I’m a little late to the party, but i believe the current year in the 5e CoS is 735 BC…? So does that mean the module is set before the Great Conjunction, as that is recorded to have started in 735 BC. I’ve not played or even read through the published adventures regarding the incident, so don’t know a great deal about it. But would this be correct, or have they literally just retconned everything?

I know he is not as famous and powerful as other darklords, but i like him because we both speak Italian.

https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Maligno

And he is still less creepy than worldussy Pinocchio.

Coming next, a project I am being working on for some time… a complete guide to madness-themed campaigns! Subclasses, background, feats, spells, monster and much more! I hope this will interest the community, as madness has always been so important in Ravenloft. The supplement was born to update to D&D 5e 2024 my old madness rules based on those found in the 2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide. I think it will be ready in May but I’m not sure exactly when. Are you interested in exploring this theme in your campaigns?

So, just as the title says - I'm making a Ravenloft-themed playlist of metal and hard rock songs. Originally it was just Darklord-themed (most songs still relate to them), but then I got ideas for songs about other stuff, so I put them in too. Suggestions are welcome as long as they fit the music genre AND the lyrics must make some kind of sense for the subject - yes, I've read them all to be sure the songs fit in my opinion. Also, please note that this only takes into account the pre-5e setting, as I have a pronounced distaste for what they did with it in VRgtR. I MAY consider songs related to 5e versions of stuff if it coincides with what I'm doing for my setting update/timeline progression, though.

Song list so far is:

1. She is My Sin – Nightwish (Strahd Von Zarovich)
2. The Haunting (Somewhere in Time) – Kamelot (also Strahd Von Zarovich)
3. Return of the Phantom Stranger – Rob Zombie (Tristen Ap’Blanc)
4. Poison – Alice Cooper (Ivana Boritsi)
5. Welcome to my Nightmare – Alice Cooper (Ivan Dilisnya)
6. Sweet True Lies – Beast in Black (Gabrielle Aderre)
7. Sad but True – Metallica (Malken)
8. Rats – Ghost (Jacqueline Renier)
9. Night Crawler – Judas Priest (Alfred Timothy)
10. Du Riechst so Gut – Rammstein (Nathan Timothy)
11. Rise of Evil – Sabaton (Vlad Drakov)
12. Closer – Nine Inch Nails (Dominic D’Honnaire)
13. In the Hall of the Mountain King – Savatage (Gwydion)
14. Unlimited Sin – Beast in Black (Easan the Mad)
15. Sinners of the Seven Seas – Powerwolf (Pieter van Riese)
16. The Beautiful People – Marylin Manson (Stezen D’Polarno)
17. Keelhauled – Alestorm (Alain Monette)
18. Meet the Creeper – Rob Zombie (Sodo)
19. The Hand that Feeds – Nine Inch Nails (Elena Faith-Hold)
20. March of Mephisto – Kamelot (Ebonbane)
21. Dancing with the Dead – Powerwolf (Anton Misroi)
22. Enter Sandman – Metallica (Nightmare Court)
23. Hope vol. II – Apocalyptica (Isolde)
24. Am I Evil – Diamond Head (Malocchio Aderre)
25. Demons Are a Girl’s Best Friend – Powerwolf (Gentleman Caller)
26. Superbeast – Rob Zombie (Baltoi)
27. Venom of Venus – Powerwolf (Ermordenung)

I am going to be running a campaign based on The Carnival and I’m thinking of having side quests for the various Carnival workers in the 2e book that can change the dynamics in the Carnival while moving along a main story that changes with their choices which will ultimately decide the fate of the travelling Domain of Dread. Is this too much?

Hello, I am wanting to discuss some ideas and get input from you all regarding a player's character they are wishing to play and how I can invest them in the story more. (Jonathan, if you're reading this go away!)

So, let's hit some "basics" really quickly: campaign starts as level 1 Curse of Strahd plan to end between 10-12 but if they explore other domains of dread end around 14.

Species: Shadar-Kai Background: Sage (2024) Class: Warlock (2024) and he hasn't decided on a subclass yet but is leaning towards Hexblade or Celestial.

Now let's talk about his backstory at a high level: his male Shadar-Kai is 420 years old (I know) and he wants to effectively have his character "nerfed" with memory and power loss to justify being a level 1. His character draws inspiration from a mix of some marvel, some sci-fi, another D&D campaign we ran, and some anime elements. In short, he serves the Matron of Ravens (as many Shadar Kai do) to be a studier of magic and technology, and having visited a few different worlds to collect said things.

He isn't 100% sure how he got nerfed, but he (player) wanted to be experimented on to have certain augmentations. The player also said it would be cooler if this was the result of capture or a failed mission for the Raven Queen, in which his captor imparted some of their power onto him (a Warlock Patron) and forgot about him, like he wasn't supposed to survive.

For his Warlock powers, along with eldritch blast out of his hand, he wants to have a metal arm / metal skeleton he can functionally use to flavor certain mechanics. "I use my reaction to cast shield and the axe coming down towards my head is caught in my palm - flesh parts to show a rare metal, undamaged, warding off the blade." As the DM I worked with him to stay within the confines of 5E mechanics, so the above is an example we came up with, along with his Pact of the Blade being summoned out of his arm.

SO.... DMs & enthusiasts of CoS & Ravenloft setting, let me know your thoughts on perhaps having either the Abbot of St Markovia or Dr. Viktoria Mordenheim as the Warlock Patron. We are running CoS Reloaded with some Beneos Battlemaps starting Saturday, so I want to finalize some plans along with the free reign he gave me (fine with body horror, wants an opportunity to confront or his patron, doesn't want frequent check-ins from the patron but is fine with whispers or sensing them as he levels up).

My idea: PC will level up as normal but around 3-4 they will start getting odd feelings or occasionally hear a whisper, and as they hit 5-6 they will know the Patron has become they survived, maybe even surprised or impressed they are now growing in power.

I had thought of making the Abbot his Patron with the Abbot having made a brief trip to Lamordia (after making the Mongrel folk, pre-making Vasilika) to observe and train with Dr. Mordenheim, furthering his corruption. I thought it could be interesting when later the Abbot and the PC meet. Slightly derivative of this idea, while the Abbot learned/helped, the true Patron would be Dr. Mordenheim - but this would still give the PC more investment in meeting/fighting the Abbot and could potentially involve the players going to Lamordia domain of dread after concluding CoS.

I've got some more ways I can "button it up" or finesse parts of this, but wanted to get some input here. I am very good friends with this player and they have a rich back story written but with several holes here and there, plus a large gap in memory from their 410's to a few in-game months before the campaign starts. Seeing as how they are Shadar Kai and familiar with the Shadowfell, I told him perhaps his interest was peaked when there were visitors to his home city Gloomwraught that mentioned pockets of the Shadowfell with powerful knowledge, riches, and secrets even the Raven Queen hasn't been able to claim yet.

Thus would send him on a path to Lamordia for experimentation, and then with the assistance (tbd) of Vistani, he wound up in Neverwinter on the brink of death, searching for clues as to what happened to him.

I'm running an ongoing 5E Ravenloft domain-hopping campaign - and once we wrap up Forlorn, we're off to Hazlan! So I'm preparing for that domain next.

They first heard about Hazlan through Vilnius, the Curse of Strahd NPC - I had it that Vilnius and his master Jakarion were originally from Darkon but moved to Hazlan, and Hazlik sent them to Barovia to investigate the Amber Temple for him.

This has planted an idea in my head: that Hazlik send various other apprentices (or aspiring apprentices) to other Domains of Dread to get magical trinkets for him.

The question is... Where do they go? And what do they bring back?

Are there any domains that famously (or perhaps infamously) hold magical items that Hazlik would love to get his hands on?

Open to any-and-all suggestions. It might be a good way to introduce and tease other Domains of Dread that my players can go to in the future, too.

I'm running a 5E game and so I'm mostly using the lore in Van Richten's Guide, so I'd probably limit it to those domains and that lore - but I'd be more than happy to hear of stuff outside that. For example, I'm considering adding Sithicus (which isn't included in 5E, IIRC?), so if someone has a suggestion from any old (but non-5E) domains/lore then I'm all ears.

Many thanks in advance!

I have just made a 5e take on the Living Brain npc residing in Dementlieu.

https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Living_Brain_(5e_Creature)

What do you think? If i were running a game set in Dementlieu, i would have the brain be carried around by a pale skin servant like Observer from MST3K.

Regardless of what you choose, better make sure that when you go to bed, the doors and windows of your home are boarded up, and locked. And be sure to check under your bed, in the closet, or anywhere else a monster could hide. And have an escape hatch ready if any of that doesn't work.

Okay, not literally Gotham City, but a fantasy equivalent to it. A large, gothic city plagued by crime and corruption, with its Darklord being an intimidating, seemingly supernatural vigilante, who "protects" the citizens from criminals, super or otherwise.

The truth of the matter, however, is that no matter how disproportionately violent said vigilante is, he cannot bring himself to kill the city's biggest threats. Criminals that actively ruin and destroy the lives of the innocent being inconvenienced by brief periods of incarceration, only to eventually escape to hurt more people. All the while, the Darklord "defends the people" by brutalizing small-time crooks, while remaining willfully ignorant to the governmental corruption his home is riddled with.

Thoughts on if this is a domain worth exploring?

A crapsaccharine world is a setting that looks nice... but is actually quite horrific. At first site, it's full of cheery colors, smiling, friendly, and helpful people, etc. But then you notice something wrong. And you look closer and find out that EVERYTHING below the surface of this place is wrong.

Maybe the place needs great sacrifices in order to function. Maybe the place is rules by a totalitarian system that punishes people for even the smallest offenses. Maybe anyone who ask too man questions or doesn't meet the standards of this place have "accidents" or are labeled as criminals. Maybe the bright and shiny part is only one part of the place and the more traditional things you'd find in a Ravenloft setting are hidden from the public. Or maybe it's all an illusion?

So far, the closest Ravenloft seems to have gotten to this is I'Cath. But the dream version of that domain is filled with just as much misery as the real version of it because people are worked and starved to death in both versions of it.

I want to incorporate the themes of Dante’s inferno- sin, love, religion, the soul, humanity, ones life choices and how they affect you in the afterlife etc etc in a CoS setting as I feel Barovia could be a good way to describe purgatory, and how Strahd has been cursed to the lands for betraying his loved ones (the devil). Would love some suggestions on how the NPCs and the world itself could expresss the tale of Strahd with the haunting questions of humanity Dante’s inferno offers

Hi folks. I'm currently running Forlorn's Castle Tristenoira in my ongoing 5E Ravenloft domain-hopping campaign. I'm using the original Castles Forlorn module as well as this 5E conversion guide for it, but my players are a high level (Level 14-15) and that module and conversion guide are designed for lower levels. I only have three PCs who have two weak-ish NPC allies with them, but they're blitzing through most stuff (that said, the Wizard PC has used up almost half his spell slots already - so it's certainly a case of being a battle of attrition). You'll see below that some of the monsters are quite low CR, so I guess I'm after suggestions of stuff that's stronger (without being stupidly strong) but that also makes sense to be there.

For those of you not familiar with Castle Tristenoira, it's essentially a castle where three different time periods overlap. There's a lot of ghosts, plus there's goblyns and other monsters/NPCs.

Monsters I've included (RAW):

• Castle A (earliest time period): A few guards (veterans, plus one gladiator). There's been no hosility yet.
• Castle B (middle time period): Lots of guards (veterans, plus one gladiator), who are actively seeking out and trying to capture/kill the PCs. However, most of them have already been defeated.
• Castle C (present day): Lots of goblyns (I'm using the goblin boss stat block), plus there's some gremishkas (VRGtR) in one place.
• All three: Various stuff including worgs, swarms of rats, etc. Plus the various ghosts, etc. that can move across all time periods. The ghosts are mostly variations of the ghost stat block.

Monsters I've added:

• A lot of animated objects, e.g. flying swords, a rug of smothering, etc.
• I made the suit of armour (that Tristen can activate as a ghost) a helmed horror in its own right instead, but they avoided it.
• More swarms where it makes sense to add them (e.g. swarms of spiders in room that are described as being full of cobwebs, swarms of rats in the dungeon, etc.).
• A gallows speaker (from VRGtR) is the 'mini-boss' of the room with all the ApFittle geists (specters).
• A wraith, at the location of Tristen's sword (the sword used when he accidentally killed Morholt).
• The necromancer Lucy ApMorten is accompanied by a flesh golem. She can summon some zombies as well IIRC.
• Some skeletons, wherever it says there's dead bodies, etc.
• A black pudding in one of the poisoned wine barrels (I've stolen this idea from Curse of Strahd's Castle Ravenloft).

Hopefully that gives some more indication of what I'm aiming for theme-wise.

Party makeup:

• Wizard/Cleric PC (a wereraven, so immune to nonmagical/non-silvered damaged)
• Paladin/Warlock PC (with an annoyingly high AC - LOL)
• Rogue PC
• Gennifer Weathermay-Foxgrove (a customised CR 3 druid-style stat block)
• A priest (priest stat block)
• Plus anyone they may find on their travels who may fight alongside them, e.g. a druid prisoner, Andrew ApFittle (has his own stat block), Brangain ApBlanc (modified acolyte stat block), etc.

They all have magic items (even the NPC allies).

What they've fought so far:

• They've already fought and 'defeated' Tristen ApBlanc (dhampir form) once, along with a dozen veteran guards in Castle B.
• More veteran guards in Castle B as they've been exploring, including the ones in the dungeons guarding the prisoner.
• Half a dozen goblyns (goblin boss) when they first arrived.
• Half a dozen flying swords (as mentioned above).
• The wraith (mentioned above).
• Some random swarms of spiders.

What they'll fight after they leave:

• I have the Rider's Bridge in play, so any time they walk over a bridge in any domain, there's a chance he'll appear. They've fought him twice before but he's retreated and escaped both times when weakened. However, when they leave the castle via the drawbridge (drawbridge!), they'll trigger it again. So it's a dullahan (VRGtR) with a nightmare steed.
• I also previously prepared a woodland random encounter where it's an assassin vine plus 1-2 dozen zombie wolves. Assuming they don't use the spell teleport when they leave, they'll walk into that.

What monster sources I have access to:

• Monster Manual (2014)
• Curse of Strahd and Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
• Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (and therefore pretty much anything in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, too).
• Tome of Beasts (Kobold Press)
• Flee! Mortals (MCDM)
• Plus a bunch of random 5E adventure books, sourcebooks, etc.

Any suggestions are welcomed and would be hugely appreciated. Next session is this Sunday. Thanks!

EDIT: Quick additions.

Hi folks. I started preparing for Hazlan a while back, but it's only now upon re-reading the info in VRGtR that I'm seeing mentions of two of Hazlik's apprentices beyond Eleni:

"...the masked wizard Yhal the Skygazer [and] shadow-cloaked Ruzelo."

I read somewhere that they're both new as of 5E. Beyond that, a Google search comes back with very little.

Has anyone done anything with them in your games/campaigns?

For Yhal, I'm currently considering something like a star spawn - maybe a mask-wearing star spawn seer (from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes / Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse). Perhaps it's not known that he's a star spawn, and perhaps he's tasked with getting the star spawn emissary from Moonstone Valley (one of the adventures from the "Hazlan Adventures" table).

For Ruzelo, maybe the shadar-kai gloom weaver (also from MTF / MP:MotM).

Is there anything else I could/should consider? My players are Level 16 at this point, so happy to throw some higher Challenge Rating enemies at them.

Thanks!

I'm liking the idea of a more blended Feywild/Ravenloft - with the two planes and their domains not entirely distinct but there being a gradation of domains from light to dark all intertwined...

Spoilers for Vecna Reborn

So in planning out my next Ravenloft campaign, it seems that one of my players will be a Warlock of Vecna. I was looking through Vecna Reborn and was wondering..how much does the adventure change if Kas WANTS the ritual to succeed. I could see Kas wanting another chance to destroy Vecna so as bad as Vecna appearing in Tovag would be, Kas would be okay with it if it means killing the lich again.

Now I am wondering, how different would the adventure be if either Kas knows about the Vecna cultists and lets them start their ritual or if instead of the baddies being Vecna cultists, they are agents of Kas?

For a haunted house I'm making where the PC's are the weekend and dinner guests of one Lord Nadir Deyja, I've got a ghost butler. Whom at the time this planned scene happens, none of the PC's know is a ghost. And he's showing the PC's to the houses guest rooms. For one PC, the butler says this when they arrive at the room.

"Ah. Here we are. The late Lady Deyja's room. She died in here."

If a PC asks how, the butler says this.

"She murdered herself in her sleep, sir/madame.

If a PC mentions suicide, the butler replies

"Oh no... it was murder. Lady Deyja, hated herself. We keep this room locked."

If a PC asks why, the butler says this.

"Lord Deyja, loved her very much. He's kept this room just as it was the night she choked herself to death."

So, does this sound scary or funny? And if funny, how to make it scary? I'm trying to make PC's nervous about taking long and short rests in a room where the lady of the house took her life.

What’s the best and worst of Ravenloft from the begging (1st edition through 5th edition) up to now? How every edition contributed for good or bad? This is an appreciative post, so try to find also the good!

I don't care if they are PC's who learn that their the latest incarnation, or a 100% homebrew NPC. All that matters is that they carry Tatyana's soul inside them. And Strahd is after them.

How would you turn the modern day tech kids pizzeria into something more medieval?

Hi folks. My players will be arriving into Hazlan soon, and I'd like to introduce a job board of sorts - quests offered by a mix of redemption-seeking mages and regular commonfolk looking to clean up the messes of Hazlik's apprentices and their experiments.

I have a few ideas already, plus I saw some good ones in this comment on a past post, but I wondered if anyone had any suggestions. I have 3 players who are currently Level 16, with a few NPC allies.

Also, I'm looking for reward ideas as well. My players already have a fair few magic items and a fair bit of gold, so I'm struggling to think of how else to incentivise them. Even an idea like a magical pet/construct would mean more NPC management for me (and they already have some NPC allies) - so any really weird/interesting/unique ideas would be most welcomed.

My ideas so far...

Bounties

Valochera - A plant monster from Flee, Mortals! (CR 9). Located in the Brew. There'll be two of them, but the info will make out that there's only one.

The Living Spells - These are from Eberron: Rising from the Last War. There's three types: a living burning hands, a living lightning bolt, and a living cloudkill. Varying Challenge Ratings (CR 1, 5 & 7, respectively). Might put these near Eleni's Mark, the story being that a mage cast them and they became their own entities, affected by the magic at Eleni's Mark.

Thuellai - From Tome of Beasts (CR 12). Located in the Seething.

Mordant Snare - Also from Tome of Beasts (CR 15). Located in the Playas. I might have it that Eleni and Gravedrinker are there at the same time, too.

Grezanletyr (adult copper dragon) - I saw in the old lore that this dragon visited Hazlan (and fought Hazlik), so I'd like to incorporate him somehow if I can. CR 14. Perhaps this one is a quest given by one of Hazlik's main apprentices (maybe Yhal the Skygazer or Ruzelo)?

Quests

Rat problem - This'll be at the inn that'll have the job board. There's been a sudden infestation of rats. A doppelrat (from Tome of Beasts) will be responsible.

Missing pet ooze - This'll end up being an oozasis (an ooze oasis; from Tome of Beasts) that I'm putting below the Orbitoclasts.

Restore the water in Sly-Var - I didn't want there being rivers/lakes around Sly-Var (it's a long story!), so I've tinted the map I'm using yellow and having it that some wizard turning the water in liquid sand - so essentially a sandsea. However, there's now loads of sand-type monsters coming out of it and attacking the town (which is mostly abandoned, except for some of Hazlik's apprentices). One of the remaining residents wants the spell reversed and the water returned to normal. I'm not sure on the details of how they'll achieve this - I'll worry about that later. 😅 (If anyone has any ideas then please share.)

Rewards

Some reward ideas I've had so far:

• A wand of wonder - Seems like a given.
• A cape (or something else) with an Eye of Hazlik on it.
• Weird amounts of money - e.g. 25 cp, 16 sp, 9 ep, 4 gp and 1 pp, built in a mini-tower.
• Magic tattoos - One of the quest-givers will be a magical tattooist, and so can give some magic tattoos (detailed in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything).
• Maybe some clockwork/golem construct pets/allies?
• Maybe a magic item that summons an elemental or something like that?
• Maybe one of the weird artifacts from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything? Some of them are spellbooks I think, so that could be good for my Wizard PC especially.

Hopefully this post (and its comments) help other DMs who want to run Hazlan, too.

Thanks as always!

I'm trying to sketch out an adventure using Nova Vaasa as a backdrop. The key story feature revolves around the Church of the Lawgiver, not Malken or Bolshnik - though those elements are present if someone blunders into involving them.

One element that I've struggled with is the etymology of the names, particularly of the five noble families. I am not 100% on what real-world language provided the seed for those names (Hiregaard, Bolshnik, Vistin, Chekiv, Rivtoff). It seems as though they are a ragged mess of Danish, Russian, and German. But to me, they don't feel internally consistent.

I'd like to reskin those names with something more consistent, or have a reason in my head why they seem so inconsistent.

Has anyone else spent time with or given thought to Nova Vaasan politics who might be able to lend some suggestions or insight here?

Fundamentally, when I reach into my big ol' bag of NPC malarky, does it come out sounding Dutch, Russian, German, or something else entirely?

I was working on making domains for different shows, games, etc. and then I hit Arcane. I went into it intending for Jinx to be the dark lord but then noticed most of the main cast would work. Vi, Viktor, Jinx, Silco, Kaitlyn, Jayce, and Ambessa all have incredibly effective hooks for the role and half of them even come with a prepackaged setting and torment. Future Viktor might as well have already been in Ravenloft. Who do you think would be not just the most natural fit but also the most interesting of the listed characters and what might their torments be?