D&D 5E Barovia's world

[77IM]

So apparently Barovia was enshrouded my mists, ripped from the world it was part of, and is now a demiplane.

Do we know anything about the world Barovia was once part of? Are there any supplements or Dragon articles about it? From reading Curse of Strahd I am getting a sense that this world was sort of a low-magic, low-monster world, where demihumans are uncommon in human lands, and closer to a Renaissance social and tech level. But do we know anything specific?

 

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Not that I am aware of, it was always been vague. It can be from anywhere from an official setting to a home brew operation. I always fiddle with it and make it from Earth.

 

[Gnarl45]

The world is called Ravenloft. It's an old campaign setting that dates back to the 2nd edition of D&D.

 

[pukunui]

The world is called Ravenloft. It's an old campaign setting that dates back to the 2nd edition of D&D.

Ravenloft predates the campaign setting. The original module was for 1e. Also, the campaign setting just covers the Domains of Dread and such, not the world from which Barovia originally came. I'm pretty sure that's always been left vague on purpose so DMs can make up their own minds.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Yep. The world from which Barovia was originally torn (or copied, according to some Ravenloft material) has never been named or largely detailed. It could be anywhere or anything, though the heavy implication is that it's not one of any of the official D&D settings.

Jeremy Crawford has made some comments on Twitter suggesting that he's run a campaign in Barovia's original world, but I don't know if it's based on any "behind the scenes" material that TSR or WotC never published, or just stuff he's homebrewed. Somebody ought to ask him one of these days.

 

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

I think Barovia is from the mountainous park of Nebraska.

 

[sim-h]

I'm toying with the idea of using 'real world' characters transported to Barovia if I run this - e.g. a french knight, a trainee ninja, a west african voodoo priest and a buddhist monk. They all stagger into the mists and find themselves....in Barovia! Only issue is the outrageous culture clash when they all meet each other

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

French Knight would have to multi class as a Bard to enable Vicious Mockery ("your muzzer was an 'amster...").

 

[Sunseeker]

Never been mentioned officially as far as I'm aware.

The Domains of Dread are areas the Mists have eaten over the thousands of years of demiplane's existence as far as I'm aware.

 

[Saeviomagy]

To me, barovia's original world would be far more interesting than Ravenloft, mainly because it should have some of the same levels of horror theme, but without the Deus ex that the mists represent.