15th Anniversary of the Book of Souls Netbook!

[Nathan of the FoS]

Speaking of BoS submission stories...I remember how I felt when my first BoS article (Nueva Aragona) bit the dust. As I recall, it wasn't a quality issue so much as that y'all felt it was too advanced [very early 1800s) for the setting. (Protip--don't write a 50-60 page gazetteer for a first article...or for anything, if you're not getting paid. It hurts too much.)

On the bright side, my other submissions made it in--all of them, even the orc domain. (!!!) And on the other bright side, I was looking for a place to put my labor of love when Joel said he was going to make a netbook for articles not accepted by the BoSac...which was the first step in the formation of the Fraternity.

[Mangrum]

What were your favorite domains?

I suppose Mordent and Darkon were the ones I kept returning to in my campaign. I quite liked Kartakass as well. If my campaign had continued it was about to swing through Staunton Bluffs, Invidia, perhaps Verbrek, and ultimately Vorostokov, all of which I was eager to visit.

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

Well, sticking with my 8/13-point plan, I suppose I'd want to go back and start from scratch with each domain. Streamline its history a bit, perhaps, make sure the background geographical stuff makes physical sense so we don't have to spend a paragraph justifying the existence of an otherwise mundane river, and so on. Overall my starting point would be "What is the theme of this domain?" and make sure everything flowed from that.

In specific, however, there isn't much I would redo. It's known that I wanted to write the Mordent gazetteer, but as it happens were I to return to the setting I'd basically keep what was written about it anyway -- turned out to be a very good example of a domain built strongly around its theme. Other than the domains we visited in the Gazetteer, most are so sparse on details that it wouldn't be so much a re-do as a do.

Only domain I think I would actually ditch is, well, I can't remember its name at the moment, but the one cobbled together from the short adventures in Book of Crypts. Bad idea to lump them all in one, out-of-the-way place; defeats their initial purpose as side-adventures dropped in where needed.

[Band2]

Wow this is great to see lots of old timers here. I cannot believe it has been 15 years. I did not discover the on-line ravenloft community until the next year, but I remember the excitment of the second book's release.
Reminds me of the many great memories of reading through all the Books of S.

Andrew, your Lights in the Fog article has always been a favorite.

Thanks again to all the members of the Kargatane for your work all those years ago.

[Le Noir Faineant]

Every year on Halloween, since about 2004, a group of adventurers enters Castle Ravenloft, or a related location.
Every year, I have at least half of them die.

That is definitely thanks to you guys, the Kargatane, and the Shady Frat.

Thank you, all!

[Andrew Cermak]

What were your favorite domains?

I always tended to prefer the more "medievalish" domains. Barovia and Kartakass are high on my list. I also have a strange soft-spot for Forlorn despite all the things wrong with it.

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

Bluetspur doesn't work for me. I like the idea of a mind flayer domain, but I don't like the blasted alien hellscape because there's so very little you can do with it. I'd probably make Bluetspur a more-or-less typical "Renaissancey" domain with a small mind flayer enclave hidden within, using enthralled cultists to secure their victims. Not a particularly novel approach, but at the very least it lets you use the domain for more than an "escape or kill the darklord" adventure.

I'd also change the name; saying "Bluetspur" makes me feel like I'm talking with my mouth full.

[Andrew Cermak]

Andrew, your Lights in the Fog article has always been a favorite.

Thank you, I'm glad to hear it.

[Ryan Naylor]

What were your favorite domains?

Dementlieu is hands down my favourite. I love the just-pre-revolutionary France atmosphere, the politics, the clandestine battle between the Brain and Dominic, the Brain and Dominic themselves (he just wants someone to love him for who he is! How can you not like him?). It's so rife with opportunities for different types of adventure.

I also like Forlorn (actually, Castle Tristenoira) because I love both ghosts and time travel. The rest of the domain can fall into the Mists provided I can play in the castle, even if there's really only one adventure you can have there.

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

I've already had a go at salvaging a few on the most-hated list: Necropolis, Valachan, Timor, the Shadow Rift...

To follow on from Cermak, I think Thoughts of Darkness was a mistake. Bluetspur as presented in the Black Box is a much eerier place, and I'd rather go back to that version.

I'd rather reinterpret than redesign in most cases, since I think most domains have something to offer if run properly. Except maybe Hazlan. I like Hazlik as a character, but have no interest in his domain. Some domains have little to no replay value, but I'm fine with that. Sometimes, once per campaign is all you need.

Har'Akir perhaps too - it needs more tombs and more people. Oh, and I don't see the point in Alfred Timothy.

[stu]

What were your favorite domains?

It's no surprise that my answer is Dementlieu - like Ryan, I love the Dominic/Brain duality, which is the perfect setup for screwing with PC's minds. I also prefer the slightly more modern Ravenloft settings, so these all play well together in that domain.

Other favourites are Souragne (love a voodoo-based setting), and Scaena.

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

I've always struggled with any domain that presents itself as so inhospitable/barren that it's difficult to see how to use, or so apparently deadly that PCs almost have to die while there - Bluetspur, Keening, Shadowborn Manor. Although as others have said, it's not hard to make a fix (e.g. Cermak's idea).

Stu

[alhoon]

Bluetspur doesn't work for me. I like the idea of a mind flayer domain, but I don't like the blasted alien hellscape because there's so very little you can do with it. I'd probably make Bluetspur a more-or-less typical "Renaissancey" domain with a small mind flayer enclave hidden within, using enthralled cultists to secure their victims.

I'd also change the name; saying "Bluetspur" makes me feel like I'm talking with my mouth full.

Meh... that's too much like Dementlieu though. I would prefer a more Lovecraft alienland approach (like the place Cthulu was trapped in, with the weird angles or the Elder things home in Mountains of madness) than a Sci-Fi alien land approach.
Or if it has to be Hidden enclave of 100-something mindflayers, make it CL4 above ground with Mind-flayer changed thralls that rule through brute force like tyrannical chieftains, not swaying the masses. And keep a ton of aberrations about to make sure that 1. The domain is very dangerous (but still playable) and 2. Alien

[Le Noir Faineant]

Now, no flattering intended, oh Sinister Six, but I have always wondered one thing:

You all seem like pretty educated, and intelligent guys, and IMO, your efforts, from the old website, to the S&S books, is what made the setting playable. (As opposed to most 2e stuff, that either was too sketchy, or simply bad.)

That said... How did you manage to write for a world that was so obviously artificial, and sometimes so blatantly dull? - Didn't you guys have the desire to fix some of the most blatant silliness? Like, place names, to begin with...

[Ryan Naylor]

I have said this before, but I actually like the place names. I'm not a native French or German speaker, so it's perhaps not as grating for me as it might be, but I like the word games. Lots of places in the real world have apparently bizarre or silly or inappropriate place names: F*cking (Austria), Disappointment, Horneytown, Toad Suck, Hell, Hookersville, Bald Knob (USA), Shitterton, Cockup, Wetwang, Gravesend (UK), Cockburn, Gulargambone (Australia)...

The secret is trying to explain why these places have these names: Bluetspur ("blood trail") is a red comet, leaving a trail across the sky when the stars are right and it reapproaches the Core; Dementlieu is a mad place of social upheaval and chaos; why would anyone name their son Malus Sceleris?

I also don't have a problem with it's artificiality (and from what he said earlier, John thinks it should have gone further). Part of the charm is that we know it's all a grand experiment run on behalf of the Dark Powers. What are they trying to achieve? Are the people of Ravenloft "real" or are they constructs of the Mists who can pass the Turning test but lack real souls? Other worlds have gods walking around, flying castles, and rainbow bridges; compared to them, Ravenloft is almost normal.

Having said that, we put a lot of effort into giving it a sense of cohesion, even if it wasn't real world cohesion. I think fans of any speculative fiction will forgive a lot if it seems internally consistent and the emotional lives of the people livng there seem realistics, and a roleplaying game is no different.

What are you thinking of when you say it's dull?

[alhoon]

Ryan, I could hardly stop laughing with those real world names...

[Andrew Cermak]

Meh... that's too much like Dementlieu though. I would prefer a more Lovecraft alienland approach (like the place Cthulu was trapped in, with the weird angles or the Elder things home in Mountains of madness) than a Sci-Fi alien land approach.
Or if it has to be Hidden enclave of 100-something mindflayers, make it CL4 above ground with Mind-flayer changed thralls that rule through brute force like tyrannical chieftains, not swaying the masses. And keep a ton of aberrations about to make sure that 1. The domain is very dangerous (but still playable) and 2. Alien

But then you've just made a variation on the original problem. One of my barometers for a good domain is this: If a lost group of people wandered into the domain for the first time (as opposed to being forcibly taken there), is there any chance they'd decide to stay awhile? If not, you've gone wrong somewhere.

Or, to put it another way: if you know you're in a horror story the moment you set foot in the domain, it's probably a boring domain.

I agree the Lovecraftian approach is the best way to handle Bluetspur, but most of Lovecraft's horror is about peeling back the curtain and seeing the alien behind the real. That means there has to be a curtain. When the PCs get to the cultists' inner sanctum or to the mind flayer tunnels beneath, that's when you can bring in to full view the strange geometry and alien horrors you were just hinting at before. At least, that's the approach I prefer. I think the alternative is markedly less horrific.

[alhoon]

Well, each with each own's preferences. But yes, about the weird angles and strange shapes on the walls, that was for the caverns underneath.
IMO, it's not bad to have an unhospitable domain, as long as it's playable and not a deathtrap. As for the tyrannical chieftains making the place unhospitable it's not like there was no interaction between the barbaric Gaulic and Germanic tribes in 300 BC or something. People were living there and some had bad chieftains. They still strived though.

Some aberrations on the hills would keep people inside the "well worn path" even when the chieftain's enforcers are beating them with a whip to work the fields and the chieftain picks which of their daughters to put in his harem. And who would be "sacrifed" to the Gods below.

[Mangrum]

If I were to redo Bluetspur I think I'd use William Hope Hodgson's The Night Land as a strong source of inspiration. The world the God-Brain was plucked from is at the end of its life (an era when our age is considered the dawn of time, and humanity is down to its final holdouts, surrounded by alien horrors and mountains that crawl and sleep). That seems to be the sort of world that Bluetspur came from, but the designers chose to set it just after humanity finally winks out, rather than when the flame is still sputtering at the end of its wick. Put a stronghold of far-future humans out in the middle of Bluetspur (and this being taken from the weird fiction subgenre, their society is much more magi-tech than high-tech). The sun is in the sky, taking what we would consider days or weeks to rise and set, but so dim its light is no brighter than the moon. If you go with my "fish bowl" approach, the native NPC humans there simply aren't capable of comprehending that there's anywhere else to flee--any outlanders who show up are assumed to be the last survivors from some other lost outpost. The God-Brain, however, knows that this is just a prison, and is actively trying to reach out into those other, vibrant lands...