New Ravenloft DM -- Help (3.5)

[Thelas]

I tried running one of the free Ravenloft AD&D modules from the Wizards site using OSRIC. It was fun, though I had to get some help with rules (on another forum, wasn't aware of this one yet). However, my players are now exceedingly angry at me because I... made them learn THAC0.
Also, I didn't do so great at scaring the players, at all.
So. I plan to get the Ravenloft CS and run some of the modules from this site.
First off: Any really really good ones I absolutely need to run?
Secondly: Do you have any 1st level or 2nd level ones here? I want to start at low levels.
Thirdly: I read the "The Strange Story of Darkangnon Estates" module. It looks fun. Any experience with it?
Fourthly: How to avoid players wanting to kill me if I do run that module? It seems like they will if they even figure out what is happening?
Fifthly: In that module, it seems to be expected that about half the party will go mad. How do you get the madness across to some players, the sanity to the others, and give neither the sane players really obvious hints some are insane nor the insane ones hints they are actually seeing wrong stuff.
Lastly: Ravenloft DMing tips.

Thanks,

Thelas

[whalejudge]

I write my own adventures, but in 3.5--damage reduction is your friend. So is shifting around what, exactly, the vulnerabilities of the monsters are. My guys and gals ran fron a single zombie because they weren't hurting the thing significantly. Another tip is to never specify what, exactly, they are facing until they make the knowledge rolls. I also suggest looking into the scaled "ranks" of the monsters in denizens of dread. When you're expecting zombies and skeletons, rank 1 ancient dead are a nasty shock.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Welcome!

Secondly: Do you have any 1st level or 2nd level ones here? I want to start at low levels.

"The Best of Friends" is for levels 1-3
"Child of the House" is for 1st level
"Island of Decay" is 2-4

While not a full module, Mangrum's sketch of the transubstantial halo adventure is quite nice and could be geared to low-levels.

Which module from WotC did you run? Night of the Walking Dead is great for low levels.

Lastly: Ravenloft DMing tips.

The key is to have players that are on board, really. If they don't want to be scared, they'll never be. If they're up for a roleplaying challenge and will go with you, it's easy.

The RLDMG has some great specific advice, as does the original 2e Black Box Campaign Setting, and there are tons of tips scattered about this site, especially in the forums and the Vault.


Again, welcome!

[Thelas]

Yeah, I ran NotWD. However, due to pressure by players to get them out of 1E and let the other DM run the game he's been waiting to run for a long time, I horribly mutilated the adventure. Which reminds me. *powers check*.

Also: what character sheet would you recommend for Ravenloft 3rd edition? I'd use a normal one, but there are no spaces for F/H/M saves.

Thelas

[High Priest Mikhal]

Also: what character sheet would you recommend for Ravenloft 3rd edition? I'd use a normal one, but there are no spaces for F/H/M saves.

Those are just Will saves, essentially. They're also only really called for if the players aren't role-playing the fear and horror their characters are feeling. Just use a plain sheet; the modifiers for F/H/M saves vary from encounter to encounter too wildly to bother noting any non-permanent bonuses (from feats, class abilities, etc.).

[The Giamarga]

You can find a few charsheets here on this site in the Mausoleum

This sheet from the Ravenloft Renaissance site is also quite good. That site also has lots of other useful sheets including the Ravenloft DM Quick Sheet, and the Ravenloft Fear/Horror/Madness Sheet- They're all available on the front page.

[The Giamarga]

Also, welcome to RL!

Check out the following links/threads:
FoS Ravenloft FAQ
New to the Ravenloft Campaign Setting
So what books do I need as a Ravenloft newbie?
New to Ravenloft (... and which books to buy)
Anyone got a complete list of all the 3E Ravenloft products?
Starting a Ravenloft Campaign Needs?
What do I need for Ravenloft
(Something like a best of compilation of these threads should probably be stickied!)

[Thelas]

Well, I'm not starting just yet, but I might as well ask this now and not later.
What sort of short writing (poem or short story) can I give the players to set the mood?
Preferably NOT about Ravenloft, because here's what they know about Ravenloft.
1) The name.
2) There's mist in it.
3) There are fear, horror, and madness saves.
4) The DM likes it.
Here's what they don't know about it:
1) The existance of domains
2) The existance of darklords
3) Who Strahd is
4) That some spells don't work normally
5) Just about everything, really.
For instance, since your some-period-of-time-that-I'm-not-really-sure-aboutly publication (QtR) is referencing Poe's poem, would that be a good choice?

Thelas

[DeadReborn]

One thing I can think of is trying to set the mood for a horror game. It's hard for the players to be scared if your playing in broad daylight with birds chirping in the background. Try playing at night, if possible, lighting some candles, playing some spooky background music and sound effects. Just little things like that will help get your players in the right frame of mind. Hope that helps and good luck.

[Thelas]

I've just started reading (for the second time) Feast of Goblyns, and I plan to run it.

However, I need to run it in 3.5, because otherwise the players will kill me.

I plan to take the campaign that has all the same players but a different DM, and make this a parallel world of that. (We switch around characters, I'm DMing, and the mists have a nice little arrival, that's all.)

The DM for the other game seems to be saying that the PCs will be level 5 when this module is over, so...

Help converting Feast of Goblyns to 3.5? (I don't currently have the 3.5 Ravenloft books, but I plan to get at least the 3.0 one before we play.)

Also, is Bluetspur that place with the illithids that take over your dreams if you use psionics?

[Joël of the FoS]

You can also check the Vault for "Evil DM tricks", where many of us added mood oriented ideas.

Joël

[Rotipher of the FoS]

If you're starting a fresh campaign, perhaps the biggest initial decision to make is whether the PCs will be natives of Ravenloft, or outlanders that were brought in from some other D&D world by the Mists. Both methods have their advantages and liabilities.

With native PCs, the players will need to be told more about the setting at the start: what country they're in, what language they speak, who the local ruler is, etc. This doesn't mean you have to tell them about domains or darklords -- only a handful of occult scholars and villains know about those -- but they should have the sort of "public knowledge" that anyone growing up in the setting would have. If they grew up in Barovia, they'd know that Count Strahd is their ruler, who reigns from Castle Ravenloft; possibly they'd know that he's a wizard, but certainly not that he's a vampire.

Every native knows that the Mists exist, and can do unnerving things, but they accept that as a part of life: like IRL ancient cultures' view of storms, they're considered a force of nature or of divine anger. PCs who live near the edge of the Core will know that the Misty Border marks the edge of the map, but they likewise won't think that's strange, any more than an old-time Viking would think it strange that the World Serpent's coils lie at the ends of the Earth. Natives don't know about Powers checks or the Dark Powers, but most will know stories (believed or not) about curses of vengeance.

That's the disadvantage to a native campaign: you have to tell them a lot more information at the start, and pick and choose which things should be hidden until later. The advantage with natives is that they're likely to care a lot more about what happens to the people and places they run into, because it's not just a scary place to adventure: the Land of Mists is home, and they know it can be a nice enough place when the monsters aren't prowling.

With outlanders, you don't need to do so much prep-work, as the PCs will start out just as unfamiliar with the setting as your players will. You can feed them information bit by bit, as they converse with NPCs and observe the world around them. Nor do you have to worry so much about letting them in on the setting's secrets: if they find out that darklords exist, and start blabbing about them to everyone they see, the NPCs can dismiss their tales as the ravings of just another bunch of crazy foreigners. Most outlander games revolve around the PCs' efforts to get back where they came from, at least at first.

The downside to outlanders is that they don't have nearly as much cause to care about the fates of the NPCs they encounter, and may become so paranoid that they won't trust any NPCs, either. Unless your players are fairly mature about their gaming, they might even decide that nothing they do to the people around them matters, because they're leaving at the first opportunity. Players who metagame, telling themselves that the DM is bound to let their PCs escape sooner or later, are particularly prone to this kind of thing.

[Thelas]

Well, I'm planning on branching off from someone else's game, who isn't running Ravenloft, so they'll probably be outsiders.

Plus, that seems to be what Feast of Goblyns expects.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Up to you. When Feast of Goblyns was written, it was assumed that everyone would run Ravenloft with outlanders, because the product line was just starting out and was marketed as a "Weekend in Hell" adventure setting. But you could change the beginning if you wanted to make them natives instead.

Is the setting your PCs come from one of the other published campaign settings, or is it homebrew? If the characters are from FR or GH, it may be that their Common language is similar to one of the languages spoken in the Core. If not, you might need to add an NPC outlander to the story: one came to Ravenloft from the same world years ago, but has learned the Core languages and can translate for the PCs.

[Thelas]

It's homebrew, but the gods and languages are as per Greyhawk.

Also *pulls up Feast of Goblyns*

The people speak a strange dialect which sounds very elven due to its musical qualities. In truth, however, this dialect is actually a variant of standard common and the PCs will be able to pick it up more quickly than most other languages. There is a base 5% chance for any player character to understand the gist of a statement or conversation. This chance increases by 1% for each day in which a PC spends more than half of his time in areas where the language is spoken.

-> Since everyone speaks Common, this seems okay for me.

Also, (as I asked earlier) is Bluetspur that place with the illithids that take over your dreams if you use psionics?[/quote]