Café de Nuit

Happy Boxing Day from a (former) English colony! Now, if only I could get my minions to stay in the box!

I would like to see more support and love for D&D next, but the old school Ravenloft. Expanded mechanics for fear/horror/madness from the Out of the Abyss rules, bringing the domains in the 5th edition with darklords etc "Translated" to D&D next etc. That would be nice, yeah. I op...

G'Henna: Survey of a Starving Land Zhakata the Beast God – It is thematically appropriate for this domain to start out with the religion of Zhakata. This one little detail starts the article off on just the right foot and allows the reader to get into the mindset of a G'Hennan native. Religious Pra...

I feel like the recent runs of Quoth the Raven have been heavy on domains (both original and re-imaginings), but light on characters (hence, my article in this year's offering). I would like to see more new characters introduced that are not tied to any specific domain. I myself have been toying wit...

Excerpts from the Register of Monsters Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is the largest assortment of creatures that Stanton F. Fink has unleashed yet. It clocks in at 163 pages and 81 monsters - that's a lot of bang for your buck! I can't really do a traditional review of such an offerin...

Codename Requiem This is the second entry in Manofevil's Post-Apocaloft that was introduced back in Quoth the Raven #28 . This kind of article is very far afield from the Ravenloft material I typically enjoy, but since this is quite clearly a passion project, I will try my best to give it a fair sh...

Then, after Viistaros does his magical whammy and the city is cast into the Mists, this Phantasmagorum creature shows up completely out of left field. This part feels incredibly really rushed. The author seems to be creating a full-fledged domain for Viistaros to rule over as darklord, which is fin...

OVERALL Poor Blaustein... this domain seems cursed to never get a write-up that is just right. Nathan's FoS survey was too one-note and bloodthirsty (in the wrong way) for me, and while Mistmaster's attempt is more well-rounded it seems too bland in terms of its theming and atmosphere. That was me ...

THE FONT OF MERCURIAL TEARS This (blessedly) brief entry is a very well done study of a unique magic item. I love the contrast between the logical Kranz and the more magically astute Tiberin. When writing, I find that maintaining one consistent “voice” is hard enough, getting two right deserves kud...

BLAUSTEIN: LAND OF PIRATES AND JEALOUSY The Domain – Mistmaster says up front that this is a land of jealousy and simmering passions, which immediately reminded me of Invidia (at least, the canon version of it). But those themes are never really followed-up in the rest of the article. Bluebeard – S...

RED LIKE COPPER I find it hard to properly review an adventure without actually playing it, but I will go over this one briefly. After all, it doesn't take much - an intriguing set up, multiple chances to interact with NPCs, a couple of cool combat set pieces, and a compelling Big Bad is all you re...

When I was thinking about writing this out, I was gonna do the per-item attribution. Just my two cents...

Vorostokov Gazetteer Themes of the Land – Speedwagon and I have had several conversations about the importance of nailing down the themes of domains before starting a gazetteer of this type. Even if not everyone agrees on what the main elements of each land is, putting them up front at least lets t...

Sanguinia: Survey of a Snow-Bound Land History – I like the brevity of Sanguinia's backstory. Not sure if this is false or true history, but it gives the domain some much needed depth. And while it focuses exclusively on different eras of the royal family's rule, that tracks along with the darklord...

I love the 6-characters of Ill Repute article. At first I thought it would be simply a collection of villains, but it took me till the second one to realize it was about con-men, traveling sales, ect. As I understand it, each is also a reference: Dr. Garricalo: Ghostbusters. Obviously. Love it! She...