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Everything We Know About The Ravenloft Book
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<blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 8211268" data-attributes="member: 2209"><p>I think the more non human races work better in isolated islands than in a core type setup where the target theme is gothic horror mood. Islands have more latitude to be non-gothic and weirder D&D horror such as Kalidnay in 2e which is a Dark Sun domain island. Similarly I think there was a dragon based island domain in 4e. I think the core works more effectively if there is a lot of straight gothic horror where a more humanish starting viewpoint works with that theme.</p><p></p><p>Part of the gothic horror flavor is that the inhuman and the twisting of humanity are aspects of the horror, if you start off as an inhuman lizard person to start it is a different and less impactful reference point when the reveal is that some you thought were humans are not actually humans.</p><p></p><p>For the straight gothic horror mood theme and play experience 3e turned mechanical half-orcs into background cursed calibans and left actual half-orcs and orcs as default not part of the setting unless specifically brought in as outsiders. Similarly 2e spoke about monster and race palette selection and how things like dragons went against the themes.</p><p></p><p>The islands however can be their own thing and a single isolated horror domain involving a dragon plot can be an interesting D&D horror experience with a lot of other aspects of Ravenloft themes.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Voadam, post: 8211268, member: 2209"] I think the more non human races work better in isolated islands than in a core type setup where the target theme is gothic horror mood. Islands have more latitude to be non-gothic and weirder D&D horror such as Kalidnay in 2e which is a Dark Sun domain island. Similarly I think there was a dragon based island domain in 4e. I think the core works more effectively if there is a lot of straight gothic horror where a more humanish starting viewpoint works with that theme. Part of the gothic horror flavor is that the inhuman and the twisting of humanity are aspects of the horror, if you start off as an inhuman lizard person to start it is a different and less impactful reference point when the reveal is that some you thought were humans are not actually humans. For the straight gothic horror mood theme and play experience 3e turned mechanical half-orcs into background cursed calibans and left actual half-orcs and orcs as default not part of the setting unless specifically brought in as outsiders. Similarly 2e spoke about monster and race palette selection and how things like dragons went against the themes. The islands however can be their own thing and a single isolated horror domain involving a dragon plot can be an interesting D&D horror experience with a lot of other aspects of Ravenloft themes. [/QUOTE]
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