Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Lore Isn't Important
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Bedrockgames" data-source="post: 8840620" data-attributes="member: 85555"><p>This is one of the reasons when I run Ravenloft now I strictly use the black box (which is just the original bare bones overview of all the domains, nothing too fancy, plenty of space to fill in with your own material, stuff that emerges during play, etc). I don't hate meta plot but I think it got way overplayed in the 90s, and there wasn't enough restraint in its use. Also rather than be presented in a useful fashion (like I don't know a book filled with a bunch of events you could have happen over time to add a sense of 'current affairs' to the world as you wish) it was more like these big monumental events players were meant to be spectators to most of the time. I like a lot of the adventures leading up to the grand conduction, there was a whole series of modules where a line from an unfolding prophecy appeared in each one. But I absolutely hated the Grand Conjuction. It just made the core more uniform rather than strange and interesting. As an example, it took out all the domains that didn't feel as European or more standard fantasy. Many of the domains had an eastern European feel, which worked, but I don't think you needed everything to fit adjacent to that. So the strange barren and lightning blasted Illithid Domain of Bleutspur, the weird religious fanatic domain of G'henna, the really cool Nightmare Land domain inhabited by the Abber Nomads where the land can literally change shape out of the corner of your eye, those all got plucked out, along with the domain inspired by Island of Doctor Moreau (which got put into the sea so it could more closely resemble the source material). It just felt like a lot of the dreamlike weirdness was removed by the grand conjunction. Some of the domains they took out were challenging, were a little harder to understand for some GMs, maybe harder to use, but it removed really important contrast in my opinion. Plus you ended up with this huge chasm in the middle of Ravenloft whose sole purpose seemed to be to make travel between certain domains harder (which on the one hand isn't awful but it took away some interesting travel choices the players might make). Keep in mind, this is my own idiosyncratic view, I think most people liked the Grand Conjunction.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bedrockgames, post: 8840620, member: 85555"] This is one of the reasons when I run Ravenloft now I strictly use the black box (which is just the original bare bones overview of all the domains, nothing too fancy, plenty of space to fill in with your own material, stuff that emerges during play, etc). I don't hate meta plot but I think it got way overplayed in the 90s, and there wasn't enough restraint in its use. Also rather than be presented in a useful fashion (like I don't know a book filled with a bunch of events you could have happen over time to add a sense of 'current affairs' to the world as you wish) it was more like these big monumental events players were meant to be spectators to most of the time. I like a lot of the adventures leading up to the grand conduction, there was a whole series of modules where a line from an unfolding prophecy appeared in each one. But I absolutely hated the Grand Conjuction. It just made the core more uniform rather than strange and interesting. As an example, it took out all the domains that didn't feel as European or more standard fantasy. Many of the domains had an eastern European feel, which worked, but I don't think you needed everything to fit adjacent to that. So the strange barren and lightning blasted Illithid Domain of Bleutspur, the weird religious fanatic domain of G'henna, the really cool Nightmare Land domain inhabited by the Abber Nomads where the land can literally change shape out of the corner of your eye, those all got plucked out, along with the domain inspired by Island of Doctor Moreau (which got put into the sea so it could more closely resemble the source material). It just felt like a lot of the dreamlike weirdness was removed by the grand conjunction. Some of the domains they took out were challenging, were a little harder to understand for some GMs, maybe harder to use, but it removed really important contrast in my opinion. Plus you ended up with this huge chasm in the middle of Ravenloft whose sole purpose seemed to be to make travel between certain domains harder (which on the one hand isn't awful but it took away some interesting travel choices the players might make). Keep in mind, this is my own idiosyncratic view, I think most people liked the Grand Conjunction. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Lore Isn't Important
Top