Intro to EtCR

[atheran]

Hello everyone. As I'm new here and to Ravenloft setting as well I decided to ask here on how to incorporate some ideas I had for introducing my players to this world.

I'll be running expedition to castle ravenloft soon because my brain is still messed up from all the new stuff I read and I don't feel ready to create my own adventure or even start on converting the published adventures to 3.5. At least not before I know and understand what's going on in ravenloft in general.

I was playing in FR for a lot of years and so did my players so I'm thinking to start them somewhere in the realms and having the mists take them. I thought that the first session should be a transitional one so the players get a feel of what they're getting themselves into.

My plan is to spend some time IN the mists and then drop them somewhere on the old svalich pass in Balinoks a days walk or so from the Barovia village and have them survive the harsh cold. When they reach Barovia the burgomaster is dead as well as the priest's son but no plague has begun yet so they get to know some people and a happy(ish) village before all hell breaks loose.

My question is... How should I play the mists part? I want to scare them but not hurt them in the proccess. I was thinking of the characters being separated in the mist where they see nothing other than the mist itself with no sense of directions or time or anything really, floating inside the mist with low visibility and having the mist create phantoms or images or monsters to scare them. Monsters for example would be threatening and/or attacking the characters but dissolve back into the mist before they launch a blow on them. Images or phantoms of stuff from each characters background, loved ones in bad situations etc.

I'd like to create a feeling of thrill or even madness in the mists and then drop them all together to try and survive a night in the cold winter before reaching the seemingly safe village.

Any ideas on how I could achieve that? I'm open to all suggestions altho' I understand that the personal stuff they see or feel is up to me.

Also... Could I use the mists in order to forshadow stuff for the campaign? It's something I used a lot in the past and both me and the players loved it but I don't feel comfortable enough to do it. If someone has done it already and have some tips I'd really love it.

[alhoon]

My question is... How should I play the mists part? I want to scare them but not hurt them in the proccess. I was thinking of the characters being separated in the mist where they see nothing other than the mist itself with no sense of directions or time or anything really, floating inside the mist with low visibility and having the mist create phantoms or images or monsters to scare them. Monsters for example would be threatening and/or attacking the characters but dissolve back into the mist before they launch a blow on them. Images or phantoms of stuff from each characters background, loved ones in bad situations etc.

I'd like to create a feeling of thrill or even madness in the mists and then drop them all together to try and survive a night in the cold winter before reaching the seemingly safe village.

Well, you did pretty well in that description. I would just add that usually (unless it's the phantoms you describe), in the mists you don't see anything besides wet grayness, 2" beyond your face. Sounds are amplified on the other hand (mist is more dense so sound travels faster and further + the psychological effect).

I would just not over do it with the phantoms and the attacks. The greatest fear is the unknown. The thick mist I described thinning by a sudden breeze from nowhere so you could see an blurry humanoid* figure, 2' away as it's misshapen claws barely miss your eyes and then nothing beyond 2" again and the "is it still there? Am I going crazy" stuff is more enduring than "the same trick" again and again.

*Vaguely humanoid but something is wrong with it. Like the shape of the head being on top of a shoulder instead above the torso, or very thin legs that shouldn't be able to support it etc. The PCs shouldn't know if that's a trick of the mind in the low visibility or if the assailant was really like this.

[Ender]

As an experimental suggestion, you could tell everyone once they're in the mists that communication will take place completely through notecards. Then you can tell them what they see/hear without the others being privy to it. That way, you can use phantasms of the other players without forcing the others to conspire nor making it obvious that they're NOT actually doing what you've said. I ran a small Lovecraft-inspired encounter in one of my Eberron games where I made extensive use of notecards (and György Ligeti's "Requiem"), which produced a similar effect. The players weren't entirely sure if they were going crazy or if the others had secrets.