The City of Ravenloft

[Jack of Tears]

What might look like life in the city of Ravenloft:

The video doesn't seem to be working.

On the other hand, this project does seem to be picking up some nice momentum, I'd love to see it flushed out in greater detail.

[Manofevil]

Yeah, I'll work on that.

Edit: Try it now

[ewancummins]

It would be cool to move Alfred Timothy into the city. His domain is a section of crumbling slums, with a jungle-like vacant lot (or abandoned park) as his lair. His followers are like the Wolfen, from the novel and movie of the same name.

[Manofevil]

I take it King Crocodile runs the zoo.

[Five]

It would be cool to move Alfred Timothy into the city. His domain is a section of crumbling slums, with a jungle-like vacant lot (or abandoned park) as his lair. His followers are like the Wolfen, from the novel and movie of the same name.

I like the idea of feral street gangs, but I haven't been able to decide on who to suggest to fill the role. Of the lot, I'm leaning towards Harkon Lukas and his Kartakass crew. Originally I wanted them out in the wilds, but Alfred Timothy (and co.) is, I feel, better suited to that literal wild range. The wolfweres of Kartakass seem to be a little more comfortable with their human aspects and social dressings thereof, so having them stake out some ground within a city (but near one of the main gates) seems appropriate. Sneak out for a quick run, bite to eat, whatever.

However, on second thought, maybe you could just throw in Nathan Timothy with a few close-knit mates. They prowled the wilds for a while now, so maybe new turf is just the thing they've been searching for. You got your abandoned park-turned hunting ground with a crew to enforce its bloodthirsty ways, and the Wolf God got some extra followers (who battle amongst themselves for its favour) out in the wilds...?

Harkon Lukas (Kartakass) is really more of a rural settlement that in all ways possible bridges the gap between humans and therianthropes, yeah?

In short, I'd like to see Alfred Timothy a major, oppositional dark lord. He hates humans and their frailties. But that's just me. I'll work with the majority...

[Five]

One thought that was nagging me was the Cultural Level of Ravenloft (the city), to which I had the idea of simply avoiding one. Sounds funny, but hang on. As long as we template all of the CLs, maybe as some sort of side bar, then the people who pick this up and play can easily adapt it to any game setting they want. So, keeping this in mind, certain things have to be vague (if this is to work). A castle is a castle, a manor is a manor, a theatre is a theatre, but they're all subject to the transfer sheet. Does that make sense?

Any objections?

[Five]

The Nightmare Lands are easy enough, as they exist in a dream world; the Shadow Rift might exist in a similar other place accessed by closets and under beds ... the places proper bogies prefer to hide.

Yeah, good point.

Damn man, everwhere you turn in this city there's something there to shrivel the nerves. If they don't get you, then your mind eventually will...I can see why the closeness is appealing. Very claustrophobic.

Nice.

[Manofevil]

Rewrite this and it might make for a good man on the street's idea of the city of Ravenloft:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAWIZFqE6L4

[ewancummins]

The Black Box did not have CL rules, and it rocked.

I think the CL of Ravenloft the City is 'quasi-medieval with anachronisms.' In that respect, it's not unlike a lot of D&D settings.

Perhaps Azalin or Strahd has imposed gun control measures? Melee weapons like swords, daggers, clubs, etc are perfectly legal (but some establishments make you check them out the door.) Guns, though, are illegal for ordinary citizens. Drakov, the city's police chief, refuses to use 'cowardly gonnes', and insists that his men be equipped with crossbows, spears, etc.


I like the idea of Drakov not as a would-be conqueror general, but an ambitious civil servant. He's still a ruthless, sadistic, violent SOB. His men are paramilitary types- gendarmes, not ordinary cops. He longs to one day be Lord-Mayor, but the important people see him as a simple thug. I think Drakov could have been a gang leader when he was younger (instead of a mercenary soldier). His gang worked for the highest bidder, doing muscle jobs of all kinds. This unsavory background is something he has never been able to overcome. He's powerful, but not socially acceptable or even much respected by his betters.

I suggest Lord-Mayor, rather than 'king' as the title for the highest ranking official.
Prince could also work.

[ewancummins]

Five - was thinking that being trapped in a metropolis would be part of Alfred's curse. He despises humans, but he's always surrounded by them. Any attempt at genocide would result in he and his followers being wiped out by pretty nearly all the other darklords and their followers/agents, and he knows that. It really pisses him off. He has to content himself with preying on the homeless, the slum-dwellers, street-walkers, etc.

Here's a radical suggestion that people may not like:
I suggest that we don't include any rural domains at all. Instead, make the city the world.

Where does food come from? What about immigrants? Visiting merchants? Other worlds, of course. That's where the river-fogs (Mists) come into the picture. The City of Ravenloft is a gypsy-city, a sprawling metropolis that slides between worlds.

[Five]

The Black Box did not have CL rules, and it rocked.

I think the CL of Ravenloft the City is 'quasi-medieval with anachronisms.' In that respect, it's not unlike a lot of D&D settings.

This is true. Simpler, too.

Five - was thinking that being trapped in a metropolis would be part of Alfred's curse. He despises humans, but he's always surrounded by them. Any attempt at genocide would result in he and his followers being wiped out by pretty nearly all the other darklords and their followers/agents, and he knows that. It really pisses him off. He has to content himself with preying on the homeless, the slum-dwellers, street-walkers, etc.

That works. Especially combined with your suggestion that we don't include any rural areas. And to be honest with you, I was inbetween thoughts ever since Manofevil dropped the 'Gangs of New York' suggestion. I found myself offering an expanding version of Ravenloft as I spoke, and I told myself that the most comfortable I'd personally be was ringing the land (country, whatever) with the Bluetspur range idea/suggestion. I was taking it from city to beyond in an attempt to visualize a smoother seam for attachment to another setting. Also, I was debating whether or not to poll anyone interested in working on this as to what they wanted to work on. Both ways (or forty more)will work, so it doesn't bother me which way the pendulum swings. We just need to be on the same page before we can get to any details.

So, who says what?

Tepest could easily be changed from a frontier town to an underground group of vigilantes that go out on organized raids to round up and publicly burn those it deems monstrous by nature or deed. Given the nature of some of the dark lords, I can't see them given religious status. A group consisting of hardcore, overly zealous 'followers' of the good doctor himself...and a somewhat shady ally/mentor for similar-minded PCs.

Hell, everything I've said can be dropped or changed. That's not a problem for me. Like I said, my brain can wrap around whatever. As long as I'm helping, yeah? In fact, if anybody else wants, we could pound out both (or multiple) versions simultaneously. Example: "Strahd, version 1: (post)". Azalin, version 2: (post)." Try to keep everybody in the loop. Might be a bit messy of a read, but if the posts are labelled then it shouldn't be a problem.

I dunno, I just want to work on it...

[Five]

Ok, here's what we have so far for the city:

The city of Ravenloft is a conglomeration of domains found in official Ravenloft. ORL, for the purposes of this post. The dark lords are segregated into various turfs, all of which are physical manifestations of the black nature of their lords and/or curses (if not their actual 'lairs'), and are bound to those areas just as they are in ORL. However, during semi-regular conjunctions, signified by the tolling of bells from the city's massive central clock tower, the dark lords are temporarily granted freedom from this restraint and are able to wander anywhere and at will. What they do and how they go about doing it is entirely up to the dark lords' unique perspectives. Some of the dark lords are warring for lordship of the city, others are enacting their wildest fantasies, while others still are working things that just can't be explained. The so-called "City Hall", housed around the base of the forbidding clock tower, acts as a demilitarized zone and all of the dark lords are free to enter and conduct their (lordship-type) business as they please, regardless of the bells.

Am I missing anything? I know we've already thrown some ideas around for some of the dark lords and domains, and I personally like the majority of what was tossed around, but am I missing anything on that basic level? And yes, I did mod the last idea a bit. Heh. Hope you don't mind.

Here's a few thoughts:

1) The clock tower. The almost avatar of the Dark Power(s)? Why won't (the corner-of-mouth) "King" Azalin leave that damn place? Sure, he has "secret police" in every nook and cranny about the city to enforce and re-enforce his will, but come on. What is that bastard up to?

2) The conjunctions. This Ravenloft's version of the witching hour?

3) Should there be a seat limit on the ruling body of dark lords? Well, those that are inclined to politic anyway. The bottom few seats could be a clawing post that the 'lesser' lords battle over, constantly switching hands, and the top few being practically unchangeable. The first chair is always empty. A reminder perhaps that all are slaves to something beyond their control...?

Maybe those seats of power offer a reward of some sort. A little more freedom from their prison (if only to get to city hall and back)? A catered boon to the dark lord's wants? Increased size of turf and/or sway (through followers)? In exchange for what? An add-on to their curse should they lose that seat? Something else?

[Jack of Tears]

I'm not sure I like the idea of a King, I'd prefer a more modern Governorship, (Lord Mayor, something of that like) myself. Mind you, a Kingship would work well into some of the Lords' curses ... perhaps the King's power is severely limited and in many ways he is only king in name? I kind of like that, as it would infuriate Azalin and those close to him, but I'm not sure ... what do people think?

[Five]

I'm not sure I like the idea of a King, I'd prefer a more modern Governorship, (Lord Mayor, something of that like) myself. Mind you, a Kingship would work well into some of the Lords' curses ... perhaps the King's power is severely limited and in many ways he is only king in name? I kind of like that, as it would infuriate Azalin and those close to him, but I'm not sure ... what do people think?

It seems you're not the only one, so that King suggestion I offered earlier got edited out (see last post). And Azalin would be screaming mad if he was cursed to be something beneath that of a king...

"Why won't (the corner-of-mouth) "King" Azalin leave that damn place?"

The King here is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. He's acts like one, or, the one he was, but the others know better...just maybe won't let it out loud. Well, maybe not in so many words.

A council would solve the problem of who to put where in game terms by ultimately letting the reader place who where, so that's why I suggested that. Some dark lords we could bank on, but others you never know. We'd get nowhere with certain fans if we were to come out and rank each and every dark lord. Especially Azalin versus Strahd. That's potentially too much of a hot topic, in my (hindsighted) opinion. Even if we put all of the dark lords in such a council, as opposed to politically ambitious ones, then we'd still have to establish a pecking order, wouldn't we? That's not rhetorical. A puppet king could work, but would the turf lords actually agree on somebody other than themselves for the role? Even with greased votes, I dunno. An oligarchy, or in this case even an plutarchy would be a better fit (yeah, I had to look em up). There's just no need for the charade. Even fake rule can be publicly made into real rule (leverage, whathaveyou), and that would be a mistake made by not many of the dark lords. I think now anyway.

The empty seat could act as an imagination filler as well. If you want to 'king' Strahd, then put him in the seat. If I want to put van Riese there, then I will. A custom made dark lord can take the top spot. It's the only way I can think right here and now that will please everybody.

If somebody has a more effective solution then by all means...

[MichaelTumey]

Or the Lord of the City holds office for one year, voted in, challenged, chosen by some arcane ritual. Each domain ruler gets a chance to take the seat for one year, and chair over a plutacratic council - something like that. That would create more strife, election frenzy; conflict is good, could cause lots of bad blood between rulers. They may get revenge when they take their seat for the annum.