D&D 5E Ravenloft Previews of Dementlieu, Lamordia, and Har'Akir

WotC has been sprinkling previews of individual Ravenloft domains to various websites -- including Dementlieu, Lamordia, and Har'Akir. Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft is only a couple of weeks away, coming out on May 18th!

Dementlieu​

• Forbes takes a look Dementlieu, which has inspirations like Cinderella, The Masque of the Red Death, and Dark City. "Dementlieu is one of over 30 domains of dread detailed in the book. It’s a sharp contrast to Barovia’s dark forest and looming Gothic castle on a hill. Instead it’s covered in a glamorous sheen of fine clothes and fancy parties. Everyone is dying to be invited to the Grand Masquerade held by Duchess Saidra d’Honaire every week on her private island. And, in many cases, killed if they are discovered at the ball if they’re not supposed to be there."
• Syfy Wire looks at Lamordia, inspired by Frankenstein. "Many of the Domains of Dread are inspired by some horror tale or piece of creepy folklore, and Lamordia definitely has its roots in Frankenstein. But while the Domain is inspired by that classic horror story, its elements are then shot through the lens of D&D adventures and explored to dozens of horrific extremes. Mordenheim's land isn't just about resurrection gone awry, it's also the Domain for all different types of science gone wrong, bizarre experiments, body horror weirdness, and grim tales of society versus a frigid land. Just as there's more to Frankenstein than a scientist who abandoned his child, there's more to Lamordia than stitches and semi-dead flesh."
• Polygon has Har'Akir, an Egyptian-themed domain. "Why is there a Domain that is a desert that is riddled with these ancient, inexplicable haunted monuments and ruined pyramids? How does a Domain like that exist? How does it make sense? To an extent it doesn’t, and it’s going to be the players that come and explore that, who are some of the only people that realize that the entirety of the domain is, to an extent, gaslighting them."

Ankhetop, darklord of Har'Akir

​

 

[Hussar]

Honestly, I think this pretty much makes all the points I was trying (and apparently failing) to make, and 1000 times funnier than I can hope to be:

 

[JEB]

It means that WotC adjusting lore to better fit the times is not a big deal. They still have a cool IP that folks like. It's more like the way adaptations are treated. Sure, some people were mad when the X-Men films came out because of the changes from the source material, but the majority of the target audience enjoyed them (well, X1 and X2 anyway...).

Adjusting the lore, sure. But there are changes in the spirit of the original, and changes that aren't.

Going to your example, the X-Men films certainly changed things from the source material... but generally seemed true to it even if the specific details changed. If Wolverine had been a completely different character from the original, for example - say an adorably scrappy animal sidekick - some fans would have been reasonably upset, and having the same name as the original character would make his reception worse, not better. Even if some people liked the new, cute Wolverine on his own merits, it would likely have been seen as a misstep.

But as I said, we'll see with Ravenloft in a few weeks. Many of the previews suggest sweeping changes with a deep skepticism of major elements of the original... but we won't know if they hit the right spot until we read it for ourselves.

 

[NaturalZero]

The first full DnD campaign I ever participated in was a Ravenloft game I DMed back in the summer of 2003. I had all of the 2e Ravenloft material in the 90s and had been a fan long before I ever actually played.

I have a feeling that there is a good portion of the customer base like me - I'm familiar with the setting but I'm looking forward to seeing it rebooted with a fresh perspective on old themes instead of relying heavily regurgitated tropes.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Rime of the Frost Maiden - Necropolis of Ythryn

Technically, Ythryn isn't a burial site, despite it being referred to as a necropolis. RotFM does have an elven burial site and a tomb of a frost giant queen for players to desecrate though.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah, the Brendan Fraser movies were very popular, and the Universal Monster movies still get play.

People make allowances for historical media, whilst still expecting higher standards from contemporary media.

 

[TheSword]

Honestly, I think this pretty much makes all the points I was trying (and apparently failing) to make, and 1000 times funnier than I can hope to be:

That was funny! Also kept things in perspective.

 

[Hussar]

What kind of baffles me in these threads is that people act like this is something coming out of left field. WotC has consistently stated that it is devoted to making the game more inclusive and excising the more problematic elements from the game. This started in 2014 with the PHB having non-gendered language in the character description section. It's been just short of seven years now and every single book they've published since that time has had more and more inclusive language in it and an eye out for problematic elements.

Have they been 100% successful? Nope. They've made mistakes. But, no one can claim that they aren't making the attempt.

We've been going round and round on this (for example, this thread: D&D 5E - 5e's new gender policy - is it attracting new players? ) for years now. At what point are people going to get the message?

 

[Reynard]

Technically, Ythryn isn't a burial site, despite it being referred to as a necropolis. RotFM does have an elven burial site and a tomb of a frost giant queen for players to desecrate though.

It's D&D. You can take my tomb raiding and grave robbing from my unironically cold dead hands.

 

[Necrozius]

Well I was on the fence about this one but now I’m in. If I want to reintroduce old stuff I can dust off my old books anyway. Some of them have nice maps I can use with this new book.

As far as mood... well that’s in the hands of the DM, honestly. I can telegraph whatever I want to the players. I may be at odds with some of the design choices but so many others are pretty good, actually.

You can bet that I’ll be printing off scans of that glorious black and white Stephen Fabian art for my custom DM screen.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I agree. But, it does make any discussion largely pointless as any criticism, no matter how mild, is immediately seen as an attack on the person. Which is totally not meant. But, the tendency to conflate personal taste with objective value is very prevalent.

Not at all. I am not going to get into the full discussion with you again, because the threads been derailed enough. But your posts routinely attack the posters who say they like old tropes, or who defend old movies. @Charlaquin I might disagree strongly with on some points, but has responded to what I've said (which is why I felt fine just letting @Charlaquin have the last word in our exchange on this topic). You stepped beyond that and told us we were advocating horrible things. And you did it in a way that very much called our characters into question. It wasn't 'well this is critical analysis and it is meant to do this'. It was "this is how it is, there is no other way, and if you persist in arguing what you are arguing for, you are arguing for racism" (and that is probably a mild characterization of your post). I'm just done with this nonsense (and it isn't becomes I am regressive or racist, or want to advocate for racism or anything stupid like that: its because I disagree with you about movies and media, and how to contextualize and understand old tropes). What started out as something well intentioned is just becoming repressive at this point