Re: Quoth the Raven #28 review thread
Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2021 10:41 am
Wanted to let others have the first reactions. Now I'll start posting mine. It was an incredibly good (and big!) issue this year, with an unusual number of articles fitting the theme. (I guess "Alternate Reality" is kind of where a lot of QTR articles fall in general, so it was an easy fit. ) Thank you again to everyone who contributed!
In no particular order (ok, the order I proofread them in...)
The Grand Estate Cluster - Some of you may know my personal "meh" feelings about new domains in general, but this was an unusually good set of them. I don't know how much is from the game, which I haven't played, and how much was added here, but they fit perfectly as Ravenloft domains, and I love the idea of a cluster with such a strong connection between the darklords and the domains. I would have liked to see a section of what each darklord thinks about the others, though I can understand they are focused on their own goals and their common enemy in Lachlan. Still, it would be nice to have some tentative alliances/factions between them. All very evocative and clever variations on the theme, so it never got too repetitive, even if they all sort of follow the same pattern. I'm curious where these corrupting books came from in the first place. Was there an ancestor that ended up dooming the whole family by writing them? or was it an outside influence like a demon or the dark powers themselves?
Hands Stained with Shadow - A nice article in the vein of the classic ones it acknowledges, taking a crunchy sourcebook and melding it with Ravenloft flavor. Without having the book in question, I have to take the descriptions here at face value, but they are quite good. Author shows a good and deep working knowledge of the domains, and all the placements for these subclasses seem right. Some very clever takes on some of them as well. I particularly like the fractured barbarian as a Jeckyl/Hyde variant. I did take the liberty of adding Nosos as another source of vermin lords, as it seemed too perfect not to mention.
The Chibiloft comics: Cute and fun. Always nice to see the lighter side of Ravenloft poke through. Reminds me of the comics page in the old Dragon mags, which was always a highlight.
Heroes of Chibiloft: very cute as well. Seems Rock has put a lot more thought into these characters than is obvious from the comics. A fun look into their backgrounds, even if of debatable use for DMs. I suppose one might drop these guys in for a cameo if a campaign is light enough to warrant it.
Cursed Items: Short and sweet. Could have used an intro paragraph or two, but I do like how it gets right to the point, and several of these items are real spooky winners. I particularly like the cradle and the flying cloak.
Judgement on Silent Wings - another short and sweet one. I haven't looked back at the original Owlmay articles in decades, so I don't know how much is new here, and I don't know 5e rules well, so I can't comment on the crunch much, but with those caveats in mind, this seems like a good translation. Nothing extraneous, well written and to the point.
Scenes from a Starving Land - a nice elaboration on a rarely used domain. I like that it makes it feel a bit more lived-in than usual. I didn't quite understand the situation with "The Jackal," though. Is the Captain the same person as the Widow? Did she kill her own husband? Also, the wereweasels seemed to come out of nowhere. Did I miss them in the story somewhere? But aside from those small confusions, quite nice.
Excerpts from the Registry of Monsters - I enjoyed the first in this series last year. This one is more of a mixed bag for me. I get the feeling that a lot of them are evocative from a different cultural perspective than I am familiar with, so they don't quite make sense to me in my usual "Ravenloft Mind". But the artwork is high quality and creepy and the stories that did hit for me hit well.
Dovehome - Well, we've got an anchor for our theme! A mixed bag, but overall fun "What If?" of various Ravenloft stories. I think they work better individually than as a cohesive demiplane. Some might make for a fun romp of a side-quest in a magic mirror or via the butterfly effect of time travel or somesuch, after a party has already met the "real" version for contrast. I particularly like the Carnival, and also how the Brain/Dominic still dance around each other in secret, but for different reasons now. The Adam story was a very cool spin on things, though the already murky situation of "who deserves to be darklord of Lamordia?" gets even murkier when you try to flip things around. Victor was never portrayed a saint, and here he's arguably even worse, while Adam gets to be better and Elise stays roughly the same. So, in isolation, it's a good alternative take, but I don't know if it fits in Dovehome. Maybe it fits better in Ravenloft proper, with Victor as darklord instead of Adam.
The Falk Files - First off, Mikhail's art is stunning throughout, as usual. Professional quality that would be right at home in a real published RL book.
Part 1 - Falkovnia Uber Alles - Those who like Falkovnians as Nazis will like this one. Those that don't... won't. It leans in heavily to the racist undertones of the society by creating a "hard-core" level of racism within this society. The "Leibenborn" aside is particularly disturbing, possibly more than is comfortable for some. But by concentrating the real Nazis into this society, it does leave open the door for more sympathetic Falkovnian soldiers who might be just "following orders" and not quite as egregious as these guys, which could be good when trying to recruit rebels without having to have them also be despicable.
Part 2 - Sins of the Father - very nice fleshing out of Vigo. I like that it gives him motivation and schemes beyond the goals of his two "fathers". Lots of good adventure hooks for adventures in Falkovnia. Would definitely use a lot of this. His connection to both Bluebeard and the Grim Harvest may be a bit much, though. I might just keep one or the other but not both to avoid any "Mary Sue" vibes. I like the Death's Head Rings bit, so the GH part would probably be the one to keep for me, and the retconning to fix "Vito Romenza"'s long-standing dukkar issues is a nice one.
Part 3 - nice stuff, but seems to lose direction a bit in the middle and shift from assassination attempts to rebel groups, which are related but not the same thing. Also, I'm not super keen on every attack from Drakov on a neighboring domain being predicated by an assassination attempt. I'd prefer if they were of his own accord. But with that said, I do like having lots of stuff to pick and choose from. I can always dump the ones I don't use and in my campaign they never happened. (I need to come up with a succinct name for that idea: It seems overstuffed, but if you view them as DM options and only use some, the end result is not overstuffed, but just the right variety to pick from. Something like "The Buffet Effect"? Eh.. I'll keep working on it.)
Part 4 - (as an editor) oh my god, it's 38 pages. hold me..... (as a reader) Fun kind of "Game of Thrones" amongst the kobolds, lizardmen, draconians, and minotaurs stuff. At first, I wasn't sure how relevant any of it is to modern Falkovnia. Certainly wasn't sure it merited more pages than the first 3 parts of Falk Files combined! And while I get the point of the almost-but-not-quite similarity between the names "Bakiliskis" and "Basiliscus", boy is that difficult to keep straight, especially when proof-reading and making sure the right one is used. I can almost guarantee I got it wrong once or twice. But as I read further, there were so many plot hooks and adventure ideas that I was won over. An incredible amount of extrapolation from a few brief lines in the Gaz, and involving draconians and bakali was a great way to bring in Drakov's often neglected origin on Krynn. Still, it's SO VERY LONG! Probably a lot could have been cut down, but I did like it.
Part 5 - The Cyclops's legacy. Love, love, love this one. I've always liked Vjorn as the Mengele of Falkovnia, and this fleshes out still more of his experiments, and they are all great ones that fit the genre and provide adventure hooks. Shades of Castle Wolfenstein, Stranger Things, Stargate, so many other great "mad scientist working for the government/military " motifs, all fit right in at the Ministry of Science. I'd like to the think the time-shifting tunnel gets its powers from the nearby temporal fugue of the Shadow Rift, though it wasn't mentioned. I really love the idea of the Apparatus as a link between New Ravenloft and Old Ravenloft. Beautiful idea, a great hook to use, and it brings this whole series of articles into the Issue's theme. A+
To pull back the curtain a bit, at this point I was starting to despair over us having time to proofread everything. So even though I loved the Falk files articles, looking ahead I said to the group: "And now... 36 pages about a Conch Shell. Really, Mephisto? OK.... here I go, diving in. You might not hear from me for a few days...."
I only bring that up because the next thing I wrote, 3 days later was: OK, finally finished the Conch Shell. I should not have doubted Mephisto. He knows how to weave a tale, and how to bring disparate elements to their natural conclusions, creating adventure hooks along the way. A great synthesis of the Dungeon adventure "Unkindness of Raven's" and the multiple past QtR issues, with a splash of Lovecraft to pull it all together. It is incredibly long. But worth it. Again, the art is better than many professional publications, and this one has awesome cartography as well! (As an editing note, I do wish the transformation pages were text and not images. There are some corrections I would have made, but I didn't have time to re-type everything to do so. )
Dementlieu - It's Mistmaster's theme to shine in. Another in his series remaking everything. I must say, I really like the historical additions, making it feel more like a cohesive world. But as a huge fan of the original Dementlieu, personally, some of the changes do seem unnecessary, like giving Balfour's powers check to La Grange for example, or changing the church from LN to LG. I love all the new NPCs and as always, the inclusion of an adventure hook for each one. More invitees for my next P-a-L dinner party! Very cute inclusion of "JJ." (I see your inspiration in name and character there!) But a nice twist to have him actually be the hero he vilifies. I don't have Occult Adventures yet, but Mesmerist sounds perfect for Dominic. I like the addition of Allan (Alanik) and Aubrecker (the Brain) as college buddies/rivals of Dominic. Interesting to see him develop his power and evil later than the canon version, no longer hitting the "bad seed" trope, but instead, a more realistic evolution into who we know him to be.
more to come....
In no particular order (ok, the order I proofread them in...)
The Grand Estate Cluster - Some of you may know my personal "meh" feelings about new domains in general, but this was an unusually good set of them. I don't know how much is from the game, which I haven't played, and how much was added here, but they fit perfectly as Ravenloft domains, and I love the idea of a cluster with such a strong connection between the darklords and the domains. I would have liked to see a section of what each darklord thinks about the others, though I can understand they are focused on their own goals and their common enemy in Lachlan. Still, it would be nice to have some tentative alliances/factions between them. All very evocative and clever variations on the theme, so it never got too repetitive, even if they all sort of follow the same pattern. I'm curious where these corrupting books came from in the first place. Was there an ancestor that ended up dooming the whole family by writing them? or was it an outside influence like a demon or the dark powers themselves?
Hands Stained with Shadow - A nice article in the vein of the classic ones it acknowledges, taking a crunchy sourcebook and melding it with Ravenloft flavor. Without having the book in question, I have to take the descriptions here at face value, but they are quite good. Author shows a good and deep working knowledge of the domains, and all the placements for these subclasses seem right. Some very clever takes on some of them as well. I particularly like the fractured barbarian as a Jeckyl/Hyde variant. I did take the liberty of adding Nosos as another source of vermin lords, as it seemed too perfect not to mention.
The Chibiloft comics: Cute and fun. Always nice to see the lighter side of Ravenloft poke through. Reminds me of the comics page in the old Dragon mags, which was always a highlight.
Heroes of Chibiloft: very cute as well. Seems Rock has put a lot more thought into these characters than is obvious from the comics. A fun look into their backgrounds, even if of debatable use for DMs. I suppose one might drop these guys in for a cameo if a campaign is light enough to warrant it.
Cursed Items: Short and sweet. Could have used an intro paragraph or two, but I do like how it gets right to the point, and several of these items are real spooky winners. I particularly like the cradle and the flying cloak.
Judgement on Silent Wings - another short and sweet one. I haven't looked back at the original Owlmay articles in decades, so I don't know how much is new here, and I don't know 5e rules well, so I can't comment on the crunch much, but with those caveats in mind, this seems like a good translation. Nothing extraneous, well written and to the point.
Scenes from a Starving Land - a nice elaboration on a rarely used domain. I like that it makes it feel a bit more lived-in than usual. I didn't quite understand the situation with "The Jackal," though. Is the Captain the same person as the Widow? Did she kill her own husband? Also, the wereweasels seemed to come out of nowhere. Did I miss them in the story somewhere? But aside from those small confusions, quite nice.
Excerpts from the Registry of Monsters - I enjoyed the first in this series last year. This one is more of a mixed bag for me. I get the feeling that a lot of them are evocative from a different cultural perspective than I am familiar with, so they don't quite make sense to me in my usual "Ravenloft Mind". But the artwork is high quality and creepy and the stories that did hit for me hit well.
Dovehome - Well, we've got an anchor for our theme! A mixed bag, but overall fun "What If?" of various Ravenloft stories. I think they work better individually than as a cohesive demiplane. Some might make for a fun romp of a side-quest in a magic mirror or via the butterfly effect of time travel or somesuch, after a party has already met the "real" version for contrast. I particularly like the Carnival, and also how the Brain/Dominic still dance around each other in secret, but for different reasons now. The Adam story was a very cool spin on things, though the already murky situation of "who deserves to be darklord of Lamordia?" gets even murkier when you try to flip things around. Victor was never portrayed a saint, and here he's arguably even worse, while Adam gets to be better and Elise stays roughly the same. So, in isolation, it's a good alternative take, but I don't know if it fits in Dovehome. Maybe it fits better in Ravenloft proper, with Victor as darklord instead of Adam.
The Falk Files - First off, Mikhail's art is stunning throughout, as usual. Professional quality that would be right at home in a real published RL book.
Part 1 - Falkovnia Uber Alles - Those who like Falkovnians as Nazis will like this one. Those that don't... won't. It leans in heavily to the racist undertones of the society by creating a "hard-core" level of racism within this society. The "Leibenborn" aside is particularly disturbing, possibly more than is comfortable for some. But by concentrating the real Nazis into this society, it does leave open the door for more sympathetic Falkovnian soldiers who might be just "following orders" and not quite as egregious as these guys, which could be good when trying to recruit rebels without having to have them also be despicable.
Part 2 - Sins of the Father - very nice fleshing out of Vigo. I like that it gives him motivation and schemes beyond the goals of his two "fathers". Lots of good adventure hooks for adventures in Falkovnia. Would definitely use a lot of this. His connection to both Bluebeard and the Grim Harvest may be a bit much, though. I might just keep one or the other but not both to avoid any "Mary Sue" vibes. I like the Death's Head Rings bit, so the GH part would probably be the one to keep for me, and the retconning to fix "Vito Romenza"'s long-standing dukkar issues is a nice one.
Part 3 - nice stuff, but seems to lose direction a bit in the middle and shift from assassination attempts to rebel groups, which are related but not the same thing. Also, I'm not super keen on every attack from Drakov on a neighboring domain being predicated by an assassination attempt. I'd prefer if they were of his own accord. But with that said, I do like having lots of stuff to pick and choose from. I can always dump the ones I don't use and in my campaign they never happened. (I need to come up with a succinct name for that idea: It seems overstuffed, but if you view them as DM options and only use some, the end result is not overstuffed, but just the right variety to pick from. Something like "The Buffet Effect"? Eh.. I'll keep working on it.)
Part 4 - (as an editor) oh my god, it's 38 pages. hold me..... (as a reader) Fun kind of "Game of Thrones" amongst the kobolds, lizardmen, draconians, and minotaurs stuff. At first, I wasn't sure how relevant any of it is to modern Falkovnia. Certainly wasn't sure it merited more pages than the first 3 parts of Falk Files combined! And while I get the point of the almost-but-not-quite similarity between the names "Bakiliskis" and "Basiliscus", boy is that difficult to keep straight, especially when proof-reading and making sure the right one is used. I can almost guarantee I got it wrong once or twice. But as I read further, there were so many plot hooks and adventure ideas that I was won over. An incredible amount of extrapolation from a few brief lines in the Gaz, and involving draconians and bakali was a great way to bring in Drakov's often neglected origin on Krynn. Still, it's SO VERY LONG! Probably a lot could have been cut down, but I did like it.
Part 5 - The Cyclops's legacy. Love, love, love this one. I've always liked Vjorn as the Mengele of Falkovnia, and this fleshes out still more of his experiments, and they are all great ones that fit the genre and provide adventure hooks. Shades of Castle Wolfenstein, Stranger Things, Stargate, so many other great "mad scientist working for the government/military " motifs, all fit right in at the Ministry of Science. I'd like to the think the time-shifting tunnel gets its powers from the nearby temporal fugue of the Shadow Rift, though it wasn't mentioned. I really love the idea of the Apparatus as a link between New Ravenloft and Old Ravenloft. Beautiful idea, a great hook to use, and it brings this whole series of articles into the Issue's theme. A+
To pull back the curtain a bit, at this point I was starting to despair over us having time to proofread everything. So even though I loved the Falk files articles, looking ahead I said to the group: "And now... 36 pages about a Conch Shell. Really, Mephisto? OK.... here I go, diving in. You might not hear from me for a few days...."
I only bring that up because the next thing I wrote, 3 days later was: OK, finally finished the Conch Shell. I should not have doubted Mephisto. He knows how to weave a tale, and how to bring disparate elements to their natural conclusions, creating adventure hooks along the way. A great synthesis of the Dungeon adventure "Unkindness of Raven's" and the multiple past QtR issues, with a splash of Lovecraft to pull it all together. It is incredibly long. But worth it. Again, the art is better than many professional publications, and this one has awesome cartography as well! (As an editing note, I do wish the transformation pages were text and not images. There are some corrections I would have made, but I didn't have time to re-type everything to do so. )
Dementlieu - It's Mistmaster's theme to shine in. Another in his series remaking everything. I must say, I really like the historical additions, making it feel more like a cohesive world. But as a huge fan of the original Dementlieu, personally, some of the changes do seem unnecessary, like giving Balfour's powers check to La Grange for example, or changing the church from LN to LG. I love all the new NPCs and as always, the inclusion of an adventure hook for each one. More invitees for my next P-a-L dinner party! Very cute inclusion of "JJ." (I see your inspiration in name and character there!) But a nice twist to have him actually be the hero he vilifies. I don't have Occult Adventures yet, but Mesmerist sounds perfect for Dominic. I like the addition of Allan (Alanik) and Aubrecker (the Brain) as college buddies/rivals of Dominic. Interesting to see him develop his power and evil later than the canon version, no longer hitting the "bad seed" trope, but instead, a more realistic evolution into who we know him to be.
more to come....