Van Richten

[Count Spatula]

I plan to have him make his debut in our campaign. I'd like him to serve a paternal role/home base in the Domain of Dread for my PCs.. Any suggestions on how to best bring this about? How did everyone else introduce the good doctor in your campaigns?

[Rock of the Fraternity]

The easiest way would probably be to have your party bump into him during a monster hunt, and have him warn them they brought the wrong materials to slay the beast. Nothing says friendship like saving your life.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

I believe introducing him in a similar way as Van Helsing from Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, either through an old associate NPC or as a scolarly figure, maybe having a lecture on the paranormal in one of Ravenloft's Universities. I believe it depends on the domain they meet him. If it is a high CL domain I suggest the scholarly version if it is a backwater damain as Verbrek, on a hunt. In the campaign I am prepering to instroduce him first through his books. One of the PC's is tied to La Société de Legerdemain which has the complete collection of Van Richten's guides, one donated by Madame Eva before it was even written! So if they happen to meet him in the future they already know about him through stories they have heard or through his books while adventuring. This way there is a build up, instead of just meeting him and informing the PC's that they have heard about him. Maybe the PC's are already fans of the good doctor and ask for an autograph

[onmyoji]

Check out Chilling Tales if you can. It's a bunch of mini-adventures that I think each include the good doctor. You can try interweaving one of these into your campaign to introduce him if you like.

— onmyoji

[CrackedMack]

Back when I was running Ravenloft in Pathfinder 1, my party met van Richten in Souragne while he was in disguise. He was there doing research for one of his guides and was posing as a bumbling paranormal investigator named Caleb Rickets. It was a fun way to introduce them to him because, in a crucial moment later on when confronted by a ghostly entity, "Caleb" suddenly turned into a competent monster slayer and helped the party, shortly before revealing his real identity. They got a big kick out of that.

[RavensCall]

I just started my new campaign, we are about 4 sessions in now. I brought the group together for a friend's funeral in a small village in Mordent. Van Richten was one of the funeral attendees. He said a few words at the grave site (as did the rest of the group) and joined them for the repast afterwards. He also gave the daughter of the dead man a package. It is a rough, first copy of his Guide to Vampires, as I set the campaign in 735 BC, Black Box era. The players have a vague idea who he is, but their characters don't yet. I plan to build him up and have him back for appearances as the campaign continues.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

I just started my new campaign, we are about 4 sessions in now. I brought the group together for a friend's funeral in a small village in Mordent. Van Richten was one of the funeral attendees. He said a few words at the grave site (as did the rest of the group) and joined them for the repast afterwards. He also gave the daughter of the dead man a package. It is a rough, first copy of his Guide to Vampires, as I set the campaign in 735 BC, Black Box era. The players have a vague idea who he is, but their characters don't yet. I plan to build him up and have him back for appearances as the campaign continues.

Nice...

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I had them bump into him on a monster hunt, not knowing who he was at first. He was also tied to two PC backstories. One as a kindly mentor herbalist under an alias (without the PC knowing about his monster hunting) and the other as the object of a villain's revenge plot that incidentally killed the PC's mother. Eventually they learned that kindly old Dr. Ritter, the famous monster hunter Dr. Van Richten, and "that guy in the red scarf that helped us fight the mummy and then disappeared into the night", were all the same person.

[Jack of Tears]

My players encountered him in the course of a vampire hunt. They were working the case from opposite angles and encountered one another while digging up leads - they teamed up to finish the hunt together and ended up working with one another fairly frequently throughout their careers (as the party were hunters, similar to how 'Supernatural' would portray them years later).

[FiranDarcalus]

It's funny, I've actually never used Van Richten in a game. I started DM'ing Ravenloft in 2003, during 3rd edition. Also went with the canon that he was "dead" based on Bleak House. I used the twins quite often in the game , however, and they always spoke so highly of him that I guess my players got the feeling of how important he was from them.