Hi all, I’m looking to post a concept to gauge potential interest in this sort of game. Ideally I’d like to run an application progress for this, but it is entirely dependent on the level of interest I have. Have a look over and if there is enough interest I’ll take this one further.
Ultimately I’m looking for five characters to accompany one of my own.
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow,
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess,
For you know only a heap of broken images,
Where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water,
Only there is shadow under this red rock,
Come in under the shadow of this red rock,
And I will show you something different from either,
Your shadow at morning, striding behind you,
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you,
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
--TS Eliot, the Wasteland
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
In the demiplane of dread, the land of G'Henna is a broken wasteland. Ruled over by High Priest Yagno Petrovna, it is a land that cries out for change. In the city, famine and disease spread. Those who are not of the priesthood, or within Yagno's inner circle waste away, slowly dying of starvation. Illness runs through the city streets like wildfire, claiming countless hundreds of lives. And while the High Priest of Zhakata and his associates live easy and comfortable lives, around them they sit uncaring as their subjects die.
None dare to speak out against their ruler, as whilst Yagno rules the land itself, his fearsome Inquisition rules the shadows. And as people are taken off the streets for crimes both real and perceived, the populace are cowed into submission by the threat of death....or worse. The High Priest deliberately starves his people in the name of his God, Zhakata the Devourer.
Outside the city, things are no better. The land itself is twisted and shattered. The badlands are a hellish mockery of the land that G'Henna once was before Yagno's descent into madness. A wind echoes through the broken outlands....a swirling wind that contains within it a mournful cry. It is a cry of regret, for the land itself recognises that it is slowly dying. The wind brings no relief from the terrible heat. Instead, it carries with it swirling storms of dust. Worse than that, with the wind come the harbingers of death.
Twisted misshapen monstrosities, silhouettes against the fading sun howl their lament. They see, just as the land itself does that this -- this is the end of all things.
Little do the beaten and cowed people of G'Henna realise though that change is coming. Deep inside the darkest bowels of the city, a small flame of rebellion flickers. A group of conspirators have taken things into their own hands. It is time, they say, to depose the High Priest and enforce change. They believe that there is another aspect of the God, Zhakata the Provider, and that with Yagno's death, he will come and the land will be saved.
G'Henna is a land calling out for change and the people will soon see change, whether they like it or not.
Into this demonic cauldron you come, pursuing a loved one lost inside this dreadful realm. Chasing shadows and fragmented dreams and memories, you soon find yourself in a situation beyond your comprehension and abilities to cope with. This is not just a fight against a terrible evil, it is a battle against the land itself that would strip you of all that you are. As you watch innocents die of starvation around you, even as you decide whether or not to hold onto your own dwindling supplies of food and water, there is one question that you will come to ask.
Which is the greater evil -- the one that you can see, or the one that lurks within the shadows waiting to strike?
About the Game:
This is a game set within the D&D Setting of Ravenloft, the Demiplane of Dread, although knowledge of that setting is not required for this - in fact the less you know about what is to come the better it will be.
You will not start the game in the Demiplane, however soon after the onset of the game you will enter the realm in search of someone whom you care for very deeply. I will warn you in advance, this game will deal with some mature themes. If you like your games to be traditional heroic fantasy with happy endings, this is likely not the game for you.
Here in Ravenloft there are no guarantees of you making it out alive, and there are certainly no guarantees of happy endings. Death is the only constant that you will know -- and if that atmosphere of dread and defeat that should be present in a Ravenloft game are not present then I am failing in my duty as the Storyteller of this game.
What I can guarantee is whatever happens, the game will stay with you for a long, long time .
As the introduction above might provide an indication, you will be forced to make some terrible, terrible moral decisions through the course of the game. Whilst your own food and water supplies dwindle low, and there is every chance of starvation, do you give some of what you have over to a starving peasant family, knowing what you give them may only delay the end temporarily, or do you hold back, knowing that they will not survive the night? These are the sorts of questions that I will pose to you throughout the game.
There are no right or wrong answers in this game -- there is no black and white. The question I ultimately ask of you is this -- will you do what is necessary to survive long enough to free the land from the circle of darkness that it is trapped inside, no matter the cost?
What I am looking for are strong role-players and storytellers who will thrive in a situation like this. If you, using an example, as clerics and paladins of a god of light, fall during the course of the adventure because of your own morally grey actions, can you role-play this? That is the sort of player I am looking for here.
Ultimately I’m looking for five characters to accompany one of my own.
***
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow,
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess,
For you know only a heap of broken images,
Where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water,
Only there is shadow under this red rock,
Come in under the shadow of this red rock,
And I will show you something different from either,
Your shadow at morning, striding behind you,
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you,
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
--TS Eliot, the Wasteland
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
In the demiplane of dread, the land of G'Henna is a broken wasteland. Ruled over by High Priest Yagno Petrovna, it is a land that cries out for change. In the city, famine and disease spread. Those who are not of the priesthood, or within Yagno's inner circle waste away, slowly dying of starvation. Illness runs through the city streets like wildfire, claiming countless hundreds of lives. And while the High Priest of Zhakata and his associates live easy and comfortable lives, around them they sit uncaring as their subjects die.
None dare to speak out against their ruler, as whilst Yagno rules the land itself, his fearsome Inquisition rules the shadows. And as people are taken off the streets for crimes both real and perceived, the populace are cowed into submission by the threat of death....or worse. The High Priest deliberately starves his people in the name of his God, Zhakata the Devourer.
Outside the city, things are no better. The land itself is twisted and shattered. The badlands are a hellish mockery of the land that G'Henna once was before Yagno's descent into madness. A wind echoes through the broken outlands....a swirling wind that contains within it a mournful cry. It is a cry of regret, for the land itself recognises that it is slowly dying. The wind brings no relief from the terrible heat. Instead, it carries with it swirling storms of dust. Worse than that, with the wind come the harbingers of death.
Twisted misshapen monstrosities, silhouettes against the fading sun howl their lament. They see, just as the land itself does that this -- this is the end of all things.
Little do the beaten and cowed people of G'Henna realise though that change is coming. Deep inside the darkest bowels of the city, a small flame of rebellion flickers. A group of conspirators have taken things into their own hands. It is time, they say, to depose the High Priest and enforce change. They believe that there is another aspect of the God, Zhakata the Provider, and that with Yagno's death, he will come and the land will be saved.
G'Henna is a land calling out for change and the people will soon see change, whether they like it or not.
Into this demonic cauldron you come, pursuing a loved one lost inside this dreadful realm. Chasing shadows and fragmented dreams and memories, you soon find yourself in a situation beyond your comprehension and abilities to cope with. This is not just a fight against a terrible evil, it is a battle against the land itself that would strip you of all that you are. As you watch innocents die of starvation around you, even as you decide whether or not to hold onto your own dwindling supplies of food and water, there is one question that you will come to ask.
Which is the greater evil -- the one that you can see, or the one that lurks within the shadows waiting to strike?
***
About the Game:
This is a game set within the D&D Setting of Ravenloft, the Demiplane of Dread, although knowledge of that setting is not required for this - in fact the less you know about what is to come the better it will be.
You will not start the game in the Demiplane, however soon after the onset of the game you will enter the realm in search of someone whom you care for very deeply. I will warn you in advance, this game will deal with some mature themes. If you like your games to be traditional heroic fantasy with happy endings, this is likely not the game for you.
Here in Ravenloft there are no guarantees of you making it out alive, and there are certainly no guarantees of happy endings. Death is the only constant that you will know -- and if that atmosphere of dread and defeat that should be present in a Ravenloft game are not present then I am failing in my duty as the Storyteller of this game.
What I can guarantee is whatever happens, the game will stay with you for a long, long time .
As the introduction above might provide an indication, you will be forced to make some terrible, terrible moral decisions through the course of the game. Whilst your own food and water supplies dwindle low, and there is every chance of starvation, do you give some of what you have over to a starving peasant family, knowing what you give them may only delay the end temporarily, or do you hold back, knowing that they will not survive the night? These are the sorts of questions that I will pose to you throughout the game.
There are no right or wrong answers in this game -- there is no black and white. The question I ultimately ask of you is this -- will you do what is necessary to survive long enough to free the land from the circle of darkness that it is trapped inside, no matter the cost?
What I am looking for are strong role-players and storytellers who will thrive in a situation like this. If you, using an example, as clerics and paladins of a god of light, fall during the course of the adventure because of your own morally grey actions, can you role-play this? That is the sort of player I am looking for here.
