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.

 

[Davy Greenwind]

I’m not disagreeing with you, but can you point to anything specific that indicates those settings will be covered? Sure it’s pretty obvious they would include the Frankenstein and Mummy domains, but I’m looking for evidence.

I kind of feel that a lot of Dementlieu's themes could be covered by Borca, and it's dark lord is less interesting as a plot driver. After Dark Cinderella, what do you do with it? I kind of feel that for something to be a setting rather than an adventure it needs to have more than one story.

Yes, I think we can consider Kalakeri as the seventh confirmed.

Yeah, I have a feeling this one will get much more in depth coverage than VGR gave it. No specific evidence, but the theme feels strong and contemporary. It's small though - could it be enlarged or combined - with Dementlieu perhaps - as the definitive dark fairytale domain?

I think it's fair to say that they will want to include somewhere with a lupin settlement. Verbrek seems the best fit to me. Arkandale/Kartakass/Souragne - Southern Gothic is an important subgenre, but needs sensitive handling. A possibility of Godsbreath being absorbed by the mists?

Many of those settings are previewed on the page for Beadle and Grimm's product.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

either Mallingo and Odaire is included as a separate domain OR they aren't there at all.

Whilst you are probably right, another solution would be to downgrade Mallingo from dark lord and make Odaire a location in Dementlieu. Odaire is cool and all, but you can’t really have more than one short adventure there. He is what, CR4?

It’s not unprecedented, didn’t it happen to one of the Timothys?

 

[Remathilis]

Whilst you are probably right, another solution would be to downgrade Mallingo from dark lord and make Odaire a location in Dementlieu. Odaire is cool and all, but you can’t really have more than one short adventure there. He is what, CR4?

It’s not unprecedented, didn’t it happen to one of the Timothys?

Dark Lord status isn't about CR, Victor and Viktra were never more then normal commoner level humans in combat. And not every domain needs to sprawling multi-story endeavors. The House of Lament is a one-and-done domain but it obeys the rules (has a Lord, closeable borders, can be entered though the Mists and appears randomly, etc). A small, low level domain with a one-shot adventure attached is a perfect balance to the larger ones like Darkon or Barovia. Remember, we got a bunch of mini adventures coming in this book too.

And yes, Alfred Timothy lost his domain to his much more bloodthirsty son Nathaniel, though he's now confined to his riverboat and cannot step foot on land so his prospects didn't improve all that much...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I just like it and want to see it included in the book, mate. Chill out.

Why though, if you already have it? You don’t need to read the same stuff in a different book! And there isn’t much more to say about it unless you make major changes. It’s and infinitely tall mountain with a mind flayer lair underneath. Nothing else there. If you want more detail the 2nd edition adventure (which is really terrible but easy to find on the net) has maps and stuff.

 

[Thommy H-H]

Why though, if you already have it? You don’t need to read the same stuff in a different book! And there isn’t much more to say about it unless you make major changes. It’s and infinitely tall mountain with a mind flayer lair underneath. Nothing else there. If you want more detail the 2nd edition adventure (which is really terrible but easy to find on the net) has maps and stuff.

Well we don't need anything in the book at all by that argument.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Well we don't need anything in the book at all by that argument.

Whilst I would personally prefer a book with a completely different set of domains than VGR, most domains have far more going on in them than Blutspur, so there is a far better chance of getting something new.

 

[Thommy H-H]

Whilst I would personally prefer a book with a completely different set of domains than VGR, most domains have far more going on in them than Blutspur, so there is a far better chance of getting something new.

Okay, well I like it and I would be interested to read more material about it. That's literally all I was saying.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Okay, well I like it and I would be interested to read more material about it.

I would be happy if they decided to add something more interesting to do there than fight mind flayers.

 

[RealAlHazred]

As a long-time fan of Call of Cthulhu and HPL's fiction, if I were to write up Innsmouth as a Domain, I'd probably make the Darklord Captain Obed Marsh. Apologies for the lack of spoiler tags, but in my defense, it's a 90-year-old story; people have had time to read it.

In the fiction, Captain Obed Marsh (and a few others) made a deal with the Deep Ones to gain riches -- basically, the Deep Ones guaranteed to supply Innsmouth fisheries with a constant supply of fish, and provided the occasional gold artifact. However, to seal the pact they all had to take Deep One wives and, now, none of the grandchildren of the founders are fully human. Perhaps later in life, he suddenly had a "come to God" moment and realized the folly of sacrificing his future for immediate riches. August Derleth, in the story "The Watcher From the Sky," had a sighting of Deep One with Marsh's face, seen swimming near Devil Reef off of Innsmouth, so if we extrapolate that as his punishment from the Dark Powers, it fits. Not every Darklord has to be a superpowerful supernatural creature, they just have to be tormented by their decisions and effectively unkillable inside their Domains.

 

[Autumnal]

Obed Marsh would make a great Darklord, yeah.