Raven – A Gothic Horror Roleplaying Game is the brand-new RPG line from Shadowlands Games. Inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Raven transports you to an evocative and dangerous fictional world of gothic horror and cursed magic. The precise design of the Maelstrom game system allows you to live your own games steeped in the mystery, curses, passions, despairs, and longings of E. A. Poe-style stories.
The game is set in a fictional world centered in the ancient aristocratic city of Raven. The city bears a certain resemblance to 19th-century North America. Its streets are shrouded in an eternal mist and plagued by specters. The city of Raven is a great mystery itself, harboring many secrets that date back to its founding… and before.
Raven is essentially a game about…
Dark Stories and ghosts, providing players with a classic horror setting of haunted mansions, fascinations with specters and curses from beyond the grave, all accompanied by Poe’s poetic and sinister tone.
Hidden mysteries and cursed ruins that harbor the long-forgotten history of Raven — the eerie Lodge and its destruction, the curse of the mist, the sinister protector Order and what it is hiding, your family, its doomed blood inheritance, and your sinister mansion full of secrets.
Ancient Conspiracies that are very much alive and are threatening to destroy the city, the Order and your family, the Corvus family.
Written by the horror and mystery narrative award-winning author Daniel P. Espinosa and illustrated by the renowned gothic international talent Abigail Larson and the applauded national illustrators Andrés Sáez Marlock and José Calmujo, the more than 260 pages of the core rulebook will contain everything you need to role-play: the innovative rules of the Maelstrom system, a complete setting and an introductory scenario.
In Raven, you play members of the aristocrat Corvus family. You are descendants of Lord Poe Corvus, founder of the Order of the Mist and the very city of Raven. Your family is cursed, that is why you feel attracted to the forbidden arts. It has been ever since Lord Poe was corrupted by the cursed magic of the mist and the original members of the Order killed him.
As a Corvus family member, you have a tenebrous occupation. In your family, there are cursed poets, tormented necromancers, obsessed summoners, guilt-ridden demented, the soulless ones, immortal mesmerizers… As you can see, there is an obsessive streak that runs in your family, as well as decidedly questionable vocations. It runs in your blood. That is why The Order is watching you.
Your family mansion is so big that you have your own laboratory or studio where you throw yourself into your experiments and passions in the way you want it —a morgue for a necromancer if desired, or an enormous glazed studio for a painter and their cursed works of art.
But being a Corvus also means living with a curse that haunts you day after day: the descent into perdition, the struggle against death, a confrontation with your own evil… Oh, and there is also more: Your mother and father, tenebrous and dangerous people that love you… even if that love may lead them to your deaths. Your particular relationships with different factions in Raven, immersed in the struggle for the ancient secrets of the city... as your Corvus family is. And of course your loved one, the person that consumes your days… This is no ordinary person, but rather a dark figure, or lovely, or in danger perhaps because of your own curse. They even can be dead or be a specter. They have their own secrets and motivations, and you are obsessed by their fate, which may be a total mystery to you. Could it also be part of the family curse?
As a Corvus, you and your kin have inherited the curse. The way it manifests can vary, but is related with an ominous attraction to the forbidden arts and the dark magic of the Mist. Will you explore your tenebrous occupation? Will you try to resist walking the tempting path of the Mist to the Other Side? Or may you play with its dangerous powers and knowledge that can doom your soul? Your personal motivations and passions may drive part of your stories. But beware, the Order is watching.
Because of your family past, you are both respected and feared members of the society of Raven. Some of the inhabitants fear you, others have curiosity or even love you. The factions of Raven, such as the Order, the Guild, the Society of Explorers, the Lodge… may try to have business with you, or even use you. Conspiracies, receptions, interests and threats will be part of your games.
Dare to explore the secrets lurking in the shadows, behind the corners, in the ruins, forests and threatening places of Raven. There are so much to love while creating your own family story.
