Ravenloft Gazetteer I

[Messageboard Golem]

Legacies of Darkness, Lands of Lore

From the dark and foreboding reaches of Count Strahd's Barovia to the domain of Hazlan's wizard tyrant, occult terrors rule the night. Dark horrors make their home throughout the forested lands of Kartakass and a terrible mystery lies at the heart of goblyn-infested Forlorn. Like the darklords who rule them, the lands of the Core reflect myriad forms of evil.

The first in a series of setting sourcebooks, Ravenloft Gazetteer I explores some of the legendary domains of the central continent. Included herein are the domains of Barovia, Kartakass, Hazlan and Forlorn, ready and waiting for bold adventurers to explore.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By Bruce Boughner, staff reviewer d20 Magazine Rack, and co-host of Mortality Radio

Sizing Up the Target
Ravenloft Gazetteer is a 154-page softcover supplement published by White Wolf under its Sword & Sorcery imprint. The authors are Andrew Cermak, John Mangrum, Chris Nichols and Andrew Wyatt. The cover is painted by Ron Thompson, and interior art is by Jeff Holt, Brian LeBlanc and Talon Dunning and is available for $24.95

First Blood
The Gazetteer is the first of a series of closer inspections of the Lands of Ravenloft, this volume deals with four of the core realms; Barovia, Hazlan, Forlorn and Kartakass. The text is done in narrative format similar to the Volo’s guides of 2nd edition Forgotten Realms.

Each chapter is laid out in the same manner. The narrator describes his first impression of each realm then goes into the landscape of the realm; which then breaks down into the flora and fauna. Interspersed are sidebars of special points of interest, adventure hooks, and maps of the lands. The flora sections are often brief with more attention paid to the horrors and creatures of the country. They are referenced to the Ravenloft hardcover, the Monster Manual and other sources as well as a few new ones here. The history of the country is then given, this is a well- detailed story and is the bulk of the chapter for each realm, most of the sidebars and adventure hooks are here. The populace, culture and mores are delineated along with unique viewpoints, religions, public opinions on magic, religion and politics.

Examples of items unique to each realm are given, such as the Barovian Hero section, which richly details the requirements to be a homespun Barovian hero, allowable classes, recommended feats common regional names and predominant races.

New horrors are given as possibilities, such as the Resurrection of Erlin. Erlin was a tribal deity worshipped in the Gundarak region of Barovia and fell into obscurity with the rise of the Von Zaroviches, the possibility of a secret cult of Erlinites could add terror to the region.
Secret societies, the use of psionics and other items in Ravenloft are all given in greater detail than in the Ravenloft hard cover. Certain artifacts are re-examined, poisonous herbs from Forlorn, the goblin pantheon are all delineated for easier usage.

At the end of the four realms descriptions is a DM’s section. There are prestige classes such as the Herald of Dawn, new clerical domains and spells, new magic items and new monsters: the werefox, undead lake serpent and zombie wolf.
Profiles of the darklords and other powerful denizens of these realms are given in a section called Who’s Doomed. The four realm lords, Tristan ApBlanc of Forlorn, Hazlik, the Red Wizard of Hazlan, Harkon Lukas of Katarkass and of course Strahd of Barovia are given expanded desriptions while other evils are given bios like Eleni of Toyalis, the heir to Hazlik, Inajira the Arcanaloth and the Vistani Madame Eva. The book closes with maps of the Realms of Dread.

Critical Hits
Ravenloft Gazetteer I is the first in a series of accessories that will expand the original 3rd edition offering of Ravenloft, granting more access into the individual realms and more detail to the darklords bios and more items, spells and monsters. Fans of the Dread Realms can rejoice.

Critical Misses
I hate having to buy the same material twice, now it is a necessary evil as 2nd edition material is brought forward. This book is mostly rehashing a lot of material but there is a good amount of new material to offset it.

Coup de Grace
As I said, fans of the Dread Realms can rejoice, Ravenloft is back in all its’ horrific glory. Despite the loss of Lord Soth back to Krynn properties, there are more than enough horrors for the Gothically challenged.

To see the graded evaluation of this product, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.

 

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

The first in, what one hopes, will be a long line of Gazetteers for Ravenloft opens with, rather unsurprisingly, Barovia, Forlorn, Kartakass and Hazlan. The book is split into six chapters, an introduction, a chapter per domain and an appendix of one new prestige class, some new magic items, new spells and NPCs including the Darklords for the four domains.

The Intro. mainly deals with the outline of the book and lets us into the mind of our narrator, S. S's identity is a mystery and his/her employer a secret, although they suspect it to be Azalin. S tells us how the chapters will be laid out, then a sidebar explains what all the DM sidebars will contain.

We start our tour in Barovia. S tells us about local Flora and Fauna, the history of the land (a good retelling, and playing on the fact that the ruler of Barovia has been named Strahd for the last four hundred years helps make the Barovians seem more naive than ever!), sites of interest including major settlements, and a round up of what would be gained/lost by invading the domain. Barovia is really the hook to get Old time Ravenloft DMs to buy the book. By having a more than firm grasp on the history of the setting, the author shows that Barovia is not the backwater it was portrayed as in the old 2nd Ed Domains of Dread, but is actually a more than adaquet setting for a beginning campaign.

S then visits Hazlan. If Barovia was the Hook, Hazlan is the Meat of this book. Virtually everything written in this section is brand new material. Whilst the other domains have been covered in detail in previous incarnations of Ravenloft, Hazlan has barely been touched upon. It gives indepth views in the the Mulan and Rashemi society, the balance between the ruling humans over the poorer humans. The demihuman races are virtually unpresent here, except for the Halfling ghettos that seem to be everpresent around the Core these days. The history of Hazlan is not as well defined as the history of Barovia, but that is to be expected. Hazlan has not had the fanfare that Barovia has heard over the years. S continues in their breakdown of the domain is the same way as Barovia. Suffice to say, S does this with every domain.

Next on S's travels is Forlorn. For those who don't know, back in 2nd Ed, the lord of Forlorn was kept secret when Ravenloft first emerged as a setting. Finally in 1993 Castles Forlorn came out and told us everything. The author of this section relies heavily on Lisa Smedman's boxed set as they retell the story of Forlorn. The only new appearence is the town of Forfarmax on the Hazlan/Forlorn border. Forlorn draws on alot of old 2nd edition products, Children of the Night: Created and CotN: Ghosts are both referenced in passing (Forfarmax first appeared in CotN: G).

Finally we get to the singing domain of Kartakass. Whilst not as exstensively dealt with like Barovia, Kartakass has had its fair share of publicity in the past, with two novels and one full-length adventure set in its borders. S continues with the standard format that they have laid down with Barovia, telling the tale of Kartakass in deadpan style, as though they don't believe a word.

The appendix includes two new monsters and two new templates: Aggie, the undead serpent of the Lake of Red Tears, Zombie Wolves, Strahd Undead (a template added to zombies and skeletons that makes them stronger) and the Werefox. There is a new prestige class for Barovia's fledgling religon, The Herald of the Dawn, a cleric obsessed with slaying vampires, some new domains for clerics, the Salvation domain and the Mora domain (exclusive to followers of the Ancesteral Choir of Kartakass) and the Bindings domain. There are new magic items such as the Ba'al Verzi dagger, which helps assassins, and spells, such as Create Faux Henchman (similar to the spell in The Standing Stone adventure by WotC). Finally there are a host of NPC's. There are the four Darklord, Count Strahd von Zarovich of Barovia, Hazlik the Red Wizard of Hazlan, Harkon Lucas, wolfwere lord of Kartakass and Tristen apBlanc, Ghost/Vampyre hybrid of Forlorn. There are also several classic NPCs such as Inajira the Arcanaloth, Eleni the Red, Halzik's apprentice, Jacqueline Montarri, an immortal woman cursed by the Vistani to never find her head and Tara Kolonya, a priestess of Ezra who may be the new Tatyana.

So, THE GOOD: New information on Hazlan, good rewriting and understanding of the source material. The player stuff in the appendix is nifty too.

THE BAD: Alot of it is reprinted material. Long term fans of Ravenloft will feel like skipping pages because they know their stuff already.

THE RESULT: One of the strongest products on the Ravenloft line to date. There is hardly anything wrong with this. If you do not like Ravenloft, or don't game there, there are still plenty of plunderables in this product.