Crossovers?

[Hazgarn]

Of course, it would still be fanfiction. And a good fanfic is like a good Nazi. Theoretical at best. (J/k Hazgarn! )

Um...

*has actually written a Castle fanfic that involved a "good" Nazi*

Hell, you could even call it Castle Ravenloft!

Get it?

Castle...Ravenloft?

Sigh...

Ouch.

The idea floundered because I really couldn't think of much of a plot. There was supposed to be some silliness where Beckett got to make use of what she learned about powder pistols during the steampunk episode, and Castle got to shine with his fencing skills. I think I planned to have Alanik Ray show up, so that Ryan could geek over solving a case with an elf, and there was going to be a running gag about everyone they met thinking they were from Paridon.

This scene was really all I ever got written:

"Have I told you lately that I hate this place?" Javier asked, almost conversationally as he slid down beside his partner who was crouched down, using an overturned carriage for cover. "I hate its shitty inns, and its creepy villages, and the creepier people with their dumb superstitions, and it's stupid stone-age guns..."

And its monsters. Javier hated the monsters, but that pretty much went without saying at this point. In any case, the last was spit viciously as Javier shoved the offending weapon at his partner. Kevin rolled his eyes as he took it, handing Javier his own pistol. Javier took the weapon with a grunt of thanks. Cautiously, he peered over the top of the carriage, grateful when the coast seemed clear.

Though, a doubting voice in the back of his mind was insisting this was more than likely a really bad sign.

"I don't get it, bro," Kevin said as he packed the bullet down the barrel. "You can strip and reassemble an AK in less than thirty seconds. Reloading a musket isn't remotely that hard."

"Well you know what they say. High spirits are no substitute for eight hundred rounds per minute."

Beside him, his partner made a choked noise.

"Dude, do not quote Dog Soldiers when we're this close to Verbrek. Do you have a death wish?"

[vipera aspis]

Cannot believe I forgot this one but anyone else really like Unhallowed?! That is an amazing game and all of the classes would make for fantastic crossovers.

[Jimsolo]

Never heard of it. What's it all about?

(My party is gearing up for a fight with Alfred Timothy, and I was seriously thinking about having one of his boys be a Garou from WoD. A couple of the weirder gifts coming out of nowhere should definitely put a potato in their tailpipe...)

[vipera aspis]

Unhallowed Metropolis is an amazing game. It's neo-victorian post apocalyptic horror.

"It has been two hundred years since first the outbreak of the Plague, when without warning the dead rose to feed on the flesh of the living. No nation was spared. Everywhere, the animates, or zombies as they came to be known by the common man, prowled the streets, killing and spreading the infection as they passed. For each victim claimed, a fresh animate rose to join the ranks of the risen. As panic and mass hysteria gripped the public, the cities were abandoned. Countless millions perished in the chaos that followed. Overnight, humanity found itself on the brink of annihilation.

Seventy percent of the world's population succumbed to the Plague, secondary epidemics, or the mass starvation that followed.

The year was 1905; it was the dawn of a new dark age.

In the following decades, the survivors to learned to fight back and to retake what they had lost. Recalling the golden age that had come before, the Neo-Victorians set out to rebuild their shattered nation. Despite the heavy cost in human life, they reclaimed their cities one by one until only the sepulchres, or plague cities, remained under deaths dominion. Though the survivors have successfully constructed a new world on the bones of the old, their world remains rife with undreamt of terrors. "

The year is 2105 and several long running traditions maintain society in neo-Victorian London. The archetypes for a PC to begin the game include Aristocrats, Criminals, Doctors (surgery is a bit more Frankensteinian and limbs can be replaced - somewhat reminiscent of the biothaumaturges of Perdido Street Station), Policemen, Undertakers (the supernatural police/undead/vampire bounty hunters), Dhampiri (half vampires, who hate their creators with a passion) and Mourners (mostly female, a specialty trade to care for and possibly dispose of discretely the corpses of aristocrats, which are not traditionally cremated and may animate).

The crossover would be almost seamless in some cases

[Jimsolo]

That sounds like a world that would mesh pretty well with Ravenloft. Heck, for a lot of domains, Ravenloft is preferable to that world, it sounds like! I think the biggest challenge as a DM in that situation would be making sure the crossover PC (if you allowed a crossover PC) doesn't think they made out like a bandit getting into the Demiplane of Dread.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

Daleks.

Please expand and continue

[vipera aspis]

Agreed, however that might be just the thing to have some gm's raise the bar so to speak. I for one think ravenloft could use more bleak horror and more grim outcomes. At times it seems like it goes almost easy on players when it comes to mistakes in both combat and roleplaying; when facing of with terrors beyond human reason. At least in written adventures so to speak. I think it has more to do with th fantasy elements and residual light-hearted nature of basic dungeons and dragons that bleeds through though.

[Jimsolo]

Heh. I totally agree. I'm always having to be wary of making my games too dark, even in my normal D&D games. (My wife has done a phenomenal job of charting my last campaign here.) Of course, you always need to avoid having your games become a meat-grinder. Deadlands, Cthulu, and Ravenloft share that in common I think. They're such dark games that it's easy for PCs to get so discouraged by all of their victories turning to ashes in their mouths that it ruins their fun.

[Ryan Naylor]

Unhallowed Metropolis has a truly horrendous combat system though.

On Daleks:

I ran an intrigue campaign where the PCs were all in the service of the Bureau du Chiffre (secret service) of Dementlieu. They knew Falkovnia was gearing up to invade, so they spent the campaign running backwards and forward trying to thwart Darkov's preparations.

One of the rumours they heard was that Drakov's commanders were so desperate that they'd turned to some crazy scientist in Lamordia who was promising to sell a weapon to the highest bidder that would make whoever held it unbeatable. The scientist was a notorious crank, but they decided to follow it up anyway.

On arriving at Mordenheim's estate, they found that he'd given up on trying to heal Elise's body and mind, and had started investigating time travel to stop her from being injure in the first place. Which was the weapon - being able to go back in time to erase your military defeats.

At the first demonstration of the device (which looked like a diving bell that was lowered into a huge pit), Horg was bravely volunteered to go in the sphere while the Talons and the PCs watched. Everything seemed to go OK until *something* attacked the sphere - they could hear the diving bell ringing from the impact and Horg screaming through a wireless communicator (radio). When they pulled the sphere up, there was a mechanical spider crouched on top of the sphere, a big rent in the side, and Horg was unconscious. The spider didn't seem particularly active.

Unbeknownst to all, Horg had been infected by paradox spirits - altering your own past creates a paradox (since you're no longer able to alter the event, because you're timeline stops existing), which lets them take over your body. They show you your history in reverse, and invite you to interfere to lure you out. Just about everyone ended up infected, and had to resist the temptation of interfering in their own history.

The spider was the mortal enemy of the paradox spirits, and came alive once the spirits started taking over. It ran around screeching about the need to E-LIM-IN-ATE the unclean and blasting people with a steam gun.

The Talons were also trying to kill the PCs to stop Dementlieu from getting the weapon. At least until the spider really got going.

The PCs eventually stopped both the spirits and the spider by preventing Horg's first trip in the sphere in a way that didn't change anyone's personal history.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Ahh... very nice. When you first said it, I'd feared the worst. Daleks are occasionally laughable on their own, but adding them into Ravenloft sounded, quite frankly, ridiculous. So I didn't ask. But now I wish I had. I like the way you used and built on the idea without falling into the silliness trap. Well done.

[Jimsolo]

I like how the plot stands on its own without any Dr. Who fandom required.

[Ryan Naylor]

Thank you. There was a reasonable amount of ham in that session, but everyone had a good time.

A good plot should always be able to stand on its own.

[jules]

how about a Mario bros./Ravenloft crossover?

[Dark Angel]

how about a Mario bros./Ravenloft crossover?

Either the greatest or worst Paridon adventure ever!

[The Lesser Evil]

how about a Mario bros./Ravenloft crossover?

Either the greatest or worst Paridon adventure ever!

With Timor beneath Paridon's sewers, I could imagine things would go down the tubes fairly quickly for Mario and company.