Let’s face it: each Ravenloft DM means for White Wolf about 2 books sold every year. With a new WoD Dark Ages line on the streets, it also probably means 0-4 less Dark Ages books sold every year. And about 2 more books for WotC (consider it: many of us RL DMs buy books like Libris Mortis, PHB, Complete Adventurer, Unearthed Arcana etc – I would like to see your opinions and personal experience on it).
So White Wolf, in about 1.5 year will have much less drive to continue this line. (All this by supposing that in about 1-1.5 years a new WoD Dark Ages line hits the streets. If this doesn’t happen, much of the reasoning of this post becomes invalid.)
Doomed and sad? Well, not necessarily. Let’s look at the other side: WotC. WotC will have the license back and may continue the line. Of course, this has many pros and cons.
Starting with the disadvantages:
1) WotC already has Eberron, FR and the modern lines on the street. Multibranding is considered bad idea since TSR’s fallout. Adding a new line is extremely difficult.
2) Ravenloft is a niche product by Wizards’ standards. Wizards’ doesn’t support niche products.
3) Some of the old RL players may switch to other Wizards’ d20 games anyway.
Particularly points 1 and 2 are very strong. Let’s see whether there are considerable advantages:
1) If the RL line stops, many of us may switch to the very similar new WoD. Let’s face it: the new werewolf is much less epic and more about personal horror (does it remind you of many RL lycanthrope characters?), Vampire is much claustrophobic – each city is much like a domain in which you are trapped. I am tempted to play the new WoD (probably with d20 rules, but anyway). That means less PHB and other d20 products’ sales. And stronger position for the opposition.
2) Ravenloft is already an established product – it doesn’t need much costly promotion – just enough promotion and new “features” to persuade people go back to it and new d20 players to consider playing. Of course, these new “features” may make it a bit more player-friendly, but, anyway, 3E Ravenloft is much less of a sadistic weekend-in-hell than previous RL editions.
3) D20 modern hasn’t an established Campaign Setting. Urban Arcana wasn’t much successful (I think it is as much a niche market as RL is) and that’s why it’s not supported with new books. Ravenloft (or perhaps Masque of the Red Death) could become one d20 modern campaign setting, now that d20 Past provides the necessary rules for d20 modern to emulate 1400+ eras (CL 8-9 domains at least).
Hey! I hear someone shouting here! RL in d20 Modern?
Let’s see a possible way to handle this:
• 3 hardcover books each year – less than Eberron and a bit less than FR, as much as d20 Modern’s books. For the first year, one of the three will be a core rulebook, for the next years, one of the three could be a book about Masques and other campaign possibilities (a Masque in Eberron?), making the line’s books usable by GMs who play anything from FR to 21th century d20 modern games. It’s easy to fill the other 2 books with interesting stuff, both crunch and fluff
• Nice artwork of course – don’t forget that Talon’s drawing in color, too
• Rules will be in d20 Modern (enhancing Modern’s sales), but the rules and choices of feat lists can make almost all d20 feat and prestige classes viable. Some conversion guidelines about Defense Bonuses are needed, but the thing is possible without much overhead (I’ve done it IMC). In the first rulebook, or even in the web site, lists of which Prestige Classes in already published 3.5 d20 products could be used with little conversion would become very useful (Streetifghter, dread pirate and true necromancer come to mind, but there are dozens of them – but we have some issues with sneak attack here!). This could happen even with MMs! In that way, both lines gain sales
• Stats for NPCs will be in Modern, but it’s quite easy to use old Arhaus’ published NPCs without conversion, at least temporarily: after all, an attack bonus is always an attack bonus, an AC always an AC and skills are always identical. RL isn’t much high-magic, so issues of play balance will rarely arise. In that way, they won’t have to reprint everything – they can provide new material.
• Emphasis is given in more culturally advanced domains – at least for player characters home bases. Maybe they could use MotRD instead of normal Ravenloft as the core campaign setting.
So, as players and GMs, what would we lose?:
• Some of the coherence of the world probably – WotC will have it more easy to use some prestige classes and material from books which are not exactly in the RL mindset.
• Less new material (about 150 pages per year), many conversions. Hey, all 3E RL was about this anyway!
• Less support for culturally inadvanced domains: it’s quite difficult to create decent and balanced PCs from domains like Har’ Akir in d20 modern. Well, anyway, I would like to see how many of you often create PCs from CL 1-6 domains… (Personally, I never had a player with PC raised in anything less than CL 7 ).
• Having to buy 0-2 d20 Modern books. I remind you that all d20 Modern rules (even from supplements) are in the Modern SRD, which you can freely download from WotC website.
What would we gain?:
• Web enhancements and errata!! Wow, wow, cheers!! Finally!
• Official internet support, art galleries on line, lovely layout and hardback books.
• No delays of books, more players due to better promotion.
• Better play balance and incorporation with other d20 supplements.
• A system better suited for homo universalis characters – more skill driven and less combat oriented than standard d20.
Of course, all this is probably just wishful thinking…
