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.

 

[Indagare Nogitsune]

Maybe Cthulhu is tragic, but it is tragic in a way that your feeble mind and its concept of reality cannot comprehend.

Not just cosmic horror, but a fair bit of body horror also. The Innsmith look, does your character have it? Perhaps that grandfather of yours wasn't quite truthful about why he arrived in town with your father as a baby but your grandmother couldn't make it. Perhaps she is still here in Innsmouth waiting for you. Can you hear the call of the waves?

Wouldn't this be related to the Skum?

 

[Corinnguard]

Maybe Cthulhu is tragic, but it is tragic in a way that your feeble mind and its concept of reality cannot comprehend.

Not just cosmic horror, but a fair bit of body horror also. The Innsmith look, does your character have it? Perhaps that grandfather of yours wasn't quite truthful about why he arrived in town with your father as a baby but your grandmother couldn't make it. Perhaps she is still here in Innsmouth waiting for you. Can you hear the call of the waves?

There are also the Deep One Hybrids in PF1.

Deep One Hybrid – d20PFSRD

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Wouldn't this be related to the Skum?

Aboleth and their slaves are certainly based on Lovecraft stories (see older than the gods). It’s not uncommon for D&D to plagiarise the same source material several times over to create slightly different versions of the same thing. The original artwork for skum made them look like deep ones (and sahaugin, kua toa, loacanth etc). Their appearance was retconned in GoS to be more squidy.

I expect there will be aboleth in the Innsmouth domain - it includes plenty of ocean after all. Possibly as a rival faction to the (sahaugin based) Deep Ones. It seems reasonable to suppose that one or more of the PCs might be Deep One hybrids (it provides a reason for the PCs not to massacre the town at least), and whilst it isn't in as a playable species, you can do it with a modified version of the Second Skin Dark Gift (now a feat).

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Now I am thinking about Kthanid, the good brother of Mr Choochoo as a D&D deity. Do you imagine a subclass with aberration/monstruosity traits but in the side of the good guys? But Kthanid isn't public domain because it was created later by other author. Maybe WotC could create original new elder gods.

* Don't you miss the illithidae (cessarid, embrac, krigid and saltor)?

* Other creatures from the Far Realm should be updated are the cranyal encyster(Dragon #330). I think they are perfect for this Ravenloft 5.5.

And the Daeklyr half-blood.

Or a triton subrace who could enjoy aberration grafts style Fleshwrapper (3.5 prestige class).