Café de Nuit

Here's your place to share exactly what you think about my Pride Month anthology!

Please be kind, but constructive criticsm is allowed and encouraged.

Even if you don't have too much to say, I'd very appreciate it if you write 'I like the story', 'this was really cool' or even just 'meow', just so I know people are reading this stuff.

Happy Pride!

So what's your opinion about 'dangers of the sight'?
Also, do you think my annotations on the stories belong here or on the original thread?

I was intrigued to read Dangers of the Sight, because I've had thoughts about transgender Dukkars rattling around in my head for a few years now. I'm glad to see the concept in print! I like seeing that Quoth's gender isn't questioned by Madame Eva. Does this mean that Vistani as you portray them view gender transition favorably (except in the case of a transgender boy having the Sight), or is this just Eva's personal viewpoint?

Someday, I hope to find the time to write about my own transgender Dukkar. Thank you for beating me to it, because it could be a while!

As for the annotations, either placement seems fine to me. If you want an uninterrupted thread of stories, I'd move the annotations here. That said, if the comment thread blows up, the annotations for a particular story could get hard to find (though you could link the annotation post's URL in the story post for easy reference).

Wolfglide of the Fraternity wrote: Sat Jun 06, 2026 11:03 pm I was intrigued to read Dangers of the Sight, because I've had thoughts about transgender Dukkars rattling around in my head for a few years now. I'm glad to see the concept in print! I like seeing that Quoth's gender isn't questioned by Madame Eva. Does this mean that Vistani as you portray them view gender transition favorably (except in the case of a transgender boy having the Sight), or is this just Eva's personal viewpoint?

Someday, I hope to find the time to write about my own transgender Dukkar. Thank you for beating me to it, because it could be a while!

As for the annotations, either placement seems fine to me. If you want an uninterrupted thread of stories, I'd move the annotations here. That said, if the comment thread blows up, the annotations for a particular story could get hard to find (though you could link the annotation post's URL in the story post for easy reference).

My take is that the Vistani have enough experience with the mystical to know that a person's body can hide inside it a completely different soul (not only gender-wise), and can often tell when it happens. From that perspective, one's gender identity (and whether it's cis or trans) is a provable fact, not a matter of perception. Being a vistani transphobe is not unlike being a flat-earther in our world.
However, there might be arguments among them about the need for physical transition, especially as the options for that in Ravenloft tend to be cursed.

Dangers of the Sight - Annotations

First thing first: The 'Belook' Van Richten & Co are hunting is a homebrew monster by Antonio Demico (AKA Pointy Hat), my favourite DND YouTuber. (He didn't pay me to do this. I just like the monster and thought it would be fun. I tried to get his permission but he never answered, so I hope if he sees this he'd be like 'ooh, free advertisement' and not 'how dare you violate my copyrights?'.)
I intentionally kept the monster itself mentioned-only, to not spoil players the twist about it: it's one of those monsters where the way to defeat them is a bit like a riddle the party needs to figure out.
If you're a DM and you feel like running the belook, check the link bellow. If you're a player and you feel like fighting it, I reccomend you send the link to your DM without looking at what's inside, to avoid the spoiler.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2P ... CQLYUe/pub

Second thing second, here are two unrelated facts about me:
1) I'm jewish, and my one of my favourite subjects at school is the Talmud. The Talmud is one of the main religious texts in Judaism, the (incredibly messy) collection of sages' debates and interpretations over the Halacha. It basically takes all of these absolute, abstract commendants from the Bible, and breaks them down to specific cases. It always asks 'yeah, we have this general rule, but what if the situation is more complicated?'
This is an attitude I feel like I bring with me a lot to magic systems. We have these general rules that work most of the time, but at some point there'd be a situation that messes up with them. And that's when stuff gets interesting.
2) I'm non-binary (meaning I don't exclusively identify as a man or a woman. It can mean different things to different non-binary people, but in my case it means I'm fluid between both - sometimes I feel more masculine and sometimes more feminine.), meaning that by nature, I mess up with a lot of rules.

So I have this hobby of checking how trans people can mess with magic systems, prophecies and the like. Like, can the son of a trans man kill Macabeth, being 'of man born' rather than 'of woman born'?
A while ago I started reading the Wheel of Time series, and it occured to me that in that world, the twist would be horrifying, given that the masculine side of magic is tainted by evil: A transfeminine Aas Sadai's life could depend on her proving to the council that she really is a woman, while a transmasculine one could go through months of training before realising their magic is cursed!
When I read about the prophecy of the Dukkar I felt like it's pretty much the same conflict, and started toying with the idea of a trans Dukkar.
Is Quoth's story the best version I could write of it? I'm not sure. Maybe I should've written it from Quoth's own POV, putting more emphasis on his feelings than on outsiders' opinions. But I think it's good for a first try. I'd like to return to that concept some day.

Last thing last - This isn't the first time I'm writing about Dr. Van Richten, young George Weathermay, the scout Markil and the mage Shauten (both mentioned in Van Richten's Guide to the Lich) working together, but it's the first time that didn't get tragically erased due to technical issues. I had their team dynamics in mind for a while and had been toying with the idea of writing short stories of their adventures, so tell me if it's something you'd be interested in.

I decided to write the annotations here from now on, to spark disscussions.

TheArcaneWeirdo wrote: Sun Jun 07, 2026 1:13 pm My take is that the Vistani have enough experience with the mystical to know that a person's body can hide inside it a completely different soul (not only gender-wise), and can often tell when it happens. From that perspective, one's gender identity (and whether it's cis or trans) is a provable fact, not a matter of perception. Being a vistani transphobe is not unlike being a flat-earther in our world.
However, there might be arguments among them about the need for physical transition, especially as the options for that in Ravenloft tend to be cursed.

In a similar vein, I imagine those who study possession and soul-transferring necromancy would also have this perspective on a clear division between physical characteristics and internal identity.

I could also see the mystery deepening when study of the soul gets involved. Some might question whether the soul has an inherent gender, or if gender is an aspect of the soul's psyche that develops under unknown circumstances. Some literal soul-searching may be involved when plumbing the mysteries of soul identity.

As much as I'm drawn to keeping the mystery alive, I would be a little cautious about bringing it to the table. I wouldn't want players to think I'm trying to keep the validity of their characters' identities in limbo (and potentially their identities by extension). Having soul transfer be an ultimate resolution that establishes gender identity as fact seems like a generally smoother approach to validating one's players' identities.

I enjoyed reading about Le Cheval Rose (is the name a reference to Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan?). I found it to be a believable space for subtle resistance within Dementlieu. I've been meaning to put a gay bar into a game for a long time, particularly because every tavern I named when I first started sounded like a gay bar to my players.

Wolfglide of the Fraternity wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2026 6:46 pm I enjoyed reading about Le Cheval Rose (is the name a reference to Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan?). I found it to be a believable space for subtle resistance within Dementlieu. I've been meaning to put a gay bar into a game for a long time, particularly because every tavern I named when I first started sounded like a gay bar to my players.

Yep, that's the reference. I've been waiting for someone to get it. I'm glad you liked it.