Future of Ravenloft ideas?

[Jack of Tears]

>>I have written a lovely book about how different vicsera smells funny, and how you could make doll clothes out of skin from different creatures.<<

You know, I'm not that fond of smells, but I've been looking for a good book on how to make fleshy clothing for my dolls. Did you include useful advice on dyeing? The skin has always torn around the needle holes within days of my previous efforts. It doesn't help that the people keep struggling during the process.

[Algaris]

I’d like to see the Gazetteers continued to cover the clusters, islands and pocket domains (I’d be very interested in the Wild Lands and The House of Lament). Personally, if possible, I would like to see the Gazetteers continue with S and keep as close to what we know about the metaplot as possible, with Azlin’s grand plan eventually coming to fruition. I agree that any submissions for the Gazetteers would have to be of the highest quality and in keeping with the tone and style already set down for them.

I would also be interested in more VR Guides such as VR Guide to Eldritch Horrors (Mind Flayers?).

Not sure what else at the moment. Most of my interest lies with the Gazetteer series.

[Jack of Tears]

Personally I like the idea of taking the Gazeteers and placing them in the hands of different explorers. That way if the line is ever reinstated we won't have a conflict arise between our S Gaz and the company's.

Me, I'd be inclined to say that each susiquent Gaz should either be written by a different person, or have each a conglomeration of accounts by sepperate people. (say source A does one domain, B another and C yet a third.) This would add some flavor and diversity to the line. (Perhaps the individuals could be members of an explorers club ... such things were common around the renaissance and we've more than one domain which could conceivably produce such an organization)

[Jason of the Fraternity]

Something I would like to see is a board set up so people with varied tallents can discuss potential collaboration on upcoming works.

Something like this?

I hope that everyone remembers that there is already a forum where people can brainstorm their ideas in the shape of the Ravenloft Projects forum.

Not only is it as good a place as any, it is also the forum that was created for that specific purpose when we created the boards. I think that this board might get overlooked quite a bit since most members don't seem to check the other boards quite as often. However, the link above will lead you to this forum where similar brainstorming for projects have been occuring...

[Lucius]

All the presented ideas are very good, but for me the Gazetteers are the most important.

And something covering more families (for the Core and outside the Core) will be very useful.

[BlackBoxGamer]

Personally, I'd like to see something on the major faiths of Ravenloft, a book that discusses public and secret histories, philosophies, legends, relics, current concerns and major /interesting NPC's. Something like what the Book of the Righteous did for their pantheons, but for Ezra, Hala, the Lawgiver, the Morninglord, etc.

I'd also like to see a book on Ravenloftian cults and heresies.

Just my wishes.

BBG

[Mortavius]

Another good idea that no one has suggested is Children of the Night: Ancient Dead, Liches, Vistani, and Hags. These sorts of works allow for a lot of variation, they're practically built for multiple authors, and you can really get a lot of submissions to get the best of the best, so to speak.

[Fido]

I second the idea about Paths of Terror and something about religion.

[Pamela]

Definitely more Gazetteer information. I'd read the Shining Bay article in QotR and was highly impressed by that.


I'd also like to see more information on the religions, especially with priests in the scientifically-advanced societies.

[Don Fernando]

I think more information on other domains is a must, specially clusters and Islands. Personally though, I will not continue the "S" storyarc, because this character and the story wasn't created by us fans, but by the designers themselves. This can cause a cannon vs. uncannon conflict later, if we are looking forward to see new RL products in the future.

And I did like the idea of a guide on Religion in the core. It is a necesitiy considering all the information about religion is scattered in all the gaz and other books..

[MatthiasStormcrow]

... this character and the story wasn't created by us fans, but by the designers themselves. This can cause a cannon vs. uncannon conflict later, if we are looking forward to see new RL products in the future.

So, the problem I have with this logic is that applied broadly, it means that we dare not make any fan-made stuff that advances existing Ravenloft plots or storylines, and none of our fan-made things can use pre-existing Ravenloft characters. And I completely disagree. Last time Ravenloft died, the people making the fan-made articles (the Kargatane) weren't the least bit afraid of pushing the setting in the direction they wanted it to go. And they did it extremely well, with the result being not only that they got jobs working on the line when it started up again, but more importantly, most of the things they'd come up with in the interim got incorporated into the new canon.

And that's the trick of it - I completely think we should be writing our 'own' canon. We should operate on the assumption that the line may never be revived 'officially', and if it is ever revived, we can hope that it's revived by people who care enough about the fans to incorporate our work in the interim. But if we are going to write our own work, we have to hold it to the highest standards - a quality of work that stands up to the scrutiny that canon materials come under.

Alright, I'll get off my soapbox. I put in my suggestion for the Gazetteers future plots a while back - it's probably a page or two back in these forums now.

Now to the details: I think the way this would probably work best is for a call for fan authors, but with the close supervision of the FoS, who would probably end up doing a lot of editing, "shadow developer" work in proper J. Mangrum fashion, and might also be in charge of coordinating/writing/coming up with over-arching plots, like "S" in the Gazetteers, etc.

As for what I'd like to see? I think it seems like just about everybody wants more Gazetteers that cover the clusters, islands of terror, and so on, and I'm certainly no exception. I'm also interested in this Alanik Ray's casebook / Guide to Serial Killers idea (needs a better name though). And some more Children of the Night books, like somebody suggested, 'cuz those are awesome.

Death Undaunted could be fun too, though all I keep thinking of was that April Fool's day joke back at the Goat where they posted that it was going to be released. I completely fell for it, too.

[Don Fernando]

So, the problem I have with this logic is that applied broadly, it means that we dare not make any fan-made stuff that advances existing Ravenloft plots or storylines, and none of our fan-made things can use pre-existing Ravenloft characters. And I completely disagree. Last time Ravenloft died, the people making the fan-made articles (the Kargatane) weren't the least bit afraid of pushing the setting in the direction they wanted it to go. And they did it extremely well, with the result being not only that they got jobs working on the line when it started up again, but more importantly, most of the things they'd come up with in the interim got incorporated into the new canon.

And that's the trick of it - I completely think we should be writing our 'own' canon. We should operate on the assumption that the line may never be revived 'officially', and if it is ever revived, we can hope that it's revived by people who care enough about the fans to incorporate our work in the interim. But if we are going to write our own work, we have to hold it to the highest standards - a quality of work that stands up to the scrutiny that canon materials come under.

Alright, I'll get off my soapbox. I put in my suggestion for the Gazetteers future plots a while back - it's probably a page or two back in these forums now.

Now to the details: I think the way this would probably work best is for a call for fan authors, but with the close supervision of the FoS, who would probably end up doing a lot of editing, "shadow developer" work in proper J. Mangrum fashion, and might also be in charge of coordinating/writing/coming up with over-arching plots, like "S" in the Gazetteers, etc. (....)

Well, its a matter of oppinion but last time RL died we had the fortune that many of the Kargatane members were invited to join the new designing team. So we cannot expect this to happen again (although it would be really great) if RL is resurrected once more.

Not continuing the S story arc doesn't mean that we are going to release bad quality and non-cannon material or none at all. It's just finding another way of presenting the same information that could have been in future Gazetteers, but FoS style. This is a chance for us all to even create new character(s) and new story arcs, to begin something new. Personally I find S's story quite confussing and not too well developed (due to RL shutdown ) and we got only clues in the published Gaz. Why not begin something new?

Ahem... I forgot to say that I also backup the notion of the Children of the Night books. Maybe even CotN: Mist Dwellers with the information of the new VRGttM??

[cure]

http://www.kargatane.com/sotk/rldb/rldb.shtml

The Ravenloft Catalogue is a great resource for trying to keep things straight, as is the Timeline. But the Catologue, and the Timeline I presume, are badly out of date and need to be greatly expanded.

This might also imply that we rewrite the distinction between canon and non-canon. The goal posts need to be moved to include all the Kargatane and Fraternity releases.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Yeah, the catalogue hasn't been updated much lately. I tried to rally the troops back in May and we did get a few more things entered, and I was planning on trying to revitalize the project. But then I got married and moved, and had less spare time than I thought I would, so even I didn't really live up to my own words of encouragement. :/ One of our editors was working on getting the catalogue moved to the ravenloft.co.uk site, but I don't know where that effort stands now.

[Pamela]

You have my sympathy, gonzoron- I've also married and moved in the last four months, and it's amazing how long it takes to catch up.

Concerning the timeline, does it really matter that much if it's non-canon, so long as the materials are from the FoS?