Ravenloft DLC

Elandir

Just one name...

Lord Strahd Von Zarovich


What do you think about it?

scriver

I know very little of Ravenloft so all I think of the name is that it is a bad attempt at sounding generically Eastern-European-Under-German-Cultural-Domination-y. I mean, "Strahd of Zarov's son"? Please :P

Apart from that what little I know of Ravenloft sounds like a pretty good setting, but definitely deserving it's own game rather than a DLC. Not to mention I'd rather any DLC stay BY-/Sword Coast-related somehow. But yeah, a Ravenloft game would be cool. Some "darker" fantasy would be a welcomed break from the many sword-and-sorcery-and-dragons style RPGs that are being churned out these days.

Cheesebelly

Sounds indeed eastern European to me (me being from there of course). Could someone enlighten me a bit on this lord?

Drugar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strahd_von_Zarovich
A man of noble birth, Strahd spent much of his life serving causes of goodness and law, most notably as a warrior and leader of armies. Years of such service took their toll upon him however, and by the time he reached middle age, Strahd came to believe he had squandered his life and his youth. With this dark mood upon him, he came to conquer the region known as Barovia, and assumed lordship there, taking as his residence the pre-existing castle known as Ravenloft. From this position of power and security, he called for members of his family "long unseated from their ancestral thrones" to join him, including a younger brother named Sergei.
Some time after this reunion, the Count himself fell in love with a young Barovian woman, Tatyana, though she rejected his affections in favor of the younger Sergei. Filled with despair and jealousy, and brooding a growing hatred for Sergei, Strahd sought magical means to restore his youth. In a moment of desperate frustration, he "made a pact with death - a pact of blood." On the day of Sergei and Tatyana's wedding, Strahd murdered his brother and pursued the grieving Tatyana until she flung herself from the walls of Ravenloft. Strahd himself was shot down by the arrows of the castle guard. Even so, he did not die, but went on to rule the land of Barovia as a vampire.
_________

I don't have much experience with Ravenloft, as far as I understood it, it's ultra-gothic D&D with 90% night-time, lots of vampires, lots of eastern european influences, where all men and women were bastards and backstabbers. More Fantasy-Horror than High Fantasy like the Forgotten Realms.

Aranneas

Strahd's country is then sucked into the Demiplane of Dread, where he rules as a dark lord and contends with others of similar stature for power and continued existence. He is cursed to relive the events that led up to his death - every few generations, he finds someone who he thinks to be Tatyana's reincarnation, falls in love, and tries to woo her; she rejects him, and history repeats, keeping Strahd trapped in his torment eternally.

The Bhaalspawn saga is fairly gothic in concept (though somewhat less so in execution) and would not feel out of place at all. The problem with setting side stories in the Demiplane of Dread is that while there's all sorts of ways to get caught in the mists (being a planar setting, Ravenloft borders on most worlds, including Faerun), it's much more difficult (impossible for the fast majority of denizens) to ever come out again.

Drugar

Of course, it's possible that the Bhaalspawn and companions go there in Throne of Bhaal, meaning they're at such a power level that they decide whether or not they stay in the Demiplane of Dread, not the Dark Powers.

Aranneas

I would argue that by the time you get to a point that you're on a level with the Dark Powers, the setting has really lost most of its appeal. If you're going to do this it needs to be earlier in the continuity than that.

Corvus_Metus

I'm not sure how I'd feel about a Ravenloft DLC.

On one hand, it is my favorite campaign setting. I'd say roughly 65% of my tabletop campaigns were ran somewhere in the Demiplane of Dread. I'd love to see it get a little bit of love from developers.

On the other hand, I'm not a fan of the "Weekend in Hell" type of story arc. Ravenloft is a fantastic setting in its own right with a lot of great characters (I'd argue the established NPCs are far more interesting than anything in Forgotten Realms) and really deserves its own game.

DukeOfSuffolk

I don't think this would work as a DLC. It could work as a stand alone campaign, but there is no way the Dev Team will get into such a think, imo. Thus we come to the beautiful world of MODS But I do realize that would take a while for someone to build, if at all possible.

karpasz

Most Ravenloft mods-/games are horrible (p&p and pc). I don't see how that will fit into BG:saga either... however, there was a Ravenloft mod released for NwN2 on Nwvault (with overland map) that actually was great..