Café de Nuit

Something where you play as a Vistani caravan or wagon like Oregon Trail would be a fun phone game. Maybe you pick up not quests so much as jobs or reasons to go here or there so it is not one linear trip every time.

Pizza wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2024 6:37 pm Something where you play as a Vistani caravan or wagon like Oregon Trail would be a fun phone game. Maybe you pick up not quests so much as jobs or reasons to go here or there so it is not one linear trip every time.

I would totally play "Ravenloft Trail". At least until the 27459th time I died of undead dysentery.

Rock of the Fraternity wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 1:23 am It'd have a job living up to the battle described in Knight of the Black Rose, when Soth besieged Castle Ravenloft with only Azrael at his side ... and Strahd resorted to trickery to make him stop, rather than face him directly.

It sure did...
https://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Ir ... _Ravenloft

Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft characters have already written backgrounds!
Nice...

I was thinking more about the Oregon Trail idea today, and it occurred to me you could make this into two games which have roughly the same gameplay loop at the meta level while being different in the details.

So game one would be basically Oregon Trail. Diseases, more random events like finding berries in the original game, and stopping to hunt though maybe this is also investigating locations or fighting monsters. You’d do the river rafting portion from the end every time you travelled the Mists maybe.

Game two would still be traveling from place to place, but it would be more like Fallout Shelter. You’d start with one to three wagons, and over time you’d build more, recruit or have more Vistani, send people out on missions. The wagons would be specialized or have associated equipment to allow you to open new abilities, services, or options for characters. I’d put more focus on playing out the fights and encounters your PCs have on the missions than Fallout Shelter did. You’d make camp in the wilderness or outside settlements opening up options for NPC interactions. Monster attacks would not only be against your PCs as in Fallout Shelter, but against the wagons too which would keep the end state gameplay from being quite as predictable. Road quality would impact how your wagons are organized this impacting caravan length and strength of defenses.

I don't know... it sounds a bit too grindy for it to be fun for me.

Without being domain-specific, i'd say a Ravelonft game should have the following imo:

• - Gothic/horror visuals: I'm not talking just the architecture, surrounding imposing spires, but also the appearance and even body language of creatures. I'd say that the SoulsBorne games really nailed this.
  - Audio gameplay: Audio cues, sometimes mixed with other sounds as part of the gameplay experience. Horror staple, right?
  - Controls and PoV. Horror games need an interaction pattern that allows the player (at least a 1st time player) to feel the thrill and stress of a horror situation, such as combat or running. Action games and ARPGs do this better than CRPGs imo, as long as they're not power creep games (Diablo 2/PoE/etc). To this day, i think Diablo 1 was the only top-view game that really gave me this feeling.
  - Mystery/Intrigue with dialogue and choices: Discovering hidden lore, uncovering secrets, making shady alliances, etc. I think this part is the most D&D-familiar. Choices don't need to be too deep with butterfly effects, just have a few.
  - Misty borders that would work like the Lost Woods in the Zelda game Ocarina of Time, with certain points in the mist being actually traversible, presumably leading into other domains or secret locations.

Since it'd be a Ravenloft game, I guess it would be neat to travel between at least two domains, perhaps implicating Cyre 1313 or the Carnival (or smthin) in the story. But I don't think that's necessary.

I agree with much of what you said, but I would stand on a point I disagree with: I strongly believe the game should take place within a single domain. At least for first timers.

I was rereading Gazetteer II's write-up on Falkovnia, and the section on paper trails and travel docuemnts reminded me of this thread. Do you think a game like Papers, Please would be fun if it were themed to be at a Falkovnian border checkpoint?

alhoon wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 1:48 pm I agree with much of what you said, but I would stand on a point I disagree with: I strongly believe the game should take place within a single domain. At least for first timers.

Relatable. Maybe travelling outside the main domain should be saved for DLC.

Speedwagon wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 2:10 pm I was rereading Gazetteer II's write-up on Falkovnia, and the section on paper trails and travel docuemnts reminded me of this thread. Do you think a game like Papers, Please would be fun if it were themed to be at a Falkovnian border checkpoint?

I've only seen that game, never played it, but I imagine that any1 who liked the original "Papers, Please" would like a Ravenloft/Falkovnia re-skin or remake of it.