Sunday, April 10, 2016

Alternate Ravenlofts

Friday, Jack Shear brought to my attention an idea Kreg Mosier proposed of a Southern Gothic Ravenloft. Which is a great idea. It also got me to thinking about other settings where Ravenloft could be repurposed:


Planet of Vampires
A commercial cargo-hauler spacecraft responds to a call from the Demeter from a nearby planetoid, and finds an planet shrouded in eerie mists. The Demeter's crew have undergone a frightening transformation into the undead. At the center of all this strangeness is a weirdly earth-like castle and its master.
Inspirations: Planet of Vampires, Alien, and the Star Trek episode "Catspaw."

The Creepy Castle
Teenagers returning from Spring Break have their car break down in an eerie fog somewhere in Appalachia. Going the the forbidding European-style castle for help seems like a good idea...
Inspirations: any number of horror films including Texas Chainsaw Massacre; Scooby Doo, and for more of a tripped out euro-feel, things like Nuda per Satana and Requiem pour un Vampire.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

For Planet of Vampires inspiration you can also add the Dr Who story "State of Decay", an story that remains one of my favorites.

sonsoftaurus said...

For the Creepy Castle, plenty of old ski or hunting lodges that might fit the bill, and Adirondacks or Rockies could work as well as the Appalachians. Count von Vaudeville could be a terror on many levels.

Dan said...

Fun stuff! I'm reading Curse of Strahd now and loving it, probably the best 5E module so far, for lots of reasons (not perfect, but very good). I'm wondering whether to incorporate it into my nascent Old West/Horror campaign (Weird Adventures is also an influence on that by the way).

Here's some more Ravenlofts:

- 1960's spy adventure. Strahd as Bond Villain. Castle Ravenloft is inside a volcano.

- Creepy Renaissance Venice (see 'Don't Look Now'). Strahd as Borgia.

- Redwall/Deptford Mice/Mouseguard/anthropomorphic small animal world. Strahd as actual vampire bat, actual wolf or maybe something weirder like chupacabras.

- World War 2 secret mission (shades of Wolfenstein). Strahd as Himmler. (yes I know about Falkovna - this would be more alternate history).

- X-files style FBI paranormal investigations and conspiracies. Strahd as senator who has made a deal with aliens in return for vampiric alien powers.

OK I should stop now, even though I don't want to. Too much fun.

John Q said...

Interesting, thanks for sharing. I'd had similar thoughts about placing Ravenloft in a Manly Wade Wellman inspired setting.

Trey said...

Excellent suggests, guys!

Boris Von Spider said...

You forgot a source for creepy castle - The Rocky Horror Picture Show