Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:Finally had some time to read these in-depth.
random thoughts while reading:
Domains of Dread
- Fantastic work! I especially like the "What is Ravenloft?" chapter.
Thank you, as always, for the feedback.
- ooh... half-darkling. interesting new (I think?) idea.
- No Sithican Half-Elves?
- I'm a bit perplexed by the description of Darkonese elves. I always saw them as the civilized ones (and Sithicans as the "Wild" ones). Granted, the Sithicans do have cities, but so do the Darkonians (Neblus, Nevuchar, and Sidnar) and the alien-fey-revelling-in-the-woods description certainly doesn't mesh with Alanik Ray or Trillen Mistwalker.
- Huh... Gnomes as Dwarf/Elf hybrids. Never thought about them like that, but it fits! Brilliant.
Half-darkling was because someone asked me about it, and that's what I came up with. No reason why there shouldn't be some around, surely?
Sithican elves are based on the Silvanesti, and they are xenophobic elitists who see humans as little more than monkeys. So no.
They're also highly civilised (except the wild ones/Kagonesti that live in the hills), even if they do live in the ruins of their collapsed civilisation.
The parts of Darkon where elves dominate is barbaric (Dark Ages) compared to the Middle Ages to Chivalric of the central and west. According to DoD, they're based on Celtic culture. And obviously there's actual folklore about elves in there. Together, that sparked my barbarian elves idea. The Celts did have very complex societies (and villages) though.
Also, those descriptions are stereotypes based on human perceptions; they could be completely wrong. And there's no reason why individuals can't play against type.
Or just ignore it.
The gnomes have an ancient Greek culture, according to DoD too. Everyone seems to forget that.
- Hmm.... it wasn't until the blurb about monstrous PCs that I noticed the lack of OR. Not a fan of that rule, Ryan?
I don't like unnecessarily complicated systems. Xenophobia is a much simpler mechanic that still captures the essence, I think. Also, there are some builds where a high OR is a huge benefit, and I wanted to reduce the potential for player abuse.
- Mutagen having a chance to turn the alchemist temporarily evil is both completely fitting in flavor, but also seems harsh in rules. (Maybe one step closer to Evil might be sufficient?) I maybe would have put in a reminder that "evil" doesn't necessarily mean "wild rampage". The change might be subtle enough that the PC could still stay on task, but for more selfish reasons.
I'm fortunate enough that my players can tell the difference between evil and Stupid Evil. Others may not be so lucky.
- I think I mentioned it in the original feedback thread, but I love the generalization of fanes! One of the gems salvageable from EtCR.
- love love love the mundane "reskinning" of potions and other small magic items, and double love love love Companion Items. Will use that for sure. (already do, in some cases, I guess, but this officializes it in a sense, and opens up other ideas for where else I might use it.)
Thanks again!
- the admonition for PC's to avoid selling magic items makes me wonder: might it be a good idea to codify that into the land? Some superstition that magic only clings to an item if it's gifted, found, or won. Selling (whether for money or any other good or service) of a magic item taints the item, causing a chance of the item becoming cursed. If this were somehow mechanically enforced by the DPs, it would explain why Magic Item Shoppes don't exist in Ravenloft.
I don't want to rub it out entirely, because there are some situations where it might be necessary (e.g. selling to the Vistani). This is something I'd leave up to individual GMs/players playing in theme rather than codifying as rules. As a superstition, though, it's a great addition. If magic is most commonly the result of evil forces or hag-craft, would you buy a second hand item that could be angry it's not being used by its rightful owner for its original purpose?
Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:Children of the Night: The lords of Ravenloft
- Strahd is higher CR than Virundus? something seems wrong there.
I made a conscious decision that no one was going to have a higher CR than Strahd. Even Gwydion, who is the closest to Cthulhu is power we've got, isn't higher in his normal trapped state. Strahd is the ancient, he is the Land, he is the stone around which the whole world has been built, he is a monstrously old and wily vampire, one of the top 10 most powerful spellcasters in the plane, and one of the most experienced fighters. Not even a deluded squid god in a trench gets to beat him for sheer power.
- Hazlik's timeline says "Elena" is his apprentice. Should be Eleni, no?
...Yes. Damn.
- not much else to say. There is a LOT of work that obviously went into all this, and it would be a LOT of work to dissect it. Suffice to say, I like a lot of what I see and this will be my go-to document when looking for stats for these guys. If I use one, I'll then look at it in sufficient detail to review it and comment further, but for now, WOW and thank you!
Happy to help. Let me know as you go then.
Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium
- BTW, my one quibble with all of these is that I wish you'd picked titles that weren't already used by existing books. :/ Would make it easier to refer to them.
It's an homage. Called it RVRMHC for "Ryan's"
If I write anything else, I'll try to give it an original title.
- much like the darklords book, this one is PACKED with crunch that I don't have the energy to delve too deeply into until I need it, but I'm SO glad that you've already done all this work, so I don't have to.
- Love the unified ghost template. brilliance.
- ditto on the "Trickster beast" compiling all the reverse lycanthropes, folding in the variant hags, the variant shadows, etc.
Thank you. As you can imagine, it took quite a while to compile.
- wastrel... interesting.. Are they actually an offshoot of the King's Ravens? or a different lineage with similar stats/form?
Originally a Planescape monster, but a brilliant one. It could be either - call it an Unsolved Mystery.