Adapting Traditional Ravenloft (and others) to Gothic Earth!

[TheDrifter]

Hello, all! I've recently returned to the Cafe after a bit of an absence, so I hope you've all been well.

After an even lengthier absence from Ravenloft, I have recently found myself running a campaign set in the 1890s of Gothic Earth, and would like to request some input from my fellow travelers...

Aside from the tremendous work done on the original releases, as well as the superior entries focused on Gothic Earth in Kargatane (& other) netbooks, I was curious to see what traditional Ravenloft pre-generated (and non-RL pre-generated) adventures have been adapted and employed successfully by fellow Dungeon Masters for the 1890s.

Thus far I have adapted "Red Jack" from the original boxed set (hopefully improving upon the original by changing the London-transplant doctor to another London-transplant named Dr. Jack Seward, and the

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ghostly wife character

to the Red Death-infused ghost of Ms. Lucy Westenra), as well as the adaptation of a Call of Cthulhu adventure "Wail of the Witch" (which focuses on the

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ghost of an evil witch killed in the burning times

who has returned to spread some that old time Lovecraftian "love" to the residents of Salem).

Anyhoo, would be great to hear some new takes on some old favorites

[Dr Jekyll]

Having played Ravenloft in the early-mid 90's I have also come back to the setting and am in the process of creating a MOTRD 2nd ed campaign.

It's based primarily in London, but one idea I've started to develop is that a group of Egyptologists have not been heard of and the PCs, who are part of the same Gentlemans Club are sent to Egypt to investigate.

To that end I'm adapting RA3 Touch of Death, which lends itself quite nicely to Egypt circa 1890 (or any time really).

Beyond that I'm currently writing my own campaign, so any ideas you have would be gratefully appreciated.

[TheDrifter]

Cool beans! I had also considered "Touch of Death" (for some point down the road, though--my PCs are currently enjoying a trek through Boston and the surrounding New England).

The idea I used to gather my group was that they had all been "touched" by the Red Death in one form or another.At some point they've all encountered an artifact that positively reeks of the Red Death called the Ankh of Imhotep (an ankh Imhotep wielded upon summoning the Red Death) and this ankh acts as a sort of "chaos engine" (actually, more a of a plot device...but I digress).

My group of PCs have been gathered by Lord Godalming himself (aka, Arthur Holmwood from the novel Dracula), who represents a group of Brits who've taken it upon themselves to rid the world of the ankh, fight the Red Death, etc. My PCs aren't aware of it yet, but Holmwood is actually a member of the Diogenes Club, and takes orders from Mycroft Holmes (who isn't completely on the up & up).

There are several RL adventures that could easily convert to MotRD, IMO. I haven't looked at some of them in a decade or two, but I was thinking that "Howls in the Night" may work, and perhaps even "Neither Man Nor Beast" (could see that one being a great way to introduce Dr. Moreau, which inspired that domain/darklord, IIRC.).

Not too many Masque campaigners on here it seems. Feel free to give me a yell & we'll see what kind of Red Death shenanigans we can come up with

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I'd say nearly anything that steers clear of the Demiplane-rocking-events could find work in GE. Night of the Walking Dead, The Created (which takes place in a town ripped from GE already), Hour of the Knife, maybe even Castles Forlorn.

Adam's Wrath could be done with Frankenstein instead of Mordenheim (minus the Marilith, maybe).

Lots of the CotN adventures... (Angel Pajaro, Francois de Penible, Alexandre du Cire, Nikolai Melentha, Lucre, The Automatic Man, ...)

[TheDrifter]

It's been a long time since I've taken a gander at those CotN adventures, but that sounds like a great idea to start.

I remember loving Castles Forlorn back in the day, and thought that would make for a good time in Scotland for my PCs. I'm thinking I'd have to do something about those rabid goblyns in the surrounding forest, though. Maybe turn them into a backwoods sect who've shunned modern society? I'm from a Scotch-Irish Appalachian family, and have heard some twisted stories concerning backwoods sects in our neck of the woods (pun intended), and can imagine something akin to isolated hill-folk living in rural 1890's Scotland.

I seem to recall a sea monster named "Aggie" from Castles Forlorn. Maybe a bit overpowering for my Gothic Earth PCs, but then again....

[Dr Jekyll]

Thanks Drifter, it's made me do some research on old modules to convert and hopefully most should be adaptable with a limited amount of work.

This is a first attempt at running MOTRD as the group have been playing traditional 3.5 D&D or Pathfinder. Having rediscovered some old gaming stuff and playing a 1st edition game at a Con recently, felt I needed to do some 'old school' gaming. Love the GE setting, but it's never been well supported by TSR/Wizards. Just hope I can find the time to write enough material to keep it going!!!

[TheDrifter]

Yeah, Red Death never really caught on with a wide audience--which was a shame, because it's such a cool concept. There was a lot of stellar MotRD material published in the old Kargatane netbooks from the late 90s; and if you can locate them, there were a couple of really good articles in Dragon, as well as a couple of adventures specifically designed for the setting published in Dragon.

One of my longtime role playing goals has been to run an ongoing MotRD campaign that covers the entire decade of the 1890s, culminating with a major battle with the Red Death (a battle that either sends the Red Death back to wherever it came from, or kills off all the PCs). Hopefully that's what happens with this new campaign I'm running...that is, if real life doesn't interfere too much ).

[Dr Jekyll]

Don't know if you're into miniatures for your gaming, but i recently discovered an excellent range of 28mm figures from Victorian England. I bought a couple of sets, Victorian Gentlemen and Assassins I think, but they have painted up quite well and would fit ideally in your Boston campaign. I've included the link below and they have a great range of 19th/early 20th century figures. Postage may be a bit prohibitive, but worth a look.

http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-rang ... victorians

[TheDrifter]

Thanks, Jekyll!!! I don't own any non-fantasy era minis, and was just looking online for some Victorian-based ones (with no luck!).

I'll check it out! Thanks again!

[Dr Jekyll]

Glad to be of assistance. I only bought a couple of sets, but they still set me a couple of 'freebies', a native American that will fit into a Deadlands campaign i've been running and a mounted cavalryman.

Happy shopping!!

[Band2]

I did convert a few of the adventures for a campaign years ago. I put I journal up of the first adventure (The Awakening) on this forum:

http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... f=3&t=3339

Some of the others I did were Night of the Walking Dead in the Congo.
Howls in the Night in New England, but I made it even more like Hounds of the Baskervilles then it already is.
I set the Evil Eye in New Orleans, and did a couple of the CotN adventures, Alexandre Du Cire, and one of the ghosts adventures.

[TheDrifter]

Thanks, Band2. That sounds really cool. I hadn't considered "The Awakening" as a GE conversion, but would be willing to try it. I know I have the module, but haven't pulled back the cover in 20 years. (I know we played it at some point, but I have little recollection. I think I may have played that one as a PC....)

Did you end up doing add'll journal entries for your campaign? I'd be interesting in reading them all, but "Howls in the Night" specifically, as I think that's where my PCs will venture after this weekend's adventure...

[Dr Jekyll]

You've got me started now!!!

I've rooted around in my loft and found a load of back issues of Dungeon magazine and there are a couple of adventures in there. One called Jigsaw in issue 61 and one in issue 71, Dark Magic in New Orleans. Even though not in the area my campaign is set, with little bit of tinkering they could be adapted.

What did you think of the Victorian figures??

[TheDrifter]

I liked the figures quite a bit, but I don't think I'll be ordering right now. May see what I can locate stateside first.

As far as adapting traditional RL for Gothic Earth, today I started working up the adventure "The Scarlett Kiss" from Chilling Tales. That's the one which had Van Richten getting the heroes involved with a hospice in Mordent that had a vampire problem. I'm changing the Hala-worshiping sisters to a sect of Catholic nuns, the setting to rural New England, and Van Richten to Arthur Holmwood--the character from Dracula, who, in my campaign, put my band of adventurers together.

So far it seems to be transitioning pretty smoothly. I wanted a different "monster of the week" for our third adventure, seeing as the first two dealt w/ female ghosts as antagonists. Scarlett Kiss features a female vampire as the baddie (I'm not sexist or anything, just happened to work out that way, LOL.)

Jekyll, let me know if you get around to running those adventures from the old Dungeon magazines. The one set in New Orleans seems pretty good, and is on my radar for a future adventure. The Frat has some extra unpublished stuff from that article http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/TheV ... rleans.pdf that may be of use

[Band2]

Did you end up doing add'll journal entries for your campaign? I'd be interesting in reading them all, but "Howls in the Night" specifically, as I think that's where my PCs will venture after this weekend's adventure...

No, I never got around to writing any more of the journals. I always intended to but something always comes up.

My Howls in the Night was more influenced with elements of the Hounds of the Baskervilles. I remember having both the adventure and the novel on hand while running it.
I do not remember with of the 4 story options I used, but the biggest change was that Burton Wescote was not a long lived immortal. He was a spirit who could possess one of his descendants. When his host died he became an invisible incorporeal being that could not affect the world, until one of his male descendants came to the estate and drank the water from the swamp. Then Burton would possess that man for life. The story began when the current Wescote descendant was killed by the hound (in a sense similar to that of the novel), and Burton needed a new body. A distant relative becomes the heir and goes to the estate. He is worried about the strange goings on around the estate, the recent death of his relative, and contacts the PCs for help. (One of them is a Sherlock knock-off).
The bog hounds were still around, but were just thought to be a pack of wild dogs. Their kills were thought to have been murders commited by an escape convict supposed to be loose in the area (like the novel, though in this case it is a red herring and the convict never enters the story.)