It is back!!! What we do know about VR Guide to Ravenloft?

[onmyoji]

Just to clear everything up, all the April Fools posts have been moved to a separate thread. We at the FoS do NOT actually have advanced copies of the book, and all we know is what we've collected in this thread from publicly available sources. As far as we know, there are no silly crossovers with other Hasbro franchises.... as far as we know.

Thanks for a bit of April Fools fun! Now back to the real news....

You had me until Equestria. Then I remembered the date. Well done indeed.

— onmyoji

[alhoon]

I am a bit... about it.
Some of the changes I thought were April's Fools jokes were actually implemented and some of the AF jokes that I liked ended up being... jokes.

Are you sure you separated the threads correctly? I can't say I am 100% against what I see in this thread but... frankly some ideas from the AF day seemed better to me.
Case in point: The Arena in Darkon. I would love that.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

The Bayblaadenn arena? That was a reference to Beyblades, which were battling top toys. I used to have some, but I finally gave them away a few years ago.

However, an arena in Darkon could be an interesting feature. They sort of speak Latin in Darkon, and the Romans had the Colosseum, so there is a light connection there.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

That was my comment bout Falkovnia, because there was already a coliseum there.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Hello! I'm a bit of a lurker here and don't really post, but I thought people might be interested in this Dragon Talk with Wes Schneider on VRGtR's Barovia:

https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/featur ... ow-barovia

He brings up Borca (in the context of the Boritsis and Dilisnyas), as well as Darkon and Mordent (when referring to Van Richten's backstory).

It sounds like domain-hopping might be part of the setting, and we can look forward to more Dragon Talks on other domains...

This got a little buried in all the April Fools festivities. Thanks for pointing it out, RPGaff, I look forward to listening to it!

[Zilfer]

Took a quick listen to it, what I took away is the books will take from Bram Stoker's Dracula in they want to have a bunch of letter correspondence between characters at the beginning of the book. During mentioning, Dilisnya in one of crypt of Strahd he mentions you can find out that oh one of the other Darklords of Borca is a Dilisnya. (So we know Borca is still a thing). Wes talks a few points that makes me happy that he seems to at the very least know or studied what he's talking about which is great. He talks about the fact that domains are hinted to be taken from other realms and copy pasted into the Domains of Dread or potentially taken wholesale.

There is a part where I don't recognize something when he's talking about "institutions" in Barovia. Or at least it seems like he's implying these organizations are in Barovia but I can't put place it. It's something like "Priest of Aus-su-bus" and "The Almost Inquisition" (sounds like Almost maybe it's something close sounding to that like Almus?) Anyways potentially it's around the 15:30 mark in the podcast.

There's also some interesting talk about how to change small things to get a different story out of the domain. This is paraphrased and possibly condensed but basically "What happens if Tatyana comes back as Twins? or a Ghost? Werewolf, or if she's a vampire hunter working along side you." He also later towards the end also mentions what if she's left Barovia and you need to go on a domain hopping adventure to get her or protect her from the minions of Strahd. (Tara Kolyana Confirmed, or at least hinted at for old lorists like us?)

Those are the tidbits I managed to extract from it while listening. Wes at the very least seems to know what he's talking about which is encouraging.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

As it has been mentioned before, the Editor? (I believe) knows the lore, which is unfortunate as the setting has gone a step backwards being many Islands of Terror for differently themed "weekends in hell"

[Joël of the FoS]

as the setting has gone a step backwards being many Islands of Terror for differently themed "weekends in hell"

To be honest, we do not know that for sure. The relations between domains in the new book isn't known for now, as what are the objectives of the developpers in rethinking RL for 5e.

Joël

[Mephisto of the FoS]

as the setting has gone a step backwards being many Islands of Terror for differently themed "weekends in hell"

To be honest, we do not know that for sure. The relations between domains in the new book isn't known for now, as what are the objectives of the developpers in rethinking RL for 5e.

Joël

Although what you say is true, we don't know, in the interview he clearly states that the reason for the domains isolation into Islands of Terror was so that there would be a specific theme when visiting a domain.

[Joël of the FoS]

Oh, that's from the last link posted, sorry. I have to listen to it, not done yet.

[Zilfer]

As it has been mentioned before, the Editor? (I believe) knows the lore, which is unfortunate as the setting has gone a step backwards being many Islands of Terror for differently themed "weekends in hell"

To be fair he also mentioned just as an example how to handle Tatyana being outside of Barovia for example and going on a 'String of Adventures' across different domains to keep her from the agents of Strahd. While they may now be separated that kind of just opens up the DM to have the players stumble into the next domain that they want at the misty border of a domain. (Ironically this is the way I originally pictured Ravenloft when I had seen I think it was the 3.5 map that seemed to have misty borders separating them already. He also does go to mention the... probably not the exact wording he used but "The Nice thing about Ravenloft is it doesn't need to make sense. It's not some country over there, or a planet or anything. It doesn't need to make sense."

That's an element I usually try to play up in my games anyways especially if it has outsiders on how different the experience is. Different domains for example having different night skies/star constellations. Trips from one town taking 2 days one time and 5 days the next. Maps never being exactly how they should be, like the realm likes to shift and change. This is the "Norm" for people living in Ravenloft and are used to, but to outsiders it helps make the place far more Alien. Anyways to each their own there's no reason why you couldn't just pull the hooks from the book that you want to use and leave the rest. Most people do that with for example Champions of Darkness.

[onmyoji]

To be fair he also mentioned just as an example how to handle Tatyana being outside of Barovia for example and going on a 'String of Adventures' across different domains to keep her from the agents of Strahd. While they may now be separated that kind of just opens up the DM to have the players stumble into the next domain that they want at the misty border of a domain.

While it certainly once operated that way, now what worries me (and others) is that there is no definitive map anymore, so if you were to cross, say, the northern misty border of Barovia, there's no telling necessarily where it will take you.

And if WotC dumbs it down to "all you need to do is visualize where you want to go and cross the Misty Border," then I'm going to be legitimately disappointed. I think that's what a bunch of us fear deep down.

— onmyoji

[Zilfer]

^I'm actually wondering if it's more the base assumption will be you can't leave without an extra device, whether plot device, or actual physical object. Vistani, Erzan Clerics, or otherwise. Personally my players being a bit trepidatious of stepping into the mist might be a bonus since most of my games never deal with a 'Misty Border' anymore. For Misty borders being a thing in ravenloft my games have been severely lacking in that department save for the few times I've used it around a town for 'Ground Hogs day' but with a clock tower.

In the greater history of the Core forming and the change of Domains, it's not too big of a shock to the denizens of ravenloft. Plenty of countries have come and gone within a couple decades if i'm not mistaken? I'm as a whole just glad they are acknowledging more domains beyond just Barovia. Was going to be disappointed if they just did CoS and left it at that. Regardless of whether I like all of the new content, as with all modules, and supplements I pick and choose was filters into my own game. My CoS campaign was not run with the Misty border, I threw that out since I still ran it as part of the Core. There's nothing saying you can't use the old maps.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

The other problem of not having a core is the economy, trade and supplies, some domains rely on materials imported from other domains. For instance Falkovnia was the "breadbasket of the Core" now it is a zombie infested domain with lots of brain supply, the economy of Falkovnia supports the army. If there is no sure way of going from place to place, trade is going to be a risky job and raw materials more expensive making everything cost more.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

If 5e does, indeed, leave every domain hovering all alone in the Mists... Well, that's one more development for me to ignore in future articles, I guess. :-/

I mean, I already ignore everything 4e did to my favourite setting, so why not?