Radical changes in Ravenloft in your campaign

[Mistmaster]

One thing I completely reject is false history.

[Galeros]

Ohhh, another one is I have Tinker Gnomes in my Ravenloft, they mostly keep to themselves in isolated settlements in Lamordia, and some live in Nosos too. The Humans of Lamordia regard them as eccentrics but appreciate their love of machinery, even with their lack of practicality. The Tinker Gnomes in Nosos mostly run shops selling various gadgets that tend to break and get thrown away in the trash piles of Nosos very quickly, so Malus like them well enough. Although that one who accidentaly made some Super Plant Food got run out of Nosos real quick.

My Ravenloft is rather B-Movie in tone.

[alhoon]

A radical change I have in my campaign is... that I don't often go "Gothic Horror" for Ravenloft, but I often simply use it as a setting with rules I like, having adventures like "kill the baddies" etc.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Although that one who accidentaly made some Super Plant Food got run out of Nosos real quick.

My Ravenloft is rather B-Movie in tone.

A Ravenloft twist: the Super Plant Food is made from the same ingredients as the plakton based food in Soylent Green.

VIEW CONTENT:

The dying oceans can not actually produce the plankton from which Soylent Green is allegedly made, thus revealing that the ingredients in Soylent Green are, in fact, human bodies.

[Galeros]

Now I am brainstorming how to "Ravenloftize" Tinker Gnomes...

Perhaps upon crossing into the Demiplane they go a little mad (In the traditional definition of mad, not the Tinker Gnome one where a Mad Gnome is one whose inventions actually work). Their stats (3.5) would go from +2 Int, +2 Dex, -2 Str, -2 Wis to +4 Int, +2 Dex, -2 Str, -4 Wis, -4 Cha to represent this. In addition Tinker Gnome would struggle not to get lost in thought and in combat would have a 20% chance to be lost in thought that round and not do anything. On the plus side, they would gain advantages to building their devices, no matter what kind of invention rules you use, whether it be the Gnomish Contraption rules from Races of Ansalon, or the Scientist PrC from Legacy of the Blood.

Maybe a +4 Bonus to building Gnomish Contraptions for the Races of Ansalon rules, and a free "Applied Science" from the Scientist PrC each time they qualify for one. If a 1 is rolled while trying to use the Applied Science device it backfires for 1D6 damage (Force) per level of spell in a radius of ten feet per level of spell. Races of Ansalon has its own drawback system.

For AD&D 2E you could use either the Tinker class from Dragonlance Adventures or the Scientist Kit from Dragon Magazine #215. For the Scientist Kit you could introduce a new Non Weapon Proficiency called "Use Gnomish Device" that lets you use your own device but at the cost of a backfire like detailed above if you roll a 20 on the check. Advantage wise you would gain exploding dice for combat, so a Tinker Gnome who invents a glove that mimics Shocking Grasp and rolls an 8 on the D8 would get to roll again, if the result is an 8 they get to roll again, or not if they do not get the maximum number.

Maybe even change Mordenheim to be a Gnome and Adam to be a Mechanical Golem instead of a Flesh Golem...

[Isolde]

They would be inventing evil tech meant for sadists and polluters and nothing truly useful.

[Galeros]

They would be inventing evil tech meant for sadists and polluters and nothing truly useful.

They do not need to be evil!! Most Tinker Gnome in Dragonlance are Neutral.

Though now that I am thinking about it I would probably not have full on Tinker Gnome settlements in the Core, but instead have a Tinker Gnome occasionally be dragged into Ravenloft and be changed by the Mists to what I detailed above. They would mostly choose to live in the higher tech domains but some would settle elsewhere depending on the nature of their Life Quest. A Gnome who wants to find the best way to destroy undead might live in Darkon for example.

EDIT: Looking around I found the old Deadlands D20 book and the Mad Scientist class would be great for Tinker Gnome's (Or Humans too!)

[Solan]

gender bending existing villains, or queer washing established characters, rather than creating new ones where that can be an actual part of their identity is obnoxious

They even got all the names wrong linguistically when they feminized them. Its ridiculous. If you check out the name changes its just hilarious.

Oh you mean like Vladeska Drakov? it literally smacks of middle school level fanfic where a 12 year old thinks they've subverted all societal expectation when in reality they just stuck a pair or boobs on someone else's work and called it a day. When my group got to falkovnia, they stumbles upon a village where a wedding ceremony was taking place. The couple said their vows, and the wedding was interrupted by a group of soldiers arriving on behalf of Vlad Drakov to perform prima nocta (basically, Vlad had rights to the bride on her wedding night, or one of his soldiers as proxy). instantly, they had a grasp of the level of tyranny in the realm, a clear idea of just how evil his regime was, and an emotional investment in resisting him and his rule. We even had a player who, when we discussed upcoming content, decided this wasn't something she personally wanted to play out, so she skipped a couple sessions while her character travelled ahead to mordent to confer with some contacts and resupply. Our stance has always been, if you have trauma and experiences that keep you from enjoying a story arc, that's ok. But perhaps a session, or even setting, all about trauma, isn't really the one for you, and that's ok too. rather than diluting the content so they feel comfortable, they recuse themself so that others who do want to explore that story can. Like, my group didn't hate strahd because he was a tyrant, they didn't even particularly care about Irina Kolyana. They did however find his incel behavior and attitude towards his brides and women in general to be horrific, and that was the motivator. I'll never forget a player telling me that they were uncomfortable with the campaign because of their own experiences with people like this, and demanding we edit out all content related to such behavior. As a group, we talked about it, and decided that while you do have a right to feel comfortable in your game, your past trauma doesn't get to dictate story content, and perhaps this just wasn't the right space or game for them. Because without his obsession over Tatyana, and his desire to possess her eternally, what even is Strahd?

Probably bad form to answer a rhetorical question, but without his obsession over Tatyana, Strahd is literally NOTHING! Vampire, tyrant, high-level magic-user, mastermind, Darklord; all of these aspects of him are subservient to the driving, maniacal obsession which is the very core of Strahd's character.

Oh, and brilliant idea to have Vlad Drakov or a proxy perform prima nocta! That fits so perfectly with the man and his regime that it should be canon! It would definitely go a long ways toward explaining all of the illegitimate offspring Drakov has.

[Mistmaster]

Drakov is a Napoleon expy, he does not need first night to have lot of illegittimate children.

[Teravala]

Drakov is a Napoleon expy, he does not need first night to have lot of illegittimate children.

Need? No. But it certainly seems like something that would be in his wheelhouse to me.

[Mistmaster]

Yes but is something I see more like Gundar's thing. In my Ravenloft Drakov is a L/E tyrant who does like womanize but is more interested in conquest and ruling, while Gundar as C/E despot is more likely to indulge his own whims like that.

[alhoon]

Drakov is a Napoleon expy, he does not need first night to have lot of illegittimate children.

Drakov is IMO a Napoleon wannabe. But I agree with the view that while he enjoys a warm bed, he enjoys torturing people and crushing descent more. Honestly, if the DP made everyone in Falkovnia adore him and follow his rules, he would find new rules to keep torturing and killing people. He doesn't do it because he wants admiration and absolute control, not just for that at least. He does it because he likes it.
And I say this because the moment he got in Darkon he butchered a village for the lulz and impaled innocent non-combatant people.

[Mistmaster]

Drakov is a Napoleon expy, he does not need first night to have lot of illegittimate children.

Drakov is IMO a Napoleon wannabe. But I agree with the view that while he enjoys a warm bed, he enjoys torturing people and crushing descent more. Honestly, if the DP made everyone in Falkovnia adore him and follow his rules, he would find new rules to keep torturing and killing people. He doesn't do it because he wants admiration and absolute control, not just for that at least. He does it because he likes it.
And I say this because the moment he got in Darkon he butchered a village for the lulz and impaled innocent non-combatant people.

Not the way I characterize Drakov. I like to charecterize him as a man obsessed by legacy and the idea of being the greatest. While my drakov CAN be petty and cruel, I leave the most of pettyness to Gundar. My Drakov is a crossover of Stalin and Napoleon, with a touch of Vlad the Impaler and Kaiser Wilhelm II.

[alhoon]

Well that view is, IMO, a change in Ravenloft.

[Solan]

Drakov is a Napoleon expy, he does not need first night to have lot of illegittimate children.

Drakov is IMO a Napoleon wannabe. But I agree with the view that while he enjoys a warm bed, he enjoys torturing people and crushing descent more. Honestly, if the DP made everyone in Falkovnia adore him and follow his rules, he would find new rules to keep torturing and killing people. He doesn't do it because he wants admiration and absolute control, not just for that at least. He does it because he likes it.
And I say this because the moment he got in Darkon he butchered a village for the lulz and impaled innocent non-combatant people.

Not the way I characterize Drakov. I like to charecterize him as a man obsessed by legacy and the idea of being the greatest. While my drakov CAN be petty and cruel, I leave the most of pettyness to Gundar. My Drakov is a crossover of Stalin and Napoleon, with a touch of Vlad the Impaler and Kaiser Wilhelm II.

I would submit that anyone who has his every dinner accompanied by a person being impaled on a pike, as canon has stated Drakov does, is insanely cruel and sadistic.