Ail wrote:I understand that, but my point is that being x-centric alienates everyone who is not from x, or at least may. If a broadcaster has a diverse and heterogeneous audience, it should neutralize its regionality.
*snip*
That is the same reason why I think nothing here should be american-centric, even though there are a majority of americans, or European centric or x-centric for that matter. It may make us others feel we are not intended receivers or that you really don't care how differently we view things or not.
I respect that localizing materials makes it harder to understand or relate to them, and I too prefer more generalized material, but...
So what?
I come across forum postings in languages I can't even read. And rather than ask everyone to speak a language we can all understand, I ignore the posting. I skip to the next post. It's the same thing here; either people understand and there's no issue, or they don't and should just move on. I didn't care for the Americanized Modern Ravenloft either as a matter of taste*, and so I glossed it over rather than request people post stuff I liked better.
And not to totally derail:
I always wanted to do the Springfield Cluster. Four domains, all named Springfield, from four very different times and American cultures. The first is a pious Mennonite farming community of 1500 people, dating from the late 19th century. Demons (actually mutated goblinoids) and witches are common here, tormenting the common folk and keeping them in line. Witch trials are quite common, and strangers are viewed with immense suspicion. The Darklord is the community's leader, Jonathan Springfield, who has proclaimed himself to be the Lord, and has worked "miracles" enough to prove it; his treachery was in ordering the execution of 300 people who sought passage through his city in an event similar to the Mountains Meadow Massacre.
The second is the Springfield Army Base, dating from the 1950's. While it's fully staffed it was not fully stocked with supplies. Of note is the frequent discovery of various types of dopplegangers and mind controllers on the base; paranoia is rampant. Strangers doubly so, as none of these creatures and problems started until the Base was joined next to "those places". Private 1st Class Jake Engram is the Darklord here. His dark secret is that the base once held a nuclear missle... until he snapped and launched it at the "Soviet traitors" who convinced his fiance he wasn't fit for marriage. After launching the missle, he passed out and awoke at the base. Everyone acted as if nothing happened, but he knew the truth! He knew that the pod people, and the Soviet psychics, and their Martian masters were behind it all!
Next is Springfield University, a prestigious school from the 1990's with departments in medicine, communications, and engineering. However, the city is filled with gangs of serial killers controlled by Satanic cults. While the most technologically advanced, they know they're targets for the zealous witch hunters and the resource starved soldiers. Dr. Janice "Spider" Quinnley is this domain's Darklord. One of several heads of the University Governing Body, the domain's ruling power, she is the only one to be part of the Satanic Cult that created the Hunters. Once her experiments in genetic alteration and pyschological conditioning to create the Hunters were perfected, at the cost of dozens of human lives, the Dark Powers claimed her.
The fourth resides high in orbit over the other three. Springfield Station is the smallest of the four, consisting of only 103 people living in terror of each other and the horrors they observe below. Built as a high-class resort in space, in the year 2047, SStation has been the site of a horrible accident. Roughly a quarter of the station was destroyed, including all the food stocks and water. SStation has been forced to raiding the domains below in their shuttle craft, fearing for their safety. Meanwhile, something seems to be feeding off the few survivors. What is know to a handful of survivors is that Chief Electrical Engineer Gale Davron was responsible for releasing the warbot that killed her abusive ex-husband. What they don't know is that the remorselessness Gale felt when the warbot murdered another 36 people besides her husband during an explosive decompression was enough to pull them all into the Mists.
The first three provide a neat source of conflict and tension, adding the fourth as a late surprise is fun as well. I mean a crumbling mansion, filled with murder and treachery, but set in space! And when it's limited play is borne out, the station can fall apart and burn up on descent. Driving the other three domains into a panic as the Cluster reshapes itself.
D.J.
* Oh yeah, my gripe with Modern Ravenloft Americana is that it's too much like the "what Clan would famous person X belong to" I used to see Vampire fans do. If you like it, fine, but I'm gonna' just keep on keepin' on.
