Souragne project

[Jester of the FoS]

Has the NPCs been supplied with a full stat write-up or were they simply described in-text? If details are necassary a PM might be needed if you don't want to give away anything.

Realisticly, any previously published NPCs, even ones that were simply mentioned by name, are property of WotC and publishing or republishing the is illegal, especially if it makes it so one no longer has to buy a book to learn about or use a character.
For example, Larissa Snowmane, no matter how important and NPC, will likely not appear in this book as she is fully described in Champions of the Mists for 2E. Plus anyone can easily update her with the readily available conversion guides.
Big-name characters who have not been detailed (such as the Maiden) will likely be included, although the Fraternity will handle them.
We do want to encourage people to continue to buy Ravenloft products.

The point of including the fans and whole community in this is to let everyone add their best and favorite creations to the setting. There are dozens of people out there who have spent a decade thinking up cool ideas of Souragne and we want to hear them. We'd rather not see twelve different versions of zombie Handsome Jack.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

That's highly unfortunate. I realize it's the legal reality, but can't you at least put a "link" to published material?

"Larissa Snowmane, captain of the River Dancer is detailed in Dance of the Dead and Champions of the Mist."

"In this hut I met a strange man named Chicken Bone. (sidebar: for details, see RLMCII)"

One of the great things about the gazateers was the way they tied in all the little NPC's mentioned in various products, and brought their stories forward into what they are up to now. It would be a shame to have to invent everything from scratch and ignore existing characters. It wouldn't feel like Marais d'Tarascon if you don't mention the current state of the Tarascon family, for example.

I know there's a fine line to be walked, but the nature of this product lends itself to referencing and updating what's come before.

[Undead Cabbage]

Perhaps Larissa can be mentioned in such a way that it would only imply her prescence. An example of this would be in gazateer 2, where it is implied that the gentlemen caller is the true father of Vigo Drakov.

Maybe for NPC stats, Larissa could pick up on a Pseudodymn. Really, people know that its LArissa. However in a legal sense, there would be no direct evidence of plaugarism.

[Joël of the FoS]

That's highly unfortunate. I realize it's the legal reality, but can't you at least put a "link" to published material?

"Larissa Snowmane, captain of the River Dancer is detailed in Dance of the Dead and Champions of the Mist."

"In this hut I met a strange man named Chicken Bone. (sidebar: for details, see RLMCII)"

That's indeed the way to go.

To complete what David posted: you can have these copyrighted caracters in your text, but do not copy their background too much, and no detailed 2e->3e stats. What David probably meant is that we won't put in the book 3e conversions of these caracters.

From the first post on this thread, you have the guidelines:

Guidelines about copyrights.

We won’t accept anything plagiarizing any copyrighted material from 3e or 2e.

If you need to discuss something about Souragne loas, for example, make a short summary in few words, and put the Dark Tales & Disturbing Legends book as the reference to be consulted. For NPCs that were covered in length and fully “stated” in 3e, just put the book reference to it.

For the rest, we advise you to play with the same guidelines as any other fan article: if you get inspiration from any published text, expand it tenfold, or twist it and add your ideas, like many authors did for a BoS or QtR article.

For NPCs from 2nd edition, (ex: Chickenbone from MCII), for the moment we can’t allow a full conversion of these NPC to 3e. However, you can convert him in short, i.e. just “stat” the basics in 1 line, with basic class of this NPC, suggested hit points, AC and main abilities.

If you give this NPC a new ability never found before in the printed material, you can detail these abilities as these are your own ideas.

For example, for Anton Misroi, we expanded his background A LOT with past history, current sketch, powers and weaknesses. We didn't do a simple conversion, we expanded it 10 times.

Mortavius, PM me for your idea!

Jo

[Moral Machivelli]

Should the submissions be in the character of a FoS member? As in, can i have Buchvold from the E.W.T.F. investigate secret societies?

[The Giamarga]

BTW I just stumbled across a Vodan Zombie variant in the Creature Creation Laboratory section in VRGttWD (p104). They are undead though and CR5.

A vodan zombie is created when a person is buried alive and later raised as an undead. It is a terrifying process. Often the victim is first paralyzed with poison, lowered in a coffin into the dirt, and allowed to hear the grave dirt being thrown on top of the coffin lid. Those who somehow survive the live burial are usually driven mad (Madness DC 25).
Should those who were buried alive be animated, they become vodan zombies. Vodan zombies are terrifying to see. They appear as they did in life but with dusky, chalk-white skin. Their eyes are glazed and bloodshot, and their faces are fixed in an expression of teror - the last expression they held while still alive.
Though vodan zombies are originally from Souragne, the dark process of their creation has to spread to toher lands of the Core.

[Joël of the FoS]

Should the submissions be in the character of a FoS member? As in, can i have Buchvold from the E.W.T.F. investigate secret societies?

Why not! Just make sure the Buchvold caracter isn't taking too much space and that your article has enough content to stand by itself

Joël

[Stygian Inquirer]

BTW I just stumbled across a Vodan Zombie variant in the Creature Creation Laboratory section in VRGttWD (p104). They are undead though and CR5.

A vodan zombie is created when a person is buried alive and later raised as an undead. It is a terrifying process. Often the victim is first paralyzed with poison, lowered in a coffin into the dirt, and allowed to hear the grave dirt being thrown on top of the coffin lid. Those who somehow survive the live burial are usually driven mad (Madness DC 25).
Should those who were buried alive be animated, they become vodan zombies. Vodan zombies are terrifying to see. They appear as they did in life but with dusky, chalk-white skin. Their eyes are glazed and bloodshot, and their faces are fixed in an expression of teror - the last expression they held while still alive.
Though vodan zombies are originally from Souragne, the dark process of their creation has to spread to toher lands of the Core.

They are also in Denizens of Dread but I believe they are identical.

Also, for the zombie thing, in the RL:DMG, there is Zombie Blood, a magical potion, that makes living zombies.

[Hell_Born]

Just something to say; according to Dance of the Dead Souragne is home to at least two Wolfwere-like Shapeshifters:

The Minx are giant minks in their true form, but can assume human form (might be an all-female race like Red Widows)

The Lezards are crocodiles that can assume human form.

[Stygian Inquirer]

From what I recall, the Lezards have a hybrid form and the Minx don't. That might be useful when statting them out.

You might want to use a vixen-like approach to statting out these animalistic shapechangers instead of a Red Widow. I just think it might be a better comparison.

[Hell_Born]

Yes, the Lezard do have a hybrid form, I apologise for my ignorance. I'm not offering to stat them though- not because I don't want to, but because I can't. Also, what's a Vixen? Isn't that the common name for a Werefox?

By the way, what is the in-game term for Shapeshifters of their type? I know Werebeasts are known as Lycanthropes, but what are animals who can assume human form called?

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I don't know if it's anywhere in canon, but the word I always heard was Therianthrope.

[Stygian Inquirer]

Yes, the Lezard do have a hybrid form, I apologise for my ignorance. I'm not offering to stat them though- not because I don't want to, but because I can't. Also, what's a Vixen? Isn't that the common name for a Werefox?

By the way, what is the in-game term for Shapeshifters of their type? I know Werebeasts are known as Lycanthropes, but what are animals who can assume human form called?

Vixen is the common term for a werefox. In Van Richten's Arsenal, they refer to wolfweres and the such to be "Animalistic Shapechangers".

[Rotipher of the FoS]

"Vixen" also reduces cross-setting confusion, since werefoxes also exist on Mystara as a more-conventional phenotype of lycanthropes (males included). It was bad enough dealing with that shadow elf/shadow fey mix-up, back in the 2E days: IMO, it's safest to stick with "vixen" for the all-female foxform lycanthropes.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

FWIW, I was re-reading "Tales of Ravenloft" today, and found another (very minor) reference to Souragne. In the story about the gamblers, there's a description of Souragnian silver coins, which says they depict entwined snakes on one face.

And as long as I'm posting, here's a suggestion re. the whole slave/serf issue: while the locals today may claim they'd put an end to true slavery (as opposed to the debt-slavery that's still alive and well) out of compassion, it would be appropriate to have a snide remark [a la Azalin's margin-notes in the published Gazzes] that the slave-owners at the time of emancipation had actually been forced by circumstances (e.g. because their sudden isolation in Ravenloft meant they couldn't call in the military to enforce their power any longer) to either liberate their slaves or get slaughtered by a revolt. Claiming they'd deliberately released their slaves on charitable grounds is just a sop to the former masters' egos, so they can claim moral superiority rather than admit rank cowardice; after all, if their ancestors had considered slavery "uncivilized", they'd not have kept slaves in the first place!

Even if these new Gazzes aren't written by S or delivered to Azalin, come to think of it, there really ought to be somebody kibbitzing in the margins and reading between the lines of the text. Those side-comments by S's "patron" were one of the best things about the Gaz series, IMHO, even when they had nothing to do with the metaplot: every writer needs a critic, after all.