D&D General Ravenloft: Monsters vs Darklords

[Micah Sweet]

It's not just PCs though. All major heroes (like Van Ricten) and villains (including Darklords) have souls. It's the common farmers, craftsmen, and merchants that have a chance of not having a soul.

Why? What's the value in anyone in the world not having a soul? What benefit, either in setting or play, is gained?

 

[Alzrius]

The only Dungeon adventure for Ravenloft I remember playing was one set in Valachan (which I found useful for setting material info more than the adventure itself)

Sounds like "Felkovic's Cat" from Dungeon #50. It was originally an RPGA adventure, and was basically a mini-gazetteer of the domain, and had full maps of the Castle Pantara (i.e. the darklord's lair). It was one of the best Ravenloft adventures in Dungeon, to my mind.

 

[Shardstone]

Ok, soulless is quite different from that to me, so the analogy doesn't really work. In any case, the most reasonable (to me) way to take that analogy is to see it as a call for PC specialness, which doesn't really work for me either.

AI people and soulless people are the same thing: non real people programmed to do something

 

[Shardstone]

Why? What's the value in anyone in the world not having a soul? What benefit, either in setting or play, is gained?

Its a really cool existential detail. But WOW Micah! For someone who LOVES to tell other people "That's your personal opinion" and "But what you do shouldn't impact my table," it sure is odd to see you telling other people that an optional setting detail shouldn't exist because YOU don't see the benefit in it. What in the world? Am I going crazy?

 

[Micah Sweet]

AI people and soulless people are the same thing: non real people programmed to do something

But again, Matrix people weren't AI.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Its a really cool existential detail. But WOW Micah! For someone who LOVES to tell other people "That's your personal opinion" and "But what you do shouldn't impact my table," it sure is odd to see you telling other people that an optional setting detail shouldn't exist because YOU don't see the benefit in it. What in the world? Am I going crazy?

Did I say it shouldn't exist? I asked a question. What's the value?

Also, I have a long history of caring about setting fidelity. The soulless thing breaks Ravenloft's setting fidelity.

Not a hypocrite, sorry. Try again.

 

[Fifinjir]

I mean, imagine if everyone you knew and loved weren’t actually real, that be plenty of a horror concept.

 

[Shardstone]

Did I say it shouldn't exist? I asked a question. What's the value?

Also, I have a long history of caring about setting fidelity. The soulless thing breaks Ravenloft's setting fidelity.

Not a hypocrite, sorry. Try again.

Your opinion of the fidelity. You should only speak about the setting through your own personal experience, to keep consistency with your requests. So even if it breaks fidelity for your view of Ravenloft, it doesn't for mine!

 

[Older Beholder]

I just want to quickly answer the OP before going off on a tangent:
I generally prefer to make my own domains, and I mostly like Darklords as backdrop.

Now as a tangent on the idea of souls vs no souls:
It makes me think of a book by Chuck Klosterman called 'But What If We're Wrong?' where there's a chapter talking about the idea that we might be living in a computer simulation, and how if it turned out that that was the case it would make no difference to how we live our lives. Interesting stuff.

 

[Shardstone]

I just want to quickly answer the OP before going off on a tangent:
I generally prefer to make my own domains, and I mostly like Darklords as backdrop.

Now as a tangent on the idea of souls vs no souls:
It makes me think of a book by Chuck Klosterman called 'But What If We're Wrong?' where there's a chapter talking about the idea that we might be living in a computer simulation, and how if it turned out that that was the case it would make no difference to how we live our lives. Interesting stuff.

This is how I see it too! It is an idea that adds so much richness for those willing to engage with it imo.