Café de Nuit

"If you like Curse of Strahd, I think you’re going to love the thing I’m currently working on for 2020" - Chris Perkins

https://www.sageadvice.eu/2019/11/10/ch ... -for-2020/

No details, but interesting!

intriguing....

Strahd, Azalin, and the Alchemist?

tomokaicho wrote:Strahd, Azalin, and the Alchemist?

I hope not. That was a botch of a module IMHO. Unpopular opinion, but vanilla Azalin (module Azalin) is a lame and weak character with no distinguishing character traits prior to later authors getting their hands on him. Mangrum actually did him some justice and its too bad we didn't get the rest of it.

A Lamordia fixup might be better. Adam and Aubrecker are probably the second the strongest co-Darklords (kinda) story-wise in the setting.

tomokaicho wrote:Strahd, Azalin, and the Alchemist?

First thought that came to my head too, aside from "what happened to the Dark Sun hype?".

Would be cool on multiple levels. Ravenloft gets fleshed out a bit more what with Mordentshire/Mordent (a small town with big repercussions) being centre-stage (a D&D staple), new and old fans of Strahd get a second dose of D&D's most famous vampire, Azalin gets introduced to the next generation of gamers (can't possibly be worse than the Don Knotts-ish Exethanter), WotC can hedge bet on strong sales by riding the wake/success of Curse of Strahd, all the while carrying that old-new/new-old vibe that 5E's got going on; something for all generations type thing. Makes sense to me anyway.

I'd like to see Lamordia, but Victor Mordenheim and Adam are way too similar (rip off) of Frankenstein and his Monster to "second wave" Ravenloft. In my opinion. I have been known to be wrong and gnaw on my feet from time to time, so take the jive for what it is all the same.

P.S.: Personal opinion: Azalin went from sidekick to overpowered centrepiece. Something in between needs to happen to him.

Five wrote: First thought that came to my head too, aside from "what happened to the Dark Sun hype?".

Still going strong.

Five wrote: I'd like to see Lamordia, but Victor Mordenheim and Adam are way too similar (rip off) of Frankenstein and his Monster to "second wave" Ravenloft. In my opinion. I have been known to be wrong and gnaw on my feet from time to time, so take the jive for what it is all the same.

Eh, Strahd I6 was basically a throw-down with Dracula and that didn't stop WoTC et al. from taking it in their own unique direction.

If it is Ravenloft (or Gothic Earth or something like that), then maybe we'll get some more firearms/firearms rules. They showed up in Dragon Heist quite a bit.

Mischief wrote:

Five wrote: I'd like to see Lamordia, but Victor Mordenheim and Adam are way too similar (rip off) of Frankenstein and his Monster to "second wave" Ravenloft. In my opinion. I have been known to be wrong and gnaw on my feet from time to time, so take the jive for what it is all the same.

Eh, Strahd I6 was basically a throw-down with Dracula and that didn't stop WoTC et al. from taking it in their own unique direction.

But they DID take it in a unique direction. I don't see that with Mordenheim/Adam. Some fuzzy peripherals but the backstory is copy and paste for the most part. I love the shout out to Frankenstein, which is one of my favorite books, but I don't see anything in them to not call them Frankenstein and the Monster. Probably should've ported them to Gothic Earth instead of Ravenloft...

Mischief wrote:If it is Ravenloft (or Gothic Earth or something like that), then maybe we'll get some more firearms/firearms rules. They showed up in Dragon Heist quite a bit.

Yes, that would make sense as well, as far as I'm concerned. It could also be a DM's bridge to Golden Age pirates as framed by Ghosts of Saltmarsh's Appendix "Of Ships and the Sea".

A reworking of Feast of Goblyns?

The House on Gryphon Hill might be, but unlikely given the mixed reception it received and its muddled nature. FoG might work, but it relies on a greater core that disrupts the "every domain is an island by itself in the Shadowfell" doctrine that has existed since 4e.

Note that it doesn't necessarily have to be Ravenloft (that's merely an assumption), but could just have similar feel/appeal. Castle Amber (and by extension, Mark of Amber) could be an option, which has horror elements.

If it is House on Gryphon Hill I hope it ends with the evil of the house turning into a giant ghost gryphon.

KingCorn wrote:If it is House on Gryphon Hill I hope it ends with the evil of the house turning into a giant ghost gryphon.

I recall the patron of the Doomsday Gazetteers sarcastically suggesting that the author thinks the house on Gryphon Hill to be the dark master of Mordent.

If there are griffons in Ravenloft though, Falkovnia needs an elite flying squadron....

Griffons and hippogriffs both can be found in Ravenloft, according to the Black Box.

Mischief wrote:

KingCorn wrote:If it is House on Gryphon Hill I hope it ends with the evil of the house turning into a giant ghost gryphon.

I recall the patron of the Doomsday Gazetteers sarcastically suggesting that the author thinks the house on Gryphon Hill to be the dark master of Mordent.

If there are griffons in Ravenloft though, Falkovnia needs an elite flying squadron....

ewancummins wrote:Griffons and hippogriffs both can be found in Ravenloft, according to the Black Box.

Funnily enough, both griffins and hippogriffs are native to Falkovnia, according to said Black Box! So yes, you might totally be able to have an elite flying squadron!

Incidentally, if I remember my mythology correctly, the hippogriff was supposed to be a particularly absurd beast because the griffin was thought to be the natural predator of the horse, and the hippogriff is the product of both. I believe the hippogriff therefore was a symbol of love and how impossible seeming love can be.

Now what griffins and hippogriffs are doing in Falkovnia you can speculate, perhaps representations of how lush and beautiful Falkovnia could be without the depredations of man. Or perhaps they represent some nutball creations of the Ministry of Science... actually, perhaps the griffin is natural and the hippogriffs are the product of some (not necessarily rogue) faction of the Ministry, wanting to create more obedient flying mounts than griffins. Of course, being products of weird science (or magic, if you wanted to do the Ministry of the Arcane instead...) and in Ravenloft, the hippogriff project probably have a lot of horribly nightmarish elements.

One of my co-authors wrote a little bit on hippogriffs and their experimental origins such things in a booklet/PDF we wrote up for Pathfinder, third party stuff.

I like the beasties.

Honestly with how they keep massovely retconning or resetting or ignoring previous books I would rather WPTC just leave the older settings alone and just make a new one. If you don't want to be tied to a bunch of lore then don't publish in existing settings.