15th Anniversary of the Book of Souls Netbook!

[Ryan Naylor]

You still managed your 13 dot points, I see.

[Mangrum]

For my mind, the Haunting of Harrowstone is one of the best-on paper adventures I've ever seen. I keep meaning to write a campaign journal for it one day, but never get around to it.

Well I'd like to see it, at any rate.

Speaking of campaign journals, has anyone ever used Duskpeace Lodge in their Ravenloft campaigns? I've been feeling nostalgic about ol' Argent and Celia lately, even pondering exactly how they ended up there. A story I'll never get to properly finish...

[Mangrum]

You still managed your 13 dot points, I see.

Did I? Well, sometimes there's no escaping our fates.

[Lucius]

Wooow!

What a surprise! I was not even remembering tonight was Halloween... I was just bored, so I decided to give a look here (I usually do this, but I didin´t logged in this account since 2010), and happened to find this topic.

Really cool to see the people of old...I remember the many nights I spend reading topic after topic, talking to people in search of ideas for my RL campaign (it ended epically in 2009, and now I´m running other settings with an occasional RL 2.0 - a new demiplane ruled by the members of the FoS Umbra in their incorporeal bodies).

Anyway, just stepped to say a Hello!

[Lucius]

For my mind, the Haunting of Harrowstone is one of the best-on paper adventures I've ever seen. I keep meaning to write a campaign journal for it one day, but never get around to it.

Well I'd like to see it, at any rate.

Speaking of campaign journals, has anyone ever used Duskpeace Lodge in their Ravenloft campaigns? I've been feeling nostalgic about ol' Argent and Celia lately, even pondering exactly how they ended up there. A story I'll never get to properly finish...

I used it at least 2 times. Almost in the end of the campaign...don´t remember the exact details, but Argent and Celia offered refuge to the party and a long conversation followed...

[Joël of the FoS]

I love it. I'm running it now, set in Darkon. We're up to the Wake of the Watcher.

For my mind, the Haunting of Harrowstone is one of the best-on paper adventures I've ever seen. I keep meaning to write a campaign journal for it one day, but never get around to it.

I've also set HoH in Darkon (north east of Martira Bay, near the mist border). I haven't made my mind on all the other adventures following HoH, but I'll incorporate these through my ongoing campaign, with its NPCs and plots. Already did incorporate the chemycal shop (Vorkstag & Grine's) and the Crooked Kin as a prequel to HoH. I will see how I'll add the rest, if any.

For example, the CC Werewolf one has to be set in Verbrek, or somewhat related to it, with another plot going on IMC (involving a PC lycanthrope, a soul taken by the feys, and the always fun Mme Montari in it). I'll probably replace the things need for the evil ritual in CC with stuff from my campaign. Vrood already stole the Cthulhu like statuette.

I also think HoH is extremely well made, and fun. I retrofitted the baddies background for a RL background.

And my players already hate Aurélien Vrood (as I renamed him IMC).

I have a campaign journal of HoH (up trought the middle of it), I'll try to put them online soon.

Joël

[Mangrum]

I used it at least 2 times. Almost in the end of the campaign...don´t remember the exact details, but Argent and Celia offered refuge to the party and a long conversation followed...

Well, anything you remember I'd be interested in hearing.

[Lucius]

It was almost TOUD, the party was travelling through Verbrek in order to find some "ingredients" for the creation of a special Tarokka that would be able to determine relatively well where the GC children would be.

The point I don´t remember well (must search my old campaign notes) is who was with the party. It was an aflicted licanthrope. He took the party to Duskpeace Lodge. There they spent the night, talking about licantropy and the recent events shaking the world.

There was a player who as a 10th level Philosopher Alchemist, and he talked about a theory of curing lycanthropy by removing the soul of the creature and placing it in another body...

[stu]

On some of the miscellaneous questions that have come up:

What are your thoughts on the recent incarnation of Ravenloft, split up and used for parts in the Shadowfell, rather than as a cohesive world?

I can't say I've kept up much with this at all. While I've played a bit of 4E, and can see positive things about it, it's not a system I would ever be able to run at all. My style is just too rules-light, and I'd never be able to focus properly on the mechanics. (Other people in my group are very capable on this front, which is why they're running the 4E games!) A side effect of this is that I haven't really read much of the 4E material for Ravenloft.

What's your proudest contribution to Ravenloft? Your biggest regret?

I continue to be amazed that my initial interest in trying HTML and setting up a basic Ravenloft website set me on a path that would lead to joining the Kargatane, netbooks, "official site" status, visits to WotC, and a chance to do real freelance writing. As the other Kargatane have mentioned, the friendships formed, the building of a strong community (that continues on this site), and seeing writers spin off into related careers are all highlights that make me very proud of the group's efforts over that 7-8 year period.

If I had to choose something more specific in the setting - it would be the various Dementlieu articles in the BoS and CotN:Demons, which I enjoyed writing the most.

To be honest, I'm not sure I have any real regrets - the whole Kargatane/Ravenloft experience has been one of the most "complete" experiences in my life (which is to say, I also think I stopped doing it at the right time).

I think I would have had regrets if I hadn't had the chance to write up Dementlieu for Gaz 3. But that experience also taught me that I'd (probably) never be able to do large scale freelance writing tasks. I found doing it "on demand" just too daunting, and I'm not sure I really have the creative chops for it anyway. But if I hadn't tried, I think I would be perennially worried that I'd missed an opportunity.

A selfish question: any tips or philosophy to share on making a great fansite, community, and/or NetBooks?

Not sure you really need to be asking that, Gonzoron.

But anyways, in relation to the website I think we had lots of things on our side - I started my basic Ravenloft page in 1996 when, essentially, there was almost nothing else out there, so "being different" was actually pretty easy. But I agree there's still a key to being useful as a fansite. The key things I remember aiming for were:

* Upload the content that you go looking for on the web, but can't find. If you need it, chances are someone else does too. This is where we had it easy - no one had a list of products, list of Dungeon adventures, or FAQ anywhere.
* Update frequently - people only check back regularly if there are regular updates. This is one test we were failing by around 2003, which contributed to the decision to shut down.
* Create ways to interact - I was amazed at how the introduction of our messageboards galvanized the Ravenloft community into a single location. (And, probably, contributed to the decline of the Ravenloft mailing list.) Allowing people to submit reviews, etc, to the site helped that process too, early on.

Netbooks is a different question. I'd suggest that quality was a key goal, and a key reason for the BoS success. Oh, the stories we could tell about some of the articles we declined...

Stu

[stu]

Quick question for Stu: Your campaign journals were one of my favorite things about the SotK site. At this point I doubt you're up for finishing those [/understatement], but could you share some of the high points of the finished campaign?

...so actually, not finishing these is probably a regret I have. But there's a longer story of failure behind this.

One of my players, Nick, was self-appointed journal-keeper during my campaign. He kept copious hand-written notes of every session, with the intent of writing everything up later on. They were comprehensive notes, too - often 20-25 pages per session.

As often happens with these things, it started out well, but quickly fell behind, and by the time the campaign finished (35 adventures) only 19 had been written up.

We still have all of the notes - previously in a folder, now all scanned - and over the last 13 years there have been various efforts to get it finished. In 2002, Martin tried to drive a writing-editing-approval workflow to get things moving, which produced a couple of docs. In 2006, Chris was off work looking after twins, and planned to write up some sessions - to no avail. And then when Nick had 10 weeks off work over Christmas one year, he planned to write up lots of the journal. We put bets on how many he'd get done, and the winner was Andrew, who bet on..... zero.

And this year, during my 6 months leave from work looking after my baby son, I started writing up some DM notes (recollecting inspirations, favourite moments from sessions, and the like), but that didn't progress the journal at all.

So it's a cursed process. I would love to have a complete record of that campaign - it was a blast - but I wonder if it will ever happen.

Maybe when we're retired.

Stu

[alhoon]

To be honest, I'm not sure I have any real regrets -

So, you'll keep pretending you didn't have any regrets for not convincing Athaus to rename Sourange to "Sturange"?

[stu]

Quick question for Stu: Your campaign journals were one of my favorite things about the SotK site. At this point I doubt you're up for finishing those [/understatement], but could you share some of the high points of the finished campaign?

...but I didn't answer your question, really.

Let's see if I can summarize key events after the document in your Verandah:

• The PCs visit Daclaud Heinfroth's estate - only to encounter Ilyich (the ex-PC and now Ba'al Verzi member) has tracked them down.
• PCs head up to Dorvinia, and end up discovering that Caine's father is Ivan Dilisnya, at the same time that Drakov is invading Dorvinia. (Ever remember the twins on Ivan's family tree from the black box, that were stolen away from him at birth?)
• PCs encounter the House of Lament, while travelling with Caine's twin brother, Stepan. Stepan sacrifices himself to the house to help the rest escape.
• Return to Dementlieu, where they finally face off against the Living Brain.
• Arijani line of the hexad is triggered (in my case Arijani was Max's mentor - long story), which results in the borders between domains dropping. Strahd is now free to pursue Azalin.
• Heinrich's continual investigation of the puzzle box takes them briefly to Jangling Hiter, the city of Kytons, where they find the souls of all of the people Heinrich has killed using the box. (My Francois de Penible was loosely lifted from the puzzlebox in my campaign.)
• Death Ascendant (a variation on the actual Grim Harvest adventure) - where Max ends up being the one turned into Death. (Because that player was about to go overseas for 6 months!) By now, the players know that the Ebon Fold has been collecting blood from people all over the demiplane for months and months.
• PCs get into one of Azalin's decadent/depraved parties - they learn that Azalin has been driving every event of the hexad, and eventually they are captured by Azalin.
• Azalin sends them back to Castle Ravenloft (a la Roots of Evil) to enact the last verse of the hexad (Bodiless shall journey to the time before...). While at Castle Ravenloft, Caine finds the broken blade of the Sunsword in the crypt, and Isaiah finds his lost wife Michelle - but corporeal, not as a ghost. (Recall she was "lost in time"). But when they return to the present, she ages and becomes a mummy. Isaiah, shocked, uses his "absorb sickness" ability to cure Michelle and becomes a mummy himself.
• PCs escape Avernus all the while clouds gather over Il Aluk and Azalin enacts the Grim Harvest - souls fly across the sky from the people the Ebon Fold has collected from. As they leave the castle, they find they're too late - a massive eplosion sends a death wave across the land. The Sunsword protects them from the effect, but they watch everything around them die for miles and miles.
• As they set out on the road, they encounter Madame Eva and her tribe. As they walk together, signs of life reappear - Madame Eva is taking them back through time so they can stop Azalin.
• They arrive to confront Azalin (basically the final scene from Death Triumphant), who is using the souls from the Ebon Fold and the fact that the borders are down to resurrect his son, Irik. Except Strahd also arrives to take revenge on Azalin, and Ilyich arrives to take revenge on the PCs. And I think Death was there too. Awesome final combat ensues. Great moments include:
  • Strahd mockingly breaking Caine's sword - but Caine realising the Sunsword shard matches the broken blade, creating a SUnsword to wield against Strahd.
  • Isaiah castigating Azalin for doing all of this just to get his son back - and Azalin pointing out they're not that different, given how Isaiah has been cursed in the search for his dead family.
  • Heinrich consuming the power of the souls himself, to give in to his dark side and become a lich.
• As they leave the city, the realise that Il Aluk was still consumed by the death wave - but the rest of Darkon was saved by their actions. At the very edge of Il Aluk, Caine finds a basket with two squealing babies - twin boys, and takes them into his care...

Writing this list is so frustrating, because I want to put so much more in - but gotta draw the line somewhere (and go to bed). But it reminds me how much find I had running that campaign.

A few years later, I also ran Bleak House in a sort of "Return to Ravenloft" coda to the campaign, which was fun. Except for Chris, who had to make a new character to replace Heinrich.

Stu

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

What's your proudest contribution to Ravenloft? Your biggest regret?

If I had to choose something more specific in the setting - it would be the various Dementlieu articles in the BoS and CotN:Demons, which I enjoyed writing the most.

And we've enjoyed reading it! I've drawn a ton of inspiration from it for my campaign. My PCs got embroiled into the Falkovnina/Dementlieu political crisis surrounding Chantreaux's Refuge at a Murder Mystery Dinner Party (I wrote this up as an adventure, Feasting with the Falcons, in QtR 18, my first full NetBook article submission, so you inspired me in that way too.) And later, they actually had to save the town of Refuge from a Falkovnian invasion. So I got a full 3 weekends of adventuring based on "Faces of Deception" and the Dementlieu Gaz, with seeds planted for more to come.

My only complaint about the Dementlieu Gaz is that I wish it were longer, so I could plunder more from it!

Not sure you really need to be asking that, Gonzoron.

Thanks, but I wasn't fishing for compliments. Seriously, you guys had a great model to build on, and the other FoS guys did a great job getting this site going long before I even got involved. But it is a lot more difficult to keep things going than it appears. You made it look easy.

* Upload the content that you go looking for on the web, but can't find. If you need it, chances are someone else does too. This is where we had it easy - no one had a list of products, list of Dungeon adventures, or FAQ anywhere.

I would note that the RL catalogue was another hit there. A brilliant idea. (and I was happy to contribute to it, but even happier to use it.) Not sure if you've seen it, but that info lives on in our wiki, Mistipedia.

* Update frequently - people only check back regularly if there are regular updates. This is one test we were failing by around [2003, which contributed to the decision to shut down.

This is indeed difficult. We do have a backlog of stuff to post, but finding time to get it up is difficult, and the backlog runs thin sometimes. As the setting ages, with no new products, and the fanbase drifts off, this is my biggest fear for the site's future.

* Create ways to interact - I was amazed at how the introduction of our messageboards galvanized the Ravenloft community into a single location. (And, probably, contributed to the decline of the Ravenloft mailing list.) Allowing people to submit reviews, etc, to the site helped that process too, early on.

Agreed, which is one reason we have embraced the tools of the era and gone onto Facebook and Twitter. Without the community, a site like this just a few people shouting in the darkness.

Netbooks is a different question. I'd suggest that quality was a key goal, and a key reason for the BoS success. Oh, the stories we could tell about some of the articles we declined...

The quality certainly shows in the polished finished products.

[Joël of the FoS]

Oh, the stories we could tell about some of the articles we declined...

Given it's been 10 years + since the last BoS, and without giving names of the writers of course, I'm sure you can share a few stories on the BoS making-of?

There were surely these genius moments where a submission would quickly get these six Yes votes, as Hackard said, which were surely very inspiring. But what about the others?

[herkles]

What were your favorite domains?

If you could re-do/redesign any domain which one(s) and how?

Neat to see members of the Kargatane here