Tell me about Ravenloft

[gamerprinter]

The Fraternity of Shadows is a fansite with forum dedicated to all things Ravenloft, and probably a great resource for learning more about it! Many of it's members have created Netbooks that focus on different game systems to run it, specific campaign setting/domains and much more.

 

[Alzrius]

Demons and Devils can't access Ravenloft. The Abyss has no place there.

[...]

And they can no-sir the Abyss itself, and every deity in the cosmology.

This part isn't correct, but other than that everything else you posted was spot-on.

There are a handful of demons and devils in Ravenloft; likewise, the Dark Powers can't "no sir" the Abyss itself - the two planes are so far apart that they simply don't have direct access to each other anyway.

Likewise, they can't "no sir" every deity in the cosmology - the dark powers are greater than demigods, but stronger deities can enter and leave the demiplane at will; they can even remotely affect the demiplane (though the Dark Powers can interfere with that - see The Awakening).

 

[GreyICE]

This part isn't correct, but other than that everything else you posted was spot-on.

There are a handful of demons and devils in Ravenloft; likewise, the Dark Powers can't "no sir" the Abyss itself - the two planes are so far apart that they simply don't have direct access to each other anyway.

Likewise, they can't "no sir" every deity in the cosmology - the dark powers are greater than demigods, but stronger deities can enter and leave the demiplane at will; they can even remotely affect the demiplane (though the Dark Powers can interfere with that - see The Awakening).

Bah, yeah, I dislike this stuff and choose to ignore it, because it detracts from the environment. Gods have no place in Ravenloft, and demons are just too... obvious. And too black-and-white. I might allow as how a trickle of abyssal power could come in. Perhaps even someone who makes a bargain with the Abyss to try and fight the dark powers... that could be interesting.

 

[gamerprinter]

There's also Transposition, the process with nether planar beings to exchange the essences between a person in Ravenloft with a fiend of one kind or another. Slowly, the individual on Ravenloft and some fiend begins switching places, exchanging powers, until finally the fiend is completely in Ravenloft and the person once trapped on Ravenloft is now on the fiend's original nether plane - Hell, the Abyss or the other nether realms.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Everyone ran it a bit differently. I started on the original boxed set and ran regular campaigns all the way into 3E with the sword and sorcery books. Initially it was meant mainly as a setting where characters were brought in by the mists and the expectation was they would try to escape (I still think this tends to work best, especially for a first attempt). Domains of Dread opened the setting up more to include native characters (and the sword and sorcery book just finished the job). My advice is to check out the fraternity of shadows website. Lots of good resources there.

The best thing you can do is buy the old van richten guides. Those are basically blue prints for solid, investigation-based ravenloft campaigns. For me this is the style that works best. You may also want to check out Feast of Goblyns and Castles Forlorn.

In terms of whether the PCs confront darklords or interact with them, that is up to you. I tended to avoid this because it got old fast, but some players expect it. So do what feels right.

 

[GrimGent]

Exactly in the most recent edition that came out for 3ed there was a timeline of the core realms and for some of these realms it goes back almost 2,000 years. Human society being what it is most of these domains and their people have no idea that their lands were ever part of some other world.

Ravenloft's beginnings date back to Barovia vanishing into the Mists in the year 351, when it became the first domain, while the current year is 755. However, individual domains generally have their own "false histories": even if they were created only a few years ago, which is a distinct possibility, they seem to come into existence with every evidence of having been around for much longer. Relics and records, and even memories, are unreliable where the past of the realm is concerned.

 

[Alzrius]

Ravenloft's beginnings date back to Barovia vanishing into the Mists in the year 351, when it became the first domain, while the current year is 755. However, individual domains generally have their own "false histories": even if they were created only a few years ago, which is a distinct possibility, they seem to come into existence with every evidence of having been around for much longer. Relics and records, and even memories, are unreliable where the past of the realm is concerned.

Don't forget that some domains were pieces of other worlds that did actually exist, and still record their history from before they were pulled into the demiplane (e.g. Forlorn).

 

[kitsune9]

I really loved reading the novels and the setting. My only time playing in it though was an absolute terrible experience by an idiot DM who cut and run on us in the middle of a convention game. I did however play Ravenloft (the module) that a DM converted to 3.0, but he didn't use any of the Ravenloft setting material, just the module. That was a lot of fun though.

 

[Zephrin the Lost]

I've been kludging a campaign outline together using much of the insight given here, and will post something on my enworld blog when I feel like I have something worth looking at.

also reading I,Strahd right now- good, inspiring stuff!

--Z

 

[Shemeska]

Bah, yeah, I dislike this stuff and choose to ignore it, because it detracts from the environment. Gods have no place in Ravenloft, and demons are just too... obvious. And too black-and-white.

When you do get fiends trapped inside of Ravenloft, it gets reeeeaaaalllly interesting, because they literally warp the fabric of the demiplane around themselves. It's never really explained as to the why of it, but it's almost as if they're not entirely within the comprehension of the Dark Powers, and the demiplane doesn't truly know how to handle them. Or they do and they can, or the demiplane simply wasn't constructed with them in mind. Lots of ways to spin it in a campaign.

I really liked Inajiira and the gentleman caller.