Ravenloft DM Guide
Author's notes
Andrew Cermak
As noted (see SotDR comments), my DMs material for SDR ended up here instead, in Chapter One, with John Mangrum adding extra material. The Crossover Campaigns, Thirteen Techniques for Terror, and Pacing sections were all going to appear in SDR in more abbreviated formats. Again, separating my words from John's would require a map. Unfortunately, I got left off the credits.
John Mangrum
Joël of the FoS wrote: We have a good idea in the author notes about who wrote what for most of the books (except CoD and HoL, but it’s OK we don’t). What of the RL DMG?
Mangrum: I loathe going back and re-reading my old "Here's what I wrote" posts in general, but I can offer a little assistance. Truth be told, for the most part I don't know who wrote what. I wrote the intro (knowing it was highly likely to be my final word on any subject therein).
Chapter I, "Crossover Campaigns": I believe I wrote this section, but it's really just a simple reworking of DoD material.
"Creating Atmosphere": I (very) slightly expanded on an unused "Thirteen Tips for Tension" section Andrew Cermak had written for SotDR, and the developers then slightly expanded on that (by adding all the "in-play" dialogue); unfortunately in the end Cermak received no author's credit.
With "Portraying NPCs" and "Sinister Scores," I have no idea, save that it was non-Kargatane.
"Dramatic Techniques": The "Pacing" section is my primary singular contribution to the chapter. A non-Kargatane wrote "Cut Scenes"; I have no idea who it was.
Chapter Two: I believe that Andrew Wyatt wrote the "Sinkholes of Evil" section.
I wrote the "Expanding the Mists" section, working, as with all the authors, exclusively from 3E material. It's basically just a clear presentation of the underlying framework we'd been working with all along. You'll note that the solution for incorporating all of the prestige classes added to the 3.5 DMG is "you can't." That was the developers' contribution to a section otherwise devoted entirely to "Here's how to add non-Ravenloft material."
I wrote the NPCs section as well, basically as some last-minute filler, I dimly recall. (The whole book was coming up short, somehow, and this was my counter-suggestion to including full entries for 2 or 3 darklords.)
"Twisting Thoughts: Psionics in Ravenloft." Andrew Wyatt, I believe? But note, sadly -- and Wyatt had no control over this -- that this section of a presumably 3.5 book is entirely about a 3.0-exclusive rule system.
Chapters Three (Structuring the Campaign) & Four (Parting the Mists): I have no idea. Entirely non-Kargatane, I believe.
Chapter Five (Magic Items in Ravenloft): With the exception of a small handful of magic items the Kargatane tossed on the pile from our archives, this was entirely non-Kargatane, ergo, I have no idea who wrote what. Note that, because the chapter had no section on non-cursed artifacts, the non-cursed major artifact we offered up (the updated scroll of return) was included, verbatim, as a standard magic item. Sigh.
Please send your articles to submissions@fraternityofshadows.com