Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft - A Grognard Finally Reads It (Review)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8874727" data-attributes="member: 6779196"><p>I find it interesting that VRGtR pretty consistently gets critiqued both for “making the Dark Lords combat targets” and for not giving the Dark Lords unique enough or powerful enough combat stats. Seems like there’s some kind of disconnect there. In my understanding, Strahd was really the only Dark Lord to specifically be designed as a boss monster, and that goes back to I6. Otherwise, the Dark Lords’ purpose was not to be BBEGs, but to personify their respective domains’ brand of horror. I think that holds true in VRgtR, and for that reason I’m not particularly bothered by them not getting unique stat blocks. Their descriptions are much more important than their combat stats, in my opinion.</p><p></p><p>As for the change from a unified core to isolated demiplanes, I like the change, but I get why others don’t. Part of the appeal of Ravenloft as a campaign setting is inter-domain politics, and the lack of a core can seem to play against that. But personally, I find the revisions to the Vistani and the inclusion of other cross-domain factions illustrates that the authorial intent was very much for inter-domain relations to play an important role in a campaign in the setting. Between the Vistani, mist talismans, and mist walkers, there should be plenty of contact and trade between any domains whose borders aren’t closed. Just not unrestricted travel.</p><p></p><p>As for map scales… I mean, yeah, they’re wonky, but hasn’t that always been the case? A problem the core only exacerbated, in my opinion. I’m fine with just saying distances in the domains of dread operate under twisted nightmare logic. The journey will be the journey.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 8874727, member: 6779196"] I find it interesting that VRGtR pretty consistently gets critiqued both for “making the Dark Lords combat targets” and for not giving the Dark Lords unique enough or powerful enough combat stats. Seems like there’s some kind of disconnect there. In my understanding, Strahd was really the only Dark Lord to specifically be designed as a boss monster, and that goes back to I6. Otherwise, the Dark Lords’ purpose was not to be BBEGs, but to personify their respective domains’ brand of horror. I think that holds true in VRgtR, and for that reason I’m not particularly bothered by them not getting unique stat blocks. Their descriptions are much more important than their combat stats, in my opinion. As for the change from a unified core to isolated demiplanes, I like the change, but I get why others don’t. Part of the appeal of Ravenloft as a campaign setting is inter-domain politics, and the lack of a core can seem to play against that. But personally, I find the revisions to the Vistani and the inclusion of other cross-domain factions illustrates that the authorial intent was very much for inter-domain relations to play an important role in a campaign in the setting. Between the Vistani, mist talismans, and mist walkers, there should be plenty of contact and trade between any domains whose borders aren’t closed. Just not unrestricted travel. As for map scales… I mean, yeah, they’re wonky, but hasn’t that always been the case? A problem the core only exacerbated, in my opinion. I’m fine with just saying distances in the domains of dread operate under twisted nightmare logic. The journey will be the journey. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft - A Grognard Finally Reads It (Review)
Top