I checked other threads concerning Forlorn, but didn't find exactly what I wanted. The thing is my PCs are going to Forlorn, they are sent there by group of soldiers, whose comrades got lost months ago in Forlorn and suddenly they got an SOS message from them (idea taken from film R-Point, Su-chang Kong, 2004).
However, I have a question to those who have played it before. What changes, interesting twists and tricks did you make compared to the original Castles Forlorn box?
Some of the ideas I use: bit more complicated two guards in Forfarmax, lonely sith in the caves of Mount Arawn with obsession of death and especially dying, watching closely PCs fighting for their lives in the mouth of his cave.
Castles Forlorn twists
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Kessler
- Agent of the Fraternity
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Castles Forlorn twists
P((hρ (A)- ρ/<έ) →n-∞1 (∑>0)
P(x=k)=(n/k)ρk(ˇ1-ρ)n-k
P(x≥1)=(10/1)•(1/6)•1(1-1/6)10-1+…1
+(10/10) : (1/6)10(1-1/6)0
=0,8385
P(x=k)=(n/k)ρk(ˇ1-ρ)n-k
P(x≥1)=(10/1)•(1/6)•1(1-1/6)10-1+…1
+(10/10) : (1/6)10(1-1/6)0
=0,8385
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Rotipher of the FoS
- Thieving Crow
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One change I made is that the "surviving" ApBlanc daughter, IMC, didn't actually survive: the original Brangain died of fever in her prison cell, as Tristen was too distraught over his wife's death to check up on his captive's welfare. The "rescue" in Castle A merely frees her spirit to rest in peace, rather than returning her to live out a normal life. (The "mother to the vampyre race" idea didn't appeal to me, especially as we know vampyres had been the dominant species on Ludzig's home world since prehistory. 
) If the PCs can get to Brangain in Castle A, cure her fever, and get her out of the castle safely, her spirit is released; up until then, she haunts the B and C castles, just like her mother and brothers do.
This means that, if I allow it, PCs could theoretically end the hauntings of the other ApBlanc ghosts, by visiting the death-scenes of Tristen's wife and sons, and changing the outcome of those events! They'd still be dead, but their ghosts would no longer appear in the castle, much like how PCs could avert the Richten Haus servants' deaths to free their spirits in "Bleak House".
Since I liked the symmetry of Tristen having killed off everyone else in his family (including Brangain, IMC) by accident or carelessness, I even altered Isolt's death-scene somewhat. Instead of deliberately killing her in a rage, I have Tristen biting her to suppress her rebelliousness with his addictive venom; Isolt, however, would rather die than fall under her unnatural husband's dominance again, so she pulls away from his embrace so violently that his fangs rip her throat open. Unable to stop her bleeding, and unwilling to call for help lest his own secret be exposed, Tristen (who actually did care for her, albeit as more of a pet than a wife) reluctantly let her die.
) If the PCs can get to Brangain in Castle A, cure her fever, and get her out of the castle safely, her spirit is released; up until then, she haunts the B and C castles, just like her mother and brothers do.This means that, if I allow it, PCs could theoretically end the hauntings of the other ApBlanc ghosts, by visiting the death-scenes of Tristen's wife and sons, and changing the outcome of those events! They'd still be dead, but their ghosts would no longer appear in the castle, much like how PCs could avert the Richten Haus servants' deaths to free their spirits in "Bleak House".
Since I liked the symmetry of Tristen having killed off everyone else in his family (including Brangain, IMC) by accident or carelessness, I even altered Isolt's death-scene somewhat. Instead of deliberately killing her in a rage, I have Tristen biting her to suppress her rebelliousness with his addictive venom; Isolt, however, would rather die than fall under her unnatural husband's dominance again, so she pulls away from his embrace so violently that his fangs rip her throat open. Unable to stop her bleeding, and unwilling to call for help lest his own secret be exposed, Tristen (who actually did care for her, albeit as more of a pet than a wife) reluctantly let her die.
"Who [u]cares[/u] what the Dark Powers are? They're [i]bastards![/i] That's all I need to know of them." -- Crow
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Jonathan Winters
- Evil Genius
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I am running this HUGE BEAST that is CF right now... Oy vey.
(SPOILERS JOËL!!!! BACK OFF!!!)
Fun, but a lot of work.
First off, be ready. I made myself tons of notes about the castle, history and NPCs.
Also, it is very long in there. We are at session 5 or 6 inside the castle and it is not finished yet. My PCs have met Isolt and are aware that Brangain is missing.
But what you need is an outside reason (which you have) for exploring. Because, there is no loot. It is not a ''real'' dungeon-crawl. But there is a poop-load of stuff going on.
My PCs are in there to find one of their enemies who disappeared a few months ago.
My intent is that they should have small victories. They cannot and will not defeat any of the major ghosts. They will probably reach some kind of stalemate with Tristen at some point. My NPC has an object which MIGHT free Tristen, so he is not willing to let him go obviously. The NPC is rotting in a cell with Tristen torturing him in ghost form. By time-traveling, they will hopefully free Brangain and then the NPC.
They have freed Andrew ApFittle (and I haven't decided if he will be killed after they leave the time period). I am not too fond of his geist...
I want them to meet Lucy ApMorten and discuss Necromancy (I have a LE wizard PC).
They know there is an evil spirit (Solleyder) persecuting the druids, but the ghost Tristen has described Rual's ghost as the Solleyder.
Next, they will meet Vampyre Tristen who will reinforce this. I will also have Tristen posing as the heir to CF and coming from Forfarmax but who got cursed to stay inside the castle as a family curse. Once they see him cast bardic spells, they might realize they are one and the same once they meet him in Castle A... We'll see...
That's all I can think of right now. I have to go prepare for this afternoon.
Hopefully, more to come later.
Patrick
PS: Rotipher, I also really dislike the whole Vampyre spawn thing with Brangain. The poo girl has suffered enough.
(SPOILERS JOËL!!!! BACK OFF!!!)
Fun, but a lot of work.
First off, be ready. I made myself tons of notes about the castle, history and NPCs.
Also, it is very long in there. We are at session 5 or 6 inside the castle and it is not finished yet. My PCs have met Isolt and are aware that Brangain is missing.
But what you need is an outside reason (which you have) for exploring. Because, there is no loot. It is not a ''real'' dungeon-crawl. But there is a poop-load of stuff going on.
My PCs are in there to find one of their enemies who disappeared a few months ago.
My intent is that they should have small victories. They cannot and will not defeat any of the major ghosts. They will probably reach some kind of stalemate with Tristen at some point. My NPC has an object which MIGHT free Tristen, so he is not willing to let him go obviously. The NPC is rotting in a cell with Tristen torturing him in ghost form. By time-traveling, they will hopefully free Brangain and then the NPC.
They have freed Andrew ApFittle (and I haven't decided if he will be killed after they leave the time period). I am not too fond of his geist...
I want them to meet Lucy ApMorten and discuss Necromancy (I have a LE wizard PC).
They know there is an evil spirit (Solleyder) persecuting the druids, but the ghost Tristen has described Rual's ghost as the Solleyder.
Next, they will meet Vampyre Tristen who will reinforce this. I will also have Tristen posing as the heir to CF and coming from Forfarmax but who got cursed to stay inside the castle as a family curse. Once they see him cast bardic spells, they might realize they are one and the same once they meet him in Castle A... We'll see...
That's all I can think of right now. I have to go prepare for this afternoon.
Hopefully, more to come later.
Patrick
PS: Rotipher, I also really dislike the whole Vampyre spawn thing with Brangain. The poo girl has suffered enough.
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mistshadow2k4
- Criminal Mastermind
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One change I made was with the name. I changed apBlance to MacBlanc; Forlorn was supposed to be Scottish, right? Well, ap means "son of" in Welsh and is common in Welsh names. Mac is the equivalent in Scottish.
A minor point, you say? Tell that to a Scottsman!
A minor point, you say? Tell that to a Scottsman!
[i]I have come to accept the surrender of Hell.[/i] —From 101 Witty Paladin Sayings
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doctor-evil
- Agent of the Fraternity
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Too right!mistshadow2k4 wrote:One change I made was with the name. I changed apBlance to MacBlanc; Forlorn was supposed to be Scottish, right? Well, ap means "son of" in Welsh and is common in Welsh names. Mac is the equivalent in Scottish.
A minor point, you say? Tell that to a Scottsman!
I changed the Aps to Macs too. Another tweak I made was to change the goblyns slightly so that they were human, but turned into psychotic animalistic cannibals rather than orclike creatures (more like the reavers in Firefly/Serenity) - with goblynism being an acquired template rather than simply a type of monster.
The goblyns scarify and mutilate each other, and file down their teeth which reduces their human-like appearance. But after the first attack the PCs encounter, and take a close at the bodies, the fact that the goblyns were more obviously humans certainly gives the players more of a moral dilemma - what if the goblyns could be cured?
Have they committed murder? Could what happened to the goblyns happen to the party? 
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ChrisNichols
- Arch-villain
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To add additional complexities to the original Castles Forlorn boxed set, I strongly recommend, if I may so immodest, that you read the Forlorn chapter of Ravenloft Gazetteer 1. This chapter presents several new facets to Forlorn, as well as combining numerous facts about Forlorn from other Ravenloft sources, such as the Van Richten's guides, CotN:Ghosts, and I, Strahd: The War Against Azalin.
Further, there are a number of elements that had to be removed from Gaz 1 due to space considerations or because we ran out of time. Most never got past the "pile of notes" stage.
* Brangain was to have survived due to outside intervention (hinted in the published text), and gone on to become a paladin operating in the domains surrounding Forlorn. Brangain would have faced the struggle to keep her half-vampyre nature from emerging and causing her to fall from her paladin status. A tragic figure, I was considering giving Brangain the ephitet "The Weeping Knight."
* There was to be a sub-plot about Herrd ApKie and his desire to throw off Tristen's yoke and rule the goblyns of Forlorn himself. A hag by the name of Tassinggame was to have helped Herrd by supplying him with magic warpaint that broke the bonds between goblyn and master, giving Herrd's rebel goblyns a Pictish twist. Time ran out on me before I finished this (and we were long on word-count anyhow).
* There were several sidebars with interviews and secrets that got cut. Several of these appeared in the Gaz 1 web enhancement on the our (the Kargatane's) old site. These included information on the origins of goblyns, the story of Desperation's Road, and a couple others.
* Andrew Cermak worked on a Forfarian Sword Dancer prestige class that didn't make it into our final draft. A spell called call wild hunt got scrapped (by me) and a magic item, the paints of unbonding, was part of the dropped Herrd ApKie sub-plot.
* Almost half of Andrew's detailed history of Forlorn got chopped as we tried to hit word count.
Hopefully, some of these tidbits will prove helpful inspiration for your Castles Forlorn game!
Chris Nichols
Further, there are a number of elements that had to be removed from Gaz 1 due to space considerations or because we ran out of time. Most never got past the "pile of notes" stage.
* Brangain was to have survived due to outside intervention (hinted in the published text), and gone on to become a paladin operating in the domains surrounding Forlorn. Brangain would have faced the struggle to keep her half-vampyre nature from emerging and causing her to fall from her paladin status. A tragic figure, I was considering giving Brangain the ephitet "The Weeping Knight."
* There was to be a sub-plot about Herrd ApKie and his desire to throw off Tristen's yoke and rule the goblyns of Forlorn himself. A hag by the name of Tassinggame was to have helped Herrd by supplying him with magic warpaint that broke the bonds between goblyn and master, giving Herrd's rebel goblyns a Pictish twist. Time ran out on me before I finished this (and we were long on word-count anyhow).
* There were several sidebars with interviews and secrets that got cut. Several of these appeared in the Gaz 1 web enhancement on the our (the Kargatane's) old site. These included information on the origins of goblyns, the story of Desperation's Road, and a couple others.
* Andrew Cermak worked on a Forfarian Sword Dancer prestige class that didn't make it into our final draft. A spell called call wild hunt got scrapped (by me) and a magic item, the paints of unbonding, was part of the dropped Herrd ApKie sub-plot.
* Almost half of Andrew's detailed history of Forlorn got chopped as we tried to hit word count.
Hopefully, some of these tidbits will prove helpful inspiration for your Castles Forlorn game!
Chris Nichols
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Jonathan Winters
- Evil Genius
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Yes, reading Gaz I along with the boxed set helped me out tremendously when planning my sessions. Just the land's history section is worth admission! It really adds to the domain on top of everything else in the boxed set (which only the history part was a bit sketchy IMHO.)
And thank you for those behind-the-scenes tidbits!
Any (legal) way of sharing Andrew's story?
Patrick
And thank you for those behind-the-scenes tidbits!
Any (legal) way of sharing Andrew's story?
Patrick
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wolfgang_fener
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I bought the box set and will eventually use it down the road.
Unless I bore my players to death with recuring level drains, they will most likely be too high level once they reach that place and I'll have (once again ) to modify everything...
Anyway, I'll follow that thread closely. Thanks to all for sharing.
Unless I bore my players to death with recuring level drains, they will most likely be too high level once they reach that place and I'll have (once again
) to modify everything...Anyway, I'll follow that thread closely. Thanks to all for sharing.