What Monstrous PCs would you allow?

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Galeros
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What Monstrous PCs would you allow?

Post by Galeros »

I would allow weaker undead like sentient skeletons and zombies and good aligned werebeasts like wereravens. No werewolves or vampires or fiends or ghosts though. I would still expect any monstrous pc to play a heroic character lest they attract the dark powers.
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Re: What Monstrous PCs would you allow?

Post by Mephisto of the FoS »

Basically none as long as it wasn't something happening while playing. Some adventures have some prime requisites of becoming monsters (like flesh golems, requiem undead etc). I once had a player with whom I made a side one-o-one adventure after his comrades left him for dead in the Catacombs of Kartakass. Dr. Dominiani turned him into a vampire using the magical coffin in his keep and he was supposed to take part in avenging his comrades betrayal, the rest continued the Feast of Goblyns adventure until they were swept away from a misty vortex. As some players stopped playing with our party after that, I decided to use the NPC of the party to be the only one to have survived thus making a connection with the new players and the second part of the adventure that was supposed to be the assassination of Duke Gundar. We never actually played the adventure but the goal was to use the vampire PC as the villain without the others ever suspecting it (since most players trust each other) until the time came where the NPC would be trapped in the sme coffin to be transformed and the PC's would fight the vampire PC). It was a nice plan but generally I would avoid placing PC's against PC's as it is in general bad DMing in my opinion as well as bad playingfor players who want to kill the other PC's (that particular player had a habit of making PCs who wanted to kill the rest of the party even in campaigns I ws a player and not a DM). But we were really young then (high school). Now I would not tolerate PCs playing monsters unless it was a villain campaign and if it was a heroic campaign and if a player wanted to oppose his party (on his/her/their own volition) without being under a magical effect or madness I would worn the player that if he/she/they continue like this they would be turned into an NPC.

Flesh Golem: yes under circumstances the adventure required it.
Undead: no except for Requiem adventures.
Lycanthrope: never a natural one, the other kind is sometimes anavoidable
Ancient Dead: never
Lich: over my dead body
Skeleton: pointless
Zombie: no even if it is a ju ju
Mist creature: no
Fiend: no way
Hag: are you serious?
Broken One: only if adventure demands it
Paka: not really although it reminds me the rakasta race of 1st edition
Ghost: only if adventure demands it
Revenant: only if I got my hands on the RPGA adventure set in Ghastria
Arak: no no no no no...

My version of Ravenloft is anthropocentric so even demihumans are rare except in some domains.
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Re: What Monstrous PCs would you allow?

Post by Mistmaster »

Of course yes, in the right circumstances, and with the right amount of nerfing. Expecially because, in the Mistworld, human and humanoids are often the worse monsters.
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Re: What Monstrous PCs would you allow?

Post by Speedwagon »

When there's the idea of mixing horror with D&D, there's always going to be the temptation of becoming the horror as opposed to merely fighting it as a 'normal' individual (as normal as a PC can be at the very least). Things like the races and subclasses presented in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, or those presented in third party resources under the Open Game License like the options of Grim Hollow, are great examples of this. In terms of how I feel about it: some options are personally more preferable than others, in terms of how well they can mix with feeling somewhat 'normal' and in making sure that the party doesn't feel too alien from the usual folk of the Mists. So I'm fine with a College of Spirits Bard or a Pact of the Undead Warlock, depending on the flavor utilized and how well I can entangle them into the greater lore of the setting. For the races, things like the Hexbloods, Dhampir, and Reborn can be used alright but only sparingly in my book. I'd like to make it something of a big reveal (and perhaps something that can cause intra-party conflict) when a player reveals (willingly or otherwise) that their character is a Reborn or a Dhampir. Hexbloods I'm more against if only because they're less easy to hide within a crowd and are likely to get a villager with pitchforks after them, but that's also my own biases speaking. What matters most is making sure everyone is happy at the table, so if the player's build or character concept truly revolves around the idea of being a Hexblood, then I'm not going to punish them completely for their choice. Instead, I'll have to work with them to find something we can all enjoy while trying to remain true to the vision of the setting. If push really comes to shove, then I'll be willing to compromise the vision of the setting for the sake of enjoyment by all at the table.
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Re: What Monstrous PCs would you allow?

Post by tomokaicho »

A Red Widow would be a pretty interesting player character.
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Re: What Monstrous PCs would you allow?

Post by Hell_Born »

Being biased towards a more Dark Fantasy slant, I'd honestly be quite comfortable with a variety of different monstrous PC options, although that doesn't mean I'd give them a free ride. To be honest, I'm not even sure how to begin explaining my favoritism or what specific races I'd allow, but I'll take a wild stab at it.

Beastfolk races in general I find work really well for more overtly magic-themed regions; obviously they're a natural fit for Broken Ones from Markovia, but I could easily see man-beasts being produced by arcane or occult experiments in Darkon, Lamordia or Hazlan.

Races built around the "tainted lineage" trope have the strongest connection to the Gothic Horror trope, so I feel they should honestly be a significant part of Ravenloft. Calibans, dread genasi, tieflings, and the deathtouched quintet (dhampirs, fetches, ghedans, ghuls and mortifs) just feel so right for a Ravenloft campaign in my eyes, it's really quite odd that they are so rejected by the mainstream fandom.

...Honestly, if it's a sapient race with a strong tie to the demiplane of dread (paka, those albino goblins with the funny name, etc) or just has good enough fluff, I can probably work with anything. Of course, you're not going to get to be more powerful than regular race. You want to play a "good vampire"? Then you use dhampir, vryloka or blood genasi stats - the fact you don't have all the powers of a NPC vampire is f or the same reason you also don't have all the same weaknesses as one; you're fighting to hold onto your soul and denying the grip of the dark powers. Sure, you can give up on that struggle... but then you become an NPC. That's my ground rule. I don't mind letting players attempt to fight darkness with darkness, but that's a big difference from giving in to the darkness.

Heck, I considered submitting to QTR a race of ratfolk based on the idea of the high number of wererats interbreeding with Richmuloise humans is leading to some rather confused bloodlines, with three potential outcomes, but I just didn't have the courage to do so... maybe next year...
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