Café de Nuit

Hey everyone,

I was thinking last night, it's been almost twenty years since the Kargatane started writing for Ravenloft, and with no disrespect to the ones who came before or after, I honestly believe that their work in bringing Ravenloft into 3E was some of the best writing that's ever been done for the setting.

But sadly, their tenure ended too soon, as we know.

I wonder (without prying into private affairs), what's happened to them?

Do they still play Ravenloft? Have they moved on?

Do they have any regrets about what they wrote? Anything they wished they could have done?

And I've always wondered, they had these great plans laid out for the Gazetteers. Why didn't they continue to do them unofficially online in some form?

Chris Nichols helped us out with the Nocturnal Sea Gaz, but hasn't been seen on this forum since 2009. Mangrum used to pop in from time to time, but has been silent since 2016. Stu Turner last poked his head in in 2015. Ryan Naylor was fairly active here when working on his Pathfinder version of Ravenloft, but also last posted in 2015. Andrew Cermak was here in 2012 looking back at the Book of Souls 15 years later, but not since then. If Andrew Wyatt or Barry Trevelyan were ever here, I don't know their handles.

In other words... if any of them are still playing or discussing Ravenloft, they aren't doing it here. I wish them all well, and I do wonder what they are up to also.

My feeling is that they moved out of Ravenloft, and possibly out of all D&D type gaming activities. I never see them on any major D&D site.

Only exception I think is Hackard still @ Steve Jackson Games.

Joël of the FoS wrote:My feeling is that they moved out of Ravenloft, and possibly out of all D&D type gaming activities. I never see them on any major D&D site.

Only exception I think is Hackard still @ Steve Jackson Games.

Oops, forgot to look up Hackard. (so many Andrews...) he too was last spotted here in the BoS anniversary thread in 2012.

Maybe we could ask Mr. Hackard if he still has contact info for the rest of the Kargatane so we can give them a belated new year's greeting and our thanks for their sterling work? ^_^

They did more than their part, and several got to work for the Kargat directly until the Kargat took a complete nosedive towards the end. I'll remember them as they described themselves: a group of inept agents working out of a bookstore in Barovia village. Thanks for the hard work, guys.

In case you haven't guessed it yet, one of the Andrews became a demilich after he sacrificed his players to the Dark Powers, and is now the darklord of the Castle of Horrors (QtR 25, 100 Shades of Dark).

Still here though. Just non-communicative.

Thanks for the kind thoughts.

Mortavius wrote: I wonder (without prying into private affairs), what's happened to them?

To answer your questions slightly more fully, at least from my point of view:

Do they still play Ravenloft? Have they moved on?

Yes I do, using Pathfinder. I both GM and play. I have not moved on.

Do they have any regrets about what they wrote? Anything they wished they could have done?[

I wish I'd been a better writer when I wrote it.

I wish some of my ideas had come across more clearly, or that word limits hadn't resulted in important sidebars and so on being cut, or that some things had been better received. But I think anyone has those same regrets when they look back on their work.

At the time Ravenloft was wrapping up, I was offered some freelance work writing for Dragon. At the same time, my university studies were moving into high gear, and I felt like I had to choose between the two. I don't regret my choice, since it eventually led into a pretty interesting and fulfilling career for me, but I do sometimes wonder if Parallel Universe Ryan is having an equally interesting and fulfilling career as a staff writer at Paizo, or if another one tried to balance both and burnt out at 23.

I also sometimes daydream about what we might have achieved if I'd been lead developer of the line, or if e.g. John had. Again, I imagine everyone does the same.

And I've always wondered, they had these great plans laid out for the Gazetteers. Why didn't they continue to do them unofficially online in some form?

My answer is above - real life stole all my free time. It's pretty much the same for the others.

I think (and I might be putting words in the mouths of the others) that we were all pretty tired from the work involved in Shadows of the Kargatane, and a bit dispirited by the way we, and Ravenloft, had come through the wash with Swords and Sorcery. I imagine everyone looked forward to having a break from it all.

I don't want to speculate too wildly though.

I do know that this article annoys the crap out of us though. So much effort, love and thought dismissed in half a sentence

I hadn't seen that article. =_= Now I wish I never had. 'A few rulebooks'...

Ryan Naylor wrote: Yes I do, using Pathfinder. I both GM and play. I have not moved on.

Great news Good to hear fom you.

Don't worry about this article, it's made using WotC's sunglasses. Why would they send anybody searching for the great 3e books when you have a new version of 5e Castle Ravenloft on the market (Especially if that version of CR is located on another planet compared to classic 2e/3e RL).

Yeah. That article is written more for love of money than of the setting.

Thanks for the response Ryan. I'm glad to hear that life is working out for you, and I hope it continues to do so. Really enjoyed your work on converting the Darklords over to PF. Often as much the reasoning you had behind making certain decisions with the characters (I always remember you talking about how many Necromancer Darklords there are, and your attempts to make each one unique) as much as the stats.

Thanks all for your kind words!

Mortavius wrote:Thanks for the response Ryan. I'm glad to hear that life is working out for you, and I hope it continues to do so. Really enjoyed your work on converting the Darklords over to PF. Often as much the reasoning you had behind making certain decisions with the characters (I always remember you talking about how many Necromancer Darklords there are, and your attempts to make each one unique) as much as the stats.

I personally find design notes really interesting and useful, so I'm always happy to share my own. I'm really interested in the levers you can pull as a GM to create particular experiences or aesthetics.

So many necromancers...

So many necromancers? Why, there are Strahd, Azalin, Meredoth, Morgoroth, Daglan and Misroi. Missed someone?