Homemade Ravenloft DVD

[Antifascist]

Deleted By Me. Tired of this thing causing controversy in one way or another. It's a great DVD. The music is too loud sometimes.

[JinnTolser]

I dunno how I managed to go this long before seeing this topic, but it's good to see you again MSD! Belated congrats on the kids, man.

I haven't been able to watch the whole video yet, but two things have jumped out at me so far:

1. Sometimes the music is too loud and makes it really difficult to hear what's being said. I thought it might just be my speakers until somebody else pointed out the same thing.

2. You played HeroQuest too? AWESOME! I used to love that game! It's too bad I lost or broke most of the pieces, and finding replacements now is just impossible. I think it's pretty cool you were able to transition from HeroQuest to D&D. It was years after the last time I played that game before I was able to give D&D a try.

I'll watch the whole thing when I can, so far I haven't been able to just sit down for an hour and watch yet.

[Antifascist]

I remember that we had like half of Dragonstrike and part of hero quest, which we put together with our 3 D&D books to somehow make the game playable. I bet most of us have some story like this-how we found d&d through some other game.

[MadStepDad]

Thanks guys, Illa-Noize and ATL stand up! Good looks on the congrats, Jinn. Good to see you again too.

I heard the "music too loud" comment before, and honestly in retrospect I wish we could've mic'd up. But overall we did keep the music to a minimum anyways. I think the DVD version is a bit clearer than the one posted online.

That's an interesting point Antifascist, and could make for good conversation. How many people discovered D&D from an outside source? Were you broken in via board games or computer games? What was your first introduction to RAVENLOFT and how did the Mists draw you in?

Talk to you later, Jinn. Interested to hear what you think of the whole vid.

peace,

MSD

[JinnTolser]

Okay, I finally found time to watch the whole thing. It was definitely worth the wait.

Plugging in my headphones fixed a lot of the problems with the music drowning out voices. So some of it was my speakers. Only two or three times did I still have trouble making out what was being said.

I really dig that you guys got the uniforms! If my group did that sort of thing, I'd definitely keep it for a lifetime. I like the idea of yearly awards as well. How did you determine the winners?

The whole thing's pretty interesting. I almost feel like I know you guys now, which is a pretty good trick from less than an hour's worth of video. You really captured the spirit of it all pretty well, I think.

It's fascinating to see not just the similarities to my own gaming experience (like the revolving door of members plus the few long-time players), but the differences as well. For example, I noticed you guys pronounce Azalin a little differently than we did during our Ravenloft campaigns. And I just can't wrap my brain around having one campaign go on that long! The longest campaign I've run lasted a little more than sixteen months, though I've played in two just a bit longer.

All in all, cool stuff. And I'm glad you posted about where everybody's at now, since I'd have had to ask if you didn't say anything. All that was missing at the end was a little Stand By Me-type of summary of where everybody's life went after that.

[MadStepDad]

Thanks Jinn! The Award Ceremony started in 1997, as a by-product of the wrestling SLAMMY's if I recall correctly. Again, old school stuff which is why some of the categories are sorta nonsensical ("Coolest Character"? C'mon...)

At first I started it as a suprise interlude during our 2nd christmas party (which is why you saw christmas lights strung up in the background). I made the awards in shop class at school, chose the winners and laminated them all. I made sure everybody we played with got one. It was just in fun.

But as the years progressed, cats started looking towards the awards more as a culmination of our current year of gaming. So from then on out, we made a 2-3 month process. First we had the nominations - players would nominate certain moments or charactes for the various awards. Whoever got the most recommendations got an official nomination. Then we all did secret ballot voting for every category. You were allowed to vote for yourself if you saw fit, but nobody ever abused that privilege and voted honestly. Then (as group DM) I would tally up all the votes and we'd have our award ceremony party and announce the results! Goes back to the classic MSD phrase "anything for a party". Good times for all.

peace,

MSD

(still waiting for my campaign updates)

[Joël of the FoS]

1. I wish you would have elaborated more on the online fight between the DM and the "real Ravenloft author". Of course, I understand why you did not, because it would have been too esoteric. I hope you do so personally to me here, though!

You probably weren't there when it happened, so here's a friendly note from the mods.

Please note that this "fight" thing you refer to may bring bad memories of past online fights. This onine fight will not be discussed here in any way. Simply because we do not want anything like this happening again here.

Any mention of it will be deleted, quickly.

Any poster here trying to rejuvenate this "fight" on another site will get banned here.

Any problem poster not understanding the seriousness of the last sentences will also get banned from this site.

Sorry for being blunt. Just making sure nobody starts the old fan again, in any way, to make sure nobody throws poop in it.

Back to discussion...

Joël

[Mangrum]

Just to dispel any mystery -- I'm the author in question. I don't know what MSD has to say about it on the DVD, and I don't care. I've moved on, and I wish him well.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Good to see you again, old friend. Thanks for the congrats, and kudos on the epic game. I have my third child on the way this Halloween, so I understand how real life gets in the way! Glad to have you back!

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Loved the video, MSD. Only technical quibble is it would've been nice to have some names on the bottom of the screen as each person was introduced, like most documentaries/interviews. Kinda hard to put names to faces, especially when the names were sometimes hard to hear, and the faces changed over the years as everyone grew up.

Brought back some good memories of my own. The decade might have been different (I played my first game in '83, not '93), the music might have been different (we played a lot of Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull in high school, not much rap), the town might have been different (we were a bit more rural, I guess. We had our share of drug problems and fights and such, but no ODs or jail) but it's great to see that the game's the same, and the love of the game and good friends hanging in the basement rolling dice are universal.

(and so is the pronunciation of Azalin. that's how we say it too. How do you say it, Jinn?)

I've still got my HeroQuest set. (It goes for big bucks on ebay, but I couldn't dream of parting with it), We never made it through all the quests, but we tried one summer. I still use the minis for D&D sometimes.

Welcome back, congrats on the kids, and may you return to the Misty Realms soon.

[MadStepDad]

Not beating a dead horse here, but I really wanted to drop one more post in here to let you ALL know how much love we got for ya. I really appreciate the feedback we got, especially from you big dogs.

DS good luck on #3, that is absolutely wild. Will be born with a d20 in their hand I'm sure. Couple more years and you'll have your own homegrown gaming community! Hope you infect their future schools as well!

GRon, I'm hearing you on the name labels. Don't know why I didn't even think of that (d'oh!). Good suggestion, maybe I'll save it for a re-release or something. But you captured the essence of this video and what I was going for perfectly - the time and place may change, but true love is universal. Thanks again for all the time you spent checking it out and I appreciate the honest feedback.

But don't call it a comeback! I been here for years!

peace,

MSD

[JinnTolser]

(and so is the pronunciation of Azalin. that's how we say it too. How do you say it, Jinn?)

My groups have always said it like "uh-ZAH-lin."

[Lord_Pruitt]

All I can say, after the long wait is, wow! Talk about bringing back some nostalgia. Like some of the others, the only problem I had was the music over the dialog and the names & faces part. Your DVD makes me wish that I'd videoed my old group. Those were some of the best times. Just like yours, except you have proof.

[MadStepDad]

All I can say, after the long wait is, wow! Talk about bringing back some nostalgia. Like some of the others, the only problem I had was the music over the dialog and the names & faces part. Your DVD makes me wish that I'd videoed my old group. Those were some of the best times. Just like yours, except you have proof.

Finally got to TN! Lovely. Thanks for the good words, brother. True love is universal indeed.