Café de Nuit

Gotta agree with the *how*...

When I cracked open Ravenloft for the first time in years last month, my players wanted to know what they could play. I said "Anything that has a good enough concept".

As it happens, one of my players is a chaotic good lizard-man wight. Who had his old persona mysteriously sparked OH about the time the mists took him (back) to Ravenloft.

OF course, after reading Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead the other night, my head is SWMMING with ideas for his wight that'll probably pretty well mess the whole group up if I'm not careful.

But then, Ravenloft's never been much for happy endings...=P

Nathan of the Fraternity wrote:I think--in line with most of y'all--that it's more a matter of how you play than who you play. I like a humanocentric Ravenloft style, myself, but being an orc, goblin, drow, aasimar, tiefling or what have you offers some interesting possibilities.

Indeed, especially if the aasimar has been "trapped" in the Dread Realms for such an extensive time that it has began to corrupt his inner nature.

Shadowking wrote: Too alien and mystery-ruining- things like full-blooded Vistani (ruin the mystery of the setting- though I would allow Darklings and Mortu), Kuo-Toa and Illithids.

Too high-fantasy- things like Orcs and Minotaurs.

In fact the only race i've had to refuse yet as a character race is full blooded vistani, the player actually wanted to be a good dukkar! argghhh....

well, im sure i would still refuse too fantastic races (such as half dragons and outsiders), but luckily besides that one time, my players havent asked for anything thats out of the PHB... not even a caliban...

Hmm... I can say that I really only allow the PhB stuff and Calibans, I even try to discourage Elves and so on. Simply because I'm trying to keep a mostly human face on both the horrors and the reactions to it. My current campagin has a few half elves (who are both careful about who finds out about it), and a Caliban who is going to travel to Lamordia to see if the fabled Dr Mordenhiem can be persuaded give him a human body.

Hmm, with the Summon-rules for RL being what they are, I'd have not much problems with allowing people to play Planetouched creatures like aasimar. Of course I've been spoiled by playing with some very good role-players, who take a race more because they think they can make a good story out of it than because it gives a +2 to Bluff or another ingame-bonus. (Though they appreciate the bonii too )

Dwarves...the little stinkers should be dissallowed to exist at all. I prefer even drow to those misers. But on second thought then there would be no one to make jokes about in my group

Don't you be dissing Dwarves. They're cool. I like their stoic-ness.

Yes, long live the dwarves!

We humans can't be expected to destroy those stinking elves just by ourselves...

Well, there are races I don't like (dwarves for example) and races I love (gnomes rule!), but not races I wouldn't allow in my game.
I'll discuss with the player regarding his background, his advancement, how he would fit with the world and how his attitude could affect the Ravenloft feeling of the campaign. I wouldn't easily allow in my current campaign a whole group of planetouched, because it would ruin the attitude. As long as human is the primary race in the group, having a strange minority could affect the game positively (the way people in Nova Vaasa, for example, don't speak to the feytouched PC, because they think she's tainted, while they speak to the rest of the PCs could enhance the feeling that it's a Lawgiver-ruled country).

I have allowed even a powrie in my games. The worst case was a feytouched-natural werewolf-aasimar. He has managed to have tons of Charisma to bypass the OR and the damage reduction is a nightmare! The thing that I wouldn't allow easily again, though, is the fact that she's immune to mind-affecting effects (look at Fiend Folio). While this could save the team from persons like Tristan ApBlank, playing something immune to mind-affecting effects in RL is almost like playing a fearless paladin (without the RL variant) - completely missing the point!
The good thing is that the fact that the character is feytouched (shee-touched to be exact) makes invovling the team to fey-plots very easy!

My brother once played a Tiefling in a Ravenloft camp. He played the character as if he believed that, because he was decended from demons, he didn't have a soul. His mission in life was to find his soul, or a soul. He was a very somber, depressed kind of fellow from a bronze age culture. He was a fighter/rogue, if I remember correctly, and fought with a khopesh.

Just shows how fried I've gotten... it was either me or somebody else at the 'Goat who'd run a drow in Ravenloft... he kept himself wrapped in rags and pretended to be a leper, so his nature was kept hidden...

For the most part, I favor a humanocentric take on Ravenloft, and I almost never use gnomes or halflings... elves, either. I tend to lump elves in with the actual fey (yes, even the Sithicans). I find half-elves are more interesting when the "inhuman" half of their heritage is stressed both IC and OOC, with elves being strange creatures that most humans just don't like or understand. Dwarves... I like 'em. I really do. But making them work is just a little tricky...

Calibans rock.

Full Vistani are intended for NPC-only status, which I honor. I also avoid half-Vistani unless somebody really sells me on the concept.

Tieflings and Aasimar work in small doses.

Alhoon, in the "Halfling Walks" series has demonstrated the interesting possibilities of using an Illithid PC. That being said, it's not something I condone lightly.

Basically, if it's not human, you'd better have a very good backstory (with Half-elves and Calibans needing a little less work).

Cole Deschain wrote:Basically, if it's not human, you'd better have a very good backstory (with Half-elves and Calibans needing a little less work).

I think a good backstory is useful to all kind of races, because flesh more the character and makes him easier to play. Trust me, I used to have the most simple background ever in my characters, but the 2 times I really did one well I saw the difference and I enjoy much more playing them.

Cole Deschain wrote: Dwarves... I like 'em. I really do. But making them work is just a little tricky...

can you explain what you mean when you say "making them work".

I mean making short, stoic blacksmiths with a penchant for forging non-magical stuff, and who have a long tradition of fighting humanoids in the minds of many players can, when used carelessly just 'cause "I like 'em," detract from the setting a great deal.

Additionally, without tweaking their "default" technological level in the eyes of many players, they seem a trifle... Dark Ages fro parts of Ravenloft. And the parts where they'd fit in are the parts where obvious nonhumans get burned alive.

The only openly non-human race I allow in my game are Halflings. Their diminutive nature and ability to integrate themselves so well into human society have allowed them to be quietly overlooked by most people. In fact, the average person never even considers halflings as a seperate race, but perceives them as midgets - second class peasantry useful as servants and as easily dismissed.

In my setting the Halflings are historians. Often overlooked, they have fallen into the practice of watching history unfold from the background, while rarely ever getting themselves involved.

For Dwarves and Elves I took a page from Changeling and made them spirits inhabiting the bodies of human children. On the face they are indistinguishable from humans, though each can recognize their own. Because of their life spans, significantly longer than that of their host bodies', they will frequently live multiple human lives on the physical plane .. passing from one body to the next as it grows old and dies. This tends to make Changeling children appear as savants, and blessings, to human parents. (the vast majority of whom have no idea this thing occurs) In personality, however, the two races are very similar to what gamers have come to know. Dwarves tend to be gruff, hard working and often anti-social figures; while Elves often come across as effete and enigmatic. Their changeling nature also imparts certain dangers to pcs .. as they are suseptible to Turning, Protection from Summoned Creature spells, the effects of certain metals, (silver for Dwarves, Cold Iron for Elves ... the touch of either causes the victim discomfort and pain far out of proportion to any injuries sustained.) suspician from inquisitors, etc.

In my setting the Dwarves and Elves also wage a shadow war that humans are entirely unaware of. (though the Halflings know and in fact can recognize Changelings for what they are, though they've rarely a reason to share that information.)

The displaced spirits of these possessed children end up in the faery realms from which their possessors originate, (each race has one or two ties to the physical realm through a mountain, forest, etc. These are gateways to their home realms and often considered haunted.) though many are seduced by the dark powers and end up becoming Unseely spirits.

Beyond this, I don't allow for non-standard pc races. My players are informed from the start that they live in a very humanocentric world and even changelings make up less than one percent of the population. Do to the nature of the fae, there are no half-elves and as my setting originates in 2E, no half-orc pcs either. Gnomes were kept out simply do to my own dislike for the race ... though that has waned over the years and I have considered introducing the culture as an offshoot of Halflings .. the small folk who took up magic. Only Halflings and Gnomes would really recognize the differences between them ... to humans they are all the same.

As for the Caliban, an interesting pc to fill that half-orc nitch ... I like the concept, but not the idea that they are common enough to be considered a race. Instead I would make this a background option, or starting "kit", for a pc who was interested.

Really, though, atmosphere is the most important aspect of Ravenloft and this means one must take steps that might not be neccessary to maintain the integrity of other settings.