Creating Domains of Dread for 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

Wizards of the Coast really hit their stride when it comes to campaign setting guides for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is the latest in line to provide resources along a wide spectrum for players to engage with the material as it best matches their play style. I like to think the arrangement of content in these sorts of books holds as much meaning as the information itself and when it comes to creating domains of dread the book cleverly places the material just a page flip away from the juicy new 5E D&D character options. Let’s get into it.

Ravenloft encourages deep collaboration

Preparing for and running horror games in 5E D&D is distinctly different than the kinds of adventures facilitated by most of the other campaign guides primarily because there’s a special kind of player buy in implied. Despite their particulars the adventures informed by settings like Ravnica, Eberron, Wildemount and Theros lie rooted in the core 5E D&D experience — exploring dungeons, overcoming obstacles and slaying monsters. (Acquisitions Incorporated is basically the same but also presupposes a special kind of buy in from players.)

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft devotes significant space for encouraging a deeper level of collaboration between the Dungeon Master and the rest of the players in a game. This is due to the nature of horror games, the resonant genres of horror and the nature of the Darklords with the Domains of Dread functioning as their prisons. There’s a great wealth of guidance in the book for creating the experience together as a group from soup to nuts, which we touch on in all of our coverage on this book so far.

When it comes to creating a new and unique Domain of Dread I believe the best experiences will emerge because the details of the setting reflect not only the heroes whose adventures take place there but the players too. In other words the same considerations for the genres of horror a group both prefers and is comfortable with ought to apply to the whole package. A group of players with serious body horror issues wouldn’t likely enjoy adventuring in Lamordia. Creating a new domain is an opportunity to craft an environment ideally suited to the players in the group and Van Ricthen’s Guide to Ravenloft walks through the process wonderfully.

Darklord’s Shadows

The most important aspect of every Domain of Dread is the Darklord around who the realm turns. With this step completed it’s time to begin imagining how this realm reflects their wicked deeds. The book advises choosing three evil acts from the Darklord’s past and explicitly states these ought to be acts serving as complements to the characters who’ll be adventuring in the realm.

A list of questions follows with the assumption each of the three evil acts corresponds to a specific location within the domain. At this point there’s nothing mechanical involved and I love this. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft sneaks in some very solid general DM guidance here because reading between the lines after this step of the process three interesting locations emerge — places for heroes to adventure with each one strongly tied to the themes and genre represented in the Darklord.

Endless Torment

The guided creative writing session continues in this next step, which prompts creators to delve into their Darklord’s psychology. Because Domains of Dread are prisons meant to torment the Darklords these realms manifest various qualities to reflect their wounds and serve as reminders of the circumstances leading to their unending suffering. The book provides examples of these torments to incorporate into the Domain of Dread.

• Deathless Returns. When individuals die they always return and repeat their history in a cycle.
• Endless Cycles. Opportunities to steer another towards taking on the mantle of Darklord arise but ultimately fail repeatedly.
• Last Gasp. Catastrophe on an overwhelming scale remains an impending threat.
• Obstinate Ignorance. Past failures and mistakes mean nothing as the Darklord repeats the cycle again and again with surety of a different outcome that never arises.
• Shocking Reminders. Whether symbolic or explicit the entirety of the domain serves as a reminder of the Darklord’s flaws.
• Unpleasant Hope. A glimmer of salvation remains ever present but forever just beyond the Darklord’s grasp.

It’s hard not to see Strahd von Zarovich reflected in all of these examples. I’m not sure if it’s because Barovia is simply more well known to me or these are genuinely broad points. At any rate they’re a great jumping off point.

Domain Overview

Remember those three evil acts tied to particular locations? This step develops those places into important landmarks. Building on the previous step means incorporating torments with the evil acts and linking them with these significant locations. The book points to other chapters with additional guidelines and resources like the terrific Settings tables included in the Genres of Horror section.

I want to take a moment here to praise the approach 5E D&D takes with player guidance. When Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything released one big criticism was a lack of complex DM advice, which I really took issue with especially from prominent voices in the community. This section of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft illustrates even more clearly how the approach to guidance is way more useful. Following the steps of creating domains of dread encourages players to think and develop their own ideas rather than checking boxes and providing mechanical tools. It is infinitely more valuable for a DM to gain a deep understanding of the important people, places and things in a setting. The kind of work described in the book is going to make a DM’s job way easier — and more satisfying — than a collection of crunch and tables and charts.

Cultural Specifics

This is far and away my favorite section on Creating Domains of Dread simply because it’s my favorite part of developing any campaign setting. Knowing the villain, their evil deeds and the places those foul acts take place certainly takes the top priority for any adventure and especially the horror adventures presented by Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. But surrounding these aspects there’s a whole world awaiting characters and having a solid grasp of these trappings makes a profound impact on game sessions.

Considering what life is like for the inhabitants of these Domains of Dread is particularly useful because of how closely related everything is from the Darklord on down the line. The culture of any setting provides opportunities to show players important aspects rather than straight up tell them. Especially in these domains where everything is supernaturally linked in some way this is a fantastic way to bring the setting to life. If you take no other tidbit of guidance from anything else in this post I recommend considering culture for all your 5E D&D games.

The rivalry between Darklords Strahd von Zarovich and Azalin Rex spills through endless ages and countless domains revealed in Van Ricthen’s Guide to Ravenloft for 5E D&D. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

Monsters

This is a really fun step in creating domains of dread and more broadly any 5E D&D setting. Aside from the astounding nearly 2,000 monsters in official sources there are tons and tons of third party monster books and resources. One of the first things I do whenever I’m working on a setting for a campaign or developing new areas of my own world is make a list of the monsters I imagine dwell there.

This is another opportunity to think creatively too. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft uses the example of an evil scientist aided by flesh golems and crawling claws, which sounds perfectly reasonable but also mentions how perhaps dryads who suffer from their experiments might be important monsters in the setting. Here again the book points to different sections with further guidance but with a bit of imagination any monster makes sense.

Misty Borders

The Mists of Ravenloft surround all the Domains of Dread and generally operate the same way — as impenetrable borders between the demiplanes. This doesn’t mean the Mists can’t reflect whatever domain they surround in different ways though. The way the Mists are perceived through senses, what and how the denizens of the domain feel about them, how the might behave unpredictably and more are all points for consideration at this step of creating domains of dread.

Adventures

At this point coming up with some adventures ought to be a lot easier because of the rewarding work to get to this point. At the very least there’s three locations with deep connections to the Darklord and their story of torment. Once again Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft points to the Genres of Horror section, which includes many more idea generators and tables to help with developing adventures.

This step of creating domains of dread follows the same model of guidance by prompting creators to develop strong ideas for why and how an adventure there connects to the overall themes and story and again I’ll reinforce how much more useful this is than a detailed adventure format. Following the steps of this whole process means a DM likely has very intimate knowledge of the domain, which makes running adventures there much smoother.

I really dig how this step involves the Darklord in a very direct way. Whether the adventurers’ origins lie within the realm itself or they were brought there by the Mists they are something outside the norm from the Darklord’s perspective. Whatever the reason the Darklord shares a connection to the adventurers that informs their interactions and the book provides a variety of examples to consider for both.

The Domain’s Downfall

Winding down the steps for creating domains of dread at this point it’s time to consider how it all ends. The Dark Powers almost certainly would not allow mere mortals with steel and spells to end a Darklord’s torment and let them off the hook so this is a chance to consider what a climactic encounter might be like using all the tips, tools and tricks provided by Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft.

What happens once the heroes achieve whatever victory they set out to accomplish? For adventurers pulled into the domain by the Mists this may mean simply returning to their own worlds. After an extended stay in the horror filled domains this could definitely be a worthy climax. As I read through this section I couldn’t help but think of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and how a victory over Richter Belmont leads to a much greater adventure. (We totally stole this idea for the shared campaign Nerdarchists Dave and Ted and I ran at DND In A Castle.)

Unleash Your Horror

By now a creator ought to know the domain of dread they created pretty darned well. Through developing strong concepts and tying them all together while bringing the land and its people to life a DM has everything they need to create memorable experiences with their group.

The only thing left to do is pull a party of Haunted Heroes into the Mists and see if they can survive the horror.

*Featured image — Aboard her ship, River Dancer, Larissa Snowmane travels the endless domains, guided by fate and song as seen in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft for 5E D&D. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

New videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel here