Domains of Dread to get 4e treatment?

[Gnarfflinger]

Roleplay is something the players and GM have to add... it's not something that can be mandated into the rules.... and least not without coming off as artificial.

That's exactly it. The Core books are primarily about getting the rules out. There are other books that will contain the "fluff" rules.

Truth be told, I can see Ravenloft coming out in 4 main books:

A Player's Guide that talks about the relations between players and the land, like a few classes, maybe a race or two. New feats and items would be in there too.

A campaign guide, which gives you information about the Domains, akin to the FR Campaign guide.

A Dungeon Master's Guide, with rules for power's checks, curses, madness, customized monster templates for older or more unique monsters. Perhaps even guidelines for customizing those templates.

And finally a Monster Manual, for the special monsters that Ravenloft has always had to offer...

[Hell_Born]

Just to let folks know, the first "Ravenloft domain" article has been uploaded. Not having a credit card, I can't get a subscription so I can't go into any further details beyond the blurb on the webpage itself.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20081027

The Domains of Dread, each surrounded on all sides by a strange and dangerous mist, come in many sizes and varieties. Each is a twisted and corrupt prison for the darklord that rules there. In this article, learn about Harack Unarth, the ancient Bael Turathian city known as Sunderheart in the Shadowfell. Ruled by a twisted tiefling, Sunderheart serves to remind her of the sins of her past life.

THE SHADOWREALM holds more secrets than all other planes combined. Its fabric is mystery. Its nature is to disguise. Hidden in the endless gloom of the plane lurk domains of dread -- dark realms of tragedy and horror that draw victims down in circles of destruction. Few know of these places, for few ever escape. One such is Sunderheart.

Sunderheart is a domain of dread designed for PCs of mid-paragon level. Like other domains of dread, the PCs' primary goal once there is escape, and to do that, they need to learn something of the dark lord of the domain and why it came to be.

[Jester of the FoS]

The reviews seem to be mostly positive:
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1106146
But not really done by Ravenloft fans/scholars.

[Dimitri Mazieres]

[...]THE SHADOWREALM holds more secrets than all other planes combined. Its fabric is mystery. Its nature is to disguise. Hidden in the endless gloom of the plane lurk domains of dread -- dark realms of tragedy and horror that draw victims down in circles of destruction. Few know of these places, for few ever escape. One such is Sunderheart.[...]

That sounded like the introduction for a Twilight Zone episode...

[Pamela]

It is not set in Ravenloft; there is no mention of the Core, the Land of the Mists or Vistani. Domains of Dread seem to be something that probably includes Ravenloft as a unified Domain of Dread but isn't wholly centred on it. The things which connect them are the Mists and the concept of Darklords.

It is however still very fascinating. The description of this domain was quite evocative and the illustrations gorgeous. It gave some intriguing ideas for curses. Ivania lives up well to Ravenloft's idea of a darklord in my eyes.

It could be a weekend in hell for some but it also lays out enough groundwork for something much longer, and makes the latter option more attractive. It is not meant to be a hack-and-slash setting unless your group is big on being chaotic evil to the hilt.

It deserves the good reviews so far.

[Lucius]

I totally agree with Pamela. At the beggining I as sceptical, specially for the part Joel quoted.

But after reading the full content I must say I´m impressed. The domain is very well done, as the darklord and her background.

It´s in part a 'Weekend in Hell" idea, but since the domains is very well detailed, and many good ideas are presented, it can easily be converted in an Island of Terror by those who wants to use the domain with "classical" RL, or those who don´t play 4 ed (Both are my case).

Note: 3,5 of 5 GC children for this one

[Jester of the FoS]

It's a fairly solid and interesting domain, although set-up very much as an adventure. Find the secrets and escape; thankfully there are ways to do this that don't involve just killing the dark lord.

My main beef is that this was meant to establish what a domain is in 4e. here's also very little written, but teasing hints and hooks. And the implication that the Mists mutates people, which works for that domain but not others. And I didn't see any information about how people journey between worlds (or if the Mists can take you elsewhere).

It does relieve me that it's a straight-up new domain populated by regular people living regular lives (and a tiefling-lord one I can easily picture filled with calibans, genasi, tieflings, etc). You can imagine similar takes on Barovia or smaller islands. They're not re-inventing the wheel.

[Pamela]

My main beef is that this was meant to establish what a domain is in 4e. here's also very little written, but teasing hints and hooks. And the implication that the Mists mutates people, which works for that domain but not others. And I didn't see any information about how people journey between worlds (or if the Mists can take you elsewhere).

Mind you, the article is about a single domain and not the concept of Domains of Dread. If I had to guess, the Manual of the Planes will be the source that gives a fuller description of the concept - if anything does.

[Joël of the FoS]

Not bad for a start. The story has a cool darklord and a horrible curse for her. But it won’t appeal to all Ravenloft fans:

The new domain of Sunderheart itself is fun, part MotRD (the Poe story for the on going party), part Lankhmar (the undead coming back to visit the city) for feel and ideas.

The domain is the mirror image in Shadowfell of a place that also exist in the prime material world, which is IIRC how WotC wants to treat the new domains of dread. We’ll see how this goes when we have more information on the mechanics of these new domains of dread. As I wrote elsewhere, I just hope WotC doesn’t plunder the classic Ravenloft setting for spare parts in 4e. That some areas of Shadowfell have some traits of RL is extremely cool, but please do keep the classic RL world too (i.e. the RL core and the classic domains).

Sunderheart is high fantasy for a RL domain, which isn’t usually my cup of tea as I prefer classic gothic horrors, but still it’s well made and fun. Anyway, to retrofit it in a classic RL setting without the fiends and other fantasy creatures is relatively easy. There are hags in it, which is fun.

I blinked a few times in surprise when I saw the darklord’s high number of hit points (840!), but I’m not (at all) knowledgeable in 4e so I can’t comment on the mechanics.

There are cool hereditary curses ideas for people whose ancestors lived in the city before it was cursed and Lady Ivania was moved to Sunderheart as a domain of dread.

Of course the « Like other domains of dread, the PCs’ primary goal once there is escape » is a disappointment for RL long time fans, but we can live with it. The fact that getting out doesn’t necessarily involve killing the darklord is a good point. FYI, Ravenloft has proven it can be used as a campaign setting with Ravenloft natives.

Good start!

Joël

[Gnarfflinger]

I'll get another look at it tomorrow, but from what I read, it looks good. It's git that feel of horrific evil ones who sold their soul for debauchery and selfish pleasure. And I'm going to guess that they paid one Hell (pun intended) of a price for their sins. The blood on their hands serves as their path to perdition...

[Creepy Old Woman]

I thought Sunderheart was a pretty good article. Sure, it's not branded as a Ravenloft domain (more like a weekend in Shadowfell affair), but it has plenty of classic RL features. A darklord that is evil rather than emo, lots of atmosphere, and plenty of adventure opportunities.

[Jester of the FoS]

My main beef is that this was meant to establish what a domain is in 4e. here's also very little written, but teasing hints and hooks. And the implication that the Mists mutates people, which works for that domain but not others. And I didn't see any information about how people journey between worlds (or if the Mists can take you elsewhere).

Mind you, the article is about a single domain and not the concept of Domains of Dread. If I had to guess, the Manual of the Planes will be the source that gives a fuller description of the concept - if anything does.

They've said it will contain brief information, so probably not...

[brothersale]

i finally got round to reading this article and god was i disapointed, this tripe is not ravenloft as we have come to know, even cavitus had a better background. it is extremely high fantasy (heck it nearly has more demonic creatures than have been reveal in the entire history of the line) and coupled with the munchkin style background of the lords, i will only ever use it after a major rewrite, if ever.
i fear for the setting if this is a example of the direction they are planing on taking it

[Scipion_Emilien]

I have read it in diagonal and it's more or less my impression.

The adventure isn't bad in itself, Heck I would probably try to incorporate it in my 4e campaign. The layout is greatly done and the adventure in itself seem to be a cool a dungeon crawl that have some potential as a week-end in hell. But it is high fantasy and action adventure, not gothic horror. There is simply too much an action movie feeling with a horror touch rather that a classical horror into which Ravenloft have grown.

While I like the adventure in itself, I hope that 4e Ravenloft will not be that. I fear that WoTC still see Ravenloft as a week-end in hell setting.

[Paladyn]

Finally laid my eyes on an article. While I'm not 4th edition fan, i wanted to read it, because Ravenolft is my favourite campaign setting. I was deeply interested how my favourite setting will be presented in newest Edition.

Although I don't know author, who wrote it, I liked his style. I must admit, he is good writer and has interesting ideas. First and foremost, I enjoyed "Romeo and Juliet" twist. It was great and fun to know, what can happen after "and they lived happily everafter". What appealed to me most, it was description of empty, abandoned city and darklord description. Idea of Ghul on the back of Ivana was great. I liked the little things like description of serf's life and Tomb City itself.

But every coin has two sides. I don't like returning idea of "Holiday in Hell" style. RL 3E was so great to me, 'cuase it created reasonably world on itself. It was very logic and coherent. If this domain has to set standards, I don't like them. Second thing, it's not ravenloftish domain. It it great fantasy-horror domain, but not especially fitting into gothic tradition. Third and last, Ivana was granted domain, because she murdered her lover. They both were degenerates and sold their souls to devils. This means they committed acts of great evil, would simple murder attract Dark Powers attention? I always thought the were more interested in good people doing one bad thing, than monsters who were accustomed to evil. If that's latter is the case, so sunder city should be Menzoberrannzan sub urb . it was why I thought burning Peaks Cluster never fitted Ravenloft (despite sympathy to Kas/Vecna).