White Wolf Quarterly Out - No Ravenloft Until 2006

[Mortepierre]

If you think about it for a moment, you'll likely realize that if the Arthaus Ravenloft license had anything to do with the SRD, the domain of Bluetspur itself would have long since been forced to go the way of Kalidnay.

Some misconceptions just never go away...

Well John, since some of us don't have your connections, we're forced to resort to what limited info is currently available. By all means, do feel free to shed more light on whatever special agreement WotC and Arthaus have rather than make fun of those who are still in the dark.

After all, it wouldn't the first time that creatures from previous versions of RL were transformed by the pen of new authors into something else (for instance, the drows of Arak).

Besides, you'll notice that the Bluetspur entry in the RLPHB doesn't contain the word mind-flayer (or illithid). Not even once. Yes, all RL veterans know they are there but the 3E text in itself seems to avoid any direct reference to them like the plague.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

If you think about it for a moment, you'll likely realize that if the Arthaus Ravenloft license had anything to do with the SRD, the domain of Bluetspur itself would have long since been forced to go the way of Kalidnay.

Some misconceptions just never go away...

Well John, since some of us don't have your connections, we're forced to resort to what limited info is currently available. By all means, do feel free to shed more light on whatever special agreement WotC and Arthaus have rather than make fun of those who are still in the dark.

After all, it wouldn't the first time that creatures from previous versions of RL were transformed by the pen of new authors into something else (for instance, the drows of Arak).

Besides, you'll notice that the Bluetspur entry in the RLPHB doesn't contain the word mind-flayer (or illithid). Not even once. Yes, all RL veterans know they are there but the 3E text in itself seems to avoid any direct reference to them like the plague.

To be fair, it is mentioned frequently here on these boards that Ravenloft isn't part of the OGL, and that there's a special contract between White Wolf and Wizards about what can and can't go in the books (like the BoVD stuff in the most recent Gaz and the Realms monsters in the Gaz 1). It's also mentioned on the netbook submissions guides, in most conversations about QtR and the USS, conversations about the BoS___ series and so on.

And personally, I'd guess that the lack of Mind-flayer mentions is to keep players guessing about the illithids, it's plainly spelled out in the RLDMG what's slithering in Bluetspur.

[Le Noir Faineant]

Seems to be sad, but true. *There are no upcoming products.*

And that's it...

Mourn for a great RPG line...

.. which is stupid given 6 out of their 10 bestsellers are RL products

I can't understand it either... Well, the last few books IMHO lacked certain *character*, so I didn't buy them, but RL did fairly good and had had a promising future regarding sales, if they had published some more Gazs...

But, according to the ww-page the line is stone-dead...

[Le Noir Faineant]

But then, why is a mindflayer portayed as one of the major NPCs in *City State of the Invincible Overlord*? - Seems, that the mindflayer is included in the SRD or that those got a special agreement, too...

Unknown but easy to check for yourself. Go to the SRD homepage and download the Monsters section. You'll see it jumps straight from Mimic to Minotaur. Same thing for the Beholder.

That said, some companies managed in the past to secure a one-time deal with WotC to include such creatures in their products, so I guess it's possible...

Yep, no mindflayers and less illithids in the srd I have on my computer... Either a special agreement, or someone will be in DEEP trouble when Wizards find out...

[alhoon]

I doubt that will ever happen. First of all because of the publication of the recent Lords of Madness by WotC.

I don't think so. Compare the VRGttWD with Libris Mortis.

Libris Mortis is by far more generic book intent on providing more game options than inspiration. A good book, very useful if you want to play a campaign in a large world or even the planes where your level 10 knight players with the shining armor face minions of the big bad guy (Lich/Vampire necromancer/cleric) deep below the earth or on an unapproachable mountain fort etc.
It helps you equip the Bad guy's minions with cool abilities, it gives you their motives and behavior, helps you throw in many new cool monsters, have a vast array of powerful new spells used against the heroes. It helps the PCs fight these monsters with more new spells, powerful magic items, prestige classes made to do this job and new tactics.
It more or less helps building undead monsters the characters will enjoy destroying, finding thrill and excitement as they help the world become a better place.
A good book for a fantasy world. Good for Ravenloft but less than half of it is usable in the Dread Realms.

If you decide to use Undead in a D&D world, you may buy this book. It will prove useful.

On the other hand, VRGttWD makes you look twice in the dark corners of your house (in real life) to see if by chance your beloved grandmother that you missed so much recently has came back from the dead.
It is not about monsters heroes in shining armor would enjoy destroying. It is about unatural horrors that a brooding heros have to stop. It doesn't seem as a rewarding job good for the world but as a duty that places much pain in the heroes body and soul but still it must be done.
The book itself provides inspiration far more than it provides hard cold rules. Even if it didn't have those gray sidebars with the rules, it would be almost as great.

If you buy this book you will use Walkind dead in your Ravenloft campaign. You will want to.

PS. The above doesn't mean that Libris Mortis can't be used to instill dread etc. It is just not its prime purpose.

[Mortepierre]

Granted Alhoon.

That said, Libris Mortis came after VRGttWD while Lords of Madness has already been published but a prospective book on Bluetspur's fauna has yet to come out (of the mist? )

WotC is famous for taking a hint from other publishers and printing books which are strongly 'inspired' by others (i.e. Weapons of Legacy vs. Artifacts of the Ages). They are, alas, also famous for screaming 'copyright!' whenever another company returns the favor...

But, hey, I would love for WW to prove me wrong on that count. If they publish such a book, I'll be among the first to buy it

[Mortepierre]

To be fair, it is mentioned frequently here on these boards that Ravenloft isn't part of the OGL, and that there's a special contract between White Wolf and Wizards about what can and can't go in the books (like the BoVD stuff in the most recent Gaz and the Realms monsters in the Gaz 1). It's also mentioned on the netbook submissions guides, in most conversations about QtR and the USS, conversations about the BoS___ series and so on.

And personally, I'd guess that the lack of Mind-flayer mentions is to keep players guessing about the illithids, it's plainly spelled out in the RLDMG what's slithering in Bluetspur.

ok, fair is fair, I must have missed that.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

To be fair, it is mentioned frequently here on these boards that Ravenloft isn't part of the OGL, and that there's a special contract between White Wolf and Wizards about what can and can't go in the books (like the BoVD stuff in the most recent Gaz and the Realms monsters in the Gaz 1). It's also mentioned on the netbook submissions guides, in most conversations about QtR and the USS, conversations about the BoS___ series and so on.

And personally, I'd guess that the lack of Mind-flayer mentions is to keep players guessing about the illithids, it's plainly spelled out in the RLDMG what's slithering in Bluetspur.

ok, fair is fair, I must have missed that.

No problem! Happy to help!

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

In case anyone was interested, I have some ideas for updating some of the pockets and parts the odd island of terror or some cluster domains to 3E. One domain I have planned is Vorostokov, but I don't know much on Sanguinia, so someone else ould have to help me out and detail that one to complete the Frozen Reaches cluster.

[Joël of the FoS]

OK, my father would say, the headless chicken are loose again

I saw Desdichado asked the same question on the WW RL board, i.e. why RL isn't in the Quarterly future release document. We'll see what WW answer. It could simply be an oversight, and this has happened already a few times - Dark Tales wasn't in the list of future releases for a long time.

So until further notice of the contrary, we should consider that the line is still supported.

Otherwise, we just disperse bad rumors for the setting.

If it ever happens, then we'll discuss what will follow next.

Joël

[Jester of the FoS]

Agreed. I was beeing silly when I suggested definite plans. The line is not dead until they say it is dead and people have been crying wolf on it'd failure for a couple years now.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

Given that the future of the Gazetteer series is very uncertain, a few contingency plans here and there would not go amiss, though I am not going to do anything until the line has been announced as dead

[Joël of the FoS]

Nobody was silly here, we all love Ravenloft and we'd prefer to see it going.

However, if it isn't, we'll have plenty of ideas, nobody should worry

Joël

[Le Noir Faineant]

I've posted a very direct question regarding to this over at the WW boards yesterday, but got no substancial reply until now.



But, really, it seems like the mists have met their end - officially...

As for the Fraternity Gazetteers, if there's really nothing more coming up, I'd happy to contribute - I mean, I am actually WRITING an entry on Staunton Bluffs...

[Ultramyth]

I have an idea for a netbook.

Cities of the Core. Details some of the locations you might find inside some of the most important cities of the core. Using the old maps as a basis, and the gazeteers as a guide, you could flesh out Ludendorf, Port-a-Lucine, Mordentshire, etc...

I would have liked to have seen more details on the cities than in the gazeteers...