Ultimate Ravenloft: Design Goals

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Baduin9
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Post by Baduin9 »

An explanation: In Slavic languages most names have two forms - masculine and feminine. Madeleine Albright in Czech is eg "Albrightova".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright

This is a simple matter of grammatical gender.

So, if Yagno were a man, he would be called Yagno Petrovich. If she were a woman, she would be called Yagna Petrovna.
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Post by Rotipher of the FoS »

But does making that change mean we'd have to start calling NPCs like Lyssa and Talena "von Zarova" now? Again, I'm not convinced it's worth it. If we were speaking in Balok ourselves, it might be a different story, but in English it'd probably cause even more confusion to retcon it.

Really, if horror fiction can go through nine decades of "Abdul Al-Hazred" with a straight face, horror gaming can probably cope with a male Petrovna. :wink:
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Post by Baduin9 »

The standard convention is to use the masculine version of the name in English, even for women. In fact this is the easy way to distinguish an American with ethnic background from a citizen of a Slav nation. If a woman calls herself Kovalsky you know she was born in America.

Of course, you don't have to know or use such things. But, generally, using language correctly makes it easier to communicate and prevents us from creating word salad.

"Von Zarov" is a German name, or a Geman form of a name, and doesn't have gender. "Von" is equivalent to the English "of". Theoretically, it should designed the name of the noble's property or the place where he was born. However, "von" was often used as a noble predicate without intrinsic meaning and simply added to the name to signify nobility.

Eg a noble with a Russian name "Zarov" who began to use German could add "von" to his name to signify his nobiilty.

There IS a mistake there, however. "Zarov" is the American transliteration. The German transliteration would be "Sarow" - this is actually a place in German Pomerania (a former Slavic area).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarow

"Z" in German is pronounced like "ts". In transliterations from Russian it is never used alone, but only as "Tz" or "Ts". Actually, Tsarov is also a - different - Slavic name, also Tzarev and Tsarev.

So, the name could be eg "von Sarow", or "von Tsarov", or "von Tsarev", etc.

The only explanation for the form "von Zarov" would be that one Zarov emigrated to America first, and then he or his descendants moved to Germany and gained nobility there.
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Post by Igor the Henchman »

I'm Russian.

I have no problem with Yagno Petrovna's name.

You want ridiculous and inaccurate? Try about half of french-derived names in the setting. Seriously - "Richemulot"? "Marcel Guignol"? My game plays in french, and I can't even say "Hala" without my players snorting.

And, yet, in the end, its not a big deal. Really.

If you started to go over Ravenloft names with a red pen, you wouldn't see the end of it. My advice: don't bother.
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Post by WolfKook »

Igor the Henchman wrote:I'm Russian.

I have no problem with Yagno Petrovna's name.

You want ridiculous and inaccurate? Try about half of french-derived names in the setting. Seriously - "Richemulot"? "Marcel Guignol"? My game plays in french, and I can't even say "Hala" without my players snorting.

And, yet, in the end, its not a big deal. Really.

If you started to go over Ravenloft names with a red pen, you wouldn't see the end of it. My advice: don't bother.
Well, the fact that we're creating Ravenloft Reanimated from the ground up makes a perfect opportunity to make such a revision, within certain limits.

After we decide on the domains and darklords that will compose the setting, and go over a process of creating geographical and historical milestones for consistency, there'll be a period of creating the write-up for each domain, hopefully by a group of volunteers, each taking a domain or a group of domains under his wing. The idea would be that each volunteer would report his intention to write each domain to this forum, so that he could receive any suggestions (Including name changes) by email or pm.

As I see it, having different names for the same key features of the setting (i.e. Yagno Petrovna vs. Yagno Petrovich) would help set the retcon apart from the original. This should not be overdone, however, as some of these features (Strahd Von Zarovich) are the true staples of the setting.
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Post by Baduin9 »

I actually prefer fantastic and meaningless names, such as: Brandoch Daha, Corinius, Corsus, Corund, Goldry Bluszco, Lord Gro.

Strahd von Zarovich is a very good name, and linguistically quite correct, even if spelled a bit strangely (but from the point of view of American audience this spelling is more understandable, so I wouldn't suggest any changes.)

Incidentally I wonder whether it would be not better to drop the specific identification of the languages of Ravenloft with the real European languages? This was never done consequently - and practically speaking couldn't be done.

Perhaps it would be better to keep the actual languages indefinite, and for the sample names of inhabitants use the English versions of names associated with the area in question. In addition, it would more practical that way - each language has its own rules of pronunciation, and there is a limited number of polyglots in the audience.
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Post by Guzrath »

Is it an idea to create a main post where all the definite decisions about the New Ravenloft are put down?

So that there is basically 1 or 2 posts where the list of definite domains and darklords. Ideas that will be used and what "line" will be taken for the development. Otherwise it will be a search through all the discussions to filter what will be and what won't.
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Post by WolfKook »

I guess it could be done: I've been compiling all that info all along, so it could just be published in a new thread. The question would be how thorough would it be? Just info on what decisions are being taken, or a more in-depth look at each design decision (Kind of a design blog)?
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Post by DasSoviet »

A design blog sounds best, if you have the time Wolfkook... if not, point form ideas in the first post of this thread or in another thread reserved for that purpose could work well.
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Post by Guzrath »

I would suggest to simply start with a thread with the decisions being made. Mostly to use as a reference, because at the moments there is not much fleshed out. So a list with the domains that have been chosen and which DL's. For starting reference links to the posts where the decisions have been made.

Right now were are still throwing around ideas, so in depth Blog might be quite empty.

And then slowly a thread for each idea fleshed out. This is a major :!: project.
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Post by Irving the Meek »

Actually, the best organizational tool for building this thing might be a wiki.
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Post by DasSoviet »

A wiki! Duh... *slaps self in forehead* Of course that would work! Work well even! I should've known that... we used a wiki for a project like this on the Wizard's of the Coast forums... it never really got far, but this here should give you an idea of what a setting wiki could pull off

The Project

Yeah... pbwiki is one option, but there's many more... and it does work for something like Ravenloft Reanimated... rather well, actually. So, I change my vote to wiki, all the way!
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Post by WolfKook »

Well, theArcanist has already set up a wiki for the project little after we established the project goals, but for some reason he disappeared into the mists the second he did so, and no one has heard from him again... (Well, perhaps the wiki took a life of its own and set on destroying him...)

OTOH, I have to confess that I lack knowledge to run the wiki on my own.

So, do you settle for a summary thread, while theArcanist returns? I promise to post it soon enough.
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