I know 4E is not eveyone's cup of tea but I like it; and since Ravenloft is my favorite setting i have the intention of running some 4E Ravenloft games.
Now, the pamphlet is great but i've been brainstorming a lot lately and some ideas have croped up on my head.
0. I would be making something like Ultimate Ravenloft: Core the size of Europe (or just the Brittish Islands, haven't made up my mind) and everything.
1. Vistani. I know everyone hates the halfling Vistani of EtcR. I did. But then I thougth: WotC is probably going to screw us with halfling Vistani anyway so why not take the idea and spin it? So I came up with this: Vistani are not a race in the regular DnD sense. When you see a human Vistani he is a human in the physical sense. But Vistani is more than a race, is a condition, a culture, something that you belong to and separates you from everything else: So, we can have humans, halflings and even dwarves Vistani because they consider themselves Vistani first and foremost, most traces of their original cultures lost to the mists of times. They still keep their awesome Vistani powers and are unplayable. Half-Vistani are still playable characters: The Vistani blood draws them in but the Giorgo in them keeps them apart forever.
2. Healing. For regular fantasy, 4E healing is fine by me but in Ravenloft is too much so my fix is: a full rest makes you regain one healing surge. Healing surges becomes the real measure of damage. There are some complementary fixes but this is the core idea.
3. Science! The train of thought went like this: Pistols and Mukets are part of Ravenloft. Pistols and Muskets for higher level characters must be Magical but somehow it doesn't fit too much with the more enlightened domains. Higher level pistols could not be magical but just better engineered, with extra Science!. Science as a power source.
With this setup, You could have magic pistols in, say, East Darkon o Mordent but in Lamordia or Dementlieu it would me more common to have Roaring Dragon, a superb musket handmade by that Truffendorf madman. Also, some monsters like The Brain or Adam could be the result of Science! and it lets me put a bit of the old "Science vs Magic" theme in my games. And some classed with the Science power source could be fairly nice to have in a game. I've thougth of having the Engineer (Science Controller) and Doctor (Science Leader) and the Science equivalent of rituals (projects? formulaes?) that would let you build high level gunpowder weapons, clockwork aparatii and reanimate the dead bwahahahaha.
Well, that's some ideas. Use them, rage over them, feel free!
Also, excuse the orthography but English is not my first language
Lanus
Some random 4E ideas
I won't comment on the 4th ed aspects per se:
I see little reason to introduce non-human Vistani. This is rewarding WoTC for its madness. I recently saw, and I kid you not, a document entitled Half-Orc Vistani. It is a road that surely should not be tred. The best treatment of the matter is that the hags and halflings were imposters, having arrived in Barovia during that period when the Vistani were boycotting it in protest at the violent action taken by Strahd against one of their own.
As to science, ultimately it too should be twisted by the Dark Powers and indeed it is in, for example, the creation of Adam or the Falkovnian attempted weaponisation of lycanthropy. Alchemical fire or gun powder or cannons with more bang for the buck is wholly untroublesome to my eye, but 'scientific' power sources and 'scientific' healing à la the Scientist and the Learned Physician from LoB set my teeth to grinding, each being a warmed over version of existing magical classes rather than something both original and in opposition to the black practices of 'superstition.' To address the matter I created the Mad Scientist http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... highlight= and revived the Chiurgeon http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... 7502#87502. The thinking behind each is hotly debated in the latter thread and in the following thread: http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... highlight=. Ultimately the debate or the classes themselves might provide some inspiration.
I see little reason to introduce non-human Vistani. This is rewarding WoTC for its madness. I recently saw, and I kid you not, a document entitled Half-Orc Vistani. It is a road that surely should not be tred. The best treatment of the matter is that the hags and halflings were imposters, having arrived in Barovia during that period when the Vistani were boycotting it in protest at the violent action taken by Strahd against one of their own.
As to science, ultimately it too should be twisted by the Dark Powers and indeed it is in, for example, the creation of Adam or the Falkovnian attempted weaponisation of lycanthropy. Alchemical fire or gun powder or cannons with more bang for the buck is wholly untroublesome to my eye, but 'scientific' power sources and 'scientific' healing à la the Scientist and the Learned Physician from LoB set my teeth to grinding, each being a warmed over version of existing magical classes rather than something both original and in opposition to the black practices of 'superstition.' To address the matter I created the Mad Scientist http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... highlight= and revived the Chiurgeon http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... 7502#87502. The thinking behind each is hotly debated in the latter thread and in the following thread: http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... highlight=. Ultimately the debate or the classes themselves might provide some inspiration.
The cure for what ails you
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Lord Soth
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 263
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Agreed about the Vistani. No need to keep them or even take the specifics of that adventure into account (It was a standalone adventure, after all, and not a product for a published campaign setting. So it was easier to just substitute some things rather than create a Vistani race for the book).
As for the Healing Surges idea, it's a houserule that I've heard before, and one that I really like. So thumbs up on implementing that one.
As for the Healing Surges idea, it's a houserule that I've heard before, and one that I really like. So thumbs up on implementing that one.
Man lives in the sunlit world
Of what he believes to be reality.
But, there is, unseen by most, an underworld,
A place that is just as real,
But not as brightly lit.....
A DARKSIDE.
Of what he believes to be reality.
But, there is, unseen by most, an underworld,
A place that is just as real,
But not as brightly lit.....
A DARKSIDE.
Thanks for the feedback
The Vistani was just a random idea that I had. I was also apalled by the halfling Vistani in EtCR. Is just that I thougth it was a nice spin in case someone decided to go along with that book (or if further 4E Ravenloft material gives us more multiracial Vistani)
I read some of the topics, cure, and the good thing about 4E is that a science power source won't be magical. At all. Just pure science. If a whole power source is too much I'm least i'm gonna implement alchemy (from Adventurer's Vault) and some form of engineering. Also, pistols do need to be pimped up to keep up with other weapons, I think that some non-magical high level gunpowder weapons would be nice.
The Vistani was just a random idea that I had. I was also apalled by the halfling Vistani in EtCR. Is just that I thougth it was a nice spin in case someone decided to go along with that book (or if further 4E Ravenloft material gives us more multiracial Vistani)
I read some of the topics, cure, and the good thing about 4E is that a science power source won't be magical. At all. Just pure science. If a whole power source is too much I'm least i'm gonna implement alchemy (from Adventurer's Vault) and some form of engineering. Also, pistols do need to be pimped up to keep up with other weapons, I think that some non-magical high level gunpowder weapons would be nice.