Top 5 Favorite Domains

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Top 5 Favorite Domains

Post by Jimsolo »

We seem to have a lot of focus on negative impressions, and while that can certainly be productive, I'd like to share some of our positive feelings on the setting. What are your five favorite domains? Any particular reasons? I'll even go ahead and create a separate thread for Darklords, because I think that they are two very different questions.

Here's mine, in no particular order:

Lamordia - I love the willful ignorance of the populace with regard to magic, since I think provides a level of creepiness that I as the DM can pull out or put away as the situation warrants. I think that the quaint, enlightened rustic feel of the setting makes it the perfect backdrop for my favorite types of stories: giving the PC's something to love and cherish and then doing something terrible with it. Whether it is a town that they can feel safe and at home in, or an NPC who's kindness and warmth of personality makes them feel welcome, Lamordia provides one of the best backdrops. The blandness of the people and the places allow the 'bait' to stand out as being preferable without making the PC's feel like they're living in hell.

Mordent - This is one of the main reasons that I wanted to do two separate threads for the Darklords and their domains. I have a real dislike for Godefroy, but absolutely love Mordent. (I have seriously thought about making Gryphon Manor itself the real Darklord should my PC's ever investigate such things...) Between the fog-shrouded moors and the sucking bogs, this domain sums up everything I enjoy about the Gothic setting. Once the Lamordia storyline wraps up, this is where I aim to send my PC's. The Gazetteer III brings this domain to life in a phenomenal way, and illustrates the 'secret-under-every-rock' aspect of storytelling that I prefer most. A domain of endless ghost stories? Yes, please!

Rokushima Taiyoo - This one seems to be a domain that I alone love. I see it frequently held up as one people dislike intensely. Personally, I love it. I think that (like Mordent) the Darklord needs work. ("Maybe you just don't like ghosts," says my wife.) Any way you want to cut it, I still like the setting. I think that it gives you the opportunity to take the 'dying glory' theme that we see in some of the best fantasy stories about elves and instead use it with humans. My PC's have had several interactions with Rokuans without ever having set foot in the domain. The flow of goods and people to and from a crime-ridden, war torn land is just as potent a storytelling tool at the other end of the trade routes from said land. Someday I may even send them there.

Souragne - Southern American Victorian horror isn't technically Gothic horror, I suppose, but to hell with it, I like it anyway, and think it makes fertile ground for good storytelling! I struggled with whether or not to include this, since I already have Mordent on the list and the two have some striking similarities. Still, I think the feel of each domain is sufficiently different as to merit Souragne's inclusion. I was raised on stories about all the terrible things that happen out in the swamp, and while you can polish those up a bit and give them a more civilized European feel in order to include those stories in a campaign in Mordent, they feel far more at home in the backwaters of Souragne, where the people know how to keep a secret, and towns watch out for their own. And of course, everyone knows not to wander into the swamp at night...

Barovia - Sometimes I like to feel like a little rebel, the guy who likes the underdogs that no one else does. Other times, I turn around and go with the crowd. I know that liking Barovia isn't original, but sometimes the original is still the best. Tiny villages in a ruggedly gorgeous wilderness setting, filled with every kind of ghostie and ghoulie that walks, crawls, or flies across the moon on cursed wings? Hard to top that. Barovia's hands-off political approach and isolated communities make it perfect for development as a DM, since I can have the locals in any particular village doing whatever I want without feeling like it flies in the face of the established setting. So long as they pay their taxes and don't threaten their lord's plans, the smaller movers and shakers in the domain can do whatever they like. Whether that's an asylum which specializes in 'curing' Outlanders of their 'delusions' or a cult of werewolves who seduce and then eat their victims, Barovia provides a welcome home to them all.

Honorable Mention. The Carnival - I felt like it would be cheating to include the Carnival, since one could make the argument that it isn't so much a domain as just the reality wrinkle of a single unique outsider, albeit a reality wrinkle with a bunch of people living in it. Nevertheless, I really love this 'domain.' The Carnival product was one of the best things to ever come out of the Ravenloft line, and I always have to fight the urge to shoehorn it into my games. With a delightful smorgasboard of well-written NPC's, a half-dozen already suggested storylines, and ample room to create more of each, the Carnival is a dream for my style of DM'ing. You can even choose alternative 'truths' for several of the Carnival's elements, (such as Isolde's true nature or the truth behind the Skurra) with suggested alternatives provided. You could argue that it isn't tecnically a domain, but it certainly deserves to be listed with them. (And definitely among the best!)
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Re: Top 5 Favorite Domains

Post by Garudos Celestar »

5. Borca: Gazetteer IV really did an outstanding job of detailing this domain (and getting the "director's cut" of Dread Possibilities here at the FoS adds even more). The Boritsi chapter in LotB is pretty good as well. It admittedly drives me nuts when they try to implant these convoluted "Borja is really an ancient part of Barovia" nonsense into its history, but the post-684 BC information on the domain has been consistently high quality.
4. Dementlieu: Fine art and high culture, psychology and subterfuge, and a great look at a very human brand of evil: Dementlieu is one of the most evocative settings in the Ravenloft franchise. The d'Honaire family chapter is probably my favorite part of LotB as well.
3. G'Henna: Circle of Darkness is one of my favorite adventures in large part because of its fantastic descriptions of G'Henna. While its isolation as an island of terror does limit its practical usefulness, it also added in the bonus that there's very little "bleed" in its themes, which are well-detailed and kept as the main focus. I keep thinking about writing up my own "LotB" version of the Petrovna family at some point, but I never get around to it. *sigh*
2. The Nightmare Lands: Possibly the single most useful domain in the setting, since you can layer it over any other plotline or backstory (and even use it in Gothic Earth or any other campaign setting with a minimum of revisionism). Hazlik, Ivan Dilisnya, and the von Zarovich legacy all play well with the Nightmare Lands, and I can think of a few adventures (I10: The House on Gryphon Hill, The Forgotten Terror, even an I'm-not-running-the-Grand-Conjunction-but-I-still-want-to-use-it version of From the Shadows) that seem well-disposed to be played out as a Nightmare Lands scenarios.
1. Kartakass: A music themed domain? Sign me up! I love to sing in real life, I love playing bards, and I love the amount of detail that went into Skald and Harmonia way back at the beginnings of the campaign setting with Feast of Goblyns.

Runners-up include Mordent and Souragne... on a different day, either one of them might slip onto the list in place of Borca or Dementlieu.
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Re: Top 5 Favorite Domains

Post by Strahdsbuddy »

5. Falkovnia. This is an odd one because I've never run an adventure here. I like the reputation it projects over the rest of the Core, however. The branded bands of armored merchants stand out like Imperial Stormtroopers amid the towns of their neighbors, hinting at the mentality of the society they come from. The Falkovnian mindset wants to spread beyond its own borders in the worst way, and there is a warm feeling that fills my heart when my own players have already decided that the Hawk needs to stay on his side of the border.

4. Barovia. There's no real mystery to what the place is about, and I prefer it as an outsider than a native Barovian, with Outsider meaning anything from a Gundarakite to a Torilian. The annexation of Gundarak added a layer of human intrigue that enhanced the experience.

3. Forlorn. I loved the boxed set because it was the first product that just went hex by hex with the map and told you what could be encountered there. The place only looks desolate, and when you start poking your head into caves you can get to the heart of things. Also, I like the Celtic-ness of the realm, more than Tepest, even, which seems sort of tacked on.

2. Dementleiu. "This place is great" said an naive player about the lovely city of Port-a-Lucine. "No werevolves, no vampires, no ghosts, no worries." Suckers.

1. Mordent. Sure it has the feel of a "Starter" domain for 1st level characters, but I took the information in I-10 and built a campaign I'm very proud of in this sleepy little port that seems to attract all sorts of danger. The normality of the place is a horror all its own, sort of like a dark version of the Shire, where no sensible folk dare leave the safety of their town, but have a grudging respect for the ones that keep them safe.
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Re: Top 5 Favorite Domains

Post by Azimer the Mad »

1. Mordent. A delightful little English countryside, it channels every Hammer horror film and M.R. James ghost story I could want.

2. Lamordia. My huge love of the Frankenstein movies + the amazing Van Richten's Guide to the Created = win.

3. Sithicus. Sleepy little Ravenloft Latveria with crazy elves and Soth as DOOM.

4. Barovia. Because the moment your players step in, Strahd is matching wits with them; they just don't know it yet.

5. Falkovnia. There are so many adventure seed brimming out of the 3E prtoduct line, even if you never send PCs there.
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Re: Top 5 Favorite Domains

Post by vipera aspis »

1. Verbrek
2. Northern Darkon
3. Tepest
4. Nova Vassa
5. Liffe
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Re: Top 5 Favorite Domains

Post by Jimsolo »

Wow, Liffe. There's one I wasn't expecting to see. Any particular reasons for you, or do you just like it in general?
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Re: Top 5 Favorite Domains

Post by vipera aspis »

Indeed, Liffe is often overlooked. I personally like Liffe mostly for the desolation and the influences of the location on on the artistic. Even with the population at what it is and being so close to the springs I picture it being such a haunted and lonely place. Most of my dirgists would come from there. To the north you have endless blanketing mists, to the east the violent sea with a mad king just beyond, the south leads to lost islands and legendary horrors and to the west a sorrowful, dying city of eternal beings in land of the dead. The bardic influences alone make the placement almost perfect. I know everyone else favors the southern woods of the core for their bards, but for the Dirgists: I choose Liffe. If Lord Byron was from Ravenloft, he would be from Liffe.

Look up a masterpiece called "The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog" by Caspar David Friedrich. It's perfect.
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Re: Top 5 Favorite Domains

Post by Galeros »

1. Barovia
2. Darkon
3. Souragne
4. Sithicus
5. Mordent
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Re: Top 5 Favorite Domains

Post by Trike »

Tough one!

1 Barovia - Because it's the classic setting for any Hammer vampire movie and because it's been there since the beginning.

2 Souragne - I'm fascinated with New Orleans and both fictional and real world voodoo. This is my outlet for those ideas.

3 Mordent - This is my favorite place to build a home for my PCs. Just stay away from that big creepy house and you'll be fine.

4 Richulemot - I lean towards the higher cultural levels for my Ravenloft games and this domain helps immensely with that. Once again, this helps me keep the Hammer movie inspired settings that I want to evoke.

5 Lamordia - Windswept vistas and labs lit by the light of arcane electricity! Lamorda is my home for dark experiments and centers of learning. If one of my PCs is an academic, I usually create a university in Lamordia for them to call home. Frankenstein learned how to build monsters in the big city, after all. He only went to the boonies to find an abandoned windmill to fill with cheap lab equipment.
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Re: Top 5 Favorite Domains

Post by Jimsolo »

I like how our lists are almost the same, Trike. Richemulot almost made mine, too. I liked the feel of the domain, the stuff going on on the surface, but the writeup on the wererats came off a little too Skaven/Ratkin to me. I may do something with it at a later date, but I would want to come up with something very different for the wererats first. (Not knocking that particularly interpretation of wererats, it's just not for me.)

I find that Souragne makes a great place of origin for nastiness in my game. Since it's so similar to several of the places that my PCs are likely to go, it makes sense that nasties from Souragne would feel at home in a familiar locale. Hope to run a 'weekend-in-hell' adventure there someday.
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Re: Top 5 Favorite Domains

Post by Dion of the Fraternity »

Unconventional "Favorite Domains" list:

5 - Darkon: It basically answers what happens to the Roman Empire if it didn't collapse. Diverse, fantastic and Latin.

4 - Har'akir: Ancient and mystical. Plus, mummies!

3 - Malosia: A realm of damn filthy hypocrites, all of them! :twisted:

2 - Rokushima Taiyoo: It's the Asian in me that wants to prove that Asians know how to scare people in our own way.

1 - Arkandale: Maybe it's just me, but the Deep South feel of this domain is charming enough to be scary.
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Re: Top 5 Favorite Domains

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

This is a real toughie. I think my tastes change from year to year, so if you find an old post on the same subject where I completely disagree with myself, so be it.

5. Scaena - the perfect plot device for all your DM railroading needs. ;)
4. The Nightmare Lands - What's scarier than a domain that's always there with you, every time you fall asleep?
3. Nidala - The whole Shadowlands cluster, really. I've drunk deeply from this well, and it always leave me wanting more.
2. Kartakass - wonderfully odd in how music is interwoven to the culture. Feast of Goblyns brought this place to life, and Gaz I put it over the top, making the disparate parts make sense. The dark fairy tale vibe works for me.
1. Dementlieu - I don't care so much for the darklord here, Dominic won't make my top 5 darklord lists. But the domain is so ripe for the kind of adventures I love. The tech level is perfect for the kinds of horror I like. The "civility" on top with corruption underneath. Wonderful. Although, really, it's Port-a-lucine I love, I guess. The rest of the domain I barely think about, but the capital city is so wonderfully overpopulated with NPCs and adventure hooks. I could probably run a whole campaign without leaving town.
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Re: Top 5 Favorite Domains

Post by ScS of the Fraternity »

Dion of the Fraternity wrote:1 - Arkandale: Maybe it's just me, but the Deep South feel of this domain is charming enough to be scary.
Its all picturesque and charming until you hear it....
the sound of... a banjo!

I prefer the domains that are the most close to the early modern age, where a DM would have the most freedom to work with old horror tropes like wax museums, mad scientists, and hammer-esque gothic atmosphere. I feel that horror works best when it conflicts with enlightened humanitarianism and scientific rationality. I also felt that a good domain allows the DM and players space to play without bumping up against the Darklord.

5) Darkon: This was a very magic heavy domain, but it is so large that the DM has space to create, and the players have almost all of the standard fantasy tropes with which to mess.
4) Paridon: Though I never cared for the whole enclosed city / famine and starvation angle, I really liked the victorian feel of the domain.
3) Dementlieu: I very much liked the flair of a domain based so much on picturesque France that existed simultaneously as pre- and post-revolutionary.
2) Lamordia: Lamordia felt like the domain most like the old hammer horror classics, mixing in the picturesque germanic landscape with hideous steam punk science fiction.
1) Mordent: I really like the idea of a sleepy English countryside haunted by the past.It is modern enough to allow the DM to use the old horror movie tropes without having to pay lip service to clashing medieval trappings. Naturally, watching The Haunting, and The Legend of Hell House are mandatory for anyone playing in Mordent.
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Re: Top 5 Favorite Domains

Post by The Lesser Evil »

I tend to be a fan of paradox and psychological horrors, so you might see a bias towards that here.

5) The shadowlands- You've got a great bit of personal hellscapes all loosely tied around one line of knighthood. The backstory loosely linking them all together is great, and the links to other domains (Belenus' difference of interpretation in Nidala vs. Forlorn vs. Tepest, Gondegal's involvement in the Knights of the Shadows, Ebonbane's reaching out to those who formerly knew Kateri Shadowborne) allow for many interesting multi-domain campaign possibilities.

4) Richemulot-I love the irony in the interplay between the facade of civilization and the open secret of wererat rule in it. Wererats have always been my favorite lycanthrope because they are versatile- I can use them in a dungeon delving (sewer actually) scenario or in a social adventure. I'm not familiar with skaven at all, so any feeling the dominance of wererats has is not a bad thing for me. I'm also quite fond of the Last Dance adventure from Dungeon way back, as it shows you how much opportunity there is for the domain even if you don't involve the wererats directly. This is one of the advantages to having a rich cosmopolitan type domain as the setting for your adventures.

3) The Nightmare Lands- Love the surreal, it gives so much opportunities for adventures into metaphor made real- the sort of "Journey to the Center of the Mind" type thing I enjoy. And it can hit you when/wherever. And with Dr. Illhousen and his dreamwalking technique, you can hit back when/wherever. The Nightmare Court as vaguely defined but with hints on their identities and specialties reflects the blurry but vivid nature of dreams. It also allows individual DMs to easily customize them to his/her own game. And finally, it can reach out to other lands and worlds, making it easy fodder to use in other game settings.

2) Dementlieu- Too much potential here, from the dominant mesmerist theme to the esoteric branch of Ezra that presides here. You have much of what I enjoyed about Richemulot here, along with the theme of madness (that also invites potential involvement from the Nightmare Lands!). The hidden war between the Brain and d'Honaire is of course a source of constant tension. I think my favorite thing about this domain is is attitude towards magic- sort of a dismissive "parlor trick" attitude that allows for a magic rich setting where it is still dangerous.

1) Darkon- Well detailed yet versatile to create many interesting adventure and roleplay opportunities for a DM and his players. The Darkon Gaz, building laid out a strong foundation with many dangling sort of mysteries and plothooks for me as a DM to link together and export into adventures
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Re: Top 5 Favorite Domains

Post by ewancummins »

I'm going with:

Richemulot- ...Rats in the Walls...

Arkandale- Southern Gothic!

Mordent- Haunted houses and misty moors

Barovia- Transylvania, Dracula, ‘nuff said

Lamordia-- Doktor Frankenstein, I presume?
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