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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JLowder" data-source="post: 9697982" data-attributes="member: 28003">The debates running throughout the thread on what Ravenloft as a setting or brand is supposed to be are not new. Not long after the boxed set was released and writers outside the original team (Bruce Nesmith, Andria Heyday, and Bill Connors in Games, and me over in the Book Department) started working on the roster of RPG supplements and fiction, there were many, many discussions about whether the line should be primarily horror-fantasy or fantasy-horror (the latter dubbed "Doveloft" by the folks who wanted the line to be the former). Each new person who came in had an opinion and influences they wanted to cite in their work. That debate is fairly common with shared worlds, really, and to be expected with Ravenloft because of the setting's roots.As others have noted, Ravenloft is a D&D setting, not an independent world or game, and the D&D mechanisms are structured to support heroic fantasy narratives. That will always color how the stories play out as game material. Inasmuch as the older fiction moved away from that, it was being less faithful to the RPG. I am okay with that. To me, there should be room in the various D&D settings for different approaches to the material, and the fiction provides an opportunity to tell not-game stories with the IP. New narrative styles and media informed the Ravenloft (and Realms and Dragonlance and...) fiction, just as they are informing the new book. The settings will petrify if they can't allow creators to bring in new perspectives and influences.The packaging and content of the new novel leans into the RPG identity. It looks like the current incarnation of the game. Makes sense. The more the fiction does not reflect the game, the more likely it creates a clash of expectations for the audience. That doesn't mean every RL product or story (game or fiction) has to adhere to this approach. But no one should be shocked at this option being chosen for the first new book in a while. Ideally, there will be room in the future for other styles of Ravenloft story, but that doesn't mean this approach is wrong or unfaithful to the setting.</blockquote>

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