Irda Ranger said:
Why? If the Gazetteers were re-released as rules-neutral setting books, anyone could play in the Domains they wish to. The Core book would have enough of an overview to allow people to get started.
Two problems right there. For one, word "re-released". If you re-release something that's pretty much the same as it was before, not as many people buy it.
As an aside, I don't think that releasing a series of Gazetteers again would work. The Gazetteers, while being excellent for Ravenloft, and perhaps the best of all of the 3e material, were the worst selling products in the line. That's because usually just one person in a group bought a Gazetteer (the DM) and then usually the DM just bought one Gazetteer - the one featuring the domains he/she needed.
I think what Ravenloft would have to do is to release a single, large Gazetteer or world book, much like what is done in many other settings. Anyhow...moving on.
You do need to do something though to reduce what I think of as "the reverse-Elminster problem." The Darklords are too powerful and too all-seeing.
Interesting you should say that. Because the Darklords aren't really all that powerful and all-seeing.
For example, Ivana Boritsi is an Expert, I think. I mean, that's it. No wizard levels, no sorcerer levels. Many of the other Darklords aren't really anything powerful, with many of them with NPC levels. Also, few of them have access to scrying abilities. Keep in mind that many Darklords have died over the years. So they certainly aren't untouchable. Azalin stands alone as having ridiculous amounts of power (more than any god in 3rd edition, as a matter of fact).
However you raise an excellent point. And that is that there is this
perception that the Darklords are all-powerful and all-seeing. And that would definitely need to change. Because you're right. That's what turns most people off from Ravenloft.
I think the main way to do this is to give the Darklords something better to fear / do than bother the PC's all the time. I think Toben's suggestion of allowing war between the Domains is a good one (not the only solution, but a good one). Keep the Domains as (imperfect) prisons, but allow the Darklords to war upon each other absorb the Domains of the loser. Whatever benefit they derive some absorbing a new Domain should be great enough that they'll spend 98% of their time either trying to absorb neighboring Domains (if in a strong position) or defending against any such attacks (if in a weak position). To keep the Domains as prisons though it should be clear that Darklords can only enter Domains immediately neighboring theirs, and only for short periods of time.
I agree 100 percent.
It might be something as simple as - if you exit your Domain, you lose all of your cool Darklord powers. Which is sort of an insidious way to make a prison. I can see many of the Darklords in Ravenloft
never leaving their Domains because they don't want to give up their power. I think it would play right into the constant theme of irony in the setting if basically, the Darklords could really leave their Domains at any time, but each of them is so addicted to having access to their powers that they feel like they can't leave.
Occasionally however a Darklord may end up not being powerful enough to control his new Domains, and parts of it will splinter off into new Domains or be absorbed by neighbors. This will allow for turnover within the campaign and explains why Azalan or whomever hasn't absorbed all of Ravenloft by now - he's reached the limit of what he can control, and he knows it. But that doesn't mean he won't just kill one of his Darklord neighbors if they piss him off too much, so neighbors are still afraid of him.
Interesting.
The best side-effect of preoccupying Darklords with each other is that this allows lots of lesser evils to pop up like toadstools after a rain storm. Werewolves can take over whole villages, infernal cults can establish temples and low-order assassin guilds and blood-thirsty bandits can be a menace that low-level PC's can try to deal with.
I like this a lot and totally agree.
I'd also like to see a new Core class (probably a Skill-monkey/Striker) like the Rogue (or maybe just a Rogue-variant), but with less emphasis on burglary and more emphasis on tomb exploring and undead/were-creature killing (think Van Richten meets Indiana Jones). This could possibly be handled with Feats, Talents, Paths, Skill-specials etc. depending on how those work in 4E.
That could be handled easily with Paragon paths.
