New Ravenloft fiction

[WolfKook]

Sweet! So if there're any Outlanders, then they come from Earth, and not Krynn or Toril, but that's the only restriction.

Well, I think I would've liked some of them coming from "generic, yet unnamed, D&D worlds", like those from The Great Kingdom, where Elena and the Shadowborn come from, the Three Hags, or Strahd himself... It would give writers a little more freedom for creating their characters, but thats only MHO.

...Well, at least RL is not getting Eberron crossovers

[Lord Soth]

Well, I think I would've liked some of them coming from "generic, yet unnamed, D&D worlds", like those from The Great Kingdom, where Elena and the Shadowborn come from, the Three Hags, or Strahd himself... It would give writers a little more freedom for creating their characters, but thats only MHO.

It's not an ideal thing, but it's certainly miles better then what I thought initially, that every forthcoming book must have a connection to Earth. And yeah, I'd like to see something done with Prime Material Barovia, but at least for now, the door isn't closed on novels which take place entirely in Ravenloft.

...Well, at least RL is not getting Eberron crossovers

D&D Online is as far as my experience with Eberron goes, but I can safely say that I'd be content to never see a Warforged in Ravenloft.

Sorry; I know that's not the most satisfying answer, but I'm already pushing the boundaries of my NDA pretty tightly as is.

Not a problem. Though if you can think of anything you can spill without violating your NDA, then please, by all means, feel free to share.

[cure]

Ravenloft: The Covenant is a line of books reprinting old Ravenloft novels. Ravenloft: Dominion is a line of books producing all new Ravenloft fiction. Is that correct?

That's correct.

Could you suggest to the powers that be that they might do well to consider reprinting the works that are hardest to get and in greatest demand, i.e., King of the Dead and Lord of Necropolis?

Thanx and looking forward to the fruit of your labour.

[Mouseferatu]

Could you suggest to the powers that be that they might do well to consider reprinting the works that are hardest to get and in greatest demand, i.e., King of the Dead and Lord of Necropolis?

I could suggest it, but honestly I don't know that there's much chance of it. Those two--particularly LoN--are pretty much considered "non-canon" by the powers that be.

Edit to Add: Also, I don't know if any new books are going to be printed in the RL:C line, once RL:D hits shelves. Nobody's told me one way or the other, but I can see WotC being a bit concerned about causing some confusion, especially since there are some differences in the two series' views of Ravenloft.

Thanx and looking forward to the fruit of your labour.

I'll do my best not to disappoint.

[Le Noir Faineant]

Welcome, Mr Marmell!

Thank you.

I think the main question we all have is if you can disclose if this new line of RL fiction is actually accompanied by RPG supplements of any sort.

To the best of my knowledge, no RPG supplements are planned at this time. (If I'm not mistaken, RL always sold better as novels than RPG books anyway.)

But who knows? If they do well enough, and there's a demand for 'em, I suppose anything's possible down the road...

Thank you for so kindly answering all our questions! Given that you were involved in a lot of other RL/horror-related projects, it's pretty cool that you finally have found your way here.

[Matthew L. Martin]

Thanks for all the answers and allaying our concerns, Ari. Looking forward to seeing something new in the Dread Realm. The Earth connection has its upsides--it 'grounds' the characters a bit more, which can make the horror all the more unsettling.

Thinking about it, of all the Core domains, only five couldn't be retrofitted into a historic Earth origin without much difficulty--Darkon, Sithicus, Hazlan, Keening, and the Shadow Rift.

(Another bit of trivia: for all the times it's been 'cancelled', there has not been a calendar year without some sort of Ravenloft product since the line started back in 1990.)

[Ail]

Well, I am very excited about this new book, but unlike the rest of the forum, it's mostly for the Jerusalem part. The crusades are a particular favourite of mine, and actually I'm doing research right now for a weekend adventure that I will set in historical earth just at the end of the crusades, in the period from 1291 to 1330, more or less, spanning a territory from Palestine to Portugal.

I know that is not RL, but this time period allows many good inspirations for RL. And in my view, religion is the main reason for that.

Of course I also like RL novels very much and I'm also curious to learn about Malosia, though.

Alex

[LordGodefroi]

Question:

Considering the nature of the new books, will there be a continuity re-write ? Or, more accurately, will this series have its own independent continuity ?

I hope so because RLs continuity (both original novels and games) was shaky at best and the Grand Conjunction only made things worse. They really should've pushed the continuity re-set button with Domains of Dread or the 3e stuff.

Either way, this version of RL sounds intrguing. More RL fiction is a good thing. I can't wait to read the new stuff.

[Mouseferatu]

Considering the nature of the new books, will there be a continuity re-write ? Or, more accurately, will this series have its own independent continuity ?

I think the answer to that question is a definite "sort of."

What I mean is, we're not specifically setting out to say "This material over here is still historical canon, but that material over there is not." What we are doing, however, is using/referencing what fits and trying to minimize references to what doesn't.

In other words, it's not a formal rewrite, but we're far more concerned with RL going forward than we are rehashing what's come before.

[LordGodefroi]

Considering the nature of the new books, will there be a continuity re-write ? Or, more accurately, will this series have its own independent continuity ?

I think the answer to that question is a definite "sort of."

What I mean is, we're not specifically setting out to say "This material over here is still historical canon, but that material over there is not." What we are doing, however, is using/referencing what fits and trying to minimize references to what doesn't.

In other words, it's not a formal rewrite, but we're far more concerned with RL going forward than we are rehashing what's come before.

Kind of a Star Trek / comic book approach ? Ret-con (or ignore) what needs to be ret-conned (or ignored) when the story demands it ?

I can live with that. In fact, I'm glad the new team recognizes that there are parts of RL that doesn't work rather than sticking to canon on everything.

Thanks for answering my question.

[Joël of the FoS]

Agreed to the "let's minimize refs with things we do not like", instead of rewriting things, aka setting revisionism. RL ans would prefer this, IMHO.

You see (and I'm sure I do not need to remind Ari of this), be sure that sharp changes to the setting as per an author's taste, or wim of the moment, will most probably bring comments à la Champions of Darkness

Explaining the unexplainable is fine, as long as it works and fits with the rest (ex: Lyssa VZ aging as explained in Gaz1).

Adding questionable changes to the setting will be scrutinized in all details, implications, etc., so if it doesn't fit, fans won't like it.

Moving forward is fine and much needed and appreciated, but confusing the fans with revisionism isn't. IMHO. Not a good service to the setting.

Joël

[LordGodefroi]

. . . Moving forward is fine and much needed and appreciated, but confusing the fans with revisionism isn't. IMHO. Not a good service to the setting.

Joël

I think that depends on how you define "revisionism." If, by revisionism, you mean a change in tone, approach, or classic characters, I agree that things should remain the same. RL has always been about gothic horror in the classic monster movie sense a la Hammer Films or Amicus.

However, if "revisionism" means fixing contradictions in character histories or the over-all timeline (including those maddening "false histories"), removing incongruous minor characters, or removing things that just don't fit (Vecna as darklord, for example), then it could be useful in removing the chaff from the wheat.

Comic books use "revisionism" all the time and success really depends on what's done, who's doing it, and how it's handled. The Spider-man "Clone Saga" can be said to be the worst example of it while Neal Adams' return of Batman to his gothic roots can be said to be an example of the best.

Of course, this is really a moot point. We already have our answer "from the mouse's mouth" about how things will be handled and I think the approach appeals to both sides of the issue.

[NykylaiHellray]

Yeah bit of a thread necromancer, but I am curious on whether the god awful things inserted into EtCr will be ignored.

Because I think I may cry if they are made cannon o_o

[Mouseferatu]

Yeah bit of a thread necromancer, but I am curious on whether the god awful things inserted into EtCr will be ignored.

Because I think I may cry if they are made cannon o_o

Well, since none of the Ravenloft: Dominion novels are set in Barovia (or at least, none of them will be for a good long while, if ever), I don't think it'll be a problem.

[NykylaiHellray]

Yeah bit of a thread necromancer, but I am curious on whether the god awful things inserted into EtCr will be ignored.

Because I think I may cry if they are made cannon o_o

Well, since none of the Ravenloft: Dominion novels are set in Barovia (or at least, none of them will be for a good long while, if ever), I don't think it'll be a problem.

That actually makes me more curious, how many of the old domains in ravenloft will be mentioned if ever? Or is that still hush hush =)?