Raiding WotC's Innistrad - Don't go out tonight!

[Morgenstern]

I've been looking over Magic the Gathering's take on gothic horror, and I have to say I like what they've done.

Innistrad, a land divided into 4 distinctive geographical regions, features stronge critter-typing with humans the primary residents, vampires as a second much smaller civilized bunch of antagonists, and the vast majority of the remainign threats being ghouls (necromantic zombies), giests (angry ghosts), skaabs (alchemical zombies), and werewolves (aflicted humans). There are some animal threats, wolves of various stripes and some ill tempered elementals stalking the hinterlands.

Demons and their lesser devil-kin are starting to infest the world as the human's universally revered diety, the lunar archangel Avacyn has gone missing. Her church, long a genuinely positive force for human safety has been thrown into disarray by the accelerating failure of their long-duration defesive magics, and her warrior elite, the knights-cathar, are forced to rely more on their martial training than their religous power, though many of their more short-duration prayers still function to turn the enemies of mankind to ash in an arc of blazing moonlight. The natural, primordial defenses (and magics) of the world still function at full effect, making silver and live wood the prefered weapons against werewolves and vampires respectively.

Innistrad vampires have an interesting array of weakness, featuring weapons of living wood, the reflection of the moon on water (acts like sunlight does on most vampires, while sunlight does not seem to harm them), and weapons/water blessed by Avacyn.

Secretive alchemists fill the role of mad-scientist with aplomb, creating mosters and grusome Da'Vinchian devices powered by re-invigorated muscle and harvested bone. While their awful brand of technology has long been supresed by the Avacynian church, the attention of the knights-cathar has been drawn to more immediate threats, and the alchemists' awful insights are begining to flourish in the shadows.

Ghoulcallers, the necromancers of the setting are also driving a thriving trade in unearthed corpses. Their strange practices seem to be focuses through musical instruments crafted from bone - bells, windchimes, and even flutes crafted from the dead.

There are several secretive cults and cabals focused on the veneration of Griselbrand, a powerful archdemon who stood in open opposition to Avacyn even before her disappearance. While not believed to be nearly a match for the archangel, his defiance has attracted the allegiance of those with a powerful hatred for the curch for their own various reasons.

I'm seeing a couple of weapon upgrades and Origins to put this setting into practice, while the art is consistently inspiring for a very late Fuedal culture with some pockets of early reason.

[ludomastro]

Though I gave up the MtG habit long ago, I'm looking forward to what you come up with.

(Kids, though not nearly as collectible, often require even higher outlays of discretionary cash than that spent on cards.)

[Morgenstern]

A lot of the setting info is in the checklist booklet that comes with the fat-packs, but for folks who want to just enjoy the art and some of the great card names ("Bump in the Night" is fabulous) can browse the set here~

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?output=spoiler&method=visual&action=advanced&set=+%5b%22Innistrad%22%5d

[Morgenstern]

   Living Wood (Material Upgrade)
   Knives, swords, spears, javelins, standard arrows, and standard bolts ONLY
   Many stabbing weapons can be crafted from still living wood with nearly the same performance as their more common metal counterparts. Living wood retains its special lethality against Innistrad vampires for 9 days after being harvested (typically 8 days after being fashioned into a weapon). After this time a vampire’s Achilles Heel is no longer activated by attacks with the weapon.
   Effect: -1 damage (minimum 1), final AP and keen of the weapon after all other modifiers is halved.
   Construction: Same
   Complexity: # remains the same. Time is always D.
   Weight: -10%
   Era: Primitive
   Cost: -20%

[glimmerrat]

I thought Innistrad was a Domain in Ravenloft? 

[Morgenstern]

I thought Innistrad was a Domain in Ravenloft? 

You might be thinking of Invidia. I think the name Innistrad is supposed to evoke the Ravenloft setting (and it did that for me too even before I read up on what the block was actually going to be about).

The human folks of the world have three pretty clear opponents on the ground - vampires, werewolves, and (two flavors of) zombies. I think the real tension in the campaign-arc is going to play out between its angelic and demonic overlords.

I'm thinking of setting it up as player characters are strictly humans only. Really hammer the US versus THEM vibe that things of the night eat people (rather than sparkle ).