Quoth the Raven #25 reactions

[Joël of the FoS]

Strange. I've forwarded it to you again. It's a lot better than what you saw in March.

Received!

[brilliantlight]

Now that I finished re-readinf the issue, I can review it more detailly.
The conferences of Victor Gagné (2d part) was nice and Tsochari were one of my favourite aberrations in the Book of Madness.
The 50 Shades were all very nice, my favourite are Gecko, Abigail, Sleer, Colin, Guy Dartmor and Sir Alonso.
Very nice, like I already said, Brilliantlight's take on the Frozen Wastes; I will use your characterization of Gregor, soon or later, only with more levels.
A lot of interesting ideas in Tomoachico's Death Knight, very impressive.
On the 100 Shades Darker, as I said 47 is brilliant, I like the Yellow Hat and the Albino Drow.
Lilliend is pretty well developed and Camille is ab interesting character.
Sweeny Toad was disturbingly good.
This issue only flaw was the missing of a NeoTiamat article.
How much did you like my articles?

I always thought Gregor's curse was a bit lame as it doesn't really go with the character very well, it isn't personalized enough. The sense I got from the story was that Gregor really enjoyed the hero worship so that is where the DP hit him in this version.

The problem I had with the domain is that , logically speaking, everyone should have been dead within a handful of years, at most, from starvation. It worked for a "weekend in Hell" but not as an ongoing domain.

I based it on Siberia. Siberia can actually get quite warm in summer. The worst malaria epidemic in history happened in Siberia so it gets warm enough in summer for mosquitoes to be common.

Siberia was originally taken by the Russians for the fur trade. The fur trade was quite lucrative for the Russians , the French Canadians and the Americans. The first millionaire in the US made his fortune in the fur trade.

Sanguinia is fleshed out and is more based on Poe's "Masque of the Red Death" than standard. Prince Prospero seemed to be a party animal in the story. The whole point of the story, IMO, was the Prince was partying in his castle while the peasants died like flies out of it. As such the only city is a party town with weather similar to Juneau , Al or Green Bay, WI.

I live in Wisconsin and even in winter we get plenty of tourists. This would be even more so if we had a lot of brothels, taverns, auditoriums and theaters. The only thing we have a lot of that is on the list is the taverns.

[The Lesser Evil]

#63 reminds me of Animal Farm, which I'd probably use as inspiration for the domain if I were to use it.

#65, Blind Paul, sounds like he was inspired by that one episode of the Twilight Zone where the guy with the glasses just wants to be left alone to read. Once he's alone his glasses break.

#70 sounds like he was inspired by the comic book Preacher.

#89 is a highly fantasized version of Oedipus Rex combined with your modern angsty anti-hero.

#95 is Ivan the Terrible?

[Jack the Reaper]

#65, Blind Paul, sounds like he was inspired by that one episode of the Twilight Zone where the guy with the glasses just wants to be left alone to read. Once he's alone his glasses break.

Yep, you're right about this one

#70 sounds like he was inspired by the comic book Preacher.

He's a combination of Mastermind (John Wyngarde) of Marvel Comics with the setting of Preacher. Also influenced by the movie Frailty.

#89 is a highly fantasized version of Oedipus Rex combined with your modern angsty anti-hero.

And visual inspiration from Nero of Devil May Cry, as seen in the picture.

#95 is Ivan the Terrible?

Kind of... combined with Miraz of Narnia. I wanted a medieval Russian domain (which is a shame Ravenloft doesn't have), and that's the best I could think of.

[Mistmaster]

74 looks like Kingpin, to me.
What do you think about my articles, Jack?

[brilliantlight]

nteresting take on Verbrek, a domain I have also changed and I think for both of us it is because we prefer the QTR1 version of Verbrek to the canon one. I don't see the canon one as bad but the QTR one is better.

Both of us seemed to be intrigued by Noah Timothy. Your version of Verbrek has the werebeasts and mankind far more integrated than mine. Werewolves in yours is any alignment and mine are LE. Noah Timothy in yours in NG and doesn't hate his father or grandfather and mine is LE and does. In both cases we kept the Musrade River Company as it is part of what made the QTR version interesting. Basically there being "robber barons" in Ravenloft.

I like your version of Richemulot even though I like the canon version quite a lot as well. You certainly changed the personality of Jaques who, in canon, is a spoiled brat who is terrified of his mother, for good reasons. Your version of Jacqueline is very different from mine in a very important respect. Mine is VERY lawful. That doesn't mean she is above eating humans as that isn't illegal by the wererat law she follows. It does mean she follows the rules she set up closely. Many of her rules revolve around not "overhunting" or scaring off human prey.

[Jack the Reaper]

74 looks like Kingpin, to me.
What do you think about my articles, Jack?

Well, I always thought that Verbrek was severely unbalanced against the humans, who are nothing more than cattle for the werewolves; so the idea of werewolves clans cooperating with humans and helping them against the anti-human werewolves is a good one, making the domain more balanced and plausible. It slightly reminded me of the good werewolves in Twilight.
Haven't read the one about Richemulot yet.

[Starscream]

I've downloaded it but only read quickly. The take on Verbrek, Richemulot and the Frozen Wastes deserves a more deeply reading.

Very useful also the list of NPC and Darklords!

In summary, a very good QtR, hope I can contribute to the next year's release


GOOOOOOOD WORK!

[Mistmaster]

Have you read more deeply, Starscream? By the way, our dear Brothers of the Shadow Ron and Joel, what do you think of this year issues articles?

[Manofevil]

Compliments for the MotRD adaptation of Sweeney Todd! I see ways those pies could have caused even more mayhem; all who ate them might be in danger of rising from the grave as Hungry Dead, or gaining the Ravenous feat from VRGttWD....

Heck, or the Plague of Famine from Dragon #319, that'd definitely be appropriate to Sweeny Todd's pies.

PEOPLE LIKED IT!! HOORAY!! PEOPLE LIKED IT!! HOORAY!! PEOPLE LIKED IT!! HOORAY!!

[Starscream]

Have you read more deeply, Starscream? By the way, our dear Brothers of the Shadow Ron and Joel, what do you think of this year issues articles?

Sadly, no. The last week was very full. I hope this week would be better

[Rock of the Fraternity]

I look forward to hearing what you think. ^_^

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Compliments for the MotRD adaptation of Sweeney Todd! I see ways those pies could have caused even more mayhem; all who ate them might be in danger of rising from the grave as Hungry Dead, or gaining the Ravenous feat from VRGttWD....

Heck, or the Plague of Famine from Dragon #319, that'd definitely be appropriate to Sweeny Todd's pies.

PEOPLE LIKED IT!! HOORAY!! PEOPLE LIKED IT!! HOORAY!! PEOPLE LIKED IT!! HOORAY!!

Heh, I feel the same way every time someone mentions they liked Lilliend. ^_^

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Finally recovered a bit from the proof-reading enough to share my thoughts on the articles (guys, this is a general comment as your humble proof-reader. Please take a pass with a spell-checker before submitting. And try to be consistent about your formatting when repeating the same kind of info multiple times. Some people did a great job with that. Some didn't. With so much to read and review in such little time, it's really helpful.)


Verbrek - a nice twist on the domain. I did like the original canon version, but this has its charms. I would certainly use some of it as source material in an attempt to combine them, if I ran an adventure there. The only quibble I have is the werewolves living openly among humans. That's a little high-fantasy for my taste, but whatever works for you.

The Conferences of Victor Gagné - A delight to read! Just as good as the first, if not better. Some real nice "body horror" which I'm not always a fan of, but it really worked here. I wasn't familiar with this creature, but the depiction of it here, as a physical presence writhing around the narrator's guts, was super-disturbing, in a novel way, and now I want to use one.

Fifty Shades - This is exactly my kind of article. Loved it. Plenty of neat ideas, and if one doesn't grab you, there are plenty more that might.

Frozen Reaches - Some interesting ideas here, especially in terms of Sanguinia as a debauched tourist destination. I'm not sure how many denizens of Ravenloft have the means and courage to brave the mists for a vacation here, but maybe the Dark Powers provide a stream of them to keep the party going.

On the Subject of the death knight - a good idea to soup up the death knight, as they are clearly outclassed in PF/3.x. Lots of useful powers for that. I could have done without Van Richten in the framing fic (he just seems to be everywhere, and know everyone, you know? I'd rather a new character) but the fic itself was fine, and mainly there to set up the template, not to stand on its own.

Richemulot - a noble effort, but I think I prefer the canon version (sorry, Mistmaster). I think the emphasis on religion was higher than I'd like. I think we have enough cultist darklords. I prefer a Richemulot more about secrets and politics. I would consider using some of the new NPCs, though.

A Hundred Shades Darker - I was very torn going into this one. (Warning: Personal bias incoming...) What would normally be my least favorite thing: a new domain. What would be worse than that: 100 of them! And yet, because they are just brief sketches, and many well-written with great ideas, it drifts into my personal favorite style of article: lists of ideas to flesh out. So in the end, I liked it a lot. And even loved a few of them. (the real-word DM was hilariously meta. I was also fond of the land where everyone has an imp.) Some I could see using as NPCs (maybe pocket domains, maybe not) inside canon domains. And man, filling 100 slots is so ambitious, and must have been difficult to do without phoning in any, but you pulled it off. Very well done.

Lilliend - OK, as I've said, new domains just aren't really my thing. And this one was enormous in content, which is probably why it took me so long to proofread; Rock sent in the first draft in November of 2016! A true gazetteer-level of info, which I couldn't help but enjoy, despite my predisposition. I'm a little confused by the inclusion of Ogier. I don't really see how they fit the rest of the domain. Maybe it will be clearer in the rest of the cluster? Also, a lot more rape and incest than we usually get in our entries (hence the mature themes warning). I could have done without some of that. I was also a little confused by the inclusion of the goddess Brightwell. I assume there's some relation there to the Brigthwell Coven from your Qtr22 article? But I thought they were devoted to Hala. Is Brightwell meant to be an alias of Hala? Or do you just like the name? Overall, an epic endeavor with some really creepy moments. Great job, "Mroark"!

Sweeney Todd - A fine article for what it sets out to do. I loved the musical in high school and saw the movie in the theater, but couldn't remember much of the plot. This article gives a nice summary and adds a neat twist to keep the horror going and bring in PCs, and it's certainly a Masque-worthy story. But it seems difficult to get a handle on to run as adventure as it's so open-ended. Not to mention, if one of your players loves the musical, they will know all the answers, but that's the danger in adapting well-known stories into adventures.


Overall another excellent year, worthy of the 25th issue. Thank you again to all our contributors!

[Mistmaster]

Thanks to Ron for his honest feedback;