Shakin up the core

Discussing all things Ravenloft
User avatar
brilliantlight
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 1003
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 8:02 pm

Shakin up the core

Post by brilliantlight »

In my game the Dukkar was overthrown and granted the domain of Mochocarania, Vlad Drakov was overthrown and replaced by a bastard daughter and once the party is done with that I think I am going to have Alfred replaced with Noah Timothy from QTR 1 replacing Alfred with Noah instead of Nathen and leaving Nathan as DL of the riverboat and pseudo-dark lord of Verbrek.

I figure the dark lords are going to become paranoid about being overthrown after this. How do they react? I think, in my game at least, they will become more subtle. Most of the dark lords in my game are villians with good publicity. The ones overthrown have not been. They are the ones with [url][http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... Rating/url] or close to it. I think they will strongly publicize New Falkovnia's reign of terror (It is based on the French Revolution on steroids) and contrast themselves with the failed regimes. I can see them commissioning plays depiciting the revolutionaries as bloodthirsty, mindless killers. They will spread vicious rumors about the revolutionaries. They can'r rehabilitate Drakov so they won't but will pretty much imply most Falkovnians are wicked people and that is why they keep having such horrid rulers.

I think they will give the opposite spin to the Dukkar's overthrow. After he was overthrown Gabrielle was returned to the throne, so to speak. I think the Dukkar will be portrayed as the bloodthirsty usurper who got his comeuppance when he was overthrown. Gabrielle will be the big winner in this as she will use this favorable publicity to cement her rule. They are fine with this as her return shows to the peasantry that they are better off when they don't overthrow their rulers.

I haven't decided what to do with Noah Timothy yet as they are some ways from going to Verbeck and I haven't fleshed him out.

Any suggestions about this or suggested changes?
jamesfirecat
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 637
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2014 11:30 am

Re: Shakin up the core

Post by jamesfirecat »

brilliantlight wrote: I haven't decided what to do with Noah Timothy yet as they are some ways from going to Verbeck and I haven't fleshed him out.

Any suggestions about this or suggested changes?
Will humans living in Verbrek even be able to notice an actual change of government among the local lycanthropes? How do you plan to have Noah differ from Alfred?
User avatar
brilliantlight
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 1003
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 8:02 pm

Re: Shakin up the core

Post by brilliantlight »

jamesfirecat wrote:
brilliantlight wrote: I haven't decided what to do with Noah Timothy yet as they are some ways from going to Verbeck and I haven't fleshed him out.

Any suggestions about this or suggested changes?
Will humans living in Verbrek even be able to notice an actual change of government among the local lycanthropes? How do you plan to have Noah differ from Alfred?
You have a point there, it might well not be noticible to most. To most humans it will simply appear that most of the wolves and werewolves killed each other fighting each other or were slain by men. Noah is much more sensible than Alfred and is closer to my version of Herself. They are more cautious about hunting humans and will try to kill any excess infected lycanthropes to make sure the numbers don't grow too large. I haven't figured out his crime or his curses yet, I just like the idea of a "sensible werewolf". One that uses cunning more than brute strength.
User avatar
thekristhomas
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 772
Joined: Mon Jun 29, 2015 4:33 pm

Re: Shakin up the core

Post by thekristhomas »

I don't really know Noah, but I've always thought of Verbrek as great "frontier" territory, and a "pro-human" darklord, opposed by the "traditional" werewolves has occurred to me as a way of developing it. If Alfred's successor had enough support amongst the "sheepskinners", it might set up a civil war amongst the lycans, which would seem to the outsiders like settlers vs natives ala early America
jamesfirecat
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 637
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2014 11:30 am

Re: Shakin up the core

Post by jamesfirecat »

thekristhomas wrote:I don't really know Noah, but I've always thought of Verbrek as great "frontier" territory, and a "pro-human" darklord, opposed by the "traditional" werewolves has occurred to me as a way of developing it. If Alfred's successor had enough support amongst the "sheepskinners", it might set up a civil war amongst the lycans, which would seem to the outsiders like settlers vs natives ala early America
The problem to me is that isn't this just rehashing Kartakass except with a werewolf instead of a wolfwere?

Harkon Lukaas also prefers human society over the wild bestial existence of his actual people after all....
User avatar
brilliantlight
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 1003
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 8:02 pm

Re: Shakin up the core

Post by brilliantlight »

thekristhomas wrote:I don't really know Noah, but I've always thought of Verbrek as great "frontier" territory, and a "pro-human" darklord, opposed by the "traditional" werewolves has occurred to me as a way of developing it. If Alfred's successor had enough support amongst the "sheepskinners", it might set up a civil war amongst the lycans, which would seem to the outsiders like settlers vs natives ala early America
Pro-human darklord? Alfred wanted virtually all humans sacrificed to the wolf god. Actually it seems that Noah has considerable support. The story line is that the werewolf population got too high and there was a bad winter. There wasn't enough food to eat and when they openly attacked human villages they were killed in large numbers. Noah wants to keep the werewolf numbers in check and to control the number of humans so there are not too many or too few so that there is plenty for the werewolves to eat. I was planning on making him an NE druid.
User avatar
brilliantlight
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 1003
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 8:02 pm

Re: Shakin up the core

Post by brilliantlight »

jamesfirecat wrote:
thekristhomas wrote:I don't really know Noah, but I've always thought of Verbrek as great "frontier" territory, and a "pro-human" darklord, opposed by the "traditional" werewolves has occurred to me as a way of developing it. If Alfred's successor had enough support amongst the "sheepskinners", it might set up a civil war amongst the lycans, which would seem to the outsiders like settlers vs natives ala early America
The problem to me is that isn't this just rehashing Kartakass except with a werewolf instead of a wolfwere?

Harkon Lukaas also prefers human society over the wild bestial existence of his actual people after all....
A bit different, Noah doesn't prefer human society, he lives out in the woods and seems a druid type. He is more interested in keeping the numbers of werewolves and humans in check than preferring the company of humans.
jamesfirecat
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 637
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2014 11:30 am

Re: Shakin up the core

Post by jamesfirecat »

brilliantlight wrote:
Pro-human darklord? Alfred wanted virtually all humans sacrificed to the wolf god. Actually it seems that Noah has considerable support. The story line is that the werewolf population got too high and there was a bad winter. There wasn't enough food to eat and when they openly attacked human villages they were killed in large numbers. Noah wants to keep the werewolf numbers in check and to control the number of humans so there are not too many or too few so that there is plenty for the werewolves to eat. I was planning on making him an NE druid.
Wolf, Dire Wolf, Warg, or something more exotic for an animal companion?

Maybe part of the curse is that he got mode locked in wolf form and needs to use his animal companion to speak for him along with being able to shapeshift it/ventriliquisim/transform it/if it's a warg it can probably speak for him just fine on its own, but no matter what he tries (natural lycanthropy, wildshape, polymorph spells) he can't change into anything but a wolf/possibly different kinds of monsterous wolves/dogs?
User avatar
brilliantlight
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 1003
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 8:02 pm

Re: Shakin up the core

Post by brilliantlight »

jamesfirecat wrote:
brilliantlight wrote:
Pro-human darklord? Alfred wanted virtually all humans sacrificed to the wolf god. Actually it seems that Noah has considerable support. The story line is that the werewolf population got too high and there was a bad winter. There wasn't enough food to eat and when they openly attacked human villages they were killed in large numbers. Noah wants to keep the werewolf numbers in check and to control the number of humans so there are not too many or too few so that there is plenty for the werewolves to eat. I was planning on making him an NE druid.
Wolf, Dire Wolf, Warg, or something more exotic for an animal companion?

Maybe part of the curse is that he got mode locked in wolf form and needs to use his animal companion to speak for him along with being able to shapeshift it/ventriliquisim/transform it/if it's a warg it can probably speak for him just fine on its own, but no matter what he tries (natural lycanthropy, wildshape, polymorph spells) he can't change into anything but a wolf/possibly different kinds of monsterous wolves/dogs?
A worg as an animal companion makes a lot of sense but he is not particularly pro or anti human so I think it is the wrong curse. He sees humans as part of the food supply, nothing more. His main concern is to keep everything in balance so his people don't starve. Although periodic starvation would work , I don't really want that as that would be too close to another domain .

Maybe a wildly changing werewolf population no matter what he does. It gets too high and then too low and than too high again for his tastes. He wants the werewolf population in a fairly stable range but it never quite gets there. He is obsessed with werewolf population control. It should be high enough that it isn't under the threat of dying out and low enough it isn't in danger of overhunting. His obsession is such there might well be no real danger of that but his worries are such that he see even werewolf populations slightly different from optimum as a grave threat. The werewolf population was nearly wiped out that winter and it made him completely obsessive
about it.

He also hates his grandfather who is raped his mother . He also hates him because as pseudo dark lord he is allowing humans to exploit Verbrek's natural resources. He hates that both because he is a druid and because he is worried that the humans will overhunt deer. Of course one of his curses will be that he can't stop his grandfather in any way.l
Last edited by brilliantlight on Tue Nov 03, 2015 1:14 am, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
The Lesser Evil
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 1544
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:17 am

Re: Shakin up the core

Post by The Lesser Evil »

I'd be pondering Inza and Azrael Dak in such a situation. We have a virtual unknown for the true darklord and a poser for the domain's temporal leader. I wonder how their relationship might change.
User avatar
brilliantlight
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 1003
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 8:02 pm

Re: Shakin up the core

Post by brilliantlight »

The Lesser Evil wrote:I'd be pondering Inza and Azrael Dak in such a situation. We have a virtual unknown for the true darklord and a poser for the domain's temporal leader. I wonder how their relationship might change.
I didn't think of that since Inza is so forgettable but she would likely be making her move NOW to oust Azrael who will be more paranoid than ever.
User avatar
thekristhomas
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 772
Joined: Mon Jun 29, 2015 4:33 pm

Re: Shakin up the core

Post by thekristhomas »

jamesfirecat wrote:
thekristhomas wrote:I don't really know Noah, but I've always thought of Verbrek as great "frontier" territory, and a "pro-human" darklord, opposed by the "traditional" werewolves has occurred to me as a way of developing it. If Alfred's successor had enough support amongst the "sheepskinners", it might set up a civil war amongst the lycans, which would seem to the outsiders like settlers vs natives ala early America
The problem to me is that isn't this just rehashing Kartakass except with a werewolf instead of a wolfwere?

Harkon Lukaas also prefers human society over the wild bestial existence of his actual people after all....
When I said pro-human, I meant pro-human settlement, increasing the herd, as it were.

It might be an interesting case for a druid-type werewolf leader, if he sought to make the food supply more plentiful (ie. humans), the result would probably be some loss of habitat for wolves and werewolves alike (ie. the forest) which leads to more werewolves in towns, which leads to a need for more humans and on and on. The false assumption that werewolves could be the apex predator with humans as their prey without the eco-system collapsing, might be the cause of cyclical population crashes.
User avatar
brilliantlight
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 1003
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 8:02 pm

Re: Shakin up the core

Post by brilliantlight »

thekristhomas wrote:
jamesfirecat wrote:
thekristhomas wrote:I don't really know Noah, but I've always thought of Verbrek as great "frontier" territory, and a "pro-human" darklord, opposed by the "traditional" werewolves has occurred to me as a way of developing it. If Alfred's successor had enough support amongst the "sheepskinners", it might set up a civil war amongst the lycans, which would seem to the outsiders like settlers vs natives ala early America
The problem to me is that isn't this just rehashing Kartakass except with a werewolf instead of a wolfwere?

Harkon Lukaas also prefers human society over the wild bestial existence of his actual people after all....
When I said pro-human, I meant pro-human settlement, increasing the herd, as it were.

It might be an interesting case for a druid-type werewolf leader, if he sought to make the food supply more plentiful (ie. humans), the result would probably be some loss of habitat for wolves and werewolves alike (ie. the forest) which leads to more werewolves in towns, which leads to a need for more humans and on and on. The false assumption that werewolves could be the apex predator with humans as their prey without the eco-system collapsing, might be the cause of cyclical population crashes.
Interesting theory, I didn't think of that. It certainly is an idea I will think about. Maybe he and Nathen have different ideas on how to do so. Nathen goes for straight exploitation while Noah wants sustainable development. He wants trees planted every time one is chopped down , fish restocked after being fished, having clover grown on 1/4 of the fields every year to replenish the soil. He is thinking long term while Nathen is thinking short.

He is also closer to my version of Herself. Knowing that werewolf sightings cause people to stay away he tries to drill into his people not to get caught in wolf form. He is far less successful in this than Herself (Who in my game is so successful in this that the existence of wererats in her domain are considered ludicrous. It is considered evidence that one is gullible.) this is because werewolves are much bigger than wererats and thus easier to spot, werewolves are chaotic instead of lawful so not inclined to follow rules and he flat out doesn't have the awesome social skills Herself has in my game.
jamesfirecat
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 637
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2014 11:30 am

Re: Shakin up the core

Post by jamesfirecat »

brilliantlight wrote: He is also closer to my version of Herself. Knowing that werewolf sightings cause people to stay away he tries to drill into his people not to get caught in wolf form. He is far less successful in this than Herself (Who in my game is so successful in this that the existence of wererats in her domain are considered ludicrous. It is considered evidence that one is gullible.) this is because werewolves are much bigger than wererats and thus easier to spot, werewolves are chaotic instead of lawful so not inclined to follow rules and he flat out doesn't have the awesome social skills Herself has in my game.

I never got why they decided to make werewolves chaotic evil, but wererats lawful evil.

Both of them are animals that exhibit herd/pack mentality, if anything wolves tend to have an even more formally designed society than rats do.

I get that werewolves (especially infected ones) are wild slavering beasts when they're interacting with humans, but in my mind they tend to be a bit more restrained when interacting with their own kind.

I have to put this down to "lawful" and "chaotic" either only being judged from a human perspective, the terms being hopelessly vague from a real world perspective out of universe, or the people who made the system just making a mistake and deciding to skip with it.


If you ask me werewolves being LE by nature while wolfweres are CE by nature would be a good bone of contention between the two/another reason why they tend to hate each other far more than they "hate' humans, beyond simply competing for more or less the same ecological niche...
User avatar
brilliantlight
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 1003
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 8:02 pm

Re: Shakin up the core

Post by brilliantlight »

jamesfirecat wrote:
brilliantlight wrote: He is also closer to my version of Herself. Knowing that werewolf sightings cause people to stay away he tries to drill into his people not to get caught in wolf form. He is far less successful in this than Herself (Who in my game is so successful in this that the existence of wererats in her domain are considered ludicrous. It is considered evidence that one is gullible.) this is because werewolves are much bigger than wererats and thus easier to spot, werewolves are chaotic instead of lawful so not inclined to follow rules and he flat out doesn't have the awesome social skills Herself has in my game.

I never got why they decided to make werewolves chaotic evil, but wererats lawful evil.

Both of them are animals that exhibit herd/pack mentality, if anything wolves tend to have an even more formally designed society than rats do.

I get that werewolves (especially infected ones) are wild slavering beasts when they're interacting with humans, but in my mind they tend to be a bit more restrained when interacting with their own kind.

I have to put this down to "lawful" and "chaotic" either only being judged from a human perspective, the terms being hopelessly vague from a real world perspective out of universe, or the people who made the system just making a mistake and deciding to skip with it.


If you ask me werewolves being LE by nature while wolfweres are CE by nature would be a good bone of contention between the two/another reason why they tend to hate each other far more than they "hate' humans, beyond simply competing for more or less the same ecological niche...
It is indeed arbitrary when you give human traits to lower animals. Concepts such as good and evil as well as law and chaos are beyond them.
Post Reply