D&D 5E Barovia's world

[77IM]

I really did not expect that.

 

[sim-h]

I would trade my left arm for an entire campaign world of Gothic horror.

Did you get in on this? Not an entire world, but a large city nonetheless. I went for the 5e version. Before I knew the postage cost to Europe (gulp).

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...e-blight-richard-petts-crooked-ci/description

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

I kinda thought it had got itself expelled from its own realm for not playing nicely with the other countries and being a bit bitey at break. Which would make its home realm a good place, full of Paladins and Lawful Goodness all over the shop. Sounds ghastly.

 

[Mercule]

Since I original ran I6 before it was considered "extra-planar", it originated on my home brew world. The mists were a one-off thing, tied to Strahd's curse and died with him.

QED

 

[Saeviomagy]

I don't see why it would. One, the written material (for instance, Strahd's history in I, Strahd) doesn't suggest it. Two, the entire reason the Mists took him was because his behavior was so hideously evil; hardly seems likely if he was just another example, or even a slightly more extreme example, of what was going on around him. (And heck, it was the same powers that drew him and Barovia into the demiplane, at least by implication, as transformed him into a vampire in the first place. It's not like he was already some undead horror who was then snatched away.)

I'm sure the world would have some horrific aspects to it, but no more so than Oerth, Eberron, or, well, Earth.

Read more: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?480765-Barovia-s-world/page2#ixzz430qcmYxh

World != immediate locale of Barovia. Similarly gothic horror != everyone is evil. Part of the feel of gothic horror is that things are mostly OK, but something supernatural occurs and no one knows how to deal with it. Typically it occurs in some archaic backwater. Bonus points if anyone you tell about it will think you are nuts.

Your typical D&D world (including Ravenloft) has problems with this because the supernatural is the norm. Earth has problems with this because the supernatural does not exist.

So - we want a world that is still D&D, but where being cursed to be immortal and repeat the death of your beloved isn't something that people will even believe happens, and certainly not something that adventurers will go out and try to 'solve'.

 

[Jabborwacky]

So apparently Barovia was enshrouded my mists, ripped from the world it was part of, and is now a demiplane.

Do we know anything about the world Barovia was once part of? Are there any supplements or Dragon articles about it? From reading Curse of Strahd I am getting a sense that this world was sort of a low-magic, low-monster world, where demihumans are uncommon in human lands, and closer to a Renaissance social and tech level. But do we know anything specific?

Its entirely just speculation that changes with each iteration of Ravenloft. From what I've gathered over the years, Barovia's homeworld would have been a setting embracing a very romanticized kind of fantasy compared to the standard D&D setting. The world was without a doubt low-magic in the sense that few people ever encountered a real wizard. The Death's House adventure tends to support this even in the new edition. [sblock]The cultists don't know how to summon a real demon because the actual means to do so are either nonexistent in the world they came from or so hidden as to make it mercifully impossible. They worship Strahd as a god as well, which further demonstrates just how rare the supernatural must be in Barovia's world of origin.[/sblock]

All of which would be a perfectly fine campaign world. I'd like to see it myself.


I was simply saying we've never seen anything to suggest that Barovia's home plane is that world.

Yeah, pretty much all we can confirm is that magic is highly restricted or very rare on Barovia's home world. It took a ruler ordering his subordinates to find just one or two wizards to help him with his castle. The gods could be very withdrawn from affairs or just outright dead, considering no deity intervened to protect the countless innocents spirited away by the dark powers to live out their lives in the same prison as an immortal vampire.

 

[Mouseferatu]

So - we want a world that is still D&D, but where being cursed to be immortal and repeat the death of your beloved isn't something that people will even believe happens, and certainly not something that adventurers will go out and try to 'solve'.

All of which would be a perfectly fine campaign world. I'd like to see it myself.

I was simply saying we've never seen anything to suggest that Barovia's home plane is that world.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Did you get in on this? Not an entire world, but a large city nonetheless. I went for the 5e version. Before I knew the postage cost to Europe (gulp).

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...e-blight-richard-petts-crooked-ci/description

That is insanely cool. Pricey, though. I think I'd want to hold it in my hands first.

 

[Saeviomagy]

All of which would be a perfectly fine campaign world. I'd like to see it myself.

I was simply saying we've never seen anything to suggest that Barovia's home plane is that world.

Well, the fact that it is a direct ripoff of Dracula would seem to suggest that it is the case.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

Whats so interesting is that I find Vlad Drakov in Ravenloft far more aligned to the Dracula mythos than Strahd.