Café de Nuit

Hi guys,

I was browsing the Wotc site, and I found some interesting things pretaining to Ravenloft.

First, there's this prestige class online : Subverted Psion
I like the idea behind this class - a person so obsessed with their own mental problems that they descend into depravity. Kind of like a Sutter Kain from "In the Mouth of Madness".

Then, there is this teaster for an upcomming Dragon magazine where Ravenloft monsters are being republished:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/news/20051125a
I wonder if this is just going to be a rewrite of Denizens of Darkness?

Still, I can't help but feel cheated. Each time I tell myself that I won't buy Dragon anymore because it has become too friendly to powergamers and Eberron's fans, and each time they insert ONE article about something I care about. Be it Zuggtmoy in 337, Boccob's priesthood in 338 or updated monsters in 339.

Damn you Erik Mona! You know us too well
<waves fist.. and rushes to secure the issue>

Does anyone know what "Spellcraft: Masque of the Red Death" is though? Apparently it's also in the next issue...

Also, when is this edition out (specifically, out in the UK)? This'll be the first Dragon I've ever bought and I really want to get this one!

Oh, and beat you David!

In the "Plus!" section there's also this: "Spellcraft: Masque of the Red Death"

Mortepierre wrote:Still, I can't help but feel cheated. Each time I tell myself that I won't buy Dragon anymore because it has become too friendly to powergamers and Eberron's fans, and each time they insert ONE article about something I care about. Be it Zuggtmoy in 337, Boccob's priesthood in 338 or updated monsters in 339.

Damn you Erik Mona! You know us too well
<waves fist.. and rushes to secure the issue>

Yeah... I know they want to push the product line... but COME ON! And then there's the Dungeon Companion pieces about surviving wahetevr Dungeon advs are out there...

Personally, I buy the magazine mostly for the Class Acts section. Because of that section, there is almost ALWAYS something I can use: a Role-playing idea, a new concept, new skill uses, feats, whatever...

But that's netiher here nor there... I think that the Ravenloft monster article will likely be lame... It will be presented in a "Have you run out of powerful evil to throw at tyour PCs?"

then again, I could be wrong... and I'm going to by the magazine so I'll find otu soon eneough.

Mortepierre wrote:Still, I can't help but feel cheated. Each time I tell myself that I won't buy Dragon anymore because it has become too friendly to powergamers and Eberron's fans, and each time they insert ONE article about something I care about.

I'm with you, Mort.
I was a die-hard fan of Dragon magazine for years, but when they switched over formats, I dropped thm like a bad habit.
Much more expensive, much more advertisements and much less interesting materal. For Azalin's sake, they removed the story-ecology section - the kwelest part!

I think I'll have to see this issue before I actually buy it. Chances are, the so-called ravenloft contribution will probably be as minor and insiginficant as it was in the Dead Settings issue.

They spent more time on those stupid dinosaurs than ravenloft, for gawd's sake....

I HATE these things.
Here in Italy, we pay Dragon & Dungeon NINE EUROS apiece, dammit!
Buying just Dungeon means killing my wallet a bit more every time...
...
Sigh...
...
Nine euros less in my wallet at the end of next month...

I HATE these things.
Here in Italy, we pay Dragon & Dungeon NINE EUROS apiece, dammit!
Buying just Dungeon means killing my wallet a bit more every time... Evil or Very Mad

As a translation, that would be about $13.50, canadian, correct?

And if I might add, I know they have mentioned Ravenloft, but why the interest in it? I mean we have the stats for ti any way, who says we need a magazine to tell us what some of our coolest monsters are?

If you ask me, however, one has to wonder if WOTC is simply trying to 'muscle out' RL by saying 'ya, we can do horror! look....horror....oooo, Lycanthropes that are all affected by silver....look at us do horror...oooo, BOO!". Unfortunately, people who haven't read enough RL material fall for that kind of stuff.

Undead Cabbage wrote:

I HATE these things.
Here in Italy, we pay Dragon & Dungeon NINE EUROS apiece, dammit!
Buying just Dungeon means killing my wallet a bit more every time... Evil or Very Mad

As a translation, that would be about $13.50, canadian, correct?

And if I might add, I know they have mentioned Ravenloft, but why the interest in it? I mean we have the stats for ti any way, who says we need a magazine to tell us what some of our coolest monsters are?

If you ask me, however, one has to wonder if WOTC is simply trying to 'muscle out' RL by saying 'ya, we can do horror! look....horror....oooo, Lycanthropes that are all affected by silver....look at us do horror...oooo, BOO!". Unfortunately, people who haven't read enough RL material fall for that kind of stuff.

Unfortunately, a large chunk of the Dragon Magazine readership has not read anmy of this stuff... So, my only guess is they're trying to move units - deplete the stcokrooms of 3.5e Ravenloft and try to turn over a few bicks...

It is a shame thoguh that they focus so much on published settings. I remember a golden age where public settings were the exception and the magazine was otherwise filled with stuff for a variety of campaigns.... grumble... but I need my gaming fix though... damn them...

I loved Eberron until WotC decided to overkill it.

I mostly stick to just three Eberron accessories now: the campaign setting, Races of Eberron, and City of Towers.

I loved Eberron until WotC decided to overkill it.

I mostly stick to just three Eberron accessories now: the campaign setting, Races of Eberron, and City of Towers.

I can't say I ever saw the whole 'idea' behind ebberon, before it became a money grabbing campaign. Ebberon seems like a campaign setting that doesn't have a gimmick, or a medium. Forgotten Realms runs as a fantasy campaign setting, (LOTR, Chronicles of Narnia, The Lost World, King Arthur, etc.), and RL and MotRD run as a gothic horror campaign setting. exactly what was ebberon's original intended fan base, other than any one who will buy into (pun intended) anything that WOTC tells you?

I would think that a good way to maximize your fan bases covered, while minimizing your number of repeption of old material, would be to have three campaign settings: one fantasy, one horror, one science fiction. But instead, WOTC seems to be providing a whole lot of the same thing done in fifty different colors. Or have I just completely missed what Ebberon was intended to be?

I saw ebberon as the anything goes world. The Dm needs a icebound world with killer walrus men- Ebberon has a place for that. Player wants to run a half dragon half drow with psionic abilities? Ebberon has a way for that to have happened. Player wants to bring in a new cuthullu spwan monster he found on the net? Ebberon can fit them in quite easy.

The only probelm with all this is that it badly promotes Munchkinisum. Its one thing for a Dm to shoot down a players uber PC as it dosn't fit in the game world. Its a whole other things for the player to come back with sited proof it can work straight from the core handbook.

Jasper wrote:I saw ebberon as the anything goes world. The Dm needs a icebound world with killer walrus men- Ebberon has a place for that. Player wants to run a half dragon half drow with psionic abilities? Ebberon has a way for that to have happened. Player wants to bring in a new cuthullu spwan monster he found on the net? Ebberon can fit them in quite easy.

The only probelm with all this is that it badly promotes Munchkinisum. Its one thing for a Dm to shoot down a players uber PC as it dosn't fit in the game world. Its a whole other things for the player to come back with sited proof it can work straight from the core handbook.

And the irony is that Eberron is positioned as a land for low to mid-level adventures... I don't know. I thought I saw seom interesting tidbits when I flipped through the campaign book, buit nothing beyond that.

As for more of the same - well, WotC and D&D is basically all about the fantasy RPGs. Yeah, they've done some other stuff with the rules, but that's what the baeline is - it's meant to run the same thing over and over gain. And instinctively we know it, because most of us could probably make an entire book of our own just listing our personal campaign mods to the rules for the sake of playability and/or realism...

And unfortunately, we're a marginial group of d20 gamers...

I saw ebberon as the anything goes world. The Dm needs a icebound world with killer walrus men- Ebberon has a place for that. Player wants to run a half dragon half drow with psionic abilities? Ebberon has a way for that to have happened. Player wants to bring in a new cuthullu spwan monster he found on the net? Ebberon can fit them in quite easy.

The only probelm with all this is that it badly promotes Munchkinisum. Its one thing for a Dm to shoot down a players uber PC as it dosn't fit in the game world. Its a whole other things for the player to come back with sited proof it can work straight from the core handbook.

So pretty much, the point behind ebberon is that it is the only place where my vampiric, fiendish, fey-touched, were-wolf, choosen of mystra, Dire, half-golem, deathless, revanent, lich, celestial, ghost, tarrasque would ever come into existance.

It's sort of like the Ninja Turtles cartoon. That cartoon was so cool, until they did decided to send them into space...

So pretty much, the point behind ebberon is that it is the only place where my vampiric, fiendish, fey-touched, were-wolf, choosen of mystra, Dire, half-golem, deathless, revanent, lich, celestial, ghost, tarrasque would ever come into existance.

Basicly. Ebberon is in all honesty some guys homebrewed setting. WOTC ran a contest were you could send in your idea for a new setting and Ebberon was the winner out of a couple hundred entries.