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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 9501742">I would say you are minimizing the role of mechanics. The mechanics reinforce the themes and the mechanics lead to a different a totally different game. The presence of powers checks, massively alters what this all means. The presence of curses massively alter this as well. A character in Ravenloft doesn't just have a fatal flaw the DP use to torment them, there are mechanics for the process of corruption, there are mechanics for tormenting them. None of this is to minimize the importance of tone and flavor. Those matter a great deal as well. But there is something fundamentally different about a game with powers checks, where spells can't be used to detect good or evil, where a paladin attracts the attention of the dark lord, etc. Sure flavor is important. Having a tragic backstory can enhance an NPC considerably and you should look to the gothic sources for inspiration. I wouldn't question that. But that doesn't mean mechanics aren't also a huge part of the equation. Vampires in Ravenloft are different from Vampires in other settings. It isn't just a PC fighting a vampire. In ravenloft you don't know what a vampire's achilles heal is going to be. You have to figure it out. This changes everything and it is supported by the mechanics. You also don't know what a vampire's powers are, and there are an endless variety of them in Ravenloft. The reason the Van Richten guide books are so important is they give you a massively expanded list of tools to make vampires more than what they would be in a standard setting And the horror isn't just icing. It has mechanical support. All of the things above (the changes to classes, the powers checks, etc), lycanthropy being more contagious, types of monsters coming in greater variety with more powers and weaknesses that often have to be puzzled out, characters having less ability to turn undead, characters being susceptible to fear and horror effects, etc. These all work toward making PCs more vulnerable and create a sense of the unknown. Things like the attached list from the black box, make an encounter with a vampire a lot less certain. Certainly not every vampire is unique in Ravenloft. They will encounter standard ones but if you are facing a big villain in a campaign, this is the sort of unknown a Ravenloft vampire can pose. And domain lords are an entirely other story. Their connection to the land, their transformation into evil, means their powers aren't even necessarily governed by the the rules of the book (any monster that is the result of powers checks can have pretty much whatever ability the GM wants). Part of the point of Ravenloft is this is a world where the standard expectations don't apply, where even Lord Soth can get frustrated by his ability to deal with a pesky little vampire like Strahd. The thing I find great about the rules changes and tools Ravenloft gives the GM is it really is a magic formula for horror if you use them well [ATTACH=full]385232[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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