Mithril: City of the Golem A D20 System supplement from Sword and Sorcery Studios Rating: (4 out of 5 hearts) by Jean-Michel

The third edition version of the classic D&D setting "Ravenloft" has been published by Arthaus, a division of White Wolf, the publishers of "Vampire: The Masquerade" and "Werewolf: The Apocalypse", under the Sword and Sorcery banner.

For the newcomers: Ravenloft is a Gothic horror setting, a world ruled by Dark, unfathomable forces. A strange, omnipresent, supernatural mist keeps this demiplane enfolded in isolation from the rest of the multiverse. Night in Ravenloft is dangerous; many dreadful creatures roam the shrouded darkness. Fear and madness are lurking just beyond the corner of your sight.

This book details the world of Ravenloft, its geography, cultures, peoples and ways. It is a book that players can read without glimpsing any of the secrets of Ravenloft. The Darklords are going to be described in a subsequent publication. The story picks up where previous publications left off, in the year 755 of the Barovian calendar, with Azalin restored to power.

The third edition version of Ravenloft follows the same opening format as the previous one, with an introduction to the Gothic genre. It is followed with an overview of the particularities of the realm. We are told at the beginning that this edition of Ravenloft is intended to be a home world rather than a "weekend in hell" event; no way out of Ravenloft is discussed. The only other plane that can be accessed from Ravenloft is the densely populated (with ghosts) Near Ethereal. Because of that, the setting has been made more cohesive. That statement is clearly proven to be true throughout the book.

One big difference as noted previously is the absence of almost any information about the "enemy". Nothing is said about the nature of the rulers of the domains. The admitted purpose of this is to keep that information from the players. With that fact we appreciate the real difference in style that the people at White Wolf are introducing. If the players don't know what's around, it is easier to scare them. Another difference is the emphasis on the people and the land itself; each domain's landscape is vividly described and the people abiding there and their way of life are extensively detailed. This new attitude towards the Ravenloft setting is best expressed thus: the average people are unaffected by the underlying horror of their world, and are unaware of it. It is the contrast between the relative normality of daily life in Ravenloft and horror revealed by adventurers' prodding that generates the Gothic atmosphere, providing the heroes with a motivation to recover normality, maybe by fighting the darkness. In other words, the contrast amplifies both the normality and the horror. A quote from the authors is appropriate here: "Ravenloft is a beautiful land… (it) is a land worth living in. It is a land worth fighting for. Don't surrender it to the night.".

A five page long historical recapitulation of Ravenloft is followed with a Timeline table, a geographical description of the realm comes after, a description of the cultural levels of the different regions is given and a lexicon concludes the first chapter. The cultural levels (CL) are numbered from zero to nine, with CL0 being savage, CL1 being Stone Age, CL8 being Chivalric and CL9 being Renaissance. The renaissance level cultures have access to clockwork mechanical devices and gunpowder. The concept of Outcast Rating is introduced to reflect the xenophobic attitude of Ravenloft's denizens.

The second chapter describes the characters of Ravenloft. Each character race is given some space and their position in Ravenloft is expended on. Two new races are introduced, the Calibans replace half-orcs and the half-Vistani see the light of day. Each character class' role is defined in terms of Ravenloft's society, and each class is altered in accordance to the laws of the land. For example, no power can detect evil in Ravenloft, so paladins don't have that power. Because the Ravenloft's connection to the Negative Energy Plane is strong, it is harder for clerics to turn undead and easier to create them. Guidelines are provided for evil bards to scare their audience with tales of Death and Madness, forcing the audience to make a Fear check. The section on skills is mostly of the "same skills, new uses" type. Most of the new feats concern improving a character's chances to succeed at Fear, Horror and Madness checks as well as facilitating a character's relation with the Near Ethereal. A big section describes the religions of Ravenloft's peoples. The section on equipment details gunpowder related weapons and items made available through renaissance level technology, such as pocket watches and printed books. A very sophisticated thirteen questions exercise through which a player should put him or herself to generate a powerful personality for a character tops this chapter.

The next chapter describes in third edition terms this setting's particular tendency to send characters down the path of madness. Fear saves are an important part of the play in this setting, and Fear's effects last a few rounds. Fear can be provoked by immediate physical threats and dangers. Horror is the unexpected encounter with unusual and gruesome sights or events. Examples of this are signs of violence such as a pool of blood or a freshly slain corpse. So is the sudden realisation that the friendly, warm hearted sage that you have been confiding to for the past years and whose advice you have been seeking against your enemies is in fact your enemies' servant. While the minor effects of a failed Horror save can be shaken off after a few rounds, badly failing a Horror save can have powerful, even lethal repercussions. Failing a madness save always has lasting repercussions that need healing. Madness checks are rare. A lot of modifiers come into play for any of those saves.

Another familiar facet of the Ravenloft setting is the use of curses, and seven pages are devoted to design and application of curses. Anybody can lay a curse on someone else or even themselves. These are called Curses of Vengeance. In this edition a character has to make a curse check to lay a Curse of Vengeance, and the DC depends on how justified the person who invokes the curse thinks him or herself to be and the severity of the curse. There is now no permanent way to lift a Curse in Ravenloft, including remove curse. Laying a curse requires a Powers Check. A Powers Check is necessitated by any evil act, by casting evil spells or most necromantic spells. What happens is that the Dark Powers of Ravenloft notice a character's evil act and respond to it by granting that character a special power as well as afflicting him or her with a curse. Six failed Powers Checks make one a Darklord of Ravenloft. The last part of this chapter deals with the way magic is affected by Ravenloft. For example, Divination is untrustworthy. There is no way to leave, so any called extraplanar being is trapped in Ravenloft. Many spells and magic items are singled out for further precision, as was the case in the old edition.

The chapter detailing Ravenloft's geography and demography is of much greater extensiveness than in the precedent edition. Domains link themselves in Clusters, of which the Core is the biggest. Domains not sharing a link to any other domain are Islands of Terror. Each domain is well detailed and accompanied by a small map. Many different climate types are included, from icy wastes to wind blown deserts to tropical forests. Many of Ravenloft's cultures are inspired from our own world, and we find ancient Egyptian, Indian and Japanese types of cultures as well as European.

The fifth chapter gives information on the Ravenloft undead, the lycanthropes, various monsters and on the mysterious Vistani gypsies. Vampires are given more powers as they age. Ghosts are divided into five ranks of ethereal power. Liches have special powers according to their intelligence. Mummys are also discussed. Seven pages describe the tribes of the Vistani people, their powers and cultures.

This book reveals the great promises of the new (we can say, "and improved") version of Ravenloft. With the subsequent DM specific material coming along, this product is going to make most Ravenloft fans happy. For more on Ravenloft, you can visit Kargatane, the home of Ravenloft on the net

Weaknesses: A strong adverse reaction to garlic.


Main Page - New Arrivals - Our d20 System Catalogue