advice on switching campaigns

[Stone Angel]

Write now the pc's are in a homebrew campaign using the Greyhawk deities. The world is in the midst of the their renassiance and the players have yet to leave the city. The pc's are all of noble birth or associated with the royal government in some sort. Anyhow I want to take them into Ravenloft, but I want it to be dramatic. I have a few seeds planted for when they come out of the dread realm( if they survive). But as for the exact moment I want it to be dramatic, not just You guys are walking and some fog comes up and goes on and on and on until finally you see...........Any help and or ideas is/are much appreciated.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

what domain are you sending them to, Stone Angel?

 

[arwink]

I think with ravenloft, the suprise of just ending up there makes it more frightening. It's not a dramatic thing.

One day you're home, the next your not. And the world outside is not the friendly land you once knew.

 

[starwolf]

Start out with a nice little mystery. Since the characters are all of the upper class have them attending a ball,revelry or soire at a minor (or major) noble's estate. As the evening progresses the charcters notice that some of the partygoers are disappearing....or perhaps they hear a muffled scream from a distant hallway. The plot unfolds until they find a secret room within the mansion that houses a BBEG that is about to sacrifice a number of people in aan attempt for some kind of earth shattering power. Just as the heroes think they have thwarted the plot, have the BBEG succeed, and the charcters should then have to flee. As they run back into the main part of the estate they should notice that the house seems older and darker.....and empty...or perhaps full of mummified remains.....as the party then bolts out the front door.....you guessed it...Ravenloft!

 

[Stone Angel]

I was thinking perhaps Richemulot, Mordent, or Sithicus. I am not sure yet. From there they are sent on a quest by the Morning Lord. And will traverse through a few domains. Eventually stumbling into Barovia and then I will run The House of Strahd adventure I found at a flea market just last week. I will have to update it of course.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

you could check http://www.kargatane.com/ for some 2e mod downloads, if you're interested

and i would use starwolf's adventure idea in a minute, especially if your PCs know that fogs and such can lead to ravenloft

 

[MaxKaladin]

Make sure your players are ok with this first. I don't know how many DMs I've run across who think it would be cool to start a normal D&D campaign and then suck their players into Ravenloft as some sort of big surprise. Being the DM almost all the time, I have not yet experienced it but I know that I'd be tempted to walk out of the game. If I wanted to play Ravenloft, I'd go look for a Ravenloft game. Or CoC.

 

[Stone Angel]

Thanks for the info. We are all very good friends we've been playing since jr. high. On Sundays from 10:30am-11:00 pm is the only time to escape reality. We just want to play, our setting now is not so different from ravenloft minus the horror setting anyhow. I have discussed it with a few people in the group, but I am sure that they will enjoy themselves. Besides they have already gone for the first bait little do they know the hooked, line, and sinkered. By the way Starwolf your idea was killer.

 

[Fenes 2]

I would be careful. I still carry a slight grudge against a former GM that turned a basic shadowrun campaign into a crossover between spaceopera and matrix by springing such a surprise on us. I usually choose my character for the campaign, and I would not have much fun playing a PC in Ravenloft if that PC was made for a light-hearted swashbuckling campaign .

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Make them visit some remote locale in Greyhawk - and let them witness the creation of a Darklord, who gets pulled from Greyhawk to Ravenloft with his domain - and the PCs.

First, let them show how evil the guy is, by letting the PCs confront some of his henchmen who are up to no good. Then make them realize the villain has some dastardly plan, and let them race to stop him.

Then, when the villain gets increasingly desperate to complete his plans, he will commit some great atrocity while the PCs are somewhere in the vincity (but too far away to affect events). Then let Ravenloft respond to his crime, and fog rolls in... And the villain has a brand-new domain surrounded by strange lands.

This is a much better way of doing it than just saying: "You are travelling along a lonely country road when suddenly fog surrounds you..."