Mistmaster is right: my purpose of this thread is to fish ideas in an effort to convert Ravenloft into a real world, or, a world that is self-contained. Well, as real/self-contained as any other D&D setting.
By my estimation Ravenloft is now established enough through long campaigning (literally), fan work and platforming of new ideas such as that produced and enabled by this site, and in no small part by the vision and execution of 3E (as stated in the "Changes Wrought" blurb in RLCS, with particular emphasis on "internally consistent") that it no longer needs the Mists to act as some sort of eclectic Earthworks project manager.
The Mists as a means of otherworldly transportation (seemingly or personally) is fine in and of it itself, but the idea of using it to lure gamers from other settings (cross-promotion/sales/etc) serves no purpose other than to eternalise its dependence on those said settings. It should and can be dependent on rules systems (which it possesses with the Powers Check, Fear, and Horror rules), themes (gothic/gothic-inspired fantasy horror), and nothing else. IMO. There is nothing inherently wrong with the Mists snatching land and claiming it their own (it's an easy "in" for DMs, familiar territory for devote/stubborn players of other settings, and a nice tidy temporary adventure setup/weekend in hell for the PCs of those other settings), but the lands being subtly "terraformed" (spiritually/emotionally/thematically/etc) by its dark lord's taint, combined with personal ambition, geopolitics, along with Mistic (
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
) personal transportation/relocation is or, should be, more than enough flavour in and of itself to highlight Ravenloft as being a unique setting. The Mists parting to reveal a DM's (YOUR) homebrewed domain, thus maintaining that aforementioned internal consistency, should by and large be the extent of it. Again, IMO. The land grab, a sidenote DM's option or delegation to random/"floating" pocket domains. Not as the in-game formation/history of the world.
In short, it's not that I'm pissing on others' game ways or what not: I'm not. Like I said, I'm a Black Box holdout for the most part. I love, and have always loved, the open-endedness to that edition of the setting; how it teased the imagination moreso than painted a picture; how it seemed to be a written invitation for the reader to inject their creations and make that horror their own. But, I do love to tinker on my "off days". And I like to tinker with the help of minds like that of those posters that visit these forums.
This is a call-out for anybody who may have ideas (big, small, fragmented - don't matter) on how to detach Ravenloft from its TSR/shared world umbilical cord. Like Mistmaster's Mistworld.
I just want to see what Ravenloft
could look like standing on its own two feet...
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
"A very piteous thing it was to see such a quantity of dead bodies, and such an outpouring of blood - that is, if they had not been enemies of the Christian faith."
- Jean Pierre Sarrasin, "The Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville"