Top 5 worthless domains

[woodsdarkman]

A new week, a new list. Here are my top 5 worst domains or useless domains or just plain stupid or boring. Just note I did not consider any of the pocket domains.

5. The deleted domains. Arkandale, Dorvinia, Gundrak.
When the Black Box set came out we had 4 domains with vampire lords, two with werewolf lords (side by side) and 2 with poisoner lords (side by side). Needless to say the fat needed to be trimmed. I like what was done with Arkandale and Dorvinia. I think the domains were merged in good fasion and the right persons were chosen to be the lords. Duke Gundar was never really interesting to me until James Lowder made him interesting. I like his situation now better than a darklord.

4. Stanton Bluffs
Boring. A poor mans Mordent run by a poor mans Geodfry. A domain where one can live pretty good and nothing much happens as long as you dont go to the castle. The Islands of Terror write up even says this domain is boring. Not really something a Ravenloft Domain should be.

3. Kalidnay
Dark sun and Ravenloft just dont mix. In the rush to make a domain based on every D7D setting their is Kalidnay was born. Not Gothic, not interesting, not good. To make matters worse the darklord underwent a gender change. What was that all about? Just glad the grasshopper people were left out.

2. I'Cath
We gotta have an Oriental Adventures domain in Ravenloft but we are not to happy with Rokushima Tayioo (which makes no sense because it is a much better domain even if the lord needs some work) so I'Cath is born. And it sucks. Way over the top. They tried to throw in every oriental legend in one small domain. The lord I'Cath has no personality and comes off as evil just to be evil.

1. The Shadow Rift
For years the Shadow Rift was left a mystery. It was hyped up as a place so evil even the Vistanti wont talk about it. Everybody was scared of the Shadow Rift. Turns out it is not so bad. The darklord is impotent due to his being trapped. One could live in relative peace there and could even be a fey lover for a while. Not so much an evil domain just different. Not what I expected after all the hype. I would have like a more Cthulhu type domain.

[Jimsolo]

Have you done any 'Top 5' yet?

[Mangrum]

I'Cath seems to be heavily inspired by the movie A Chinese Ghost Story, which I recommend seeing.

[brilliantlight]

5. Valahan Just a boring domain with a boring dark lord. Not much more to say.
4. I'Cath Like you said it seemed to stuff every Oriental cliche together and topped it off with a darklord that has a background that was underdevelopped.
3. Rokushima Tayioo Even worse than I'Cath as there is no information on it at all except it is based on Japan and the Dark Lord is a powerless gheist. I am trying to save it from the Scrappy Pile via Mistpedia. I have everything but the four islands done.
2. The House of Lamant The house itself is the darklord? A house is a THING how does it rank being a darklord?
1. Shadowborne Manor The Darklord is a SWORD? How lame can you get? Why not make it a potholder and be done with it?

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

It's all what you do with it, IMHO. I've never had much interest in Rokushima, I'Cath, Kalidnay, and some others, but some people swear by them. Whereas I've gotten a ton of mileage out of Shadowborn Manor and The Shadow Rift, both of your #1 most worthless ones. (nitpick: he's not a sword, he's an immensely powerful demon lord trapped in a sword.) In both cases, they are somewhat more interesting in terms of what they inspire outside their borders than what goes on in them.

The Shadow Fey are a fantastic addition to the setting, IMHO, whether you like them living in a freaky twilit world at the bottom of a mist-filled pit or prefer to put them in an enchanted forest or somesuch. Me, I like the freaky pit world, but I haven't run any adventures there, just had stuff happen in there that affects the campaign.

And Ebonbone's becomes much more useful when you use Mangrum's take (click and scroll down to "Phantasmal Forest") or when you read the Book of Shadows framing fiction and see the influence he's had on the formation of Knights of the Shadows. Or just read the Shadowborn novel, and you'll see how much he deserves darklordhood...

[vipera aspis]

1-5: Valachan
Darklord: A Black Panther who became a slave, who became a were black panther, who later became a Blackula?!
The Land: Plagued by the White Fever?!

COME ON!

[MichaelTumey]

3. Rokushima Tayioo Even worse than I'Cath as there is no information on it at all except it is based on Japan and the Dark Lord is a powerless gheist. I am trying to save it from the Scrappy Pile via Mistpedia. I haver everything but the four islands done.

I am no doubt biased, but I say just use my Kaidan setting by Rite Publishing, and make the death knight shogun or the ghost child emperor as the darklord. It's entirely based on authentic Japanese folklore and does Japan far better than what Oriental Adventures brought to the table. It's a scarier place than most oriental settings and it's built from the ground up as a cursed and haunted land - perfectly fitting a domain of Ravenloft. Note: Ravenloft was a major factor and inspiration in the design of Kaidan.

2. The House of Lamant The house itself is the darklord? A house is a THING how does it rank being a darklord?
1. Shadowborne Manor The Darklord is a SWORD? How lame can you get? Why not make it a potholder and be done with it?

I have no problems with inanimate objects as darklords, especially since there are so many great object curses, phylacteries and intelligent haunts associated with sites and not 'persons'. Look at The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, in the book and the movies (both called The Haunting) the house itself is the real main character of the story. The ghosts within it are more it's condemned prisoners than true antagonists in the story. The house is 'alive' and wants to control it's inhabitants - it's a great concept.

[brilliantlight]

It's all what you do with it, IMHO. I've never had much interest in Rokushima, I'Cath, Kalidnay, and some others, but some people swear by them. Whereas I've gotten a ton of mileage out of Shadowborn Manor and The Shadow Rift, both of your #1 most worthless ones. (nitpick: he's not a sword, he's an immensely powerful demon lord trapped in a sword.) In both cases, they are somewhat more interesting in terms of what they inspire outside their borders than what goes on in them.

The Shadow Fey are a fantastic addition to the setting, IMHO, whether you like them living in a freaky twilit world at the bottom of a mist-filled pit or prefer to put them in an enchanted forest or somesuch. Me, I like the freaky pit world, but I haven't run any adventures there, just had stuff happen in there that affects the campaign.

And Ebonbone's becomes much more useful when you use Mangrum's take (click and scroll down to "Phantasmal Forest") or when you read the Book of Shadows framing fiction and see the influence he's had on the formation of Knights of the Shadows. Or just read the Shadowborn novel, and you'll see how much he deserves darklordhood...

I was referring to the original descriptions of the domains. I am sure all the domains can be saved by intelligent, imaginative people. I think far more than one domain and/or darklord have been saved here and in the netbooks available here. I have just read Mangrum's take on it and I agree he does make Ebonbane much more interesting. IIRC someone here made I'Cath more interesting I will have to look it up.

[brilliantlight]

3. Rokushima Tayioo Even worse than I'Cath as there is no information on it at all except it is based on Japan and the Dark Lord is a powerless gheist. I am trying to save it from the Scrappy Pile via Mistpedia. I haver everything but the four islands done.

I am no doubt biased, but I say just use my Kaidan setting by Rite Publishing, and make the death knight shogun or the ghost child emperor as the darklord. It's entirely based on authentic Japanese folklore and does Japan far better than what Oriental Adventures brought to the table. It's a scarier place than most oriental settings and it's built from the ground up as a cursed and haunted land - perfectly fitting a domain of Ravenloft. Note: Ravenloft was a major factor and inspiration in the design of Kaidan.

2. The House of Lamant The house itself is the darklord? A house is a THING how does it rank being a darklord?
1. Shadowborne Manor The Darklord is a SWORD? How lame can you get? Why not make it a potholder and be done with it?

I have no problems with inanimate objects as darklords, especially since there are so many great object curses, phylacteries and intelligent haunts associated with sites and not 'persons'. Look at The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, in the book and the movies (both called The Haunting) the house itself is the real main character of the story. The ghosts within it are more it's condemned prisoners than true antagonists in the story. The house is 'alive' and wants to control it's inhabitants - it's a great concept.

I haven't read your novel but I am sure you did a better job with Kaidan than TSR did with Rokushima Tayioo. I am sure with changes it is salvagable which is what I am trying to do in Mistpedia but as originally written it is far too vauge to be usuable.

You don't have a problem with inanimate objects being dark lords but I do. To each his own. If you don't have a problem with it, than use it. I have a hard time relating with mere things. Things don't have a personality or reason they just exist.

[Mangrum]

Things don't have a personality or reason they just exist.

If that were true of the House of Lament or Ebonbane they wouldn't be darklords.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

2. The House of Lamant The house itself is the darklord? A house is a THING how does it rank being a darklord?

The House actually works better as an oubliette than a domain, IMO. No need for a darklord or even much of a backstory then, just a creepy environment that the DM can place when and where it's convenient.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Intelligent magic items have been in the game since at least 1st edition, maybe OD&D too, I don't recall. So it wasn't much of a stretch for Ebonbane to be just a sword anyway. Though I like him as a demon lord better.

[MichaelTumey]

When I think of a haunted house being 'alive', it requires a history. Having qualities like Poltergeist's premise - it's built on top of a burial ground, perhaps more than one structure existed there - a sacrificing altar to a dark god, a prison or asylum, all burnt down as to the continued desecration of the burial ground, finally some madmen sadist committed acts of atrocities or dark rituals to taint the very stones of the mansion. Each event and character of it's past history could have created a possible darklord or domain unto itself, however since all such dark act occurred on the same ground, it has become powerfully cursed, a locus of evil and despair.

Now the house desires more spirits to haunt it, to end it's loneliness. It hungers for souls to feed it. It's own emotions derived from the strongest former inhabitants, perhaps complex enough to be merciful at times, depending on which spirits emotions are driving it at the time. It seems enough to create a Darklord, I think.

Van Richten's 2e Ghosts release included details for an animated house as a ghost. It's not a new idea.

@BrilliantLight - Kaidan is not a novel, rather a setting for Pathfinder published by Rite Publishing, although the setting handbooks are being written right now, following a successful Kickstarter this past summer. Kaidan already exists as an intro trilogy of modules (5th - 7th) of gaijin outsiders visiting this cursed realm. Kaidan uses twisted rules regarding reincarnation that is unique to Kaidan, though perhaps not suitable to use as a Ravenloft domain. There are 2 published one-shot adventures (one a free download), and a new one in layout at this time (I do that). There are 3 race guides, 2 faction guides (samurai and yakuza), and a custom haunts collection. Because it's an archipelago of three large islands and hundreds of isles it could easily fit at a domain, not unlike Rokushima Taiyoo, being a set of islands. I'm 1/2 Japanese and developing Kaidan to cleave closely to Japanese traditions and folklore, unlike any 'oriental setting' before it - introducing many concepts and Japanese horror tropes not found in western lore. It's very much a gothic horror Japan, relying on Japan's ghost story tradition.

The word 'kaidan' means ghost story or spooky tale in Japanese.

[ewancummins]

Arkandale is implied to have steam technology. At least, the darklord has a sternwheeler. Or was it a sidewheeler? Couple that detail with the Black Box cardstock illustration of Nathan Timothy and his family aboard the Virago, I got a 'Southern Gothic' vibe from the domain. I've seen others build on that to good effect.

I'm not talking about the Virago as it was later presented in the Evil Eye module, BTW.



I'm going to second the recommendation of Kaidan for anyone interested in combining Japanese stuff with Ravenloft. It's pretty much perfect for this. Even if you don't use the setting as written, there are a lot of adventure seeds, maps, NPCs, classes, races, etc that should prove useful. The system is Pathfinder, so it's a cinch to convert material to 3.5 or other d20 games.

30 Haunts for Kaidan is my favorite Kaidan product thus far. Quite useful for Ravenloft.

[ewancummins]

When I think of a haunted house being 'alive', it requires a history. Having qualities like Poltergeist's premise - it's built on top of a burial ground, perhaps more than one structure existed there - a sacrificing altar to a dark god, a prison or asylum, all burnt down as to the continued desecration of the burial ground, finally some madmen sadist committed acts of atrocities or dark rituals to taint the very stones of the mansion. Each event and character of it's past history could have created a possible darklord or domain unto itself, however since all such dark act occurred on the same ground, it has become powerfully cursed, a locus of evil and despair.

Now the house desires more spirits to haunt it, to end it's loneliness. It hungers for souls to feed it. It's own emotions derived from the strongest former inhabitants, perhaps complex enough to be merciful at times, depending on which spirits emotions are driving it at the time. It seems enough to create a Darklord, I think.

Van Richten's 2e Ghosts release included details for an animated house as a ghost. It's not a new idea.

GtG rawks my world. It's on the shelf behind me.


And I like the House of Lament. It's one of the best domains, IMO. It could be expanded, fleshed out further, even given a dungeon beneath it. It's great for a spooky dungeon crawl. Instead of busting in to get treasure and kill monsters, you are trying to bust out and save your life! But to get out, you have to explore the house/dungeon.