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Author Topic: I'm reading some older D&D pdfs, specifically Ravenloft, and I'm a bit confused.  (Read 3850 times)

Monero

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I'm confused because I haven't read a single paragraph, word, or sentence where "Inclusivity" is mentioned. I have not been told a single time to create a "safe" roleplaying environment. No mention of X cards that can be used to force the game to a halt. Zero trigger warnings, which was strange given that Ravenloft is all about horror so I figured there would be something about setting "boundaries".

I can't find anything that tells me that trans characters can be made. Or that characters can be gay. How did players know they could do that back in the day without being told so?

How did D&D survive, grow, and thrive without all of the above? Personally I don't remember any of groups ever forbidding members from certain demographics from playing with us. But I can't see how that's possible since there was no guidance about Inclusivity.

My wife, whom I met by playing D&D, was never "raped" in game or "sexually assaulted", but without a passage in the books demanding that "consent" be a point of emphasis, I'm just unsure how me and my fellow players weren't just raging psychopaths in and out of the game.

How can any of this be? And of course without all the retconning to modern races keeping me safe, every time I read about Orcs or Drow the first thing I thought about was black people. Surely I'm not the only one? Luckily I'm protected from racism nowadays with "modern" race design.

I'm just left confused. Can anyone help?

rytrasmi

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Clearly you are deranged! I recommend reeducation. The camps are very nice this time of year, as you will notice during your mandatory 30-minute allotment of outdoor calisthenics. Please also surrender this contraband and likely fake copy of "Ravenloft."
The worms crawl in and the worms crawl out
The ones that crawl in are lean and thin
The ones that crawl out are fat and stout
Your eyes fall in and your teeth fall out
Your brains come tumbling down your snout
Be merry my friends
Be merry

Jaeger

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...
I'm just left confused. Can anyone help?

STOP asking questions. STOP reading Anti-Inclusive Propaganda.

You might cause someone actual physical harm by doing so.

Follow Rytrasmi's wise counsel and report yourself to the nearest reeducation camp ASAP.

And always remember:

"The envious are not satisfied with equality; they secretly yearn for superiority and revenge."

Greg Bruni

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I love the original Ravenloft setting.  I have always wanted to run it using the Solomon Kane game.

Monero

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Jest aside, how are the 5E Ravenloft books? Curse of Strahd and VR guide? Is it good stuff or suit ignore?

And would any other system be better for Ravenloft?

FingerRod

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I have the original 5e Ravenloft—before they rewrote/edited their own work. My wife originally ran the family through it. I looked at it later and I cannot recall any woke garbage in it. No idea of about the revised version.

The Guide to Ravnica looked like a mess so I avoided it. I did a flip through a couple months later and it confirmed my decision.

Honestly, I’d just use the original setting.

If I were to ever purchase “real” D&D products, I’ll likely buy them from this cat:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dmd=2&_dkr=1&iconV2Request=true&_ssn=discodadda&store_cat=1769389015&store_name=discosdungeon&_oac=1&_pgn=2


Omega

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Jest aside, how are the 5E Ravenloft books? Curse of Strahd and VR guide? Is it good stuff or suit ignore?

And would any other system be better for Ravenloft?

I have Curse of Strahd. It is ok but right off the bat it starts going on about how vampires are "sexual predators". Its got some totally meaningless LGBT insertions. That being that they are so minor as to pretty much not exist in one case and barely a sentence in another. Its implied Strahd is now Bi. You know. The Strahd who is in this whole mess because of his intense infatuation with his brothers girl? Yeah that Strahd.

They also for god fuck no reason other than to piss on the character have Mordenkainen. Yes THAT Mordenkainen as a shell shocked crazy who tried to challenge Strahd and lost. Fuck me just typing that makes brain cells die.

Theres no demiplane of dread and pretty much no dark powers really. Theres some nods to. But its so pathetic its barely worth noting.

Theres probably more but  its not worth caring about.

That said. Ignoring the stupid the campaign isnt bad and could have been quite interesting as a new domain. The idea that a large chunk of Barovia's population are essentially soulless shells born of Strahd's need for subjects would have so much better worked for some new lord and their domain.

Nu-Ravenloft is pretty much worthless.
I lost track of how many domains were completely fucked with for fuck all no reason than to fuck with them.
The "make of it what you will" alignment idea is actually good and harkens back to O, BX and AD&Ds handling of monster alignments. But WOTC treats it as if they invented the idea and anything prior was wacist because they say so. Fuck me just typing that makes brain cells die.

Good ideas drowning in stupid.

Svenhelgrim

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Jest aside, how are the 5E Ravenloft books? Curse of Strahd and VR guide? Is it good stuff or suit ignore?

And would any other system be better for Ravenloft?

I have the Curse Of Strahd module.  I liked it a lot.  The adventure draws on previous ravenloft matereal, and doesn’t pull any punches.  The players play at a significant disadvantage up until about level 6 or so.  The traps are deadly.  There are a couple of encounters that could TPK a party of any level.  Apparently it was so offensive that Hazards-of-the-bro had to pull the module and change some things.  Vistani could no longer be called “gypsies”, they weren’t all servants of Strahd (not that they were in the origional works). There was some other stuff they did to bring it in line with Nu-DnD.  I didn’t really pay much attention.

There were however some issues:

Strahd is weak.  By the time the players meet him for the final confrontation (recommended level 9) he is outclassed.  There are numerous versions of Strahd that have been beefed-up to give a level 9 party a challenge.

The adventure recommends “Milestone Levelling” which means the players all gain a level when they reach a certain point in the “story”.  The issue I have is that no two player parties will play the same way, so you have to change the “story” based on their actions.  A DM would be better off just giving out xp, and letting the dice fall where they may, and if the party dies, then so be it.  …Which is totally doable in the module.

In my opinion it is the best 5e adventure that Hazards has ever published. 


3catcircus

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Jest aside, how are the 5E Ravenloft books? Curse of Strahd and VR guide? Is it good stuff or suit ignore?

And would any other system be better for Ravenloft?

I have Curse of Strahd. It is ok but right off the bat it starts going on about how vampires are "sexual predators". Its got some totally meaningless LGBT insertions. That being that they are so minor as to pretty much not exist in one case and barely a sentence in another. Its implied Strahd is now Bi. You know. The Strahd who is in this whole mess because of his intense infatuation with his brothers girl? Yeah that Strahd.

They also for god fuck no reason other than to piss on the character have Mordenkainen. Yes THAT Mordenkainen as a shell shocked crazy who tried to challenge Strahd and lost. Fuck me just typing that makes brain cells die.

Theres no demiplane of dread and pretty much no dark powers really. Theres some nods to. But its so pathetic its barely worth noting.

Theres probably more but  its not worth caring about.

That said. Ignoring the stupid the campaign isnt bad and could have been quite interesting as a new domain. The idea that a large chunk of Barovia's population are essentially soulless shells born of Strahd's need for subjects would have so much better worked for some new lord and their domain.

Nu-Ravenloft is pretty much worthless.
I lost track of how many domains were completely fucked with for fuck all no reason than to fuck with them.
The "make of it what you will" alignment idea is actually good and harkens back to O, BX and AD&Ds handling of monster alignments. But WOTC treats it as if they invented the idea and anything prior was wacist because they say so. Fuck me just typing that makes brain cells die.

Good ideas drowning in stupid.

You could have just used two words to do this: "It's dogshit."

Mithgarthr

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I have the original 5e Ravenloft—before they rewrote/edited their own work. My wife originally ran the family through it. I looked at it later and I cannot recall any woke garbage in it. No idea of about the revised version.

The Guide to Ravnica looked like a mess so I avoided it. I did a flip through a couple months later and it confirmed my decision.

Honestly, I’d just use the original setting.

If I were to ever purchase “real” D&D products, I’ll likely buy them from this cat:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dmd=2&_dkr=1&iconV2Request=true&_ssn=discodadda&store_cat=1769389015&store_name=discosdungeon&_oac=1&_pgn=2

Quite a few of their listings are DriveThru reprints but for like twice the cost as just buying from DriveThru.

Ruprecht

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Clearly you are deranged! I recommend reeducation. The camps are very nice this time of year, as you will notice during your mandatory 30-minute allotment of outdoor calisthenics. Please also surrender this contraband and likely fake copy of "Ravenloft."
You had only 30-minutes of outdoor calisthenics? I had 12 hours of cheerful hard labor.
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing. ~Robert E. Howard

Skullking

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They also for god fuck no reason other than to piss on the character have Mordenkainen. Yes THAT Mordenkainen as a shell shocked crazy who tried to challenge Strahd and lost. Fuck me just typing that makes brain cells die.

This is what pissed me off the most. Well until I saw that Iggwilv was now a chaotic neutral fey in Wild Beyond the Witchlight which is an even greater travesty.

Jam The MF

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It's all a big trap!!!  In those old games and adventures, the oppression just drips from every single page.  Run while you still can!!!
Let the Dice, Decide the Outcome.  Accept the Results.

HappyDaze

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I remember when 2300AD was openly about colonialism in space. Now it's about "Mankind's discovers the stars" as if they just mysteriously appeared.

King Tyranno

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In the original Ravenloft book they referred to gypsies as gypsies and I AM SHITTING AND PISSING MYSELF OVER THIS! X CARD! X CARD! THIS IS NOT OKAY!

I love Ravenloft though. It's my favorite setting. You can really use it to spring some horror and gothic ambience on your party when you need to spice up the game.