Café de Nuit

Hi Folks,

I'm contemplating bringing my group into the dark domains, only thing is only one of my players has ever known anything about Ravenloft. (He played in a Barovian Campaign with me once).

My issue is this, what will be the best way to introduce them to the Dark Domains, Outworlders or Natives? and the second question is where?

Thansks.

Joseph

The coolest, in my opinion, still is to bring in outlanders and have them treat the realm as any other, untill they find out something is terribly wrong after which both players and characters educate themselves in the ways of the world.

But to be honest, I've no idea how to pull that off succesfully (my attempts have failed )

As for starting domains, Dementlieu, has always struck me as a pretty 'safe' domain, where not everyone is out to kill kill kill.

My initial thought is to do half and half,

Group on the outside chasing something, attacked and nearly killed saved by the mists...villain also brought with too; villain then attacks someone/thing dear to those native and here we have a combined motivation for all...

But what to use and where...

Darkon is my starting domain of preference. The land is recognizably fantastic, with other races and magic, but you can start the PCs off with a large gap in their memories (thanks to the domain's power) and have them painstakingly rediscover what went before.

At the same time, they can find the domain isn't all that normal either. Certain spells don't work, others work almost too well...

I'm a big fan of the native campaign. But outsiders can work too. I just don't like the constant "carrot" of getting home used as motivation, since I like to linger in Ravenloft, not constantly try to leave. Also, natives have backstories that can be used in RL. If an Outsider's parents were killed be a mysterious man, it's a bit too "convenient" if that mysterious man happens to end up in RL as well. But for a native, it's perfectly reasonable to bump into him.

As for domains, start with something somewhat "normal": Barovia, Darkon, Nova Vassa, Mordent, Dementlieu, Borca, Invidia, or Kartakass. Leave the weirder stuff for later. Think about what kind of campaign you'd like, cosmopolitan (Dementlieu), back woods dark folktales (Barovia) fantasy horror (Darkon), ghost story (Mordent) and go from there. Pick up the Gazetteer for the region you're in and see what calls to you.

I prefer natives as Outlanders typically concern themselves with getting home or escape which limits the stories. Natives have a much more horrifying time as they cannot even imagine escape or have to question if things are worse elsewhere.

My advice is to start small. A small villiage or town with troubles. Possibly even start without magic or monsters.
Then slowly, once every session expand what the setting is about. Do a story with the Vistani. Do a story with the Mists. See someone corrupted by darkness. Let them get a feel for the world one adventure at a time.

My own advice is a lot along Jester's lines. Play natives for the same reasons given above. Also, it doesn't really matter that a player knows much about the setting. Eventually they will find out and I think it's fairer for them and easier for the DM's relation with the players if some things are quite frankly told from the depart: horror checks, powers checks and such.

As for campaign style, don't make a new domain unless you really have an idea you want to explore that hasn't been covered elsewhere in RL. If you'd like to really take advantage of canon history and let your players know RL (not just play a horror story you've made up) it's better to use canon.

Possibly, you'll want to do a campaign and not just a series of adventures in RL, but you could have both. If so, and you really want a campaign, decide the main story line at the start and afterwards try fitting small sidelines here and there. But beware, I've done this with my players and their general comment is that they simply don't know what they're doing there and they feel lost. So it's a good idea to really have a campaign that becomes obvious from the start. It just might not be very solvable yet.

I guess I can't remember more advice right now. It's not always been easy to make my campaign (but hey, at least it has lasted for a long while now!)

Alex

My thoughts have been developing over the course of the day.

First I have DMed Ravenloft before and was planning on sticking to canon locations times etc.

In my mind I see 1-2 "imports" and 2-3 natives.

Domain: Barovia (always has been my favorite)

Town: Immol

Main hook, Imports are from my normal Home Game World, members of an adventuring group which goes on a mission which turns out to be horribly wrong, what they chase is not what they think all but the imports slaughtered and "rescued" by the mists, while the slaughterer is "captured" by the mists.

Slaughterer arrives before and commits a crime which affects the natives, giving the imports and natives to work together (Especially if revenge is a consideration/motivation for the imports) and that gets the party together.

Natives: 1-2 from Mordent (one will either be a Bard or perhaps an Archivist <HoH> scholar type)

All other characters are unknown at this time. More as it develops.

Gotta vote for outsiders. It is a much creepier introduction, and you can let them discover more instead of explainign what they know.

I favor yergerjo's idea of 1-2 outlanders and the rest as natives. The reason I like that is that the DM could play the outlanders up as crazy. "Who's ever heard of this Greyhawk?"

As for starting domains, Barovia is just as good (if not better) than any.