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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 6773262" data-attributes="member: 7635">Well, considering the oddities of Ravenloft, most people wouldn't know there is a vampire in the local castle. Strahd is viewed as still human, exceptionally long lived due to his knowledge of magic, but human none-the-less. Most other domain lords appear human as well; either because of shapeshifting, magic, or they literally are just humans (with extra "gifts"). Only a few domain lords are known as monsters, and those who are tend to be in hiding and not "lords" in a political sense. Now, while I am wont to give the old "demi-humans" more of a pass due to proximity to humans, there is no way a tiefling, drow, dragonborn, goliath, or warforged (to name a few) is going to be accepted; except in a domain like Darkon (which is very racially intermixed). Horror is a strange-beast; it's bread-and-butter is otherness and one of the key elements that separates gothic horror from modern horror is the idea that evil can appear anywhere, in any form. Ravenloft (as a setting) isn't about storming evil castles full of undead, necromancers, and monsters; its about betrayal, isolation, fear, but also hope. Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, for all the fun I had with it, wasn't Ravenloft; it was a giant dungeon full of undead with final boss who was a vampire. It wasn't Dracula, it was Castlevania. My fear is that any further attempts to move Ravenloft away from the Gothic mode of storytelling will just move it further in the Castlevania model. Almost any work is a product of its time. Peter Jackson wanted Arwyn to be a prominent part of the Lord of the Rings to give women a representation in Tolkien's "all boys" club. They even filmed her in Helm's Deep! (and used a lot of clever editing to remove her later when fans rebelled). Some think it would have given Arwyn something important to do and given girls another role model (beyond Eowyn, of course) while others thought it was Heresy. Well, one thing to do is what Faerun is regularly lambasted for; Realms Shaking Events that change the world to fit the new rules. Then again, what setting DOES survive the ruleset change? Dark Sun was radically altered to fit 4e conventions in. Eberron required massive canon updates to accommodate the 4e races (the dragonmarks open to any race was a HUGE change to the lore). Even Greyhawk had to be reworked to fit the 3e "default world" model. I'm not saying the setting shouldn't adapt or change, but that when you're cutting out major elements of its core essence to fit the "default game" in it, why bother? You sell only Forgotten Realms for as far as the eye can see and drop the silly "multiverse" crap because obviously the "Worlds of D&D" no longer work in D&D...</blockquote>

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