Darklords of the New Age: Comments thread

[Igor the Henchman]

No, that's the same Yutow all right. :)

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

That will be a very interesting revelation if she ever finds out.

[Igor the Henchman]

Well, within the context of Ravenloft Reanimated, the issue is moot, since Valachan didn't make it in the domain roster. But if the domains did coexist, I don't know that would make that big a difference to Veaer. Yutow is widely worshiped inside her domain too. Second most popular god-spirit after herself, actually. Problem is, Yutow doesn't show any sign of life to her.

[Manofevil]

This one's pretty good. Like Malus Scleris but with more structure. I liked it.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I'm conflicted on Kravo... I like the premise a lot, and the description of his current state. I'm just not wild on the history. Aside from tempering with "forces man wasn't meant to know," I'm not sure what he did wrong. I see him first a victim of his father, then of the denizens of the shadow plane, then of bad luck in messing up his spell. Yes, he stole some stuff, and then killed some random people and animals (why?) and then finally revenged himself on his family. I'd like to see that part fleshed out a lot more.

Also, I love the bit about his audience volunteers catching a glimpse of something horrible, but I'm unclear if he was aware of what he was subjecting them to.

I'm not so thrilled with the domain, either, it seems like just the opposite of Ghastria. I can see him re-concepted a bit as lord of Ravenloft's umbral curtain/shadowfell, able to briefly manifest as a traveling entertainer in any domain, with his circus similar to a floating pocket domain.

(Or maybe make the Ghastria connection explicit. I don't recall if Ghastria made the RLR cut, but maybe Zumbera's heightened sensations lurk in the shadows of Ghastria's deadened sensations...)

[Igor the Henchman]

Also, I love the bit about his audience volunteers catching a glimpse of something horrible, but I'm unclear if he was aware of what he was subjecting them to.

To clarify, he was. The volunteers were whisked away into the Plane of Shadow and subjected to horrible experimentation, then returned with no memory of the fact. If Zumbera makes it, I'll be sure to correct the many vague spots I now see in this darklord's background.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Interesting idea with Veaer. And I like the Yutow connection (a shame that Valachan didn't make the cut.) But it feels like trying to go too much in two different direction. It wants the darklord to BE the land, and hence be completely alien, but it bows to the inevitable backlash of "not human enough for DLhood" by making the DL relatable, though that undermines the central concept a bit.

With some rewording here and there, it could become a more traditional domain.... if it was spun such that Veaer the nature spirit is the dl (NOT Veaer the land), and part of her curse is to have her consciousness dispersed through the domain permanently, with a struggle to regain independent existence.... well, it wouldn't be "DL is the Domain" anymore, would it... so maybe it would lose its charm.

I dunno, maybe I'm just being picky about wording...

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

To tell you the truth, IMHO I'm not sure if Nicco is really worth darklordship when I read his background. I'd say he'd be better off as an NPC though his current sketch has made him more interesting to me and kinda creepy.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

To tell you the truth, IMHO I'm not sure if Nicco is really worth darklordship when I read his background. I'd say he'd be better off as an NPC though his current sketch has made him more interesting to me and kinda creepy.

I agree here. He really builds on the info on Hazlan presented in Gaz I, so it feels like he'd be right at home in Hazlan, rather than creating a whole new domain with the same culture/history.

[WolfKook]

Checco...

Again, I can't find Patricia or the Heir within my files. Can you post them in the main thread, please?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

O....kay. That's something we wouldn't ever have seen under TSR's code of publication standards....


Just a couple of comments:

1) Change the name. Maybe it's just me, but "Patricia Wilding" sounds like some prissy Hollywood celebrity. Or possibly a character on Dallas whom J.R. Ewing would've been sleeping with.

2) Er, so why isn't the mother-in-law the darklord here, exactly? And why did she hate Patricia so much that she wouldn't wait until after the kid was born to murder her? That's her grandchild, after all, and could've been raised however Ada saw fit after Patricia was dead.

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

:2) Er, so why isn't the mother-in-law the darklord here, exactly? And why did she hate Patricia so much that she wouldn't wait until after the kid was born to murder her? That's her grandchild, after all, and could've been raised however Ada saw fit after Patricia was dead.

The mother-in-law should defiantely be the DL instead. Patricia's only crime at first was being a gold-digger while Ada's elitism even at the expense of her own son's happiness and her grandchild's life is a much graver sin. Ada's curse could be to never escape her sins with her son never getting over the loss of his wife's death while Patricia and her son constantly haunt her. Kinda like Lady MacBeth's own guilt.

[Checco]

Checco...

Again, I can't find Patricia or the Heir within my files. Can you post them in the main thread, please?

It seems my underling Sorti did it already .

...well, now that I just called my DM 'underling', I respectfully retire to look for the d6s required to create another PC as I must have doomed the current one for sure

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Been looking forward to this one, but I end up disappointed. Sorry.

I agree with the others. Ada's the darklord material here. Patty & son are just doing what vengeful undead do, for the most part. Keeping up their experiments might earn them the "crown" when Ada kicks the bucket, but for now... I don't see it.

Besides, aren't all mother-in-laws well on their way to darklordhood anyway?

I'm ok with her name if she were in a different domain (Mordent, maybe), but it does seem out of place among all the Italian-ish names. Maybe it's supposed to be. I couldn't tell if she was supposed to be a foreigner in the land at first.

Also, this may be due to translation problems, but I'm unclear on the actual details of the "birth". Without getting too graphic (too late! ), is the heir and his umbilical protruding from a hole in her belly? or ... elsewhere ( ) . For some reason, the latter is ickier, despite the gore of the former.

ETA: also, while "The Heir" makes for a cool, creepy title, it's odd that she wouldn't have named him, IMHO.

[Checco]

Besides, aren't all mother-in-laws well on their way to darklordhood anyway?

Priceless, though dangerous .

I'm ok with her name if she were in a different domain (Mordent, maybe), but it does seem out of place among all the Italian-ish names. Maybe it's supposed to be. I couldn't tell if she was supposed to be a foreigner in the land at first.

Also, this may be due to translation problems, but I'm unclear on the actual details of the "birth". Without getting too graphic (too late! ), is the heir and his umbilical protruding from a hole in her belly? or ... elsewhere ( ) . For some reason, the latter is ickier, despite the gore of the former.

ETA: also, while "The Heir" makes for a cool, creepy title, it's odd that she wouldn't have named him, IMHO.

Iirc, the domain should be a mixture of Italian and French names (like prince Etienne, which is a French name, and Patricia, which is Spanish, despite the similitude with his Italian counterpart Patrizia), the author did not want to make something truly Italian-related about the flavor of this one. I had the impression she was thought as a foreigner, too.

The Heir should protrude his disgraced body and such from the place where he went out (I suppose still having an umbilical cord allows him to move a little away from the middle of his mother's legs), about the fact he was not named, I think Patricia wanted to name him only if she thought he would have been the child she wanted to show Etienne as his true heir, not an abomination (I'll contact the author and edit where I did not remember correctly).