To fix necropolis - How would you rewrite it?

[NykylaiHellray]

It seems whenever death is mentioned here, I here groans and not in the good scary way either.

If ravenloft was to be rereleased, and necropolis was to stay but to be revamped. How would you go about it?

Personally necropolis to me, should be more like the necropolis litharge in the worlds end volume of sandman.

A city dedicated to death, and who spend there lives learning the ways to preserve them could be a very cool city.

With death, as maybe a more sinister hidden force in the city.

Of course that would mean compleatly rewritting it, but thats how I would go about it.

What about everyone else?

[Igor the Henchman]

An adventure site featuring nothing but undead can quickly become dull, especially for the poor, sneak-attack-deprived rogue. Also, the presence of the Shroud makes most players afraid of setting foot in the place, Necropolitan Amarath or no.

My rewrite would eliminate the "insta-kill" effect of the Shroud. Years of struggle between various undead types within the city would reduce the population down to a manageable level, with many spots completely deserted (read: places for the PCs to rest/hide during the adventure). Not all of the resident undead would have to be evil, or under Death's control, with some factions willing to help, or at least parley with, a band of living intruders. "Cancerous" bubbles of positive energy might allow for the existence of non-undead creatures, like oozes or magical beasts. Forward-thinking undead factions might begin to use, or even breed, living monsters with Shroud immunity, to augment their military strength.

All this would probably get Death very worried about its future, and further nourish the seeds of doubt that constitute his curse.

If I could change the city's location, I'd place it a wee bit away from the main traffic routes, so that it makes for an interesting, but not too obtrusive, adventure location.

[BigBadQDaddy]

I would make it an island. For such a place to exist in anything else, let alone the core just seems silly to me. I would definitely ditch the death shroud as that is such a deterrent for PCs (or a magnet to World of Darkness players )
An idea I have kind of toyed around with is making the city the mirror of a living city. Sort of an anchored afterlife tied to one specific location that one can only access through dying. That way it could technically still exist in the core, but not be such a silly thing to have to avoid.
In that scenario, death could be some malevolent being tying himself to the land, creating some form of pseudo afterlife and gaining some form of nourishment or power from the cities life numerous forces.
The PCs could temporarily access the domain through the imbibing of Amaranth ala Flatliners (May that be the first and last time someone mentions a Julia Roberts movie on this site ) That way they could adventure in the domain and not be stuck as a spirit, vampire, zombie, republican, etc.
Well anyway I am just babbling. Could be interesting though.

[cure]

The Necropolitian problem would be a great way of moving the timeline of Ravenloft forward just a little.

Azalin has at least two good reasons to strike into Necropolis. A book with his true name lingers there. And it is a blight at the heart of his realm.

But other reasons to act might also be forth coming too . . . .

So an adventure would be set to strike into the heart of the city of the dead. The Create Construct spell is one means Azalin is considering. But perhaps he sends two strike forces, one living and one constructed, one as a diversion, or something more insideous.

The question of how to destroy Necropolis has been raised in the forum before. Opening a portal to the plane of positive energy is an old favourite. Obliging Death to assist at a birth is more thematic/gothic.

A personal favourite involves Azalin tricking Death into attempting something akin to the ritual ascension but this time using negative energy. The ritual is flawed, however, and rather than giving Death dominion over all of Darkon and perhaps beyond, it blasts to inanimate dust every corporeal undead within Necropolis, Death's hands and skull included, and it sucks all of the negative energy out of the shroud and out of the incorporeal undead. Only ghosts would survive and they would lose the power of manifestation. Necropolis could then be reclaimed by the living, Il-Aluk would be reborn, but insane ghosts would torment the dreams of its new citizens.

[JDCorley]

Check out the Hollowfaust supplement from White Wolf's Scarred Lands for how I would do it. One of the big advantages of 3e Ravenloft is "native heroes", which makes Necropolis basically worthless and weird in the setting...Hollowfaust is a city drenched in death, but still functional.

[Jester of the FoS]

Nothing really wrong with Necropolis. It's all in presentation.

I would diminish the Shroud, weaken it so the living can enter but would slowly weaken and eventually die. Although, there would be a rare few immune to the effects, or at least more resistant. The simplest way would be to greatly diminish the Shroud during day day so it only bestows a virtual negative level that returns when one leaves, but becomes drained if one stays overnight. Slowly, over a number of days, someone would waste away. It might manifest differently, possibly affecting constitution as a wasting sickness so it'd be independent of level.

The city itself would be perpetually covered in heavy clouds that block the sun. It'd be a bleak, empty and barren place. Many of the intelligent dead would have hidden themselves, or keep themselves out of sight of travelers. All the undead who need flesh (vampires, cannibal zombies, etc) would have left or gone mad from starvation.
I'd emphasis the unknown in the city. Why would the neighboring folk know it was filled with undead? They'd be no witnesses, no one who enters the city would leave. They'd likely think it filled with the plague: the cursed city no one can survive entering. They might even barricade it, block it off to prevent the "plague" from spreading.

Depending on how DMs want to use it, it's simultaneously an abandoned city or one filled with the dead (who're only likely to come out at night). Think Dawn of the Dead or similar movies where the zombies have all but taken over. A small group might enter during the day then find themselves overwhelmed come nightfall.

I'd probably emphasis the 'civilian' dead from the monsters. The Necropolitan from Libris Mortis is perfect for this. A small cloistered community of the dead who try to continue their lives. But they're under the tyrannical boot of the mad Death, plagued by insane ghouls hungering for the flesh of corpses, and cut off from any help from the outside world. Of course, there are the multiple boroughs with some safer and some less so. Death might have stationed generals or other small, petty lieutenants to rule in his stead in the more distant neighborhoods.

[Archedius]

oooh I like that idea- yeah nothing to contribute though: (

[NykylaiHellray]

I like that idea, another to consdiure, is fill the place with morticians. Run by the dead citizins of necropolis. Who better to preserve the dead, then the dead.

So the necropolis mindset, is a people who look at life in a more contempalting way, with knowledge of all the funeral practices in the demiplane of dread, and many outsider funeral practices.

[Jester of the FoS]

I imagine the "survivors" who retail there sanity would almost become a culture of Goths, obsessed with life, the soul, death and the like. Some might live in cemeteries or make homes mimicking mausoleums. Other might wax philosophically about life and death and the thin border between. Some might very well learn all about preserving the dead, funerals, burials and the like.