D&D Beyond teases Project Lamordia, a modern reinterpretation of Ravenloft

D&D Beyond has released a teaser video for Project Lamordia, a new adventure that reimagines Ravenloft's Domain of Dread Lamordia into a private technology company. An article, since pulled from D&D Beyond, hinted that Project Lamordia would be a Level 1-Level 3 adventure that uses character options from Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. In keeping with the horror theme of the adventure, there would also be options to create “citizen” characters (aka Level 0 characters) that allow the players to explore a survival horror theme more closely.

Lamordia is traditionally a Ravenloft Domain of Dread that borrows heavily from Frankenstein. While originally ruled over by Adam, a creation of Dr. Victor Mordenheim, the Domain’s lore was updated so that its Darklord was Dr. Viktra Mordenheim, who resurrected her lost love Alice using an artificial heart. Viktra Mordenheim will be featured in Project Lamordia as a genius technologist obsessed with ending death.

The full Project Lamordia will be released on October 13th. In the meantime, enjoy this teaser video.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah, well it's not like even if the 2E Ravenloft writers got the themes correct that any of the playerbase was going to then use them correctly. The playerbase for the most part would be even more clueless about it than the designers would have been. So nothing was really lost by using pastiche as a backdrop for kids and adults to recreate some of their favorite horror stories in gaming form.

It lost me, on account of not being clueless, and resenting being treated as if I was. I didn’t play D&D for a long time after buying 2e Ravenloft.

 

[Gradine]

My hot take is that Ravenloft makes for an excellent adventure, but has in every attempt been incredibly lackluster as a full setting

 

[LordLothar]

My hot take is that Ravenloft makes for an excellent adventure, but has in every attempt been incredibly lackluster as a full setting

I agree, that's why i like the "isle of terror" of 5e more then then the setting in 2e

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Now I am thinking about how would be a Ravenloft-mash-up version of forgotten Hanna-Barbera titles: Goober and the Ghost Chasers, the Funky Phanton and the Clue Club, following the style of the comic line "Scooby-Doo apocalypse".

How would be R.L.Stine writting a soft-horror "Goosebump" story set in "Risibilos", the pocket domain where the humorless (and mute) king Doerdon and Pucheron, the annoying dumb with the shape of Strahd von Zarovich?

The theme of Lamordia is that science without ethical limits can create monsters, and for lots of people the main lesson of Mary Shelly's novel is we should't use the science to play to be God.

The 5e Ravenloft has been designed players can live adventures but where the dark lords weren't the monster of the week. It is like Albert Wesker in Resident Evil. He is an important character but this doesn't mean you have to face him always.

* How would be a reimagination of Diamabel and Pharazia style Frank Herbert's Dune saga?

 

[Chaderick]

To be fair, they didn't just swap the doctor and monster's genders, they changed the nature of the obsession.

Victor, in classic Frankenstein fashion, is obsessed with creating life. Adam is the rejected son who never knows love and lashes out. Victor devotes y the rest of his time to saving his love and Adam spend his time ruining Victors life for spite and lulz.

Viktra is a obsessed with preserving life. She creates the unbreakable heart which saves her lovers life, but her inability to replicate the feat drives her to the ultimate conclusion: she must kill Elise to recover the heart to see why it worked and nothing else has. So Elise is running for her life against a doctor who cannot accept that her greatest accomplishment was a fluke and not her genius.

Victor is the classic "man makes life without woman, is bad parent" story that is the heart of every Frankenstein knock off. Viktra is a story of someone who cannot get over her greatest achievement and will do anything to duplicate it, even drive off the person she loved and saved to do it. I find Viktra a far more monstrous darklord and the lengths she is willing to go to far more unsettling than Victor. Of all the redone dark lords, she is the one I feel was the best redo.

I feel this modern Lamordia project is going to dive into the idea of medical breakthroughs, especially in the area of longevity, amoral science and experimentation, and obsession and madness. I hope it's good.

This has been my experience. When 2e came along, my Forgotten Realms campaign started dipping into it. Eventually, that campaign became a Ravenloft campaign. We're still at it to this day. When my players encountered the 5e version of Lamordia, and Viktra, it quickly became apparent that everyone saying, "They just gender swapped the Darklord," weren't taking into account how much else changed. Running Viktra as the villain for most of this past year has revealed a lot more meat on the bone than a lot of folks give the new setting credit for.

I originally assumed it would play like OG Lamordia. It really, really, REALLY does not.

That said, after a year spent in Lamordia with my ongoing campaign, this tease for a modern take on the domain is intriguing...

 

[bedir than]

It's live today. I haven't purchased it, so I can't look at more than the table of contents, but an interesting note from the Table of Contents is that it lists Skeleton Key Games (a WotC video game studio) as part of the creative team

 

[TravDoc42]

I've grabbed it, but I'm also working today, so I'll send deets when I can!
I do think the return of "Gothic Earth" is neat!!

 

[Remathilis]

I've grabbed it, but I'm also working today, so I'll send deets when I can!
I do think the return of "Gothic Earth" is neat!!

Can you spoil the contents?

5 monsters
4 backgrounds
4 feats
1 species

 

[TravDoc42]

Can you spoil the contents?

5 monsters
4 backgrounds
4 feats
1 species

The 5 monsters are all varieties of constructs found in Mordenheim Kinetics: Echoes (3 kinds) and Created (both are types of humanoid construct), and K-Nine attack droids (a reference to modern robot dogs in war), along with stat blocks for the major NPCs (including Adam!). They also have details for modifying stat blocks to make more creations!

The species is the Reborn, with details for working it in Gothic Earth!

I'll be back to update on the other aspects soon!

 

[Remathilis]

The 5 monsters are all varieties of constructs found in Mordenheim Kinetics: Echoes (3 kinds) and Created (both are types of humanoid construct), and K-Nine attack droids (a reference to modern robot dogs in war), along with stat blocks for the major NPCs (including Adam!). They also have details for modifying stat blocks to make more creations!

The species is the Reborn, with details for working it in Gothic Earth!

I'll be back to update on the other aspects soon!

Ah damn, gonna have to get this I see...