Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of the Parts
Within these pages lie the stories of 13 madmen and their singular creations. Some are flesh and blood, others glass or wax, even metal or mist. Whatever their makeup, each has the will to live - and sometimes that means needing to kill. They are more than just golems. They are the Created. And they are ready to make your acquaintance.
Among those lurking inside:
The Chaperone, a bestial companion with grave defects.
Automatic Man, a corroded and quot;butler and quot; entombed in rubble, eager to serve up terror anew.
Angelique, a perfect beauty with an imperfect past, terrified by the and quot;killer within. and quot;
Dr. Bollenbach, a surgeon who know the many faces of death - and who would like you to meet them.
Children of the Night: The Created is the fourth volume in a series that celebrates the horrors detailed in the best-selling Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendiums. Each of the creatures in this book is introduced through a complete story describing its origin, powers, and personality, as well as a short adventure.
While these monsters are designed for the RAVENLOFT campaign setting, they can be unleashed in any AD and amp;D game world. Each mini-adventure can serve as a diversion from regular play, a special and quot;evening of terror, and quot; or become part of your ongoing horror campaign.
For all character levels.
Product History
and quot;Children of the Night: The Created and quot; (1999), by Peter Adkinson, Steven and quot;Stan! and quot; Brown, William W. Connors, Dave Gross, Miranda Horner, Harold Johnson, John W. Mangrum, Steve Miller, Thomas M. Reid, Cindi Rice, Lucien Soulban, Ed Stark, and David Wise, is the fourth and final Children of the Night supplement for Ravenloft. It was published in May 1999.
About the Cover. The cover shows the new style for Ravenloft books that debuted in Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium, Volume One (1999). The art is somewhat abstractly horrific and appears in monochromatic colors. It represents a big change from the four-color covers of the earlier '90s.
The cover is also notable for its placement of the generic Advanced Dungeons and amp; Dragons logo at the top of the cover. Ravenloft appears much smaller as part of a phrase that reads and quot;For use in Ravenloft or any other AD and amp;D campaign setting. and quot;
Origins (I): The End of Ravenloft. When the first Monster Hunter's Compendium appeared, with its deemphasized Ravenloft logo, it wasn't obvious what was going on. After all, that was a new series, reprinting old Ravenloft supplements, so perhaps Wizards was trying to deliver it to a new, larger audience.
However, with and quot;Children of the Night: The Created and quot; (1999) the other shoe dropped. This was a continuation of an existing Ravenloft series, but again Wizards was suggesting that the supplement could be used with any setting. It was part of Wizards' rapid-fire cancellation of the numerous lines that TSR had created for AD and amp;D 2e (1989-2000), which may have been a factor in TSR's bankruptcy. Just a few more Ravenloft publications would dribble out, before the line gots its finale in Die Vecna Die! (2000), a Greyhawk/Planescape/Ravenloft crossover.
Origins (II): The Last Children. The and quot;Children of the Night and quot; supplements got their start with and quot;Children of the Night: Vampires and quot; (1996). They were a series of monstrous NPC books, each associated with a particular Van Richten Guide. This one is obviously linked to Van Richten's Guide to the Created (1994). Like the second book in the series, and quot;Children of the Night: Ghosts and quot; (1997), and quot;The Created and quot; is credited to and quot;The Kargat and quot;.
Monsters of Note. Though there were lots of weird golems in MC10: and quot;Monstrous Compendium Ravenloft Appendix and quot; (1991), the flesh golems are the ones that got the most attention in Ravenloft, due to their connection to Frankenstein's Monster. That trope repeats here, with four different flesh golems making their appearance.
However, and quot;The Created and quot; goes far beyond this and mdash; and far beyond what was covered in Van Richten's Guide to the Created. It features a number of unique golems including a coin golem, a mechanical golem, a spell-rune golem, a stained glass golem, a transient golem, a wax golem, a and quot;super-golem and quot;, and the weird and quot;mini-kins and quot;. (Of them, the transient golem is the only one that's not presented as a unique NPC, and thus the only one that's relatively easy to translate into a whole monstrous race.)
Future History. and quot;The Created and quot; had an associated Adventurer's Guild release: and quot;Deepening Shadows and quot; (1999) by James Wyatt.
About the Creators. and quot;Children of the Night: The Created and quot; was written by a who's who of D and amp;D designers, from Wizards of the Coast president Peter Adkinson on down. The Kargat referred to in the credits was the group of designers who guided the Ravenloft line and hellip; but this group of designers was much larger.
About the Product Historian
The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of and nbsp;Designers and amp; Dragons and nbsp;- a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.