News: Ravenloft back to WotC - and a FoS message

[Joël of the FoS]

Here's the announcement from White-Wolf - Monday August 15th :

Arthaus Reverts Rights to RAVENLOFT and GAMMA WORLD to Wizards of the Coast
Sword & Sorcery Studios to release electronic manuscript for VAN RICHTEN’S GUIDE TO THE MISTS

Atlanta, GA and Renton, WA; August 15, 2005 — Arthaus Publishing, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast, Inc. today announced that they have reached an agreement for the reversion of rights to the RAVENLOFT and GAMMA WORLD campaign settings. Wizards of the Coast has tentatively agreed to allow White Wolf, which solicits and sells all Arthaus products, to continue to sell back stock in both lines under its Sword & Sorcery umbrella brand through June of 2006.

This reversion means that the RAVENLOFT supplement Van Richten's Guide to the Mists will not see print. Sword & Sorcery Studios will release the unproofed manuscript (by authors Carla Hollar and Rucht Lilavivat and outgoing developers Jackie Cassada and Nicky Rea) as a free download available at http://www.swordsorcery.com. The manuscript will be available this September.

"It has been a pleasure to publish and work on these two classic properties," said Stewart Wieck, Managing Editor of Sword & Sorcery Studios. "These are icons of the RPG culture, and I think we did them justice, added to their lore, and gave them a fresh treatment for this generation of gamers."

Arthaus Publishing licensed the rights to RAVENLOFT, the gothic horror brand of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS®, in 2001 and—under the Sword & Sorcery banner—has released 19 different products in the line over the last four years. Van Richten's Guide to the Mists was to be the twentieth product in the line. Arthaus licensed GAMMA WORLD in 2002 and released six products in the line.

"Sword & Sorcery has done a great job with both lines," said Rich Redman, Wizards of the Coast's Assistant Brand Manager for Licensing. "We never had any doubts that these lines were in good hands."

You can read it here

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Esteemed and honoured members of the Fraternity,

You probably already have heard the news by now – Ravenloft’s license with White Wolf has come to an end. After VRGttMists September PDF free release, no more new Ravenloft books will appear in the near (or foreseeable) future. We share with you the concerns of this change…

However, we will turn this energy toward keeping the Ravenloft setting alive through our presence on the Internet. From the Black Box to the present moment, Ravenloft has had a brilliant past and had even seen death, which was cheated by the setting coming back to life again. You can trust us that we will work hard to continue to keep this setting alive, which the Kargatane brilliantly proved could be done.

The setting won’t die so long as there are Ravenloft fans actively sharing ideas and new material. Ravenloft always will have an audience as many D&D fans look for something different in horror RPG.

Sadly, many planned books will never be written as planned (e.g. the Gazetteer series being one of the most important losses).

To fill this void, the Fraternity of Shadows (FoS) intends on releasing as much quality fan made material as we can (i.e. the already announced Lost Children of the Night netbook, QtR # 12, etc.). If possible, we will also try to develop e-Gazetteers, too (with S's story should WotC agree to give us the authority to do so). Also, we will try hard to obtain authors’ notes, WE's, and other goodies asked by the fans.

In the future, you can trust the FoS work closely with WotC to see what they will do for Ravenloft, and then, what we can do in this new context. We will continue to inform you of theses developments as soon as possible.

Our overall objective? This great community will remain alive and well (or perhaps undead, depending on who's raising it)!

Let’s lift our glasses to Ravenloft! To the fans! To the authors!

To everybody still fighting to keep this light in the darkness!

Sincerely,

David, Dion, Eddy, Jason, Joël and Stephen

[N'astirith]

Here here!

This is probably the best response I've seen to this woeful news so far! Thanks to you for continuing to hold the spirit of Ravenloft in high regard!

I look forward to seeing what comes from the Fraternity!
~Nas

[Gwynplaine]

Does anybody know when in Sept. Van Richten's Guide to the Mists will be able to be downloaded?

I go to the link for the site and can't seem to locate it anywhere.
Which means that it either hasn't been posted yet -
or I missed it.

Thanks!

[Kel-nage]

I've not heard a word on it. I guess it hasn't been released as of yet.

[Lucius]

Knowing White-Wolf as we know, I don´t think we will see VRG to the Mists so early.

[Lucius]

Fortunatelly I was wrong.

[Pamela]

Has there been any further word on what, if anything, WotC plans to do with Ravenloft?

[Joël of the FoS]

Not yet. And it might take long.

However, we might get hints in the way Heroes of Horror is launched, there are many questions about Ravenloft that were asked about this book.

Joël

[MadStepDad]

It's a shame, it really is. But I suppose we kinda all saw this coming - seeing as how I could get exactly ZERO new Ravenloft supplements in the Massachusetts area. I did eventually track down a copy of Legacies of Blood (hot stuff) but I've never seen the new Tarokka or even Gaz 5. But of course every gaming store in MA has at least one copy of Champions of Darkness or the 3.0 Hardback.

No stores I know of (even the mighty Barnes & Nobles) could locate any of the newer books in their computer systems. How can you be expected to buy a book when you can't even find it? (internet ordering is not an option here).

So obviously it's another sad, dark day for Ravenloft fans - but on the flipside, I find myself kinda relieved as well. Book prices were killing me, it was hard for me to keep up with release dates, and I could no longer claim to have EVERY Ravenloft product available (even the mousepad and Iron & Blood for PS1). Once I track down these infernal Tarokka cards, and get me the G5 I'll be back on top of the heap again.

Also, the timing is rather ironic to me. This coming Saturday, October 8th, will be the official end of MSD's Grand Conjunction campaign. Founded during the summer of 2002 and born in the heart of Ravenloft (Barovia - 735), my campaign spanned the entire Black Box map and back again. We ran through every printed RL adventure from 1990-1993. We traveled to Arkandale, Gundarak and every other domain that would cease to exist after the Great Calamity. Took the players from 1st to 15th level (the PCs that actually made it to the end) and had a helluva lot of hair-raising adventures. And now it's time for my players to close the book on the Black Box forever. We're right at the very end of Roots of Evil (which - by the way - absolutely sucks as an adventure, especially if you use it - as recommended - as a sequel to From The Shadows - we'll talk about that later) and this Saturday will be our big blowout bash. So I'm both elated and slightly depressed. Elated because I took a handful of Ravenloft virgins and tutored them well in the history and lore of this dark land. Slightly saddened because it's an end of an era for us.

All along I had been planning to reopen a new campaign using the Red Box era, and (slooooowly) get my players up to date. But I'm also thinking of taking a break from the Dread Realms and diving into this d20 Modern thing full-time. Touchy subject. But before I got all long-winded and stuff, I just wanted to say that the FotS boys will alwayz remain the light at end of the dark tunnel. So I'm sure Ravenloft will never disappear into the Mistz permanently. Sucks that we're missing out on the rest of Gzz's, but that's life in the hood. Basically, what I'm trying to say is:

RAVENLOFT for life, suckers! Let the games begin.

peace,

MSD[/b]

[MatthiasStormcrow]

I did eventually track down a copy of Legacies of Blood (hot stuff) but I've never seen the new Tarokka or even Gaz 5. But of course every gaming store in MA has at least one copy of Champions of Darkness or the 3.0 Hardback.

He's not kidding. No, it's ugly. I finally picked up Legacy of the Blood two days ago. I got Gaz 5 when RPGnow was doing that promotional thing, but it's just not the same as the hard copy. Not that I've ever seen a hard copy. My mother's an author, and often complains (it's become one of those trademark rants that some people have) that a book's sales are determined almost entirely by how well distributed it is. But, hey, I don't really want to get into that.

I guess I'm underwhelmed by the end of the line, too. I only regret that they never got to finish the Gazetteer series, and that the slowly forming meta-plots with S and the twins had seemed to only just start to really develop and get going before they got shut down. But I don't doubt we can keep things going...not in the least.

RAVENLOFT for life, suckers! Let the games begin.

peace,

MSD[/b]

Nice to have ya back, MSD. Where the heck have ya been?

[MadStepDad]

What up, Matthias (big up MA state!!)

Don't call it a comeback - I been here for years. Internet access is scarce for me these days, but I'm still holdin it down at 411Mania.com on the regular (cheap plug cheap plug). The days continue to march on, lots of life and lots of death.

Speaking of life - MSD Jr. was born on August 29th at Brockton Hospital. A 10 lb at birth, and he's already a beast. By the time he's ten he'll be bigger than me! Before you even ask me - yes, I took pictures of him with the D&D crew. Hopefully he'll grow into a Ravenloft junkie just like his pops! I also got him a set of dice I'm saving for his first birthday (a complete set, giant and plush like little stuffed animals - awesome stuff!)

Speaking of death, you know how it is in Brockton. Nuff said. But now I'm dealing with this new thing I thought would never affect me. It's called "casualties of war". Yeah, did you know our American brothers and sisters are dying in some place called Afghanistan? Crazy, I know (RIP Michael Kelley). http://www.pigstye.net/afghanistan/arti ... 3082007912

But enough off-topic rambling. The subject here is Ravenloft's dissolution. I agree with you, Matthias, about the dangling storyline threads. Seems like everybody had a theory about S and her relationship with Azalin. Now those theories are as good as gold, I guess. But on another note, the homeboy Luciferbaddon tells me the great Steve Miller is divulging some of his Gentlemen Caller secrets over at his site. So we should probably head over there and see what's fermenting in his twisted brain (even though he'll probably never truly understand the brilliance that is the Book of Vile Darkness).

For those who are still counting, I'll be back sometime soon with a fresh batch of pictures commerating the end of my Ravenloft campaign. You know the MSD motto - any excuse for a party! Keep on keepin it real!

peace,

MSD

[Maximillian]

I have been away for so long, that this was like a lightning bolt! But yes, I believe we saw it coming even a year and a half ago... I do believe that the fraternity can manage it though. This campaign setting is undead if not actually immortal. If we cheated death once, we'll do it again.

[Le Noir Faineant]

I don't see the situation that bad either. Look at other settings and how they're doing: Despite their continous efforts, WotC hasn't managed to alienate old Dark Sun, Birthright, Spelljammer or Mystara players from their settings. All to the contrary, all those gamers have formed a variety of organizations, like websites or gaming clubs and even managed to attract a load of new people.

As long as even OD&D isn't dead, I don't see Ravenloft has to fear. - I mean, we got everything: 3e coverage, tons of netbooks, regular netmags, and a splendid website/ message boards!

For me personally, with the official end of RL, the journey hasn't finished. It seems more like it has just begun.

(*How pathetic that last phrase sounds... *)

[Catman Jim]

Sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but the 'Is Ravenloft Dead?' thread was locked...

I came across something interesting this evening; while at my local discount bookstore, I saw just about every Arthaus Ravenloft product made, all for $8 US each! I was staggered to see titles that had never before made it to my town, I had to buy them online when they were first released. They had all the hard cover books, all the Gazetteers, all the newer Guides, the Arsenal, SotDr, COD, and HOL, and even three Tarokka decks!
I just looked over on White Wolf's catalog page and saw that every Ravenloft title is now listed as 'Out of Stock'. Putting this together, it would appear that WW's license to sell has run out (I thought it was by June...) and they have sold all their remaining stock to discounters.
I looked over on Ebay, but didn't see the possibility of profiting by getting these & re-selling them. I already have a complete collection, so there was nothing I needed (They also had most of the Gamma World material). Is there anyone out there that hasn't been able to find something? Looks like opportunity to pick these products up is fast passing, I don't know how long they will be on the shelves. PM me if there is something you might like, I wouldn't mind sending something out at cost to a Frat member.

[Darkknight]

Now what do people think of WOTC. Can we expect new products or just the continued distribution of the already printed material.