Café de Nuit

kelnage wrote:Okay, one last question...

I've seen the following books I might be interested in, however, I'm on a very limited budget right now. Other than the Ravenloft PHB, which I'll obviously be getting first, from these, which do you think would be a good next choice?

It really depends on what kind of campaign you want to run. If you want to have a lot of action and combat and cool monsters, I'd recommend Denizens of Darkness. If you want to run something heavily atmospheric that has a distinctive Ravenloft flavor and doesn't really move around from one domain to the next, go for the Gazetteer that covers the domain you're interested in. (In a nutshell, Gazetteer 2 is best for a high-magic, "dark fantasy" campaign because of Darkon and Gazetteer 3 is best for a campaign focusing on political intrigue because of Dementlieu and Richemulot, while 1 and 5 have all kinds of crunchy monsters and paranoid, superstitious peasants if torches and pitchforks are your style. 4, IMHO, has a lot of more "supplemental" domains that probably aren't the best place to base your first campaign out of.) If you really just want tips on how to run a horror game and are okay with making up a lot of the details of the campaign world by yourself on the fly, consider the Ravenloft DMG. The others are good, but not the first things that I'd recommend for purchase.

I personally would recommend a Gazetteer most strongly, unless you're reallynervous about the idea of running a horror campaign, in which case I'd go for the DMG. Denizens of Dread is great, but a creative DM should have no problem adapting standard lycanthropes, vampires, and ghosts from the Monster Manual into chilling villains for the first few sessions, especially with all the tips on salient powers from the PHB/core rulebook.

kelnage wrote:Okay, one last question...

I've seen the following books I might be interested in, however, I'm on a very limited budget right now. Other than the Ravenloft PHB, which I'll obviously be getting first, from these, which do you think would be a good next choice?

Well, if you're on a budget, one of the best things to do is to go to the WotC website, and download a few free Ravenloft adventures, notably the Hyksosa's Hexad series of adventures. Night of the Walking Dead is a great introduction to Ravenloft, and Feast of Goblyns has a good intro to running a horror adventure. They are 2E AD&D though, so you will have to convert them, but I'm sure the nice people here could help with that.

Hi everyone!

I'm new to Ravenloft, and I'm curious as to whether Barovian clerics exist or not. I know that while in Barovian, character who previously received spells from deities or otherworldly patrons continue to do so. However it is not clear as if Barovian natives are granted any divine power from their worship.

The Curse of Strahd rpg module is mostly silent regarding this matter. There is mention of a paladin (Sir Godfrey Gwilym), but he is an undead who died during the war against Strahd's campaign to conquer the valley of Barovia, which I assume took place before Barovia became part of Ravenloft. Other than that, it does not mention Barovians paladins/clerics with real divine powers. Do they exist at all?

Merudo wrote:Hi everyone!

I'm new to Ravenloft, and I'm curious as to whether Barovian clerics exist or not. I know that while in Barovian, character who previously received spells from deities or otherworldly patrons continue to do so. However it is not clear as if Barovian natives are granted any divine power from their worship.

The Curse of Strahd rpg module is mostly silent regarding this matter. There is mention of a paladin (Sir Godfrey Gwilym), but he is an undead who died during the war against Strahd's campaign to conquer the valley of Barovia, which I assume took place before Barovia became part of Ravenloft. Other than that, it does not mention Barovians paladins/clerics with real divine powers. Do they exist at all?

Hi there! Yes, if you want "real" information on Barovia, you need to go back to 3e's Ravenloft Gazetteer 1. But, in a nutshell:

Barovians are a surprisingly irreligious people as a rule, in no small part because of how terrorized by Strahd they are. There are lay-worshippers and priests, but they don't have huge flocks - which makes "itinerant adventurer" a perfectly valid career choice for a Barovian cleric. But, those who do find faith can and do receive clerical powers, whether from a real deity or the Dark Powers is known only to the DM.

There are handfuls of both Ezran and Halan acolytes in Barovia, but the closest thing to a native religion is the cult of the Morninglord, an optimistic and positivity-focused solar deity, based on Faerun's Lathander. Members of the Gundarkite ethnic group also have Erlin, a malicious god of trickery, deceit and death, who is popular with the Gundarkite Independence movement.