Editing Outcast Rating

Being the bastard spawn of a drunken orgy between [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Hammer Horror films and [[Gothic Horror]] novels, it should be no surprise that the setting of [[Ravenloft]] is full of murderous monsters that look almost, but not quite, human. It should be equally unsurprising that it is also full of superstitious, xenophobic, racist peasant-folk, although how much the former informs the latter is a matter of personal taste. Needless to say, if you're not playing a human, chances are the NPCs aren't going to be too friendly.

When the Ravenloft campaign setting was released for [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition]] by [[White Wolf]], this was handled by the introduction of a new game mechanic: '''Outcast Rating'''. A simple little numeral that represented just how much you freaked out the local ignorant peasants. Whilst mostly static, there were some ways of raising it - certain curses or failing [[Powers Check]]s would boost it, and some monsters could also inflict it upon you; goblyns had the "Feasting" attack, which left such horrific scarring from their attempts to eat your living face off that you permanently gained Outcast Rating as a result. And, of course, DMs had carte blanche to inflict it upon you for various "thematically appropriate" reasons.

Mechanically, Outcast Rating manifests as a Circumstance Penalty to Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information and Perform checks, but with an equivalent Circumstance Bonus to Intimidate checks. Outcast Rating has no effect on friends & allies (who have learned to look past whatever makes you spooky), nor on beings who share your Outcast Rating "origins" - you should be able to figure out why this is, so long as you have a better brain than a moldy half-cabbage.

Of the "core" Ravenloft races, their respective Outcast Ratings were:
* [[Caliban]]: 5
* [[Dwarf]]: 3
* [[Elf]]: 3
* [[Gnome]]: 2
* [[Half-Elf]]: 1
* [[Halfling]]: 1
* [[Half-Vistani]]: 2, but can attempt a Disguise Check (minor details DC) to reduce to 0

Of course, with the long tradition of Outlanders (aka, PCs from beyond the [[Demiplane of Dread]] in Ravenloft and the even longer tradition of people playing fantastical races in D&D, this mechanic needed a little "oomph" beyond just informing players what the standard races got. Enter the Ravenloft [[Dungeon Master's Guide]] for 3.5, which gave DMs the following rules for establishing Outcast Ratings.

Firstly, check '''Size'''. Medium creatures gain +1 OR to begin with, Large ones get a +2, and Huge ones get a +4, with the implication of a further +2 for each size category beyond that. Small creatures have a +0 OR, and Tiny ones a -1 OR. Basically, the bigger you are, the more obviously threatening you are.

Secondly, check '''Appearance'''. Creatures with a ''Slightly Inhuman'' appearance get +1. Those with a ''Distinctly Inhuman'' appearance get +2. And those with flat-out ''Monstrous'' appearance get +3. There's a lot of wriggle room on what appearances count as what. For example, a [[goblin]] is cited as an example of a Monstrous Appearance, but what if you're playing one of the non-hideous goblins that came out after AD&D? Expect [[monstergirls]] players to really argue about this aspect.

Thirdly, check '''Reputation'''. Basically, what is your racial stereotype amongst humans? ''Angelic'' races, being the goodest of good guys, get a -2 modifier to their OR. Simply ''Good'' races get a -1 modifier. Then you have the negatively stereotyped races, consisting of ''Evil'' (+1), ''Predatory'' (+2) and ''Fiendish'' (+3) - a Predatory race is characterized as not only evil, but actively menacing to humans; [[caliban]]s are looked down upon as ugly, brutish and dumb, but nobody believes they inherently want to hurt "normals", so they're only an "evil" race, whereas a [[dhampir]] or [[ghul]], if mistaken for their [[vampire]] and [[ghoul]] progenitors, would be a Predatory race. A Fiendish race, in comparison, is the absolute worst of the worst, with the book itself saying this Reputation is mostly associated with [[fiend]]s - so a very obvious [[tiefling]] or a [[shadar-kai]] might get slapped with this.

Though not discussed in the book, Reputation is one area where the player can try to make the more [[Low Fantasy]] focus of Ravenloft and its planar isolation actually work for them. It's not explicitly said, but if you don't look a creature that the average mistlander recognizes or knows anything about, then presumably that's a +0 to your OR. So, if the local yokels don't recognize you, that might not impact you, or even benefit you because of how little they know. After all, with no native [[drow]] or [[duergar]], there's no local legends about them, so it's actually plausible that they don't recognize you as an Evil race - if anything, they might regard you as just a normal [[elf]] or [[dwarf]], which means you actually get mistaken for a Good race and so drop your OR by -1! 

Lastly, check for '''Other Factors'''. These are a grab-bag of random things that might impede your reception by Ravenloft's backwater people. Firstly, there's the ''Beyond the Pale'' factor, which basically boils down to "if you're not a Humanoid, Monstrous Humanoid, Beast or Magical Beast, add +1 to your OR". Secondly, ''Culture Shock'' means you might get a +1 OR if your native culture is really different to the culture you're interacting with, or if there's a historical friction between your cultures (for example, nobody likes Falkovnians). If you have ''Unnatural Powers'', that's a +1 OR. Finally, at the DM's discretion, being particularly gruesomely scarred, mangled or visibly injured may boost your Outcast Rating by an amount corresponding to how hideously maimed you are.

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Game Mechanics]][[Category:Ravenloft]]