Ravenloft and Scarred Lands: Co-exist?

[Graf]

Ooo. This is a good thread.
My urge is to say that the themes are very similar but that the settings "story" is completely different.

Ravenloft the world is black and grim, evil is everywhere and yet its supposed to jump up and surprise you by being viler than you could have possibly imagined. Its evil for evil's sake because its such a black and dark place that even the best people go horribly wrong and those who are already evil become unimaginably warped.
In Ravenloft you're going to be eaten by the old peddler who is actually a canibalistic monster who has spent the last fifty years pushing his cart around and eating people because of some vile crime. Its a personal sort of evil, one small crime in a world made up of terrible acts for no good reason.

In the Scarred Lands things are also grim and hard, but you're probably going to be eaten by a the rat-man, because he's hungry and he doesn't like your kind.
The Scarred Lands is filled with practical, rational evil. Even the crazy psychopaths are up to more than being crazy. Maybe they want to destroy another nation or bring back a titan but evil is just the route choosen for its expediency.
There are (usually) no dark forces in the Scarred Lands who are out to personally tempt or corrupt or kill you. In the Scarred Lands characters are often striving to make a difference or even to matter at all.
The dread lords of SL don't aren't part of a club with a creepy name, and they don't really give two pence about the PCs or anybody else so long as they don't interfer with their plans or have something that they want.

I struggled a lot when I was working on my current game. I really like planar stuff. And I really like SL. I decided that they don't really mix though and left it at that.

I'll see if I can think of anything and come back to you.

 

[Voadam]

Things you can port from Ravenloft to SL fairly easily.

Fear, horror, and madness checks

Cursing

Emphasis on individual developed monsters (Templates, templates, templates).

Dark powers checks can be Titan taint. Make Mesos connected to evil spells and necromancy and there is part of your explanation. Titans anguish/lingering hate leads to sympathetic connection to evil actions leading to powers and curses.

Virduk = dark lord

Big issue conflict is the block on knowledge/contact of divine. In RL you don't know what the true powers are you can not interact with the divine directly, in SL you do, there they are marauding around the land. See that mountain? It was thrown there by a titan trying to squash a god.

My advice is throw out the divinations ala RL, and let the Hedradans only claim to have detect evil, detect lie. Then they become a type of inquisitor who can be flawed.

 

[Bragg Battleaxe]

How about starting your campaign in the Scarred Lands and playing there for a while. See which villain your PCs become particularly embittered toward and then have the mists take him away just as they are on the verge of defeating him (but not during a battle with him, that would just be wrong!). Then, for a twist on the usual theme, the PCs CHOOSE to go into Ravenloft to find and kill the villain. Maybe he isnt even a Darklord and just is in hiding. Just a thought. This lets you have your cake and eat it too. If the campaign culminates in Ravenloft, how cool would it be for the heroes to never return?! They could become legends back in the Scarred Lands for having followed the villain into "hell" or whatever coverup for Ravenloft's existence you use, just to seek their revenge. Hope this helps. Good luck

 

[Nightfall]

I like Bragg's idea myself.

 

[Bragg Battleaxe]

Thanks Nightfall. I did this once with a Forgotten Realms campaign. The last session was really cool because the players have "won" technically, but damn what a price! It is a nice mix of celebration and somberness.

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

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[Lopan]

some more thoughts...

I think it's the fear/horror/madness checks wich are the most difficult to carry over. They happen to be VERY critical to the ravenloft setting, due to the nature of the land. I would love to use some method like this in the SL, but it just doesn't seem to work. How can a people who have seen their gods throw mountains really be required to make a fear check when they realize there's a dead body in the closet? How can a people who have to deal with monstrous evil titanspawn creatures constantly bombarding their settlements from the wild lands really be asked to make a horror check when they find out their best friend is something vile? It seems like the people would be to decensitized(sp?) to really feel that kind of personal horror.


As for Bragg's idea, I actually tried something like that last session. Elendal, a pc wizard in my campaign, happened upon a rather ample finger of Mormo's that was being protected by some Brown Gorger Slitherin. He kept it quiet from the rest of the group, but a few rather prominent/powerful NPC's from around Ghelspad(like a rather high ranking mormo worshiper/gorgon from hallowfaust) found out just what he was hiding. Being a rather chaotic bunch, the various mormo factions were all independently trying to gain the item for themselves. However, the hallowfaust mormo-worshiping necromance decided to become a "friend" and mentor to the character, appearing whenever Elendal least expected it. The necromancer found out that a warrior of tremendous power who "Rides swifter than the wind upon his steed of black coal, twin blades glowing on his back, his cobra helm leering and instilling fright" was a short ride from their current desert home. He "convinced" Elendal to escape by using an artifact the Hallowfaust necromancers discovered, an artifact that has cropped up throughout the scarred lands history as a "Box of ultimate evil"(think the box from Hellraiser). The necromancer was convinced that if he could trick the characters into fleeing to another realm that dripped of evil, the mormo finger would have a place to collect power and possibly... grow all the while protected from the other mormo worshipers who wouldn't understand its full potential. So, Elendal tricked the other PC's into "hopping a ride to another realm" by using the box. Sure enough, mist began pouring out of the box when used... next thing they know they're in Ravenloft(Falkovnia to be exact). Boy, you should have seen the look on the LN Ranger's face when his teeth began to elongate and sharpen due to a rather brutal attack on some guards for no reason and grave robbing after that(Ravenloft Power Check... he would go on to fail another 1 afterwards).

The adventure went well, up until they tried to get back into the city of Lekar via force.... they learned the hardway that you don't storm Vlad Drakov's home town with 4 level 4 characters and expect to get far without dieing. They're now hiding out in a farmers field dreading the growing search parties of Falkovnian troops looking for them.

Still, now all my scarred lands books are collecting dust.......

 

[Nightfall]

Well what you could do is an easy way to send them back, make a deal with power outside of the Dread Realms. Perhaps something that wants something that's only accessible in the Scarred Lands, say like Titan's Blood? Something like that, COULD shift the power balance around. So perhaps someone could find out about a world where such things are common and such power is not that hard to come by (providing they are willing to travel all the way across to the Blood Sea! ) In any case I think you should stick with Bragg's idea and yours and just work out a way to get them back AFTER they've had some time to learn the rules in Ravenloft.