Ravenloft is back in 5e?

[Mephisto of the FoS]

May be it has a link with my supersoldier article anf Vjorn's experiments? (Antunia Papiecù, from QtR18) ?

That's the first thing I thought when I read that the darklord is female.

Wishful thinking

Maybe the authors did take into account the Time of Unparalleled Darkness adventure layout, (By. Charles Phipps) which was similar with the Grand Conjunction having a prophesy, There were these prophetic verses among others...

The animals shall fight rise up to consume man. The Man Beast King and Beast Man King will do battle as a race dies.
This is about Verbrek, Kartakass and Valachan (the real Beast prevails)

The Falcon shall do battle with the Hawk and the True Conqueror will emerge.
A Falkovnian civil war where Drakov dies so yes his granddaughter or any of his female illegitimate children could step up.

The House of Light shall bring forth its champion whom shall cleanse the House of Darkness
Doctor Rudolf Van Ritchen, looking not a day over twenty, emerges from Bleak House (check the alternate cover of the new book showing a young man holding a machete? Unless if that is Gondegal.

The Prodigal Son of Science shall become the Father and the Father the Son. The Daughter shall inherit the Throne.
Self explained Vikta Mordenheim emerges probably hunting Elise who escaped the madhouse.

The dead will outnumber the living and the Son shall be reclaimed by the Father. The Armies of Light and Darkness will clash and the flames shall burn across the Demiplane...
Zombie Apocalypse

[Joël of the FoS]

Wow, great

[Mephisto of the FoS]

The dead will outnumber the living and the Son shall be reclaimed by the Father. The Armies of Light and Darkness will clash and the flames shall burn across the Demiplane...
Zombie Apocalypse[/quote]

In that scenario Azalin sacrifices all of Darkon to create a Dawn of the Walking Dead so maybe there is a bug in the system and while Darkon disappears the Falkovnian borders with Darkon are constantly attacked by hordes of zombies.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

From Gazetteer metaplot by John Mangrum

"In my personal notes, I considered Gazetteer XIII a good place to end Ravenloft Third Edition. Particularly since D&D 4th Edition would likely be approaching (or here) by then, were RL still going at that point, I would have bumped the timeline forward to 765 BC and handed the reins off to the next generation of designers to launch Ravenloft Fourth Edition, which likely would have focused on the imminent "end days" of the setting."

So since the 4th edition didn't happen eccept some articles in Dragon magazine, I hopefully assume that the new designers created a Ravenloft after the ToUD, it would also be helpful to them as they could have creative freedom to do whatever they wanted.

[FiranDarcalus]

From Gazetteer metaplot by John Mangrum

"In my personal notes, I considered Gazetteer XIII a good place to end Ravenloft Third Edition. Particularly since D&D 4th Edition would likely be approaching (or here) by then, were RL still going at that point, I would have bumped the timeline forward to 765 BC and handed the reins off to the next generation of designers to launch Ravenloft Fourth Edition, which likely would have focused on the imminent "end days" of the setting."

So since the 4th edition didn't happen eccept some articles in Dragon magazine, I hopefully assume that the new designers created a Ravenloft after the ToUD, it would also be helpful to them as they could have creative freedom to do whatever they wanted.

It's possible, but keep in mind the timeline in Curse of Strahd is 735 BC, which is even before the Grand Conjunction. Since Curse of Strahd is canon, I would be surprised if the timeline suddenly jumps 30 or 40 yrs. Honestly, I doubt the authors have much knowledge or interest in following previous metaplots, especially from another company (White Wolf). It really seems like this is more about them reimagining Ravenloft for a new generation.

Of course, that totally doesn't mean we as long time Ravenlofters can't fill in those gaps on our own.

[SkiBird]

(Regarding continuity, or lack there of)

... I feel that's a job for us - a cool collective work, or an article making the links between 5e and old stuff.

I look forward to this.

[Five]

Maybe the authors did take into account the Time of Unparalleled Darkness adventure layout, (By. Charles Phipps) which was similar with the Grand Conjunction having a prophesy, There were these prophetic verses among others...

The animals shall fight rise up to consume man. The Man Beast King and Beast Man King will do battle as a race dies.
This is about Verbrek, Kartakass and Valachan (the real Beast prevails)

The Falcon shall do battle with the Hawk and the True Conqueror will emerge.
A Falkovnian civil war where Drakov dies so yes his granddaughter or any of his female illegitimate children could step up.

The House of Light shall bring forth its champion whom shall cleanse the House of Darkness
Doctor Rudolf Van Ritchen, looking not a day over twenty, emerges from Bleak House (check the alternate cover of the new book showing a young man holding a machete? Unless if that is Gondegal.

The Prodigal Son of Science shall become the Father and the Father the Son. The Daughter shall inherit the Throne.
Self explained Vikta Mordenheim emerges probably hunting Elise who escaped the madhouse.

The dead will outnumber the living and the Son shall be reclaimed by the Father. The Armies of Light and Darkness will clash and the flames shall burn across the Demiplane...
Zombie Apocalypse

Nice, though I personally don't like metaplotting in shared worlds. It's a great tool to keep a setting from stagnating, but metaplots, especially epic ones like that (as well as the nature of the Dark Powers), should be largely left a DM tool. As with anything in published books it easy to ignore, change, or otherwise work around such things, but it can make it a hard(er) sell for DMs who want to push their own ideas and metaplots to their players, especially new ones to the table that are coming in with preconceived notions of the setting about to be played.

Not a dealbreaker by any means, just a sometimes nuisance that doesn't really have to be.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Nice, though I personally don't like metaplotting in shared worlds. It's a great tool to keep a setting from stagnating, but metaplots, especially epic ones like that (as well as the nature of the Dark Powers), should be largely left a DM tool. As with anything in published books it easy to ignore, change, or otherwise work around such things, but it can make it a hard(er) sell for DMs who want to push their own ideas and metaplots to their players, especially new ones to the table that are coming in with preconceived notions of the setting about to be played.

Not a dealbreaker by any means, just a sometimes nuisance that doesn't really have to be.

After 15years of an official Ravenloft product (not including CoS as is considered by me as a D&D reboot of Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, though a better one)

I wouldn't see recreating the world after massive events (as in the Red Box) as making DM creativity harder,you just have more tools and ideas to crete what you want. If it wasn't like that why would we need shared world settings for? You can just have the rules and you can make whatever you want.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

It's possible, but keep in mind the timeline in Curse of Strahd is 735 BC, which is even before the Grand Conjunction. Since Curse of Strahd is canon, I would be surprised if the timeline suddenly jumps 30 or 40 yrs. Honestly, I doubt the authors have much knowledge or interest in following previous metaplots, especially from another company (White Wolf). It really seems like this is more about them reimagining Ravenloft for a new generation.

Well the Mists are able to time travel adventurers...

Of course, that totally doesn't mean we as long time Ravenlofters can't fill in those gaps on our own.

That's why we are here for...

[Joël of the FoS]

So since the 4th edition didn't happen

We were not supposed to talk about it, but now it's been a while, and anyway D&D switched from 4e to 5e.

I can reveal that 4e RL nearly happened, around 2010. Some at the FoS secretely reviewed it, and it would have made many here rolling eyes. It was a 4e inspired and RL inspired game, but it wasn't 4e or Ravenloft. In some ways, it was even farther than what is now known about RL 5e compared to 3e RL.

Fun thing, but so not RL as we know it.

Won't say more, even under torture

[Mephisto of the FoS]

So since the 4th edition didn't happen

We were not supposed to talk about it, but now it's been a while, and anyway D&D switched from 4e to 5e.

I can reveal that 4e RL nearly happened, around 2010. Some at the FoS secretely reviewed it, and it would have made many here rolling eyes. It was a 4e inspired and RL inspired game, but it wasn't 4e or Ravenloft. In some ways, it was even farther than what is now known about RL 5e compared to 3e RL.

Fun thing, but so not RL as we know it.

Won't say more, even under torture

https://giphy.com/explore/whip

First one is Lord Godefroy

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I can reveal that 4e RL nearly happened, around 2010. Some at the FoS secretely reviewed it, and it would have made many here rolling eyes. It was a 4e inspired and RL inspired game, but it wasn't 4e or Ravenloft. In some ways, it was even farther than what is now known about RL 5e compared to 3e RL.

What Joel said. (If we get sued for talking about it, we get sued together. ) I don't know if our feedback sunk the project or if it died for other reasons, but trust me, you wouldn't have wanted it. That experience is part of why I'm so willing to be optimistic about the the 5e one.

The very fact that the old domains even exist, in whatever form they may now take, means they've already seen what we grognards know, that there's more to love about the setting beyond just Barovia. The writers on this one have at least cracked open the Black Box, or Domains of Dread. I own seven versions of the original module, from I6 through CoS:Legendary Edition. I really, really don't need another. I want to see the rest of the world again, even if it's a complete redo.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

The very fact that the old domains even exist, in whatever form they may now take, means they've already seen what we grognards know, that there's more to love about the setting beyond just Barovia. The writers on this one have at least cracked open the Black Box, or Domains of Dread

Thank Ezra!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Apocalypse_of_Ezra

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

It's possible, but keep in mind the timeline in Curse of Strahd is 735 BC, which is even before the Grand Conjunction. Since Curse of Strahd is canon, I would be surprised if the timeline suddenly jumps 30 or 40 yrs.

And actually, the timeline's already skewed by CoS. In the original Black Box-based timeline, the current incarnation of Tatyana in 735 is Tara Kolyana. The plot of I6, with Ireena Kolyana, is placed in 528.

[Five]

Nice, though I personally don't like metaplotting in shared worlds. It's a great tool to keep a setting from stagnating, but metaplots, especially epic ones like that (as well as the nature of the Dark Powers), should be largely left a DM tool. As with anything in published books it easy to ignore, change, or otherwise work around such things, but it can make it a hard(er) sell for DMs who want to push their own ideas and metaplots to their players, especially new ones to the table that are coming in with preconceived notions of the setting about to be played.

Not a dealbreaker by any means, just a sometimes nuisance that doesn't really have to be.

I wouldn't see recreating the world after massive events (as in the Red Box) as making DM creativity harder,you just have more tools and ideas to crete what you want. If it wasn't like that why would we need shared world settings for? You can just have the rules and you can make whatever you want.

Having a base set of rules and the creative freedom to apply those rules, and sharing/comparing stories and ideas with other players/tables on sites like this is all I want in a rpg.

When the publisher's hand comes and uses all of the "god tools" they teasingly provided in that setting for the gamers to ponder and leapfrog off of (DPs, ToUD, etc) then it's sometimes annoying and a little bit insulting. "Here's a great puzzle for you to figure out, but let me do it for you." I'm not big on spectating when it comes to D&D. Provide us the rules, and give us a start point for our imaginations. We'll do the rest. If I'm stuck, I'll get ideas from people like you and eventually I'll get unstuck, one way or another.

Less definition and more imagination-inspiring potentials. That's all I want in a D&D game anyway.