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Masque of the Red Death FAQ
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Poe's The Masque of the Red DeathThere's not really any connection between TSR's Masque and Poe's story. Masque's designer chose "The Red Death" as a name for the evil entity that plagues Gothic Earth, but it has little to do with the plague of Poe's tale. One of the adventures included in the boxed set, however, does present a version of the Poe story for play by higher-level Masque characters. A lot of visitors to this page come because they are looking for information about the Poe story. I've finally tracked down a comprehensive list of web sites that *are* related to Poe: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~ehrlich/poesites.html Apparently, I'm not the only one who gets a lot of inquiries from students writing papers; here's another guy who offers some constructive advice on doing literary research: http://deathstar.comnet.ca/~forrest/essays.html Product ListMasque of the Red Death And Other Tales: Terror in the 1890's by William W. Connors. TSR #1103. Includes:
It's always worth checking local game stores and used book stores as well. The Gothic Earth Gazetteer by William W. Connors. TSR #9498. A reference book including information on world events in the 1890's, a "Who's Who" section, qabals, forbidden lore, a poster-sized calendar of the decade, and quick-reference lists of world leaders and appropriate monsters for Masque campaigns. Bleak House, by William W. Connors and Dave Gross. TSR #1141. Book Two: Homecoming, by Dave Gross, is an adventure which the author describes as "especially apt for a Masque of the Red Death campaign." Guidelines for adapting the adventure to Gothic Earth are included on page 4. A Guide to Transylvania by Nicky Rea. TSR #9529. TSR writes, "Presenting the only traveler's guide to the heart of darkness in Gothic Earth—the legendary Transylvania! Here in horrifyingly realistic detail is the setting for infinite adventures in the extraordinary hunting ground of vampires, golems and werewolves, and the scene of some of the 19th century's most gruesome crimes."
More information has appeared in articles in Dragon and Polyhedron, and adventures in Dungeon and the RPGA's Living Death campaign. A great deal of Masque information has also been published in Ravenloft netbooks, which can be found at the Kargatane homepage. What makes Masque different?The key factor that distinguishes Masque from a more standard AD&D or Ravenloft game is the time period of the setting. While most standard fantasy games approximate a medieval level of technology and society, and Ravenloft domains run the gamut from stone age to Renaissance, Masque takes place in the Victorian era of Gothic Earth, specifically the 1890s. Firearms are commonplace, while armor has disappeared. Steam trains cross nearly every continent. The sun never sets on the British Empire. This unusual setting necessitates some changes in the AD&D rules. These changes affect the core mechanics of the game:
Given that Masque stretches the limits of the AD&D rules, the obvious question is, "Why use AD&D at all?" Rumor has it that there was discussion within the Kargat of making Masque a stand-alone game, perhaps using the SAGA system. Matthew Martin's article, "Saga of the Mists," in Dragon #240, offers rules for using the SAGA system for a Ravenloft game, and could be converted to Masque. Click here for Alternity Masque rules! Gothic Earth and the Red DeathThe premise of Masque of the Red Death is that a powerful evil force entered a world like our own in the time of the ancient Egyptians. This force gradually grew in power and corrupted the very fabric of reality in the world, turning it into a place very much like Ravenloft. The use of magic draws its attention, as does any evil action. It lures its servants into ever-increasing evil, until their very natures are warped to reflect their evil souls. It also isolates Gothic Earth from any contact with other worlds or planes, much like the Demiplane of Dread. Gothic Earth, then, is a parallel earth, similar in most ways to our own earth in the 1890s. Characters that are fictional in our own world, like Sherlock Holmes and Professor Challenger, really live in Gothic Earth, and historical figures like Aleister Crowley and Mark Twain hold dark secrets of forbidden lore. Most importantly, the legends of vampires (including Vlad Tepes, the fearsome Dracula), ghosts, and werewolves that give Gothic literature its unique flavor are all true—these and many more horrors cast a dark shadow on the world of Gothic Earth. Gothic Earth has a history much like our own. My article, "Seeds of Evil," in Dragon #249, describes certain periods of this history, allowing DMs who own TSR's Historical Reference books to inject an element of horror into a historical game set in other periods. Gothic Earth and RavenloftIn theory, there is no connection between Gothic Earth and any other world, plane, or demiplane, including Ravenloft. The most recent incarnation of the Ravenloft campaign setting (Domains of Dread), however, mentions at least one such connection: the domain of Odiare, home of the carionette lord Maligno, is said to have been snatched from Gothic Earth. My explanation is that, in Gothic Earth's renaissance period, the power of the Red Death had not yet grown to its present (1890s) levels, and Gothic Earth was not yet completely isolated from contact with other planes, which allowed the Mists of Ravenloft to draw in this domain. Of course, any AD&D campaign is shaped by the DM and players who create it. If a DM wants to create connections between Ravenloft and Gothic Earth, there is no good reason not to. Gothic DarklordsRavenloft began as a disjointed collection of domains, each ruled by a darklord and each reflecting the nature of that lord in the very makeup of the land. Gothic Earth has always been a complete world, and the people of Gothic Earth know that there are no borders where Dracula's reign ends and Frankenstein's monster's reign begins. Rather than having darklords who rule specific domains with closeable borders, Gothic Earth has lords with more fluid domains. A lord's power in greatest in its lair, but it is not confined to its lair or any geographical area. Dracula can and does travel from his Transylvanian castle to London and on to San Francisco (in the adventure Red Tide, included in the Masque boxed set). Gothic MonstersJust about any AD&D monster can theoretically be found on Gothic Earth. In addition to the classic vampires, ghosts, and werebeasts, published Masque material has used darklings, zombie lords, flesh golems, heucuvas, rakshasas, yuan-ti, jermlaine, githyanki, beholders, and sahuagin, among others, as lords and villains. One unique feature of Masque is that it offers the possibility that at least some of these monsters were once human, transformed into their new state by the Red Death as a result of their corruption and evil. Monsters in Masque should be unique individuals, doing the work of their evil master in exchange for the great powers bestowed on them. Historical MapsA wonderful Internet site for historical maps is the Perry-Casta–eda Library Map Collection of the University of Texas at Austin. Try these links:
It should be obvious that this FAQ is a work in progress. Please e-mail me with suggestions for additional topics or ways to clarify what I've already written. Thank you! |
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