D&D 4E Ravenloft is alive in 4e

[Shemeska]

But given how you can play Ravenloft in spirit without the name, is that even a bad thing?

Thing is though, from my perspective if I wanted to play Ravenloft, I'd play Ravenloft (in whatever ruleset I liked best) rather than playing PoL Shadowfell with sprinkled bits of Ravenloft. But that's just me.

 

[SpydersWebbing]

Thing is though, from my perspective if I wanted to play Ravenloft, I'd play Ravenloft (in whatever ruleset I liked best) rather than playing PoL Shadowfell with sprinkled bits of Ravenloft. But that's just me.

I can respect that.

 

[malraux]

The weekend in hell version of ravenloft is arguably pretty strong in 4e. The full campaign setting isn't as well supported though.

 

[Bold or Stupid]

The weekend in hell version of ravenloft is arguably pretty strong in 4e. The full campaign setting isn't as well supported though.

So true, and very much the version I tend to use.

 

[Havrik Stoneskimmer]

I really think you could easily do a homebrew campaign set in Ravenloft, using the old campaign setting materials for inspiration. The description of the Shadowfell and the shadowborn (natives of the plane) already remind me of Ravenloft. You could use the despair deck from the Shadowfell set if you wanted, to take the place of fear and horror checks (which I always felt were awkward mechanics anyway).

The Shadowfell references in 4e make explicit if general references to "domains of dread" and the Vistani. You don't even have to refer to it as the Shadowfell if you have all your PCs be natives of a domain of dread. There's no reason they would even have to know that concept. Just play it as a self-contained realm.

 

[MerricB]

I think you can do horror-themed adventures in 4E rather well.

I didn't enjoy the Ravenloft *setting*, but I enjoyed some of the adventures once you put them in the 'real' world.

The recent Encounters series - Dark Legacy of Evard - was very true to the spirit of the Ravenloft horror: a town slips into the Shadowfell every night, and is attacked by dark denizens. A ghost possesses a wizard and must be hunted down and returned to its resting place. All this without actually needing "Ravenloft the Domains" to exist.

(Dark Legacy of Evard would have been far more effective if played over three nights rather than 1 encounter/week, I believe, but the concept was good).

Cheers!

 

[Caerin]

In addition to Heroes of Shadow, you've now got some options in the Neverwinter Campaign Setting you can tweak... werewolf and wererat themes. I think you can do some interesting, Ravenloft-like things if you combine all of the stuff that's come out.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Yeah, I'm not really seeing where old style RL is really appreciably different from putting it in the Shadowfell now. If there's some sort of canon item somewhere that doesn't fit with what you want, well change it. Not a big deal. As it is it logically hangs together. Some areas in the Shadowfell are domains. They have dark lords. It is a land of twilight, that kind of thing fits in fine. It isn't as if the whole domains thing was all that well explained in the 2e stuff either. Plenty of aspects of domains were just sort of mystery you never really know unless the DM comes up with something to explain it.

 

[MrMyth]

Thing is though, from my perspective if I wanted to play Ravenloft, I'd play Ravenloft (in whatever ruleset I liked best) rather than playing PoL Shadowfell with sprinkled bits of Ravenloft. But that's just me.

And, honestly, there's no reason one can't do both. In my Epic game, the party got dumped in a Domain of Dread, and the feeling of helplessness for Epic level PCs who couldn't just walk up and blast the evil boss into oblivion (their usual approach), was excellent.

Switching over to a full-fledged Ravenloft campaign involved a bit more home-brewing, but nothing that was too difficult or unsupported by the system. A low-magic campaign (making use of the Inherent bonuses system). Curses required some development, but the Despair deck helps with that, and we've got cursed items showing up soon. And variations on the disease track are useful as well.

So much of the rest is just flavor that it is almost trivial to just port in the classic domains and background for the setting and just go ahead and run it all with 4E rules.