Campaign exploring all the realms of Ravenloft?

[BarateGites]

Hello! I'm new to Ravenloft, having just got interested after the last book came out. I have some friends who are interested in a more horror-centric game, and I'm so excited by all these domains that I want to do a campaign that incorporates all (or almost all) of them. Perhaps the players were potential dark lords, characters with a horrific past, that were adopted by some rebellious (or perhaps feigning his rebellion as an even more elaborate punishment for the players) Dark Power that wants to unseat various other Lords and end their planes. However, I instantly see a couple problems.

Tone: I know how important mood is for horror, and I'm worried that switching between so many different settings and locales with their own mood will ruin the atmosphere.

And length: Each domain is supposed to make the players feel like success is impossible, and slowly build an atmosphere of dread. Can I accomplish that or even establish the settings enough if I'm going to cycle through them? Curse of Strahd is a level 3-10 campaign that takes place in just ONE.

[onmyoji]

Well, it's definitely an ambitious project, but depends exactly on how you want to do it. Keep in mind that if you're only using the newest book, there's actually very little on most of the other domains there. You can find out a whole lot more on the free wiki attached to this site: http://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/

One of the big issues though—especially in our community here—is that Ravenloft as a setting was...... quite different... before this new guide came out. The new book takes a very carefree view of rRavenloft in terms of past canon, choosing to just sprinkle bits that older players might recognize here and there, rather than addressing all the previous historical events as having occurred, and outlining a new period in Ravenloft history. As such, when you're on the wiki, you're going to find a lot about how things were in 2nd and 3rd edition Ravenloft—things that will be contradicted by the new guide. For example, in the past, you could simply walk from one domain to the next under most circumstances. No different than crossing a border from one US state to another. But now the domains are all broken up and isolated. Certain darklords have changed substantially in the new book, some for the better, others for the worse. So it's up to you to decide how you want to handle that, if at all. (Personally, even though I came into Ravenloft through Curse of Strahd, I prefer the old Ravenloft to the one depicted in the new guide, but that's just me.)

Also, it makes a great deal of difference what you mean by "all" the domains. If you mean all the ones in the new guide, you're probably going to need a lot of other resources to supplement the paragraph-only ones. The wiki linked above will help a lot, but as soon as you play around there for a little while, you'll find out—as I did a few years ago—that there's a lot more domains than that. Last I checked, there were more than fifty of them, so that's a fairly daunting prospect to include "all" of them. Not that it can't be done. Just depends on how much work you want to put into it. The old 2nd/3rd edition D&D modules and sourcebooks contain a lot of lore on how the domains were interconnected politically, economically, and so forth. A lot of that information might be of great use to you, but that would involve a substantial amount of deep-diving.

Finally, you might also want to keep in mind how long you want everyone to stay in a single domain. When I was a player for Curse of Strahd, that took us a little over a year to complete, and as you said, that's just one domain. I'm currently DMing my first real campaign, which is set in Kartakass (based on an old 2nd edition module), and the players have already had five or six sessions, and only now is the main plot starting to kick into effect. It's hopefully not going to take a year, but it'll still be at least 6-8 months before they move on to the next domain.

Hope that helps get you started at least!

— onmyoji

[DustBunny]

Tone: I know how important mood is for horror, and I'm worried that switching between so many different settings and locales with their own mood will ruin the atmosphere.

I know little of the 5e, (and Onmyoji's warnings about old/new Ravenloft are just as relevant for my idle thoughts) but if you want to do a 'grand tour', I would undo the domains being 'floating islands'. If left like this, they are disconnected realms which make little sense as you just jump from one to the other without them being integrated in some way and thus have no commonality.

Start smaller than the whole lold' core, but bigger than CoS Barovia. Take some of the surrounding domains from 2/3e Ravenloft and stick them onto the CoS Barovia map - Kartakass, Invidia, Sithicus are similar in tone and environment to Barovia. Hazlan maybe a bit of a stretch, with Borca and Nova Vassa maybe a bit too different at the start. By having your 'mini-core' the players can possibly roam outside Barovia without even realising they have, and it is easy for them to roam to the surrounding lands as opposed to having them DM-teleport there after CoS.

Eg: The Wizard of Wines wants a restock of product from Harmonia in Kartakass so the players waner over there without realising they have left one Domain for another, and maybe get involved in some adventures with Mother Fury on the way. Or maybe Krezk (or the Abbot) is trying to get supplies from Borca and need the PC's to go and get them. Small interlude adventures would also give them a break from endless Strahd-Strahd-Strahd-Vampires-Strahd which could get annoying pushed for too long.

If they wander further at some point you can add additional domains on to edge of your mini-core - Verbrek, Richemulot and so forth, with the general changes being gradual and not the 'weekend in hell' world hopping, and by adding the new lands as you need them (they 'emerged from the mists'), prevents it from growing out of your control.

Maybe later they will realise that Harmonia is _not_ in Barovia and they actually enetered a new realm with different rules - preferrably not the hard way when they discover it's werewolves doing the biting and not vampires.

And if they bite off more than they can chew with Strahd, they have somewhere away from his grasp to recover and rethink matters. Though that doesn't mean they are safe - there are plenty of other dangers out there, and Strahd isn't the only game in town.

[onmyoji]

Eg: The Wizard of Wines wants a restock of product from Harmonia in Kartakass so the players waner over there without realising they have left one Domain for another, and maybe get involved in some adventures with Mother Fury on the way.

One major issue with that is the absence of the Gundarakite territories annexed by Barovia which do not appear in Curse of Strahd. (I'm 100% certain this is why it's set in 735 BC.) Granted, anyone can affix any domain where they want, but if BarateGites finds and uses an old map of the Core, they will be hard-pressed to find much on Gundarak. Otherwise, great suggestions.

— onmyoji

[DustBunny]

One major issue with that is the absence of the Gundarakite territories annexed by Barovia which do not appear in Curse of Strahd. (I'm 100% certain this is why it's set in 735 BC.) Granted, anyone can affix any domain where they want, but if BarateGites finds and uses an old map of the Core, they will be hard-pressed to find much on Gundarak.

I know little of 5e Ravenloft beyond what has been shown on the web here and elsewhere (and I cant look at my bunny slippers without thinking of Jackie now), so I do not know if Gundarak even exists in 5e - though by the sound of your post it doesn't. Not that I mind, as Gundar was always bit of 'Budget Strahd'.

However this does leave the problem of what to put there if BarateGites reuses the old core. Other problems would be "Zombie land Falknovia" which would barely fit in any long term campaign if they get as far as Borca. Prehaps instead of Gundarak, one of the assorted island domains or clusters (Nidala maybe?) which doesn't deviate too much from the Barovia environment could be slotted in its place, adjusting the borders as necessary.

Edit: Or on browsing other threads, maybe the map/design from Mr Blackmoore in the thread here

[onmyoji]

I do not know if Gundarak even exists in 5e - though by the sound of your post it doesn't. Not that I mind, as Gundar was always bit of 'Budget Strahd'.

However this does leave the problem of what to put there if BarateGites reuses the old core.

Nope. It doesn't. I was hoping to find it in VRGtR, but it's absent. Save for the potential of a story in Barovia where you find someone claiming to be "Duke Gundar." That's about all that's left. Either way, the problem of putting something in place of Gundarak was precisely what I meant to highlight.

— onmyoji

[Muggs]

I'm running a comedic-horror campaign at the moment where a high level party basically have the run of Ravenloft.
They started off level 25 but are now level 18 due to a comedy of errors where the PCs are in fact their own worst enemies..

In my game all the PC's are either classic Baddies (Strahd and Vecna are both PCs) or new Dreadlords that fall into classic tropes.
Each is cursed and each has their own domain that they are in charge of and a unique set of powers and have to balance adventure vs keeping their domains in check.

I tend to sketch out 1-3 domains I think might show up in the story soon and leave each session with a cliffhanger - ideally them entering a new domains so I have time to prep.

Maps really don't work for all that well for Ravenloft as a whole, I have a couple of loose maps overlaying 2e and 5e but due to the 'nightmare' logic the rules of travelling from place to play don't entirely make sense - especially if your pulling from more then one version or source.

I lean into the fact that Ravenloft if a place that doesn't follow the normal laws of time and space. Some domains require the PC's to have the right frame of mind - eg in my game The Carnival shows up only when a PC is at it's lowest moment and you can only catch the Mourning Rail if your at the train station and NOT looking at the clock or for it to arrive (as it always runs late!) domains in my mind shuffle about, some have fixed borders but without a guide your more often then not going to end in a random domain then the most obvious path.

This means that where maps do exist in my game they are rare treasures and yet cannot be fully trusted.

The big tip I found is to find a 'core' set of unique themes and challenge each domain poses to the party so that each feels unique and memorable as it can be tricky to tell some apart - there's lots of vampires/gothic/castles etc. I'd suggest reading the source material then brainstorm how each domain may have evolved during the time between 2e and 5e.

This way you can make all of the domains (new or old) feel fresh by drawing in influences from outside of the source material or changing the style of horror to keep the players on their toes.

[Scipion_Emilien]

If you want to do a grand tour of Ravenloft, I recommend that you get the five Ravenloft Gazetteer from 3e. They are the best description of a place in an RPG that I have ever seen and give you the idea of the culture, food, fashion, flora and fauna of a domain. There is also explanations on how the domain deal with it's neighbors and the anectodes and observations from the in wolrd narrator just scremas "plot hook here" everywhere. Sadly they are not on drivethru and can't find a way to buy them, Any one of the FoS as any idea?

On drivethru, there is also the 3.5 Ravenloft players guide (which contrary to it's name is a campaign setting). https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/70 ... andbook-35 This a nice overview of the place if you want some olden lore. I don't know how the new edition cover the domains, so can't say how it is redundant with the 5e book.

On a more practical note, you might want your players to befriend a tribe of Vistani or the church of Ezra anchorites. They both have mystical powers with the mists which might allow them to travel/teleport from one place to another. Might be useful if in your grand tour you want them to visit a more remote location harder to reach with usual mode of transportation. and bonus, they can give more ambiance to your Ravenloft tour.

[alhoon]

I would suggest taking the 3.5 book with a grain of salt as it has some mechanical imbalances that don't work that well. If you find it, go for the 3e book.
The gazetteers are excellent.

But to answer the question: I actually don't think a campaign exploring more than 3-4 realms would work. Better start a fresh one after exploring a few realms. If you want connection, you can use the characters siblings, children or clones.

[Scipion_Emilien]

I would suggest taking the 3.5 book with a grain of salt as it has some mechanical imbalances that don't work that well. If you find it, go for the 3e book.
The gazetteers are excellent.

The 3e book is here if you want
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2478/Ravenloft-30 But considering that you go with 5e D&D, just use the flavor, the mechanics shoul'nd concern you. And quite frankly, the campaing setting and the 3.5 players handbook are 95% the same text, you can just take one of the two and be ok.

But to answer the question: I actually don't think a campaign exploring more than 3-4 realms would work. Better start a fresh one after exploring a few realms. If you want connection, you can use the characters siblings, children or clones.

Without going to a new campaing necessarly, alhoon is right that in a "grand tour" fashion, it is easy to get lost. I would also suggest to do a first story arc on 3-4 domain and then reevaluate where you are and how long you expect the game to go on before doing a new story arc in others domains. And considering that the horror theme of ravenloft work best at low lvl where the PC doesn't have a gazillion of abilities, doing new PC for the second story arc is not a bad suggestion.