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Author Topic: Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!  (Read 2866 times)

Ratman_tf

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Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!
« on: May 05, 2021, 01:38:07 PM »
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Ghostmaker

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Re: Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!
« Reply #1 on: May 05, 2021, 01:42:10 PM »
Polygon is run by idiots. Charlie Hall (the author) is also an idiot.

My favorite bit:

“Why is there a Domain that is a desert that is riddled with these ancient, inexplicable haunted monuments and ruined pyramids?” Schneider said. “How does a Domain like that exist? How does it make sense? To an extent it doesn’t, and it’s going to be the players that come and explore that, who are some of the only people that realize that the entirety of the domain is, to an extent, gaslighting them.”

Way to fucking rediscover fire, Charlie. That's one of the core bits about the Demiplane of Dread. It deliberately fucks with its inhabitants on multiple levels, especially its Darklords.

Armchair Gamer

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Re: Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2021, 01:59:26 PM »
I've been a Ravenloft fan for thirty years, with netbook and Dragon articles on the setting to my name.

This looks like they're taking out a lot of the elements I liked (classic monster archetypes, the Gothic atmosphere, the moral underpinnings of the setting, the product aesthetics), doubling-down on elements I didn't like (the real-world fortunetelling elements, the Gnostic/Sadean idea of the world as fundamentally evil and irrational), and suffusing the whole thing with their hamfisted 'diversity' approach as well as making it much more D&Dish than its predecessors.

Even if I hadn't found Curse of Strahd underwhelming on a readthrough, and wasn't boycotting WotC on principle, I don't think I'd be inclined to pick this up for anything more than completion or morbid curiosity. There are a few things I do want to see how they handle--Bluetspur, G'Henna, and Risbilios--but that is again morbid curiosity. This was WotC's one big chance to win me over, and they've blown it. Bear in mind that I started moving back into 4E when they announced the Ravenloft revival that never wound up happening. :D

Pat
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Re: Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2021, 02:25:59 PM »
That article does not get off to a good start: "Lead designer Wes Schneider told Polygon that the goal was to move beyond the derivative tropes that have plagued the Ravenloft setting in the past."

Derivative tropes exist because they're time-tested, and they're precisely the things that people loved about the setting. So they're ditching that, and replacing it with what's going to end up as a new of set of derivative tropes, because anyone who thinks they're so original that they're not going to use derivative tropes is deluding themselves with hubris.

Thornhammer

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Re: Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!
« Reply #4 on: May 05, 2021, 03:00:31 PM »
Heh. Think Pharazia will be in the new one?

The desert realm with the Darklord who is a prophet and messenger to his people, adheres to a very strict and puritanical system of laws, and seeks to purge all the non-believers and heretics from his realm?

Imma guess it isn't, but I wasn't super impressed with two mildly different desert realms anyway.


« Last Edit: May 05, 2021, 03:02:55 PM by Thornhammer »

Zelen

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Re: Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!
« Reply #5 on: May 05, 2021, 03:36:08 PM »
Unfortunately the terrorists at WotC and elsewhere won't stop until they've taken everything good you ever liked, gutted it, and paraded it around in a skin suit that only bears superficial resemblance to what it used to be.



Polygon is run by idiots. Charlie Hall (the author) is also an idiot.

My favorite bit:

“Why is there a Domain that is a desert that is riddled with these ancient, inexplicable haunted monuments and ruined pyramids?” Schneider said. “How does a Domain like that exist? How does it make sense? To an extent it doesn’t, and it’s going to be the players that come and explore that, who are some of the only people that realize that the entirety of the domain is, to an extent, gaslighting them.”

Way to fucking rediscover fire, Charlie. That's one of the core bits about the Demiplane of Dread. It deliberately fucks with its inhabitants on multiple levels, especially its Darklords.

It's depressing that these people are so deeply indoctrinated into their own cult that they can't even conceive of basic concepts like deception without having to express it in their cult pidgin language ("gaslighting").

SHARK

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Re: Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!
« Reply #6 on: May 05, 2021, 03:37:55 PM »
Greetings!

From the article:

"It's a setting that in the past has leveraged problematic Orientalist tropes to tell its tales"

These people are so fucking brainwashed with the Critical Race Theory and woke bullshit. Geesus. It is so sad to see them just fucking ruin and corrupt every goddamned thing they touch. They are all like drooling moron barbarians. "Heee-Heee! Lets cover everything in shit! Isn't this fun?" They will continue to pour shit into every fucking book, every fucking D&D module, until they are unrecognizable.

Pundit has always been right about this, even if his cock-sucking critics refuse to see it or admit it. These CRT SJW's hate D&D, and want to destroy D&D. They hate traditional RPG's, and they fucking hate and despise normal gamers.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK
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Omega

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Re: Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!
« Reply #7 on: May 05, 2021, 03:45:57 PM »
Polygon is run by idiots. Charlie Hall (the author) is also an idiot.

My favorite bit:

“Why is there a Domain that is a desert that is riddled with these ancient, inexplicable haunted monuments and ruined pyramids?” Schneider said. “How does a Domain like that exist? How does it make sense? To an extent it doesn’t, and it’s going to be the players that come and explore that, who are some of the only people that realize that the entirety of the domain is, to an extent, gaslighting them.”

Way to fucking rediscover fire, Charlie. That's one of the core bits about the Demiplane of Dread. It deliberately fucks with its inhabitants on multiple levels, especially its Darklords.

1: I wrote Polygon off long ago as the village idiots of a village of idiots.

2: Man. Egypt makes no sense! Its a big desert with all these haunted tombs full of treasure. Egypt is gaslighting explorers!
Anubis wept.

3: They havent rediscovered anything because they cant even find the earth to find the forest for a tree. Just reading that paragraph kills brain cells. Someone call Darkseid. We have found the Anti-Life Formula!

This Guy
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Re: Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2021, 03:51:28 PM »
Greetings!

From the article:

"It's a setting that in the past has leveraged problematic Orientalist tropes to tell its tales"

These people are so fucking brainwashed with the Critical Race Theory and woke bullshit. Geesus. It is so sad to see them just fucking ruin and corrupt every goddamned thing they touch. They are all like drooling moron barbarians. "Heee-Heee! Lets cover everything in shit! Isn't this fun?" They will continue to pour shit into every fucking book, every fucking D&D module, until they are unrecognizable.

Pundit has always been right about this, even if his cock-sucking critics refuse to see it or admit it. These CRT SJW's hate D&D, and want to destroy D&D. They hate traditional RPG's, and they fucking hate and despise normal gamers.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Shark seethe is weird bc it is so formal but so crude. Orientalism was def real when they made the inspo for this shit whether you think it's still a Thing now or not, all them hemophiliac romanticists getting the vapors over the cool stuff in the Levant and whatnot
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Slipshot762

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Re: Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2021, 07:03:42 PM »
Polygon is run by idiots. Charlie Hall (the author) is also an idiot.

My favorite bit:

“Why is there a Domain that is a desert that is riddled with these ancient, inexplicable haunted monuments and ruined pyramids?” Schneider said. “How does a Domain like that exist? How does it make sense? To an extent it doesn’t, and it’s going to be the players that come and explore that, who are some of the only people that realize that the entirety of the domain is, to an extent, gaslighting them.”

Way to fucking rediscover fire, Charlie. That's one of the core bits about the Demiplane of Dread. It deliberately fucks with its inhabitants on multiple levels, especially its Darklords.

the eerieness of things not making sense was part of the appeal of ravenloft for me. that twilight zone'esque "the town is supposed to be on the other side of the river...oh shit our home village has been copied, sort of?" wierd taint just below the surface.

Aglondir

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Re: Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!
« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2021, 08:43:26 PM »
Quote from: Count Wokula
Whether it’s the Boris Karloff version [of The Mummy], or the Brendan Fraser one, there’s the story of outsiders coming in and having adventures in this other culture...
Which is the literal premise of Ravenloft.

Quote from: I, Wokestrahd
Why is there a Domain that is a desert that is riddled with these ancient, inexplicable haunted monuments and ruined pyramids?” Schneider said. “How does a Domain like that exist? How does it make sense?
Why is the land filled with hidden treasures from an ancient fallen empire, with inexplicable dungeons and ruined castles? How does it even make sense?



« Last Edit: May 06, 2021, 12:02:09 AM by Aglondir »

Jason Coplen

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Re: Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!
« Reply #11 on: May 06, 2021, 12:00:46 AM »

These people are so fucking brainwashed with the Critical Race Theory and woke bullshit. Geesus. It is so sad to see them just fucking ruin and corrupt every goddamned thing they touch. They are all like drooling moron barbarians. "Heee-Heee! Lets cover everything in shit! Isn't this fun?" They will continue to pour shit into every fucking book, every fucking D&D module, until they are unrecognizable.

Pundit has always been right about this, even if his cock-sucking critics refuse to see it or admit it. These CRT SJW's hate D&D, and want to destroy D&D. They hate traditional RPG's, and they fucking hate and despise normal gamers.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Welp, again you're right.
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Renegade_Productions

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Re: Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!
« Reply #12 on: May 06, 2021, 01:34:03 AM »
...um

https://www.polygon.com/22417339/van-richtens-guide-to-ravenloft-harakir-ankhotep-the-mummy-preview?fbclid=IwAR2wI0fuAuRWIMlnFqSbArEAvKcMzACH4MO6hRKfBglIW2QAqznXkqJlNso

I'm sure we'll all have opinions. Let me start.
A page search returns zero results for the word "gothic"...

No surprise there. People who hate the legacy of D&D taking a dump all over one of its most loved settings/realms.

Makes one wonder when these types are gonna get some sense slapped into them and stop begin such spoiled, destructive tarts.

Omega

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Re: Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!
« Reply #13 on: May 06, 2021, 01:57:18 AM »
No surprise there. People who hate the legacy of D&D taking a dump all over one of its most loved settings/realms.

Makes one wonder when these types are gonna get some sense slapped into them and stop begin such spoiled, destructive tarts.

As long as marketing can keep pushing the combined screeds of "diversity at all costs!" and "Outrage Marketing is freeeeee advertising!" we are not going to see it die anytime soon.

Its much the same with the marketing obsessions with the damn "5 year plan" and "subvert expectations!" and any other marketing fad they have locked on.
« Last Edit: May 06, 2021, 06:03:21 PM by Omega »

Ghostmaker

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Re: Let's turn Ravenloft into a high fantasy settting!
« Reply #14 on: May 06, 2021, 08:06:37 AM »
No surprise there. People who hate the legacy of D&D taking a dump all over one of its most loved settings/realms.

Makes one wonder when these types are gonna get some sense slapped into them and stop begin such spoiled, destructive tarts.

As long as parketing can keep pushing the combined screeds of "diversity at all costs!" and "Outrage Marketing is freeeeee advertising!" we are not going to see it die anytime soon.

Its much the same with the marketing obsessions with the damn "5 year plan" and "subvert expectations!" and any other marketing fad they have locked on.
An additional point (you're not wrong btw) is this belief that social media reflects the overall trends in a market, when... that's not really true at all.