|
So over the next two months as my current campaign winds to a close I will be preparing for a new campaign. Which will bring the characters into Ravenloft or the early version of it as it were. Basic idea is that I will be taking the Expedition module and combining it with a re-worked version of Gryphon Hill (RL2) for a timewarp like situation, all being run in Pathfinder. My question is not a rules question but more of a question of how to succesfully use these modules and keep it as close to the lore of Ravenloft campaign setting. I know from reading elsewhere and from some previous experience that there is some differences in the lore, mainly with Madam Eva. Just want to have the right feel even if these to mods are not entirely true to ravenloft lore and find a way to make them fit so that if this evolves into a more true to form Ravenloft campaign I can let them explore more.
Keep it dark, creepy, and scary. Also within the Ravenloft lore which consists of reading and knowing your info.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ravenloft has the Mists, the domains, the darklords, and the vistani. Decide what you want it to be, a cesspit of evil or a prison of it, or both. Remember that undead are very common, that every bad deed goes well rewarded, and that curses are dangerous things. Make sure to have a mechanism for fear, horror and madness checks. Change the characters, handicap them, mutilate them, and keep up the atmosphere according to the tensions and release you want. Muddle things up. Give them things to run away from. Good luck.
|
|
Yeah I get that. I have read several of the novels but there are several comments that I have seen here and on other boards that say several things from the campaign from 2e and 3e were changed quite a bit, thats specifically what I am asking about cause I am not sure cause its been awhile what these changes were? just want to see if its anything I can to change back.
What I am shooting for with this campaign is the group being around for early ravenloft before it became a full fledge demiplane full of different countries. I was also going to be changing Mordent to be more of a victorian setting so that the characters are shifting back and forth thru time. Basically the premise so far is that Strahd is trying to become human again to get Tatyanna back via the Apparatus but in order to do this he has to retrieve things from the past or future depending what I decide which he is using the PCs to do. They will be experience these shifts in time via the original modules delerium fits and will be sent back in time to the expedition module or forward to the Gryphon Hill module depending on what I decide. They wont know which is real which is a dream because in both they will wake up and be told they have been sick (straight out of the RL2 module) So essentially they will be concurrently running thru the modules making a 20 session game twice as long potentially.
The plague of zombies from the expedition module will be seen in both realities and in fact the two opening parts to the game will involve a brief run thru the Seabear module Nick Logue wrote a few years ago for Razor Coast, which is a ghost story where the player become possessed. Then into a altered night of the walking dead situation on the shores of Mordent that leads to the PCs passing out and awaking in Mordentshire-by-the-Sea
|
|
Ravenloft has the Mists, the domains, the darklords, and the vistani. Decide what you want it to be, a cesspit of evil or a prison of it, or both. Remember that undead are very common, that every bad deed goes well rewarded, and that curses are dangerous things. Make sure to have a mechanism for fear, horror and madness checks. Change the characters, handicap them, mutilate them, and keep up the atmosphere according to the tensions and release you want. Muddle things up. Give them things to run away from. Good luck.
Going to use the Mistfinder update for powers checks and the heroes of horrors taint mechanics most likely so I have those covered.
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I would try and find a copy of the original I6: Ravenloft module (if you don't already have it) and compare that to the 3e version...
I personally did not like the 3e version because of some of the changes:
But my biggest problem, and I don't know if they ever addressed this, was that "Expedition" is missing an ending! Sure if one is already familiar with the original this is just a minor inconvenience, but still...
If you wish to remain as true to RL lore and history as possible, just run the two modules as they are written, because after the events of I10: The House of Gryphon Hill, Mordent becomes a domain. So there is really no need for any time travel IMHO...
|
|
Was actually going to make her a vistani not a hag and the vistani are all vistani and not humans and halflings which I think is how Expedition does it. I actually do have the original module and am using a combination of the original and the 3e mod....the time travel is actually from the original RL2 module thats why I am using that idea.
|
|
I just re-read that part in the appendix, seems we're both correct... :-)
For Barovia and Mordentshire, while miles and perhaps centuries apart, are mystically linked to each other, creating a bridge between the two worlds.
I remember it just being a transition between planes/alternate realities however (but then, I never really bothered to explain it as this is information the player's will likely never find out)...
At any rate, back when The House on Gryphon Hill came out, I ran both it and I6 simultaneously. It was a lot of fun...
If you like time travel, perhaps you should take a look at From the Shadows.
Maybe depending on where in the timeline the characters are perhaps Madame Eva is both a Vistani and a hag? Maybe the result of some curse or other change by the dark powers. Any cameo appearances/flashback scenes featuring any of the other characters from back when Strahd first arrived in Barovia such as his brother?