DA-DADADA-DA---DA!!! We're alive!!!

[alhoon]

Remind me something:

How did we got that this book has something to do (even vaguely) with Eberron?

[Joël of the FoS]

I think nobody said that explicitely

However, IMHO it will probably include tips on how to run CRavenloft in (insert setting name here).

Joël

[Ivana_Boritsi]

When trying to guess the intentions of business men, you need to think like businessmen.

WOTC doesn't hate RL, it just doesn't think it will sell. This module may very well be WOTC testing the water for RL fans. If this makes money for Wizards, then I sincerely doubt they would cut it off there. They have the rights to a really good setting, which has maintained its popularity despite its misfortune.

No, I agree that it's about how it sells. But I really doubt that Ravenloft would be the ultimate "past setting" seller compared to say, Dark Sun, Planescape, or even Mystara.

Hey, if Castle Ravenloft sells, I will be very pleasantly surprised. I'm all for it. But I don't think we can herald this as the relauch of the setting.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Or maybe it is a game-setting book, like what was done for Dragonlance -- not a full-fledged relaunch, just an in-house 3.5 update -- and they're calling it "Castle Ravenloft" to avoid confusion with past products of that name (or possibly foster it, for collectors who'd give their right arm to get their hands on the original I6 ), not because it's necessarily yet another wacky adventure in Strahd's house.

[Boccaccio Barbarossa]

When trying to guess the intentions of business men, you need to think like businessmen.

WOTC doesn't hate RL, it just doesn't think it will sell. This module may very well be WOTC testing the water for RL fans. If this makes money for Wizards, then I sincerely doubt they would cut it off there. They have the rights to a really good setting, which has maintained its popularity despite its misfortune.

Who knows, after this we may see a 3e version of 'The House on Griffon hill', only hopefully better made than the original.

Question: Do you think they would dare make it an adventure that takes place pre-ravenloft's existance? I.e. the tergs and the Von Zarovich family are all of a suddenly a part of ebberon?

I think they may try to do something similar to Manual of the PLanes with regards to PlaneScape: a sort of "digest version" of the demiplane that allows you to just plop in anywhere, with streamlined rules for horor, darklords, etc...

I think the adventure is likely to stay largely intact overall. Otherwise, it would end up being something like the Path of Woms that ran in Dungeon Magazine: several adventures ultimately leading up to the grand finale in castle Ravenloft. (Which might be fun, actually.)

really, I am not sure what to make of it escept that, as ccabbage said: we have to think, not like Ravenloft fans, but like business people.

So, yes: I think they are, to some extent, testing the waters out there, maybe just to see and guage the evolution of D&D's fan base. And if it does well enough, they are likely to want to cnotinue along that same vein. (Which, of course, does not mean Ravenloft, but perhaps something Ravenloft-ish).

also think that they are being very shrewd: it's a lot easier to repackage something with some existing start power than it is to have to sell something 100% new. So, this, I think, is an experiment: they don't want to overcommit, but they want to run the experiment.

And this is the result. Whatever it may be. (So, that means, I will likely buy it. )

[Joël of the FoS]

Or maybe it is a game-setting book, like what was done for Dragonlance -- not a full-fledged relaunch, just an in-house 3.5 update -- and they're calling it "Castle Ravenloft" to avoid confusion with past products of that name (or possibly foster it, for collectors who'd give their right arm to get their hands on the original I6 ), not because it's necessarily yet another wacky adventure in Strahd's house.

Well I just want to be proven wrong, and you right

Joël

[Scipion_Emilien]

Im not a specialist of this so i ask the question:

Could Ravenloft be get back by an others companie like this was the case for sovereign press?

And what would happen if sovereign press revert the right of Dragonlance to WoTC, will WoTC sell it to others, make a new campaign setting and what will happen of the past sovereign press publication?

(Of course I ask to see if a parrallel can be done with Ravenloft)

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

Im not a specialist of this so i ask the question:

Could Ravenloft be get back by an others companie like this was the case for sovereign press?

And what would happen if sovereign press revert the right of Dragonlance to WoTC, will WoTC sell it to others, make a new campaign setting and what will happen of the past sovereign press publication?

(Of course I ask to see if a parrallel can be done with Ravenloft)

I was speaking to Trebor about this earlier. I said what if WotC is publishing Ravenloft like they did Dragonlance, then a third party company is publishing the accessories. He raised a good quesion, who would do it?

There aren't many companies out there who'd take it on.

But again, this is just speculation.

[Jakob]

Just something I was thinking... Anybody asked on the WotC boards?

[Mortepierre]

- The fact that what D&D considers "nuissance monsters" like orcs and goblins finally get a nation. I have always included such nations to my campaigns and many people thought I was a heretic.

Uh?!?

Greyhawk: Pomarj (+Drazen's Horde, if you believe in the Chainmail setting)
Forgotten Realms: Thar
Dragonlance: Kern, Mithas, Kothas
Kingdom of Kalamar: Norga-Krangrel
Birthright: Markazor, Thurazor

Seems to me there has always been "nations" held by humanoids. Sure, they aren't countries with the same level or organization as, say, Furyondy (GH) but they do exist.

[alhoon]

If you count these, then perhaps Spine of the world in FR could count too. However countless orc and goblin tribes squabbling with each other without any real conection doesn't count for a nation.

PS Thar? What is that? I don't know it and I used to play FR from time to time.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Yes, most game-settings' savage humanoids have had barbaric tribal territories, not true nations in the sense that other races would ever acknowledge their lands as such. The only ones I can think of that might qualify prior to Eberron are the advanced hobgoblin kingdoms in Kalamar, and a number of places on Mystara (e.g. the Krugel Horde's rangelands in the Hollow World; a part of the old Broken Lands that became recognized as a Principality of Glantri; one of the kingdoms in the Alphatian empire). Al-Qadim did depict orcs, goblins, and so on as integrated members of "civilized" society, but only as part of a multiracial "melting pot" culture in which humans were still politically dominant, albeit marginally.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Question: Do you think they would dare make it an adventure that takes place pre-ravenloft's existance? I.e. the tergs and the Von Zarovich family are all of a suddenly a part of ebberon?

If they did that, they'd probably tick off the die-hard Eberron fans even more than the Ravenloft-buffs! One of the reasons why people like Eberron is that it doesn't cadge cultures from IRL history, hence seems uniquely refreshing as a game-setting. Dumping a bunch of faux-Slavic and pseudo-Turk imports into Khorvaire would really, really break with that image, even disregarding all the other differences in setting.

[Don Fernando]

One thing is for sure, the quality of the product will be superior... I was missing quality in RL products.
Let's just hope it's not a one-shot project only and that WotC has future plans for RL.

[Scipion_Emilien]

One thing is for sure, the quality of the product will be superior... I was missing quality in RL products.

I would not say that the quality of the average line was so bad with what WW give us. Of course there is editing and mapping and some mistake (CoD and HoL and the RLCS). But if WoTC get back the license, will this mean that we will get a Faerunise Ravenloft? I mean a Ravenloft with more high fantasy that we are use and what we expected to?