If somebody were to introduce such concepts into their campaign then it obviously won't overwhelm the campaign setting, given that the campaign setting, the original representation or example, is a conglomeration of ideas that DMs are, through the stated nature of the game, encouraged to personalise/customise/own.tomokaicho wrote:I think the naysayers are concerned with cultural and technological pollution into the less advanced domains. There are ways of handling it. One is simple isolation. You can't get from this cluster to other clusters. Alternatively, the natives do have technology, but they are unable to produce more of it. This scenario is similar to The Temple of the Frog, which can easily be repurposed for Ravenloft. You've got androids, lightsabers, blaster guns, robots, genetically engineered mutants - the whole works. Oh, and alien vampires.Rock wrote:I invite you to look at the domains' cultural levels. ^^;
These domains are specifically - and intentionally - more advanced than the Core and the usual domains. And why not? Not all roleplaying has to take place in the Dung Ages; Ravenloft itself shows us that Renaissance-age domains are well-suited to the genre of Gothic horror.
So why not try it in even more advanced societies?
When used this way high technology is just a variant of magic from the point of view of lower tech people. Technology and magic could interact as well. If you can't recharge your blaster because you don't have the fusion reactor or whatever is required, magic can do the recharging for you (which has costs, which therefore puts the blaster on par with a magic wand).
D&D has always had a bit of Sci-Fi on the fringes. There is City of the Gods (related to Temple of the Frog). Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Tale of the Comet. All D&D canon. If you want to go crazy with it, have the Dark Powers harvest NPCs from the Gamma World setting.
In terms of what is in D&D Sci-Fi canon, the approach that I described above is used. It's in the campaign setting, but does not overwhelm the campaign setting.
If that person is writing concepts for others to use, then that injection of flavour will be targeted and thus be appealing to a smaller audience than something written more...vanilla. An oddity on the shelf that will be picked up and looked at, but may take more time to sell. Whatever. Point is, it's still there on the shelf, in the store, and as such it's another tool for those looking for such tools.
Not sure where the resistance is coming from, to be honest. If people expect others to follow a specific edition's developer's blueprint then Ravenloft is and will forever be nothing more than somebody else's campaign. And that's just mucked. It goes against the foundation or principles of Dungeons and Dragons.
The Core and it's technology suppression is illogical and a glaring sore point, straight out of the box. I've read, and probably even speculated myself, many reasons as to why this is (or may be) over the years and not one of them makes any sense (that doesn't involve somehow breaking the Core down into individual domains). Thus clinging to that base model and resisting the inclusion of higher tech domains seems hypocritical. Not seems, IS hypocritical. The explanation, whatever it may be, either works or it doesn't, regardless of actual CL.
Rock: Keep it coming...
