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D&D (2024) Do you plan to adopt D&D5.5One2024Redux?

Plan to adopt the new core rules?

  • Yep

    Votes: 259 53.3%
  • Nope

    Votes: 227 46.7%


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Hriston

Dungeon Master of Middle-earth (he/him)
I explained it repeatedly and am not sure why you keep going back to older posts to revist it yet again…
Your explanation, if I recall correctly, has been the PCs have never heard of the Vistani because they’ve never been to Ravenloft, and I don’t find that very convincing due to the fact it’s entirely possible to have heard about people in places to which you’ve never been.

I'm not sure what you mean by "going back". Do you think I shouldn't have a chance to reply to all the stuff you've written in response to me in this thread?

There is no memory loss I am describing. If you come to a place you have never been to, then there is no memory of it that needs to be erased for you to not have one.
Memory of the place, sure, but we were talking about people. You can know and/or know about people who live in places you've never been. What about those memories? I assume the PCs lived for many years accumulating a wide range of acquaintances, associations, and memories before they were sucked into Ravenloft. What about those? Are they just erased?

I also told you that I am not interested in pursuing this further since by now you defy reality, logic and the English language to hang on to your interpretation, and if you are willing to do all this, nothing I can say will make a difference either
You are free to stop responding to my posts at any time.
 

mamba

Legend
Your explanation, if I recall correctly, has been the PCs have never heard of the Vistani because they’ve never been to Ravenloft, and I don’t find that very convincing due to the fact it’s entirely possible to have heard about people in places to which you’ve never been.
in our world and with our technology, sure, but even we do not know of people living on other planets / planes, so no, and even if you knew of Vistani as a people you would not have a specific person that you know as a messenger who can relay a message to your contact

I'm not sure what you mean by "going back". Do you think I shouldn't have a chance to reply to all the stuff you've written in response to me in this thread?
you do it very much out of sequence and as far as I can tell while also ignoring what I wrote since

I assume the PCs lived for many years accumulating a wide range of acquaintances, associations, and memories before they were sucked into Ravenloft. What about those? Are they just erased?
no, but they also are of no use as messengers to you because they are not in Ravenloft…

You are free to stop responding to my posts at any time.
it is easier when you stop asking me questions ;)
 
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Faolyn

(she/her)
Your explanation, if I recall correctly, has been the PCs have never heard of the Vistani because they’ve never been to Ravenloft, and I don’t find that very convincing due to the fact it’s entirely possible to have heard about people in places to which you’ve never been.

I'm not sure what you mean by "going back". Do you think I shouldn't have a chance to reply to all the stuff you've written in response to me in this thread?


Memory of the place, sure, but we were talking about people. You can know and/or know about people who live in places you've never been. What about those memories? I assume the PCs lived for many years accumulating a wide range of acquaintances, associations, and memories before they were sucked into Ravenloft. What about those? Are they just erased?


You are free to stop responding to my posts at any time.
To be fair, Ravenloft is a closed domain. You can enter unless the Dark Powers (i.e., the DM) allow it. So you can't know about people in Ravenloft because there's no way to get that knowledge, and if you're in Ravenloft, you can't get in touch with people who aren't in Ravenloft.

Also, the Dark Powers will alter memories or create completely new ones. The domain of Darkon was actually all about that in earlier editions.
 


Lanefan

Victoria Rules
It really depends on how your players react to such things. If they appreciate the worldbuilding involved and get excited about strange unknown languages, that's great.
IME it's not so much that they get excited about strange unknown languages, they more simply accept them as a fact of life and as what would realistically be the case in a world with many disparate and often isolated species and cultures.
My experience has been that such things are just a hassle for most players to come up with some way to acquire a language if it's actually necessary, and D&D offers many ways to do just that (before you even get to spending downtime to learn a new language), and this isn't something they enjoy, I tend to use it sparingly.
Translation devices are sought after, to be sure. But that's the point: being unable to speak to (or read the writings of) the people or place you're trying to deal with is part of the challenge. That spells can overcome this challenge temporarily is fine, given that casting a spell in such circumstances can often present its own challenge when the locals get suspicious of what you're doing..... :)
 

Lanefan

Victoria Rules
Then you clearly don't understand my position on features.

It's a matter of presentation. Which of these two people do you think an average commoner is going to be more likely to want to help (as opposed to "forced to help under duress), based solely on what they know after having met them two seconds ago:

View attachment 360843
I'm going to guess that Average Joe Peasant, who mostly knows about adventurers from stories of stalwart knights and evil assassins, is going to pick the second one.
I'm going to guess that Average Joe Peasant is going to, if able, run screaming from both of them.
 

Faolyn

(she/her)
IME it's not so much that they get excited about strange unknown languages, they more simply accept them as a fact of life and as what would realistically be the case in a world with many disparate and often isolated species and cultures.

Translation devices are sought after, to be sure. But that's the point: being unable to speak to (or read the writings of) the people or place you're trying to deal with is part of the challenge. That spells can overcome this challenge temporarily is fine, given that casting a spell in such circumstances can often present its own challenge when the locals get suspicious of what you're doing..... :)
For some people, yeah. My players have a lot of fun messing with languages. We've had some hilarious exchanges at my table over the years. From an ancient Ravenloft game of mine:

Player 1, in Lamordian to an NPC, re: two of the other PCs: Don't mind those two. They're idiots.

Player 2, in party language:
What does <idiot> mean?

Player 1, in party language: It means you're good people.

Player 2, in very poor Lamordian: Yes, we are idiots!

This was in GURPS, though, where you buy your languages in different levels of fluency and can buy literacy separate from speaking. Right now, in 5e, we do have a player who likes to do "poor language proficiency" characters, but so far the other players have been too nice to do something like the above.

For many tables, including my old college group, however, it's a frustrating PITA. I recall them going so far as to give the wookiee character in a Star Wars d6 game a translator so they wouldn't have to do the thing where one player served as interpreter.
 



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