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

dave2008 · 2026-04-16T10:24:28+0100

Deset Gled said:
This makes no sense to me at all. In "Dagon" Lovecraft literally calls his version of Dagon a "fish-god", and described it differently than Cthulhu. He also described Dagon's fish people minions that sound a lot like the Innsmouth folk. I can think of nothing in The Shadow Over Innsmouth that would suggest Dagon is actually Cthulhu.

If you're going to change the story, just admit you're changing the story. I have no idea what the point of all the weird mental gymnastics is.

Also, IIRC (it has been over 2 decades) one of the Chaosium CoC scenarios that takes place in Innsmouth has the fish people worshiping Cthulhu and the old one can even be potential summoned in the adventure (if so the investigators die horribly of course).

Heck, here is the description of Father Dagon and Mother Hydra from the 7th edition CoC (2014) that says they lead the Deep Ones in their Cthulhu worship. I had the 4th edition (1989) but it said the same IIRC. So it is not exactly a new idea.

Paul Farquhar · 2026-04-16T10:44:25+0100

The main theme of Lovecraft is “everything you think you know is wrong”!

Paul Farquhar · 2026-04-16T10:54:55+0100

dave2008 said:
The idea being that deeps continue to grow as they age and become giants and leaders if they survive to ancient ages.

It's true for koi so it's not a huge stretch.

I think sahuagin are like this. Which begs the question "which of D&D's many Deep One copies is swimming towards Innsmouth in the picture?" Kua Toa, Locathah, Skum?

Edit: The art is inconsistent for all of these, but the large dorsal fin seems to be most commonly associated with the shark-like sahuagin.

LuisCarlos17f · 2026-04-16T12:25:42+0100

This makes me to remember a Spanish horror movie, "Dagon". It was the last role of Paco Rabal, a prestigious Spanish actor. I would publish the trailer here but maybe this wasn't for all audiences. It is easy to be found.

I don't mind if mr. Choochoo is the dark lord. Some members of the Marsh family could be demilords, or a new dark lord in a spin-off domain.

* Could this Innsmouth to be attacked by wereshark pirates?

* The Nameless City also could be other dark domain.

* I don't mind Lovecraft's canon. If I am the DM and I say "el chapulin colorado" can defeat certain Hollywood monster or slasher thanks the rose of Guadalupe then this happens.

Paul Farquhar · 2026-04-16T12:45:44+0100

LuisCarlos17f said:
This makes me to remember a Spanish horror movie, "Dagon".

Good movie. Actually based on Shadows over Innsmouth.

LuisCarlos17f said:
Could this Innsmouth to be attacked by wereshark pirates?

I mean, it might happen in my game, but may seem a bit silly for many players. Were- anything other than than wolf tends to be taken as a joke, and pirates tend not to be taken seriously either.

LuisCarlos17f said:
* The Nameless City also could be other dark domain.

I've never read that one, but the summary sound like very standard D&D fare. I'm not sure there is enough stuff-not-already-in-D&D to make a domain out of it.

Could drop it as a dungeon into Ankh Tea Pot's domain, and have the PCs find the mist talisman for Innsmouth, or a certain book. Yuan-Ti as the monsters.

wicked cool · 2026-04-16T15:03:23+0100

Paul Farquhar said:
An interesting question. I would say it certainly needs an early 20th century Americana feel to it. As I suggested earlier, I think they may try and make it Stephen King-land as well as Lovecraft-land. Lovecraft can be fun, but it isn't really scary for a modern audience, whereas King is. And Welcome to Derry is currently popular on TV, and is both King and Cosmic Horror. And uses 20th Century America (New England) as it's setting. Stranger Things and Sinners also use 20th C America. I believe Wednesday is supposed to be set in New England (but 21st century).

Now, is anyone going to try and phone Washington DC? That I doubt, and we can get into how Ravenloft actually works for that. Does it scoop up lands from the material planes, leaving a patch of bare earth where Barovia used to be? Or does it fashion domains from Shadowfell material to create a familiar environment for it's zoo? I would go for a bit of both. I would suggest that this is not the real (fictional) Innsmouth, that lies on the mainland coast of real world New England. It's a copied environment to house it's captives. I've never been to New England but I believe it has a number of large inhabited islands off it's coast. The advantage of an island location is they tend to be isolated, without access to the latest modern technology. A comparable Island I have been to is Shetland.

Oh, take a look at the old Doctor Who story Carnival of Monsters and compare Ravenloft to the miniscope if you can access it.

Love the 3rd dr!

The Glen · 2026-04-16T15:05:37+0100

It's just confirms my suspicions that Massachusetts is a domain of dread

Remathilis · 2026-04-16T15:07:06+0100

The Glen said:
It's just confirms my suspicions that Massachusetts is a domain of dread

I always said Maine was, based on King

wicked cool · 2026-04-16T15:14:07+0100

This seems like a very easy conversion
Instead of a bus it’s a wagon etc etc. how many d&d inspired adventures already have towns that are cutoff/suspicious with evil cultists etc. whoever got the writing project for this was probably done a lot quicker than their peers
Massachusetts is full of real towns like this. Wotc could do a trip to Salem and have the witch trials! Take stories from Poe that probably 1/2 of people playing d&d under 20 have never read