Café de Nuit

Its a fun read, has lore and stats, and artwork as well.

Isolde wrote: Mon Mar 17, 2025 1:23 pm Its a fun read, has lore and stats, and artwork as well.

Oh delightful. thank you for the wonderful gift or more lore.

If wotc/hasbro was a serious company with a functioning brain cell they would have already been making deals and hiring famous and skilled, to some degree but even A-list names, writers to write Ravenloft books. 12 writers, each one novel.

But with clowns running the D&D division, you only get clownish results.

Teravala wrote: Mon Mar 17, 2025 1:06 pm

Mistmaster wrote: Mon Mar 17, 2025 12:49 pm No, in my Ravenloft they would not, for example. Not in the cities.

Are non human races pretty common in your Ravenloft? Lots of outlanders, or did you just seem more atypical races into the domains?
Not a problem with either of those, just genuinely curious as, at least during 2e and especially in 3.X, there was hard population data showing racial population centers across the domains, particularly in large or notable cities and settlements. It was primarily human, with non human population numbers rarely rising above 5%. for example Darkon, which according to the Gazeteer II boasts the most diverse population of the core, has only 3% elves, with Nevechuar Springs, an elvish settlement, having roughly 1100 people, 89% of which were full elf. Combine these low population numbers with the rules about outcast rating, and the naturally isolated and, as a result, xenophobic nature of Raven loft (and of the gothic period in general.) then while violence may not be the initial response by the citizenry, certainly a level or mistrust and hostility should be expected, especially for a party like the one above?

Well, being a larger world with a bigger population (really bigger, cities have thousands of inhabitants) it does have more in absolute number. Also cities tends to be more cosmopolitan then the countryside.

There was this unfinished horror manga, i classified it as such but it was mostly an excuse for sketching great landscapes, where a "golem/automaton" is protecting the last or one of the last human children, some little girl, in a world full of monsters and supernatural creatures.
I think it was unfinished. Its a world, or continent or region, where the humans were mostly slain and monsters and supernatural beings have taken over civilization.
Its weird but the landscapes were great. I think its actually dark fantasy with some horror. I do not remember the name but he sketches of the landscapes were amazing, the stories were kind of average.

Mistmaster wrote: Mon Mar 17, 2025 12:49 pm Well, being a larger world with a bigger population (really bigger, cities have thousands of inhabitants) it does have more in absolute number. Also cities tends to be more cosmopolitan then the countryside.

That's a fair point, though in some real world larger cities you end up with a city heavily segregated, such as Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, etc. Do you just not run the rule sets for outcast ratings? Not judging or anything, I'm just genuinely curious how other people handle this sort of thing in their games.

Well, there is a situational penalty applied to outsiders and to conspicuos minorities, specially the ones which have clashed against the others. But to arrive to pitch and forks you need extreme situations.

Mistmaster wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 8:02 am Well, there is a situational penalty applied to outsiders and to conspicuos minorities, specially the ones which have clashed against the others. But to arrive to pitch and forks you need extreme situations.

I definitely agree that pitchforks and torches right out the gate isn't how I'd handle it, unless something goes really wrong during an NPC interaction, or if it was somehow part of the story beat, like if a propagandist (Champions of Darkness class) had been hard at work in the community spreading rumors about the party or something. Mistrust over violence for sure, with exceptions being made for places like Falkovnia, or Tepest.

Well Falkovnia' s violence is more likely to be state violence that mob violence. While in Tepest, well, I play Tepest more as a fairy tale land ruled by Snowwhite evil stepmother then as beware the inquisition.

I can get down with that haha. I'm a pretty big "Once Upon a Time" fan (disney show) and they had an arc with Peter Pan as a villain that was superbly done in my opinion. I only had my group make a pit stop in Falkovnia once, and they were very eager to leave, but I wasn't sure how to play the common folk there so I kind of just had this air of crushing despair and dispirited people, broken under the yoke of his tyranny unless they were part of the military.

...Delilah Dawson is legit, though. She might make more of this one than the cover blurbs might tend to suggest.

Now, is this "my" Ravenloft? -- Naah. Nor will it ever be. I'm the kind of guy who still thinks about how to optimize "Castles Forlorn". Anything that doesn't come with illustrations by Talon Dunning is visually too confusing for me. But can I see how a skilled author might make this one, specifically, enjoyable for those who grew into roleplaying via 5e? Yeah, pretty much.

I am not sure there's really any author or any series that can capture the unique feel of Ravenloft. Like, there's funky historical horror out there, but nothing quite gets there. ...Which is why I'm posting this - I'm open to suggestions. (Brian Catling would come to mind, perhaps, but he's too dark for our kind of Fantasy.)

Le Noir Faineant wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 2:36 pm I'm the kind of guy who still thinks about how to optimize "Castles Forlorn".

I actually just posted about that module asking if anyone had firsthand experience running it.

Teravala wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 6:13 pm

Le Noir Faineant wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 2:36 pm I'm the kind of guy who still thinks about how to optimize "Castles Forlorn".

I actually just posted about that module asking if anyone had firsthand experience running it.

Will check the thread. Haven't DMed that one yet. Switched from D&D to other systems a while ago, namely "Shadow of the Demon Lord". Thinking to eventually run a game in Gundarak under SotDL rules; coming from the Gaz/Kargatane era, the consequent thing after that would be to move on to Barovia, but since Strahd has become such a pop culture character over 5e, I'm tempted to look look at the old "Forlorn" box, instead.

...Which is also the problem I have with novels like this one: The clue about Ravenloft, to 5e players, is that it's about the mysteries of Strahd. Now, we're getting what seems to be a replay novel. This worked with Dragonlance and FR, back in the day, sure - but for different reasons. For WotC, it sure makes sense from a financial standpoint: But after that, "5trahd" is probably over as an in-game motif, at least for people who actively play and follow 5e. Everybody will be over-informed on his story, and there'll be less need to play the actual adventure.

In contrast, I've recently started "rereading", or rather, listening to the really very old, oh-goodness-are-they-old Douglas Niles "Moonshae" books via audio. Now, that's a way to sell a setting, too, without selling out all the secrets of the story into the consciousness of every possible reader.

Grunts, goes on to aggresively mumble more old man things.

I appreciate it! I was lucky that my group was pretty new when we started expedition to castle ravenloft (3.5) so they didnt know the story of strahd like basically everyone does now. We are actually set to finish the adventure next weekend after like a year and a half.

"The new novel is due for release in April 2025" the book sounds terrifying and i do not mean in a Gothic horror manner, but in a its going to suck and be stupid manner.

At the same time we will have an unintentional parody of Ravenloft that has no precedent, despite the numerous idiocies we got in 5e etc. So it might be very funny to read.