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Everything We Know About The Ravenloft Book
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<blockquote data-quote="Bedrockgames" data-source="post: 8209522" data-attributes="member: 85555"><p>But the core domains were still subject to the dark powers, and to the wills of the dark lords. And any trade, politics, etc that was all subject to the surreal and morphing nature of the demi plane. I mean one of the chief criticisms we've seen here about the core is it didn't provide enough for some folks in the way of a realistic setting with trade and politics. Personally I found you still had a lot of that strangeness and uniqueness, but there was just enough plausible real world connection that it was even more uncanny (and it forced you to think a little too, because relationships across domain borders (whether they be economic, or political), are a bit of a thought experiment, given the nature of the place. Also if it is a complete dreamsate like place, you lose any sense of rootedness and things mattering. At least with the core, there was some modicum of stability, so you can have NPCs like Van Richten arise and feel like their efforts have some kind of lasting impact. </p><p></p><p>I have to say though the desire for the game to just be islands of terror, this is a very new preference. It wasn't something I heard voiced at all back when Ravenloft was with TSR. If anything the islands of terror were often overlooked because of that (which is shame because they do have lots of potential). </p><p></p><p>A lot of this too probably swings on how you use ravenloft. Are you using it as a weekend in hell? Then sure, islands of terror are probably good. Are you using it for a longer campaign? Then you kind of need a core (I've tried running all island of terror campaigns and I found they just didn't work for me in that volume----the core really did provide a solid foundation, but Ravenloft didn't lose anything with it). I don't know, some of this feels like people projecting back new ideas on the old setting. I am sure not all of it is that. But much of what I have read in these threads just doesn't match my experience of play with Ravenloft at the table</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bedrockgames, post: 8209522, member: 85555"] But the core domains were still subject to the dark powers, and to the wills of the dark lords. And any trade, politics, etc that was all subject to the surreal and morphing nature of the demi plane. I mean one of the chief criticisms we've seen here about the core is it didn't provide enough for some folks in the way of a realistic setting with trade and politics. Personally I found you still had a lot of that strangeness and uniqueness, but there was just enough plausible real world connection that it was even more uncanny (and it forced you to think a little too, because relationships across domain borders (whether they be economic, or political), are a bit of a thought experiment, given the nature of the place. Also if it is a complete dreamsate like place, you lose any sense of rootedness and things mattering. At least with the core, there was some modicum of stability, so you can have NPCs like Van Richten arise and feel like their efforts have some kind of lasting impact. I have to say though the desire for the game to just be islands of terror, this is a very new preference. It wasn't something I heard voiced at all back when Ravenloft was with TSR. If anything the islands of terror were often overlooked because of that (which is shame because they do have lots of potential). A lot of this too probably swings on how you use ravenloft. Are you using it as a weekend in hell? Then sure, islands of terror are probably good. Are you using it for a longer campaign? Then you kind of need a core (I've tried running all island of terror campaigns and I found they just didn't work for me in that volume----the core really did provide a solid foundation, but Ravenloft didn't lose anything with it). I don't know, some of this feels like people projecting back new ideas on the old setting. I am sure not all of it is that. But much of what I have read in these threads just doesn't match my experience of play with Ravenloft at the table [/QUOTE]
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