process of writing my first real scientific paper right now, and I am not anticipating the editors and reviewers to be as appreciative of my artistic license.

If it wasn't for Ron and Joël of the FoS to keep up with the project none of this would have been possible though.

An excellent point. To Ron and Joël! Raises a glass of G'Hennan red.

Hear, hear.
Raises a goblet of Barovian red.

Hear, hear raise a goblet of Invidian white.

Mephisto raises his glass of fine Andaas Brimbubbly ‘27...

Raises a goblet of red—but it is too thick to be wine.

[Mistmaster]

Raises a goblet of red—but it is too thick to be wine.

Count-King Strahd is that you?