Café de Nuit

I recently purchased Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani. It looks good, but I have yet to read much of it.

I am curious as to how others have used, interpreted, expanded, or modified Vistani in play.

Has anyone played a " burned out" Vistana or a darkling?

What about the two other mystical/ weird human races, the Quevari and the Voodan?

How often do your Vistani visit IoT domains?

Har Akir?

Staunton Bluffs?

I used a darking as a minor nemesis in part 2 of night of the living dead adventure. One character took his saber and left him for dead. The Darkling is able to enter the lands the group has travelled to retrieve his sabre.

I used Vistani in my Har akir adventure the villagers shunned them like the group. They eventually were wiped out by a main nemesis. I am planning on using them in my Gundarak campaign in which duke Gundar is assassinated. In Gundarak they are hunted by the Gundarak forces as ruthless as they would be later in Indivia with the rise of Molochio.

I may have the run into Quevari if they go through pass from Gundarak into Barovia. I think the Madd step dead has an adventure im going to base mine off of.

I've used a reasonable amount of the material from VRGttV even though in-game it has yet to be published, although I have found it a little difficult to fit with the campaign I am running for the following reasons.

I am running the GC with Bleak House, both of which feature vistani quite heavily. The problem is both groups of vistani featured (the tribe of Hyskosa and the Radanovich clan) are abnormal within vistani society.

The tribe of Hyskosa is a family of vistani who have been working in secret to fulfil the prophecies of the Dukkar, Hyskosa. This goes against basic vistani law, and it's members must be considered mad. So these don't really fit in with the "normal" vistani portrayed

Equally the Radanavich clan are an undead horde led by a ghost raunie, not something covered by that sourcebook.

But what I have done on the few occasions where the PCs have met vistani from outside these groups, is to try and use the material to explain the "wrongness" of these groups to the PCs.

The Quevari could literally have isolated communities anywhere. A great storyline would be to have the PCs make a Quevari village as their base of operations. The villagers are good and kind to a person, and the characters are always away during the blood moon so they never notice anything wrong.

Since the Quevari are Lawful Good it is highly unlikely that they are really cognizant of what they are doing during the blood moon. Perhaps they are in complete denial. Perhaps there is some sort of mental block. Likely they know about the blood moon and know that something happens to people of their bloodline on that night, but their culture makes the subject completely taboo.

Y'all ready for a dread possibility?

Dread Possibility

Although Quevari are biologically identical to other humans, Quevari women are always attractive (Quevari men have the same chance of being attractive as other humans). Quevari women always give birth to more gilrs than boys, and 60% of births are female.

Many non-Quevari men that stumble upon Quevari communities are surprised at the surplus of women of marriageable age and agreeable temperament. Those outsider men that decide to stay and marry a Quevari woman soon find out about the blood moon. Some of those men even survive and work out ways to be elsewhere at those times. When an outsider husband does not survive, the rest of the community is always there to provide assistance, financial and otherwise, to the widowed Quevari wife and child.

The Quevari bloodline is matrilineal. A child born to a Quevari woman is a Quevari and subject to the blood moon even if the father is not a Quevari. A child born to a Quevari father and a non-Quevari mother is not Quevari and is not subject to the blood moon. A Quevari father with a non-Quevari wife and child is required to leave the Quevari community and live elsewhere.

ewancummins wrote:How often do your Vistani visit IoT domains?

Har Akir?

For Har'Akir, I actually presume fairly often... mostly because of the existence of the dikesha. Usually, for the "non-Patterna" languages, I have my Vistani speak Balok and then Akiri as their secondary tongues (at least, when the language combination spoken by the PCs doesn't obligate me to choosing another tongue instead).

Garudos Celestar wrote:

ewancummins wrote:How often do your Vistani visit IoT domains?

Har Akir?

For Har'Akir, I actually presume fairly often... mostly because of the existence of the dikesha. Usually, for the "non-Patterna" languages, I have my Vistani speak Balok and then Akiri as their secondary tongues (at least, when the language combination spoken by the PCs doesn't obligate me to choosing another tongue instead).

I like this, as in legend RW gypsies were supposedly from Egypt

ewancummins wrote:Has anyone played a " burned out" Vistana or a darkling?

I played a Mortu in a 2e pbem, long, long ago. (circa 1999). Unfortunately, the pbem never really got off the ground, but he was a fun character. He'd been cast out of his tribe for jumping to conclusions and killing his brother's fiancee. Because she was a giorgio and not another vistana, he wasn't made a darkling, just karash (I think that was the word?). Wow, what do you know, I posted his writeup here, long ago:
http://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/vi ... 32#p147732 Blast from the past.

I've used darklings only a couple times as a DM. Once the Tribe of Hyskosa was interfering with the PCs during From the Shadows (trying to stop them from fulfilling Azalin's plan). (When I ran From the Shadows, it was not leading up to the GC, but after, with Azalin trying for a "do-over." So the tribe was already cursed and tasked with preventing another GC, not hastening it). The other was Scar Tabor in the The Evil Eye.

ewancummins wrote:How often do your Vistani visit IoT domains?

As often as the plot requires.

thekristhomas wrote:

Garudos Celestar wrote:

ewancummins wrote:How often do your Vistani visit IoT domains?

Har Akir?

For Har'Akir, I actually presume fairly often... mostly because of the existence of the dikesha. Usually, for the "non-Patterna" languages, I have my Vistani speak Balok and then Akiri as their secondary tongues (at least, when the language combination spoken by the PCs doesn't obligate me to choosing another tongue instead).

I like this, as in legend RW gypsies were supposedly from Egypt

Yep.

And the really are " gypsies" still living in Egypt today, for whatever that is worth.
Something another poster had written in the art thread got me to thinking about that, and the tangent inspired this thread.

tomokaicho wrote:The Quevari could literally have isolated communities anywhere. A great storyline would be to have the PCs make a Quevari village as their base of operations. The villagers are good and kind to a person, and the characters are always away during the blood moon so they never notice anything wrong.

Since the Quevari are Lawful Good it is highly unlikely that they are really cognizant of what they are doing during the blood moon. Perhaps they are in complete denial. Perhaps there is some sort of mental block. Likely they know about the blood moon and know that something happens to people of their bloodline on that night, but their culture makes the subject completely taboo.

Y'all ready for a dread possibility?

Dread Possibility

Although Quevari are biologically identical to other humans, Quevari women are always attractive (Quevari men have the same chance of being attractive as other humans). Quevari women always give birth to more gilrs than boys, and 60% of births are female.

Many non-Quevari men that stumble upon Quevari communities are surprised at the surplus of women of marriageable age and agreeable temperament. Those outsider men that decide to stay and marry a Quevari woman soon find out about the blood moon. Some of those men even survive and work out ways to be elsewhere at those times. When an outsider husband does not survive, the rest of the community is always there to provide assistance, financial and otherwise, to the widowed Quevari wife and child.

The Quevari bloodline is matrilineal. A child born to a Quevari woman is a Quevari and subject to the blood moon even if the father is not a Quevari. A child born to a Quevari father and a non-Quevari mother is not Quevari and is not subject to the blood moon. A Quevari father with a non-Quevari wife and child is required to leave the Quevari community and live elsewhere.

I like it. The Blood Moon rises!
Outsiders marrying in and some surviving does tend to suggest the secret will get out.
But then again, wouldn't it eventually get out, anyway?

A certain fan made domain in one of the netbooks makes good use of the Quevari.

ewancummins wrote:Outsiders marrying in and some surviving does tend to suggest the secret will get out.
But then again, wouldn't it eventually get out, anyway?

Indeed. But who is going to believe a deadbeat dad that abandoned his pregnant wife? And besides, so and so has been to that village and the people are delightful, salt of the earth types.

Sort of but not quite on-topic, I'm most likely going to be writing a paper examining Ravenloft's Vistani compared to real-life Romani.

I was already considering analyzing I6, Touch of Death, The Crucible of Dr. Van Richten, From the Shadows, and VR's Guide to the Vistani, are there any other materials that place a heavy focus on Vistani or give them a "starring role"?

Buzzclaw wrote:Sort of but not quite on-topic, I'm most likely going to be writing a paper examining Ravenloft's Vistani compared to real-life Romani.

I was already considering analyzing I6, Touch of Death, The Crucible of Dr. Van Richten, From the Shadows, and VR's Guide to the Vistani, are there any other materials that place a heavy focus on Vistani or give them a "starring role"?

You might look at The Waking Dream booklet and the Tarokka deck. And check out the simple but atmospheric description of the Vistani in the "Black Box."
I recently acquired the VR guide, as noted above. I have not read much, but it looks meaty.


Some of the novels include Vistani characters.

tomokaicho wrote:

ewancummins wrote:Outsiders marrying in and some surviving does tend to suggest the secret will get out.
But then again, wouldn't it eventually get out, anyway?

Indeed. But who is going to believe a deadbeat dad that abandoned his pregnant wife? And besides, so and so has been to that village and the people are delightful, salt of the earth types.

Good point.

Buzzclaw wrote:I was already considering analyzing I6, Touch of Death, The Crucible of Dr. Van Richten, From the Shadows, and VR's Guide to the Vistani, are there any other materials that place a heavy focus on Vistani or give them a "starring role"?

Major: Knight of the Black Rose, Spectre of the Black Rose, The Evil Eye, Champions of Darkness (tribe of Hyskosa), Carnival (the Skurra), Minor: Heroes of Light (The wanderers), Cotn: Vampires (Alexi), Chilling Tales (Through Darkened Eyes), Tales of Ravenloft (Dark Tryst)

(Good luck with the paper. would love to see it when done)