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Is Ustalav the best location to relocate the 3.5 mega adventure Expedition to Castle Ravenloft on Golarion?
TritonOne wrote: Is Ustalav the best location to relocate the 3.5 mega adventure Expedition to Castle Ravenloft on Golarion? That seems the logical place to me. I intend to run it at some point and that's where I've planned to base it.
Re-cast Count Strahd von Zarovich as Conte Ristomaur Tiriac, re-cast Barovia as Varno, and Castle Ravenloft as Castle Corvischior?
Yes, Ustalav should be the best place.
Maybe Castle Kronquist and Lord Malyas would be even more appropriate than Tiriac? I'm not really familiar with Ravenloft, but wasn't Strahd one of these irredeemable evil guys? Tiriac seeks redemption (although his methods are questionable at best). Malyas on the other hand is just your regular vampiric overlord (who's been described in detail at least twice in different publications), who can easily be reflavored and castle Kronquist has the plus that it has been fleshed out in an entire source book chapter.
F. Wesley Schneider wrote: There were really three places in Ustalav I targeted as potential Castle Ravenloft stand-ins and even though it wasn't the one I guessed, I'm glad this one [Bastardhall] took off (as it easily has my favorite name). :) So what were the other two Wes ?
I take it that the Sczarni in Ustalav are the equivalent of the Vistani in Barovia?
Thanael wrote: F. Wesley Schneider wrote: There were really three places in Ustalav I targeted as potential Castle Ravenloft stand-ins and even though it wasn't the one I guessed, I'm glad this one [Bastardhall] took off (as it easily has my favorite name). :) So what were the other two Wes ? If the castle had been named Corvuschoir, the homage to Ravenloft would have been more recognizable. Corvus is the Latin name for Raven.
Level 1 Commoner wrote: Yes, Ustalav should be the best place.
Maybe Castle Kronquist and Lord Malyas would be even more appropriate than Tiriac? I'm not really familiar with Ravenloft, but wasn't Strahd one of these irredeemable evil guys? Tiriac seeks redemption (although his methods are questionable at best). Malyas on the other hand is just your regular vampiric overlord (who's been described in detail at least twice in different publications), who can easily be reflavored and castle Kronquist has the plus that it has been fleshed out in an entire source book chapter.
What sold me on Conte Ristomaur Tiriac was the entry in Rule of Fear that mentions the loss of his betrothed Iltainya Arsbeta. One of the subplots of Expedition to Castle Ravenloft is that Strahd von Zarovich believes Ireena Kolyna to be the re-incarnation of his lost love Tatyana. Tiriac also has an alignment of Lawful Evil, like Strahd von Zarovich. Lord Malyas did not strike me as the pining type. Conceptually, Strahd reminded me a lot of Count Dracula as a tragic character rather than an irredeemably evil one. Strahd did it all for love.
I would be interested in hearing from Wes which character and location is the closest to Strahd and Castle Ravenloft in Ustalav.
Ok, I didn't know that about Strahd. Tiriac is very fitting then!
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Ah, the commoners seldom know about Strahd's beloved. You should definately check out the Ravenloft campaign setting, if Return to Castle Ravenloft has been your only exposure. There's a whole lot more to Ravenloft than RtCR, starting from the groundbreaking 1E adventure, the huge and glorious 2E campaign setting and last not least the great 3E campaign setting material.
Head over to the Fraternity of Shadows site for a nice forum, bibliography, wiki, and more all dedicated to the grand Ravenloft campaign setting.
TritonOne wrote: Thanael wrote: F. Wesley Schneider wrote: There were really three places in Ustalav I targeted as potential Castle Ravenloft stand-ins and even though it wasn't the one I guessed, I'm glad this one [Bastardhall] took off (as it easily has my favorite name). :) So what were the other two Wes ? If the castle had been named Corvuschoir, the homage to Ravenloft would have been more recognizable. Corvus is the Latin name for Raven. Good catch, it slipped by me. Wes probably just removed a few letters here or there to make it more obscure. Isn't he also the Paizonian fantasy naming expert?
Thanael wrote: Ah, the commoners seldom know about Strahd's beloved. You should definately check out the Ravenloft campaign setting, if Return to Castle Ravenloft has been your only exposure. There's a whole lot more to Ravenloft than RtCR, starting from the groundbreaking 1E adventure, the huge and glorious 2E campaign setting and last not least the great 3E campaign setting material.
Head over to the Fraternity of Shadows site for a nice forum, bibliography, wiki, and more all dedicated to the grand Ravenloft campaign setting.
Nice website.
I wonder if Ustalav could be used as a replacement for the Demiplane of Dread. The Sczarni seem to be Golarion's equivalent of the Vistani in Ustalav. I found this Reply by Beckett in another topic:
Beckett wrote: I'm not sure I see the Ustalav = high fantasy? I might even say it is lower magic, as it is more superstitious than most other settings (while Ravenloft can literally be anything).
MistFinder PDF
Mistfinder Thread
Another One
Anyone have experience with MistFinder?
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Perhaps it's better to move adventures like The Created to another campaign setting rather than trying to make them work in Cheliax or Ustalav. I keep reading how the Demiplane of Dread is a "low magic" setting. Or does an accessory like [i]Carnival[/] make sense if the events occurred someplace on Golarion?
You don't really have to go low magic with Ravenloft and imho it never was a low magic setting. It just appears to be, i.e magic is less flashy/cartoony but it's still all there. Imho you Ravenloft is Gothic Horror plus D&D, i.e. embracing all the trappings of D&D just casting them a bit more darkly. See also John Mangrum's Ravenloft design manifesto here and/or Ryan Naylor's description of the concept called the Semblance of Reason.
Mistfinder is a great conversion of Ravenloft to Pathfinder. Ravenloft author Ryan Naylor has done another slightly different conversion in this thread, soon to be published as a free pdf.
For a conversion of the Carnival NPCs check out this excellent thread.
As for using Ustalav as a Ravenloft stand-in, one problem is of course the domains and darklords who are shackled to them. On the FoS there has been discussion about making a less artificial Ravenloft world by dropping the domain borders, i think it's called Ultimate Ravenloft.
You can of course port over stuff from either Ravenloft to Ustalav or vice versa quite easily, but I would still let each be it's own. For example it's easy to run the Ustalav AP in Ravenloft.
- Thanael aka the giamarga on the FoS boards...
TritonOne wrote:
Nice website.
Check out the netbooks, and come join the messageboard forums there.
The FoS is the spiritual successor of the old "official Ravenloft fansite" Kargatane.com from which the 3E Ravenloft authors emerged.
Thanael wrote: You don't really have to go low magic with Ravenloft and imho it never was a low magic setting. It just appears to be, i.e magic is less flashy/cartoony but it's still all there. Imho you Ravenloft is Gothic Horror plus D&D, i.e. embracing all the trappings of D&D just casting them a bit more darkly. See also John Mangrum's Ravenloft design manifesto here and/or Ryan Naylor's description of the concept called the Semblance of Reason.
Mistfinder is a great conversion of Ravenloft to Pathfinder. Ravenloft author Ryan Naylor has done another slightly different conversion in this thread, soon to be published as a free pdf.
For a conversion of the Carnival NPCs check out this excellent thread.
As for using Ustalav as a Ravenloft stand-in, one problem is of course the domains and darklords who are shackled to them. On the FoS there has been discussion about making a less artificial Ravenloft world by dropping the domain borders, i think it's called Ultimate Ravenloft.
You can of course port over stuff from either Ravenloft to Ustalav or vice versa quite easily, but I would still let each be it's own. For example it's easy to run the Ustalav AP in Ravenloft.
- Thanael aka the giamarga on the FoS boards...
Thank you, Thaneal.
I wonder if Tar-Baphon or the Heirs of the Whispering Tyrant could be added as Darklords who drew the attention of the Dark Powers? That could create a connection between Ustalav and the Demiplane of Dread.
Quote: You don't really have to go low magic with Ravenloft and imho it never was a low magic setting. Some areas are actually low magic, a few are high magic (elven kingdom).
It depends on each domain and who owns the place.
The same goes for technology, some are advanced, some are still stonecutting.
Quote: Anyone have experience with MistFinder? Yes, and i suggest you get your hands on ravenloft 3.0 for much better ideas, some of which are also within mistfinder's pdf.
Elven Kingdom ? There's no such thing in Ravenloft... And while the 3E (3.0 and 3.5 btw) Ravenloft material is really great stuff setting wise, rules wise some of it was hit and miss.
Mind you I'm a great fan of it but I would be torn to play in 3.5 (incorporating WotC stuff of course) or running a PF conversion where i to GM a Rvaenloft campaign.
The Pathfinder conversions are excellent ways to run Ravenloft imho. Though you do need the setting info and older books to understand the tone and peculiarities of the setting.
Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Thanael wrote:
As for using Ustalav as a Ravenloft stand-in, one problem is of course the domains and darklords who are shackled to them. On the FoS there has been discussion about making a less artificial Ravenloft world by dropping the domain borders, i think it's called Ultimate Ravenloft.
I think the OP is referring to Ravenloft as it was originally made, the castle/dungeon, not the demi-plane by the same name that was created later.
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