Beauty and the Beast as a Domain

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Pauper
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Beauty and the Beast as a Domain

Post by Pauper »

With the live-action movie coming up soon, I've been thinking some about the viability of using the region and plot of the Disney version of 'Beauty and the Beast' as a Ravenloft domain. Here are some of my thoughts; curious what others think or might come up with.

The domain itself slots very nicely into the Core, between Richemulot and Dementlieu; it represents the rural French countryside that the Dementlieuse sneer at and that the Richemuloise are encouraged to depart in favor of the rat-infested cities, and to some degree it helps explain both viewpoints. The people are backward, superstitious, and hide-bound to tradition, thinking that because they do something that their parents did and their parents before them, it must be the Right Thing To Do. The common folk aren't evil per se, but they're easily led and distrust anything that's unlike them or outside of their experience. (There's more than a little similarity to Tepest here, but without the Celtic flavor of that domain.)

A good chunk of the flavor of any domain, especially the Core domains, comes from the choice of Darklord, and in this domain, we've got a number of options:

- The Beast/Prince Adam

A fairly obvious choice, and one with problems even outside the obviousness. For starters, if you really want to incorporate this domain into the Core, you've got to divert from the story -- the Darklord is, by definition, irredeemable, so the whole 'cursed until he finds someone to love and be loved by' doesn't really work. (You might get it to work as a one-shot adventure in a pocket domain, where the actions of the PCs can actually help 'fix' the central problem in the domain, but that's a different focus.) Also, when played straight with The Beast as Darklord, the central problem makes the domain very similar to Barovia, just with a slightly different cultural flavor.

However, there is a wrinkle that might make the domain usable on a more long-term basis: have the domain's present be set after the events of the film, with Prince Adam returned to his human form. The problem is, since everyone learned to care for and love Adam (including the woman he loves) while he was a beast, he slowly begins to realize that those around him loved The Beast more than they love him as Prince Adam. Adam, therefore, is growing more and more irritated with those around him while simultaneously trying to discover how to return to being a beast so as to recapture the hearts of those around him.

(You might even take this a step further and use Adam's situation as a somewhat perverse critique of success -- for example, even though the story makes plain that Adam's curse is broken at the end of the film, numerous later appearances (such as his 'appearance' with Belle at the Oscars that year) still portray him as The Beast that everyone knows and loves. Probably more appropriate for a darkly humorous Ravenloft game rather than a traditional Gothic horror game, but could still work with a motivated GM.)

- Gaston

Gaston actually makes a great Darklord candidate -- he's pretty clearly revealed in the film to be selfishly evil, and his situation mirrors that of Dominic D'Honaire in Dementlieu: a superior man in the company of inferior companions.

Gaston's curse as Darklord would be an interesting blend of D'Honaire's and of Strahd's in Barovia -- he's cursed to be admired, even worshiped, except by the one woman he loves, who rejects him to live with a beast in a nearby castle, whom he then is compelled to fight. Gaston dies, but is then reborn, grows up again in the village, and again meets a strange woman who comes to the village from Outside whom he falls for, starting the whole cycle again.

(It's significant that we never meet Gaston's parents in the film -- for the purpose of this story, it doesn't really matter who Gaston's parents are. Any couple in the village could sire him, and he'd still turn out exactly the same way.)

The challenge with presenting this domain with Gaston as Darklord is to figure out what the PCs roles are in the story -- are they there to try to fix the problem, as with the Beast pocket-domain scenario above, or are they simply there to bear witness to Gaston's curse, which doesn't give them much to actually do?

- Belle

Belle might make an interesting Darklord, but I'd be loath to try to take such a project on. While she certainly has some flaws that could be magnified to become Darklord-worthy -- the most obvious being her desire for adventure, which would be easily thwarted by becoming a Darklord and thus being trapped in her 'provincial life' -- it would be a challenge to choose one or more of those traits and exaggerate them without turning Belle into a caricature, and a likely misogynist caricature at that. Exaggerate her pretentiousness and disdain for the common folk of the domain and you're well on your way to making a carbon-copy of Queen Magdalena from 'Galavant', as an example.

A really talented GM/author could probably pull this off, but I don't see myself having enough sensitivity to be able to make Belle into both a sympathetic and pathetic Darklord without erring too heavily on the pathetic side.

- Chip

Here's the mind***k option.

Begin with the observation that Prince Adam has been the Beast for roughly ten years. Add in that Chip, the cracked teacup being raised by Mrs. Potts as her son, appears to either be younger than ten years old, or is pretty danged naive and cute for his age, while Mrs. Potts seems almost too old to have such a young son. This leads to an internet fan theory that Chip is actually the Beast's illegitimate son, being raised by Mrs. Potts to avoid scandal.

But in this formulation of the domain, the 'tell' as to what is really going on is the library.

The castle contains a massive library, which in the movie is used by the Beast to help win Belle's heart. But folks who work with books can tell you that, while fire is dangerous to books, the true nemesis of books is rot. And in a castle where the Prince himself barely learned to read and thus has no reason to visit or maintain the library, it's difficult to explain how the books stay in such good condition over the years. But what if there's someone else who uses, even needs the library?

In this formulation of the domain, the arrival of the enchantress ten years earlier is actually in the domain's false history -- it's a memory that is shared by the castle residents to explain how they got here, though, if you asked them, each of them would give a slightly different account of specific details from that night, maybe the color of the old woman's cloak or whether the wind was blustery or just chilly.

Chip, as a child, is fascinated with stories, but he's torn -- he wants them to turn out 'the right way', but he doesn't have the knowledge or experience to know how to get from where he is to where he wants the story to go. Thus the library -- the repository of all the stories Chip knows are 'good' and thus worth experiencing. When the PCs arrive, the main story is that of Beauty and the Beast, but they might well find evidence of side stories, or related tales, going on along the margins, additional stories Chip turns to when the main story gets dull.

With Chip as Darklord, the domain becomes an odd, childlike version of Scaena -- a story is playing out, and everything the PCs do to try to change the story or resist its influence is resisted by a power they can't perceive, but unlike the motivation of Lemot Sediam Juste to tell a story with 'artistic purity', Chip's motivation is for the PCs to 'get the story right'.

I think there's definitely some potential in this idea, even if it borrows some tropes from other, already existing Ravenloft domains.

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Re: Beauty and the Beast as a Domain

Post by brilliantlight »

Pauper wrote: - Belle

Belle might make an interesting Darklord, but I'd be loath to try to take such a project on. While she certainly has some flaws that could be magnified to become Darklord-worthy -- the most obvious being her desire for adventure, which would be easily thwarted by becoming a Darklord and thus being trapped in her 'provincial life' -- it would be a challenge to choose one or more of those traits and exaggerate them without turning Belle into a caricature, and a likely misogynist caricature at that. Exaggerate her pretentiousness and disdain for the common folk of the domain and you're well on your way to making a carbon-copy of Queen Magdalena from 'Galavant', as an example.

A really talented GM/author could probably pull this off, but I don't see myself having enough sensitivity to be able to make Belle into both a sympathetic and pathetic Darklord without erring too heavily on the pathetic side.


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Belle's love in the story is books and thus knowledge. There are a few ways to go about it. One is the obvious "Faustian" route where she delves into dark knowledge with the help of evil outsiders. She could also be trying to become a great wizardess of some sort for some evil purpose. In this case she is probably after power. The third route is an information broker/blackmailer. She is using books to dig up information on people so she can later blackmail them or sell information on them. In this case she needs a lackey and Gaston is the obvious choice. She uses him as her front man by luring him with his his obvious desire for her. In all three cases her naivety is a front.
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Re: Beauty and the Beast as a Domain

Post by jamesfirecat »

I'm gonna pitch another high concept darklord possibility out for you.

A while back Confused Matthew did a four part review of Beauty and the Beast (a review which alas I can no longer find online so if I get some parts of it the review/the story wrong let me know), and in part four of it, he came to an interesting conclusion about who the villain of the story is....

It isn't the Beast.

It isn't Gaston.

It's the entire village.

The entire village that it willing to throw a sane man into an asylum for the rest of his life because a few palms got greased, the entire village that even after Belle proves Gaston to be a liar to, is still willing to rally behind him and storm the Beast's castle.

The entire village that is full of all the petty little evils of small town living, the repression of anything new or interesting, small pointless feuds that are passed down from father to son, and only put aside when there is some even bigger feud to be fought.

To copy a saying I once saw used to describe Anonymous "Because none of us are as cruel as all of us".

The villagers in Tepest are ready to round up and burn innocent people, but that's because of the civilization sized equivalent of an auto immune disorder, there is a real threat from the fey (or at least the shadow fey) but the reaction is getting out of control even as Wyan strives to keep things under control. The evil is flowing from the outside in.

The people of Nidal are often ready and willing to turn over new comers to Elena, but the oppression, the evil is flowing from the top down.

In this domain, evil flows from the bottom up.

What if in this land, stories and rumor can become reality?

What if there was just once a bookish prince who kept to himself because the land was peaceful and he had no great need to venture out of his home... and his people began to craft rumors of why they never saw him, what if they supposed that he was a horrific beast... and then one day... he was?

What if everyone knows that "No one fights like Gaston, douses lights like Gaston; in a wrestling match nobody bites like Gaston"?

I wonder what the people of the village might "know" about a group of PCs who drops by to visit and stay a bit just a little too long?


As for the Darklord itself, if having an entire domain full of quasi-darklords where every single person seems to be 1/10000th of a darklord, might be a little awkward to implement/impossible to fight against... maybe instead have the darklord be some kind of unique monster, that is some form of Tulpa (incoming TV tropes link duck for cover, save your free time while you still can!) http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Tulpa a being created from thoughts that thus isn't quite real... and is enraged by the fact?

If it can't be truly real... then it will instead use its power to make everything else in its domain as "unreal' as it is! That is why rumor becomes reality in this domain, and yet to the darklord, no matter how it tries to become real, to absorb the realness of others... it just ends up making the world around it (and itself) seem and feel more unreal.

It insists on tearing others down, rather than trying to truly build itself up. Not only that, but it can never cause changes itself, only when enough "real" people believe things will it have an effect upon reality, and it is too sure of its own unrealness to possibly convince anyone else to believe that it is real.


In fact, it shouldn't be able to convince people of anything. It isn't some master manipulator making the land worse... it has simply set the stage and given these people the power to rewrite reality, and it is the people themselves who end up using that power for such great horror either out of small minded malice, ignorance or who knows whatever reason. The important thing is the people themselves are always more/just as much to blame than this creature is.

It doesn't bring out the worst in them, it just gave that worst the power to make itself known.


It could either be an ethereal spirit that haunts the village, or it could be any random person in the village, possibly the local priest, or tavern owner, or maybe is several people at different times either by possession or changing its shape. Whatever it is, it is helpless to do much anything to keep the people of the village/land from making the domain a little less real with every passing day.


Like I said, "High Concept" as all get out, but if if you want to surprise your players who are probably familiar with that particular fairy tale (because honestly who isn't) this could be a great way to do it....
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Re: Beauty and the Beast as a Domain

Post by Manofevil »

I'd like to expand on the village.

The DPs absorb a cursed castle with a cursed prince. They think they've got a ready made Darklord and domain but, thanks to the efforts of Belle the Beauty, The curse is broken and the castle dwellers are freed, Meanwhile, Gaston and the villagers gain the DPs attention by acting the way they did and, because of that, the castle's curse isn't broken per se, it is instead passed on to Gaston and the villagers. Gaston becomes to new Beast Darklord and the villagers all become bound to objects the way the castle dwellers were. The castle dwellers have had enough of living in the castle and all head off in whatever direction they wish while the mists rise and some stray Ravenloft folk find themselves in a fairly nice realm where circumstances force them to found a new village. One from which a new beauty may rise to possibly redeem the Beast, assuming he ever becomes redeemable. This, of course, will set the stage for the thousand permutations of the curse that the DPs would nudge into existence, with the understanding that, eventually, the current Beast would be redeemed (perhaps after several near misses) and the next most beastly person in the realm would become the new Darklord with whatever followers or acquaintances they have, inheriting the curse alongside them and the entire realm being rebooted. The only signs left behind by the reboot being the abandoned structures left behind by the those redeemed that PCs might pick through for clues as to the nature of the realm. Also, every time a reboot happens, the realm gets bigger. I feel that this makes for a very good curse along the lines of the novel 'Carnival of Fear'. It's perhaps less tragic but it is no less oppressive. Every group of redeemed must then find a way to make a life for themselves in Ravenloft, which is no easy thing.
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Re: Beauty and the Beast as a Domain

Post by Leliel »

The problem is, however, is that a curse or a Tulpa really doesn't have a choice in what it is. It just mindlessly follows its program. Curse-attract-redeem-exile goto 10.

I do think the Sorceress who cursed Adam to begin with is a good candidate, though. The DPs were attracted to her hitting the entire population with a curse to repay a teenager for being rude to her. I have her as a desperately lonely person who drove everyone away because of her vicious perfectionism.

Her curse is that she and her sense of justice is always eventually abandoned-between "cycles", she seeks someone who has failed a couple powers checks but has stabilized or seeking redemption. She forcefully completes them and draws them in as her new Beast, but in time, a villager always realizes the truth and turns the Beast back into a person. And she is abandoned and left behind, all over again.
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Re: Beauty and the Beast as a Domain

Post by Ember in the Dark »

I'd like to inquire a bit further about chip- namely, what could he have done to be worthy of becoming a dark lord to begin with? You've established what he does when he's a darklord- but what did he do to get there.

On this note- the woman (possibly a hag of sorts?) who ends up cursing Beast into becoming, welll Beadt, makes an excellent dark powers candidate. Beast is the obvious choice- perhapse he is even viewed as a tyrant. In all reality, before his transfofrmatiom into Beast, he was likely an unpleasant person to deal with. But it takes a lot more than being "not nice" to become a dark lord.

Expanding on the sorceress as darklord idea Leliel mentioned- perhaps she is a hag who got tired of, well, being a hag. Perhapse she sought what she thought was "redemption"- but in reality, only wanted to be praised and flattered by everyone she met. She only drove people away with vicious profectionism, as mentioned by Leliel.

There's a saying I'm reminded of: "Love me, hate me, but don't ignore me!" Maybe this hag's curse is to be perpetually and always alone- always as a result of her own actions. She pushes everyone away until they want nothing to do with her- not even to go and start some crusade to destroy her. She's prefer that to the isolation she has to endure.
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Re: Beauty and the Beast as a Domain

Post by brothersale »

I would opt for a different character than the ones sugested and choose a character from the direct to video film Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, that of Maestro Forte.

Forte, being a lesser known character would slip by most people and is a legitimate villian who acts against Belle's desire to break the curse as he prefers his immortal life as an object and seeks to remain so.
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