D&D General The thread where I review a ton of Ravenloft modules

[Alzrius]

What never made sense to me was that Odiare was pulled into Ravenloft from Gothic Earth - which is itself a Ravenloft setting.

It was released under the Ravenloft branding, but wasn't considered part of Ravenloft from an in-character perspective.

Fun fact: while we never found out about it until after the line had folded, William Connors later revealed in an interview that the Red Death (the mysterious force behind the corruption of Gothic Earth) was itself one of Ravenloft's Dark Powers that had been exiled for violating their mysterious code of conduct.

 

[TiQuinn]

Fun fact: while we never found out about it until after the line had folded, William Connors later revealed in an interview that the Red Death (the mysterious force behind the corruption of Gothic Earth) was itself one of Ravenloft's Dark Powers that had been exiled for violating their mysterious code of conduct.

I must be misremembering because while maybe not explicitly stated in the box set it was like big flashing red lights “heavily implied” that it was a Dark Power. At least, I always played in that way.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Fun fact: while we never found out about it until after the line had folded, William Connors later revealed in an interview that the Red Death (the mysterious force behind the corruption of Gothic Earth) was itself one of Ravenloft's Dark Powers that had been exiled for violating their mysterious code of conduct.

Connors deserves a lot of credit for his work on the Ravenloft line, but this is exactly why I think it was wise for them never to officially say what the dark powers were or what the Red Death was. That explanation is very underwhelming when your imagination has been trying to figure it out for years

 

[TiQuinn]

Connors deserves a lot of credit for his work on the Ravenloft line, but this is exactly why I think it was wise for them never to officially say what the dark powers were or what the Red Death was. That explanation is very underwhelming when your imagination has been trying to figure it out for years

I never minded it because it was still a mystery as to what it was at the end of the day.

 

[Remathilis]

Connors deserves a lot of credit for his work on the Ravenloft line, but this is exactly why I think it was wise for them never to officially say what the dark powers were or what the Red Death was. That explanation is very underwhelming when your imagination has been trying to figure it out for years

The most quintessential rule of horror is that knowing is always less scary than not knowing. Our mind filling in the gaps makes it frightening. That's why you don't show the monster until it's absolutely necessary. Every attempt to quantify the Dark Powers ends up stripping away the mystery.

 

[TiQuinn]

The most quintessential rule of horror is that knowing is always less scary than not knowing. Our mind filling in the gaps makes it frightening. That's why you don't show the monster until it's absolutely necessary. Every attempt to quantify the Dark Powers ends up stripping away the mystery.

This is my knock on the Amber Temple portion of Curse of Strahd. It flirted just a bit too close to defining the Dark Powers for my taste.

 

[Alzrius]

The most quintessential rule of horror is that knowing is always less scary than not knowing. Our mind filling in the gaps makes it frightening. That's why you don't show the monster until it's absolutely necessary. Every attempt to quantify the Dark Powers ends up stripping away the mystery.

And on that note, the very last module in the Living Death RPGA campaign actually had the PCs fight the Red Death itself!

That said, I'm actually exaggerating quite a bit, as it's presented more as a force than a character (i.e. there's no hit points or saving throw values given). Likewise, I'm not mentioning that this is the Red Death after the PCs have spent many, many scenarios in the campaign working to weaken it. Living Death was (I'm given to understand) fairly incredible for how it worked toward a definitive ending, tying together many different strands and engaging in an epic campaign where the PCs pull off the impossible, banishing the Red Death and ultimately saving Gothic Earth.

Of course, one of the truisms of evil is that it always comes back, hence the unofficial "sequel" campaign setting Fellowship of the White Star (affiliate link) and fan projects such as Gothic Earth Eternal.

 

[TiQuinn]

And on that note, the very last module in the Living Death RPGA campaign actually had the PCs fight the Red Death itself!

Those RPGA modules are something I’d wish was reprinted/released at some point.

 

[Alzrius]

Those RPGA modules are something I’d wish was reprinted/released at some point.

Same. So far, the closest we've gotten is Casey Brown's BDKR1 The Unofficial Living Greyhawk Bandit Kingdoms Summary (affiliate link), which is excellent, but only whet my appetite for more...which doesn't seem to be forthcoming.

 

[Remathilis]

This is my knock on the Amber Temple portion of Curse of Strahd. It flirted just a bit too close to defining the Dark Powers for my taste.

So here's what I did to "fix" that. This is all my own games headcanon borrow what you like:

There is a podcast called The Magnus Archives. In it, there are entities that exist as the source of Fears. They are alien, aloof, and seen only interested in perpetuating their chosen fear. My Dark Powers work on the same premise. Scholars provide names to these powers like the Dark, the Stranger or the End to signify the fear they associate with, but those are descriptions for a mortal mind, not names. They are unknowable and unreachable.

Except for their heralds. These act as go-betweens to the Power and the mortal world. Some are Dark Lords, some are not. Some are vestiges trapped in amber sarcophagi. All are irredeemably evil. Even though they don't completely understand their Masters, they are at least able to carry out their wishes. The vestiges in the Amber temple are one group of heralds that are trapped. Strahd 's Death was a herald. Azalin became a herald in the Requiem before clawing his way back. Potentially, entities like the Caller are as well.

Who are not are the majority of the Dark Lords. Strahd does not serve any Dark Power, but instead his fear (and the fear he subsequently inflicts on Barorvia) "feeds" them and furthers their mysterious goals. Which is why so few escape Ravenloft: you have to prove you no longer fear it. Soth feared nothing the Dark Powers could do to him and they realized he was starving them, so he was released. Vecna overcame his fear by strengthening his divinity (and was only weakly chained there to begin with, the Powers bit off more than they could chew with a demigod).

Why the Dark Powers do this is questionable and there are many theories, and almost none of them are accurate. But perhaps one of them is, and that might be truly frightening.

The theorized Dark Powers:

The Buried - enclosed spaces, caves, crypts, being unable to breathe.
The Vast - wide open spaces, nothingness, falling
The End - Death and the Dead
The Dark - darkness and being unable to see
The Corruption - disease, rot, unclean things
The Lonely - being alone or isolated
The Slaughter - war, violence
The Hunt - hunters and prey
The Desolation - destruction, pain, fire
The Web - manipulation, conspiracies, mind control
The Stranger - uncanniness, deja vu, doppelgangers,
The Flesh - body horror and meat
The Eye - being seen, exposed, or secrets revealed, and the desire to know things
The Spiral - madness, lying, being unable to trust your senses
The Extinction - the end of everything. Destruction on a massive scale, Conjunctions.