Homemade Ravenloft DVD

[MadStepDad]

First I want to take this opportunity to scream HELLO! to everybody. It's still the same thing with the same people, just in higher positions. Belated congratulations to DeepShadow for his ascension - and may I also say I was the FIRST one to encourage his Epic Level Ravenloft experiment, as I'm sure he could tell you where that thing FIRST began (sorry for the extended absences I know that cramped your style).

Second I just want to add that I skipped 4E completely because I love the game but not THAT much. I like your efforts to keep RAVENLOFT contempory though by continuing to move in whatever direction the game takes us. That's the only way to keep history alive.

And finally the meat of my posting. While I wait for Joel to check his email and update my campaign logs (I will not rest until I finish those postings! I don't care if it takes TEN years!), I'm dropping y'all a note to let you know we made a RAVENLOFT movie.

OK maybe it's not a movie, more like a documentary. And it's not about RAVENLOFT exclusively, although it borrows liberally from that. It's actually a D&D Documentary we put together chronicling the history of the game from OUR corner of the globe. My elusive, if not outright spectacular gaming group lovingly tagged the WHAT WOULD U DO CREW. I know it smells like blatant pandering and ego stroking (it is) but I also figured other D&D nerds like ourselves might enjoy seeing how others get down in this wonderful shared world we call the Domains of Dread.

It started when I got my new job, then got my new computer and learned how to use the movie editing software. I added up the countless hours of videotape footage we've accumulated over the last 13 years, loaded it into the computer, got some commentary, added a semblance of a storyline and wrapped it all up in a pretty bow. And now I'm offering it to you.

I've only got hard copies (but they're all professionally printed up), so until somebody shows me how to publish it on the internet so everybody can see it at the same time, I'm offering to snail mail them directly to you. I've contemplated YouTube, but they apparently only accept 10 minute blocks at a time, and the video is almost an hour so I don't want to break into 10 pieces. Plus I don't want to embarass myself on that large a level quite yet. That's why I'm here, in this small little corner alcove we call the RAVENLOFT fan community. I'm sure some people have read our postings and seen the pictures - well now you can catch the video too. I only ask that you offer an honest review of the product in return.

So let me know if you're interested, tell me how to publish it to the net or send me your mailing address and I'll hard mail it to you ASAP. Word life, son! RAVENLOFT will never die!

peace,

MSD

[Daisu]

You could use ftp site. I would have offered you mine but I lost it awhile back. There is bittorrent as well as veoh or megavideo sites that allow free uploading.

I am very intrested in seeing your video, it give me a break from watching B horror flicks.

[MadStepDad]

Still a little alien to me, like illithid in the core. I tried your suggestion - like this place called "zippy" but I have an "unsupported video type" - which I'm assuming means I don't have finished or finalized on the computer? It's saved in WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER format, which at least makes it easy to burn live DVDs off it.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Good to see you again, MSD. Wondered what happened to you. Would love to see this video, once you figure out the distribution..

[Daisu]

from movie maker you can change the file type, avi or wmv are widely used.
I use wmv for youtube.

[MadStepDad]

Thanks Gonzo. And thanks Daisu I'm working on it now.

In the meantime, the first wave is out...

Antifascist you're copy went out today! You'll have it by the weekend! Just let us know what you think of it.

[MadStepDad]

I'm trying and trying and trying in the meantime DVDs continue to be mailed.

Here's a link though try this...

http://www.clipmoon.com/videos/7881af/d ... intro.html

I'm pretty sure this should work. I'm dabbling in video uploading now this might be the answer. Let me know if this thing works. This is just a quick 90 second intro I threw together to test the site. If you can see it I'll post the rest. This quick 90 second blurb is nothing you haven't seen before, it's my signature livened up a bit. Please let me know if this works I am a caveman.

[Manofevil]

Yo MSD. good to see you.

Caught yer trailer. Nice. You might want to reonsider youtube. There have been entire movies and TV series posted there and it really didn't harm the continuity at all. It worked for Kim Possible.

[Catman Jim]

Please let me know if this works I am a caveman.

Hey, MSD, it worked for me, you're not a caveman. Good to hear from you again, it's been a while!

[MadStepDad]

IT'S HERE!!!!

http://www.clipmoon.com/user/13146/madstepdad/videos/

Settle in with a cold drink (or two) and check this thing out. It's an actual documentary and I really tried to approach it from an "artistic standpoint". I made it so (hopefully) you can not only enjoy it without knowing the characters but you don't even have to know what D&D or RAVENLOFT is. I'm not saying its an Independent Film Channel classic or anything but I think it came out well for an amatuer production. Let us know what you think!

And of course if you're still interested in an actual hard DVD copy I have more available. It's better to watch, clearer and has a few DVD extras at the end.

peace!

MSD

(Now where's my latest campaign log????)

[MadStepDad]

Whoops wrong link I think. This is the right one.

http://www.clipmoon.com/user/13146/madstepdad/videos/

[Alanik Ray]

Yep, all the ingredients of a happy childhood are there: good friends, wrestling and role playing games. You nailed it.

[MadStepDad]

OK as the countdown continues towards my latest campaign installments (promised by the Fraternity to drop sometime in this millennium), I’m going to wrap this thing up once and for all.

Thanks to everybody who took me up on the DVD offer, and thank you for your kind words and constructive criticisms. Yes it is an amateur production, yes we smoked plant and stole D&D books. But I know you felt the love throughout. A few clarifications. I mentioned our man M. McDonald being locked down for a few years, and that’s what I meant when I said the “campaign recaps came by accident”. I hold my brothers down, so I would organize visits and letter writing campaigns. I started filling him in on our RAVENLOFT campaign, then I discovered SotK and whaalaa - MSD messageboard ravings. (deleted by Joël)

[MadStepDad]

M. McDonald went down for four years between 2001 - 2005, and if you look close enough you can see the scars he emerged with when he left jail (crisscrossing the entire left side of his scalp, the result of a mad mans razor attack) - but rest assured the most damage was sustained by the other guy. By the time he was out, our RAVENLOFT campaign was nearing its end and sadly he only got to play a bit part in its epic conclusion.

B-Sweezy - original WWuDCrewer since the Bronze Age - did not make it off the Brockton streets we grew up on. You can see for yourself the steady decline of that kid over the years, the result of a worsening heroin addiction. Matter of fact, he refused to be captured on video during this time which is why you only hear a few nonsensical ramblings from him in the early chapters (about throwing potatoes into ceiling fans and something about longbows or longswords). He disappeared into the gutters before suffering a fatal OD sometime last year.

On a brighter note, Tonieh Ellis graduated film school and last I heard was editing film for A&E.

Q-Monstah left table-side when he graduated high school and joined the army (1997). He returned periodically (see Episodes #8 & #13) but stayed based in Germany where he got married and spawned a few seedlings. That’s why there was no live video footage of him, just dialogue conducted over the phone from Germany. However, he DID return to America permanently earlier this year with his entire family in tow (he has two kids now).

Destanial’s player (Nick, big bushy afro) had a baby daughter and got really fat. He still games occasionally, but understandably all time is eaten up by the little Mrs.

Jack (player of Alexus Darkagnon) and John (player of Solyss Zadaraq, who the entire Level 1 province of Solyss, Gundarak was named after) on the other hand, got caught up in this mess - http://wbztv.com/local/brockton.man.wan ... 27310.html

They grew up literally right across the street from me, and as we got older we used to fluctuate between their apartment and mine for gaming locations. Most of our later RAVENLOFT sessions were conducted there. John X got caught up in the regular hood stuff, and after months and months of being on the run was finally apprehended and jailed (I can’t tell you how many times our later sessions were interrupted by police raids looking for him). He did his time and remerged, but never picked up the dice again. Shortly after the campaigns end, all hell broke loose on the street between rival gangs. Cars were getting torched, lives were threatened, and finally the house got shot up a bunch of times. Matter of fact, I got a picture of it somewhere with about a dozen bullet holes in the front. That’s when the whole murder scene unfolded (see link above). Wisely, John X moved to Florida and Jack took his daughter and girlfriend (who were both home at the time of the shooting) and moved to Rhode Island. Shane was one of our boys and I got the video tape to prove it. He found one of the shooters on Main Street - ironically the kid was just leaving the funeral home across the street for ANOTHER young murder victim - and shot him to death in broad daylight. He fled to Florida too, but was eventually captured and sentenced to life.

And then there’s me. I have two young boys of my own now, which should hopefully explain my 3 year absence from this site. We finished our epic RAVENLOFT campaign in fitting fashion (Episode #25- Roots of Evil coming soon!!!) in December of 2005, but our campaign journals never neared completion. I’m here now to rectify that situation. I do it out of a sense of commitment, but also out of a sense of pride. I truly believe we had one of the dopest RAVENLOFT campaigns of all time and I want to share that with the world. I’m banking on the Fraternity being around way longer than the Kargatane so these manuscripts will go down in the dusty annals of RAVENLOFT history - a history we all share together. True love never dies.

[MadStepDad]

Which leads me to the REAL reason I have resurfaced. I’m planning on reinventing the game. Coming in October 2008 (coinciding with the Halloween season) I’m starting a new RAVENLOFT campaign - Elysian Fields aka Gothic Earth 2008. I’m getting the band back together, but this time I’m bringing some new goons along with us. “Spreading the disease” as you will recall. I’m hoping to spread the game into whole new avenues, an attitude and a theory that began with me crumbling up the old initials D&D and rechristening it “What Would U Do” - a game ruled by dice. So hopefully you will ride with us once more as I undertake this bold and challenging experiment. You’ll see what I mean in October. I’m sure there will be some (many) who think this alternative version of RAVENLOFT/Urban Arcana is wack but I have a master plan. Remember, RAVENLOFT may be dead but true love lasts forever.

Peace,

MSD