I didn't find this at all. Paladins are especially screwed in Ravenloft as they are singled it as attracting the ire of the place. Were you using the class changes and the altered turn undead tables?
No, I'm not using an edition that has those rules, nor do I feel it would be in any way beneficial, especially when those characters left early on.
I am not questioning the enthusiasm or interest of new fans. But older fans who grew up on the 90s setting material, are going to have a different set of expectations than newer ones (especially if WOTC radically changes core elements of the setting). We are still free to give our opinions and criticisms. To me, the Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft looked very solidly made, but so many choices went against what I think of Ravenlnoft being. The biggest one would be the shift from Gothic horror to multi genre. Now people might prefer that, and people might see it as an improvement. That is fair. However it does mean the setting isn't a gothic horror setting anymore, it is now a much broader range of horror. Same with making lands into islands and not having the core. Technically it is all within cannon, but it does mean the setting is going to play very different and if you see the core as being essential, then it isn't same. It is possible for people to have different opinions on the same thing. Someone like me might find the new Ravenoft setting to be a pale imitation of the original, others might find the new version to be superior. Same with the art. I think this art is absolutely not in the spirit of Ravenloft or even a horror cover. To me it looks more like a horror comedy cover, or an urban fantasy cover. And the attitude of the characters feels completely wrong for a horror mood to me. But I am not the final say on those things. This is just my opinion. Me expressing it, isn't me passing judgment on people who like it (heck when I first got into Ravenloft fans of the original module used to crap on the setting all the time: it was their opinion, I understood where they were coming from but disagreed).
The thing is you can voice these complaints without having to shoehorn in some stupid nickname for new Ravenloft. It comes across as condescending to new fans and kinda annoying because every time you use it you are basically saying "This is not REAAAAAL Ravenloft I Won't Shut Up About it!".
I mean if it showed an actual farm boy I suppose this would make sense. Don't get me wrong, Soth is Vader, I totally get the comparison. But I remember when this book came out and the cover instantly grabbed me. It came down to mood. And you don't need to know Soth to see a creepy knight in a helmet and get what it is going for. But for me why this works is the knight is portrayed in a sinister light, the composition really evokes a classic horror vibe, and I think the focus on one central figure in the image of this cover and the others, gives them all a little more heft (not saying all covers need to be that way, I've commissioned covers myself with multiple characters, but having several figures is often more risky for this sort of mood (especially if they come off with an attitude that doesn't fit the tone). Everything about Knight of the Black Rose fits the tone of the setting
And I remember when I got this book and Vampire in the Mists I knew nothing about the characters and honestly ,covers did not speak to me at all. I've only gotten them because I knew Ravenloft was d&d and Dark Sun was d&d but they didn't have Dark Sun books I was trying to get. If I knew Shadowrun is an RPG I may have walked out of the store with one of Shadowrun novels, the covers never mattered.
I must admit for me, it's a stale trope that hurts a long term Ravenloft game. The players quickly figure out the people of the land hate them, so they are less inclined to help them. You might get a few bleeding heart X-Men types, but most players get tired of not being able to enter town for supplies or creature comforts like food and a warm bed and they decide that the peasants aren't worth helping, let them suffer with their dark lord, I'm looking for a way home. And once you've trained your players to ignore NPCs, you've lost a huge swath of adventure hooks.
It's always an annoying issue with people who want to run a "dark" game, that they feel the need to make every peasant/commonner NPC a small-minded, bigoted naughty word, who at best looks down on the PCs and is openly hostile at worst. They want a gritty feel, but what they get instead is the players who are sick and annoyed of being treated like dirt by people who also feel entitled to their help. And then DM gets mad their players become murderhobos and kill every npc.
Moreover, I have grown distasteful of every village and town being a Sundown town and leaning on the racist and xenophobic tropes that brings. I will occasionally use a community with that sort of viewpoint as an adventure seed, but the vast majority of people in Ravenloft aren't inherently afraid of elves or goliaths (or they don't immediately retreat to hate and violence, an elves gold spends like anyone else's, and sometimes you gotta go along to get along.)
Also, even in Barovia you have literal procession of ghosts of past slain adventurers making a long line towards Castle Ravenloft every night. If adventurers are as common as this implies, people in Barovia would have seen it all, even the plasmoid or tri-kreen. They shouldn't be scared and bigoted, they should be jaded. Less "GAH! What is that thing?! Get away from me!" And more "I remember when a group just like yours came here when I was a boy. Their big guy was green and had tusks and their small guy wasn't green but had beard on their feet. Didn't do them any better, the devil Strahd got them all."
I do think the perception that they are monsters would be fair. But I also don't think a party of adventurers are going to be taken down by angry villagers in most cases. Also these people are afraid and not looking to find monsters. So the reaction isn't necessarily going to be instant mob forming to hunt down the party. If they think they're masters, the people will likely close their doors, shutter their windows and avoid drawing the player characters attention (just like they wouldn't charge out into the street and take on a vampire or werewolf)
And then the party is supposed to help these naughty words why again?
This didn't come up often for me. Generally the demihumans in the party tried to keep a low profile. But as the GM, you can sculpt the hooks however you want. If the townsfolk just pissed them off, then I probably wouldn't have the townsfolk be the hook (or at least have someone in the village who is helpful and friendly to them).
You know, I kinda realized that what you desire from Ravenloft is essentially counterproductive to running an actual Ravenloft campaign. Because if you want to use Ravenloft as a "weekend in hell" style game. If people react with fear, mistrust and disgust to everything aside the boring standard of humans, humans with pointy ears, short humans with beards on their faces or short humans with beards on their feet, it simutaniously becomes enticing to play all other races if you want to experience that sort of prejudice in a roleplaying scenario, which is why some people pick Tieflings or Orcs or Drow...and tedious forlong-term game. However, in a short interjection adventure, it becomes very interesting. In fact, the party from the cover is PERFECT for the "weekend in hell" style games WotC wants Ravenloft to be.
Absolutely terrible.
No ravenloft vibe at all.
You're literally judging a book by its cover.
