 Once you have a world, you need to build a campaign, this will give you an idea on where to start.
1) Start With A World, Either A Published Campaign World Or One You Have Created For Yourself There are several products online from which to choose from, from many reputable publishers. There are also a countless number of homebrew worlds, so the precedent for custom world creation is more than evident. Once you have chosen a world then you need to determine what you are going to do with its history. You can either follow it or not, change it or not, or combine a couple of other worlds histories into one until you get a history you like. Or just start from scratch. The advantage of using a pre-created world’s history is that you can use the various supplements that are published for that world. The advantage of using your own history is that no one will know it like you will and you can write as much or as little as you want. You can also take a set of nice maps and then create a totally custom history that has nothing to do with what the world’s publishers had planned. That is fine; that is what makes it your own world. For example, the Pathfinder world of Golarion has a crashed spaceship and gunpowder was discovered. I know quite a few DMs who hate to allow gunslingers and a few who ignore the spaceship references because they don’t want science fiction in their D&D game. So they ignore those parts of Golarion’s history and just don’t have them in their world. However, they can use other parts of the published system and the supplements written for the game and the world of Golarion. Gary Gygax was all for people creating their own material. He gave the magic items in the Dungeon Master’s Guide as possible items that could be customized, changed, or improved as the DM wishes. When it came to artifacts he wrote in blank lines and a list of suggested powers and lists of drawbacks for each artifact, several lists in fact. One of the first rules in the DMG was “All rules herein are optional.” That means you can do whatever you and your players want in campaign creation. The important line here is “you AND your players.” Make sure your game is interesting for your players and something that they will want to play in. Gary Gygax published the little book set, then the red and blue book set, then 1st edition and then a couple of years later he published the World of Greyhawk, which was his campaign world. He wanted people to create their own worlds and not just use stuff that he created. He was reluctant to lock people into his ideas. The World of Greyhawk had a beautiful color map with a hex grid, but only a pamphlet for the history section. Some nations got only a paragraph of history. The idea was to present a starting point and have you build upon it and create your own stuff. If you bought his dungeons and modules then you would get more of his campaign’s history, but if you made up your own stuff that was perfectly fine. 2) Good Places To Start You could start with a discussion from the DM, a poll, a list of ideas, or a gab session where you as a group discuss ideas that you would like to see in a game. The first three require that the DM comes up with the ideas, while the final suggestion allows the group to come up with the idea, although it has the ability to grow out of the DM’s hands. Another consideration for planning your game is its future. I have created over half a dozen different worlds and used several published worlds in my game. Each game was its own entity and I seldom worried about what type of game would take place after the current game. My first campaign world was just the Geomorphic maps from Avalon Hill tank games. I know a DM who has run the same set of three game worlds for over 30 years. He takes what players have created in the past and builds upon it. When players make changes in his worlds they are reflected in the next game. He has a long complex history because of this. This is fine for him, but bad for his friends and his wife who played in multiple games and were told that they were using out of character knowledge when they referred to knowledge a past character had. That penalized his regular players. Now if he had some items that were part of the historical record and some items that were secret then he wouldn’t have penalized his players as much. He could have used some characters as NPC heroes and heroines in his game. He could have let them use some of the common history those characters knew instead of requiring everyone to start at ground zero. D&D is designed to be run over however long the DM and the rest of the group can sustain it, usually years. There are some groups that have been playing for a decade or longer and there are new groups starting each day and groups falling apart each day. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking only for the next session, the next game, or the next module. Start planning for the future, whatever that may be. Yes, almost always some of these plans will go unused, but you can always recycle the data later. Always keep this thought in mind: “what next?” What will happen after this session, after this module is done, after this game is done, and in my next game? The job of a DM is to think outside of the box and to think ahead of the players. This is the chief reason why it is so hard to be a good DM and why so many of us love the job. 3) Session Zero Assuming you have an idea for your game the next step is to plan session zero. Session Zero is that session where you sit down and talk with your players, inform them of what game you plan on running, and find out what characters they are going to play. This is important to do, it can be done in person or done over Skype, over the phone, or over email. The important thing to do is to build a campaign the party will be interested in and have a crew of players and characters that fit. For example, if you have a freewheeling pirate adventure where the players skate the edge of the law and on the run, then it would be foolish to expect a paladin to star in such a game. Not impossible, just unusually hard on the paladin. By the same token, a last-ditch defense against a horde of orcs with the party manning and organizing the defenses would be a good game for a paladin to join. Founded in 1888m, the National Geographic Society organized and sponsored expeditions to explore the darkest corners of the world. When a party was planned to explore Egypt, an arctic explorer was not brought along, nor was a big game hunter. Instead it was an Egyptologist, someone who spoke the local languages, and someone who spoke the former languages of Egypt who were included. D&D was designed for a party of core characters; a rogue, a fighter, an arcane magic caster and a divine magic caster who can heal. The further you move away from this “standard party” the harder it is going to be on your group. Now the DM can make adjustments like removing traps or allowing wands of cure light wounds to fall into the party’s hands early, but these are forced constraints. A game is better when you don’t have to force the issue, especially when dealing with the basics like the “standard party.” Just like a National Geographic Society party is going to include the proper mix of people, your game should include the proper mix of characters. Now you could hold a Hogwarts Academy adventure where the party all are fledgling wizards who are trying to get an education, but this would require a custom game and a way for the party to heal themselves or a way for them to bypass traps. All standard Adventure Paths and Modules are written for a party of 4 who are of the “standard party.” If you don’t want to run a “standard party,” or the players don’t want to form a “standard party” then you can’t use standard Adventure Paths or Modules. This has been true since the times where there were only six-character classes and it is still true today. You can do it, but it will be harder on the party if you do and as DM you need to make adjustments. I was once in a game with three players. We had just split the group and a power gamer had left. When we reformed the new party all of us took on hybrid characters. I was a magus, so I had to handle front line fighting as well as arcane use. The shaman had to handle his pet as well as cure wounds and the Investigator took other skills rather than Disable Device. One problem was this DM felt we had to design our characters on our own, with no input from each other. We honored that rule and we suffered for it. That game didn’t go well and for the first seven levels my character died at least once a level, and I didn’t die the most, nor do I recall the amount of times I came close to death as it was too many times to recount (practically every fight). If I had been a fighter class then I would have had more hit points, worn better armor and would have handled the front line better. It took the DM a while to adjust to the party mix and our inherent handicaps by not being a party of core characters. Now there are a lot of people who will argue about this and say that they can build a party out of any characters. They are ignoring one of the core concepts of the game; the “standard party.” You ignore the standard party and the requirement for it at your party’s peril. I recommend that you hold a Session Zero and you let the players discuss what they are going to play and try to form a “standard party.” A way to make sure you have the “standard party” is to include more players or to include an NPC who picks up the missing role. Just be sure that if you use an NPC, they don’t steal the show from the players. I have seen too many DMs who have major NPCs who act to do amazing things and steal the shine from the party. This is a case of the DMs roleplaying with themselves; I call it DM Masturbation. If you have to include an NPC in the group then make sure that they have some clear flaw, like an unsound tactical mind, or a tragic flaw which could be their undoing. Or maybe they are reluctant. It is up to the party to recognize the flaw in this NPC and to make sure that it is not their own undoing. Make the flaw one that is playable and not fatal. A rogue who sneezes every 10 minutes is going to have a hard time sneaking around, where a rogue who is absentminded may have to be reminded now and then what they are doing or trying to do. The first flaw is very taxing to play and may make the character unplayable, the second character will make sure the players follow the absent minded one around and keep prodding their memory. If you don’t have an NPC with a flaw, then make him a coward or make him hesitant or give him some feature that will cause the party to not trust him. In short, make them fallible. You don’t want them to outshine the players. 4) Starting The Game Once you have your party, and once you have your Session Zero, then you can start your game. Most DMs like to find or plan a module or an Adventure Path before they talk to their players about starting a game. What you might consider is a range of Adventure Paths or modules that can be strung into a game; then you can give your players a choice of what they want to play. Of course, this means having to prepare or read a bunch of modules, but one way is to use rotating DMs and when a DM is half-way through their game have the next DM discuss what they want to do for their next game. You can hold a gab session or vote from a list of planned items, then the DM who is to run next can take the rest of their friend’s turn at DM to write up or prepare their campaign. This not only helps to prevent DM burnout, but it gives the next DM the ability to prepare before they have to run. 5) What Happens Next? So now you have created your world, or found one, and you have a world history, either custom or cookie cutter. You have talked with your players about what the party composition should be, you have picked a campaign you want to run, you are ready to start your campaign. So, what do you do next? You need to inform your players if you plan on using canned history, or a custom history. If you have a custom history, then you should give the players the highlights. In a fantasy setting the education of the people is variable from primitive, to basic, to advanced often depending on your social class they belonged to. The nobility had more education than peasants, so how much background you chose to give out is going to vary with the player, their social class, and frankly their attention span. Few people are going to want to sit through a long lecture on the obscure vintage of a glass bottle or a country that they are never going to visit. So, be careful about how much text you dump on your players. But even peasants knew the name of the pope and their king and queen, they also knew the names of their enemies be they nations or different faiths. When Guttenburg invented the movable type press he printed a smash best seller: the bible. Coming off of that bestseller he published the work of an obscure Catholic Monk who had problems with the way the Church was being run: a guy named Martin Luther. He included a woodcut picture of Martin Luther on the inside cover, and his face became the most famous face in Europe, better known than any king or queen. And believe me, it steamed those nobles. The invention of the movable type press and publishing books increased the education level of all of Europe. So, one big question you have to answer in your game is how common are books and are they printed, or do they have to be copied by hand. If there are books and they are available, then a lot of people are going to read them and that will improve the education level of the populace. One nice method available to us nowadays is creating a website. Google Sites allows you to create free websites of almost any length. There are other organizations on the web that allow you to create your own website, like Earthlink, or you can take information from the web and refer to it in your own website. The important thing to do here is to make sure you are abiding by the Open Gaming License, where you are not using copyrighted material. If you do use copyrighted work, then make sure to get permission from the original authors and give them credit for their work. This is also true for any illustrations you use. There is no harm in copying work, but there is big harm in plagiarism, that is theft of work and claiming that it is your own. In my book, that is theft of property and lying to your players. 6) Handling Player Knowledge Vs. Character Knowledge All players will start with some knowledge and have some character knowledge, both of which are rarely the same. Keeping that knowledge straight is important and not easy. Don’t burden your players with too much knowledge and then not expect them to use it. Just like you wouldn’t want to run a module that someone else has already played in or run, you don’t want to include too much knowledge that is restricted information. Also, once a character gains knowledge then it is hard to restrict that knowledge. You can tell players not to use restricted knowledge all you want, but it is hard for them to do so. One common tactic of TV lawyers is to ask a question of a witness that they know will be objected to. The judge will then instruct the jury to disregard the testimony. The problem is the jury never disregards the testimony. In the old days of 1st edition there were only three Monster Manuals and most DMs and players had read them from cover to cover several times. That is why they would ask you to show them a picture of the monster. If you showed one from the Monster Manual page, then often they would recognize it and could quote its stats. You only had to say werewolf and the players would know its armor class, that you needed silver weapons to damage one, and its Hit Dice. With Pathfinder there are half a dozen Bestiaries, so it is harder to memorize all the monsters, but a werewolf still requires silver weapons to damage them properly. This is now reflected in the Knowledge Skills. This is how you can limit a player’s knowledge to a character’s knowledge. You can also use Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Local) and Knowledge (Nobility) to limit how much your players know about the world in general, and in specific. This is good if you are using a shared world or a canned world created by someone else. You don’t mind if you players know more than their characters, but you don’t want their characters to know more than their DM. Also part of the challenge of meeting a monster for the first time is learning what it can and cannot do and what does and does not work on it. In previous editions of D&D that joy was lost once you read the monster manual or once you had played against that monster. Now with Knowledge checks your players can have that joy again and again. 7) Now How Does All This Relate With Each Other? Well the character class that the players choose, as well as their traits or their background history may determine their social class which would then determine their basic knowledge. What they know would factor into what happens and what the players can count on in the game. The availability of books also determines the education level of the populace. What they know will shape their reaction to how the game goes. For example, most people in the hobby know about the Adventure Path Skull and Shackles and that it is a pirate game. This is common knowledge and even if your players haven’t read the module, they are probably going to know this as a minimum. The game starts with the DM shanghaiing the party onto a pirate ship. You can roleplay that out, or you can do it with a cut scene. A cut scene is a scene in a video game where character agency is taken away. Part of the story is acted out on screen and the player is told some important things and then given control over their character again. You can do a cut scene where you “convince” the party to join your pirate crew, assuming that they will join to go on with the module, if not then you are wasting your time. If you held Session Zero then you would know that the party will go on with the mission so you can save some roleplaying time by using a cut scene to introduce the party to their new ship and crew. Use cut scenes rarely, as you do not want to too often take away player agency or their ability to react. 8) What To Tell Your Players? Most modules and Adventure Paths come out with a Player’s Handout. If you are doing a custom campaign, then you should make one for the players. Distribute this handout prior to the game and include things like well-known history for the area, rumors for the area, important people in the area, important locations in the area and what the basic adventure idea is. I don’t like to encourage DMs to lie to their party, but there is no rule against misdirection. Some of the rumors could be false, some of the places could not factor in the adventure, some of the people might only factor vaguely in the module and some of the things you tell the players could be commonly known things that are actual factual errors. In Vampire the Masquerade it is well known, among the public, that salt not garlic is what vampires are allergic to. In fact, most vampires aren’t allergic to garlic in the game. Part of the Masquerade is spreading around false information about vampires and even making them fictitious to most people so that if they see a real vampire, they are not likely to believe it, at least long enough for the vampire to escape or to kill the person. Say that there are vampires in your game who have spread around common rumors that vampires are allergic to salt or werewolves who pass around rumors that werefolk are allergic to cold iron not to silver. A simple knowledge check can be used to recover from these falsehoods, but that is something very few first level characters are going to have enough knowledge to know. This could be true in that the Kessel Run is a hard run for even a fast ship to make in Star Wars, or that bottle caps are used as currency in the Fallout universe. Any game could have secret information in it that is known or hidden or not known. If you have secrets, then as soon as they are revealed you had better determine a way for them to be uncovered in other games. Maybe it is a Knowledge (Nature) DC 15 check to know that Fay are allergic to cold iron, maybe it is a knowledge 10, maybe the fay have planted a rumor that they are allergic to silver and it is actually a Knowledge (Nature) DC 20 check to know the truth. That way if you keep using the same campaign world then when it comes time for a new set of adventures to explore the world you will know what they need to do to not act on “out of character information.” Handouts are good for a game, as they increase player immersion and make the game feel more real to the players. If you are creating a handout then include some pictures with it that relate to the topic at hand. In the early days of D&D the only images that related directly to the topic were those in the monster manual. Often the rulebooks and modules used stock images or images from people who didn’t know the game or the situation in the game. That changed with Third Edition and since then the editors have tried to make sure the images relate to the topic you are reading. This increases immersion and understanding. I have collected a lot of images from Facebook and Deviantart.com so when I plan on showing a monster’s image in the future, I can use one of my images I found instead of the canned one from the Bestiary. That way the players won’t be sure it is monster X with Z and W abilities. Another way to avoid that is to reskin a monster; use one image for another monster’s set of stats. It is best to use a custom image this way. The players will have no way of knowing what you are using or what its real stats are so you can juggle around a few abilities or weaknesses. Now it is harder to do this with a classic monster like a dragon or a medusa, but how many know what a flumph can do, or can picture one? They are lesser known monsters published in the Fiend Folio and were hardly used because they were designed poorly. Now what if you take a panther man and create a werecat (not a weretiger, there is one of those already) who can take the forms of a house cat up to that of a mountain lion. They get the mountain lion’s attacks or the normal cat’s attacks or the attacks of a small cat (as per the animal companion) if in bobcat form. Now you have a totally new were-creature and no one is exactly sure what it is since you are simply using a cat’s stats and a were-creature’s ability to shape shift and their damage resistance to silver. You can have a village that is suffering attacks from some nasty animal and no one would suspect the housecat lounging on the windowsill. The easiest monsters to make up are demons since they are chaotic and there is an endless array of shapes that they can be formed into. The most common demon is a mashup creature like a Marmolith; a cross between a giant snake, Kali (the Hindi goddess of destruction) and a human female. So, you can escape players from knowing too much by using nonstandard images for monsters, nonstandard monsters, or reskinning a monster. Making up a new monster from scratch is hard to do and even the experts make mistakes now and then. I saw a monster in a module that appears in another module in a toned-down version, because the first appearance of that monster it has a 75% chance of taking out at least one party member in one encounter and that encounter was a major one and couldn’t be avoided. Also, there was no way in the module to bring back the dead at the level the party should be at. 9) Ideas Are Powerful Things And You Need To Include How The Ideas Are Going To Work In Your Game And In Your Future Games World building is a tremendous task. If you build a world with a secret underground demonic organization that the players find out about, then the next time you run your world the same set of players will expect to find that same organization active again. If you don’t want to throw out your past history, make sure that you have rules for how the players can uncover that information for their characters. For example, the demonic conspiracy may be secret and only known to a few churches and cults, so a character has to have joined a cult or church and gotten past the first circle of knowledge to learn about the demonic cult. This is a simple safety factor. In some games those organizations can be clear and easy to join, in others hidden and hard to find. It all depends on what you want to do for your game. This would let you avoid the traps my DM friend who used his same campaign world over and over created for his players. His wife knew far more than any of us, but he penalized her when she tried to use that knowledge and he didn’t have any rules by which her other characters could get that knowledge, or to rule that they didn’t have it. He just assumed that everyone started out with no knowledge at all and if his wife showed any knowledge, he would accuse her of using out of character knowledge. He could have gotten around that by giving his wife’s character a flaw and access to extra knowledge for that flaw. Then she could even serve as our guide in certain regions and she could be a font of knowledge and an inside track for the players to learn more about his game and thus get deeper immersion and generate more interest. He had a lot of secrets in his campaign worlds, but once we found out about them it was hard to not use that knowledge with our other characters. A few times we learned the same secrets over and over, it took some of the fun out of learning them in the first place. It also took the joy out when we came across his favorite NPC time and time again. It got to the point where I, at least, was sick of them. He had a large world, but we kept coming back to the same areas for his adventures. So, if you create a world or use a canned one then make sure it is large enough that other games can exist in it without falling over each other. One advantage of using Golarion, the Pathfinder world, is that the history was written by a team of writers and the world is vast so it can contain a lot. There is a lot published about the world, but there is a lot of space in between the areas where things can happen and you can make minor changes, like forgoing gunpowder, to make it your own world. Don’t be afraid to do that with any canned world you run. In summary, start with a world, custom or canned; find what game your party wants to play in and build it; build a party as close to the “standard party” as possible and hold Session Zero; publish a set of your rule variants for the players to learn, use and know; inform your players of what they need to know for background information for the campaign; determine what knowledge is what and how hard it is to obtain, learn, and utilize. Daniel Joseph Mello is active under that name on the Facebook under the fans of d20prfsr.com and Pathfinder Gamemasters Groups. Feel free to login to Facebook, on of these groups and drop him line. He has been involved in D&D since 1981 and by the 5th game he was the DM. He has gamed in the Army, in college, and at conventions, including AggieCon and NovaCon. He has written tournament level modules for gaming conventions and been writing about D&D on Facebook for over 3 years. He is also a budding fantasy writer. Picture Reference: Red Hand of Doom: Elsir Vale Map (Player) by Antariuk   I started playing D&D back in the days of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition. I was 10 at the time, and in the 20 years that have elapsed between then and now, I’ve witnessed four different editions of D&D and three different editions wars. Each “war” was spurned by the coming of a new edition that “ruined” what D&D was “all about.” The above sentiments are hyperbole. Sentiments I’ve found myself spouting from time to time. Though there is an element of truth to it: every edition of D&D I was present for was wildly different from the last. These differences changed how D&D was played. Somewhere along the line with all the changes across so many editions, I think we wound up losing focus on a few things. Things that really made D&D special. Things that, incidentally, are perfect additions to the “sandbox” style of play with an open world. So for your reading pleasure, here’s some old school D&D ideas you should definitely consider if you’re looking to run a more open world kind of game. 1) Questing For Magic Items 5th edition was meant to be the unifying edition; whether that succeeded or not is a topic for another article. However, the effort to do so is present in this one line from the Player’s Handbook: "...aside from a few common magic items, you won't normally come across magic items or spells to purchase. The value of magic is far beyond simple gold and should always be treated as such." The above is a sentiment echoed from 2nd edition, since this and 5th edition don’t have much in the way of codified rules on the creation of magic items. By contrast, 3rd edition has extensive rules on the subject. However, I do recall in 2nd edition, there was some suggestions for how to make magic items, and it involved gathering several exotic items related to the effect of the item. This is the perfect objective for a quest! Let’s have an example: say a player wanted to make a magical sword with a flaming blade so they may better thwart evil. In addition to the materials needed for a sword, it could also include such things as pure brimstone collected from a sacred volcano, a brilliant ruby, and the ashes of a tree limb that a wicked person was executed under. You could even include more intangible things that require some interpretation on behalf of the players, such as the burning conviction of one dedicated to justice. The key is to make the required components meaningful to the effect and purpose of the item. Such a ruby may be found in a grand bazaar in a trade city, but not everybody has a sacred volcano in their backyard. 2) Travel Rules Travelling can be dangerous. Bandits, wild animals, and vicious goblins could strike anywhere. However if you’re a tough sort that’s used to beating down unsavory elements on the road, there’s nothing to fear. Unless you’re starving, dehydrated, and haven’t slept in a day. Then the errant kobold might prove to be a problem. The metaphysical march up the stairs that is character level does some weird things to the universe. At the beginning levels, a small band of goblins can be a challenge. At higher levels, in order to keep this same sort of encounter challenging, something else is needed to make these goblins a challenge. Something like making them stronger via special gear, adding more of them, or introducing powerful new allies for them. I get why this happens, though. In order to keep the game interesting, challenges have to escalate. Tougher enemies is one way to do this. However, the enemies are just one variable in this scenario. An often overlooked mechanic in D&D 5e is Exhaustion. Not having the right things for a journey, including food and water, can have drastic consequences. Enforcing travel rules, such as having the supplies, food, and water necessary for a long journey, adds a whole host of new challenges without needing to rely on making combat more difficult. The core books for D&D 5e even state that a person needs about one pound of food and one gallon of water a day, which for a short journey can easily be kept on hand. However, on a longer journey, it becomes important to either know where nearby settlements are, or to have the ability to find these things in the wild. This also has the effect of making the Ranger class and certain backgrounds (such as Outlander) much more useful, since they’re more effective at foraging. And if nothing else, players can always use all that gold they’ve been hoarding to hire NPCs to help carry all their supplies for a long haul journey! 3) Building Strongholds With a vast wilderness with all manner of threats, or a universe filled with secrets to study and uncover, a hero is eventually going to want to find a place of their own to make this all happen. The Dungeon Master’s Guide gives a quick blurb on how much all of this costs, and the time it takes to complete, but not much else. If you haven’t noticed the recurring theme in this article, regarding strongholds, there’s plenty of room for extrapolating from incomplete details! An adventure can be made out of finding the skilled workers needed to build a stronghold. Additionally, player characters may also need to gain permission from the local rulers to build their stronghold, leading to further quests they’ll need to complete before they can begin construction. This aspect was baked into 2nd Edition, with most characters gaining followers at level 9 if they possessed a stronghold. Later, supplements were released that included all the nitty gritty details of what it took in terms of followers and gold acquire a stronghold. While no such official supplement exists for 5th Edition, it hasn’t stopped fans from creating their own. 4) Changing Parties After so many adventures, and so many marks have been made on the map by one group, you eventually reach a plateau. This could be in terms of story arc, character level, or even interest in playing a given character. So when there’s been a major accomplishment, such as beginning work on that stronghold or completing that magic weapon the players have quested so long for, it may be worth making a new cast of characters and starting a new adventure. (At least for a little while.) As with everything else, there was a precedent for this shift in 2nd edition as well, in the Creative Campaigns sourcebook. The example they cited was that when the party reaches a city with a temple preparing to go on a crusade, the players would make new characters who are the knight readying to go on said crusade. To bring this around to our example, though: a party that completed The Burning Sword of Justice could offer it as a gift to a local lord in exchange for a deed to land to build their stronghold. At that point, the players could take on a new set of characters who are vassals of this lord doing some initial surveying of this land. (And to ensure that the players still get to have fun with their weapon they worked for, the lord could have gifted it to one of the new player characters.) The key to making a “sandbox” game work is that the players need goals to work towards, and these goals can’t be treated as a means of instant gratification. For all games, though, resources earned or found should be useable: if you’re going to give out mundane rewards like currency, it may be worthwhile to enforce mundane needs. (Like needing to resupply rations, or pay wages to hirelings.) Aaron der Schaedel initially wanted to include an “Old Man Yells At Cloud” joke at the start of this article, and end it with the phrase “And stay off my lawn!” He cut those jokes when he realized this piece would be more effective if he just tied it to sandbox games instead of griping about how gaming has changed over the last 20 years. You can tell him to go back to bed via Twitter: @Zamubei Picture Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Campaigning   While scanning your monster manual for fresh nasties to batter and maim your closest friends, you may be tempted to flip past the Stirge. As a tiny beast with four measly hitpoints you might fail to see its value as an adversary to even the lowest level adventurers. Stop. I’m about to teach you five steps to turn a buzzing gnat into pure terror and all-out panic.
For the uninitiated, the Stirge is a horrid flying thing that looks like a mixup between a bat and a mosquito. Its wingspan is roughly two feet across, and a six-inch long proboscis hangs limp from its face. To feed, the creature flexes powerful jowl muscles, transforming its sagging sucker into a ridged spike that it plunges deep into the flesh of its prey, drawing great volumes of blood as sustenance. They’re weak, they’re crunchy, they’re barely a snack, but when run right the stirge is absolute nightmare fuel. 1) Scourges Of Stirges A stirge is like a locust or a rat. A pest by itself, but like all pests, you’ll almost never find it by itself. Stirges travel in scourges. No seriously, that’s the collective noun for a group of the horrid things. If you encounter one or two of these bloodsuckers a good crack with the business end of a heavy stick will probably do the job, but a scourge of stirges is something very different. This is where you abandon the standard course for encounter design. Most encounters are fought to the bitter end. Not this one. Stirges travel in swarms so big that no adventuring party could exhaust their numbers. Maybe no army. Like locusts they descend on entire towns, leaving utter devastation in their wake. Where locusts obliterate crop fields, stirges suck the literal life out of every warm-blooded creature they can get their creepy pincers on; livestock and people alike. Step one is to think of stirges as an event rather than an encounter. It’s not something you come across, it’s something horrifying that happens to you, to the town you’re in, to the community of people you’ve sworn to protect. A stirge encounter should be run like a hurricane. 2) Foreshadow The Event To Build Suspense In The Birds, Hitchcock didn’t drop flocks of feral seagulls out of the sky without warning. He lets the tension build throughout the film by gathering more and more of them on wires and jungle gyms. Set up the encounter long in advance by making your players think about the stirges before they’re a threat. Have a few perched on fence posts or circling above like vultures, then have their numbers gradually grow. Have townspeople who have experienced scourges of stirges in the past start becoming unnerved and then unglued as more of the little beasties arrive, as sheep and cattle start turning up dead with big hideous sucker holes in their sides. Give some of those people big old scars from proboscis wounds in their own necks and chests. Make this place well aware of what’s coming. Watch the drive-in scene from the movie Twister. These people live where tornadoes are a persistent threat. Most days are normal days, but the threat of an unstoppable cataclysmic force dropping out of the sky is always looming. When the winds pick up, it takes about a minute for absolute panic to set in. That’s the way to run a stirge event. The people of this community know the danger they’re in better than the party does, but they’re about to learn. 3) A Scourge Is Not A Stirge A stirge will grab onto you, plunge its proboscis deep into your flesh and suck the blood out of your body. That’s the threat. Absolutely horrifying obviously, but I want to impress upon you that the threat of a scourge of stirges is much more than just a lot of that. Don’t get me wrong, it is going to be a lot of that. One after another of these repulsive bloodsuckers are going to latch on and pierce you with their fleshy spike-ended mouth-straws, and if you rip one off, two more are going to take its place. I just don’t want you to think that that’s the extent of your problems. What happens when a few hundred of them land on the roof of the rickety old barn you’re hiding in? It collapses on your head. If you’ve never been smashed in your face place by a big swinging joist take my word for it, you’re going to lose half a skull and a good bit of brain. With that many wild things thrashing around, mounted torches and candle sticks are going to get jostled. Things are going to catch on fire. People are going to go crazy. Your party will be dealing with absolute pandemonium, and anything you can dream up that goes along with that. 4) Keep Them Outside, Keep Them Moving, Make Shelter Scarce If you’ve ever had to deal with a hornets nest you know that the terror mostly disappears when you scamper flailing back into your house and the door clacks shut behind. Don’t give your party that. Give them reasons to go outside. Give them long distances to run with only a few sparse overhangs, tree branches, or wood-sheds to crowd into for moments of respite before they’re overcome again. If they find a really good shelter give them a moment to build up that false sense of security before burning it to the ground. Give them children and infirm elders to protect in wide open spaces. Watch The Birds, The Mist, Twister, The Swarm, or any other movie where people are trying to survive a catastrophic event by hiding in doors. You’ll find that there’s always a reason to go outside. 5) Lay Waste And Move On I think this final point is the one that really matters for inspiring a feeling of earnest dread. When the event is finally over, it’s not because the party saved the day. It’s not because of some daring do or some heroic sacrifice. It ends the way most catastrophic events end: without rhyme or reason. The sky clears, the daylight returns, the scourge moves on. It leaves of its own volition and you realize that you’re powerless against it. Then you’re left with the aftermath. A town has been raised, people have died, the communities entire store of livestock has been decimated, and now they must recover. A stirge event reminds us that while our characters may be heroes of great power, the world they inhabit contains dangers well beyond even them. With these five steps you can turn a 4hp ⅛ CR monster into an event that your players are sure to never forget. From that moment on, anytime a stirge turns up or flies by you’ll send waves of terror rippling across the table, and they’ll never look at a mosquito the same. Good luck! Ryan Cartner and Dustin Hoogsteen are indie tabletop game designers at epiclutesolo.com. They are creating one game every month in 2019. You can download the first of these twelve planned releases for free at www.epiclutesolo.com/blog/games Picture Reference: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/432204895463483101/  If you are familiar with my show, The Dragon’s Horde, then you will also be familiar with the concept of “the sleepy dragon list.” For those of you not in The Horde, the sleepy dragon list is a bit of an albatross hanging from my dungeon mastering neck. In brief, it is a shorthand list of ideas that I have for items, adventures, NPCs, and such. Items on the list include things like “He thinks he is a werewolf. He is not” or “weird (sexy?) key.” Then there is the infamous “sleepy dragon.” It has dwelt within the list for nigh 4 years now, and I have yet to remember what the heck I wanted to do concerning a sleepy dragon. Despite this, I have continued to expand my sleepy dragon list with tons of narrative seeds to get a story on track. One of the most frequent questions we get on the show is from new DMs asking how to get things started. To this I say, ask no more, friends; Pendragon has 7 adventure introductions to get the creative juices flowing!
1) The Herd In the city of Sherrack there is a small village nestled within a grassy basin. Here, traders and farm hands amble about their day selling, harvesting, and discussing the recent goings-on over at Gumby’s farm. As of late, the resident octogenarian and shepherd has had quite the ordeal keeping his flock alive. Every day or two several of his flock go mysteriously missing; stranger yet, more sheep emerge from the woods to to fill their place the following day. Little do Gumby’s neighbors know, that he had recently developed an acute fear of his impending mortality and has turned experimenting on his flock to find the secrets of immortality. And little does Gumby know that the Divine have their eye on him and have sent a couple watchdogs his way in the form of sheep whose wool cannot be sheared. 2) Maiden Voyage The Briny Steed had seen much better days on the sea. Now it rests patiently in harbor, waiting for its next (and probably final) voyage. Through bribery, philandering, and “oh, come on’s” the wannabe captain, Earl Stoutheart has managed to convince the party to commandeer the vessel and sail it across the Scattered Sea. The gang lies in the belly of the ship, waiting for nightfall, but when the time arrives, they emerge to a sight most strange. The ship has already departed on its own accord and seems to be in command of its own heading. It is a ship’s turn to do some commandeering for a change, and the party is along for the ride of a now sentient maritime vessel. 3) Alcohol Poisoning You haven’t heard of the Drinking Hat?! Why, it’s the finest saloon for miles around. Well, it used to be anyway. Built in the husk of an abandoned grain silo, the proprietors of the bar have converted it into a massive, multi tiered drinking house. Tubes snake their way from the mountain of barrels above down to the respective patron, but I wouldn’t go there if I were you. Recently, a group of thieves guilders met an unfortunate end after having their drinks. They could have chosen any number of barrels to sip from, but the poor sods must have gotten one that had been tampered with. Some say it was just bad luck, but I say differently. I say they were assassinated. On my honor as guild master Roan, those responsible for the death of my men will pay with more than just coins. 4) Showstopper The bardic hall in Brint is known nationwide for being the home to more than its fair share of celebrities. The flying Charnelli twins. Finnigan the wondrous. Heck, even Mertick and his performing bear Bathsalts have stopped by on occasion. No one expected a show stopper from Cleopatra though, but a show stopper it was. Everyone assumed she would live and die as a modest tailor until she took the stage to sing. The issue is, no one will ever know how the show actually went, because no one ever left. The morning after her performance, the the owner of the hall found the entire crowd dead in their seats! She has since been arrested for murder, but she says she is innocent and they simply dropped dead in the middle of her act. Cleopatra’s head is on the chopping block, and your party may be the only ones who can prove her innocence. 5) Repo Let it never be said of Matilda that she was anything but a saint. Known for her meek generosity, Matilda enlists the help of the party to help her with a job a little outside the capabilities of a sweet aged woman. The thing is, locals are tired of the stagnant water of the swamp nearby, and they plan on draining it completely. This is all fine and good for most people, but not ‘ol Matilda. She informs the party that she left a large cache of treasure in a lockbox somewhere within the belly of the marsh. Should they find it, she would be more than happy to give them a cut of the booty. The party drudges around in the murky waters, following Matildas instructions closely, but when they arrive, not only do they find treasure but also a corpse clutching the lockbox. Upon further investigation, it appears that the body is wearing a locket with a picture of Matilda inside. Upon further further investigation, the party hears a group of locals approaching. Upon further further further investigation, the party is discovered by the locals (Matilda included) ripping the lockbox from the arms of a dead man. “That’s Harold!” Matilda shrieks, “And that is my lockbox!” Turns out Harold had mysteriously disappeared a year ago, taking both his and his wife’s savings with him. Matilda weeps in the arms of the closest friendly local, but what’s that? Did she just glance over and smirk? 6) The Call Of Pazuzu (I incorporate something similar to the following in each of my campaigns. This cult is kind of like my signature; I would love to know if this inspired an adventure of your own). Your party is headed off for a new adventure in unfamiliar territory. About a day from their destination, a group of naked elves and humans approaches with open arms. They inform the party that they are thrilled to see new faces and are about to, in short, start a celebration. Whether they join the naked folk or not, the party has to pass by the strangers’ camp which has a massive, half finished totem looming overhead. The nudists are busily gathering scrap wood to finish the totem, and they gleefully sing, dance, and try to rope the group into helping. Despite their cordial, unsuspecting nature, these individuals have been waiting a year for that particular night to summon their favorite pestilence demi-god, Pazuzu! An otherwise silver moon slowly begins to shift to a blood red crimson; then, with the totem complete, Pazuzu in all of her pestilent glory animates the statue and chooses it as her personal avatar. Whoops. 7) The Bane Of My Existence “Sleepy Dragon” The role of an effective storyteller can be a daunting task, especially since most of the work of a Dungeon Master happens in real time, but having good narrative seeds chock full of possible hooks and intrigue can make the job that much easier. Nothing feels worse than getting to the table and not feeling like you have enough content to work with; veteran and beginner DMs alike know this. Hopefully you can find ways to plant these seeds if you find yourself in a pinch, and maybe you can start crafting a Sleepy Dragon list of your own! A brief aside, if you come up with a cool answer to the Sleepy Dragon conundrum, feel free to tell me about it at [email protected] so we can feature it on the podcast! Andrew Pendragon is a veteran role player, Dungeon Master, and story teller. His work can be seen featured on outlets like the Chilling Tales for Dark Nights podcast and Youtube channel BlackEyedBlonde, but he takes the most pride in his High Level Games affiliate podcast The Dragon’s Horde where he, alongside his co host, answers listener submitted roleplay questions and weaves them into a false-actual-play adventure! Picture Reference: https://www.deviantart.com/legend13/art/Sleepy-Dragon-s-Teddy-275967993  The Vistani are one of the truly unique elements of Ravenloft, but the familiar tropes of their wagons, evil eye, and card reading can become stereotyped and stale, getting in the way of making an encounter with them a truly memorable and unique experience. To make matters worse, their association with the real-life Roma can lead to unfortunate stereotypes of a people that have suffered from cultural appropriation and marginalization. Below are some options for bands taken to the edge of what it means to be Vistani, stretching the limits to create truly unique encounters far from any real-life association.
1) The Caliglia (Kamii) Vistani normally travel in cyclical routes, but what happens when one of those routes refuses to stay still? In 590, one band had just caulked their wagons to ferry themselves across the Musarde when the Grand Conjunction hit, and they were all swept out to sea! Reading the cards for their fate, their Raunie declared that they must remain on the water until their former route returns to them. The Caliglia traded their wagons for sloops, with which they escort ships between the various seas of the Core and beyond. To avoid static burn, they refuse to set foot on land for longer than a few hours, and always return to the sea before the sun sets. As part of the Kamii tribe, they have turned their metalworking trade to maritime crafts: nails, braces and other ironworks that protect vessels, compasses that predict the weather, and magic cutlasses that draw power from the sea. 2) The Valstike (Corvara) The Valstike tribe roam the lands extolling the virtues of the asylum of Dominia, selling crafts created by inmates, and offering to relieve families and communities of the burden of caring for the feeble minded, insane, or incorrigible. They don’t openly offer outright kidnapping as a service, but some have read between the lines and struck a private deal. If an individual is violently mad--or inconveniently sane--the Valstike excel at live capture, even before resorting to their potent poisons or powerful magic. Their padded vardos have a mild pacifying aura, a variety of restraints, and coffin-sized hidden compartments if necessary. 3) The Biskrem (Vatraska) Only in the topsy-turvy chaos of Vechor could the land change so quickly that Vistani can fulfil their obligation to travel by staying still. The Biskrem run a popular rural inn called The Sundowner (good quality food and rooms, fair prices), that generates a shared unreality wrinkle* among guests that drink their unique brandy. The radius varies depending upon the number of guests, and causes the surrounding landscape to resemble guests’ homelands. The Vistani fix native dishes for the guests out of local flora and fauna that appear when the land changes, and frequently speak of having “traveled,” even though the “camp” is a stationary building. Such an island of sanity is even more popular among outlanders from beyond the Mists, who frequently have vivid dreams of visiting their homelands, and even learn about current events. 4) Lunadd (Canjar) Scholars have wondered, if Vistani are compelled to move in fixed cyclical routes, how do new domains get added to the routes? The answer is found in a rarely mentioned family of the Canjar, whose strange fate allows them to visit each new domain as it appears, BUT at the cost that they can never go back to a domain after leaving. They sell their information to other Vistani during Lunaset, brokering for the supernatural power to add the new domain to routes. Lunadd cannot navigate the Mists per se, being locked on a course to visit each new domain as it appears. To compensate for this loss, and to assist with their mission, they have the gift of speaking the language of anyone they touch. 5) Kruug (Equaar) Hinted at in Van Richten's Arsenal, this singular family of Vistani are tied to the lost royal family of Velkaarn, and seek to restore the Bloodknife to its reincarnated owner. Like other Equaar, they have no wagons, but also stand out for only training truly wild animals, such the wolves and raptors that accompany them. Kruug trained animals despise the undead, and never fall under the sway of an undead darklord even if their creature type would normally be subject to a lord’s control. It's said that once the vampire lord Velkaarn is no more, the Kruug will return from isolation in the Mists. If these legends are correct, the Kruug may be the first Vistani family to willingly undergo ritual static burn. 6) Golurn (Naiat) As the domains on their route became increasingly urbanized, one clan left their vardos behind as they prowl the streets of Paridon, Nosos, and other large cities. Upon arriving in a new city, the Golurn spread out fast, darting through alleys solo, or in groups no larger than four. They find good places to perform, or do small chores, using the subtle charm of their heritage to ingratiate themselves. Golurn children and elders are always accompanied by adults who look after them and involve them in the task at hand. Anyone who threatens one of them finds the others are never far away, but those who indulge their presence find their spirits lifted, their minds awakened; far more value than that of any coin they leave with. Perhaps one of the most important elements of any encounter with a people as mysterious and unique as the Vistani is that it should fulfil multiple roles in the story. Atmosphere is always one of those roles, but the above are also intended for situations where the heroes need a challenge, or refuge, or information, or encouragement, or tools. If the heroes really do just need their fortunes told, or passage from one domain to another, consider alternatives to the Vistani from time to time, to help avoid making these powerful and mysterious people into a backdrop for the scene change. * Unreality wrinkles are a feature of Vechor described in the Nocturnal Sea Gazeteer, a netbook hosted by the Fraternity of Shadows. Leyshon Campbell has been playing and writing for Ravenloft for over twenty years, from the Kargatane's Book of S series, playtesting D&D 3E in a Ravenloft campaign, to the ill-fated Masque of the Jade Horror. He married his wife on Friday the 13th after proposing to her on Halloween. By tradition, the first story read at birth to each of their three children was The Barker’s Tour, from Ravenloft’s “Carnival” supplement. He is currently running the “Queen of Orphans” Ravenloft campaign on Discord. Picture Reference: http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com/2016/09/curse-of-strahd-running-final-battle.html  The Vistani (and by extension The Carnival) are the default “traveling band” for the setting, but there are many travelers who brave the Mists using safety in numbers. One of the greatest advantages of using such a group in a campaign is that they can appear in a wide variety of domains, whether in the Core, island or cluster. For those times when you need to have the adventure come to your players, here are a few ways to have hell (or heaven) on wheels. 1) Professor Arcanus Since the events of CotN: Werebeasts, Arcanus no longer has the luxury of being a one man show. On the night one of his exhibits came back to life, he was saved by a band of traveling adventurers, but he was revealed as a lycanthrope, and one of their number become a carnivorous ape. They now travel with him under the guise of fellow performers, secretly seeking a cure for both Arcanus and their friend, who has been trained to perform and assist. His new allies have taken on his penchant for showmanship and exaggeration, and they include an anchorite of the Erudite tradition who has had some success navigating the Mists. 2) Morts-qui-Dancent The Book of Sacrifices tells the tragic story of a group of musicians who “just wanted to make music.” They now travel from place to place, compelled to do just that or suffer horrible consequences. The undead musical troupe cannot navigate the Mists, but they are generally content to let fate decide their path. Despite their nature and circumstances, they tend towards benevolence, and uniquely suited to survive anywhere, including places the others cannot, such as the Necropolis or Keening. 3) Black Avlyhn First described in the Notes on Doppelgangers, this annis travels with over thirty of her own murderous doppelganger children, who believe that they are immature hags. They use their talents to play the part of Vistani, but are basically just roving thugs. The ones that have gone through puberty can appear as male or female, but visitors may note that all the children in the band of “Vistani" are female...and identical except for their ages. Recently, the band forced a mist ferryman to bargain for its life with passage through Mists. Since then, Avlyhn has prepared a magic circle to capture the next ferryman they encounter, in the hopes that they will be able to trap it and use it to truly travel like Vistani. 4) Rhennee Stranded generations ago in the Greyhawk setting where they learned to ply the Nyr Dyv, the barge folk may adapt to sailing Lake Kriegvogel or Lake Zarovich. Their distinctive customs and unusual magic are similar to the Vistani but with a few memorable contrasts. Obviously using barges instead of wagons is a significant difference, and PCs expecting a Vetha to break out the cards for a fortune telling might see her pour a bucket of bird entrails off the back of the barge instead. A grim Darkhagard’s distinctive weapon and combat style will make an impression whether he's an ally or an enemy. 5) The Dreamspoken Forbidden Lore introduced the Ildi’Thaan, and the first Gazetteer expanded on the Thaani ethnic group associated with them. But while many Thaani are troubled by dreams of Bleutspur, not all of them follow where the dreams lead. The Dreamspoken are Thaani with budding psionic powers who flee the lure of the Ildi’Thaan, developing their powers themselves while traveling the world. Coming from Barovia where Vistani are so well respected, it’s common for them to run away with with the Vistani for protection. Some of them return to Immol every few years to pick up new Dreamspoken, growing into larger bands that adopt Vistani dress and customs, mimicking Vistani magic with psionic powers. This has resulted in false reports of Vistani boys with the Sight, or Vistani with other unusual powers. 6) The Soldiers Of Truth Warden Cyrus Townsend is a powerful anchorite who leads this band of Ezra’s faithful. With planning and precision, they Mistwalk to a theocratic domain such as Pharazia, astound the locals with a practiced barrage of miracles and proselytizing, and disappear back into the Mists before the authorities can muster a response. Most locals are grateful for the food, water, and healing, but a few risk their lives to hide and read the forbidden texts, hoping to be rescued back to the Core at the next visit. Townsend’s “wonderworking" is an extremely risky enterprise, but its success has spawned imitators, especially among the Nevuchar Springs Sect. The latter, of course, don't always bother to ask people if they want to be rescued…. When looking for a traveling band to play a role in your game, consider the role you want them to play, whether rescue through the mists, a source of information or goods, mysterious foreshadowing, entertainment, healing, or just ambiance. Many of the above can fill those roles while creating a sense of a much larger world, with room for many varieties of travelers braving the Mists to see where fortune brings them. Leyshon Campbell has been playing and writing for Ravenloft for over twenty years, from the Kargatane's Book of S series, playtesting D&D 3E in a Ravenloft campaign, to the ill-fated Masque of the Jade Horror. He married his wife on Friday the 13th after proposing to her on Halloween. By tradition, the first story read at birth to each of their three children was The Barker’s Tour, from Ravenloft’s “Carnival” supplement. He is currently running the “Queen of Orphans” Ravenloft campaign on Discord.   This is Leyshon Campbell. Before I give you some totally free content, including shortcuts to some of the finest game materials ever made, I want to thank High Level Games for dragging me back into a hobby that I love. They are truly a Makerspace for game designers, and they deserve support. If you see the value here like I do, check out our Patreon, or pick up one of our excellent products. Lycanthropy in Ravenloft is intended to be a curse rather than a blessing, but it's a curse that is notoriously hard to lift. According to the official guide to the subject, once the progenitor is dead, there’s a ritual involving a number of high level spells cast on the afflicted person in their beast form, with saving throw penalties reflective of how deeply the beast has taken hold. If the afflicted doesn’t have the means yet to kill the progenitor, obtain the spells or make the saves, their life becomes a matter of managing the dread disease. Here are a few suggestions to make that easier. 1. Get Informed Do you change with the phases of the moon, or the tides? What about violence, hunger or the smell of blood? Use redundancies, such as manacles inside a locked and barred room. Not only is this safer, but it will give you a rough idea of how strong it is by what doesn’t work. Read up on cheap STR/DEX poisons, such as whiteshoot root. The worst they can do is paralyze, and they can make other precautions more effective. Learn about the laws wherever you go, especially smaller offenses that warrant jail time. Getting thrown in jail for unpaid fines may prevent manslaughter. If anyone knows of your condition, they may lock you up longer than you intend, but that’s still more manageable than running free. 2. Get Help Many champions of the Mists are familiar with precautions against lycanthropy, but some are more helpful than others. George Weathermay may take pity, especially if he sees a connection to his nieces. Ivan Dragonov might be convinced to assist in hunting down the progenitor, with strict warnings as to what will happen if they delay in a cure. Carnagan Wolfe may not know about being infected, but might share some insight of his life on the fringes of werewolf society. And an infected lycanthrope in truly dire straits might learn a lot from Vjorn Horstman, even if they have to escape his lab after learning it. 3. Get Magic Finding a relic like the Hands of the Dawn Healer might be a bigger quest than getting cured, but it’s certainly worth following up on rumors, especially if you’ve hit a dead end on your bloodline. Anyone wearing a Wolfspaw Amulet can trap the beast in any corner, alcove or pit on very short notice. Some shared party items like magic manacles, a bag of holding or portable hole could keep the beast in check for a few days and then turned to other uses the rest of the month. A Silver Amulet of the Beast is a comprehensive solution, but it’s not a shared item, and may work best financed through a sponsor or on temporary loan from an ally. Finally, if you start to transform, buy yourself a little time by drinking a spiritual purgative. It may only hold off the curse a few rounds or minutes, but that may be enough time to get someplace more secure. 4. Get Hunting Even if you don't have all the ingredients for a cure, tracking down the progenitor is a great way to gain needed experience. If you were lucky enough to be infected by a true lycanthrope, this means only one hunt, but occasionally it means tracing back through any number of infected to find the original. As Celia Whitmoor and her companion Argent can tell you, the danger and logistical difficulty of a long bloodline hunt belie the fact that this is an emotionally grueling journey, with any number of false ends where you find not the object of your quest, but another hapless reflection of what you are turning into. It may be best to lay out some rules for how long you will hunt, and how much you will tolerate, until you decide to try for control instead of cure. 5. Get Control Taking control of the beast is no easy choice; even attempting will make it more difficult to be cured in the future, and success will prevent it entirely. Van Richten’s Guide had no rules for it, but John W. Mangrum wrote up some pretty good rules in the Book of Shadows (“Wild at Heart”). The Duskpeace Outcasts are the obvious ones to turn to for this kind of help, but the Keepers of the Black Feather might offer some small assistance to other kinds of werebeasts, if you’ve proven yourself a worthy ally. BONUS: Get Re-infected As a third option against control or cure, some might consider re-infection. Only the most recent phenotype takes effect, so why not replace your slavering wolf with a more fastidious panther, or less hungry rat? The ideal might be to join a flock of wereravens, but there are also outlander varieties of tigers, bears or boars whose beast-selves are not evil. It’s up to the DM how a “reboot” against a different phenotype interacts with ranks in control shape. Managing an afflicted PC requires a tricky balance; if lycanthropy is too easy to lift then it loses its gravitas, but it shouldn’t be so harsh as to make the PC unplayable or derail the rest of the campaign. By making plans and taking precautions, you can make lycanthropy an ever-present part of the life of a character while still allowing them to have as productive a life as an adventurer in Ravenloft can have. Leyshon Campbell has been playing and writing for Ravenloft for over twenty years, from the Kargatane's Book of S series, playtesting D&D 3E in a Ravenloft campaign, to the ill-fated Masque of the Jade Horror. He married his wife on Friday the 13th after proposing to her on Halloween. By tradition, the first story read at birth to each of their three children was The Barker’s Tour, from Ravenloft’s “Carnival” supplement. He is currently running the “Queen of Orphans” Ravenloft campaign on Discord.   Hey, Jim here! Before Frankie gets started, I wanted to remind you that High Level Games is bringing you game content and commentary absolutely free, as well as providing a home and launching point for a slew of great creators! If you want to help our endeavors, we'd love it if you stopped by our Patreon to show your support. Of course, if you'd like a little something for your hard earned money, you could always pick up one of our fine game products as well.
Greetings traveler! I’m sorry to hear about your loss. I understand one of your companions went missing in Lamordia, and you believe the shadowy Adam to be responsible. I was relieved to receive your letter asking for my advice on how to proceed; I had begun to worry you no longer had need of me! Fortunately for you, I’ve dealt with Adam (as well as his deranged creator) personally. Since encountering Adam, I’ve tangled with other creatures of his ilk, and discerned several common threads between them. 1) The Difference In other lands, the ability to animate the inanimate is a function of powerful magic and expert application. Within the Mists, however, the power to bestow quasi-life to one's creations comes more easily (if not as reliably). Although the techniques vary wildly, they all require a creator to spend an inordinate amount of time, attention, and money in the pursuit of their creation. A great deal of information about the varieties of golem creation can be found in Van Richten's seminal (if unoriginally named) Van Richten's Guide to the Created. What the good doctor fails to note is the distinction between ‘mundane’ constructs, the mindless automata that follow only the directions of their creators, and the malignant intelligence of those constructs touched (some might say tainted) by the Dark Powers. Van Richten’s successors, the Weathermay twins, have dubbed the more dangerous variety dread golems. While the rules were written with 2e in mind, the lore, background, and cost guidelines in Van Richten's Guide are suitable for any edition. Rules for dread golems can be found on p. 190 of the Ravenloft Core Rulebook. 2) The Obsession What a sufficiently motivated creator lacks in magical potential, the Dark Powers may sometimes fill in. What seems to attract their attention in this regard is obsession: the desire to finish their work at the expense of everything else. Bringing their creation to life may not even be their literal intent. Consider Ernst Bederim: an acolyte at the Great Cathedral in Levkarest and a bright young artist who worked exclusively in portraits of leaded glass. His magnum opus was to be a portrait of Ezra to rival the centerpiece of Sainte Mere de Larmes. His passion led him to neglect his duties to the faith (at least one brother suffered grievous injuries restoring a fresco that Ernst was supposed to have done), and eventually he went missing altogether. He was found sliced to pieces a few weeks later, but his nearly-completed masterpiece has not been seen since. The animation of this art piece into a Dread Golem (for that is what I believe transpired) was not born of a literal desire to bring life, only a figurative desire, to make his artwork "come alive" as it were, a desire which the Dark Powers saw fit to grant. If the glass portrait of Ezra truly does stalk the Great Cathedral, then statistics for stained-glass golems can be found in the Monster Manual II. 3) The Connection The power to create life is the province of the gods alone, and mankind has but a single way to achieve this end: the way the gods intended. The magically potent and driven may attempt to usurp this power, but their creations, from the basest homunculus to the most powerful golem, remain a part of them in a potent and fundamental way. I believe that the soul of the creation is a piece of the creator's own soul, a fragment they have torn loose with their perverse obsession and imparted in the construct, like a cutting taken from a tree. Consider Adam: his own creator, Dr. Mordenheim, and he suffer an intense shared connection. Prick one, and the other feels the needle. (But be warned: I know from experience that neither can perish whilst the other endures.) Adam is even widely believed (by those who know of such things) to be Lamordia's Dark Lord. So why does his domain, and his alone, not reflect his own history and psyche? The answer is that he is not, no matter what he might think, an independent creature: he is merely an extension of Mordenheim's own soul. This is why Lamordia is modeled after Mordenheim's influence, and not Adam's. Frankie may be correct here: if Adam and Mordenheim truly are one soul, it would make their dual curses make sense. Both are chief among the damned in Lamordia, and while Mordenheim's influence predominates, only Adam wields the supernatural prowess of the Dark Lord. For more information about Lamordia and its environs, see the Ravenloft Gazetteer: Vol. II. 4) The Imperfect Some powers are not for humankind to possess, a lesson the dread golems' half-lives bring resoundingly home. Each of these creatures possesses a number of tiny flaws, which Van Richten dubs zeitgeibers, as if to underscore their creators' inability to impart real life. I encountered a jeweler in Hazlan once, a Rashemi woman purported to have the occasional prophetic dream. She made such wonderful trinkets from crystal, etched in the shapes of animals both real and mystical. When the Mulan noble she served became pregnant, the artist worked night and day fashioning a delicate crystalline fairy to watch over the child, for she had sensed a great darkness that wished the Mulan harm. The noblewoman miscarried, and when she discovered what her servant had been making, she cursed the artist for her superstition and had her hanged. The crystalline fairy did not take this affront lightly: before departing into the night, she killed every Mulan child in the household. To this day, the crystal fairy is incapable of passing a sleeping person without doing them an ill turn, which may be as innocuous as stealing an article of clothing, or as vicious as cold blooded murder. The crystal fairy has been sighted all across the core, often posing as a mundane piece of jewelry or statuary. Details on crystal golems can be found in Denizens of Darkness. 5) The Malevolent While some dread golems, like the crystal fairy, are born shortly before their creator's demise, virtually all of those that are not eventually attempt to destroy their creator. Some may attempt to do so out of a perverse mockery of love, desiring to possess their beloved even at the cost of the creator's life, but most grow to despise their 'parent.' Some profess anger at having been made for servitude, some outrage at being created imperfectly. Some, like Adam, cite personal conflicts that exploded into a lifetime of treacheries. I believe that the truth is that the same part of the creator's soul which animates the golem is the part of themselves that know what they have done is wrong, and that they deserve to be punished for it. The act of creation purges them of this part of themselves, and the Dark Powers give it the ability to act on its dark desires. For such creatures and their creators, life takes on one of two forms: either the creator (or sometimes, much more rarely, the creature) flees, while the other pursues them with the same relentless obsession that brought about the golem's unnatural existence in the first place, or else (like Dr. Mordenheim) the creator proves too powerful or influential for the construct to easily destroy, and they lurk on the fringes of their creator's territory, plotting elaborate vengeance. Adam's Wrath is only one of the Dark Lord of Lamordia's elaborate revenge schemes. Check it or the Gazetteer II for more possible ways for Adam to involve the PCs in his vengeful war against the mad doctor who created him. Conclusion If you take only a single piece of advice from me regarding your plan to rescue your companion from Adam's clutches, it is this: don't. My own brush with Adam and Dr. Mordenheim cost me a lung, the life of my sister, and the soul of a dear friend, and I consider myself to have gotten away lightly. In the best of scenarios, your friend is already dead. At worst, they are irrevocably...altered. However, I know you well enough to know you're unlikely to heed my warnings. You'll risk your life for that of your companion's no matter what I say, so as your (distant) friend and occasional mentor, I offer you this additional bit of wisdom: Trust Adam not at all. Trust Mordenheim less. Good luck, and happy hunting. Frankie Drakeson, Lord Mayor of Carinford-Halldon Frankie Drakeson is a retired rifleman and the current mayor of Carinford-Halldon in Mordent. He is married to Gwendolyn Drakeson, the granddaughter of Nathan Timothy. Jim Stearns is a deranged hermit from the swamps of Southern Illinois. In addition to writing for the Black Library, he puts pen to paper for High Level Games and Quoth the Raven. His mad scribblings can frequently be found in anthologies like Fitting In or Selfies from the End of the World, by Mad Scientist Journal. Follow him on Twitter @jcstearnswriter, or listen to Don, Jon, & Dragons, his podcast. Picture Reference: http://www.lomion.de/cmm/golervfl.php  The Ravenloft game offers some ways to live with lycanthropy, but some players don’t need much encouragement. It gives them better combat ability, which is the reason they are an adventurer anyway, right? Sometimes players need a reminder that something that tries to kill everyone you love is a bad thing. If your infected PC is trying to talk the others out of a cure, here's how to write them a reality check.
1) No More Murder Hobo Because lycanthropy keeps the “victim” alive while threatening people they care about, the severity of the curse is a reflection of how much they have to lose. Those who are most tempted by lycanthropy tend to be rootless, living only for the next adventure. Give them roots: the bartender who gives them leads, the kids who admire them, the cleric who patches them up. Consider a big adventure that gives them a cool base of operations, complete with a couple of loyal staff. Once they have something to lose, the curse takes its proper perspective. 2) Dangle Mistletoe One special type of community tie bears special mention. Have an NPC show interest in the PC by sending little gifts or calling in favors to make a job easier. If the player takes the bait and the relationship starts heating up, remind them that the beast will target their love interest. Make sure the NPC is playing hard enough to get that there’s lots promised and nothing delivered… yet. Even the most juvenile player should be moved to get rid of this barrier to romantic entanglements off-screen. 3) Share The Pain Make sure the other party members are on the front lines when it comes to every kind of collateral damage. A party that is sick of mending the furniture is your best ally for dealing with a lycanthrope-happy player. Remind players that infected characters may have a harder time gaining XP, and infected paladins, clerics, druids and rangers could lose much more. In the rare situation that everyone still lines up for infection, make it clear that their beastly selves will destroy the group, either by going separate ways or just killing each other. 4) Wake-Up Calls If you think a hangover is bad, how about waking up a murderer? Make a small table of random places the PC might wake up after a night as the beast. In a jail cell. Naked in the woods. In an animal cage. On a lab table. Lost in a subterranean cave. Even just waking up a few days north of the rest of the party could ruin a lot of adventuring plans. It's OK to let them see the table so they know what might happen, even let them make suggestions, but don't let them see you roll, and don’t just announce what the results are. Some things are best found out the hard way. 5) Fools Rush In Lycanthropes target people that their host feels strongly about, and there are plenty of other strong feelings beyond love or friendship. If the infected PC feels strong hatred against the villain of the story line, have the beast go for a direct attack, rushing in with all of the rage felt by the host, but without the reasoning to actually do the job. It might do a lot of damage and take out several lackeys, but infected survivors could pose a greater threat to the party. After the PC wakes up as a prisoner in the villain's lair, offer a temporary replacement character. By the time the original has been rescued, the player will hopefully have learned the lesson, and will be first in line for a cure. Other media may be full of heroic werewolves, but the specifics of each mythology have to be taken into account, and Ravenloft lycanthropes are not those of Hollywood. Unless you’ve agreed to loosen the rules for them, lycanthropy should not be an enhancement to the character. It should be a disaster waiting to happen that they will work hard to be rid of, and count themselves blessed when finally free. Leyshon Campbell has been playing and writing for Ravenloft for over twenty years, from the Kargatane's Book of S series, playtesting D&D 3E in a Ravenloft campaign, to the ill-fated Masque of the Jade Horror. He married his wife on Friday the 13th after proposing to her on Halloween. By tradition, the first story read at birth to each of their three children was The Barker’s Tour, from Ravenloft’s “Carnival” supplement. Picture Reference: http://otherworldmystery.com/werewolves-arent-real  Greetings, travelers!
Spring approaches and love is in the air. It seems like every civilization I hear of, from the dour Mordentish to the most bizarre of outlander cultures, celebrates a holiday around this time of year focused around romance, whether of the noble and sophisticated type or of the more…fleshly variety. While sharing a candlelit dinner with the Lady Drakeson, it occurred to me that we often consider love to be the sole province of goodness, the ultimate indicator of a soul’s purity. Tragically, this isn’t the case. The blackest of hearts can occasionally find another that beats in unison with their own, and woe to any that cross their path. Such villainous paramours feed on one another, becoming in tandem a far greater threat than the sum of their individual iniquity. Should you desire to investigate any of these forbidden romances, I would tread with extreme caution. Creatures who have only one bright light in a life filled with darkness are given to protecting it, and monsters such as these are not known for their restraint. There are a few such affairs that I’m familiar with throughout the world; most of them come to my attention as the likely cause of the death of a correspondent such as yourself! 1) The Doomed Lovers Travelers along the road to Valachan occasionally encounter the specter of a woman some distance off the road, vaguely discernible and in great distress. Those kind-hearted and foolish enough to investigate rarely return. I believe this apparition to be the departed soul of Lizibet Moore, who fled her home to wed a rakish Dementlieuse actor. Conventional wisdom claims he either abandoned her in the moor, or killed her himself. Moved by this story, I attempted to lay her to rest myself in my youth, a mistake which nearly cost me my life. You see, Romero, her paramour, did not abandon her: he simply could not navigate the treacherous Mordentish swamps, and drowned in the bog. His love, upon finding his remains, killed herself in sorrow. Shunned by their own families, their love denied by the very ground beneath their feet, the two found in death the union they were denied in life: Lizibet now roams the moor in ghostly fashion, luring victims to her lover. His own form preserved by the bog, Romero projects upon his victims the terror he felt as the black mud filled his lungs, damning even those who escape him a slow, lingering demise from his cursed touch. The two lash out at any living being that comes within their domain. Those who do not freeze in terror at the sight of Romero find themselves split further, as Lizibet attempts to possess those most capable of harming her lover. They’ve amassed a small fortune in stolen treasures by now, which they believe will finance the bright future that they don’t seem to realize they can no longer attain. Lizibet is a 5th level rogue as well as a ghost with the Malevolence and Corrupting Touch abilities. Romero uses the statistics for a mummy. 2) The Singers Speaking of dangers to travelers, should you find yourself along the coast of Dementlieu, for the love of Ezra, plug your ears! The first strains of singing you hear may likely be your last. A tiny, lush island off the coast of Dementlieu, too small to even have a name, is the home for a woman who lures travelers to their deaths, although stories vary as to her identity. Some give her wings and clawed feet, and call her Cymone, citing the rocky island as her nest. Others claim she dwells in the tidal pools and drinks the blood of travelers, and name her Cold Brigitte. Aslaug de la Plage, the keeper of the lighthouse, dismisses these stories as superstitious nonsense. In reality, there is not one monster, but three: Cymone is a harpy, Cold Brigitte is a watery fae known as a glaistig, and even the lighthouse keeper who protects their secret, Aslaug, is herself a sirine. The three are not merely compatriots, but lovers, but those who think to join them are in for a rude surprise, as the lovers feast on their prey: Aslaug devours their minds, Cold Brigitte drains their lifeblood, and Cymone gorges on their bodies. The overlapping effect of not one but three songs of enchantment is usually enough to incapacitate entire groups of heroes. Should that fail to work, Cymone can always take to the air while Aslaug and Brigitte retreat to the safety of deeper waters (potentially luring an enchanted captive or two to their own drownings as well). It would take a dedicated group of adventurers indeed to dispatch this wicked love triangle! Sirine statistics can be found in the Monster Manual II. Glaistig statistics can be found in the Monster Manual III. 3) The Artists In the past decade or so, the works of a singular artist have begun to spread across the eastern core. A sculptor who works in marble, this mysterious artist is like none before him: rendering in stone the tiniest details, so fine as to be unbelievable, his figures so lifelike that one could swear they could spring to life. A small brass plate bearing a serpentine insignia, usually on the breast or the center of the back, marks each statue as his. This dark work is the result of a medusa named Mukondi, who claims to hail from a land she only calls ‘the Shaar.’ She was an isolated threat, living alone on the plains near the border of Darkon and Nova Vaasa, before a chance encounter with a shipwreck survivor named Phidian, a maedar. If you’re unfamiliar, a maedar is the extremely rare male form of the medusa. Immune to the gaze attacks of their female peers, maedars instead have the ability to restore petrification victims (which they rarely do). The pair now practice an extortion scheme, kidnapping the loved ones of the wealthy and powerful, then demanding exorbitant ransoms to return them. Should any of their victims fail to pay, then there is soon a new statue on the market. (Phidian drills out the hearts of these statues, which he replaces with the brass plug that is their signature, thus preventing anyone from returning Mukondi’s victims to life.) I believe Azalin is aware of their presence, but since they confine their depredations to Nova Vaasans (or those that are not his citizens), the lich’s forces do not confront them. Statistics for maedar can be found in Dragon Magazine #355. 4) The Outcasts Dazin Cade was an accomplished illusionist, and a renowned adventurer. Like many heroes before him, he chose to brave Castle Ravenloft. The bones of his companions lie moldering in Strahd’s flooded dungeons, but Cade himself was given the curse of vampiric immortality, and was put to work in his new lord’s service. In some forgotten volume of arcane lore, Dazin stumbled across a mention of the Cult of the Nightfoe, and was immediately entranced. The defunct religion venerated a nameless destructor figure of ethereal beauty and incredible danger. Although his research indicated that Strahd’s forces had destroyed them all centuries ago, he became fixated on the cult, determined to locate its remnants. In a hidden shrine in the Balinoks, north of the Luna River, he found what he was looking for. None of the priestly sacraments remained, but the dark visions he received as he slumbered told him he had found what he was looking for. He fashioned a new image of his deity: an icon forged from an obsidian-black metal, so cold as to sap the life from any foolish enough to touch it. So great was his devotion that the Nightfoe has given life, or a cruel semblance of it, to this statue. Dazin Cade and the statue he has named Nightbane dwell now as both lovers and co-conspirators. They have even begun abducting those who wander too far into the mountains and cursing them with undeath, raising a new cult of vampiric spawn to worship at the Nightfoe’s feet. Even without their underlings, Cade and the Nightbane are a terrifying combination. Dazin specializes in spells of light and shadow, which seem to energize his lover in an arcane way. The Nightbane may never speak, but it can certainly act, and it does so by emulating the god whose image it was created in, in his role as a destructor. He can even send out cascades of necromantic energy that peel the spirits away from the living to reinvigorate his vampiric partner. Should the two grow much larger in power or influence, they may be forced to relocate, or else deal with the forces of Barovia’s monarch, who is unlikely to view the presence of a rival with good humor. Dazin Cade is a human vampire, and a 9th level illusionist. Nightbane uses the statistics of a shadesteel golem (Monster Manual III), but with an Intelligence of 18. 5) The Duet Many travelers have seen Zidora and Seoci. Although the two range all over the Core, they usually stay near Kartakass, where their abilities are most appreciated. They actually have a reputation as folk heroes, although this is far from the case. In reality, the pair are brigands and murderers, who spin elaborate tales of their victims’ monstrosity after the fact. They use the guise of a pair of adventurers as a cover to rob the defenseless and evade the law. Zidora is half-Vistani, an image she sometimes accentuates to add to her exoticism, if she thinks that would be to her advantage. She is a skilled at dancing, singing, and several instruments. Her lover, the Tepestani Seoci, is a tall, powerful man with long hair and a perpetual shifty grin. His skill is far more specialized, limited to the violin and a vast store of ribald songs and off-color jokes. Seoci possesses a magical violin that makes him particularly dangerous. It entrances its victims, and makes them more susceptible to musical attacks. Conveniently, Zidora is a gifted sorceress, specialized in just such attacks. Eventually, these two will run afoul of the wrong prey, but until then they live fast and carefree, lost in their own self-destructive romance. Zidora is a 9th level sorceress specializing in sonic attacks. Seoci is a 9th level bard with a violin that functions identically to Pipes of Pain. Conclusion Love may not be the soul province of the goodly, but it is undeniably good. The presence of such bonds of true love within the most wicked of beings points to their core of humanity; it offers the hope that even the most sinful among us might be saved, or at least be offered a taste of salvation among our own self-inflicted damnation. Take care, should you engage any of these beings. I have considered hunting some of them, but then I think of the lengths I might go to in order to protect Gwen, or she to protect me, and I inevitably decide that such dangerous hunts might be better left to the younger and more vigorous. As always, safe travels and happy hunting, Frankie ‘Farshot’ Drakeson, Lord Mayor of Carinford-Halldon Jim Stearns is a deranged hermit from the swamps of Southern Illinois. In addition to writing for the Black Library, he puts pen to paper for High Level Games and Quoth the Raven. His mad scribblings can frequently be found in anthologies like Fitting In or Selfies from the End of the World, by Mad Scientist Journal. Follow him on Twitter @jcstearnswriter, or listen to Don, Jon, & Dragons, his podcast. Picture Reference: http://skyrimphotos.blogspot.com/2012/08/ghost-lovers.html  Editor’s note: Enjoy reading articles about your favorite hobby and engaging with fellow gamers? We do too, but hosting and producing our site isn’t free. Please consider visiting our Patreon page and supporting us at any amount. We put every dollar back into the site and its production, and your help has allowed us to have certain paid article months for our contributors (such as this month). Thank you for your continued readership and your support!
-David, Blog Manager Milgrak advised me to contact you as soon as you brought him an unusual gown your slain vampiress was wearing, apparently the work of the peerless Borcan fashion designer Bertold Iacomo. On your life, let no one know you possess the Iacomo Rose! It’s not cursed in the typical sense, but it’s hunted by many desperate and resourceful parties, servants of the one who took a thing of beauty and made it a venomous weapon. Many who have vanquished immortal creatures of the night have been unprepared to face the true ruthlessness of mortals in the daytime. I will tell you what I can…. Master poisoner Ivan Dilisnya’s creativity and cruelty have borne strange and bitter fruit that take many by surprise. PC’s with plenty of antitoxin can still fall prey to these stranger facets of Ivan’s poison politics. 1) Borrowed Time Ivan’s inner circle of guards knows that if he dies, he takes with him the formula for Mercy, the temporary antidote that delays the fatal Borrowed Time in their systems for one more day. Of course, these servants cannot travel far without additional Mercy to take with them, but there are rumors that a few have magical delivery methods for long distance travel. Having learned the hard way that some would spend their last day in suicidal revenge, Ivan considers carefully before starting the week-long process of poisoning a new recruit, and prefers condemned criminals who genuinely see the poison as a reprieve. 2) Gravitas Gravis The faux-Darkonese name is painful, but no one would dare correct Ivan’s grammar. Upon hearing of Somnos wine from Darkon, he created his own fast-acting intoxicant to loosen lips. A mind clouded by it is prone to rambling and finds everything funny, but nothing more hilarious than divulging their own secrets. Many screams heard in Degravo are actually the sounds of people recovering, realizing that they have gleefully destroyed themselves with barely any interrogation at all. 3) The Iacomo Rose This blush-colored taffeta gown was worth more than a small farm when Ivana gave it to a foreign agent provocateur to help seduce Ivan. Wise to their intrigues, Ivan used his Envenom ability to infuse the dress with strength-draining contact poison, but the woman inexplicably ignored the effects and fled to Dementlieu with the dress. Now Ivan seeks the dress in the hopes of understanding what went wrong. The lethal poison actually prevents mold and mildew, and if handled with the accompanying unvenomed gloves someone might live long enough to try it on. 4) Varcolac Similar in some ways to catalytic poison, banewort preparation is blended with another plant to make the victim allergic to that plant for several hours. Some of Ivan’s quislings are fond of blending it with wolvesbane to make “varcolac,” which makes it appear the victim is infected with lycanthropy. Victims may isolate themselves from their allies if they believe the ruse, and may draw the attention of monster hunters either way. Rumor has it that Ivan has created similar alchemical preparations that create temporary allergy to a specific metal, such as silver, gold or cold iron. 5) Lampwick A form of catalytic poison combined with ether, naptha and a sample of the victim’s hair, this oily liquid slowly evaporates to create thick vapors that cause one specific person to lose consciousness. The poison runs out faster when burned but the effect is much stronger, and dried tobacco can absorb quite a volume in lampwick and still remain flammable. Many of Ivan’s more subtle hunters are fond of lampwick pipes or cigars, surrounding themselves in clouds of smoke in situations where they might confront a target in public, and even blowing a puff of sleep-smoke as a direct weapon. 6) Night Ride This poison has two possible effects, both diabolically subtle. A single dose up to four hours before sleeping will disrupt sleep ever so slightly, causing the victim to talk or even walk in their sleep. A clever person can manipulate the sleeping victim into confessing secrets, implant a suggestion, or direct specific actions of the sleeper. A double dose will allow the victim to sleep normally to observers, but they will wake exhausted, the poison having prevented them from getting any rest. The former is popular in situations where blackmail is preferable to murder. The latter is generally part of a gaslighting campaign, or to keep a foe from restoring strength. 7) Veridian Ivan’s obsession with eternal youth led him to rumors of a Valachani sorcerer’s elixir of immortality. All attempts to reproduce the formula yielded only spectacular deaths, but Ivan saved one of the failures for when he isn’t concerned about collateral damage or cleanup. A bottle of this bright green liquid grants acid and fire immunity and fast healing, but the victim suffers increasing nausea, interspersed by vomiting monstrous oozes and slimes made from their own dissolving organs. Over the course of three days, the victim continues to live sans spleen, stomach, lungs and finally heart, growing thinner and paler with each purge until they collapse into a featureless puddle. No one knows if the original person’s mind remains intact. If so, and if they are truly immortal, this may be the worst fate Ivan has inflicted on anyone. I don’t mean to frighten you, nor would I extort your property from you. My offer is a fair price for a dress that cannot be safely worn and attracts unwanted attention, and none of the others hunting it will make such an offer. Indeed, you may be lucky if they let you keep your life. Dr. Phillippe Delapont Leyshon Campbell has been playing and writing for Ravenloft for over twenty years, from the Kargatane's Book of S series, playtesting D&D 3E in a Ravenloft campaign, to the ill-fated Masque of the Jade Horror. He married his wife on Friday the 13th after proposing to her on Halloween. By tradition, the first story read at birth to each of their three children was The Barker’s Tour, from Ravenloft’s “Carnival” supplement. Picture Reference: https://io9.gizmodo.com/strychnine-a-brief-history-of-the-worlds-least-subtle-1727903421  The Ravenloft setting uses “Powers Checks” to reflect the gifts and curses imposed by the mysterious Dark Powers upon those who transgress moral laws. This gives some structure for great stories of corruption and redemption, but the exact game mechanics of these checks have always been open to questions by fans. It’s even worse when the player supports their character’s decisions, and enforcement of the rules spirals into an argument about who has the correct moral compass. If you want to include temptation in your game, here are 4 optional rules to keep Powers Checks from going the route of politics and religion.
1) Whispering Shadows Assign each player the “dark side” of another PC. During gameplay, these “shadows” entice their target to commit acts that are worthy of a Powers Check, and can actually offer specific boons that will come from giving in--the DM decides the corresponding penalty. If the controlling player accepts the offer, the player that offered it gets a token they can trade in at any time to turn one die roll into a natural 20. This is a great opportunity for players to roleplay temptation, as well as get to know other characters better. 2) The Burden Of Time Ravenloft PC’s study tomes of forbidden lore, brave sinkholes of evil, steal cursed objects, and worse. Reflect that general attrition of the soul by having players roll percentile dice when they level up, 1% cumulative for every 1000 XP they earn (10K for higher level groups). When someone fails, go through their most recent actions and find an appropriate offense. If nothing works, consider foreshadowing (see below), or change the powers check result to a failed horror check. 3) Foreshadowing If a player argues that their offense wasn’t that big a deal and shouldn’t be punished, let them look for a better opportunity. The failed roll becomes foreshadowing of what the PC is about to do, rather than what they have done. Of course, while the Dark Powers are interested in little things done for good reasons, such as white lies and grave robbing, it’s best to only share the results of these rolls with the DM in case the player is eyeing that “Betrayal, Major” column in the rulebook. 4) Probation Some players look at roleplaying as a chance to behave however they want without any consequences. While powers checks can help discourage this, the system is not designed as a teaching curve. If one of your players is playing Chaotic Stupid, consider a probationary result. When they fail the roll, they don’t suffer the consequences immediately. Instead, the PC is on probation: anything additional within the next (in-game) week that warrants a check will cause them to fail. So depending on whether you need some more structure or flexibility, one of these rules may give you what you need or inspire you to create your own tweak. Just remember that whatever rules you use should be applied consistently, so that the Dark Powers feel like an omnipresent moral hazard instead of the whims of the DM. Leyshon Campbell has been playing and writing for Ravenloft for over twenty years, from the Kargatane's Book of S series, playtesting D&D 3E in a Ravenloft campaign, to the ill-fated Masque of the Jade Horror. He married his wife on Friday the 13th after proposing to her on Halloween. By tradition, the first story read at birth to each of their three children was The Barker’s Tour, from Ravenloft’s “Carnival” supplement. Picture Reference: http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com/2016/03/dungeons-dragons-guide-to-curse-of.html  I did not see that one coming! – My favourite D&D creatures, and why I think some of them are underused.
The first moment when I got hooked on D&D was, oddly, when I opened the Monster Manual for the first time. I was thinking in purely narrative terms, and a book filled with physical prompts to the story felt like Cthulhu had smiled upon me. Since then, I’ve fought with many of these creatures, and although I love the sameness of some (I’m ok with Dungeon = skeletons), I do feel some creatures don’t get enough time in the limelight. So these are some of my choices, random, and in no particular order. 1) Aarakokra (Humanoid Eagles/Hawks) The Aaarakokra were one of the first things to get me into D&D, and this is no exaggeration. I opened the Monster Manual (MM) and there they were, first entry. Oddly, it wasn’t as a creature that I saw them, but NPC’s. I saw a major avian civilisation, living in sprawling towers and cliffs. I saw a people like humans, with good guys and bad guys, but that could fly. I ended up using one as an apothecary in my first adventure, and ‘caw caw’’d her voice throughout. I then lost my voice for 3 days. 2) Were-things (Polymorphs Human/Animal) I love werewolves, always have. The MM opens up other possibilities, were-tigers, etc, but lycanthropy is a favourite. I think it could work well as a cursed character, revealing him/herself as a were-creature at the worse possible moment. Also, their ability to infect others makes them a much bigger threat than usual. 3) Doppelgangers/Mimics (Shapeshifters) Perhaps in the same way as the previous entry, I find doppelgangers and mimics inherently interesting. Anything and anyone could be something or someone else. The possibilities are endless. I simultaneously like the tragic aspect that a creature with all faces and shapes might lack one of its own. 4) Dragons I am ambivalent about dragons. I mean, is there any creature more iconic in this game? It’s in the name! I’ve come across dragons on many games I’ve played, and they were usually used as the uber-boss. One game, they were the brains behind the operation, and were the ones hiring the party, which was a nice variation. I don’t know, I just feel they’re played just as Smaug (From The Hobbit fame), stuck in a cave shouting threats. I think Shadowrun might have ruined dragons for me. Dragons should be pulling the strings behind the curtains, they are certainly powerful enough, and old enough, to do it. And if you meet it in a cave, it’s because a) it wished for it to be so or b) the players were so amazingly cunning they surprised it (yeah, right….). 5) Drow (Subterranean Elves, Dark-skinned, White Hair) The Drow were originally presented as ‘cave elves’, and as the Aarakokra, they have a deep and intricate backstory that usually gets ignored. Now I’m not saying you need to know everything ever written about them (I certainly don’t!), but the moment a drow appears, people immediacy assume he or she is evil, which I think is a serious reduction in the potential of the race. I once had a Drow selling sausages and kebabs out of a cart in the middle of town, during the day. He had a massive cloak to protect him from the sun, and the origin of the sausage’s meat was dubious at best, but it was good to see my players waiting for him to do something evil/treacherous. He didn’t. He was a seller of kebabs. Even the change was correct. 6) Ghosts Another creature I consider underused. Maybe it’s attacking the party because it has a purpose? Maybe it would actually help the party if someone took the time to figure out WHY it is haunting or attacking the party at that point? 7) Gnolls (Humanoid Hienas) I *love* gnolls. They’ve got a face only a mother would love and an aggressiveness to match. I think they work well in packs, but for me, their value lies as the stupid minions of the mid-level baddie. You know what I’m talking about. The jailer that falls asleep with his back to the cell? The guard that is busy smoking, and ignores the moving shrub? I can easily see them as a threat AND as comedy relief. 8) Merfolk (Mermaids/Mermen) I’d use these guys every near-water adventure I could think of. Maybe there’s a parallel adventure to the party’s happening in the depths, and then suddenly both collide? They’re bound to a civilisation down there at least as advanced as ours. So why wouldn’t their duke get a party together to research what the heck the surface-dwellers are up to? Boom, now you have two parties in the half-sunken temple trying to get the artefact at the same time. Good luck with that. 9) Mind Flayer (Octopus-headed Humanoid) The Ilithids are Cthulhu-looking interdimensional brain-suckers, and this is pretty much everything anyone needs to know about them. They are properly dangerous, but I’m fascinated about running an adventure in one of their lairs (maybe with the party pretending to be some of their slaves), with the party constantly exposed to technology WAY beyond their ken. And when you meet an Ilithid every other room…. How’re those persuasion rolls going for you? 10) Minotaur (Bull-headed Very Large Humanoid) Massive creature that is fine as opposition, but I believe works equally well as an NPC (See above). I had a minotaur cloth merchant in one of my adventures. I had to create him in a second, I opened the MM and there he was. He had a string between his horns, with a number of ribbons of fabric floating in the breeze. He was his own billboard. And these are my first 10 underused creatures. What are yours? Rui is a Portuguese scientist that, after ten years doing strange things in labs, decided to become a teacher. Then, two years ago, like he was bit by a radioactive D20, RPG’s came into his life, and he’s now juggling teaching, playing and GMing quite happily. He lives in the UK with his partner Joana, an ungodly number of potted plants, 4 to 5 RPG’s at various stages of completion (and across as many rule systems), and maps, cursed idols, evil necklaces, and any other props he can get his hands on. He’s been writing for HLG for a few months, and is one of the resident vloggers. He can be reached at @Atomic_RPG. Picture Reference: http://menaceminis.blogspot.com/2014/07/walloping-krong-and-low-life-miniatures.html  Greetings, traveler!
It was kind of you to contact me. I always appreciate the chance to offer my assistance to a fellow adventurer, even one as experienced as yourself. The mysterious circumstances you describe: clergy found in their own shrines and cathedrals (which had subsequently been defaced), their throats torn open, left me quite puzzled until I noticed an additional detail in the sketches you provided. The vandalism and the destruction of holy iconography does not extend above chest height: the perpetrator is quite short in stature. I believe you are dealing with a child vampire. Able to put on the act of a starving, freezing orphan, they are usually welcomed into the place of worship by a merciful clergy member, who is in turn killed for their trouble. Child undead are a terrible tragedy, but are all too common. All manner of undead can come in a childish form, and in some cases can be even more deadly than an adult version of the same creature. Fortunately, there is a sharp divide in the psychology of undead children, and understanding where any specific creature falls in that spectrum could mean the difference between life and death for the prospective monster hunter. Type One: The Innocent Don’t mistake my hyperbole: these creatures are far from innocent. However, the first type of child undead does share a certain lack of development common to small children. They act the way children act, because as far as they know, they are still children. They respond mentally and emotionally to problems as adolescents do, and can often be confounded due to this limitation. (Although sometimes this limitation is more of a burden to an adventurer trying to parley or outwit such a creature.) Undead of this variety may believe they have the same needs as a living child, and often come into conflict with the living while seeking food, shelter, playmates, or the protection of adult authority figures. A child like this often has a protector that provides for their unholy needs and shields them from any direct challenges to their deluded worldview. Aukagaak and her child mummies are an example of such a relationship. Ghosts are far and away the type of child undead most likely to fall into this category. Any type of undead which can both largely pass as human and create spawn without conscious effort (vampires, most commonly) are also likely candidates. More than one adventurer has confronted a vampire parent-child bond hoping to destroy what they believed to be an abomination turning children into undead only to discover that it is the child who is the master and their ‘adoptive parent’ the spawn! One final word to the wise: if such children as these teach us anything, it is the true folly in believing that childhood equates to innocence. Empathy develops during childhood, sometimes later in some children than others. A child turned to undeath before this process is complete can be capable of horrifying acts of cruelty, made even more horrifying by the cherubic countenance that conceived of them. Type Two: The Grown-up Eternity is a long time. For many children cursed with undeath, their mental and emotional development is not hindered by the stunted physical maturation. Indeed, one vampire I interviewed indicated that he’d seen a child vampire whose physical condition made her even more motivated to increase her intellect and experience, to avoid being treated like a child. Undead of this stripe have the psychological maturity of their actual age, not their apparent age. They are often erudite and well-spoken, and capable of laying plans of great cunning. Such creatures may play the role of a child in specific circumstances, usually while feeding or preparing a trap, but when dealing with those who know what they are, tend to revert to speaking and acting like an adult. Merilee Markuza, the child vampiress from Lamordia, is one of the best examples of this type. Creatures that cannot ignore their undead nature, either due to horrific deformity, a feeding compulsion, or a required intent to have become undead, are the most common children in this category. Child liches are not terribly common, but not so uncommon as to never be encountered. Child mummies are frightfully common, unfortunately, and tend to function identically to their older counterparts, especially those that have been placed as sentinels over long forgotten tombs. Fortunately, undead of this stripe often suffer from insecurity. They act as adults because they desire to be adults; a privilege which has forever been stolen from them. Dealing with them amicably requires one to treat them at all times as though the child is a peer. Patronizing or ridiculing them for their physical age is a certain way to enrage them, a tactic that more than one adventurer has used to deceive creatures of this ilk. Type Three: The Changeling The most insidious type of undead child is one that has the full knowledge and experience of an adult, but still chooses to act in the manner of a child consistently. Such monsters enjoy occupying the social position of a child. People go out of their way to protect children, children have few to no obligations or expectations, children can break social morays or go ignored if they wish to: the advantages are endless. Like Innocent undead, they often have families or adopted protectors to shield them from harm. Undead that live in clusters can frequently give rise to these abominations; vampires, ghouls, and lebentods are the most common examples. The horrific nature of their existence makes the self-delusion of the Innocents difficult, but the communal nature of their kind makes it easy to slip into a child’s role. The diminutive undead receives the protection and special treatment they so desire, while the older undead assuage their own psychological trauma by going through the motions of living relationships, helping them to ‘normalize’ their own existence. It’s not uncommon for community members to be just as surprised as adventurers to discover the ‘child’ in their midst is not nearly so naïve as they had believed. Adventurers faced with this type of undead would do well to never forget that its childlike appearance is its primary defense mechanism. By keeping its façade going at all times, the creature is often able to convince heroes to treat it as though it were a child even though they most certainly know it is not. Many times this proves to be a fatal mistake. In Conclusion: Growing Up The attacks you described in your letters seem almost certainly vampiric in nature. Confronting such creatures is often even more dangerous than confronting more mature specimens. Their supernatural strength ensures that they do not suffer the weakness that a human child would, and their undead abilities are under no inhibition whatsoever. Complicating this is your own empathy: heroes are invariably compassionate and helpful at their core, and nothing compels compassion like the plight of a child. Undead youths rely on this, and you can go into your investigation assured that your empathy is their greatest weapon. Safe travels and happy hunting, Frankie Drakeson, Lord Mayor of Carinford-Halldon. Jim Stearns is a deranged hermit from the swamps of Southern Illinois. In addition to writing for the Black Library, he puts pen to paper for High Level Games and Quoth the Raven. His mad scribblings can frequently be found in anthologies like Fitting In or Selfies from the End of the World, by Mad Scientist Journal. Follow him on Twitter @jcstearnswriter, or listen to Don, Jon, & Dragons, his podcast. Image Reference: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/06/birgitte-hjort-sorenson-game-of-thrones-wildling-undead  Suddenly Talesian froze, still kneeling over the dismantled sculpture, his eyes snapped shut in the middle of lifting out the handful of enchanted cloth at the heart of the explosive device hidden within. We all wanted to ask what was the matter, but after three minutes holding our breath, we remained silent by force of habit.
“Sheth...could you...help me up?” Talesian said slowly, softly. I looked at the others. Lorne and Lydia stirred. They were both closer, surely they could help him without setting anything off. “Only Sheth!” his quiet vehemence drew them up short, his eyes still shut. “Plainsman,” he said to me, “your time has come. The last layer of the weapon is protected by explosive runes; the trap will still kill us all--and everyone upstairs--if anyone reads but a single word.” I helped him to his feet as the others turned their backs, and he patted me on the shoulder with confidence I did not share. “Describe what you see, and I will guide you. Your illiteracy is our best protection now.” Most good roleplaying games have elements of mystery, suspense and thriller, after all, as these are plot based and can apply to any setting. But sometimes you want to push things further and create something that combines genres. Even if you’re not a fan of Smash Up, there’s a lot of fun to be had when you mix the tropes of one genre with the setting and elements of another. If your players are pining for Secrets and Spies while playing Dungeons and Dragons, here are some ways to give them the feel for what they want without changing settings. 1) Secret Whispers The message cantrip can give the feel of modern spy thrillers with agents whispering to each other through hidden earpieces. A social venue the PC’s have crashed allows for lots of whispering back and forth as they distract the mark, case his room, etc. Note that message can work through a scrying sensor, allowing for the “handler” to call shots from a vantage point on the roof, nearby apartment, or getaway vehicle. If the PC’s are too low level to have message work reliably through a scrying sensor (5% chance per level for a scrying spell) perhaps their patron provides the targets of the spell with a some minor magic that “boosts the signal.” 2) Codes and Riddles Codes and ciphers are perhaps the easiest element of spy thrillers to import into fantasy, at least for the party rogue. To kick it up a notch toward spycraft, emphasize the use of regular code books, rotating keywords, and other trappings of old-school cryptography. If your group is into props, making your own code grille for them to decode messages with is a surefire winner. And speaking of codes, the locking wards on doors and chests in fantasy games and settings doesn’t make most people think of computer passwords, but it could. To make the party rogue feel more like a computer hacker, have them focus on the individuality of the person who made the wards for their own personal use. That evil high priest they are investigating...what’s his favorite scripture? 3) Magical Message Drop But what if the secret message isn’t written at all? Have PC’s discover that an enemy agent gets instructions via magic mouth spells when they arrive in a particular public place. Suddenly all those ranks in disguise (or equivalent spells or items) have yet another purpose, as they try to impersonate the agent and get the magic mouth to speak to them instead. But what if someone mistakes them for the real bad guy? Having to stay in character during an impersonation gone wrong is a tried and true staple of the spy genre, and a great opportunity to play “double or nothing” with the information they are after. 4) Macguffins More than any other genre, spy thrillers are driven by small but powerful items prized by the superpowers on both sides. The fantasy genre tends to use maguffins that are powerful for their own sake--the One Ring, the Sword of Shannara, Hand of Vecna, etc. To make a fantasy adventure feel more like Her Majesty’s Secret Service, consider having the PC’s quest for powerful, portable things that they can’t use themselves, such as command words to a powerful golem; rare ingredient for epic spells; the remains of a powerful artifact that can be re-enchanted. Have rival teams of adventurers hired by the other side, both groups fighting to deliver the goods to those who can actually use it. 5) Gunpowder Plots, Minus The Gunpowder The rare gunpowder in fantasy settings is probably better suited for firearms than for a weapon of mass destruction. For a bomb threat, consider instead a necklace or wand of fireballs rigged to break, so that all the charges are released at once (if players aren’t sweating, feel free to count out the d6’s you’d roll for a fully charged device). Explosive runes might be activated at a distance using a spyglass or scrying device, and could set off other effects. The shrink item spell can be used to shrink a bonfire and its fuel to a piece of inert cloth 1/16th the original size, making for an interesting “time bomb” as the duration runs out, or the spell can end early by a collision with a solid surface. This spell lends itself to sabotage; even a simple block of wood could do devastating damage expanding to full size in the right space. 6) Set Pieces And Chase Scenes Finally, good spy thrillers keep a sense of urgency using breakneck chases and treacherous set pieces for the fights. It’s easy enough to import this into a fantasy setting using carriages, carts, and caravels for transportation, but be ready to take it to the extremes. Players are used to fast movement in the middle of combat, with spells and monk abilities to fly around. Don’t let them use these mobility options. Force them to fight bare-knuckled with the baddies in a small space that’s moving swiftly toward oblivion...and then crank up the Mission Impossible theme to eleven. So there you have it: six ways to cross the genres and mix some spy thriller into your D&D fantasy setting for a change of pace. Who knows? If your players like it, you could build an entire campaign around these kinds of intrigues, with them as agents in a shadow war between secret societies. Leyshon Campbell has been playing and writing for gaming for over twenty years, from the Kargatane's Book of S series, playtesting D&D 3E in a Ravenloft campaign, to the ill-fated Masque of the Jade Horror. He ran an extended spy thriller campaign in Ravenloft called “Kara’s Daughters.” http://oriath.wikia.com/wiki/Eyes_of_Sodos  Secret societies are one of cornerstones of the Ravenloft Setting, but they tend to fall into background roles of either cannon fodder for the villain, or temporary resources for the heroes. Having played many games with secret societies and made three of my own (Memento Mori, Kara’s Daughters and the soon-to-be-released Ward Zero), here are some tips for getting the most out of them:
1) Information Is The Highest Form Of Currency Some “underdog” secret societies like the Shadow Insurrection, L’Ordures, and Sons of Gundar make obvious allies for anyone fighting the same foe, but things can get too cozy; these are secret societies, after all. To keep the mystique in a long running alliance, remember that equipment and even spellcasting is cheap, but secrets, once shared, are spent forever. Outsiders should have to submit to lengthy vetting and use excellent diplomacy to pry a single critical secret from groups like the Duskpeace Outcasts. Offering money tends to backfire, because it suggests the one offering does not know how valuable information is, or how dangerous. 2) Splitting The Party Even if one PC is a member, the rest of the party should not be insiders by default. Some heroic groups (i.e. the Society of Huntsmen, the Lamplighters, the Circle) don’t limit fraternization with outsiders, but a member of the Brotherhood of Broken Blades draws suspicion if their party includes arcane spellcasters. Many others are somewhere in between: a member might lead the party on one adventure on behalf of the society, share a little “need to know” info on the next, and offer nothing of value on another. Variety is the key; a member of the Green Hand or The Woodcutter's Axe need not confront the group’s enemies around every corner. 3) The More, The Merrier Any of the “underdog” groups might welcome all classes, such that an entire party could join. Likewise, any party might join the Order of the Guardians and just report on any evil artifacts they find. More options become available with restricted character creation: a Carnival-based campaign with a party of Troupers, a “special investigations” team for La Serrure et Clé composed of calibans, or an all-elf strike team for the Children of Wrath are all possibilities. In all these cases, the restriction is on race, so the party might include members of any class. Class restrictions are more difficult; if The Noble Brotherhood of Assassins needs serious muscle for a particular job, or the Knights of the Ashen Bough need a spellcaster to erase Drakov brands, they would probably contract with an outsider ally rather than recruit someone. 4) “Congratulations…” Even if a PC doesn’t seek membership, someone might feel they earned it. Groups like the Fraternity of Shadows or Kargatane make offers one can’t refuse based on their own sense of worthiness. The Échansons, Ildi'Thaan, Vilushka, or Witches of Hala might choose someone based on their bloodline. In cases like the Stalkers, Ata Bestaal, or even Keepers of the Black Feather, membership includes lycanthropy, such that a character might be “accidentally recruited” during a fight. In all these cases, the PC is not really an outsider, but their loyalty is in question. Even otherwise good groups may take drastic measures if someone with too much knowledge of their inner working turns them down. 5) Membership Has Its Privileges Members of most non-evil groups should be glad they joined most of the time. Physical tokens of membership frequently include masterwork items suitable for enchanting, if not minor magical items. Support societies like Société de Legerdemain, L’Académie des Sciences, and the Veiled Palm shouldn’t require more than dues (including discounted prices for supplies), reporting anything of interest, and keeping group secrets. If social obligations aren’t part of your game, this can also apply to “underdog” or “heroic” societies. If assigned to do more, the majority of the work should be within the PC’s comfort zone and rewarded fairly. Plots that pit group loyalty against friends, family or conscience should only come after the PC has built a strong identity as part of the society. 6) That Wasn’t In The Brochure! Many secret societies have hierarchies, and some evil ones can appear harmless or even heroic to those at the lowest levels. A PC might spend decades in La Confrérie des Rêveurs* before finally discovering who (or what) they’ve been “feeding.” Insurrectionists in Mortigny might revere the long-dead martyr Simon Audaire long before being formally introduced to him in the, er, “flesh.” Many more groups are not stated as having such a layered structure, but could easily develop one, such as the Scions of Purity, Syndicate of Enlightened Citizens, League of Nine, and The Scions of Yakov Dilisnya. Allow PC’s to benefit from such associations as much as possible before learning the Awful Truth. Such “malign paradigm shifts” are among the most devastating horror checks, and are among the penultimate thrills of playing in a horror setting. 7) Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor Finally, while truly evil cults may only fit as antagonists, you can still get more mileage from the Dark Delvers or Cult of the Straw God by emphasizing their insidious ideology. Long after the party has destroyed Mother Fury, have them discover a Howling Clan revival among the frustrated poor of some distant town. An old ally suffering nightmares of the Dead Man’s Campaign might be groomed for membership in the Lustmorde, or a treasure-seeking rival enthralled by writings about the Seven Scarabs. This could make for a truly epic struggle to destroy not just a dangerous cult, but a dangerous idea. Such challenges have been covered previously for destroying Sinkholes of Evil (RLDMG), and for fighting bogeymen (DTDL). Whether allies, mentors, rivals or enemies, the people who make up these groups have committed themselves to keep secrets from their fellowmen. It’s a grave choice that players may be faced with, to join them in bearing that burden of secrecy, or to drag the truth into the light of day to kill it. Either option can pose a challenge for PC’s of any level, and raise the kind of complex moral questions that keep players coming back to Ravenloft. *La Confrérie des Rêveurs was described in an article of the same name in Quoth the Raven issue #6, a Ravenloft netbook hosted by the Fraternity of Shadows. Matthew Barrett has been playing and writing for Ravenloft for over twenty years, starting with the Kargatane's Book of S series (as Leyshon Campbell). He married his wife on Friday the 13th after proposing to her on Halloween. By tradition, the first story read at birth to each of their three children was The Barker’s Tour, from Ravenloft’s “Carnival” supplement. He is currently working on a Ravenloft-based experiment in crowdsourced fiction using his “Inkubator” system at inkubator.miraheze.org. Pic Reference: http://www.theendofhistory.net/most_recent/history-terrorism-secret-societies/  Greetings!
Friend: I know that Lord Mayor Drakeson has invited you to Carinford-Halldon, ostensibly to congratulate you on rooting out and killing the werewolf Edmond Timothy. Have you had occasion to meet Mayor Drakeson's wife? Gwendolyn Drakeson is a perfect hostess, of course, and the two of them are quite in love. It would seem that her grandfather Nathan Timothy found a smart match for her indeed… The werewolf (here and throughout I use the term werewolf, but each of these points could refer to most all lycanthropes, and some non-lycanthrope shapeshifters as well) is one of the oldest archetypes in horror literature. In Danse Macabre, Stephen King boils all monsters down to three basic molds, one of which is the werewolf: the monster that walks among us. Throughout history, mythology, and fiction, there are several common threads that run through the best werewolf stories. Hopefully, looking at some of these a little more closely may give you some insight (or inspiration) for using werewolves in your own games. 1) The Beast Truly, from his origins as a pauper in the western core, Frankie Drakeson has overcome a great deal of personal tragedy, from being orphaned before he could walk, to the brutal violence he and his sister suffered at the hands of a Dementlieuse smuggler. Such setbacks would have destroyed a lesser man, but Mayor Drakeson shows no signs of being weighed down by his past. The werewolf isn’t just a person who turns into a wolf. Not everyone who gets bitten becomes infected. In werewolf stories, the hidden monstrosity of the werewolf represents the savagery that can lurk within anyone. This can vary from a rage-fueled impulse to mindless destruction, all the way up to a predatory need to hunt and kill one’s own kind. In Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld series, the werewolf curse isn’t just a supernatural disease; it represents the very real, deep issues these characters struggle with, including spousal abuse, post traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, and a host of other problems. In the best werewolf stories, the monster isn’t just the random victim of circumstance: the curse echoes some darkness that already exists within them, and the wolf is just an excuse to let it out. 2) The Unnatural A word of advice if you plan to accept his invitation: Carinford-Halldon is extremely unusual for Mordentish villages in that it has no dogs. The residents seem unsure about the cause, and while some blame the wild boars and others vaguely recall a mysterious canine illness, bringing a hound remains a risky proposition. The ‘wolf’ in werewolf has very little to do with wolves beyond a passing resemblance. The best werewolves have virtually nothing to do with natural wolves. Most werewolves are shunned by natural beasts. It’s fitting that many werewolf groups operate along the alpha-beta-omega pack structure, since this hierarchy is a fiction of humankind. It appears only in wolves in captivity, so it's apropos that it is used by beings that are of both wolf and man, but wholly neither. In the few cases where monstrous werewolves exert control over real wolves, they control the animals not through a connection of kinship but through supernatural domination, much like a vampire. The werewolf who has a deep connection to nature is a figure of primal spirituality, not a monster, and loses some of its impact in a horror setting. 3) The Hidden I envy you: Mayor Drakeson is a delightful dinner companion! The servants and commonfolk in his village will no doubt seek to regale you with numerous tales of the monsters he's vanquished and the lengths he's gone to in order to protect his friends and family. There's probably no one in the entire town that doesn't feel like they personally owe their lives to him. The greatest danger of the werewolf isn’t their teeth or even their curse; it’s that they could be anyone. If the players can readily identify the werewolf suspect, then you might not be getting the most mileage out of the werewolf archetype. The werewolf is at its best when people don’t even realize that’s what they’re dealing with. In a D&D game of course, this is nearly impossible. Fortunately, once someone has been exposed to the werewolf archetype it leaves an indelible fear in the back of their mind; fear of the evil their friends and allies might be concealing. (It is this exact fear that games like Are You a Werewolf? exploit to create humor.) As the adventure continues and tension begins to mount, player suspicion will grow to become paranoia, and the damage that a party can do when it is gripped by fear can be greater than the mayhem caused by the werewolf itself. The most malevolent werewolves, the ones who know (or suspect) their true nature, are adept at exploiting this, diverting attention from themselves so adroitly that their friends and allies will even take up arms against renowned heroes rather than believe their loved one could be hiding such a dark secret. 4) The Puppet I do hope you come at the right time of year, however. During autumn, when the last desperate traders of the season are hurrying across the lands, both predator and brigand make travel to the town dangerous. Why, the mayor and his family are so busy keeping the roads safe they can scarcely be found at all! Although transforming beneath the full moon is the most common trigger, almost all werewolves are afflicted by their curse in some kind of scheduled timeframe, both in fiction and mythology. Ancient werewolf stories tell of men who transform every evening when the sun goes down, those who were cursed to walk as a wolf seven days out of the year, those who transformed beneath the new moon, and an assortment of other schedules. In all these cases, the underlying root is the same: the werewolf is affected by unseen forces that do not have such a pull over the rest of us. These forces compel the werewolf to do their evil deeds, in the same way that Dexter’s Dark Passenger compels him to his own butchery. History is rife with serial killers compelled to follow a schedule to their murders, and it is this example that informs the werewolf legend’s need for a timeframe. Altering the schedule for a werewolf antagonist can be a good way to throw the PCs for a loop while still maintaining this core aspect of the werewolf archetype. 5)The Cycle Shortly after arranging to marry Nathan Timothy's granddaughter Gwen, Frankie began a family of his own. His six children have grown into fine young men and women, and from captain of the guard to magistrate, they all serve the town as loyally as their parents do. Human storytellers have known for centuries that abuse and trauma can form a vicious feedback loop. The werewolf legend reflects that in multiple ways. On the one hand, there are the werewolves who were delivered into this curse: regular people, possibly even good people (albeit ones with repressed horrors or well controlled dark urges) who were affected by traumas larger than they could cope with. There are also the hereditary werewolves, whose curse was handed down from parent to child. These werewolves reflect the unfortunate tendency for the unwary (or uncaring) to inflict their own trauma on their children. Such families work hard to maintain a semblance of normalcy, keeping their family as hidden from their community as possible. Some werewolves who become aware of their nature can delight in spreading their disease to others (Voldemort’s flunky Fenrir Greyback is a good example of this) in the same way that some human predators take a perverse glee in bringing others around to their warped point of view. 6) The Corruption Mayor Drakeson has done a wonderful job getting rid of the boars around Carinford-Halldon: those swine cause so many problems! Why, shortly after he settled there, the native boars caused so much damage with their rooting that they wiped out entire copses of trees. To this day you can't find a cedar tree within miles of the town. Whether they entered their state willingly, as punishment for their crimes, were infected by another werewolf, or had their curse passed on by their parents, all werewolves share a foulness within them. This inner bestiality is why the werewolf is vulnerable to silver, as silver is a symbol of purity. Other possibilities exist, of course. Ravenloft werewolves are famous for their varied chemical and material ‘allergies.' However, all of these items share something in common: they’re all either symbols of purity or agents of purification. (The film Ginger Snaps explores this idea.) This is an important link for the archetype. Werewolves’ banes aren’t just random weaknesses, they’re a tangible reminder that the afflicted is a monster, and its pain stems from the fact that its wickedness is so strong as to cause a physical reaction when exposed to such purity. 7) The Victim Since Frankie quit hunting monsters and settled down with his family, he's done his best to stay busy. Notably, he's done a marvelous job sponsoring and training monster hunters. He's shown a particular interest in training those adventurers who would travel through Kartakas or Verbrek, as though he has a specific grudge against the abominations of those lands. Most werewolves were a person, once. Like Larry Talbot, they might have even been a good person. The most impactful werewolf stories are the ones where the protagonists discover that the werewolf is someone they care about. Almost as meaningful, and a little less expected, is when the werewolf turns out to be someone they don't know terribly well, but they just like. In lighter stories, the quest to find a cure can be the focus of an adventure. However, in horror adventuring, especially the Victorian horror of Ravenloft, the werewolf curse is an echo of the mental darkness it is serves as an allegory for: it cannot be cured. It can be suppressed, for a time, but there is no force that can contain it forever. Eventually, the monster within will break loose and hurt someone. The person the werewolf once was might be horrified by what they've become, but they find themselves unable to end their own existence; the monster is part of their own will to survive, and it is stronger than they are. Such unfortunate souls cannot understand why they continue to allow themselves to commit the atrocities they perform while transformed, and with every passing cycle they become increasingly unsure of whether they began as a good person with a horrific curse, or if the monster was their true self all along and their human life just a convenient disguise. Conclusion My, how I ramble on! The truth is, you've done quite a bit of good in the world, and I'm certain Mayor Drakeson's patronage is no small part of that. You deserve his recognition, to be sure. Carinford-Halldon is a lovely place: a tight knit community with an intense amount of loyalty to one another, both commoner and noble alike. Spend a day with the Mayor and his family, and you'll find their hospitality beyond compare. Spend any more time than that with them, and you're bound to have a howling good time... Knowledgeably yours, The Barnacle Jim Stearns is a deranged hermit from the swamps of Southern Illinois. In addition to writing for the Black Library, he puts pen to paper for High Level Games and Quoth the Raven. His mad scribblings can frequently be found in anthologies like Fitting In or Selfies from the End of the World, by Mad Scientist Journal. Follow him on Twitter @jcstearnswriter. Image reference: https://www.blackgate.com/2011/10/21/game-review-innistrad-from-magic-the-gathering/  These days when we talk about roleplaying games, most people will think immediately of Dungeons and Dragons, the godfather of them all. We all love D&D, and its enduring legacy shows that even with a few missteps (anyone remember 4th edition? I wish I didn’t), it’s still the most popular RPG – a gateway drug for most of the new wave of geeks. Among the plethora of games popping up everywhere, it’s the Marlon Brando to all these fancy new Johnny Depp types. But our favourite hobby should not be above scrutiny. As always with the old guard, we tend to overlook some elements that really need discussing. If there’s one thing to take away from the next gen of tabletop RPGs it’s that the cornerstone of roleplaying games – the actual “role playing” – has been neglected far too long. Which is why I would argue that D&D at its core, is more of a skirmish wargame than a roleplaying game. I think it’s worth looking into what that means, what the alternatives are and in what ways D&D can change. After all, it still has to live up to its historic title of daddy of all RPGs. 1) Mathematics Over Story What is a roleplaying game? It’s a game where we play roles. Pack up, people, we’re done here. Or, well, to give it more detail, it’s a game – in this case we’ll be referring to the tabletop variety as opposed to video games – where a group of people (usually referred to as the “party”) play certain characters in a fictional universe. Often, it’s to fulfil an objective (or a “quest”), or a series thereof strung together into a “campaign”. Now if those inverted commas made you feel like you’re at the world’s most pedantic TED Talk, bear with me, we’ve got to get some definitions out of the way. The basic premise of the roleplaying game has changed a lot over the years. Where once the “role” in question was simply one’s part in the overall squad dynamics (what youngsters these days call the “meta”), through the power of imagination it has taken a much greater significance and these days characters have grand backstories that fit a role in the greater fictional Universe. Party dynamics are about more than just synergy of abilities. These are people who live in our imagination, who have relationships, hopes and expectations – and a reason to exist in this world, something that drives them towards achieving their goals. Conversely, a wargame can have a pretty broad definition, but at its core it is a simulation of conflict – usually some form of combat – that pits two or more opposing forces on a battlefield, whereupon they smack the relentless crap out of each other with the power of MATHS! It’s a numbers game. Now tell me if this sounds familiar. “Ok, so Jenny is on the opposite side of the golem, so that means I’m flanking. So that’s 3d6 sneak attack damage, +1 from my dagger of Awesomeness, another 1 because constructs are my favoured enemy from multiclassing to plumber, so that’s a total of… let’s see, carry over the 1, and multiply the dice because critical, add another die for inspiration and… what do you mean it doesn’t have any discernible anatomy?!” In its basic form, D&D is a numbers game. You can take away the names, the plot, and the setting; what you’re left with is a squad-based skirmish wargame not unlike Age of the Sigmarines – which also has its (ridiculously complicated) backstory with established characters and all that. If you watch popular D&D shows on Twitch like Critical Role, you’ll notice that there are three basic types of episode: role-play episodes where people talk a lot, shopping episodes (everyone’s favourites), and fight episodes where more than half the runtime is one or more (but usually just one) scenes of prolonged kerfuffle. It takes three hours to play out less than a minute of real-time fisticuffs. And that’s 5th edition; can you imagine if this were Pathfinder? Speaking of which… 2) Over-Emphasis On Combat Let’s face it. D&D is about fighting. If you look at the Player’s Handbook, most of it is dedicated to showing you how your character can bring the pain. And sweet mercy, can you deliver. While you get all these details on all your characters abilities, and feats and spells and equipment, you get all of 4 pages dedicated to personality and background. And that ends up being just another tool to help in fighting in most cases too. And 5th edition isn’t as bad as previous versions of the formula, either. In fact, one of the things I liked the most about the latest incarnation of my favourite game was that it made your characters feel more like people, encouraging you to create actual believable persona, rather than just killing machines. I mean, they’re still XP-generating homicide homunculi, but it’s generally frowned upon these days if you only play a murder-hobo. You do possess a set of skills that function outside of the smackdown arena, but they’re over-simplified to the point where most of the time it’s just a roll of the die, add some numbers… woop, I guess diplomacy has failed us this day. And then everyone draws their weapons. While we’re on the topic, can we just talk about… 3) Alignments Crikey, remember the ones in 4th edition? I wish I didn’t. If the hallmark of a wargame is that it needs tables to quantify and explain everything (looking at you, GW), then this should cement D&D’s reputation as a wargame. We're looking at a system where even one’s morality is relegated to one of nine options on a board. Introducing Sigmund, Archmage of the Order of Freudian slips. He pays his taxes on time, so he’s Lawful Stupid. His nemesis is his former apprentice, the sorcerer Carl “Forever” Jung, who had a dream about a vision wrapped in an enigma, so he’s Chaotic Millennial and just wants to watch the world burn. What does it all mean? I have no idea, but I just know I don’t want to have to fill in a form to tell me what I’m supposed to be. While I understand that it creates a framework to help some people inform their character decisions, I’d really rather be allowed to make decisions that fit my character without worrying if my GM wants to switch my alignment because I nicked a broom from a necromancer. You might as well start every game with a Myers-Briggs test. Dibs on the INTP Warlock. How does this help defeat the dragon in the titular dungeon? It doesn’t, because… 4) It’s All About That Base (Attack Bonus) Congratulations! You’ve levelled up. You’ve shish-kebabbed enough kobolds to make a bridge over troubled waters, you’ve got so many goblin teeth stuck to your boot that Nike wants to have a word. You’ve gained some hitpoints and you feel better. And you are better... at killing things. Especially if you took one of the melee classes. Sharks gotta swim, bats gotta fly, fighters gonna fight forever till they die. The rogues get a little better at thievin’ but they mostly get better at stabbin’. Heck, even the bards get better combat spells as they progress. D&D is about the power fantasy. And the easiest way to achieve that is to physically overpower your enemies in the tried and true test of combat. And the more the story progresses, the better you get at it. But there are other ways to drive a story, other stories to be told and other ways to do it. The idea of progression in a roleplaying game is meant to drive the narrative forward. To progress with the plot. Uncover new characters, new villains, allies, new areas to explore, developments to unravel. Most games do this through interacting with the world and overcoming challenges. World of Darkness focuses on “story beats” where your character’s progression can be tied to them overcoming their own flaws, or fulfilling personal ambitions. FATE rewards story points for actively failing – if you indulge in your character’s shortcomings, or actually choose to fail an otherwise guaranteed success, your game master will reward you for making the game and story more interesting. It’s called failing forward, and it’s one tool that storytelling uses to drive the narrative. Narrative in D&D is often driven by hacking and slashing your way through opposition, because… 5) At Its Heart, It’s A Dungeon Crawler D&D has come a long way. But at its inception it was what we do today when we’re too tired of the social intrigue, the personal drama and the complicated plots. You get a crew, crawl through a dungeon, murder some monsters, kill the dragon and steal its shinies. It’s adventure capitalism at its finest. D&D came out of the wargaming scene. It had ridiculous tables and – my gods, do you people even remember ThAC0? (Yes, and we liked it, damned kids. Strength had percentages, AC dropped, and it was still called "Back-stab" and that was good enough for us! -VP Quinn) I wish I didn’t. It still has a long way to go. And it has changed a lot already, in good ways too. 5th edition is a blessing. It’s a lot of fun and it is very inviting to new players. And we need those. Our geek culture is spreading and more and more people are joining us in our favourite hobby. But pretending it’s above reproach won’t help anyone. While it’s a good tool for experienced GMs to create absolutely amazing stories in fantastic settings (see the previously mentioned Critical Role, Maze Arcana in Eberron, and many more), in its bare-bones incarnation, what you’ve got is a manual for a wargaming experience. GMs often have to improvise and think outside the confines of the book to create the actual roleplaying. There’s supplements and hundreds of blogs to help house rule your way to a complete adventure, but often times a GM might struggle to accommodate their players’ desires – and ultimately that’s what drives the immersion that helps people really get in their characters’ shoes. Even in combat – the activity deemed most important by the restrictive ruleset – often times a player will get an idea that sounds cinematic and cool and they’d love their character to be able to pull it off. But if it ain’t in the rules, it ain’t happenin’, ranger. When you have too many rules – and far too many feats (looking at you, Pathfinder) – what you get isn’t a roleplaying experience, but an invitation to a litigious session where rules lawyers fight over whose interpretation of the Magna Carta that is the handbook (and all its supplements) fits the scenario better. At this point, you’re not playing characters, you’re playing dress-up with stats. At its best, D&D can accommodate all. You want to just slay the dragon and get the loot? Can do. You want an epic fantasy campaign with Game of Thrones level of deception and backstabbing? That’s possible too. In the end, it all depends on your DM. And I learned from my Dungeon Master, who learned from his Dungeon Master, in an unbroken line all the way to the Gygax that started it all. It’s safe to say that this renaissance we’re enjoying now might not have happened without the tabletop dungeon crawler. Hopefully, by shining a light on the things it still needs to improve and the mechanics we may or may not enjoy we can learn from the experience. If the backlash to 4th edition taught us anything it’s that people want more roleplaying and not just another mathematics-driven wargame. 5th was a step in the right direction. Let’s hope we see this game move in more nuanced and open directions in the future and keep pushing the boundaries of our tabletop experience so that we may all level up our gaming. I’m off to play that INTP Warlock now. Something of a modern day caveman, Ian fell down the rabbit hole of roleplaying games ages ago and has refused to emerge ever since. In his daily life, he wears many hats. When he’s not wearing the hat of the dungeon master, he studies cultural anthropology, writes short stories and occasionally posts on his own blog. You can find more of his stuff at https://cavemanblues.wordpress.com/ Image reference: http://cardweb.info/20170616010436_tabletop-world-medieval/  Over the last six months or so I’ve been running a 5th Edition D&D game. For me, it was an excuse to run Curse of Strahd. I’d run lots of Ravenloft adventures, but I’d never had a chance to run any form of the original story. Then, I was given the chance to write our 1 page Adventure, A Cat’s Meow, now available for 5th Ed, Pathfinder, and soon to be released for Savage Worlds. That being said, it’s really reawoken a love of the classic fantasy RPG for me. I’ve run a few one-shots, and I’m writing more D&D related content. The bug has bitten me and I wanted to create a few story hooks for people to consider using. Let us know what you think!
1) The Aliens Need Our Help A small countryside village is probably the worst place for something like this to occur. Creatures have dug their way to the surface. At first, the shepherd child was ignored by everyone. He was always a little off anyway. Then someone noticed the lump on his shoulder. It was pulsating. When cornered, he admitted what it was. A refugee from deep below the earth. The creature on his shoulder was an aberration, but it wasn’t out to hurt the boy, or the people of this village. His people need help. They have been trying to escape from the clutches of an Illithid cult that’s conquered their once harmonious collective. Now, the villagers and the aberration are working together to find adventurers willing to help. Will you help? 2) Elected While spending a few nights at a local tavern, something strange occurs. The characters wake to find that one of them has been elected Mayor. Huh, well, that’s weird. Their fellow tavern goers congratulate them wholeheartedly. On the way to the Town Hall to try and figure out what is going on, all of the people they pass cheer for them. How in the heck do they know who the party is? As they enter the Square, they see a well oiled guillotine being set-up. A man is dragged down the steps of the Town Hall, he screams, “Don’t take the job, it’ll be the death of you!” What is going on in this town, do you want to know? 3) Romero and Julian The Orc King, Romero, is marrying his 3rd spouse, Julian, an Elven Prince. Julian’s family are not particularly pleased with the wedding, but they’ve agreed because it offers the chance to reduce hostilities between the two nations. Besides, Julian and Romero are clearly in love, and Romero’s current partners are quite happy to include him in their family. The problem? They need a specific ingredient for a cake they want to have made. It’s a spice only grown in a cave guarded by a Wyvern, behind the Horde of Undead in the Graveyard of Destecatur. At the back of this gave is a small pot, planted by Romero’s Grandfather with the special spice. Romero and Julian hire the characters to retrieve the spice. Their reward will be gold, and a special place at the wedding ceremony of the century. So, there you go. Three plot hooks you can use to generate some game play for your D&D campaign. My goal here was to create something (slightly) different than you might have seen anywhere else. Do you like them? Do you have your own ideas you’d like to share? With 19 years of playing rpgs, Josh started with Mind's Eye Theater LARPs and loves the World of Darkness. He recently launched,www.keepontheheathlands.com to support his gaming projects. Josh is the administrator of the Inclusive Gaming Network on Facebook. He’s a player in Underground Theatre LARPs and is running a Mage game and a D&D 5th Edition campaign. He’s a serious advocate for inclusive gaming spaces, a father, and a graduate from the International Peace and Conflict Resolution graduate program at American University in Washington, D.C. Art from Wizards of the Coast  Azalin wasn’t the only one complaining about the focus on extinct noble bloodlines in the third Gazetteer. Many reviewers were dismayed about the amount of ink spilled on in-game stories with few spent on adventure hooks. What’s the point of having rich deep history if it doesn’t affect the present? What follows is a series of suggested adventure hooks around the lost noble family of de Boistribue. The entire extended family of hunters and woodsmen vanished from their massive manor one December night in 493 BC, the only surviving servant unable to give any explanation. Each can be played as an independent adventure, or they can be strung together into a campaign arc where the PC’s piece together the unspeakable fate of the doomed family.
1) The Fell Omen A PC traveling through the Forest of the Ancients glimpses a huge sprawling manor house in the distance. The sight of the manor house is a terrible omen--all who have seen it disappear within three turnings of the moon. Once word gets out, locals shun the PC as cursed, but a local soothsayer declares the curse may be lifted if the PC goes hunting in the forest overnight wearing the de Boistribue colors. If they dismiss it as overreaction of some superstitious locals, the manor inexplicably shows up again and again on the edge of their vision, even miles away from where they saw it last, bringing bad luck each time until they spend that night in the woods. 2) Winter Chill Not all the servants died in the manor itself. The winter snows were deep that December, and several of them fled the madness only to freeze to death. Their fear, pain and desperation made them into snow wraiths or possibly frost vampires that return with the snowfall. PC’s may be called on to fight the creatures when local logging companies want to extend their season a little more into the winter, only to find their lumberjacks frozen to the bone. The lairs of these creatures surround the manor’s original location; the phantasmal version that stalks through the woods is actually a kind of ghost in itself, but the original holds much bigger secrets. 3) Braving The Manor Forced to take refuge from storm or foe, the party enters the infamous manor itself to find the ghosts of dozens of servants haunting the many hunting trophies, clawed woodworks and bloodstained walls. These ghosts don’t remember much, except how the entire family turned into animals before their eyes and tore them apart. A few benign ghosts protect the PC’s from the more ferocious spirits, and ask the PC’s to remove their half-eaten remains and give them a proper burial. This may prevent the manor from dogging their steps, but PC’s seeking more answers should have no trouble finding it later. 4) The Sole Survivor While visiting Saulbridge Sanitarium, a PC is possessed by the ghost of the only earthly witness to the massacre, who lived out his final days in Saulbridge as a Lost One. He was only a teenage boy locked in an animal pen, who heard the other servants being slaughtered. Finally a monstrous bear came for him, but could not do much damage through the bars. If the party escorts the possessed PC to the manor, the ghost confesses that his incarceration may have prompted a few of the servants to do something terrible to the family, for which all these others suffered the consequences. He doesn’t know what his friends did or how they did it, but he’s terribly sorry. With that, he and several of the more vengeful spirits of the house can finally rest. 5) Return Of The Lost PC’s in the forest on the anniversary of the event discover a spring surrounded by the remaining de Boistribue family, now in the form of talking deer, boars, bears, raccoons and rabbits. Few recall much of what happened that fateful night, but they claim their treacherous servants served a cursed meal that transformed them. They recall their old lives every anniversary by drinking from this spring, but are barely more than ignorant beasts the rest of the year. Strung out over centuries this way, only about a year has passed for them since 493, but their numbers are dwindling, and they demand help. By a solemn promise and a sip from the spring, a PC can establish a bond with one of the animals that will prevent them from fully regressing until they can figure out the solution. This is one interesting way for a PC to gain an animal companion or familiar! 6) The Most Dangerous Game While hunting a werewolf of the Timothy clan, the PC’s find that the clan dates back to early Mordentshire, but they kept a relatively low profile for centuries...as if none of their victims were the kind that went on two legs and could talk. But what kind of werewolf finds sport in hunting dumb beasts? Records of a more arcane sort indicate that the Timothy werewolves are also known for incredible longevity, and that some of them attribute it to rare game in the Forest of the Ancients. If confronted about it, the Timothys claim the de Boistribues hunted their own servants down like beasts for sport, so some of the servants turned the tables and hunted them right back. Records from 489-491 include accounts of Lord de Boistribue hunting captured bandits under the full moon, but nothing about hunting his own servants. Nor is there any record of the surname Timothy among those servants. But the werewolves believe the PC’s are close to a deadly secret, and will stop at nothing to silence them forever. Of course, to string these hooks into an arc with a conclusion, there are many questions left to answer: What offense had that teenage boy committed to be penned up in an animal cage? Who were these friends who did a terrible deed, and why are they not among the ghosts? Did Lord de Boistribue continue hunting human sport after wiping out the bandits? Did he really start hunting his own servants? Whence comes the magic of the spring, and by what force did something change the whole family into immortal animals? Was the werewolf clan somehow related to the servants, or the bandits? Or did they just stumble across the accursed animals and cobble their own myth together about the irony of hunting a family of hunters? There’s room for the lord, a servant or some third party to be a truly monstrous villain, or for a terrible misunderstanding at the heart of it all. And especially you’ll have to decide if breaking the curse means setting the remaining de Boistribue family free into the afterlife, or if they can actually return to the world of mortals and rebuild their legacy. What do you think? Would your PC from this family be a ranger, paladin or barbarian? Matthew Barrett has been playing and writing for Ravenloft for over twenty years, starting with the Kargatane's Book of S series (as Leyshon Campbell). He married his wife on Friday the 13th after proposing to her on Halloween. By tradition, the first story read at birth to each of their three children was The Barker’s Tour, from Ravenloft’s “Carnival” supplement. He is currently working on a Ravenloft-based experiment in crowdsourced fiction using his “Inkubator” system at inkubator.miraheze.org.  Greetings, Traveler!
It's been awhile since our last communication. Word of your success against the vampire nest in Berkenheidt has reached us here in Carinford-Halldon. I'm glad the information I provided for you was able to prove useful. My old companion Kelly has just sent me an interesting treatise, written by his apprentice Rigi. The girl has become fascinated with the nature of familiars in the Lands of the Mists, and while her work is a trifle basic, I thought the information might be of some use to you. Spellcasters of various stripes have often found the assistance of a familiar, an animal imbued with a small fraction of the mage's soul, to be invaluable assets in their craft. While able to enhance spellcasting potential, heighten mental acuity, or impart other, more bizarre powers, these companions are also often just as useful for their natural abilities. Such boons come with a price, however: the portion of the soul that empowers a familiar is never drawn from the better aspects of one's psyche. Inevitably, the creature, while fanatically loyal to its master, continually exhorts them to greater heights of evil; constantly counseling them to give in to the darker side of their nature. What follows are a selection of the most popular familiars found within the Dread Realms, and an analysis of the abilities they impart. 1) Lamordian Opossum Few creatures are as vile as the Lamordian opossum, sometimes known as the bog opossum or the Musarde river rat. Their pale fur ends in yellowish tips, making their fur the color of tobacco stained cotton. Their long, toothy snouts are capable of opening wide to emit a malicious hiss, and their lashing, naked tails complete the odious package. A few of them are, instead, a smoky black in color. While the pelts of these 'ink opossums' are valuable, the eerie red eyes that accompany such coloration discourage most trappers from pursuing them. As familiars: The Lamordian opossum encourages the worst aspects of their master's avarice. They urge their masters to take whatever they wish, and to take more than what they need. These familiars are at their cleverest when they are planning a way for themselves or their masters to take something which does not belong to them. Benefit: Opossums are marsupials. When not actively raising kits, they stuff the pouches on their bellies with all manner of bric-a-brac they have stolen whenever they have gone unnoticed. Any spellcaster with an opossum familiar always counts as having a spell component pouch. 2) Mordentish Sentinel Hound The Mordentish passion for dog breeding seems to surpass their interest in virtually everything except ghost stories. Although these animals seem broadly similar to outsiders, the Mordentish can tell individual breeds apart at a great distance. Among these breeds, the sentinel hound is of particular interest to the spellcaster. Their distinctive short height and elongated frame, with their long, sleek black coat makes them recognizable even to non-Mordentish. However, it is their spectral silence that makes the breed truly remarkable; every true-bred example of the species is totally mute. As familiars: Sentinel hounds are used for watching herds or guarding camps throughout the night, and as such are hyper-vigilant to the point of paranoia. When bonded with a spellcaster, they are fond of pointing out suspicious behavior or nefarious possibilities, often where none exist. Unfortunately, they are disconcertingly correct many times, leading their masters to ever increasing heights of suspicion. When danger is revealed, the sentinel hound exhorts its master to attack without hesitation or mercy. Benefit: Spellcasters with a sentinel hound as a familiar may always roll for initiative, even if they are surprised, although they can still be caught flat-footed. 3) Bird-of-Fortune Found throughout Sri Raji and in some parts of Hazlan, the bird-of-fortune has gained favor as a companion pet for fashionable nobles throughout the Core. It's lustrous plumage drapes down extravagantly. Its brilliant bronze and gold coloration would be enough to make it truly impressive. However, when the bird-of-fortune raises and fans its peacock-like tail, with the white, bronze, and gold display studded with prismatic whorls of color, even the most jaded stop to admire its beauty. As familiars: Birds-of-fortune are imbued with their master's arrogance. They remind their master constantly how marvelous the two of them are, and never allow the master to be taken in by thoughts of doubt or failure. For those lacking in confidence this can be a boon, but for those susceptible to hubris, a bird-of-fortune can turn their master into the most grandiose braggart imaginable. Benefit: When calculating caster level for dispel or spell removal effects, a mage with a bird-of-fortune familiar counts his caster level as four levels higher for his spells with a range of 'self.' 4) Invidia Swine Neither swine nor actually from Invidia, this rodent is about the size of a large rat. It has a much shorter snout, no apparent tail, and such an abundance of fur that they appear to be rounded fuzzy globs with tiny feet. They form the basis of the food chain in parts of Verbrek and Valachan, where they are occasionally raised in hutches by peasants to supplement their diet, as Invidia swine breed rapidly. As familiars: Content to hide in a pouch, backpack, or pocket, Invidia swine are quick to point out danger to their masters. They also encourage their masters to new heights of amorous action, insightfully pointing out those who display even the subtlest hints of romantic desire. For the shy and reserved, this can provide a great benefit, but more than one repugnant Lothario in the Core boasts an Invidia swine as a familiar. Hazlik has sent one of these creatures to Dominic d'Honaire as a pet; the latter seems ignorant of the subtle message. Benefit: The mage bonded to an Invidia swine is adept at hiding. When receiving an AC bonus from cover, they increase the bonus by +1. 5) Strahd Slug The Strahd slug is the name given to the black leech, common wherever damp conditions can be found across the Core and beyond. The name was made common by naturalists loyal to Azalin and has since become the standard appellation everywhere but Barovia. These tiny animals latch on to their victim’s (or master's) flesh and feed on very small amounts of blood. When engorged, they can be one to two inches long, and can show vivid stripes of blue, green, or red coloration. As familiars: Strahd slugs encourage their masters to do as little as possible. They advise their mages to delegate responsibility and manipulate others to lighten their own workload. Masters with leech familiars either gain a needed calming balance on their personality, or else become lazy and wheedling. The necessities of the slug's diet often means their masters are pale of complexion. Benefit: The constant effect of a leech cleansing one's blood grants a master with such a familiar a +4 bonus on Fortitude saves against poison and disease (magical or otherwise). 6) Sickle-Beaked Goshawk A lesser hawk species that thrives in the fields of Falkovnia, the sickle-beaked goshawk is renowned for its viciousness when threatened. It is particularly noteworthy for its habit of attacking other predators to steal their kills. Even much larger animals can be driven away when faced with the long lacerations of the bird's razor sharp beak. With its red belly and tawny back and wings, the goshawk is most frequently seen as the familiar of the rare Falkovnian magic practitioner. As familiars: Fitting to the land the bird calls home, the goshawk is a proponent of conquest. They encourage their master's to conquer others, whether for power, spells, or prestige. They are always plotting how best to increase their master's standing, and mages with such a familiar are some of the most ambitious in the Demiplane of Dread. Benefit: Mages with a goshawk familiar have a +2 to their initiative rolls. 7) Harp Goat The harp goat of Kartakass takes it's name from the mane of long, fine black hair that shoots up from the animal's spine. These goats, which grow no larger than housecats, are common pets in the mountainous land of Kartakass. Loyal companions, they are renowned for their humorous qualities; in addition to being easily trained to bleat for comedic effect, they eat nearly anything and are almost always hungry. Despite this, they can go long stretches without food, and are every bit as sure footed as their larger kin. The harp goat is a natural choice as a familiar for Kartakan wizards, particularly because it arouses no suspicion. As familiars: Harp goats are gluttonous creatures, and that is a trait they attempt to pass on to their masters. What is good in moderation is better in excess, they say, and should their masters be stopped from indulging, either through external conflict or just their own moderation, the goat is always prepared to offer strategy or justification to fulfill whatever hunger needs satiation, whether that be food, drug, or a desire for power. Benefit: Harp goats grant their master a +4 to Fortitude saves to resist dehydration and starvation. Conclusion Are the benefits of keeping such a familiar worth the temptation they provide? The truth, the Lady Gwen tells me, is that the temptations the familiar brings forth were already present within the mage. The familiar merely gives them voice. Whether one has a familiar or not, the darkness within us is always like unto a beast; if it is not allowed to feed, then it will eventually turn inwards to consume us entirely. Safe travels and happy hunting, Frankie Drakeson, Lord Mayor of Carinford-Halldon. Jim Stearns is a deranged hermit from the swamps of Southern Illinois. In addition to writing for the Black Library, he puts pen to paper for High Level Games and Quoth the Raven. His mad scribblings can frequently be found in anthologies like Fitting In or Selfies from the End of the World, by Mad Scientist Journal. Follow him on Twitter @jcstearnswriter.  “Now wait just a minute,” Mitchifer steps around the bar and holds up a hand. “Do you know where she’s taking you?”
The leather-clad woman fixes the innkeeper with her single good eye, and her smile tightens. “I thought this place had a strict policy of neutrality.” “It is, er, it does, but—“ “This Inn has portals that lead to realms of fire, endless oceans, ice that will freeze a mortal solid within seconds. Do you warn people against going to such places?” She waves her cigarette around languidly in its long holder to punctuate her speech. “No, but—“ “Heavens that shatter sanity, bottomless abysses of immortal rage, hells that flay the soul into an ashen shell—your doorways lead to all of these places, yet you extend a warning against them following me to a rather ordinary city, to perform a rather ordin--. ” “They need to know!” Mitchifer fumes, his wizened white beard twitching with each syllable, until he recalls his professionalism, turns stiffly away from Kazandra, and looks you in the eye. “You need to know…there’s no coming back. To the inn, maybe…if you’re lucky. But follow her through THAT door…and even if you make it back here, all the others may be closed forever. That place doesn’t let people out. It takes countless people in every year, but the ones who get out in a century, I may not need both hands to count.” The Land of Mists is infamous for pulling in hapless adventurers to play with, but sometimes the Mists themselves become too well known. Players familiar with the setting may start to get suspicious any time an ordinary fog rolls in, and if someone actually casts Fog Cloud they might throw dice at the DM. If you feel the Mists are too hackneyed to roll out the fog, consider one of these alternate beginnings to your Weekend in Hell: 1) (Un)Natural Phenomenon If your PC’s are alert for fog, consider other natural phenomenon with an unnatural presence to it. Snowstorms work well in the winter, or in cold regions. A desert might have a sandstorm, heat haze, or a full mirage. But of course, all of these are just different ways to lose their bearings, so don’t rule out the possibility that they might just get lost in the woods. 2) All Aboard! If your natural phenomenon is a storm at sea, you may want more than a little spinning compass action to evoke the Bermuda Triangle. Consider the Ship of Horror,* a cursed Mistway into Ravenloft in the form of a ship. Ships of any kind deserve special mention, though, because crew provide lots of redshirt opportunities, with some left over for more nuanced storylines. Nor is spacefaring immune to strange detours--the Spelljammer supplements specifically said the crystal sphere for the Demiplane of Dread was an unknown color, floating somewhere out in the phlogiston… 3) Stable Portal People forget that the Black Box listed stable portals into the Demiplane, at least one in each of the popular settings of the time. Word might reach the PC’s of a misty doorway that no one has ever returned from, and even the greatest sages and diviners cannot see what is on the other side. If someone or something of exceptional value went through that doorway, the PC’s might be called upon to venture through after it. 4) Reading a Book “Van Richten’s Guide to the Mists”** travels the multiverse outside the demiplane, appearing as a “Van Richten’s Guide” to whatever someone happens to be hunting. It’s just an ordinary book that gives excellent advice, but when someone questions its origins out loud, the reader and anyone within earshot is marked for the Mists. Solving the mystery of its accursed origins within the demiplane might allow someone to return home. 5) The Lonesome Road The Headless Horseman’s endless road domain can extend into other worlds, making for an exciting introduction to Ravenloft when he selects the PC’s to attack. If defeat look imminent, consider allowing the PC’s to escape the Horseman by leaving the road. Normally this is not allowed, but since the goal is to get them into Ravenloft, it makes sense that they might escape the Lonesome Road only to arrive in another domain. 6) The World Serpent Inn*** This planar nexus-turned-saloon lends itself to scavenger hunt adventures throughout the multiverse. Doors throughout this structure lead to all the known prime, inner, and outer planes, and the ever inscrutable, always affable Mitchifer (servant of the even more mysterious Owner of the Inn) somehow maintains a strict neutrality that allows devas and devils to dine in relative peace. Of course, the DM will have to decide how the rules for such easy interplanar travel reconcile with the Dark Powers’ rules about leaving the demiplane. 7) Nightmares and Dreamscapes Under most rules for lucid dreaming, it is possible for any dreamer to visit other dreamscapes, and even wander into the ethereal. Should an outlander dreamer wander into Ravenloft, that character might be condemned to return every night, even though their body remains in their home plane. Such a character might pursue adventures in two worlds until they find a way to reunite. 8) Sucked in With the DL If you have a game villain whose story is drenched in pathos, why not have them become the demiplane’s newest Darklord? The PC’s might get sucked in when they fail to stop an Act of Ultimate Darkness--the atrocity that draws the attention of the Dark Powers and makes him a darklord. This gives them a second chance to stop the bad guy, but also a change of pace as they discover how the laws of magic and nature work differently. If the players enjoy it, they may consider staying in Ravenloft, but if not, defeating their old nemesis for good will win their freedom from the Mists in the tradition of the original Weekend in Hell adventures. *The Ship of Horror was first introduced in the 2E module of the same name. It was updated for use post-Conjunction in the Nocturnal Sea Gazetteer, a netbook hosted by the Fraternity of Shadows. **Van Richten’s Guide to the Mists is detailed in the Book of Secrets, a netbook hosted by the Kargatane. ***The World Serpent Inn was first introduced in 1E Tales of the Outer Planes, and updated in various supplements. A free download is available from Wizards of the Coast. Matthew Barrett has been playing and writing for Ravenloft for over twenty years, starting with the Kargatane's Book of S series (as Leyshon Campbell). He married his wife on Friday the 13th after proposing to her on Halloween. By tradition, the first story read at birth to each of their three children was The Barker’s Tour, from Ravenloft’s “Carnival” supplement. He is currently working on a Ravenloft-based experiment in crowdsourced fiction using his “Inkubator” system at inkubator.miraheze.org. Image from Skyrim, which may or may not be a Dread Realm.  Since before the first Monster Manual, dragons were designed to be the ubiquitous challenge of D&D. They were in the name, after all. So it was only natural that Ravenloft, a setting where dragons were scarce and the iconic critter was the bloodsucking vampire, introduced vampire subspecies and age categories. Vampires were the new dragons: iconic foes with sufficient variety so that the DM could scale them to be a challenge for a party of any level. Subsequent editions added vampire spawn and templates for the same reason.
But Ravenloft is also about foes with backstory, which doesn't always match up with traditional scaling methods. Suppose you want your 3rd level party to fight a vampire, but Joe Peasant (as a spawn) doesn't fit the bill? What if your PC pick a fight against a known vampire that would normally be too powerful for them? What if a later story demands a reasonable excuse for how they ran afoul of a centuries-old nosferatu and lived to tell the tale? When dealing with an imbalance of power, it pays to know your classics, and this concept has been written about for centuries. "The Art of War" states that when waging war against a more powerful foe, it is critical that you control the time and the place of the fight, and wait for the right moment. Sun Tsu may not have been a gamer, but when it comes to vampires, it turns out he was especially accurate: vampires have special weaknesses when it comes to timing and placement. If your PC's are below the level where they might survive a standard toe-to-toe, consider giving them one of these forms of good luck. 1) Let Sleeping Vamps Lie As Jander Sunstar said to Strahd Von Zarovich, "One peasant with a planting stick is more than a match for you during the day." It's a classic trope of vampire hunts for the PC's to explore the crypt while the sun shines, facing traps and tricks and guardians only to find the creature's resting place as the sun is setting. It's no crime against narrative to allow low-level PC's to face fewer traps and guardians and actually get there in time to stake the monster in the coffin. Or you might reverse the idea, letting them stumble into the creature's path just after midnight when it is active, and let them figure out ways to stall and hide and evade until they run out of options...and are rescued by the rising sun. 2) Burning Daylight Of course, the other think about daylight is, well, the light. Apart from nosferatu, who merely lose their supernatural powers, sunlight destroys vampires more effectively than anything, and they know it. Even a first level party stands a decent chance of surviving if the creature has been forced to take shelter in the shadow of a tall tree or tower at noonday. Forced to forgo sleep to keep moving, only a narrow band of shadow between it and oblivion as the day marches on, it could tear to pieces anyone who comes too close, but a low-level party that avoids eye contact might engage in a prolonged battle of wits that gives new meaning to "burning daylight." 3) Location, Location, Location While some vampires may tolerate the sunlight for a brief time to escape the PC's, hardly any can ignore the restriction on entering residences uninvited. According to Van Richten's Guide to vampires, only those who normally reside in a place can issue a proper invitation. To give a first level group a strategic advantage against a vampire, let them encounter it seeking entrance to a place where they are guests. Not knowing who is a resident, the creature dominates a PC or NPC guest for an invitation, but still cannot enter. The rest of the party figures out there is something unusual going on as the dominated PC tries to secure an invitation from an actual resident, with the vampire pacing on the doorstep in frustration. The party will get a good challenge out of fighting the dominated character (and perhaps some summoned animals) before the creature moves on to easier pickings. 4) Death Takes a Holiday Restricted as they are by their requirements for blood and sleep, vampires are not prone to travel. Those who undertake a long journey must bring their coffins with them, and those without loyal quislings to haul them in a wagon frequently find themselves stowed in the hold of a boat. This is not in itself a violation of the prohibition against crossing running water...but the creature cannot leave the boat except to set foot on land. This is easily compounded by the above restrictions on sleep, sunlight and invitations: passenger staterooms are not separate residences, but crew quarters are. If passengers are few, a vampire might be forced to choose between gaining a new invitation every night so it can shallow feed, or risk arousing suspicion by feeding from the same people twice. Count Dracula himself was forced to depopulate the entire crew of a ship one by one to make the journey to England. If only one of those crew had knowledge of vampires, and could explain to the others how to hold them off, that ocean voyage might have ended much differently. ++++++++++++++++++++ So that’s four ways your low-level PC’s might gain the upper hand against a vampire, but then what? If the creature escapes, it will surely have a long memory of its defeat, and it will never allow itself to be caught in such circumstances again. If the PC’s managed to destroy it for good, it may have had a mate, sire or spawn that would likewise hold a grudge. Allow the PC’s their moment to lick their wounds and pat themselves on the back, but they had better not count on luck next time. Luck is a fickle ally, and you never know when the forces that tipped the scales for you might side with the monsters instead. Matthew Barrett has been playing and writing for Ravenloft for over twenty years, starting with the Kargatane's Book of S series (as Leyshon Campbell). He married his wife on Friday the 13th after proposing to her on Halloween. By tradition, the first story read at birth to each of their three children was The Barker’s Tour, from Ravenloft’s “Carnival” supplement. He is currently working on a Ravenloft-based experiment in crowdsourced fiction using his “Inkubator” system at inkubator.miraheze.org. Image is from Ravenloft 3.5 and is titled Races of Ravenloft  Why am I comparing these two particular editions?
Simple story: I have had limited interaction with D&D from 3rd through 4th editions. But AD&D 2nd was my jam and 5th is a new friend. Less simple story: (TL;DR) I had a hiatus from regular gaming when my daughter was first born until she reached the age of 7. As a full-time student and then worker, my hours with her were interrupted often and were few and far between, and so I decided to spend more quality time with her. During those years, I missed a few things in the cultural gaming sphere. One of the behemoths I played regularly BC (Before Child) was the much-moduled AD&D 2nd Edition. I was quite familiar with most of the classes and some of the races that I could work with. My grognard husband was slow to tune into the 3rd edition (though was happier with 3.5 when it showed up in 2003) and so I had limited experience with either. My jump back into gaming post-child was GMing a 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons starter module for a group of largely brand-new gamers. It was my first and last foray into 4th. We parted on friendly terms. But now I am back in routine with a weekly game, as last year I was won over by the changes in 5th, but none-so-much as the improvement on the Ranger class. 1) Requirements Schmirements Honestly, I still have a love of the ability requirements that made 2nd edition character classes very focused on being good at certain things. But having minimums in Strength and Dexterity (13) and Constitution and Wisdom (14) could result in different table-rules being enacted.
Not only can the requirements be tough to get, but it limits the broad range of abilities that this character could have. Maybe there is a Ranger who has always been great from afar, flinging arrows without enemies knowing what is coming. Do they also have to be strong, hardy, and wise as well? I would argue that it is not necessary. 2) More Balanced The Ranger in 2nd Edition seems to have been a favoured class of Min/Maxers from near and far. I played in more than one group where I have seen that personality coupled with that class. The Ranger’s ability at first level to double their attacks with two handed weapon style with no penalty and a +4 for attack rolls on favoured enemies made a ton of people that really just wanted to be a Fighter choose the Ranger class instead. In order for a Fighter to even have the chance to come close to matching that, they needed to look in extra books for fighting styles and choose ambidexterity as a trait so they could wield those two weapons. And favoured enemy for the fighter? Not a chance. The only thing they could do is get really mad at some orcs. Those who wanted to game the system as much as they could had it in spades with the Ranger in 2nd. In 5th, they seemed to have figured out how to make the all classes both varied and less gameable. They rightly brought in new abilities and choices near the beginning of the levels for each class that presents not only the ability to do cool shit, but the opportunity for fleshing out characters. In 5th ed. at 2nd level, the Ranger can choose their favoured fighting style (and yes, two handed is still an option) that works with their back story, their world, and their physical prowess. Looking at archery, defence, dueling, two weapon fighting, or close-quarter shooter, there is a great variety of style without being too dominant over other classes or overly detailed and cumbersome (I am looking at you Palladium Fantasy RPG.) 3) More Logical Progression Along with the choice early on for fighting style in 5th edition, there are also the beginnings of other Ranger benefits that are acquired early on. Favoured terrain provides bonuses for everything you do in that area, including helping out your group as they traverse the woods/prairies/mountains/candyland with you. For 5th, your favoured enemy is not just how angry you get at them or how well you can hit them (thanks 2nd.). Now you know much more about that enemy such as their customs, how to track them, and even an ability to speak to them in one of their own languages. This is so much more beneficial than the “Hulk rage” approach earlier in D&D. They also introduce Ranger spells immediately into the character class. Rangers innately have this ability to use magic in a way that makes sense for their environment. They also have their own compendium of Ranger Spells to choose from instead of glomming onto selected Priest spells like they do in 2nd. In the earlier incarnation of spell casting, for some reason the Ranger hits 8th level and knows some priest spells. In the Player’s Handbook, there is no explanation for this effect. (Though with the multitude of books written for AD&D 2nd, I am sure it has to be explained somewhere.) It seems disjointed and out of nowhere. And this is not the only ability that seemingly comes from left field. At 10th level, there are 2d6 followers of no particular race or species that start to show up. I won’t get into the theory behind this one, but I do think a more consistent progression makes more sense when playing a character. 4) Archetypes Archetypes may be my favourite part of 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. As each class reaches 3rd level, they are confronted with a choice in path for their character to take. With a Ranger they receive a choice between the Hunter Archetype or the Beast Master Archetype. Your Hunter knows the reality of their situation well. They are able to best defend and attack those who would threaten civilization. They are well aware of the wilderness, but they are not a wild animal. Their attacks are meant to strike blows specifically at their enemies. If you choose Beast Master, you are the bridge between the wild and the civilized. You are able to have a beast companion to help you keep your two worlds from completely colliding with disastrous effects. This animal companion will not only follow you, but will fight alongside you. Either pick at 3rd level further defines your role in the campaign, which is what I love. In the end, the 2nd edition Ranger just wasn’t built as clearly as 5th. But without the work done early on in Dungeons and Dragons, we wouldn’t have what we do today. Bravo, D&D, you have kept us coming back for more. For a general overview of how the editions rolled out see this wikipedia page. This article was written by Vanessa who is a sarcastic, 30-something wife and mother. She likes things and stuff, but not simultaneously. When she isn’t involved in things and stuff, she teaches middle school science, math, art, and other random subjects. She loves new teenagers in action. They make her laugh and shake her head and her world is much better with laughter. She thinks everyone should be roleplaying. She is also trying out this new twitter handle at @sarasma_nessa  Jonas undressed for bed as normal that evening when something caught his eye. He had his share of tattoos like any old sailor, but never one on his inner thigh! He wanted to chalk it up to last week's drunken blackout...but it was at least a year old! It was a single word, written in Draconic. He read it aloud without thinking, then felt an icy chill slide up his spine as he tried to remember, when had he ever learned Draconic? He had only a moment to wonder about that before a disembodied voice cut through the silence of his bedroom.
"Keep it together, old man--just go look in Mina's bank." His heart hammering into his throat, he cast his eyes around, called for the speaker to show themselves, but he remained alone. Seizing the lamp, he crept into the kitchen, cursing himself a fool for fearing the darkness of his own house. When Mina was alive, she kept her own private stash of coin in a hanging planter out the back window, said she was "growing money." He pulled down the oilskin bag he had not seen in eleven years, which now contained not a handful of coins, but a small book. By the flickering light of his lamp, Jonas opened it to see his own handwriting, in more Draconic, that language he could not recall learning: "If you don’t remember writing this, your memory has been altered...." Memento Mori was one of those ideas that outgrew its original inspiration and just kept growing. It didn't take me long after inventing the basic origins of this secret society to realize that people who held the mind as inviolate would take up arms against any darklord, demon, creature or caster who could read or control thoughts. But even better than a wide variety of targets, Memento Mori were great game fodder because many were zealots who saw mind control as tantamount to murder, reading thoughts a form of rape. This pushed them to extreme risks, forced even the poorest of them to pursue clever defenses against imagined attacks out of sheer single mindedness. 1- Earworms: Filling your thoughts with an annoying song can give a mind-reader an earful, but forcefully thinking of a song makes simultaneous actions difficult (-4 to all verbal skill checks, treat as if concentrating on a spell). If you want to get anything else done, the truly desperate might deliberately allow a song to get stuck in their head, in whatever part of the brain keeps such “earworms” repeating ad nauseum. After repeated exposure to a song on and off over several days, failing a single Will save results in an earworm (because it’s already involuntary, this save can’t be deliberately failed). When someone with an earworm is subjected to mind reading, they make a second Will save using the Perform check of the original artist, to see if the song appears in the surface thoughts. The results of the two saves are independent, so that the mind reader might hear the song, the surface thoughts, both mixed together, or neither. 2- Journals: When asked for personal details to confirm their identity, a doppelganger normally reads the correct answer in surface thoughts. Instead, corner the suspect with a copy of their own journal, and read aloud to the end of a recent page. Assuming they are not too nervous about the crossbow at their throat, the original author should be able to recall what they wrote next, while a doppelganger won’t find the words in any of the surrounding minds. Once the suspect has given an answer, turn the page, read aloud, and do what must be done…. Journals are also very convenient if something has removed or altered your memories, but taking full advantage requires building the habit of writing long before your mind is wiped, and the means of reminding yourself if something removes your memory of the journal itself. It takes dedication to commit to a detailed daily journal, but anyone up against something that alters memories had better build this habit fast. 3- Herbalism: One of the tried-and-true low-tech resources is to take advantage of natural wonders, whether it’s inquisitors using wichtingourds or dreamwalkers using dreamweavers. Memento Mori found one of their best resources in herbalism, cultivating the churchsteeple plant for its root. The plant’s powers were first catalogued by Van Richten in Dragon Magazine #273, (“Wicked Garden”), where one of the suggested game effects is that the fresh root duplicates the effect of a protection from evil spell. This is only a minor bonus in combat, but it also suspends all manner of possession and mind control for the duration of the spell. In addition to using the root to protect themselves and their allies, it’s also a favorite of “string cutter” cells in Dementlieu--Memento Mori anarchists who specialize in fighting against the great puppeteers. Fresh churchsteeple root added to bouquets and boutonnieres at a formal social gathering could result in some amount of discomfiture for those suddenly thrust into freedom, and a lot of valuable information for those who note their reactions. 4- Hypnosis: Frequent mind readers remain suspicious of anyone who appears resistant to their talents--or worse, immune. That’s why members of Memento Mori disguise each other’s thoughts using a variation of the hypnosis skill. Under hypnosis, the subject is instructed to think of a particular topic in the using an extended allegory. This works especially well when Memento Mori cell meetings are disguised as book clubs, gardening guilds, private tea parties or other innocuous gatherings. The subject knows the truth and could speak freely if they choose to, but their surface thoughts would only refer to these topics in these allegorical terms. Unlike an earworm, hypnosis only provides a backup saving throw when the subject fails their main save. Success means that even though the subject’s thoughts can be read, the chosen topic is disguised. Failing by less than 5 means the disguised thoughts are inconsistent or paradoxical (i.e. “The sewing circle ladies said crocheting works on vampires”). Failing by 5 or more means the mind-reader knows the actual content of the surface thoughts. The second save also applies to interrogation under other forms of mind control, with failure meaning the subject can only speak about the topic in allegorical terms. 5- Lead Headgear...and More: If you need any further proof of the fanaticism of Memento Mori, ask yourself: what kind of person would risk losing their mind to lead poisoning, just to prevent someone else from having a peek inside it? When facing mind-reading foes in melee combat, members of Memento Mori frequently wear headgear coated with layers of lead enamel*. This is an excellent defense against mental intrusion, but every four hours wearing one provokes a save against lead poisoning, as the enamel breaks down in contact with sweat and the lead is absorbed by the skin. For a truly nuclear option, an alchemical solution of chemically neutralized “chelated” lead* turns the bloodstream into the ultimate barrier against mental intrusion, but any error in the alchemy check results in a toxic dose of lead that can do significant brain damage. ++++ While I personally based Memento Mori in Blaustein with origins in Bluebeard’s memory-altering decrees, the idea of a cult or secret society that sees the mind as inviolate can translate into any game that has such powers. If your PC's are fighting a vampire with a captivating gaze, a ghost with a penchant for possession, an alien shapeshifter who can read thoughts, or a mad supervillain who manipulates minds, they might find some interesting allies at the the crossroads of fanaticism and resourcefulness. But of course, you'll have to break out the Diplomacy and get to know them the old fashioned way, because if you try any other kind of Charm, you may wind up added to their long list of enemies.... * Rules for leaded barrel helms, helmets and potions are given in the Van Richten Society Notes on the Doppelganger, a netbook hosted by the Fraternity of Shadows. Matthew Barrett has been playing and writing for Ravenloft for over twenty years, starting with the Kargatane's Book of S series (as Leyshon Campbell). He married his wife on Friday the 13th after proposing to her on Halloween. By tradition, the first story read at birth to each of their three children was The Barker’s Tour, from Ravenloft’s “Carnival” supplement. He is currently working on a Ravenloft-based experiment in crowdsourced fiction using his “Inkubator” system at inkubator.miraheze.org. |
All blog materials created and developed by the staff here at High Level Games 
Click here to support our community for as a little as $1.00 for exclusive content, free downloadable stuff, and even discounts on role-playing game items.
Archives
April 2023
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
