Ravenloft rises again!
Today's bit of "Dare I Be Optimistic?" good news: Ravenloft, Dungeons & Dragons' fabulous and creepy Gothic horror setting, is returning! As I've mentioned, oh, a few times, I'm a huge Ravenloft fan (going back to the 1990 Black Box), and my LiveJournal username is a salute to one of the lands within. However, Ravenloft never reached the popularity of the Forgotten Realms or even Eberron, and that's understandable: It's harder to run a good horror game (whether Ravenloft or Call of Cthulhu) than it is to run an adventure game. Every GM has his or her strengths and weaknesses, and many GMs simply can't provide the proper atmosphere necessary to sell the horror to the players. So on several occasions, Ravenloft has vanished into the Mists.
Yet like Count Strahd Von Zarovich himself, the setting won't stay dead. According to Wizards of the Coast's Digital Insider:October will also see the Domains of Dread return to D&D, with the long-time Ravenloft concept being folded into the core now. Meanwhile we’ll also be trying out a new rules concept that allows you to multiclass into classes that don’t really exist, like gladiator. I should probably stop now before R&D gets forbidden from feeding me previews.
(Hat tip to the Fraternity of Shadows.) Two things about this: 1) The new material would be online, but hey, that's fine with me. 2) Ravenloft "being folded into the core"? Hmm. Not sure what that means. Give the domains a physical place within the core D&D world? On the plus side, that would finally get rid of the "Weekend in Hell" treatment that stuck to the setting for years. On the minus side, Ravenloft needs to be isolated, dark, and personal, away from the more powerful beings and monsters that inhabit your basis D&D world.
The good thing about this development is it's a win-win for Ravenloft fans. If it's an interesting translation of the Land of Mists into 4th edition, hey, cool! If it smells like a dire rat zombie during a summer heat wave, no big loss, since fans like me can either continue to use the wealth of 3rd edition Ravenloft gaming material or use the new Ravenloft 4E rules created by "Jester" on the Fraternity of Shadows site. I've only glanced at Jester's work so far, but I give him an "A" for effort at least! Very interesting.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the Ravenloftian shadows lengthen over the next few months. Until then ... stay off the moors!