Talk:Ravenloft

message: Arthaus is not a sub-imprint of White Wolf, they are an independent company with close family ties to White Wolf.
Avador 17:33, 14 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Arthaus

message: Please, do not confuse Gothic (especially Gothic novels) with Goth. Goth is a modern subculture, which Ravenloft is not based on. Ravenloft is based on Gothic novels. Kel-nage 22:27, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Gothic and Goth

message: I'm wondering if this section of the article should be included at all, or at least trimmed down. For an encyclopedic entry, there is more space devoted to speculative info than there is on actual facts.Bluebomber4evr 19:38, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dark Powers speculation section? 

message: Are reviews of Ravenloft products from websites such as RPGnet suitable as third-party sources?--Bluebomber4evr 00:08, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: What editorial control is exercised? If anyone can post, no. --Pak21 08:45, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reviews of products? 

message: The See Also section has a link to a nonexistent Van Ricten page. Did there used to be a page for this? It's strange that it's in a link section but it doesn't exist. Is the link broken or something? Valacan (talk) 19:53, 2 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rudolph van Richten link 

message: should the latest D&D insider article "Domains of Dread", which resurrects aspects ravenloft in the shadowfell,  be mentioned here? Domains of Dread looks to be the start of a recurring column (not necessarily monthly) that will detail different domains and their "dark lord", a clearly Ravenloft concept.  Serphet (talk) 17:22, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  D&D insider 

message: Should this be merged with Ravenloft (Dungeons and Dragons Module) Tanderson11 (talk) 20:41, 31 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm going to go with... no. ;) The original module and the setting are clearly related, but fairly independent. BOZ (talk) 21:24, 31 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed with BOZ; they are distinct parts of D&D and should, at least at this time, have their own articles. -Drilnoth (talk) 23:40, 31 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Merge

message: This section was removed from the article for being unreferenced. I think we really do need something on the development of the setting and its characters, but I agree that we need sourced information. Perhaps some of this could be reintroduced if it can be linked to a reliable source.
Ravenloft (RL) is noted for its use of analogues of fictional characters from Gothic and horror literature and, rarely, historical figures.  Examples include Count Strahd von Zarovich and Vlad Drakov, who is analogous to Bram Stoker's character Count Dracula and his historical inspiration, Vlad Ţepeş, respectively; Doctor Victor Mordenheim and his creation, Adam, analogous to Mary Shelley's characters Doctor Frankenstein and his Creature; heroic Dr. Rudolph van Richten is analogous to Abraham Van Helsing; and Frantisek Markov, an analogue of H.G. Wells' character Doctor Moreau.  The Vistani are a horror-film-inspired stereotypical representation of Gypsies. The Vistani often have fortune-telling powers, often using the Tarokka, a fantasy version of the divinatory tarot.
Other notable mirror images in Ravenloft included Sir Tristen Hiregaard and his alter ego Malken, who are also directly inspired from the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story (written by Robert Louis Stevenson); a lesser known Darklord by the name of Maligno (a puppet that comes to life) who is an obvious darkly twisted version of the Carlo Collodi's "Pinocchio" story; an antagonist character named the Midnight Slasher, who is based on Jack The Ripper; and the three hags who are closely related to the three witches in William Shakespeare's Macbeth and to other mythological female trios that predate the play.
In addition to borrowing from the world of literary horror, Ravenloft incorporated characters and features from existing Dungeons & Dragons settings.  Lord Soth, a villain from the Dragonlance setting, appeared as a darklord in Ravenloft, as did the Greyhawk lich-god Vecna and his traitorous former lieutenant, the vampire Kas. The Lost King Gondegal, from the Forgotten Realms setting, also appeared, though not as a darklord. These are examples of characters already well-established in their respective origin campaign settings. Some Ravenloft characters were given backstories saying they hailed from existing campaign settings, although in some cases the original settings have no record of them. The lich Azalin Rex was retroactively attached to Greyhawk, for example.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.153.84.10 (talk) 19:22, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The Original Realm of Terror boxed set, explains pretty explicitly the sources of inspiration. Both providing a reading list and describing the Gothic Tradition the designers believed Ravenloft to be a part of. In terms of Victor Mordenheim being an analogue of Dr. Frankenstein or Strahd being a Dracula analogue, it seems pretty obvious on the face of it. And surely its been mentioned in an interview somewhere with one of the Ravenloft design team members. BlennGeck (talk) 21:01, 15 February 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree that the game materials themselves ideally explicitly identify what existing material served as inspiration. However, I think it's a bit too much original research to take a list of sources of inspiration and start mapping the list onto the characters without clearly defined statements. For me, "it's obvious" is a poor argument for why more clear sourcing isn't needed. In other words, if they say "Mordenheim is based on Frankenstein," all well and good, but I think simply using Frankenstein being listed as a source to claim that Mordenheim is based upon him would not really be appropriate. Not sure I'm expressing myself well, but hope I'm getting my meaning across. Doniago (talk) 21:18, 15 February 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I think I get what you're saying, but it's all pretty simple really - we need to go by what the sources say, and not try to guess (even if the answer seems obvious). 129.33.19.254 (talk) 21:24, 15 February 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Exactly. Thanks! Doniago (talk) 21:29, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

text: Sounds good - anything solid from Ravenloft: Realm of Terror should be nice. 129.33.19.254 (talk) 22:29, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

text: Well, if we get a source to confirm that, we will be all good. 24.12.74.21 (talk) 03:31, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Inspirations 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
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*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20060723064753/http://download.white-wolf.com:80/download/download.php?file_id=410 to http://download.white-wolf.com/download/download.php?file_id=410
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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Would it be worth mentioning that Fraternity of Shadows with its occasional dark red, dark blue, and brown text on a black ground is effectively unreadable?--216.218.97.10 (talk) 04:23, 2 July 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: In my opinion such a mention would only have a place here if it was supported by a secondary source, not as an observation by us as editors only. I see that we have used Fraternity of Shadows as a source only once. That page with its (normal?) red on black personally seems ok to read to me. Daranios (talk) 07:23, 2 July 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Worth mentioning?