Café de Nuit

Hello everybody, posting again after some years...

I recently watched the excellent HBO series True Detective, and the plot and setting just screamed Ravenloft to me! Think about it:

1. Terrifying ritualistic murders of unwanted, low-class women

2. The setting- vast swamps and tiny hillbilly villages, can definately be fitted into Scournage, Mordent or as its own domain

3. The plot- a well-connected, old and powerful family using connections and their network of religious schools to molest and use the domain's children in their horrific devil-worship rituals

4. Tons of Cthulhu Mythos (King in Yellow, Carcosa etc.) references set up a really terrifying mood

5. The serial killer villain (inbred, savage and twisted yet somehow sophisticated and cunning- in Ravenloft I would make him a Caliban or just a really ugly human...) and especially his lair, Carcosa (which in Ravenloft can either be a Sinkhole of Evil or a place touched by the Far Realm or some infernal plane). If set in its own domain, he can easily be the Darklord.

Overall, for those who didn't watch a series I think it can be easily made into a Ravenloft module, with the PCs maybe following the leads of the original detectives who hunted the killer some 20 years ago (since the series takes place over a long period of time). The DM could also add combat encounters while exploring the swamps, the abandoned school and Carcosa with the last ones containing undead and Mythos creatures/Pseudonatural creatures/minor fiends.

Opinions anyone?

When I watched the Carcosa scene, I had a great idea for a dungeon. I could just plan out a linear dungeon with a series of encounters, but make the dungeon appear like a maze. If it is, as you say, touched by the Far Realms, then no matter what path the PCs take, they will still encounter the rooms in the order the DM wants. I could even let them drive themselves nuts trying to map it until they catch on that time and distance aren't playing by the normal rules.