Café de Nuit

Esteemed members of the Fraternity,
Miladies,

We hope that by now you are ready to answer the door, to meet those little boys and girls that will risk to knock your front door, fear in their eyes... Sure, those spells we learned from Madame Croquemitaine will make it different this year. Trick or treat!

Meanwhile, traditions obliged, here is another offering of Quoth the Raven!

This is issue 21!

You will notice big changes. Stephen of the FoS (aka ScS of the FoS) stepped down as editor, and, after what, a mere 20 issues... Really, we thank him for his dedication and time (we know it wasn't always easy with the rest of us moaning in the back). You saw the netbook improve issues after issues, and that is Stephen's work. I'd like to remind everybody that Stephen was there from the beggining of the FoS, first as webmaster, and also as main netbooks engineer.

Really, friend, thank you for this last decade of great netbooks!, congratulations on a job well done!

So for issue 21, we have a new in-house-book-making-sequestered-monk: David (aka Jester) took that monumental task of following Stephen's steps, to make this annual netbook.

Thank you David, really great job !

Also, thanks to all authors, without you, there would be no QtR.

You can get the netbook here.

Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Joël, for everybody at the Souragne Fraternity of Shadows: David, Joël, Leyshon, Nathan, Ron, Sharon and last but not least, Stephen

Thank you Jester, thank you ScS, thank you fraternity ! ! ! !

I like the new look. I specifically liked the small art in the middle of the pages. There are a couple of typos but in a book of such size, it's expected. Haven't read it all yet, just pieces here and there. I see a lot of potentional here and the book will be useful, that's for sure.

Nora the half-elf is an interesting NPC with depth that could add color to resistance adventures in Falkovnia (or with a few changes, in Nidala IMO). I also liked the inclusion of hags in Lamordia, and they're well written. The ghost of the Ol'reaper and the reavers are ready-to-drop in a campaign in my opinion. And of course, I believe Dark shadows are a splendid addition for 5th edition Ravenloft.
I also like the idea behind the sour ground, although some of the effects are kinda too extreme. I'll probably use half the list and make a 50% chance of "no bad effect" or something. I'll add a "Marcel Tarascon" case in there too.
About Barovia, I was thinking a couple of days ago "hmm... Strahd takes care of every other vampire there, what could I do?" Pharazia is also good to give ideas for "beyond the city" adventures, although I would tone the fantasy down personally. I also liked the revisiting of Althea and the island of Demise. If I would add something is... a couple of tribes of minotaurs. It's an ancient Greece domain with a maze after all.

The idea in the back of my mind when I was writing both Barovia and Pharazia was "can I do enough here that you can set a whole campaign here?" And I like to think that I achieved this. Certainly the idea of the PCs as various runaways and outlaws pretending to be traveling entertainers to avoid the Long Arm of the Law is an enticing one.

About Pharazian empire... you mentioned domains that are not in the Amber wastes. Are there mistways to these domains? How are they ruled from Phiraz? I haven't read the whole article about it so if it explains it, I've misted it.

alhoon wrote:About Pharazian empire... you mentioned domains that are not in the Amber wastes. Are there mistways to these domains? How are they ruled from Phiraz? I haven't read the whole article about it so if it explains it, I've misted it.

In NeoTiamat's re-imagining of Pharazia, there is no Amber Wastes cluster. The Pharazian Empire, including some domains not originally in that cluster, is grafted onto the core, south of Hazlan.

alhoon wrote:I also liked the revisiting of Althea and the island of Demise. If I would add something is... a couple of tribes of minotaurs. It's an ancient Greece domain with a maze after all.

Yeah, I decided early on to emphasize that Althea was a medusa (the D&D monster), not the Medusa (of Greek myth). While I did take some inspiration from Greek myth, it would be impossible to make Demise "Ravenloft's Greece" in the way that Dementlieu is "Ravenloft's France" so I didn't attempt to do so. (If anything, it's more "Ravenloft's Ray Harryhausen's Greece".) So, sorry, no Minotaurs, but feel free to add them if you like.

I thought Vechor was Ravenloft's Greece... with a mad guy on top (not much unlike the Olympian Gods and their mood swings)

Looks great! I still need to go through and read it, but I perused it a bit and cannot wait to read the Barovian section, Malvoni's update, and the Nova Vaasan Criminal bits!

I also agree that minotaurs are not too Ravenlofty and a clan would be much on the desolate island (though that may change when I get to that article), I have always had a soft spot for them as that was my first PC's race. Still trying to find a way to make them work, but we shall see...

Loving that Sour Ground chart.

Had the misfortune to stumble by late at night, when I really didn't have the time to read. Still, I was halfway through the article on Barovia before I finally forced myself to bed (I'd really honestly only meant to skim). Looking forward to giving both that and the one on Pharizia a proper read through. Pharizia has always struck me as an interesting domain I just couldn't find enough on, and while I've always respected Barovia as hub and lynchpin of the setting, reading this was the first time I've found myself actually interested in playing the game there.

(And lots of other good stuff, but Kadarin's story deserves honorable mention for being creepy as all get out...)

So excited! I think my head is going to explode.

I'm still reading through this, but some things have leaped out to me as excellent.

1. The Criminal Rings of Nova Vaasa. The first part is good and opportune as I'm writing a Nova Vaasa adventure right now. The re-imaging of Malken takes an innovative and interesting approach. There are things I don't agree with, but honestly there's so much material there, it should be it's own thread. I will say, it's lacking a little in the crunch department though. Some stats or maybe tattoo themed feats might have helped.

2. To Granny's House. I would have preferred that the love potion actually be a placebo and that the villagers are just so conditioned and brain washed that they assume it works. As described, the love potion works too damn well and too conveniently for my tastes. Except that, it's a great setting and idea. Reminds me of movies like the original Wicker Man. Love it when some moral dilemma clouds things too.

3. Scalies of the Sea of Sorrows. I like this one! I do appreciate the brevity at nine pages. Not everything needs to be a super long epic. It's well written and accomplishes what it set out to do. The only thing I question are the crossed out parts. Most of them are little editing things that add nothing.

4. Dark Shadows. Pure crunch! Awesome! I bet 5th E players will love this. Never liked 5th E myself, so I can't comment on things like play balance, but it takes some spine to step up and make new game mechanics! Way to go!

There's some other stuff I haven't read yet, but that's the stuff that I felt the need to praise.

I did want to ask if it would be appropriate to start a "Fey Lost" thread. I'm eager for feedback on my little contribution and would love to talk about it. However, I didn't know if that would be considered gauche or begging for compliments.

DarkCrusader wrote:3. Scalies of the Sea of Sorrows. I like this one! I do appreciate the brevity at nine pages. Not everything needs to be a super long epic. It's well written and accomplishes what it set out to do.

Thank you!

About it being brief, well the subject couldn't be expanded more IMHO, as the reavers are quite straight creatures, and writing about it, shortly you have made a full circle about the subject.

The only thing I question are the crossed out parts. Most of them are little editing things that add nothing.

Oh? Well I meant it like if the author (Melano Limnetes de Louvoi) was writing a handwriten letter, and making corrections as he was going, as if the writer wasn't good at it. Should have perhaps used a hand writing font?

Joël

alhoon wrote:About Pharazian empire... you mentioned domains that are not in the Amber wastes. Are there mistways to these domains? How are they ruled from Phiraz? I haven't read the whole article about it so if it explains it, I've misted it.

Both Barovia and Pharazia, and a couple of other Domains to appear in next year's QtR, were born out of Nathan's Hazlan game. Pharazia was pretty much grafted onto the bottom of Hazlan, and Sebua and Har'Akir are additional domains inside/next to it. I shoved G'Henna into there because it seemed to fit the culture a bit more. If I ever have a real outburst of creativity, I'd like to rework G'Henna as a Tibetan-style society, but that's probably not happening unless I end up in another game where the GM offers XP for it. >_>

Hazgarn wrote:Had the misfortune to stumble by late at night, when I really didn't have the time to read. Still, I was halfway through the article on Barovia before I finally forced myself to bed (I'd really honestly only meant to skim). Looking forward to giving both that and the one on Pharizia a proper read through. Pharizia has always struck me as an interesting domain I just couldn't find enough on, and while I've always respected Barovia as hub and lynchpin of the setting, reading this was the first time I've found myself actually interested in playing the game there.

Thank you! I look forward to hearing what you think of them after you've actually read them.

Really great year, guys, congrats to all who contributed. I'm very proud of this issue.

The standouts for me, personally, were:
NeoTiamat's Barovia, and especially Pharazia. What a way to take a neglected domain and make it a real, thriving place! The only thing I felt lack was oddly, Diamabel himself. I would have liked to see his story get the same kind of overhaul his domain got, rather than be reduced to an undefined bogeyman. But that really is a minor quibble. With rest of the domain/cluster(ish)/subcontinent being so robust, you could play a whole campaign there and never need the darklord.

Isabella's criminals of NV, and especially their tattoo culture. I'm certainly going to use that in my campaign. (As I mentioned when she posted the first draft of this on the forum, I'd replace the card suits with Tarrokka suits, but otherwise, I'll just drop it in as is.)

Kadarin's The Eternal Smith, a really nice, very Ravenloft-ish story that left me wanting more.

IrvyneWolfe's Nora, a fine addition to ye olde Rogue's Gallery.

Joel's Reaver article. As I said to him privately, Reavers have always been kind of boring sacks of hp to me, and he managed to give them a nice character and make them a scary menace.

strahdsbuddy's Ol' Reaper - a really really cool look into a previously unexplored bit of Ravenloft lore. It manages to add a new facet to the existing canon without breaking anything that was already there. Well done.

endianprime's illustration of Vir for my article. This was the first time I've ever had someone other than myself illustrate something I wrote, which was a hoot. It was a great experience working with him. And I love the finished product. A much better representation of how I see him in my head than I was ever able to make with my crappy drawing skills.




Those were just the highlights off the top of my head. Every single article was really lovely, and as I said, I'm really happy to have this one out there.

Thank you, I like to think I give good NPC.