Hey thanks so much for checking it out! Innistrad seems really interesting but I haven't checked it out so much yet, how do you think it compares to Ravenloft?
@@exitsexaminedthey’re not intended to be the same thing, but they are intended to fill the same purpose. Ravenloft is the gothic horror setting of D&D, and Innistrad is the Gothic Horror setting of MTG! It’s probably most similar to Barovia out of every dark domain. You could lift many things from curse of Strahd and run them in an Innistrad setting, and vice versa 😁
My first Dnd campaign was Ravenloft homebrew! I love the setting so much, it's so much fun to play around in. My character was a tiefling necromancer who reanimated things with *glitter*. Yes it had a Rocky Horror flavour.
5easy is not Ravenloft. Rocky horror is a costume show. Where is the horror? For a 5e game what you described sounds fine. For myself I prefer the original tone when it was actually Gothic horror. Also The Rocky horror Picture Show is one of the greatest films ever made. But for me that doesn't make a good dungeons & dragons setting. At least not in what should be a horror story.
I just watched your Dark Sun video and am loving the D&D content. It’s great as a newer DM to have someone break down different worlds so I can steal from them. I’m hoping you could do a Dragonlance video sometime so I can learn more about the history of D&D.
Hey! I've actually done a Dragonlance video! Haha one of my personal favorite settings. It was just slightly older so not quite as long as my more recent videos, but glad you enjoy them!
Something to clarify; Masque of the Red Death is not a Domain of Dread, but an entirely separate Gothic Horror setting based on the idea of roleplaying in Victorian Era Earth secretly being conquered from the shadows by an eldritch entity that may be connected to the Dark Powers of Ravenloft, resulting in magic and monsters existing in the shadows. The two gamelines do cross over, at least two canon Darklords were born on Gothic Earth (as the world of Masque of the Red Death is known), but they're not the *same* setting.
Great point! I think I added a note about exactly that on screen during that section if you were listening on audio only! But good to clarify it in the comments as well!
To provide a simple summary of the sourcebooks/timeline... Ravenloft started as the adventure module I6: Castle Ravenloft, which is basically "what if Dracula's Castle was a D&D dungeon", with the addition of the random teleportal mist banks and unavoidable poison mist originally used in X2: Castle Amber to force players to begin and run the adventure respectively. It was followed by I10: Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill, another adventure module. These then inspired Ravenloft the setting, which initially began orientated for "Weekend in Hell" gaming style (parties are dropped into a random domain, which functions as a glorified dungeon, then leave upon completing it), but slowly evolved into a full campaign setting in its own right, ala Dragonlance, Greyhawk, or Forgotten Realms. This 2nd edition version began with the "Black Box" (Ravenloft: Realms of Terror), then was revised with the "Red Box" (Ravenloft Campaign Setting) following the Grand Conjunction adventures, and this was then revised again with Domains of Dread, the first hardcover book version of the setting, which was set after the Grim Requiem adventures. In 3rd edition, White Wolf (via its D&D sub-branch Sword & Sorcery) wrote the Ravenloft 3rd Edition campaign setting, a continuation of the Domains of Dread iteration of Ravenloft - Wizards of the Coast, meanwhile, instead did Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, a 3.5 reimagining of the original I6 that ignored all of the 2e and Sword & Sorcery lore. In 4e, Ravenloft was dropped as a setting, although "Domains of Dread" as a concept were ported into the new cosmology. Finally, 5e gave us Curse of Strahd, yet another reimagining of I6, followed by "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft", a brand new take on the Ravenloft setting that clumsily apes the 2e/S&S setting, but is its own distinct setting.
@docnecrotic I played that and ... It. Was. Epic! (Total party kill, but we were all just loving it) The DM ruled that we got pulled in as well, to clarify.
Hey I just think it's so cool that RUclips is a place where I can put out a 45 minute in depth video on Ravenloft and it finds people like you find it! Thanks for watching though, seriously!
Loving your content! So many childhood "whatever happened to..." questions answered in such an entertaining way. If you take considerations from your comments, I would like to recommend the "World of Lone Wolf" CYOA books, even if not for a video, I highly recommend them to anyone who likes that style of game, all available for free (legally) on the Project Aon website
Hey thank you so much for the kind words! I already covered CYOA so I'm not sure if I would go back and cover it again, but you know this actually makes me think maybe I could start doing shorts to cover smaller things like this!
My table is in the middle of our first Curse of Strahd playthrough and it's been amazing I've taken some liberties with the 5e lore and integrated a health portion of the 4e lore. Next, I'm planning on deep diving into the 2e Ravenloft lore so I can build the Dark Powers. Two of my players have already inadvertently made pacts with a couple of Dark Powers The campaign has been incredible so far, and it's one of our favorite settings
I think everyone remembers their first Ravenloft campaign it's always so much fun! Always gotta love those inadvertent pacts haha, hope you guys have a blast with it
If you're moving from 5e into 2 e flavor you're going to find yourself movie from Kitty funland to actual Gothic horror. Death and Insanity should be on the table ultimately the end. Those dark powers should eventually consume the players. When you're playing ravenloft keep Cthulhu in mind.
5Easy is kiddy funland. I prefer my original box sets where Strahd is an eternal prisoner in his own hell and can never really be defeated. Where the land itself is the true evil. Instead of a theme park with fun jump scares this should feel more like an old school horror film. Madness and death I should definitely be on the table. To a much higher degree than any other lands you may play in. With the possible exception of the Dark Sun setting. I watch a lot of dungeons and dragons I always see the dark Powers playlist some fun little addition to your character to play around in enhance yourself with. But I think the truth fun is when those powers are played as an evil that will eventually consume you.
Have you considered a video on the TTRPG called Torg? It's a fascinating setting in my opinion. It's certainly past its prime, but I have fond memories.
Sounds really interesting and I've been itching to do other TTRPGs outside of DnD! By past its prime - do you mean there's been like nothing going on with it in recent years or just slowed down?
@exitsexamined apparently it has been gotten some recent adaptation, but from what I see it is just a shell of what I played as a teen in the 90s. I can point at the Wiki, but I'll gush a tiny bit here. Short version: Earth is being invaded by other realities. When these other realities make a strong enough connection, their paradigm begins to merge with and then overwhelm ours. Paradigms are things like Gothic horror, British isles high fantasy, the Cyberpapacy, and America is mostly a dinosaur and lizardperson filled jungle crossed with WWII technology. There's also the Drama Deck, which was a set of physical cards that you could hold and play to change the game mechanics in various ways. Sorry if I've just sent you down a rabbit hole, though I hope you enjoy it if you do fall in.
This setting always makes my brain go brrrrrr, I ADORE this setting, and just like the question 'what is a vampire doing here?', I found myself asking those very same questions Tracy did with decisions made in Curse of Strahd, like, I created a whole culture entwined with Barovia, as a separate domain just on Dusk Elves, and the association of amber and the dark powers in newer content sets me down a path of creative no return!
Odiare. "oh-dee-air-ee." Not Odaire.It's a mispelling in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft that they doubled down on, instead of spelling it correctly from previous editions.
If you put the entire Core is actually really small, if the entire thing is the size of Germany I'd be surprised. It's like Dark Sun, the entire campaign setting is around 250 miles square.
Really? Interesting! I guess it depends on which version of Dark Sun you're playing some of them expand the scope quite a bit! Which version did you get the Core size from? 2E?
Never did a DnD campaign in Ravenloft...but I would love to do a Dhampir character for a campaign who's left the realm to a different one just for some really fun moments
How is it I’m both a DnD fan and a Necromantia fan but didn’t realize until now that van richten’s guide and crossing the fiery path share cover artwork
Hey thanks so much for the kind words! So cool to see people from a year ago, hope you still like the content as it's changed a little a bit from then!
I ran a Ravenloft one-shot on Halloween (I took inspiration from the Bloodborne DLC and ran it in Lamordia), and have been wondering what to do for a part 2. How timely it is that this video gets released so I can immerse myself in Ravenloft!
@exitsexamined I got a bunch of the earlier 5e modules and read them at least to some extent. Few were as good as CoS, the next best I can think of is Waterdeep Dragon Heist and Tomb of Annihilation. Curse of Strahd I just liked reading for all the corners. I never got to play it, as I have too much social anxiety to find a group to do so or do it myself, so I have limited play experience. I like the lore. I kind of spent my extra time collecting the information and categorising it. But I didn't even know about Odiare, that sounds fun. Considering D&D lore itself, I do think there is a narrative hole to unify the dark forces that is an undead, a fiend, or aberration, which don't work as the dark forces of the Dread and and Shadowfell, especially like Fey are to the feywild. My idea are Shades, creatures made of the Shadowfell from memories lost there. They could be mistaken as undead from being made of memory fragments but can become Hexblade patrons when they combine with a magic item connected to death and take that identity. They, in turn, become a Dark Power or part of the Dark Powers once they have created a Darklord and added to the Domains of Dread. The punishment coming in as they are made out of the memories of those the Darklord wronged, both hating the Darklords and perpetuating their cruelty onto others. In a meta sense, born from horror, getting joy from inflicting it back on those who inflict it, so ironically enable monsters to punish monsters.
Now speaking of adaptation, part of me now wonder if Cazador and maybe Act 2 was homage to Ravenloft (even involving not!Romani and Act 2 can be interpreted as place that got stuck in Ravenloft).
Yes, Baldur’s Gate 3. Like Cazador and Gur feel like homage on Strahd and Vistani (but with monster hunting instead of Romani in Vampire movies). And Act 2 feel like Dark Domain.
@ that he is no longer a Wolfwere just a Werewolf and he doesn’t sing he plays the Violin. Why? Why was that necessary? He was a terrifying dark lord with charm and a nasty trick he would use with his cursed sword of berserking. I don’t care what race he is that’s irrelevant but they just overhauled the character for no reason
@@matthewbennett1972 They did this to a lot of the darklords in 5E, it's a travesty. They even had several great ideas that just fell short because the writers dropped the ball. Viktra for example could have easily been Eva Mordenheim trying to bring her dead adopted mother back to life.
@@matthewbennett1972 This. For an example of what the book did right (imo), let's look at the domain of Valachan. They removed Urik von Karkhov by killing him, and having a new darklord take over, so to speak. They ended the story of one darklord, began the tale of a new one, and continued the domain's story, instead of just doing lazy deletions of what they didn't like.
Hey man honestly wouldn't be able to make archives like it without people like you! Audiobooks were tricky to find for this, although most are on Audible! You can also find "I straud" on youtube for free and a ton of people consider that one of the defining books for the setting. ruclips.net/video/t2kKmTarvTQ/видео.html&ab_channel=npc1
The two Channels you mentioned hour of the raven and travel agent are amazing. They offer basically a bottomless well of ideas,lore,and atmosphere. I've been to both habitually over the I years.
I don't particularly like the backpeddling WOTC did in the recent Domains of Dread book. (Same stupid thing they did with the space monkey things in Spelljammer actually) Vistani are clearly inspired by Gypsies/Roma and let me tell you something calling them Gypsies is not offensive, they call themselves Gypsies among themselves and in conversations with others and they have no issues with this. (Tigani , from where the Szgany term in Bram Stoker's Dracula comes from and from where Vistani was derived from) Before you call me clueless or racist, I live in eastern europe where there are many many many Roma people, in my Home Town there even is a village only with Gypsies and you are free to come and visit and see for yourself how they live. Spoiler: It's not nice, and yes many of them are thieves and troublemakers sadly to say. Hell why do you think Romanians are called thieves in some countries? Most "romanians" are actually romanian born gypsies who are up to no good in other countries. To return to the Vistani, I have had no issue with them being portrayed the way that they are, the only ones that get offended are privileged white people who have nothing else to do. I hate the new trend modern media is forced to do to make everything "not offensive" Fuck that. It's a fantasy world, there have to be good and bad guys. If we eliminate everything "bad" from the game for fear of offending some group or shareholders who don't even care about it then what are we left with? Nothing interesting, just modern, "safe", consumer bullshit slop. All modern WOTC books have this problem of eliminating any potentially problematic thing from its contents because they want to sell sell sell to every brain washed customers they can get their hands on, that's why old RPG materials are always gonna be better and more fun and interesting, they where not afraid to experiment and to include "problematic" topics. Old Ravenloft was much more fun, even the 5e CoS Book is ok but the "modern wotc" fingerprints are to be seen all over it. Anyway great video! Keep it up! I loved my Curse of Strahd campaign and while I am no longer running 5e games I will try and convert my 5e books (and CoS) to an upcoming DCC c.ampaign
I'm not saying it is the case, but your defence against saying that certain things not being offensive is that they call themselves that? And to trust you because you live in the cultures behind the depictions and they are thieves and troublemakers? I am sure you have your own loved experiences, but it doesn't sound like the most objective view.
@ for sure i am far from an expert but i am more informed than the people at wotc who make these dumb decisions. I have usually found that most often it’s uninformed white guy guilt making these decisions instead of the actual minorities. Every time wotc or any big company “correct” such things it just comes out as forced and stupid.
Do you think every Wotc release is bad? I think it's kind of hard to equate everything a company does to terrible and I think some people were happy with the recent planescape and RL but I do get that they feel different!
@exitsexamined in a quest to market to a larger audience wotc has taken a great deal of the flavor out of their legacy settings. It's becoming more like tabletop WoW. Granted, there is a setting for every desire, but to downplay the fear/anxiety or the proverbial sharp teeth of a horror setting, or other more gritty settings, as an overall concept shift for your entire line is, I believe, only going to continue to be a detriment to wotc and dnd as a whole.
Being a D&D and MTG player, Ravenloft and Innistrad have always been my favorite realms to explore. Thanks Otto for diving in to this for everyone 🤘
Hey thanks so much for checking it out! Innistrad seems really interesting but I haven't checked it out so much yet, how do you think it compares to Ravenloft?
Cheers, thanks for the link👏
@@exitsexaminedthey’re not intended to be the same thing, but they are intended to fill the same purpose. Ravenloft is the gothic horror setting of D&D, and Innistrad is the Gothic Horror setting of MTG! It’s probably most similar to Barovia out of every dark domain. You could lift many things from curse of Strahd and run them in an Innistrad setting, and vice versa 😁
My first Dnd campaign was Ravenloft homebrew! I love the setting so much, it's so much fun to play around in. My character was a tiefling necromancer who reanimated things with *glitter*. Yes it had a Rocky Horror flavour.
haha I love that! Would have loved to play in your Rocky Horror campaign. I think we can all agree we need more tiefling necromancers!
Jesus christ...
5easy is not Ravenloft. Rocky horror is a costume show. Where is the horror? For a 5e game what you described sounds fine. For myself I prefer the original tone when it was actually Gothic horror. Also The Rocky horror Picture Show is one of the greatest films ever made. But for me that doesn't make a good dungeons & dragons setting. At least not in what should be a horror story.
I just watched your Dark Sun video and am loving the D&D content. It’s great as a newer DM to have someone break down different worlds so I can steal from them. I’m hoping you could do a Dragonlance video sometime so I can learn more about the history of D&D.
Hey! I've actually done a Dragonlance video! Haha one of my personal favorite settings. It was just slightly older so not quite as long as my more recent videos, but glad you enjoy them!
Something to clarify; Masque of the Red Death is not a Domain of Dread, but an entirely separate Gothic Horror setting based on the idea of roleplaying in Victorian Era Earth secretly being conquered from the shadows by an eldritch entity that may be connected to the Dark Powers of Ravenloft, resulting in magic and monsters existing in the shadows. The two gamelines do cross over, at least two canon Darklords were born on Gothic Earth (as the world of Masque of the Red Death is known), but they're not the *same* setting.
Great point! I think I added a note about exactly that on screen during that section if you were listening on audio only! But good to clarify it in the comments as well!
To provide a simple summary of the sourcebooks/timeline... Ravenloft started as the adventure module I6: Castle Ravenloft, which is basically "what if Dracula's Castle was a D&D dungeon", with the addition of the random teleportal mist banks and unavoidable poison mist originally used in X2: Castle Amber to force players to begin and run the adventure respectively. It was followed by I10: Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill, another adventure module. These then inspired Ravenloft the setting, which initially began orientated for "Weekend in Hell" gaming style (parties are dropped into a random domain, which functions as a glorified dungeon, then leave upon completing it), but slowly evolved into a full campaign setting in its own right, ala Dragonlance, Greyhawk, or Forgotten Realms. This 2nd edition version began with the "Black Box" (Ravenloft: Realms of Terror), then was revised with the "Red Box" (Ravenloft Campaign Setting) following the Grand Conjunction adventures, and this was then revised again with Domains of Dread, the first hardcover book version of the setting, which was set after the Grim Requiem adventures. In 3rd edition, White Wolf (via its D&D sub-branch Sword & Sorcery) wrote the Ravenloft 3rd Edition campaign setting, a continuation of the Domains of Dread iteration of Ravenloft - Wizards of the Coast, meanwhile, instead did Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, a 3.5 reimagining of the original I6 that ignored all of the 2e and Sword & Sorcery lore. In 4e, Ravenloft was dropped as a setting, although "Domains of Dread" as a concept were ported into the new cosmology. Finally, 5e gave us Curse of Strahd, yet another reimagining of I6, followed by "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft", a brand new take on the Ravenloft setting that clumsily apes the 2e/S&S setting, but is its own distinct setting.
Pathfinder has a setting in which the original Ravenloft module would fit into quite well.
If there's a mention of Spelljammer, I might eat my hat.
This is a spoiler... but the module, Crystal Spheres, ends with the villain being sucked into the Demiplane of Dread
@docnecrotic I played that and ... It. Was. Epic! (Total party kill, but we were all just loving it) The DM ruled that we got pulled in as well, to clarify.
Really great stuff man, ravenloft is such a cool setting and I’ll eat up any content about it
Hey I just think it's so cool that RUclips is a place where I can put out a 45 minute in depth video on Ravenloft and it finds people like you find it! Thanks for watching though, seriously!
Loving your content! So many childhood "whatever happened to..." questions answered in such an entertaining way. If you take considerations from your comments, I would like to recommend the "World of Lone Wolf" CYOA books, even if not for a video, I highly recommend them to anyone who likes that style of game, all available for free (legally) on the Project Aon website
Hey thank you so much for the kind words! I already covered CYOA so I'm not sure if I would go back and cover it again, but you know this actually makes me think maybe I could start doing shorts to cover smaller things like this!
My table is in the middle of our first Curse of Strahd playthrough and it's been amazing
I've taken some liberties with the 5e lore and integrated a health portion of the 4e lore. Next, I'm planning on deep diving into the 2e Ravenloft lore so I can build the Dark Powers. Two of my players have already inadvertently made pacts with a couple of Dark Powers
The campaign has been incredible so far, and it's one of our favorite settings
I think everyone remembers their first Ravenloft campaign it's always so much fun! Always gotta love those inadvertent pacts haha, hope you guys have a blast with it
If you're moving from 5e into 2 e flavor you're going to find yourself movie from Kitty funland to actual Gothic horror. Death and Insanity should be on the table ultimately the end. Those dark powers should eventually consume the players. When you're playing ravenloft keep Cthulhu in mind.
May I say again, I love your channel
Hey thank you so much for the kind words! Just so cool to find other people out there into the same random mashup of fantasy / DnD / YA as me!
5Easy is kiddy funland. I prefer my original box sets where Strahd is an eternal prisoner in his own hell and can never really be defeated. Where the land itself is the true evil. Instead of a theme park with fun jump scares this should feel more like an old school horror film. Madness and death I should definitely be on the table. To a much higher degree than any other lands you may play in. With the possible exception of the Dark Sun setting.
I watch a lot of dungeons and dragons I always see the dark Powers playlist some fun little addition to your character to play around in enhance yourself with. But I think the truth fun is when those powers are played as an evil that will eventually consume you.
I have used Ravenloft as a means to make a Castlevania tabletop game :)
A Castlevania tabletop game proper though would be pretty cool!
@@exitsexamined modified ravenloft quite a bit, to make it. I did it for both 2nd and 3rd edition
That photo you're showing isn't Tracy and Laura. It's Tracy and Margaret Weis.
Oh my god! I pulled it from my Dragonlance video without even thinking, oh boy... ok time to update the description
@exitsexamined hey, mistakes happen. Just wanted to point it out for you.
No thanks so much for that, glad you pointed it the first day it was published, I updated the description!
Have you considered a video on the TTRPG called Torg? It's a fascinating setting in my opinion. It's certainly past its prime, but I have fond memories.
Sounds really interesting and I've been itching to do other TTRPGs outside of DnD! By past its prime - do you mean there's been like nothing going on with it in recent years or just slowed down?
@exitsexamined apparently it has been gotten some recent adaptation, but from what I see it is just a shell of what I played as a teen in the 90s. I can point at the Wiki, but I'll gush a tiny bit here.
Short version: Earth is being invaded by other realities. When these other realities make a strong enough connection, their paradigm begins to merge with and then overwhelm ours. Paradigms are things like Gothic horror, British isles high fantasy, the Cyberpapacy, and America is mostly a dinosaur and lizardperson filled jungle crossed with WWII technology.
There's also the Drama Deck, which was a set of physical cards that you could hold and play to change the game mechanics in various ways.
Sorry if I've just sent you down a rabbit hole, though I hope you enjoy it if you do fall in.
DnD’s version of the balkans
Honestly kind of yeah haha especially with the whole war background on the original RL setting
This setting always makes my brain go brrrrrr, I ADORE this setting, and just like the question 'what is a vampire doing here?', I found myself asking those very same questions Tracy did with decisions made in Curse of Strahd, like, I created a whole culture entwined with Barovia, as a separate domain just on Dusk Elves, and the association of amber and the dark powers in newer content sets me down a path of creative no return!
That sounds so cool! Would honestly love to play in a Dusk Elf setting haha if you ever make it public let me know!
This video was really good! Thank u
Hey thanks so much for the kind words and watching it!
10:25 Ahhh, a misinformed tourist i see.
Please please please Legend of Drizzt video. I fucking love Drizzt
I think I'll try to cover most of DnD at one point on this channel so one day!
Ravenloft is Silent Hill the TTRPG before Silent Hill.
Honestly now I seriously wonder if Team Silent had heard or come across Ravenloft before developing Silent Hill
Dark Sun is worse because it's a choice between Survival or Good.
I think both are pretty terrible in their own special fun ways 【≽ܫ≼】
Vecna made out of it alive, reached divinity, and possibly tilted the axis of the universe out of its original balance in the process
Would love a Ravenloft Castlevania mod
Oh how did I not think of that, that would be awesome! Someones had to have made something like it over the years
Odiare. "oh-dee-air-ee." Not Odaire.It's a mispelling in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft that they doubled down on, instead of spelling it correctly from previous editions.
If you put the entire Core is actually really small, if the entire thing is the size of Germany I'd be surprised. It's like Dark Sun, the entire campaign setting is around 250 miles square.
Really? Interesting! I guess it depends on which version of Dark Sun you're playing some of them expand the scope quite a bit! Which version did you get the Core size from? 2E?
Never did a DnD campaign in Ravenloft...but I would love to do a Dhampir character for a campaign who's left the realm to a different one just for some really fun moments
Now I'm thinking of a Dhampir lost in Planescape haha sounds fun. I'm surprised you never ran a Ravenloft campaign! Is it just not your thing?
How is it I’m both a DnD fan and a Necromantia fan but didn’t realize until now that van richten’s guide and crossing the fiery path share cover artwork
An episode on Guardians of Ga’Hoole would be dope!
Loving your content btw, was shocked when I saw the subscriber count. I was here before the channel blew up!!
Hey thanks so much for the kind words! So cool to see people from a year ago, hope you still like the content as it's changed a little a bit from then!
I ran a Ravenloft one-shot on Halloween (I took inspiration from the Bloodborne DLC and ran it in Lamordia), and have been wondering what to do for a part 2. How timely it is that this video gets released so I can immerse myself in Ravenloft!
Ravenloft + Bloodborne sounds incredible haha. If you ever need players for that let me know!
I read the 5e Curse of Strahd module book back to front.
The books really are gorgeous! Did you ever get any others? The 2E has it's own awesome style
@exitsexamined I got a bunch of the earlier 5e modules and read them at least to some extent. Few were as good as CoS, the next best I can think of is Waterdeep Dragon Heist and Tomb of Annihilation. Curse of Strahd I just liked reading for all the corners.
I never got to play it, as I have too much social anxiety to find a group to do so or do it myself, so I have limited play experience.
I like the lore. I kind of spent my extra time collecting the information and categorising it. But I didn't even know about Odiare, that sounds fun.
Considering D&D lore itself, I do think there is a narrative hole to unify the dark forces that is an undead, a fiend, or aberration, which don't work as the dark forces of the Dread and and Shadowfell, especially like Fey are to the feywild. My idea are Shades, creatures made of the Shadowfell from memories lost there. They could be mistaken as undead from being made of memory fragments but can become Hexblade patrons when they combine with a magic item connected to death and take that identity. They, in turn, become a Dark Power or part of the Dark Powers once they have created a Darklord and added to the Domains of Dread. The punishment coming in as they are made out of the memories of those the Darklord wronged, both hating the Darklords and perpetuating their cruelty onto others. In a meta sense, born from horror, getting joy from inflicting it back on those who inflict it, so ironically enable monsters to punish monsters.
Now speaking of adaptation, part of me now wonder if Cazador and maybe Act 2 was homage to Ravenloft (even involving not!Romani and Act 2 can be interpreted as place that got stuck in Ravenloft).
Interesting! In BG3 right? Maybe some elements! Still would do anything for a bg3 mod that was proper Ravenloft haha
Yes, Baldur’s Gate 3.
Like Cazador and Gur feel like homage on Strahd and Vistani (but with monster hunting instead of Romani in Vampire movies).
And Act 2 feel like Dark Domain.
Comment for the algorithm
I don’t like some of the changes made to existing Dark lords. Especially Harkan Lukas
I think that's totally fair! What about Harkan Lukas changes didn't you like?
@ that he is no longer a Wolfwere just a Werewolf and he doesn’t sing he plays the Violin. Why? Why was that necessary? He was a terrifying dark lord with charm and a nasty trick he would use with his cursed sword of berserking. I don’t care what race he is that’s irrelevant but they just overhauled the character for no reason
@@matthewbennett1972 They did this to a lot of the darklords in 5E, it's a travesty. They even had several great ideas that just fell short because the writers dropped the ball. Viktra for example could have easily been Eva Mordenheim trying to bring her dead adopted mother back to life.
@ the sex swapped Vlad Drakov too. Can we have representation without the need to change existing characters?
@@matthewbennett1972 This. For an example of what the book did right (imo), let's look at the domain of Valachan. They removed Urik von Karkhov by killing him, and having a new darklord take over, so to speak. They ended the story of one darklord, began the tale of a new one, and continued the domain's story, instead of just doing lazy deletions of what they didn't like.
Lol yes I read your mind lol
Developing an impressive archive guy🤌💯, I never got around to checking out Ravenloft so looking for some audiobooks to absorb🙌🤙
Hey man honestly wouldn't be able to make archives like it without people like you! Audiobooks were tricky to find for this, although most are on Audible! You can also find "I straud" on youtube for free and a ton of people consider that one of the defining books for the setting. ruclips.net/video/t2kKmTarvTQ/видео.html&ab_channel=npc1
The book I Strahd based on Ravenloft by P.N. Elrod is great.
The two Channels you mentioned hour of the raven and travel agent are amazing. They offer basically a bottomless well of ideas,lore,and atmosphere. I've been to both habitually over the I years.
I don't particularly like the backpeddling WOTC did in the recent Domains of Dread book. (Same stupid thing they did with the space monkey things in Spelljammer actually)
Vistani are clearly inspired by Gypsies/Roma and let me tell you something calling them Gypsies is not offensive, they call themselves Gypsies among themselves and in conversations with others and they have no issues with this. (Tigani , from where the Szgany term in Bram Stoker's Dracula comes from and from where Vistani was derived from) Before you call me clueless or racist, I live in eastern europe where there are many many many Roma people, in my Home Town there even is a village only with Gypsies and you are free to come and visit and see for yourself how they live. Spoiler: It's not nice, and yes many of them are thieves and troublemakers sadly to say. Hell why do you think Romanians are called thieves in some countries? Most "romanians" are actually romanian born gypsies who are up to no good in other countries.
To return to the Vistani, I have had no issue with them being portrayed the way that they are, the only ones that get offended are privileged white people who have nothing else to do. I hate the new trend modern media is forced to do to make everything "not offensive" Fuck that. It's a fantasy world, there have to be good and bad guys. If we eliminate everything "bad" from the game for fear of offending some group or shareholders who don't even care about it then what are we left with? Nothing interesting, just modern, "safe", consumer bullshit slop.
All modern WOTC books have this problem of eliminating any potentially problematic thing from its contents because they want to sell sell sell to every brain washed customers they can get their hands on, that's why old RPG materials are always gonna be better and more fun and interesting, they where not afraid to experiment and to include "problematic" topics. Old Ravenloft was much more fun, even the 5e CoS Book is ok but the "modern wotc" fingerprints are to be seen all over it.
Anyway great video! Keep it up! I loved my Curse of Strahd campaign and while I am no longer running 5e games I will try and convert my 5e books (and CoS) to an upcoming DCC c.ampaign
I'm not saying it is the case, but your defence against saying that certain things not being offensive is that they call themselves that? And to trust you because you live in the cultures behind the depictions and they are thieves and troublemakers?
I am sure you have your own loved experiences, but it doesn't sound like the most objective view.
@ for sure i am far from an expert but i am more informed than the people at wotc who make these dumb decisions.
I have usually found that most often it’s uninformed white guy guilt making these decisions instead of the actual minorities.
Every time wotc or any big company “correct” such things it just comes out as forced and stupid.
STRAHD VON ZAROVICH ‼️‼️
that second comic, is actually super terribad,
Oh really haha the one about Lamordia? What makes it so bad you think?
@@exitsexamined the doctor rebuilt the seemingly young protagonist to groom her now amnesic self for a sexual relationship.
Wotc nerfed Ravenloft. Like they nerfed everything.
Do you think every Wotc release is bad? I think it's kind of hard to equate everything a company does to terrible and I think some people were happy with the recent planescape and RL but I do get that they feel different!
@@exitsexamined really adored ravenloft these people are just hating for the sake of hating
@exitsexamined in a quest to market to a larger audience wotc has taken a great deal of the flavor out of their legacy settings. It's becoming more like tabletop WoW. Granted, there is a setting for every desire, but to downplay the fear/anxiety or the proverbial sharp teeth of a horror setting, or other more gritty settings, as an overall concept shift for your entire line is, I believe, only going to continue to be a detriment to wotc and dnd as a whole.
I will never forgive them for taking away bonus action smite!
I see your Clown World and I up you one blob world!!
Honestly a blob world, like as in like from The Blob movie would be pretty horrifying haha, totally fair
I'll deal Clock work Terminators and add the undying drownd charity case.
Intro is already fact check false.
Thanks for pointing that out! What was wrong with it in your opinion?