D&D General The thread where I review a ton of Ravenloft modules

[Alzrius]

it creates a weird idea that certain villains are trapped (Vecna, Kas, Soth) but not others (Accerack, Szazz, or Iuz not evil enough?)

My personal take on that was that the Dark Powers had some sort of insight into which villains were more vulnerable to psychological torment than others, and went after those who could be made to suffer the most.

 

[TiQuinn]

I pretty much agree. Most of the tie-ins were superficial at best, jarring at worst. I am also not a fan of the "villain from another setting gets trapped" thing: it creates a weird idea that certain villains are trapped (Vecna, Kas, Soth) but not others (Accerack, Szazz, or Iuz not evil enough?) I think Kas is the last of the celebrity Dark Lords, and apparently he has supervised day release privileges these days...

Soth made sense to me - Dragonlance has a lot of gothic elements so his inclusion works. Vecna and Kas are straight up fantasy and despite being undead, you have to do a lot of work to make them appropriate NPCs for a horror campaign. And really, isn’t the Strahd/Azalin rivalry enough that they need yet another lich/vampire rivalry?

 

[Bedrockgames]

My personal take on that was that the Dark Powers had some sort of insight into which villains were more vulnerable to psychological torment than others, and went after those who could be made to suffer the most.

I think the reason a villain like Soth worked was that tragic and operatic backstory. Generally I think the original entries were the better ones but dark lords are all very much a matter of taste. My favorites in no particular order were Harkon Lukas, Ivan Dilisnya (reminded me a lot of John Hurt's Caligula), Ivana Boritsi, Vlad Drakov, Gabrielle Aderre, and Soth. There were others whose backgrounds or write ups I may have liked better but those were the ones who I instantly saw in my head as characters and enjoyed playing. Mordenheim was also a fun character to play.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Soth made sense to me - Dragonlance has a lot of gothic elements so his inclusion works. Vecna and Kas are straight up fantasy and despite being undead, you have to do a lot of work to make them appropriate NPCs for a horror campaign.

Agree on both counts. Vecna made no sense to me being in Ravenloft.

 

[TiQuinn]

My personal take on that was that the Dark Powers had some sort of insight into which villains were more vulnerable to psychological torment than others, and went after those who could be made to suffer the most.

This reminds me…When Black Roses Bloom is a very underrated Ravenloft module that is pretty much a must play for anyone who loves Lord Soth.

Definitely warrants a look!

 

[Stormonu]

The thing with where the domains originally came from is that it really doesn’t matter. With the exceptions of maybe Kalidnay or Cyre, does it really matter if Darkon came from Greyhawk or Kartkass from Forgotten Realms? Some, like Souragne are just pure BS. They based that on an Antebellum Louisiana/Caribbean setting as far removed from any other actual setting. Most of these are based on real world locations ripped from stories by Shelley, Stoker, Poe…so why the silliness of “Oh yeah, Falkovnia is from Krynn?”

It doesn't matter in the immediate, but I think it's fine as (deep) background information, as long as it isn't harped on. It can be used as an exit/entry point in those cases where the DM is dropping the PCs in for a "weekend in hell" or they have a chance of getting out of the demiplane. In other cases, it does make thematic sense - Hazlik, for example, wouldn't feel quite the same without the initial ties to FR. But sometimes the designers were trying too hard to tie it to a "known" world, as in Falkovnia.

 

[humble minion]

This reminds me…When Black Roses Bloom is a very underrated Ravenloft module that is pretty much a must play for anyone who loves Lord Soth

I’m adapting that one for my current Dragonlance campaign. It’s a much better way to tell Soth’s story than the whole ‘shapes in the fire’ thing that SotDQ does.

 

[Stormonu]

Speaking of various Domain world sources - are there any Ravenloft Domains from Mystara?

 

[TiQuinn]

Speaking of various Domain world sources - are there any Ravenloft Domains from Mystara?

The Nocturnal Sea is supposedly from Mystara.

 

[Remathilis]

Speaking of various Domain world sources - are there any Ravenloft Domains from Mystara?

Meredoth (the ruler of the Nocturnal Sea) is an Alphantian mage and baron of Norworld per DoD. It added nothing to his story and there were no real Mystara references in the domain itself. He's otherwise your bog-standard evil wizard/necromancer.