Ravenloft books
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The pair have been given a fresh coat of paint. I like that Borca retains both rural villages and cities as part of its description it feels like you can play through a variety of scenarios here, although the focus is definitely on the abuses of wealthy aristocrats.īorca also preserves its two most infamous prisoners as its dual Darklords: the poisoner Ivana Boritsi and Ivan Dilisnya. Its contorted slopes stretch into the toxic heavens, and its form occupies the periphery of viewers’ attention no matter which direction they look.īorca remains a domain enfolded in schemes and intrigue ala the historical Borgias. In particular, I like this description of Mount Makab:Ĭalling Makab a mountain is a wild misnomer it is a malignant deformation on a planetary scale, a spire with no apparent summit.
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There's some rather nice writing in this section. There's also rival factions of mind flayers you could potentially pit against each other, with the adventurers caught in the middle. Beneath the surface of the domain are the mind flayers' laboratory dungeons the domain definitely amps up the sci-fi horror angle.
#Ravenloft books full
The surface of Bluetspur is still devoid of life personally, I would have stolen a page from Lovecraft and placed a few remote, eldritch fishing villages here and there, full of the demented results of the mind flayers' experiments. The domain is still described as utterly alien and inhospitable, but at least it doesn't have rules for how you're going to be zapped by lightning every few feet until you find shelter as you're herded onto the narrative railroad.īluetspur is the prime example of "cosmic horror" in the book, substituting mind flayers for Lovecraft's otherworldly gribblies. This time, however, Bluetspur comes ready made with a reason why adventurers might find themselves in the domain: it now plays up the idea of "alien abduction," with the mind flayers stealing humanoids for use in their experiments to prolong the life of the dying God-Brain. How do they stack up, what alterations have been made, and how gameable does this iteration of the Domains of Dread feel?Ģe's version of Bluetspur seemed like a domain suitable for exactly one adventure-destined to never really see the light of day once the module Thoughts of Darkness had been completed. There have been many people covering the rules content in Van Richten's Guide, such as the new lineages, new subclasses, dark gifts, and other widgets, but I want to talk about the domains as a long-time fan of Ravenloft. Which brings me to what I want to write about. Urik von Kharkov is dead, long live Chakuna the huntress! I don't love all of the new takes on once-familiar domains, but they're mostly good. Twists There are certainly a lot of twists, substitutions, and retcons in this version of Ravenloft. This one was already implemented in Curse of Strahd, so it seems natural to extend it throughout most of the other domains. The people know their land is horrible and haunted Mostly, yeah. It is explicitly called out that the people of Ravenloft are used to strange visitors being pulled into their lands, so they don't raise a mob to murder every non-human they encounter. Of course, these talismans are jealously guarded and work as objects around which you could craft some interesting adventures.ĭown with fantasy racism YES. Here's how I would do it: some seafarers and merchant caravans possess mist talismans that allow them to forge lucrative trade routes throughout the domains. Breaking the "Core" into islands in the Mists was always going to curtail that, but I don't think it would be hard to add in if you wanted to. More interconnection, particularly by sea Nope. It's also very interesting that the idea of "Ludendorf University" is now canon, when I'm pretty sure it wasn't when I started inserting it into my games! In any event, I like that they don't really spell out population numbers for any of the locations I find that stuff unnecessary and limiting. More larger cities and populations? Some domains do feel more populated. Looking at the list of modifications I tend to make to Ravenloft that I posted here last week, it's interesting to see how many of these have been incorporated into the version of the setting presenting in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft: