Most of Ravenloft's folk live and die within a score of miles from their birthplace and can spend their entire lives without ever knowingly encountering the supernatural. When combined with cultures rich in suspicion and superstition, the result is xenophobia. This is expressed as an Outcast Rating (OR), which may modify the Difficulty Classes of social skill checks performed by any character who appears unnatural or out of place.

A character's Outcast Rating can be modified by her race, social standing, physical deformities, or even the gear she carries. As a character's OR rises, NPC reactions toward her turn from standoffish to fearful.

OR applies as a circumstance penalty to Deception, Performance, and Persuasion checks, but it applies as a bonus to Intimidate checks. OR modifiers never apply when dealing with friends or allies, such as other PCs, or others who share the source of your OR modifiers, such as other members of your own race.

Outcast Rating reflects only first reactions; it is possible to improve one's standing. For each good deed a character performs (stopping a crime, defeating a monster preying on the community, helping a farmer harvest crops, and so on), that individual dispels some of the surrounding community's fear; her OR drops in that community by 1 point, to a minimum of 0.

Some domains may impose their own OR modifiers.