Ravenloft

course, but also be, you know, there you go.

Um, but also because, uh, the reality is, is that horror is just like a classic part of RPGs, right? Um, whether as part of a one shot or the whole world, right? Whether it's just like some individual adventure that has a tonal shift, that's very spooky or, um, the you know you've got like a whole world like Ravenloft or something right the reality is is that or even the whole game dedicated to horror as a concept okay so like Rifts Beyond the Supernatural Call of Cthulhu both of which are like sort of cosmic type of horror you've got Vasen I don't know how you say it V-A-E-S-E-N it's from our friends at Free League it's a really cool looking game I do want to talk about it at some point in the future on here um It's just a beautiful, like, kind of dark, more like a dark fantasy kind of story.

Think, like, northern Germanic Viking type of horror type of thing, right? Yeah.

You got Morkborg, one of the, like, most creative and amazingly, like, visual design games in history that is also, like, one of the most deadly games ever made.

Yeah, I

think that there's a lot of different, like, historical representation of this.

There are games that we have either played in a certain realm in Dungeons & Dragons, Ravenloft, obviously, in one of the domains of Dread, or getting knee-deep into a game that is solely entrenched in what I call Cthulhu, that horror has been a part of tabletop RPGs for the longest of times but vince i don't know about you but i think that horror ttrpgs more often than not fall flat and it has nothing to do with the game system is nothing to do with the you know which version you're playing It's just a totally different animal in a totally different way of presenting and storytelling and a different level of weight on the game master.

100% agreed.

Andrus Duval is a bird from Ravenloft, and he became one of its stranger undead.

He was born in the domain of Darkon some 150 years ago or so, to an elven mother and a human father, in the community of Sidnar, south of Lake Khorst.

His parents' status was great enough that the community accepted him, and he was a sweet enough child that the elves cherished him.

For the next week, Andrus was both a prisoner and a guest inside Castle Avarice.

A Xaelin ordered him to tell stories and sing songs, and that lightened the dark mood of this domain's master.

In return, the Lich told him the story of his life and his years here in Ravenloft.

Duval got the sense that he found it almost a relief to tell someone his morbid story.

Duval was fascinated by Azalin's life, death, and un-life.

Absolutely.

Ravenloft setting,

the best.

Just the

I was always a Dark Sun guy myself, for us olds.

I used to play in second edition AD&D.

But no, Ravenloft.

Some of my favorite novels, too.

Michael Whelan in particular had a really nice one in black and white for some Lovecraft volume or another.

And they actually pop up in the most recent Dungeons & Dragons Ravenloft supplement as well as a monster that your characters can encounter.

We already mentioned Miyazaki, so I guess we should mention the character No-Face, who pops up in Spirited Away from 2001, a movie that we've discussed on Weird House Cinema.

This is a great character in this movie, but despite the fact that it's called No-Face, this is not a No Parabo.

The Midgard campaign guide from Kobold Press is 466 pages long.

Ravenloft, The Horrors Within, I think is something like 260 to 280 pages long.

These are chonky books.

So how do you become familiar with a new setting, pick a starting location, and use that setting as soon as possible? Go crew.

I literally gave myself a panic attack because I was just running a one-on-one game with my wife, Megan.

And I was running Curse of Strahd and I was so afraid I would get something wrong.

And I grew up with Ravenloft, like the original module.

And it made me not great at running a game to be so hyper focused on the text and getting every little bit right.