McXanaxinAlcohol
Purveyor of AD&D
I was recently going through the "Forbidden Lore" Boxed set for Ravenloft from 1992 and made a fascinating discovery. In the 32pg booklet called "Dark Recesses" They dedicate about 10 pages Darksun crossovers into Ravenloft.
The basic jist is that it will be difficult to evoke horror in Darksun characters as their innocence and purity has been largely destroyed by the harsh conditions of Athas. Obviously role playing the cultural shock is going to be tricky. They do get +2 against Fear checks and +1 against Horror.
The way to bring Athas Characters into Ravenloft is roughly defined as follows: There is no Mists or Fog in Athas so the way Ravenloft captures people from Athas is by taking the form of a Mirage of endless water and lush green trees that seems to approach the targeted characters no matter which direction they try to run. Once the Mirage gets close the characters pass out from Heatstroke and when they awaken they are in Ravenloft. A bit contrived but I've heard worse.
There is no mention of rebalancing attributes, so I suppose that means play em straight.
Half Giants and Thri-kreen would be viewed automatically as monsters and would have a very difficult time not being attacked when entering any community.
Most classes are either uneffected or very minorly changed. There is only really 3 classes with notable changes;
Ironically there is a actually a Domain ripped from Athas in Ravenloft called Kalidnay and it seems like it was written as though it is a mini corrupted Athas.
Weirdly they do say that the Mists will convert any metal into bone/stone/wood equavilent of any character going to Darksun... Probably for balance purposes, but the amusing thing is the items and money don't return to their original form when returning to Ravenloft!
So the bottom line is: Just run the Darksun Athas characters straight while in Ravenloft.. The differences in attributes didn't seem to worry the writers and designers in the early 90s so it's probably fine. Though it might be worth visualizing characters from other settings as being 1 level lower than their Athas equavilants to level the playing field
The basic jist is that it will be difficult to evoke horror in Darksun characters as their innocence and purity has been largely destroyed by the harsh conditions of Athas. Obviously role playing the cultural shock is going to be tricky. They do get +2 against Fear checks and +1 against Horror.
The way to bring Athas Characters into Ravenloft is roughly defined as follows: There is no Mists or Fog in Athas so the way Ravenloft captures people from Athas is by taking the form of a Mirage of endless water and lush green trees that seems to approach the targeted characters no matter which direction they try to run. Once the Mirage gets close the characters pass out from Heatstroke and when they awaken they are in Ravenloft. A bit contrived but I've heard worse.
There is no mention of rebalancing attributes, so I suppose that means play em straight.
Half Giants and Thri-kreen would be viewed automatically as monsters and would have a very difficult time not being attacked when entering any community.
Most classes are either uneffected or very minorly changed. There is only really 3 classes with notable changes;
- Defilers which need to make power checks for every spell cast because it ruins the land
- Templars lose their spellcasting abilities while in Ravenloft unless they worship and pledge themselves to a Darklord. Then they get their spellcasting back and oddly enough; The Darklord gains the same powers as the Templar so long as the Templar remains alive! It does drain 2 levels from the templar and shift their alignment to Evil though.
- Technically Athas Druids also need to Establish lands they will guard in ravenloft before they regain their powers but its not too well defined.
Ironically there is a actually a Domain ripped from Athas in Ravenloft called Kalidnay and it seems like it was written as though it is a mini corrupted Athas.
Weirdly they do say that the Mists will convert any metal into bone/stone/wood equavilent of any character going to Darksun... Probably for balance purposes, but the amusing thing is the items and money don't return to their original form when returning to Ravenloft!
So the bottom line is: Just run the Darksun Athas characters straight while in Ravenloft.. The differences in attributes didn't seem to worry the writers and designers in the early 90s so it's probably fine. Though it might be worth visualizing characters from other settings as being 1 level lower than their Athas equavilants to level the playing field
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