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Ravenloft Campaigns: What’s the meta-point?
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<blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 4662603" data-attributes="member: 7635"><p>I think some of Ravenloft's loss is that for a long time, Ravenloft was an <em>artificial </em>setting, not a natural one.</p><p></p><p>This has to do with two things: 1.) The Dark Powers as Omnipotent Overseer and 2.) The nature of the Demiplane. The first sets the PCs against an unobtainable goal: no matter how good and heroic they are, they are always checked by the Dark Powers who cannot be stopped, reasoned with, even comprehended enough to slow down, much less defeated. This creates a world where, in the end, the PCs can never win; the Dark Powers always hold the high-cards and at any time can swoop in and undo all the PCs had striven for.</p><p></p><p>Secondly, the artificial nature of the demi-plane (as prison for BBEGs) makes it not even a fight worth Fighting For. In most classic "hopeless" fights (such as LotR or Midnight) there was a world that was good and its return is what makes it worth it. Perhaps you won't see it, but if enough people do good over a long enough time, the darkness can be beat back and the goodness of the world can return (whether or not that's true...). Ravenloft has no innate goodness; EVERYTHING IS A CREATION OF THE DARK POWERS. Continents shift to their whim, islands move and drift at the leisure, even the seas themselves are recent creations of the Powers. Not only do the DP's have the high cards, you're playing at their house and eating their stale chips & cheap beer.</p><p></p><p>Both of these elements create a lot of Ravenloft player angst; why bother because it seems they can have no greater impact. They're plugging up leaks rather than trying to fix the broken plumbing. The ultimate goal "to make the world a better place" is not only infeasible, its literally impossible (there is no world to make a better place, and no way of making actually better). </p><p></p><p>Personally, I think Masque of the Red Death is a better example of how to do a setting like Ravenloft. MotRD is an alternate history of Earth (usually til the Victorian era) in which a powerful sinister entity (Red Death) appears during the time of Ancient Egypt and has slowly spread its taint across our Earth, creating terrible monsters and influencing wars, strife, and conquest. Few know it exists, and those are the chosen ones, hunters of the night. Red Death has many minions; some overt (Count Dracula), some covert (Prof. Moriarty). Still, at the end of the day, Red Death is a disease spread over a normal world; it can be checked since it can only subtly affect the world, it theoretically CAN be defeated, and the world returned to a state of natural goodness. </p><p></p><p>Ravenloft (the D&D setting) could do much to learn from its little cousin.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Remathilis, post: 4662603, member: 7635"] I think some of Ravenloft's loss is that for a long time, Ravenloft was an [I]artificial [/I]setting, not a natural one. This has to do with two things: 1.) The Dark Powers as Omnipotent Overseer and 2.) The nature of the Demiplane. The first sets the PCs against an unobtainable goal: no matter how good and heroic they are, they are always checked by the Dark Powers who cannot be stopped, reasoned with, even comprehended enough to slow down, much less defeated. This creates a world where, in the end, the PCs can never win; the Dark Powers always hold the high-cards and at any time can swoop in and undo all the PCs had striven for. Secondly, the artificial nature of the demi-plane (as prison for BBEGs) makes it not even a fight worth Fighting For. In most classic "hopeless" fights (such as LotR or Midnight) there was a world that was good and its return is what makes it worth it. Perhaps you won't see it, but if enough people do good over a long enough time, the darkness can be beat back and the goodness of the world can return (whether or not that's true...). Ravenloft has no innate goodness; EVERYTHING IS A CREATION OF THE DARK POWERS. Continents shift to their whim, islands move and drift at the leisure, even the seas themselves are recent creations of the Powers. Not only do the DP's have the high cards, you're playing at their house and eating their stale chips & cheap beer. Both of these elements create a lot of Ravenloft player angst; why bother because it seems they can have no greater impact. They're plugging up leaks rather than trying to fix the broken plumbing. The ultimate goal "to make the world a better place" is not only infeasible, its literally impossible (there is no world to make a better place, and no way of making actually better). Personally, I think Masque of the Red Death is a better example of how to do a setting like Ravenloft. MotRD is an alternate history of Earth (usually til the Victorian era) in which a powerful sinister entity (Red Death) appears during the time of Ancient Egypt and has slowly spread its taint across our Earth, creating terrible monsters and influencing wars, strife, and conquest. Few know it exists, and those are the chosen ones, hunters of the night. Red Death has many minions; some overt (Count Dracula), some covert (Prof. Moriarty). Still, at the end of the day, Red Death is a disease spread over a normal world; it can be checked since it can only subtly affect the world, it theoretically CAN be defeated, and the world returned to a state of natural goodness. Ravenloft (the D&D setting) could do much to learn from its little cousin. [/QUOTE]
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