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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ogrork the Mighty" data-source="post: 3974625" data-attributes="member: 19042">I'd make the #1 tenet of the Ravenloft world uncertainty. I'd keep all the domains but drop the idea of them being "joined" like a jigsaw puzzle. If you head into the mists, you have no idea where you're going to end up. Maybe you can get a Vistani to guide you but otherwise you have no way of knowing where you will come out. The more you plan out the domains and create a framework for how they relate with each, the greater the certainty and the less apprehension of the unknown. When a merchant goes into the mists every Monday and returns with a cartload of goods on Friday, he doesn't think anything of it. He just went to that town down the road. But when the PCs try it, they end up who knows where and who knows when. And when the PCs try to point the irrationality out to the merchant, he just looks at them like they're crazy and moves hastily away. Make the PCs feel like they may be crazy and you'll keep them off balance. The key is not to explain how it works. It just is what it is and there's no explanation.The mists would continue to be some kind of pseudo-entity that holds the domains in its tentacles but who/what controls the mists would remain unknown. Whatever entity does control them would constantly be throwing curveballs at the PCs. So you think you've figured out the darklord? Oops, here come the mists and now you're someplace else.It would be a constant battle against the clock b/c you never know when the mists are going to come for you. And if you peeve off the mists (i.e., by trying to point out to the locals the illogical nature of their world), they come for you that much faster.I'd also make the mists crazy-dangerous, like in that recent movie, The Mist. If it's not, the PCs will just be jumping into the mists on a whim. When the PCs go into the mists, they should be hoping/praying that they can get out again ASAP! Because if they can't, something in those mists will get them. For me, Ravenloft evolved into something that was too stable and predictable. Make everything unpredictable and you'll keep the PCs on their toes.I also don't like the more recent changes to emphasize the PCs being natives of Ravenloft rather than being foreigners. I think that's a big mistake b/c it removes some of the mystery and makes it just another campaign setting. If you really wanted to go this route, I'd suggest something akin to the Matrix movies and have the PCs "awake" from the routine drudgery that is their lives and realize there's something not quite right about the world. That revelation draws the attention of the mists and the adventure begins!p.s., regarding war between the domains, that was always present. Falkovnia and Darkon were routinely "at war." But it was M.A.D. since a darklord could always ultimately defeat any invasion (as it should be, IMO).</blockquote>

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