A Change of Scenery - GM Log
How do I start this GM Log? I’ve decided to just put down my thoughts in a simple manner. The podcast is a polished object that I spend a lot of time on, making sure it sounds just so. This space here will be more rugged. I’ll write about things as they come up in the podcast. Sometimes it’ll be pell-mell, other times it will be more organized. I don’t have a specific form in mind for this space but I do have a few goals in mind:
The log is there to give you information about the setting we are glossing over. The players already know a few things about Ravenloft but you might not. As we progress, I’ll fill you in about the particularities of this world.
If this isn’t the first actual play podcast you’ve listened to, you know each GM likes to do things their own way. We play with our own share of homebrew rules. Some are quite simple but others, like the sanity rules, are more complex. When a house rule has been used during an episode, I’ll explain them to you in the log. Perhaps you’ll want to give them a try at your own table.
And finally I want to share with you some of my finds like maps, illustrations and other resources. Anything I find and I think is pertinent I will share here with you.
Enough with the chitchat, let’s see what was in the first episode.
The vampire Strahd Von Zarovich by the Studio Conceptopolis LLC.
SETTING
RAVENLOFT
I don’t want to give too much away by explaining Ravenloft and how it works as a setting. The less you know the better in fact! You will discover at the same pace as the characters. But I’ll still give you some basic information.
Just as Faerun is a setting of medieval fantasy within the official world of Dungeons & Dragons, or Spelljammer is one set in space, Ravenloft is also an official world within D&D but it’s one of Gothic horror. You can see the setting as tint the story is going to take. In our case it’s dark and gloomy.
Picture a hive and inside, a honeycomb. Ravenloft is a contained environment like the hive. Assume nothing can go inside or outside the hive. Then, each cell of the comb is an independent world, a domain. Again, passage from one cell to another is assumed impossible. Instead of being made of wax, what separates each domain is The Mists. Going inside the Mists is a sure way to die. People who walk in are rarely seen again. Inhabitants of the domains know they are dangerous and keep away.
One aspect of Ravenloft is very important for it to make sense as a universe. It’s something D&D has very appropriately called nightmare logic: “Ravenloft is a setting designed to cultivate uncertainty, mystery, paranoia, and dread in defiance of common sense. The characters (…)might be the first to enquire after obvious inconsistencies or plain impossibilities." Just like in movies, we have to suspend our disbelief to appreciate a world like Ravenloft.
BAROVIA
Our story starts in the most famous domain of all: Barovia. It is home to the vampire lord Strahd von Zarovich. In style and genre, it’s fair to say it’s inspired by Dracula’s Transylvania. It’s quite small. In its current iteration, it’s a valley nestled between two mountain ranges and you can trek from one gate to another in one day. If you survive the multitude of dangers on your way, that is. It’s a very bleak place to call home. Strahd terrorizes Barovians with sadistic pleasure, and no one can do anything about it. Until…
In most D&D games set in Ravenloft, the characters are outsiders. Similarly to the adventure Curse of Strahd, the Mists have spirited away the adventurers to a domain and they find themselves trapped in this horrible new place. I wanted something different for this new story. As you’ve heard in the podcast, the characters are Barovians. They are already familiar, to a certain extent, with the reality of Ravenloft. There’s just a spin to it. I’m starting my story where Curse of Strahd ends. Heroes have slain the evil vampire, but there isn’t a victorious dawn. No, instead we have whatever the Mists did.
THE MISTS
I won’t say much more than I already did on the Mists. I’m sure you understand by now they are dangerous and mysterious. Part of the story will be to discover their secrets so to reveal anything more would spoil the fun.
THE GODS
The traditional gods of D&D are not present in Ravenloft and whenever outsiders end up in the domains, their connection to the divine is tenuous at best. In Barovia, there is Father Light and Mother Night to whom some people still pray to. They are very primitive deities, one representing life, the sun and Good the other death, the night and secrecy but not necessarily evil. There is, however, much debate whether these deities have forsaken the people of Barovia since the Devil Strahd rules unchallenged.
VISTANI
To each rule, an exception. There are a people called the Vistani, singular Vistana, who can travel the Mists unharmed. They are nomadic people, living in their vardos and trading wherever they go. In style and habits, they were inspired by Romani people.
In a place like Barovia where there is next to no arable land and no sunshine, the Vistani are absolutely necessary for the survival of the population. Each caravan brings grains and other staple food for the whole valley. The majority of Barovians resent the Vistani for their freedom and, this feeling of indebtedness they have in their dealings with them. This does not bother the Vistani too much. They are a very secretive people. They’ll happily trade with you, but you will never feel welcome to extend your stay. Vistani camps are present in every domain and we’ll encounter them again.
MECHANICS
CHANGING A FAILURE INTO A SUCCESS
If you have a keen ear, you might have heard me ask players: “How are you changing this failure into a success?” and wondered what I was going on about. If you follow rules as written in D&D, when the GM asks you to roll a die for an ability check, if you fail, you face the consequences. After a while, you might get to try again.
It’s after playing other role-playing games that I’ve started rethinking some of the ways I’ve been letting the dice decide the story in D&D. There is nothing wrong with that, it is a core feature of the game after all. However, for a group like ours that is very story-driven, sometimes I find it nice to let a player take charge of the story for a moment and overlook their bad roll. If they are willing to give up something for a success and it makes for a good story? I’ll always consider it.
FORTUNE POINTS
Continuing with the idea of letting the players tell the story they want, I offered them what we’ve come to call Fortune Points. The concept is very simple: at each level, they start with a bank of points. At level 3, when we start the podcast, they have 40 Fortune Points. Anytime a player rolls a d20, they can spend some Fortune Points and add them to their roll. There is no restriction on the number of points they can spend in one go. It’s entirely up to them to decide what to do with them.
We’ve been playing with them for a year so far and I think they work great. They are there to make sure the players don’t get too frustrated when the dice just aren’t cooperating but also really underline certain moments of tension when they aren’t too sure about the difficulty of something they’re attempting. Because they have this new tool in their box that let’s them correct some mistakes, they are more daring and sometimes really think outside the box too.
WHAT IS A LOW SUCCESS?
You might have noticed a couple of times the players saying stuff like “Aim for a low success.” Sometimes you’ll have someone who will spend one or two Fortune Points to make it to 10 but not more, What does that mean? Do they know the Difficulty Class (DC)? No, they don’t, but that’s because I’ve decided to apply DC differently for ability checks compared to saving throws. Since it is not possible to have a critical failure on an ability check, we can be more flexible for what we consider a success.
The more I’ve GMed (and played), the more I’ve realized that giving nothing to your players serves no one. I am not saying to make it easy. On the contrary, you’ll rapidly see that Uncreated is a difficult game. What I mean is instead of giving nothing for a “failed” ability check, give a little something. Make a scale of varying degrees of success. I find extremely annoying situations like failed Perception checks and the GM’s answer is: “You don’t see anything.” It’s false, you’re always perceiving something. If you’re actively looking, you are perceiving. I know I’m being literal here when the GM likely meant, “You don’t find anything more helpful in your current situation.” But when you don’t give anything more than a negative, more often than not, the game stalls. If a player’s looking for information and they get a 12 on their check give some information, if they get a 17 give them a lot more. If one rolls survival to find their way through a dense forest both 12 and 17 are a success but the difference is how long it takes to arrive to the desired destination. Adventuring does not only consist of impossible feats.
When a player is actively interacting with what you’ve put in front of them, interact back. That’s where varying degrees of success is extremely useful. Instead of relying on a number on a die, rely on your players to pursue the story. The little bit you’ve given to someone will keep the ball rolling and for the love of gaming, don’t make your players roll for everything they want to do. If a regular person could do it, they can too.
Myriam