Dread Elemental Domains

[ewancummins]

I think I like the Tindertwig idea for the Dread Elemental Domains I am working on.

Well, in that case, let's develop it further.

[ewancummins]

But, first things first, I think we should focus on the Darklords of Grave and Blood first. The Darklord for Grave is pretty much done, he just needs a name and a domain to have originally come from. Well, and stats, I am only familiar with 3.X/Pathfinder though.

I think you are right- let's finish Graves.

I see him as a human male fighter or rogue.

[Galeros]

But, first things first, I think we should focus on the Darklords of Grave and Blood first. The Darklord for Grave is pretty much done, he just needs a name and a domain to have originally come from. Well, and stats, I am only familiar with 3.X/Pathfinder though.

I think you are right- let's finish Graves.

I see him as a human male fighter or rogue.

I was actually thinking Fighter/Rogue multiclass.

He should be around mid-level, so I think level eleven is good. He could be a Fighter 7/Rogue 4.

For the domain he is originally from...I am thinking maybe either Darkon or Mordent.

Once we have all of the information I will compile it neatly into a format that we can submit to QtR. This may take me a day or two as I am in my last semester of College with practically less than a month until I am done, so I have a lot of things I need to take care of during this time period.

[ewancummins]

I was actually thinking Fighter/Rogue multiclass.

He should be around mid-level, so I think level eleven is good. He could be a Fighter 7/Rogue 4.

For the domain he is originally from...I am thinking maybe either Darkon or Mordent.

Once we have all of the information I will compile it neatly into a format that we can submit to QtR. This may take me a day or two as I am in my last semester of College with practically less than a month until I am done, so I have a lot of things I need to take care of during this time period.

I'm busy with schoolwork. There's no rush.

I vote for Darkon.

[Galeros]

I was actually thinking Fighter/Rogue multiclass.

He should be around mid-level, so I think level eleven is good. He could be a Fighter 7/Rogue 4.

For the domain he is originally from...I am thinking maybe either Darkon or Mordent.

Once we have all of the information I will compile it neatly into a format that we can submit to QtR. This may take me a day or two as I am in my last semester of College with practically less than a month until I am done, so I have a lot of things I need to take care of during this time period.

I'm busy with schoolwork. There's no rush.

I vote for Darkon.

Good, that is what I was thinking too!

Now all we need is a name and stats.

You mentioned him being a Ghoul Lord, what RL book is that in? Is it a template? I have access to the 3.0 Campaign setting, Denizens of Darkness, Secrets of the Dread Realms, Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead, Van Richten's Guide to the Mists, and the first two Gazetteers.

[ewancummins]

Good, that is what I was thinking too!

Now all we need is a name and stats.

You mentioned him being a Ghoul Lord, what RL book is that in? Is it a template? I have access to the 3.0 Campaign setting, Denizens of Darkness, Secrets of the Dread Realms, Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead, Van Richten's Guide to the Mists, and the first two Gazetteers.

Ghoul Lords are detailed in the first Ravenloft MC appendix. That's for AD&D 2E.

You may find 3e stats on page 90 of Denizens of Dread (3.5). I don't know if the 3.0 Ravenloft monster book has stats.

[Galeros]

Good, that is what I was thinking too!

Now all we need is a name and stats.

You mentioned him being a Ghoul Lord, what RL book is that in? Is it a template? I have access to the 3.0 Campaign setting, Denizens of Darkness, Secrets of the Dread Realms, Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead, Van Richten's Guide to the Mists, and the first two Gazetteers.

Ghoul Lords are detailed in the first Ravenloft MC appendix. That's for AD&D 2E.

You may find 3e stats on page 90 of Denizens of Dread (3.5). I don't know if the 3.0 Ravenloft monster book has stats.

Ah, I see. Someone else may have to do his stats then.

EDIT: Oh, wait! the Denizens of Darkness book does have the Ghoul Lord template. It is 3.0, but I think with some minor adjustments it will work just fine.

[ewancummins]

I have the 3.5 monster book, so I can adjust his stats as needed.

[Galeros]

I have the 3.5 monster book, so I can adjust his stats as needed.

I will get on doing the write up sometime in the next day or two. I will post it here when I am done for critique.

[Manofevil]

If you prefer 'weekend in Hell' games, I can see why you built the domain as you did. It's perfect for that. I really like the idea that the party must extinguish the fire to escape the domain. That would work very well for a module.


I'm much more in the 'run Ravenloft as full campaign world' school of thought, so I tend to approach domain design in a different way.

In the end, you have to go with what works best for you. I'm merely offering feedback.

Maybe, but let's face it: I don't think there's a place where PC races can live for any amount of time in these dread elemental domains. I mean there's not a lot of farm land for food. All of these in this thread are very much weekend in hell domains at least as so far proposed. It's like Keening. Who's going to live there? These are weekend-in-hell-domain's weekend-in-hell-domains and I can't see as they'd be anything else.

[ewancummins]

Maybe, but let's face it: I don't think there's a place where PC races can live for any amount of time in these dread elemental domains. I mean there's not a lot of farm land for food. All of these in this thread are very much weekend in hell domains at least as so far proposed. It's like Keening. Who's going to live there? These are weekend-in-hell-domain's weekend-in-hell-domains and I can't see as they'd be anything else.

Maybe, although not necessarily so. These domains might be more like Saragoss. You can live there- it's just not pleasant.

For example, my conception of Blood is a swamp region, not a literal sea of blood. It may have intellgent inhabitants. Crops might be grown in parts of the swamp. Hunting is certainly possible.

Graves is pretty barren, but degenerate humanoids might survive by eating fungi and dead bodies.

EDIT- Galeros specifically mentioned that trapped men could scavenge graves to survive. That will eventually turn them into ghouls.

What if these ghouls retain memories of life? They may have developed a society. It may be possible to deal with them.

[doctor-evil]

Re: the time period.
Others were talking about Darklords from Gothic Earth so I just stood up and created one. I will, however, make one thing perfectly clear: There are NO functioning steam engines in the domain of pyre. At least not for long. Steam Engines require WATER to work and water is a rare resource. The entire city was not taken from the source world, just a large and very flammable part of it. That part did NOT include the harbor or any rivers. Firefighters have only the amount of water they had when the mists rose to fight the fire with... and that goes pretty fast.

I like the idea of a burning city, but the victorian era doesn't really sit well me me. As pretty much the rest of the core is rennaisance-restoration, it would be strange to have the most technologically advanced civilization in a dread elemental plane. Also, how would the steam engines keep going - surely they would run out of fuel. Plus THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON in 1666 would be a no-duh setting. They had fire engines (well pump engines) and bucket brigades. Perhaps the darklord might be a Nero-like aristocrat who wanted to burn the disease-ridden slums (for the good of the people) and it got out of control. Perhaps there is a big red-tinted river running through the burning city (a link to the elemental plane of blood) that they are siphoning to try to stop the flames.

As these are dread elemental planes, surely they could be like clusters with perhaps multiple domains and darklords. Beyond the burning city lies an area of smoke-filled wasteland, and eventually you come across a burning forest - the domain of tindertwig. I had a mental image of something Mordor-like too - how about a classical city, Roman-esque, at the foothill of a great volcano.

[ewancummins]

I like the idea of a burning city, but the victorian era doesn't really sit well me me. As pretty much the rest of the core is rennaisance-restoration, it would be strange to have the most technologically advanced civilization in a dread elemental plane. Also, how would the steam engines keep going - surely they would run out of fuel. Plus THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON in 1666 would be a no-duh setting. They had fire engines (well pump engines) and bucket brigades. Perhaps the darklord might be a Nero-like aristocrat who wanted to burn the disease-ridden slums (for the good of the people) and it got out of control. Perhaps there is a big red-tinted river running through the burning city (a link to the elemental plane of blood) that they are siphoning to try to stop the flames.

As these are dread elemental planes, surely they could be like clusters with perhaps multiple domains and darklords. Beyond the burning city lies an area of smoke-filled wasteland, and eventually you come across a burning forest - the domain of tindertwig. I had a mental image of something Mordor-like too - how about a classical city, Roman-esque, at the foothill of a great volcano.

That works for me. I think there is always room for more darklords and more domains.

If not part of a Pyre cluster, the burning city could at least be linked to Pyre.

[Manofevil]

Re: the time period.
Others were talking about Darklords from Gothic Earth so I just stood up and created one. I will, however, make one thing perfectly clear: There are NO functioning steam engines in the domain of pyre. At least not for long. Steam Engines require WATER to work and water is a rare resource. The entire city was not taken from the source world, just a large and very flammable part of it. That part did NOT include the harbor or any rivers. Firefighters have only the amount of water they had when the mists rose to fight the fire with... and that goes pretty fast.

I like the idea of a burning city, but the victorian era doesn't really sit well me me. As pretty much the rest of the core is rennaisance-restoration, it would be strange to have the most technologically advanced civilization in a dread elemental plane.

Well, you were the guys talking about a Gothic Earth Darklord. Didja think none of that would come with it?

Also, how would the steam engines keep going - surely they would run out of fuel.

UuuuuH Did you miss this part?

There are NO functioning steam engines in the domain of pyre. At least not for long. Steam Engines require WATER to work and water is a rare resource.

The steam engines are still there for one reason only: to get in the way. They're completely useless almost immediately. Anytime the DarkLord tries to organize a team of men to operate one, THEY BLOW THEMSELVES THE HELL UP!!! In 'Damrell's Fire', it's mentioned that fire departments were forced to change from volunteer amateurs to paid professionals because the amateurs kept blowing the steam pumpers and themselves up. Joe Blow off the street was no longer good enough for the fire companies. They needed people who knew how steam engines worked. And the Darklord can't seem to find any of those. Guess the mists didn't pick any up.

Plus THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON in 1666 would be a no-duh setting. They had fire engines (well pump engines) and bucket brigades. Perhaps the darklord might be a Nero-like aristocrat who wanted to burn the disease-ridden slums (for the good of the people) and it got out of control.

Meh. I like mine better.

Perhaps there is a big red-tinted river running through the burning city (a link to the elemental plane of blood) that they are siphoning to try to stop the flames.

Hmmm, you may have something there.

As these are dread elemental planes, surely they could be like clusters with perhaps multiple domains and darklords. Beyond the burning city lies an area of smoke-filled wasteland, and eventually you come across a burning forest - the domain of tindertwig. I had a mental image of something Mordor-like too - how about a classical city, Roman-esque, at the foothill of a great volcano.

Now I'm starting to like this idea. I actually thought of something similar but was having so much trouble getting my one idea posted that I just decided to forget it. I'd like to see a micro-domain that bears a striking resemblance to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire where employer greed turns a terrible disaster into a horrible catatrophe. Perhaps your blood red rivers could run between the different domains of the cluster.

Also ewancummins, while it true that people can possibly survive in these domains for extended periods of time, they cannot found communities there. This is the most basic difference between surviving and living. People cannot reproduce in these places. There can be no babies born in the realm of blood, pyre, or grave. This is most basic factor that reduces these domains to the weekend-in-hell category: because there be no PCs born and raised in them.

I think that's all I've got to say

[ewancummins]

Also ewancummins, while it true that people can possibly survive in these domains for extended periods of time, they cannot found communities there. This is the most basic difference between surviving and living. People cannot reproduce in these places. There can be no babies born in the realm of blood, pyre, or grave. This is most basic factor that reduces these domains to the weekend-in-hell category: because there be no PCs born and raised in them.

I think that's all I've got to say

I beg to differ, MoE. Nothing about Blood as it has been thus far described would rule out native PCs. People can and do live in swamps. We don't know much about Pyre, yet. Graves has ghouls- and the ghouls may well have a society all their own. Mists is pretty hazy at this point, but my suggestion was of a city of ghosts. That indicates a complex society of thinking beings.

I don't think native PCs are required for a domain to be more than a single adventure site. Forlorn has few if any native PCs, and yet it is suitable for extended play, as demonstrated by the Castles Forlorn boxed set.

What makes domains useful for more than 'Weekend in Hell' is complexity and possibilities. If a domain is a pocket realm like Shadowborn Manor, then it's pretty much Weekend in Hell stuff. If it has more going on, native PCs or not, it may be useful for campaign play.

YMMV, as always.