D&D 5E Ravenloft Variants

[Davies]

This thread is designed to show off the various ways that you might change the published domains of Ravenloft to suit the campaigns that you want to have, plan to have, or are going to have.

Let me lead off with Variant Falkovnia.

Vladeska Drakov is acknowledged to be an odd duck among the Dark Lords of Ravenloft, since it's likely that PCs will, initially, be on board with her goals of defending Falkovnia from the zombies, until the lengths that she's willing to go and her unwillingness to even consider withdrawal become apparent. But there's more to it than that -- it's acknowledged that she has no control over the domain's borders, something not shared with any other detailed lord. Further, it doesn't seem to make sense that she can intercept spells that contact other planes (p. 63) since doing so would be seconds likely wasted.

So what's going on here? One answer is this -- Vladeska Drakov is a cruel and vicious being who is well past the point where anything can redeem her ... but she's not the Dark Lord of the domain.

Long ago, Drakov's forces -- notably not stated to have been she herself -- killed someone they shouldn't. For the purposes of this variant, we're calling this figure the Martyr. On their death, the Martyr was consoled by such powers as existed on their world with the fact that there would be justice for this death ... but this did not satisfy the Martyr. And so they used their remaining powers to turn every hand against the Falcon's Talons, driving them mad with vengeance. And madness is a poor substitute for clearheaded strategy, so the result was that many more people died in the name of that goal than might have, and Drakov ended up winning the war and reaching the verge of her ultimate victory. And so the Martyr pledged themselves to darkness in the name of their vengeance ... and the Mists took them both into Ravenloft.

Currently, the Martyr (treat as a revenant) is the Dark Lord of Falkovnia, and is directing wave after wave of zombies and other undead creatures at their enemy, shaping them to look like people from Drakov's past. No matter what, however, the Martyr has never been able to finally defeat Drakov, whose narrow escapes are gifts of the Dark Powers. PCs who investigate the zombie armies will be able to trace their origins back to the location of the Martyr, and might think that they can stop them by destroying the revenant. But this will fail, for there is only one way that the Martyr can be permanently destroyed -- they have to be captured, tried and executed by Vladeska Drakov, in the first step towards establishing her kingdom. Once that is done, Drakov will become the Dark Lord in truth, gain all the powers -- and the torments -- of being the ruler of Falkovnia.

And she couldn't have done it without you. Isn't that nice?

Dedicated to the memory of Kentaro Miura

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

I like this. What's better than torturing one person? Two people. Two people who, given the chance, will be blindly tied to a circle of warfare and despair forever. And not having control over the borders? Makes sense - why build walls when her own need to be victorious makes a far better prison? I need to get off my butt and go get this.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

My own idea of a variant domain is Sithicus, but the alternate timeline where Raistlin became the supreme god but causing the apocalypse. Here his half-irdadaughter from other alternate timeline offers him a solution, allowing the arrive of "planar refugees" from the other timeline where the king-priest Istar became a supreme gold also. These settlers are welcome, but this "Sithicus" has got a great population of unholy creatures and "cleaning zones" is a hard and dangerous work.

 

[Stormonu]

I really have trouble seeing Ivan getting any use as portrayed, so I present altered Ivan Dilisnya.

Ivan's past remains the same - a childish soul in an aged man's body. However, Ivan's fetish with clockworks and his loneliness has resulted in him creating clockwork versions of individuals that populate his estate. However, in his intellectual arrogance, the flat personalities these clockworks possess are simply one-dimensional interpretations of how Ivan perceived the original, tweaked so that they fawn over him. He has created clockwork copies of his parents (in their prime years), his favorite servants - a snide but wise butler, a maid he had a crush upon before he killed her, facsimiles of lesser household staff with no personality, and copies of several childhood friends in their adult years (before he grew tired of them and murdered them). His most striking facsimile is a clockwork version of his sister (at approximately age 12, though with adult personality) that he is most fond of, and which contains enough of the original personality that it eventually rebels against him before he must shut it down and reprogram it.

Ivan uses clockworks to deliver his messages or execute his orders from afar, ranging from stealthy clockwork gnomes (child-like and fey in appearance) who carry out his twisted edicts and the clockwork hawks that deliver his messages. Ivan has these clockwork spies scattered throughout Borca, and the clockwork gnomes report back to him when they discover individuals who meet specific criteria Ivan considers "interesting". Once Ivan becomes interested in an individual, he tends to go through a four-fold stage desire to meet them:

Stage One - Observation The targeted individual is stealthily observed by one of Ivan's clockworks. The clockwork keeps its distance, but may intercede in matters to assist the target without their knowledge - Ivan may have it buy and secretly deliver minor gifts to the target, or quietly deal with bullies, lovers or other individuals that might have strong feelings towards the target.

Stage Two - Pen pals. After a week or two of observation, Ivan eventually has the clockwork reveal itself and that he is the master of the clockwork. If possible, Ivan begins a pen pal relationship with the target, writing notes and letters to the individual and expecting same-day correspondence from the individual. At first, these missives are well-thought out and worded, but as either Ivan's letters are responded to or rejected, his writing becomes more disturbing. Ivan's selfishness begins to rise to the fore in the letters, and his excitement (or rage) grows, he begins to first skip words and then entire sentences and paragraphs as his intellect races ahead of his ability to put the words to pen. Quickly, Ivan begins to believe that the target is so in tune with his own thoughts, that he need not explicitly express them for his target to understand his desires and motives.

Stage Three - Obsession. At this point, Ivan becomes so obsessed with the target, he begins to seek to push away any others from the target that may distract them from interacting exclusively with Ivan. Ivan begins a campaign to drive away the friends and relatives of the target, turning the target to depend and trust only Ivan, as their "one true friend". Ivan will use his clockworks in these endevours, and is not above killing, maiming, framing or otherwise inflicting harm on those the target cares about to force the target to seek solace in Ivan's "friendship".

Stage Four - Consumption. Eventually, Ivan seeks to have the individual brought before him for a personal meeting. Whether by abduction or invitation, the individual is brought to Ivan's estate where a grand celebration is planned and executed by the staff. The celebration is meant to show off Ivan's superior intellect and always concludes with a meeting with his sister's golem, "alone" - where Ivan can observe the interaction. Regardless of the results of the interaction, Ivan reveals himself afterward and uses the results to justify "integrating" the target into his circle of "friends". This invariably means killing the target and creating a clockwork copy from the information he has gleaned. At this point, the only hope the target may have of escaping their fate is getting Ivan's clockwork sister on their side, who will attempt to intervene in Ivan's plans (and the clockwork sister's possible destruction - though Ivan will rebuild her at some later point).

Adventures with Ivan

1 - A local luminary has become the focal point of strange events; it turns out Ivan has decided to "befriend" the individual
2 - One of Ivan's clockworks has gone rogue and is running amok, causing mayhem in a local community
3 - A well-liked individual has gone missing, and strange notes have been found in their residence. A clockwork has abducted the individual, and the race is on to recover the individual before they are taken to the Degravo estate
4 - A young child is saved from accidental drowning in the local well by one of Ivan's clockworks. The clockwork remains afterward, acting as an overprotective bodyguard that all too willingly follows the selfish child's orders.
5 - The characters receive an invitation to a Degravo estate party in celebration of a local's coming-of-age. However, Ivan is planning to kill and replace the attendees with clockworks as a show of affection for the local celebrant.
6 - An individual approaches the party, asking for their aid in protecting a loved one from attacks by one of Ivan's clockworks
7 - A missing individual returns home with no memory of where they have been. They act slightly off-kilter until it is revealed they are, in fact, a disguised clockwork replacement
8 - Ivan's clockwork sister has escaped Degravo estate and pleads with the characters to help her keep from being recaptured

Ivan's clockworks

Ivan contemplates his next move

 

[TheSword]

This thread is designed to show off the various ways that you might change the published domains of Ravenloft to suit the campaigns that you want to have, plan to have, or are going to have.

Let me lead off with Variant Falkovnia.

Vladeska Drakov is acknowledged to be an odd duck among the Dark Lords of Ravenloft, since it's likely that PCs will, initially, be on board with her goals of defending Falkovnia from the zombies, until the lengths that she's willing to go and her unwillingness to even consider withdrawal become apparent. But there's more to it than that -- it's acknowledged that she has no control over the domain's borders, something not shared with any other detailed lord. Further, it doesn't seem to make sense that she can intercept spells that contact other planes (p. 63) since doing so would be seconds likely wasted.

So what's going on here? One answer is this -- Vladeska Drakov is a cruel and vicious being who is well past the point where anything can redeem her ... but she's not the Dark Lord of the domain.

Long ago, Drakov's forces -- notably not stated to have been she herself -- killed someone they shouldn't. For the purposes of this variant, we're calling this figure the Martyr. On their death, the Martyr was consoled by such powers as existed on their world with the fact that there would be justice for this death ... but this did not satisfy the Martyr. And so they used their remaining powers to turn every hand against the Falcon's Talons, driving them mad with vengeance. And madness is a poor substitute for clearheaded strategy, so the result was that many more people died in the name of that goal than might have, and Drakov ended up winning the war and reaching the verge of her ultimate victory. And so the Martyr pledged themselves to darkness in the name of their vengeance ... and the Mists took them both into Ravenloft.

Currently, the Martyr (treat as a revenant) is the Dark Lord of Falkovnia, and is directing wave after wave of zombies and other undead creatures at their enemy, shaping them to look like people from Drakov's past. No matter what, however, the Martyr has never been able to finally defeat Drakov, whose narrow escapes are gifts of the Dark Powers. PCs who investigate the zombie armies will be able to trace their origins back to the location of the Martyr, and might think that they can stop them by destroying the revenant. But this will fail, for there is only one way that the Martyr can be permanently destroyed -- they have to be captured, tried and executed by Vladeska Drakov, in the first step towards establishing her kingdom. Once that is done, Drakov will become the Dark Lord in truth, gain all the powers -- and the torments -- of being the ruler of Falkovnia.

And she couldn't have done it without you. Isn't that nice?

Dedicated to the memory of Kentaro Miura

Love this! Bonus points if having helped Vladeska take power and therefore become the new Darklord the PCs leave for more adventures only to return later and find themselves on the other foot helping the martyr get revenge for Vladeska’s wickedness.

I did a similar thing in curse of Strahd. The PCs

Spoiler: spoiler for curse of strahd

Assisted Lady Wachter overthrow Baron Vallaki who was seen as a mad tyrant with his “all is well” catchphrase. Lady Wachter offered to help them if the PCs got rid of the Barons enforcer, leaving him exposed in exchange she gave them each a ring of mind shielding to protect them from the evils of ravenloft.

The PCs helped and lured the enforcer to the Amber Temple. Though when they returned, Lady Wachter’s devil worshippers had taken over the town and were hunting for anyone disloyal to Strahd. A great sacrifice was being offered of the Baron and his family which the party partly prevented. The rings were actually crafted by Strahd himself as gifts for the Wachter line, but actually made the wearer vulnerable to strahds powers. It was a cool reversal finding all this out, and defeating the Wachters that the PCs had helped get to power.”