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.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

all of your posts are about how a player can decide that unilaterally

Of course. The player decides on their character’s background, what is familiar and unfamiliar to them, the sort of things they are afraid of, their emotional state etc. all that stuff is in the player’s domain and is off limits to the DM, just as it’s the DM’s domain to populate the world, run NPCs etc.

The DM doesn’t get to tell the player how to play their character. That’s called toxic DMing.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

It's true that technology needs spare parts, electricity, or fuel for engines, and it's very difficult for a population to be technologically independent and self-sufficient, but let's not forget that the artificers are canon in Ravenloft 5.5. But the no-magic tecnology could suffer a serious handicap in Ravenloft, not only the "spirits in the machines" with sabotager or tech-breaker gremlins like the creature from the 2020 movie "Shadow in the Cloud"

Or maybe there are other problems with modern technology in Ravenloft...

• Bluespur is a dark domain with a Lovecraftian domain but it is more like place to be visited only once, and too dangerous for low-level PCs.
• Could Avacyn(Innistrad) to reappear in Ravenloft? Or somebody who believed to be her reaincarnation.

* Do you remember the board game "Cthulhu: Death may die"?

 

[tetrasodium]

Of course. The player decides on their character’s background, what is familiar and unfamiliar to them, the sort of things they are afraid of, their emotional state etc. all that stuff is in the player’s domain and is off limits to the DM, just as it’s the DM’s domain to populate the world, run NPCs etc.

The DM doesn’t get to tell the player how to play their character. That’s called toxic DMing.

You are ignoring the fatal flaw in your point and the fact that you needed to selectively quote the post you were responding to makes it look like you are aware that it's not reasonable for a player to expect that they have executive authority over the world itself.

The fact that some players very strongly hold such views is why the old ravenloft campaign setting book had a section on altered magic that said This about PC race/class/feat/skill/etc changes

First, "Races" reintroduces humans and the
nonhuman races, explaining their roles in Ravenloft
society.
Next, "Classes" details how the Mists affect
each of the Player's Handbook adventuring classes
and suggests roles they often fill in Ravenloft
campaigns.
"Skills" takes a new look at a few familiar skills
and adds the skill of Hypnosis.
The section that follows, "Feats," offers several
new abilities for characters to choose from. Heroes
in Ravenloft may be able to contact the spirit realm,
walk unnoticed among the living dead, or recall
knowledge from past lives.
Next, "Faiths" presents a sampling of
Ravenloft's most influential religions, including two
new cleric domains.
"Equipment" provides new gear available to the
heroes — and their foes.
Lastly, "Final Thoughts" offers a few
considerations toward shaping a hero's persona.

Followed by actual changes to those things so the system did the lifting for ensuring that PCs fit the setting. In a later chapter it said this on magic

This section details the limitations and conse—
quences of using magic under the cold gaze of the
Dark Powers. First, ”General Guidelines" presents
laws that the Dark Powers impose on all magic
and supernatural abilities.
Next, "Spells in Ravenloft" details the specific
changes affecting the spells from the Player's
Handbook.
"Altered Magic Items" follows with additional
general guidelines that apply to all magic items.
Lastly, "Magic Items in Ravenloft" offers the
specific changes made to the magic items and
artifacts from the Dungeon Master's Guide.

followed by actual changes to magic to fit the setting. This will be the third 5e ravenloft book however and the best wotc has given GMs is traits players are empowered to flatly ignore and circular tail chasing exercises like

Spoiler: vrgtr189

HORROR ThREATS
While horror traditionally nullifies heroes'
strengths, doing so can remove the players' agency
and undercut their enjoyment. Beyond the Dungeon
Master's Guide advice for creating dangerous en
counters, consider the following techniques to make
combat feel more menacing:
• Feature monsters that are immune to tactics char
acters often use but that are vulnerable to other
strategies the characters could employ.
• Have foes spend combat actions doing things that
are fundamentally creepy, like chanting to sinister
gods or regurgitating their last meal.
• Use another creature as the opening act for the
true threat. A notorious monster is all the scarier
when it emerges and rips apart something the
characters assumed was their true antagonist.
• Have foes play dead, only to "return to life" after
characters think things are safe.
• Make use of the techniques detailed in the "Hor
ror Monsters" section of chapter 5.
[/quote]

Where the first point crashes into the very brick wall you are claiming players are entitled to by virtue of coming from a fantasy world with their gear & so on despite saying little more than "we couldn't (or refuse to) figure it out, you fix it".

The second only works if the player believes the creatures involves are capable of being a meaningful threat, 5e lacks the mechanics for that to be true & none of the 5e ravenloft books put out so far have provided mechanics for that to change.

The third points to VRGTR233 where it says

Spoiler: this"

HORROR MONSTERS
For adventurers who regularly face terrifying mon
sters, it's easy for familiarity to sap the frightfulness
from terrible foes. Restoring mystery and menace
to even the most ordinary monsters can be a simple
matter, though, and enhances the atmosphere of
horror adventures. Six simple techniques can trans
form a stat block straight out of the Monster Manual
(or other source) into a horror to haunt your charac
ters' dreams:
Monstrous Origins. Monsters in Ravenloft can be
every bit as unique as player characters.
Notorious Monsters. A monster is more frightening
when its reputation precedes it.
Describing Monsters. Give yourself permission to
dwell on a monster's description.
Monstrous Tactics. Monsters that fight dirty-or in
a particularly fearsome way-have more impact.
Monstrous Traits. Simple tweaks to a monster's
stat block can enhance its horror.
Monstrous Minions. Simple traits can reflect a
monster's relationship to the evil master it serves.

where those points are little more than rephrasing of the first & third point from pg189 and still completely ineffective due to the problem of those monsters needing to be credible threats on a mechanical level.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

with their gear

Are you truly incapable of seeing the distinction between a character’s thoughts and a character’s equipment?

The second only works if the player believes the creatures involves are capable of being a meaningful threat

As I keep saying “threat” is not horror. It has nothing to do with horror. When people see a horror movie, there is no threat. Ergo, by your argument, it’s impossible for anyone to ever feel fear watching a horror movie.

No one dies in SoI. The protagonist is never in any danger, despite being a commoner.

 

[tetrasodium]

Are you truly incapable of seeing the distinction between a character’s thoughts and a character’s equipment?

Stop changing context with isolated snippets of isolated sentences. You couldn't even bother to quote the whole sentence

---

"Equipment" is not immune to being mechanically influenced by the world and how that equipment is influenced the world is a choice that rests squarely in the GM's authority rather than Being a thing players are entitled to unilaterally decide for their gm.

As I keep saying “threat” is not horror. It has nothing to do with horror. When people see a horror movie, there is no threat. Ergo, by your argument, it’s impossible for anyone to ever feel fear watching a horror movie.

This is an entirely different topic of ROLE play vrs ROLL play and is little more than a distraction from the mechanical issues being referenced in that sentence about credible threat. If a player can't even accept that the gm might have a vested interest in why the distinction matters when it comes to their role as a gm simply to engage in discussion with the gm then that player is an incredibly toxic influence undeserving of being so insulated from mechanical influence wotc's refusal to support the gm with mechanics players are not free to ignore like they are with trait based subsystems and useless suggestions to use monsters that don't exist.

 

[Remathilis]

Are you truly incapable of seeing the distinction between a character’s thoughts and a character’s equipment?

As I keep saying “threat” is not horror. It has nothing to do with horror. When people see a horror movie, there is no threat. Ergo, by your argument, it’s impossible for anyone to ever feel fear watching a horror movie.

No one dies in SoI. The protagonist is never in any danger, despite being a commoner.

If you are arguing with who I think you are (can't see) then it's pointless to try. His whole premise is that 5e encourages players to stomp on poor wittle DMs with invincible characters and 30 page backgrounds. It's the PLAYERS who are the real monsters!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

His whole premise is that 5e encourages players to stomp on poor wittle DMs with invincible characters and 30 page backgrounds

Not an issue specific to Ravenloft, or something that matters for doing horror, and not a problem if you ignore the encounter guidelines.

I noticed in the livestream the party has an NPC kid for the players to care about.

It's the PLAYERS who are the real monsters!

Ideal for Ravenloft! Someone just massacred an entire town of defenceless fish people!!

 

[Davy Greenwind]

With any horror medium, no one is going to feel scared unless they want to feel scared. They have to buy into it. The guy who goes through a haunted house with his arms crossed, not reacting, is not cool. He's doing something pointless.

In an RPG, characters can feel scared, or the players, or both. Mechanical risk of character death absolutely helps, but it's not totally necessary. Once I was DM'ing for level 18 characters. They were exploring a laboratory in Cania. They split up (perfect), and two of them got stuck in a room with a blind displacer beast, trying to find them with its tentacles. At level 18, they could have easily merc'ed it, but I had created an atmosphere of such tension and dread that they had more fun hiding from it.

 

[Remathilis]

Not an issue specific to Ravenloft, or something that m
Ideal for Ravenloft! Someone just massacred an entire town of defenceless fish people!!

"Won't somebody please think of the Deep Ones!"

 

[tetrasodium]

With any horror medium, no one is going to feel scared unless they want to feel scared. They have to buy into it. The guy who goes through a haunted house with his arms crossed, not reacting, is not cool. He's doing something pointless.

In an RPG, characters can feel scared, or the players, or both. Mechanical risk of character death absolutely helps, but it's not totally necessary. Once I was DM'ing for level 18 characters. They were exploring a laboratory in Cania. They split up (perfect), and two of them got stuck in a room with a blind displacer beast, trying to find them with its tentacles. At level 18, they could have easily merc'ed it, but I had created an atmosphere of such tension and dread that they had more fun hiding from it.

While true, there is the broader question of if gameplay where there is actual mechanical risk is even valid play or if indulging that arms crossed not reacting individual you note at the expense of everyone else at the table is reasonable or if the gm should be equipped with mechanical tools to support a play style with more risk.
Past editions decided that the answer was yes on the tools. So far 5e has defaulted to "homebrew it" while supplying every excuse to make that arms crossed individual be declared reasonable