Season 4 Curse of Strahd and Adventurers League

[kalani]

It depends on which domain you are in... Most of them are gothic in nature, but a few of them border on lovecraftian (the shadow rift comes to mind)

Also, while most of the Darklords are supernatural in nature, they are outwardly human. While rumors about their nature may abound, most citizens of a domain genuinely believe the darklords themselves to be little more than benevolent humans. In fact, Ravenloft has such a human-centric focus that non-humans are extremely rare (with the majority of non-human characters being natives of other worlds). Only a handful of domains feature nonhumans with any frequency (Sithicus being one of them with its population of elves and kender).

At its heart, Ravenloft has always been about the monster beneath the skin. In fact, several dark lords are 100% human except for their immortality (a gift/curse of the Dark Powers). IIRC, there are even a handful of mortal dark lords but they tend to control small islands of terror for the most part.

Many of the characters from Edgar Poe would fit in seemlessly into Ravenloft, as would the more human antagonists in Lovecraftian lore. Characters like Faust will also find themselves perfectly at home in the demiplane of Dread.

 

[Steve_MND]

Or, if you're the only one who played the adventures out of order, you clearly already are well-aware of the groups in your area and what adventures they're running on a regular basis.

I love the fact that people out there actually have more than one "group" in their local area that is interested in AL, or that people have the time and luxury to schedule stuff as opposed to trying to grab something when it occurs. But please keep in mind that many of us don't have that luxury, or have schedules that will likely mesh online, or have a large variety of options on what and when we can play specific things. That was the defining draw of Organized Play campaigns like this: their portability and modularity. The fact that you weren't constrained to a particular order, etc., and could grab stuff on an a-la-carte basis as the opportunity arose to play it.

 

[kalani]

To put things into perspective, here are a handful of the more well known darklords.

Adam (Lamordia): He is known as Mordenheims Monster, and is an extremely sentient and cunning Flesh Golem, based strongly off Frankensteins monster. Dr. Mordenheim himself shares Adam's immortality, and the two are inextricably linked.

Azalin Rex (Darkon): A powerful Lich who is cursed with the inability to learn even the simplest spell he did not already know. He maintains an outward appearance of humanity, cloaking himself in powerful illusions supplemented by mundane disguises. I personally feel that in many cases, he resembles Faust - a thirst for power at any cost, and a recklessness which gets him into trouble.

Kas the Bloody Hand

Vecna

Hazlik (Hazlan): A powerful Red Wizard, who seeks to cheat death. He is very apolitical, but one of the most powerful spellcasters in Ravenloft. He opened an academy of magecraft within his domain called the Red Academy.

Ivana Boristi (Borca): After her mother seduced her lover, and had him slain by poison for adultery, Ivana poisoned her mother to death becoming Darklord of Borca. She is believed barren, and full of vitriol and venom, although rumors persist that she sired (and abandoned) an illegitimate daughter. I personally know very little about Ivana myself, as I never adventured in Borca nor read novels about her.

Sir Tristen Hiregaard/Malken (Nova Vassa): Essentially a Jeckyll/Hyde character who IIRC is immortal. I have the novel about his fall on my shelf (called The Enemy Within).

There are others, but I forget who they are at this time.

 

[Pauper]

As an adventuring locale, the Shadow Rift could have been lifted straight out of Lord Dunsany -- it's pretty firmly in the Gothic tradition, in my book. The Darklord, Gwydion, is somewhat Lovecraftian, in the sense that he, like all the shadow fey, is ultimately inhuman and alien in both its appearance and motivations; if you want to say that makes him a cousin to Cthulhu, I won't argue too much.

My vote for 'most Lovecraftian' domain is probably Timor, the domain that exists below the isolated city-domain of Peridon and is ruled by a monstrosity that was not only once human, but willingly accepted her fate to become the ruler of the domain. A close second would be Bluetspur, the mind-flayer domain.

My favorite domain and darklord, though, is Scaena, ruled by playwright Lemot Sediam Juste. Scaena is a single theater, which Juste can turn into anything he can imagine through the supernatural magic of an ancient pen he discovered. As a pocket domain, Scaena can appear in any other domain, or even a regular campaign world (hint for upcoming AL players!). Unlike most darklords, Juste can leave Scaena whenever he chooses; he seldom does, however, because his curse leads him to believe that everything he encounters outside Scaena is equally unreal and his own creation. I should keep working on my writeup of Scaena for Fifth Edition, in the event Ravenloft joins the Forgotten Realms on the DMs Guild.

Other favorite darklords:

Elena Faith-Hold: the righteous ruler of a domain, the Dark Powers have twisted her paladin sense so that her 'detect evil' ability instead detects powerful emotion. She is unaware of this change, however, leading to tragic results. (I've also tweaked Elena for my own Ravenloft campaign, but that one I'll keep to myself.)

Dominic D'Honaire: the ultimate mastermind and power behind the throne; I thought it was cool when the Third Edition Ravenloft Setting brought Dominic into opposition with The Living Brain, with the implication that, if the latter succeeded in ousting Dominic from his position of dominance, it would also inherit his lordship over Dementlieu.

The Nightmare Court: A group of supernatural beings that rules over another Lovecraftian domain, this one a twisted version of Lovecraft's Dreamlands. Bonus points for using an insane asylum as a portal into the domain after it split off from the Core and became an Island of Terror.

Have a soft spot for Azalin Rex as well, not least of which because when the Kargatane website was running during Third Edition, someone had the brilliant idea to give Azalin an account and have him be responsible for answering Ravenloft rules questions. In-character!

--
Pauper

 

[kalani]

Nice. I was not aware of that detail, but then again - I didn't follow the Kargatane (I just read the novels, and owned both the 2E box sets, 2E rulebooks, Masque of the Red Death Box set, Necropolis spinoff, and also the 3.5 rulebooks from S&S, a subsidiary of WW).

 

[Tyranthraxus]

My fave is still Ankhtepot (because of my love of all things Egyptian Mythology). I find his realm just as interesting as him

I used Fakolvnia as the centre realm in my long running game. I have mixed views on Vlad Drakov. Mainly because in my campaign the heroes killed him, but also because I let my campaign get to that point.

 

[Pauper]

If I were going to start a 5E Ravenloft campaign, I'd either start it in Falkovnia or have it be the first big 'low-level' adventuring zone -- there's spots for the weird and supernatural to poke through, but the main evil is just people, and the darklord is both one of the weakest and one of the most intimidating in Ravenloft.

In the 5E Ravenloft Gazetteer that exists almost entirely in my head, the protagonist starts out in Dementlieu, but spends much of his early 'adventuring' career in Falkovnia, when the latest Falkovnian war goes utterly awry as the Dark Powers break up the Core and many Falkovnian troops intended for the Borcan front end up in other domains.

--
Pauper

 

[MonsterEnvy]

To put things into perspective, here are a handful of the more well known darklords.

Adam (Lamordia): He is known as Mordenheims Monster, and is an extremely sentient and cunning Flesh Golem, based strongly off Frankensteins monster. Dr. Mordenheim himself shares Adam's immortality, and the two are inextricably linked.

Azalin Rex (Darkon): A powerful Lich who is cursed with the inability to learn even the simplest spell he did not already know. He maintains an outward appearance of humanity, cloaking himself in powerful illusions supplemented by mundane disguises. I personally feel that in many cases, he resembles Faust - a thirst for power at any cost, and a recklessness which gets him into trouble.

Kas the Bloody Hand

Vecna

Hazlik (Hazlan): A powerful Red Wizard, who seeks to cheat death. He is very apolitical, but one of the most powerful spellcasters in Ravenloft. He opened an academy of magecraft within his domain called the Red Academy.

Ivana Boristi (Borca): After her mother seduced her lover, and had him slain by poison for adultery, Ivana poisoned her mother to death becoming Darklord of Borca. She is believed barren, and full of vitriol and venom, although rumors persist that she sired (and abandoned) an illegitimate daughter. I personally know very little about Ivana myself, as I never adventured in Borca nor read novels about her.

Sir Tristen Hiregaard/Malken (Nova Vassa): Essentially a Jeckyll/Hyde character who IIRC is immortal. I have the novel about his fall on my shelf (called The Enemy Within).

There are others, but I forget who they are at this time.

Well Strahd himself stands out as one of the Dark Lords.

Vecna the Lich is also famous as one of the only Dark Lords to ever escape the Demiplanes of Dread. Vecna is pretty impressive period having once taken on and out gambited the Lady of Pain.

Anyway looking forward to this stuff.

 

[Eltab]

I think AL officials should locate and talk to the _Ashes of Athas_ staff before they set up another Season which is going to have difficulties integrating long-term characters.

Ravenloft, like Dark Sun, is so different from FR that planes-hopping is contra-indicated. Setting-specific characters provide more depth and richness to the experience, compared to "I'm just an accidental tourist here; could you show me the way back to the interstate on-ramp, please?".

 

[CapnZapp]

No, the defining feature of Ravenloft is that you are an accidental tourist.

Feel free to desire a self-contained campaign setting, but stop pretending that's the default way of looking at Ravenloft, or even the main way.

Ravenloft isn't like Dark Sun in this regard, no matter how much you want it to be.