Innsmouth added as new Ravenloft Domain of Dread, bringing Lovecraft to D&D

Innsmouth, the iconic home of several HP Lovecraft stories, is being incorporated into Ravenloft as a new Domain of Dread. Earlier today, Wizards of the Coast revealed the contents of Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, including the number of subclasses, ancestries, and new creature statblocks in the game. Wizards also revealed that 16 Domains of Dread will be profiled in the book, including the new domain Innsmouth. Assumably, its Darklord will be Cthulhu, who was previously confirmed to be in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, complete with a statblock.

Cosmic horror has long had a place in Dungeons & Dragons lore, with Cthulhu originally appearing in early copies of Deities and Demigods. Due to a licensing dispute with Chaosium, TSR removed Cthulhu and other Lovecraftian creatures from later printings of the book. Cthulhu along with Lovecraft's other creations have since passed into the public domain, thus removing any restrictions on featuring the characters in a D&D book.

Of course, Innsmouth (at least in Lovecraft's work) is supposed to be a turn of the century New England coastal town, which doesn't exactly jive with the high fantasy trappings of Dungeons & Dragons. We'll have to see how much of Innsmouth is changed to line up with D&D when Ravenloft: The Horrors Within releases later this summer.

 

[Cergorach]

I like Innsmouth, Cthulhu, Ravenloft, and D&D.

However, I'd prefer they not be mixed. I detest crossover products.

I don't really have an issue with Innsmouth and Cthulhu in D&D, heck I might even run it as a one-shot. But it being a Ravenloft Domain I like a LOT less. But I get it as a horror 'tool' it needs to be in the book, and adding it as a Domain would be a consequence of it showing up in this book, and folks who don't like it, can just ignore it.

With Innsmouth and Cthulhu I directly think "Call of Cthulhu", and I have a very nice starter set (I still haven't played) for it on Foundry VTT. But just using the D&D 5e 2024 rules would be a very easy alternative. Using the D20 Cthulhu rules would be an interesting compromise. For me it kind of depends on if we want to not only do a side-step to Innsmouth and Cthulhu, but also a sidestep to a rules set that's written for it specifically (Call of Cthulhu)... Currently I tend to lean toward the later.

If this book comes out for FVTT as an official module, I'll probably buy it eventually, mostly due to the new monsters...

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Innsmouth doesnt need to be XX century. Maybe the dark lord is a cult-leader from XIX century (And choochoo would be only the "guest star" who appeared when was summoned. Let's remember this is not the original Innsmouth from the Earth but a "copy", like Barovia.

There are other places from Lovecraft's mythology that could become new dark domains, for example the undeground city of K'n-yan from the story "the Mound".

* It seems the best place to justify tritons as archienemies of the deep ones, locathath and sahuagin. It is also perfect for weresharks.

 

[Remathilis]

Darkon no longer seems to be dissolving into the mists in that map. Azlin/Firan back in his cell?

Its the same map, all the blueish lines between in landmasses are the Hungry Mists. Nothing changed except art style.

 

[KvnLuck]

Another contender for the title of Darklord of Innsmouth could be Robert Olmstead.

For those that don’t know, this is the name of the narrator from “The Shadow over Innsmouth”, at least according to Lovecraft’s notes.

 

[Li Kao]

I’m totally ok to see Cthulhu stuff outside of Chaosium system. I love the Cthulhu mythos and it has long been a dream of mine (but I’m very new to the hobby and almost never get to play) to import the evil serpent empire from an early Lovecraft story into D&D. Probably heavily borrowing from Against the Cult of the Reptile God. I think Paizo did things with evil serpent people, too.
But Cthulhu in Ravenloft ? As a Dark Lord ? I think not.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I’m totally ok to see Cthulhu stuff outside of Chaosium system. I love the Cthulhu mythos and it has long been a dream of mine (but I’m very new to the hobby and almost never get to play) to import the evil serpent empire from an early Lovecraft story into D&D. Probably heavily borrowing from Against the Cult of the Reptile God. I think Paizo did things with evil serpent people, too.
But Cthulhu in Ravenloft ? As a Dark Lord ? I think not.

Check out I1, Dwellers of the Forbidden City. It's the origin of yuan-ti.

 

[Voadam]

Lots of possibilities for 5e Innsmouth here, I am looking forward to hearing about what execution they decided on. This definitely bumped my interest in the product.

 

[Voadam]

I’m totally ok to see Cthulhu stuff outside of Chaosium system. I love the Cthulhu mythos and it has long been a dream of mine (but I’m very new to the hobby and almost never get to play) to import the evil serpent empire from an early Lovecraft story into D&D. Probably heavily borrowing from Against the Cult of the Reptile God. I think Paizo did things with evil serpent people, too.

Robert E. Howard used the Serpent Men in Conan and Kull the Conqueror stories as part of his literary crossover with Lovecraft.

Green Ronin's Freeport setting and adventures has a strong secret ancient fallen serpent man empire thing going on, there is a 5e version of the first module Death in Freeport that uses that as an element and there is Freeport stuff for many different game systems.

Paizo's Pathfinder 1e Serpent Skull Adventure path is the one focused on their serpent people. They also integrate a lot more Cthulhu mythos directly into their system and setting with Great Old Ones as gods and they have a full mythos adventure path called Strange Aeons.

 

[Voadam]

In 2e D&D there was Gates of Firestorm Peak which introduced the mythos influenced D&D Far Realm and there was a growing mythos influence in the Sahuagin Monstrous Arcana trilogy of modules with Night of the Shark and Sea of Blood fleshing that out a lot.

Paizo's Wake of the Watcher, Module 4 of 6 in the Pathfinder 1e Carrion Crown Adventure Path, is fairly Innsmouth themed, and there is Carrion Hill, a Paizo 3.5 stand alone module that is very Lovecraft themed.

 

[Maxperson]

I'm going to be really disappointed if any of the Great Old Ones end up being lord of Innsmouth. They're too powerful and inscrutable for that. Better to put one of the Marsh family in charge.