Tales of Jackson: Land of Confusion

 You know how it is. You want to run NIGHT SHIFT. Your players want to play Dungeons & Dragons. Well, my last Jackson, IL adventure shows you can do both!

Hey Look, A Dungeons & Dragons Ride!

This adventure idea began innocently enough back in September. It was September 17, and I noticed that it was the anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons animated series. I didn't watch it a lot back then; I had a job on Saturdays, but when my kids were growing up, I rediscovered it. We picked up the DVD set when the 3rd edition was popular, and I later got the Spanish-language DVD version to help with my Spanish.  I got to thinking. What if my Jackson kids found a "Dungeons & Dragons ride!"

Suddenly I had a very, very evil idea. Or a very silly one.

I loaded some movies into my queue for the October Horror Movie Marathon, knowing they would give me some good ideas. Largely because I had seen so many of them before. And I spent the month in between coming up with the ideas.

So I watched the movies last week and took the early shift in our Sunday game to run my adventure.

Enter the Dungeon

 Essentially, I had three basic problems in front of me. I knew the characters from Jackson were going to be transported to a "Dungeons & Dragons" world. But I needed to figure out who did it (which tells me why), how they did it, and what classes the characters would become in the new world.

I went with the last problem first. My three witches, Stephanie, Faye, and Larina, were easy. Too easy, as it turns out. Since I was using D&D 5.5 Rules-as-Written, I opted for Sorceress, Warlock, and Wizard, respectively. It was perfect. But I kept thinking these three were already powerful enough. So I set them aside and worked on all the other major NPCs/Characters. I didn't know who would take what, so I did everyone.

Here is how it shook out, and the surprises. One thing to keep in mind: I have also been considering a "Class Reunion" Adventure, so I have jotted down some ideas of where everyone is in 1992, 2007, and 2027. That is, if my players don't kill them.

Ami Reed: Ami was easy; she is based on Amiri from Pathfinder. If you recall Jackson's first game, I had a bunch of Pathfinder Iconics minis I was using. Amiri the Barbarian became Ami, the tough girl on the girls' softball team. Turning her back into a barbarian made sense.

Valentino Moreno: Likewise, Val is based on Valeros, the iconic fighter. So, fighter he remains.

Andy Thompson: Anderson is a Sage in the Jackson game, but he takes on his true role here as Bard. He has his trumpet, and when they later go fight the "Dragon Master," he belts out Asia's "Only Time Will Tell." At least that is the player's plan. They love the 80s and queueing up songs on Spotify. Andy is an original character, but from West Haven. 

Rowan McGowan: Rowan has been many things in my games before Jackson. Witch Knight, Protector, Paladin. But Rowan in Jackson has become something different. All those things still describe her, but a surprise later on made me re-evaluate her role. Here, she became a Gloom Stalker Ranger. Why? Because Rowan is all about making sure the creatures of the night have something to fear.

Kyra Bellamy: Kyra was also lifted from Pathfinder minis. She was Kyra, the iconic cleric. Here she is Kyra, the Preacher's Kid, who discovers her own true faith. So she is my Cleric of Light.

Meriko Hayashida: Meriko, Kyra's secret girlfriend, is also taken from Pathfinder's Merisiel, the iconic thief. Honestly, I took Kyra, and Meriko insisted on coming along. She is my thief. 

Tetsuya "Tetsu" Hayashida: Meriko's 12-year-old young brother. NPC at the moment, because I wanted her annoying younger brother to tag along (her mom made her take him to the movies). He is the comic relief and plays the annoying little-sibling trope. He is also a thief.

Benjamin Brown: "Benny" is a new character I haven't talked about much, but I wanted to bring him to the table here. Benny is a lot of things. He works with Faye at "Strawberry Fields." He is friends with Meriko and Kyra. He is the kid who wants to do everyone's star chart and horoscope. He is also the local pot dealer (he doesn't look the part at all, and only his friends know), and he is also my "Gay Kid" from the 80s. I like Ben. He is a complex character and much, much more than a stereotype. In the D&D world, he becomes a Druid of the Circle of Stars. And he has key information. And drugs.  

Note: this should also be the first clue that Darren is not 100% in control here. If Ben were to be transported to a D&D fantasy world, Darren would have been much crueler. Ben comes over not just largely intact, but key elements of his personality are enhanced.

Finally, we get to the two who should have been easy, but let me be honest: these two surprise me all freaking the time.

Candy and Denise are, rather obviously, based on Candella and Duchess from the classic D&D adventure B3: Palace of the Silver Princess. So they should be thieves, right?

Wrong. 

Candy and Denise have grown a lot as characters. I know who they will become when they get older (back to my proposed 2007 or 2013 Class Reunion idea): Candy becomes a nurse because she knows how to help people in times of crisis. Denise becomes a social worker because she stands up for kids and mothers who need someone. The magic of the land sees this. And this becomes the another clue as to what is going on, and not all of it is Darren.

Candance "Candy" Mercer: Candy is still that girl who can climb to the third story of a building to break in, but she is also the girl who stitches people up and gets them back into the fight. She is a Way of Mercy Monk. Her touch can heal or harm. Mercy is even in her name.

Denise "Duchess" Carver: When the kids were pulled into the world the "Dragon Master" wanted to Denise to be a simple serving wench or better (for him) a slave. That didn't happen. Something (someone) saw into Denise's soul, and when she got here, her true self was revealed. 

Denise Carver, Paladin. Oath of Devotion.

She shows up in shining (literally) armor, wielding a sword. I justify this by stating the obvious (well, obvious to the other players and me). Denise wears "armor" all the time. In Jackson, her armor is sarcasm and attitude. When Candy was hurt, she picked up a crowbar and challenged the monster (a zombie) to "fucking come get some!" I don't care if she was a "thief" in another life. Denise is a protector. Denise gets in between her friends and danger. Or as I have said repeatedly, "Denise Carver fucking shows up."

I honestly can't explain how well they all fit their new roles. So now to figure out my other (many) problems.

I have guidelines for all the other major and minor NPCs as well.

The Dragon Master Summons

When putting together my list of movies, it became obvious that I needed a Big Bad, and this was the guy who pulls everyone into his realm. The answer was obvious before I finished my thoughts on it. 

Darren Vale AKA "The Dragon Master"

At the end of Am I Evil? Darren was in a coma. Well, somehow this little asshole managed to create an entire fantasy world in his mind. I cheated and just used a "cartoon" version of Yog. He wanted revenge against all the people who wronged him. So he first traps Stephanie, Faye, and Larina. How? No freaking idea; I am going to use horror-movie logic here and say they were performing some ritual, and Darren had already laid a trap for them. They are trapped in his Realm, and he thought he would get the other characters into his world as well, where he could torment them at his leisure while siphoning off the magic of my three witches.

This solved a lot of problems for me. It kept the witches out of the picture so my other characters (jokingly referred to as "The B Team") could shine. It gave Darren the magic power he needed to power his realm and draw others in.  AND it gave me the key to Darren's defeat.

The adventure in Jackson begins when all the characters receive an invitation to see a new fantasy movie at the Illinois Times theatre at midnight (Yes, cribbed from "Demons"). They are the only ones there. The movie is cheesy but looks realistic, and then a group of orcs jump out of the screen and drag the characters into the movie.

The Realms of Spellcraft & Swordplay

The characters come through, and many of them are much more powerful than I think Darren intended them to be. Candy, Denise, and Ben in particular. There are "copies" of all the other NPCs from Jackson, but they are all caricatures of who they really are. Coach Kurt is portrayed as a dumb jock, despite also teaching AP Calculus and serving as the Honor Society sponsor. Kerri is depicted as an alluring nymph (ok that is not too far from the truth), and Valerie as an old hag, because that is how Darren categorizes women. Thomas Avery is stereotypically gay and predatory. It is all an awful version of Jackson. That's Darren's vision. But there are other tells. 

First, there is no one here who showed up after Darren's coma. Renee is still here, for example, and she left to return to Finland at the end of the 1986 school year. BUT. Moria is here. And more to the point, she is here as a demon-girl. Moria was introduced after Darren, and only four people knew Moria was really a demon: the three witches and Candy. Something Darren would not have known.

Also, the characters are on a quest. To find and free the Three Witches from the dungeons of the Dragon Master. (again, obvious) BUT the names of the witches are The Sorceress (Stephanie), The Ash Witch (Larina), and The Thorn Child (Faye). Again, only four people know that "Thorn Child" was what Faye's aunts were trying to turn her into: the three witches and Ben. Faye works with Ben at Strawberry Fields.

I drop other little clues that only the characters know, but not Darren. 

Somehow Stephanie, Faye, and Larina's thoughts are getting into Darren's world. 

What follows is a really, really stereotypical D&D adventure. I wanted it that way. In fact, I wanted it to almost feel like a parody that was so earnest it became an homage. The Dragon Master's lair was just Module B1: In Search of the Unknown and B2: Keep on the Borderlands.

The party finds the witches and rescues them. Each witch is a separate quest. Doing so breaks the magical hold. So freeing Stephanie, the Red Sorceress, causes social interactions to loosen their magical bonds; all the NPCs remember who they really were/are, and Darren loses control of them. Freeing Faye, the Thorn Child, causes the land to begin to revert to normal. Finally freeing Larina, the Ash Witch, breaks the magical hold. Now the PCs have to confront the Dragon Master directly. Everyone wakes up in the theatre. The janitor wants to know why they are all still there at 3 in the morning. ("Those damn kids!")

BUT I haven't gotten to that in-game yet. My real-world players are just now finding clues.And this is looking like it will be a lot longer than the one-shot I had intended it to be.

What is good about this adventure? The witches are completely sidelined. They didn't have to do anything and gave me a chance to see how the other characters do without them.

Spoilers?

Given the influence of Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors, not just on this adventure, but on the genesis of AD&D Larina's daughter Taryn, I did add Taryn (in her Half-elf incarnation) here. She appears to know things and even understands that this is a trap. The players picked up right away that she was different, but I didn't tell them why. My oldest got it right away. In fact, his comment was, "What the hell is she doing here?"

Sorry, Liam, I don't really have a good answer for that other than "fan service." Now I need to figure out how/why she was there.

This game is going to go on much longer than expected, and it is already shaping up to be my proper "Season 2" of Jackson, just not in the way I expected. I had planned to bring in Taryn as a time traveler to return to the 1986-87 school year, but I never figured out why she was there. Other than a 21-year-old Taryn trying to deal with her mom when she was 17.

It will be fun to see where this one goes.

Vecna Must Die!

 I just watched the Season 4 finale of Critical Role's "Vox Machina" on Amazon Prime. Don't like Critical Role? Here's 50 cents; call someone who cares. I enjoyed the hell out of it. They set up their Big Bad for Season 5, The Whispered One. Or, as most of us who followed the stream, Vecna.

Vecna is getting some solid multiversal play. He is threatening Exandria; this winter, he was threatening Hawkins, IN, in the final season of Stranger Things. He even had a new multi-versal adventure arc for D&D 5e.  He even had some hits in AD&D 2nd Ed. His name dates back to Original D&D. 

Vecna is a bad dude.

So it seems really strange that I have never run an adventure where he is the Big Bad. I have never even run one where he has been featured to be honest. Oh, I have started some, but by the time they went from idea to notes to something written to the table, it changed. Usually the Vecna "bits" are given over to The Necromancer.  Given his importance to the history of D&D, and in-world history too, it feels like I am missing out.

Trouble is, Vecna, as a threat, is an order of magnitude (or more) above most threats your typical AD&D/D&D5 character would face. Strahd's motivations are easy to grasp; that's what makes him a great villain. Even Iuz has an understandable point of view. Same with Szass Tam, Lord Soth, Areelu Vorlesh, or the myriad other bad guys that litter the D&D multiverse. 

What does Vecna want?

Once I can answer that question, I know what my adventure needs to be. Because whatever it is Vecna wants, it will not be good for the worlds the PCs live in. 

It can't be something as mundane as control. Or even godhood. Casting down all the other gods would get the entire multiverse up in arms against him. No. It has to be qualitatively different. 

What do I want?

That is also a good question. I want something that feels epic in scope and in play. I really don't want a MacGuffin hunt. I mean, it works, yes, but if Vecna has a plan to gather all the Dragon Balls Vestiges Artifacts, then why hasn't he done this already, quietly?

When I say epic, I mean EPIC.

I want it to cross universes, to cross genres, something when the players are done they feel like this was the best adventure of their lives.

What Features Would I Like?

This is a slightly different question. Vecna, as a topic, needs epic gestures, grand plans, multiversal-changing events. Or...more to the point. I need that. I have done hundreds of "small" adventures. Clear out the goblin nest, stop the orc raids, and then escalate. My players have fought Vampire Lords, Demon Princes, Dukes of Hell, and Witch Queens. I can do grand. But this needs to be bigger. I owe that to myself. A grand opus.

1. There needs to be world hopping. 

I said no MacGuffin hunts, but that does help here. I want to sample the worlds of D&D and I want to do it in a quality way. Vecna: Eve of Ruin does this, but I want to do it differently. 

2. I want a Tour of Editions

I have always wanted a campaign where the characters and players switch editions. Start out in OD&D or Basic and work your way up to 5th edition. Each major "Act" is a different edition. That would require me to be extra clever about the characters used and how to structure leveling up. Some pragmatic concerns include different leveling assumptions, i.e., max 20th level in AD&D 2, D&D 3 and 5, but 30+ in D&D 4 and BECMI. Also, class and species. Starting out in OD&D has limits on what classes people have access to. Want to play a Tiefling Warlock? Best I can do is a human magic-user. That being said, I would make allowances. If someone REALLY wants to play a Tiefling Warlock, sure, rules-wise maybe they start out as a human magic-user, but as play (and editions) progress they become that Tiefling Warlock. Which gets me to my next point.

2a. A Guided Tour

I *might* consider grabbing an iconic adventure from each edition and trying it out as part of this epic quest. It's just a thought.

3. I want the Players to have options

I want the players to feel invested in this campaign. I want them to care. The best way to do that is let them play what they want and leave it to me to figure out how to make that happen. SO I am not saying "No" to any reasonable request. So want to play a Teifling Warlock? Great! You can do that. I just need to figure out how to that in the BECMI part of the adventure arc.

4. The Stakes need to be High

None of this works unless what Vecna wants is so cosmos-altering that stopping him is never a question of "why do it?" but instead "how to do it?" The PCs need to stop him. The Players need to want to stopp him. 

What does this all add up to?

No freaking idea.

But it is a fun thought experiment. And it is certainly something I will do one day. I just have to keep picking at it. 

Ravenloft: The Horrors Within

We are back in Ravenloft. Again.

And honestly, I am happy to be here.

I have talked about Ravenloft a lot over the years. A lot. I have covered the original I6 adventure, the 2nd Edition boxed sets, Realms of Terror, Domains of Dread, the 3rd Edition Ravenloft books, and into the 5th edition era with Curse of Strahd, Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, and more. Ravenloft is one of those settings I keep coming back to, not because I have to, but because it keeps speaking my language.

That language is Gothic horror.

More specifically, it is Universal Monsters, Hammer Horror, Dracula, Dark Shadows, foggy roads, terrified villagers, cursed castles, and vampires who are more than just another entry in the Monster Manual. That has always been part of my Appendix N. So when I first encountered I6 Ravenloft, it was not just another AD&D adventure to me. It was D&D finally doing something I had always wanted it to do. It wasn't Tolkien. It wasn't Conan, or any of the other books and tales people assume we read before encountering D&D. It wasn't the usual dungeon crawl. 

It was a Hammer Horror film with dice. It is what I always wanted from D&D.

Count Strahd von Zarovich mattered because he was not just a vampire. D&D had vampires before Strahd (hello Belgos), but Strahd was different. He had a history. He had a motive. He had a personality. He had a castle, a village, a tragedy, and the sheer theatrical arrogance to make the whole thing work. He was intelligent, ruthless, and absolutely convinced that his own damnation was someone else’s fault.

That is Ravenloft. Or at least, that is the beginning of Ravenloft. 

The setting has changed many times since then. And really, if you have been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know all of this. But...It became a full AD&D 2nd Edition campaign world. It got its own boxed sets, its own domains, its own dark mythology, and eventually its two 3rd Edition and 3.5 Edition versions. It came back in 5e with Curse of Strahd, and then in 2021 with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. Every edition has changed it, sometimes in ways I liked and sometimes in ways I had to think about for a while. But I have always believed that Ravenloft can survive reinterpretation. Horror does that. Dracula gets remade (and remade and remade). Frankenstein gets remade. Werewolves, ghosts, witches, haunted houses, and cursed families all get remade. Every generation gets a new set of horror classics to call their own. 

Ravenloft follows suit.

That brings me to Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, the new Ravenloft book for the revised 2024 Dungeons & Dragons rules. Or 5.5e. Or D&D 2024. Or whatever we are all calling it now.

This one is interesting because it is not really a replacement for Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. It is more like the book Van Richten’s Guide needed beside it.

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft was a book of ideas. The Horrors Within is a book of things to use at the table.

That difference is everything.

I liked Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. I still do. I know some people wanted it to be more like the old 2nd Edition setting, with the Core, political borders, domain histories, and more of the classic campaign setting structure. I understand that. I love those books too. But I also said at the time that Van Richten’s Guide was doing something useful. It was not trying to rebuild old Ravenloft exactly. It was treating the Domains of Dread as a horror toolkit for modern 5e.

That worked for me.

It gave us Gothic horror, folk horror, body horror, cosmic horror, dark fantasy, ghost stories, psychological horror, and all the other nightmare flavors Ravenloft can support. It gave us advice for building Domains of Dread and Darklords. It let Ravenloft become more than Barovia and a few neighboring spooky countries. It also gave me the tools to build my own Darklord and my own domain, which I did with Darlessa, my Vampire Queen.

But Van Richten’s Guide also had gaps.

The biggest one was obvious: almost no Darklord stat blocks.

I understood the design philosophy. A Darklord is not just a monster. A Darklord is the dark heart of a domain. They are not always meant to be fought. Sometimes defeating them means surviving them, understanding them, resisting them, or escaping the story they have built around themselves. That is all true.

But this is still Dungeons & Dragons. 

Eventually, someone will say, "I attack Strahd." 

And then you need rules. I mean...sure, why not, they are going to lose, but let's roll some dice.

That is where The Horrors Within makes its strongest case. The new book gives us 17 Darklord stat blocks. Strahd. Azalin Rex. Lord Soth. Hazlik. Viktra Mordenheim. Chakuna. Ebonbane. And yes, Cthulhu.

I will get to Cthulhu in a bit.

The inclusion of Darklord stat blocks immediately changes the usefulness of the book. It means the Darklords are no longer just concepts, villains, or tragic centers of gravity. They are table-ready. They have mechanics. They can face the party, haunt the party, hurt the party, and hopefully do all of that in a way that reflects their curse.

That last part matters. A Ravenloft stat block should not just tell me how hard the villain hits. It should tell me something about why they are damned.

• Strahd should not be just a vampire with a better cape. (Though it is a cool cape.)
• Azalin should not be just a Greyhawk lich with a Ravenloft address.
• Viktra Mordenheim should not be just a mad scientist NPC standing next to a flesh golem. 

A good Darklord stat block should say, mechanically, "this is what obsession looks like when the Mists have finished with it."

That is what I want from this book.

The structure also feels different from Van Richten’s Guide. The 2021 book gave us a broad survey of many domains. The Horrors Within focuses on 16 featured Domains of Dread. That means some domains from Van Richten’s Guide move to the margins, including Bluetspur, I’Cath, Richemulot, and The Carnival. That will disappoint some people. It disappoints me a little, especially with Bluetspur, since I liked seeing Ravenloft stretch into alien horror.

But I also understand the trade-off.

Ravenloft domains need space. They are not just countries. They are moral nightmares. A good domain needs a central sin, a Darklord, a curse, a population trapped in the consequences, and enough adventure material for the players to discover all of this the hard way. If focusing on fewer domains means those domains are more playable, then I can live with that.

And there are some interesting returns here. Sithicus and The Shadowlands bring back older Ravenloft material, including the sentient blade Ebonbane and that dark Arthurian fantasy mood that always sat well in Ravenloft’s broader horror geography. Darkon also gets more attention through Azalin Rex and Castle Avernus. That feels right. Azalin has always been one of Ravenloft’s most important figures, second only to Strahd in many ways, in my opinion. If Strahd is Gothic obsession, Azalin is intellectual arrogance, undeath, failed escape, and the refusal to admit that the cage may exist because of him.

That is Ravenloft, too.

The new player options are also very much part of the 2024 rules structure. We get seven subclasses: Reanimator Artificer, College of Spirits Bard, Grave Domain Cleric, Hollow Warden Ranger, Phantom Rogue, Shadow Sorcery Sorcerer, and Undead Patron Warlock. We get Dhampir, Hexblood, Lupin, and Reborn as species. We get backgrounds like Haunted One, Mist Wanderer, Investigator, and Spirit Medium. We get Dark Gifts rebuilt as feats.

The Reanimator Artificer also feels perfect for Lamordia. The Hollow Warden Ranger sounds like something that has spent too much time walking where the Mists are thickest. The Grave Cleric, Phantom Rogue, Shadow Sorcerer, College of Spirits Bard, and Undead Warlock all feel like they belong in this setting. Ravenloft player characters should feel like they have already been touched by something before the adventure begins.

That is where the Dark Gifts come in, and here is where I have my first real concern.

In Van Richten’s Guide, the Dark Gifts were strange, flavorful, and often story-heavy. They felt like bargains, curses, supernatural inheritances, or evidence that something had reached into the character’s life and left a mark. They were not always balanced perfectly, but that was part of their charm. Ravenloft should not always feel perfectly balanced. Sometimes the Mists give you exactly what you asked for and then make you regret the wording.

In The Horrors Within, Dark Gifts are rebuilt for the 2024 feat system. That makes them easier to understand, easier to balance, and easier to run. It also risks making them feel a little more like game widgets and a little less like curses. You know players will look to these as "rewards" and ignore the horror elements.

That is the trade-off of this book in miniature. It is more usable. It may also be a little less haunted.

The example that really sticks with me is the shift in how something like Symbiotic Being works. In older forms, that kind of gift depended on the relationship between the character and the entity inside them. The horror came from the story. What does it want? What does it whisper? What happens when you resist it? Now, by all accounts, the trigger is much cleaner and much more mechanical. Roll a 1 on a d20, and the thing stirs.

That is easier to run.

It is also less personal.

Now, I am not saying this is bad. New DMs need usable mechanics. Players need clarity. The 2024 rules have a design philosophy, and this book is clearly built to fit it. But Ravenloft is a setting where the messy parts matter. Horror is often found in the exception, the strange edge case, the thing that does not behave like the rules say it should.

So I will use these new Dark Gifts, but I already know I will be adding some of the old narrative teeth back in. Even if it means grabbing some older AD&D 2nd Ed material.

The Tarokka material, on the other hand, sounds like exactly the sort of thing I want. The Tarokka deck has been part of Ravenloft since the beginning. In I6, the Fortunes of Ravenloft gave the adventure replayability and mystery. In Curse of Strahd, the Tarokka reading became one of the defining ritual moments of the campaign. It is one of Ravenloft’s best props because it tells the players that fate is not abstract here. Fate has cards. Fate has a voice. Fate may be cheating.

The Horrors Within appears to give the Tarokka deck more mechanical weight in navigating the Mists and interacting with the domains. I like that a lot. That is exactly the kind of old Ravenloft idea that should be made more central, not less. If the Mists are the roads of Ravenloft, then the Tarokka should be one of the few maps that matters. 

Of course, in Ravenloft, even the map can betray you.

I also picked up the new Tarokka deck as well. I'll discuss that later on. 

The Haunted Bastions are another very 2024 idea that actually fits Ravenloft better than I expected. The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide introduced Bastions as a form of player stronghold or home base. In a normal campaign, that can mean a tower, keep, workshop, temple, or guildhall. In Ravenloft, that same idea becomes much more interesting.

A home in Ravenloft should never feel completely safe.

A gothic manor, a lonely chapel, a cursed observatory, a half-reclaimed castle, a witch’s house at the edge of the woods, a laboratory in Lamordia, or a sanctuary surrounded by Mists: all of these work as Haunted Bastions. But they should also come with a question.

What does the house want?

That is the Ravenloft version of a Bastion. Not just a base. Not just a reward. A relationship with a place that remembers things you wish it did not. I have been thinking a lot of places lately and what sorts of "things" they remember; geography as occult memory. This is the Ravenloft version.

The adventures are also a major point in this book’s favor. The Horrors Within gives us one-shot adventures tied to the featured domains. This is exactly the sort of thing Van Richten’s Guide did not do enough of. That book made me want to run Ravenloft. This one seems designed to let me run Ravenloft with less prep. Well...not that I need much prep for Ravenloft these days.

But it still matters.

I know I am an old-school guy. I like weird maps, strange presentation choices, moody boxed sets, and books that feel like forbidden travel guides. But I am also a working DM. A working DM appreciates ready-to-use material. Give me the Darklord. Give me the domain. Give me the map. Give me the adventure seed. Give me the monster stats. Then I can do the rest.

The maps are part of that. Van Richten’s Guide had evocative, conceptual maps. They helped define mood. The Horrors Within leans harder into tactical, full-color, VTT-ready maps. That is not always my preferred style for Ravenloft, but it is useful. And usefulness counts.

This is also where I think the book resembles Domains of Dread in a modern way. Domains of Dread was a late 2nd Edition Ravenloft hardcover that gathered the setting into a more complete reference. It was not the beginning of Ravenloft. It was a summation. The Horrors Within feels a little like that for 5e and 5.5e. Curse of Strahd gave modern players Barovia. Van Richten’s Guide gave them the new conceptual framework. The Horrors Within gives them the operational version.

That is a good place for it to sit.

Now, about Cthulhu.

I am not opposed to cosmic horror in Ravenloft. Ravenloft has always been able to absorb different forms of horror. Gothic horror is the foundation, but the setting has room for mad science, ghost stories, mummy curses, slasher stories, folk horror, dark fantasy, witchcraft, haunted mansions, and yes, cosmic dread. Bluetspur already pushed Ravenloft toward alien horror. Lamordia has always had Frankenstein. Har’Akir has mummy horror. Sithicus has tragic dark fantasy. Ravenloft is not one horror story. It is a machine for making horror stories.

So, Innsmouth as a Domain of Dread? I can work with that. I think.

Elder Things, Mi-Go, Nightgaunts, and Shoggoths? Fine. Those are usable monsters, and I can absolutely see them crawling, flying, or oozing out of the Mists.

Cthulhu as a Darklord? That is where I pause.

Not because Cthulhu is too powerful. Power levels in D&D are always negotiable. The issue is conceptual. A Darklord is trapped by their own sin. The domain is a prison built around their desire, failure, crime, obsession, or refusal to change. That is intensely personal. Cosmic horror, at its best, is impersonal. The universe does not hate you. It simply does not care.

So if Cthulhu is a Darklord, then the book has to answer the Ravenloft question: what is the curse? What does Cthulhu want that the Mists deny? How does the domain torment him? What personal horror makes him fit the same metaphysical structure as Strahd, Azalin, Mordenheim, or Soth? We asked the same questions in the later 2nd Ed era, when Vecna ended up in Ravenloft. How can the Mists contain a God?

If the book answers these questions, well, I am interested.

If not, then I will use the monsters and leave Cthulhu where he belongs, dreaming in R’lyeh.

My oldest and I talked about this a lot since we picked up our copies. He is going to say this is just a Star Spawn of Cthulhu with delusions of godhood. I like that idea. I am still on the fence. 

Plus. Shouldn't it be Dagon? Dagon was the central mythos figure around Innsmouth.

This is the larger issue with importing cosmic horror into Ravenloft. It has to be translated. Ravenloft is not just a spooky multiverse junk drawer. At least it shouldn't be. It has its own moral and metaphysical logic. Evil leaves stains. Sin becomes geography. Desire becomes prison. The Dark Powers do not merely punish you. They arrange the world so that you can keep proving you deserve the punishment.

That is what makes Ravenloft different from other D&D horror. That is why the Darklords matter. That is why the domains matter. That is why the Mists matter.

There is also the broader production context. The Horrors Within arrives during D&D’s new "Season of Horror" approach, and it comes after a period of visible change at Wizards of the Coast, including the departures of long-time D&D figures Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford. I do not want to overstate that in a product review, but it is hard not to notice. This book feels like part of a new publishing rhythm: more programmatic, more integrated with D&D Beyond, more tied to digital tools, maps, accessories, and seasonal branding. The newer 5.5 books even look different. 

That is not inherently bad, but it is different.

Ravenloft used to feel like something that escaped from the shadows of D&D. Now it is a coordinated product line with digital bundles, map packs, accessories, and mechanical integration into the 2024 rules. That is the nature of the game now. The question is whether the horror survives the repackaging.

So far, I think it can. BUT, (and this is an all capital but) it has to be negotiated very carefully.  

There is one more rules issue worth mentioning, though perhaps more as a side note than as a central part of the review: the Hexblade problem. The 2017 Hexblade Warlock was famously front-loaded. It gave Warlocks, and multiclass Paladins and Sorcerers, a very strong reason to take a one-level dip. The 2024 rules absorbed much of that melee Warlock identity into the base Pact of the Blade. That left the Hexblade with an identity problem. If every Blade Pact Warlock can do the signature Hexblade thing, then what is the Hexblade now?

The answer seems to be to move the Hexblade closer to the idea of a sentient magic weapon and a curse-bound warrior. That is more Ravenloft-friendly in flavor, honestly. A cursed blade with its own will is exactly the sort of thing that belongs in the Domains of Dread. But it also shows the larger issue of adapting legacy 5e material to the 2024 framework. Some old mechanics no longer have the same niche. Some old subclasses need a new reason to exist.

That is not really a flaw in The Horrors Within, but it is part of the same design moment. The 2024 rules want cleaner baselines. Ravenloft wants strange exceptions. The tension between those two impulses is all over this book.

So, where does this leave Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft?

Still useful.

Very useful, in fact.

I would not tell anyone to throw it out. Van Richten’s Guide is still the better book for understanding the 5e conception of Ravenloft. It gives you the broad view. It gives you the horror genres. It gives you the domain-building advice. It gives you a sense of Ravenloft as a modular horror engine. It is the book I would hand someone who wanted to know what modern Ravenloft can be.

The Horrors Within is the book I would hand to someone who wanted to run it this weekend.

That is the cleanest comparison.

Van Richten’s Guide tells you why Ravenloft works. The Horrors Within tells you what to roll. Both are useful. And they work well together.

For my own games, I suspect I would use both, and then still pull from the Black Box, Domains of Dread, the 3rd Edition Ravenloft book, Curse of Strahd, and whatever else is sitting on my Ravenloft shelf. Ravenloft has never been one book for me. It has always been a shelf. A haunted, but well-traveled, shelf, naturally.

If you already own Van Richten’s Guide, do you need The Horrors Within?

• If you are running Ravenloft with the 2024 rules, probably yes.
• If you want Darklord stat blocks, yes.
• If you want ready-to-run domain adventures, yes.
• If you want VTT-friendly maps, updated player options, and more monsters, yes.

If you only want the broad setting lore and horror advice, then Van Richten’s Guide may still be enough.

For me, though, the appeal is obvious. I want the Darklords. I want the Haunted Bastions. I want the Tarokka to matter. I want to see what they do with Sithicus, The Shadowlands, Castle Avernus, and Innsmouth. I want to see whether the monsters feel like Ravenloft monsters, not just horror-themed stat blocks.

As I read this in detail, I want to see whether this book remembers the most important thing.

Ravenloft is not scary because the monsters have more hit points. Ravenloft is scary because the monster used to be a person, and somewhere deep down, maybe still is. That is the horror. That is the tragedy. 

And that is why we keep going back into the Mists.

A Note about the "New" Format for 5.5 Books

Hasbro/Wizards has made some slight changes to the format of their "setting" books. I saw it in the Forgotten Realms ones and see it here now in the Ravenloft one. It is actually pretty good. I like what they have been giving us concept-wise. Backgrounds, history, new sub-classes, some spells, monsters. It is like getting the 2nd Ed Boxed set experience without the product bloat that was one of the reasons for TSR's death. 

I am not saying the books are perfect, and sometimes I still disagree with some of the content choices (see Cthulhu above), but I can't fault the way these are put together.

WotC's publishing schedule has slowed, but I'd still love to see some Mystara content in this format. I think 5.5 and Mystara would work well together.

Mail Call Tuesday: Monster Vault 2, Tales of the Valiant

 Wanted to tryout more of the Retail editions from DriveThruRPG, and I noticed Kobold Press' Tales of the Valiant Monster Vault 2 was a choice. So my oldest kid picked it up and we got it just a few days later. Not as fast as say Amazon nor even as fast as me driving to my FLGS, but it was convient and we also got the PDF. 

With a print-on-demand version, I'd talk about the print quality and such, but this is a retail version, so offset printing and everything, so it looks great. 

It is 355 pages and over 300 monsters. Not too shabby, really.

It also has templates, NPCs, Monster Squads (Big Bads and their followers), and rules for Doom.

And it is all compatible with 5e. Though I should point out that none of these monsters have an alignment listed. So if that is something that triggers you then you should avoid this book. But otherwise, I think it will be a good addition to our game library here. I would ask my oldest how it worked for him in his weekend game, but he didn't play 5e this past weekend. He played NIGHT SHIFT instead! 

One thing I am considering, though.

In my game, Hell has gone through a reorganization. Out are Levistus and Zariel. Levistus was unmade and seizing this opportunity, Glasya took command of Stygia, becoming the first Arch Duke (Duchess) to control two layers of Hell since Baalzebul. Asmodeus, of course, allowed this to happen, thinking that these two layers would keep his ambitious daughter too busy to seek other layers. Glasya then did something no one expected. She raised Geryon to the ranks of Duke and put him back in charge of Stygia as her Viceroy. Geryon, happy to be back in charge and still angry with Asmodeus, took Glasya's offer. He was also pleased she had destroyed Malagard, someone he believed never earned her place in Hell. This earned her the hate of Baalzebul and the watchful caution of Mephistopheles (who, in my games, believes he is Glasya's real father).  For assurances that Geryon follows Glasya's orders, she has had Geryon's consort, Cozbinaer, raised and now serves in Glasya's court. 

Zariel is another one. She was defeated, and I had thought to put Astaroth in her place. But I think I will use Archduke Abizeth now. I have a habit of using what I have on hand for these sorts of things. His plane sounds a lot like Avernus, so I have that working for me. 

I have more changes coming to Hell. It's been a busy place. Maybe I should grab a couple of unique devils from Pathfinder 2nd ed as well. Maybe Barbatos is a good choice? There are a lot of good choices from Pathfinder.

Elowen Hale: Tales of the Valiant

 "Elowen is not the storm. She is the candle in the window while the storm rages." 

- From the Journal of Larina Nix.

After the double marathon of TARDIS Captain's The Character Creation Challenge and Barking Alien's RPG CAMPAIGN TOUR CHALLENGE, I thought I'd do another one for March! Just kidding. I didn't find one I liked, but I do want to continue with the themes of those two challenges for this month.

So, for March, each Monday, I am going to post the character stats for my newest witch, Elowen Hale. She was not featured during the character creation challenge, but I was building her network of friends and coven members. She was featured during the RPG Campaign tour as my tour guide, but all of that happened before she was 1st level. Now she is 1st level and ready for some adventures of her own.

For this, I am going use five different systems to describe her. This is her genesis, really. I had just picked up the new Tales of the Valiant Player's Guide 2. My goal at that point was to find a witch that might work for both TotV and Pathfinder 2 nd edition, since both games have a native witch class. 

I also wanted to see how she would manifest in Daggerheart and AD&D 1st edition. Daggerheart also has a witch class in playtest, and I am working on my AD&D witch. I worked to find the intersection of all these witch ideas into one witch that fit them all. 

That witch is Elowen.

Character Background (Tales of the Valiant)

Elowen was not meant to survive. What returned was not quite the same girl. She breathes. She laughs (more now than when it first happened). She drinks tea. But something in her stands half a step beyond the world.

Clerics say she was restored by divine grace. Wizards insist her resurrection was a planar anomaly. Elowen knows the truth is simpler and stranger: something let her come back.

Since then, the veil between worlds has parted for her. Spirits hesitate around her. Ghosts fall silent. She can see faint threads of fate where others see only empty air.

Unlike many who return from death, Elowen is not hardened. She is gentle. Curious. Soft-spoken. She delights in small things: warm cups, autumn leaves, frogs in rain puddles. She has decided that if she were given a second life, she would live it brightly.

Elowen Hale
Human Witch 1 (Twilight Soul)
PB +2

Heritage: Covenant
Background: Chronicler 
Learn Researcher 
Features: Spell Inoculation (advantage on saves from spells targeting her)

Strength: +0 (10)
Dexterity: +1 (12)
Constitution: +2 (14)
Intelligence: +2 (15)
Wisdom: +3 (17) Saves + PB
Charisma: +3 (16) Saves + PB

Skills: +6 Arcana, +5 Perception, +5 Survival

HP: 10
AC: 12

Spells
Cantrips: Dancing Lights, Influence, Luck Bait, Swift Stash
First Circle: Stumble, Withering Gaze

Age: 19
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 114 lbs

Skin: Pale
Hair: White (was black)
Eyes: gray (were violet)

Familiar: Mirepoix (calico cat)

Theme song: Home (Prospertine)

So this was Elowen's conception. Reading through Tales of the Valiant and figuring out their witch options.  The Twilight Soul witch jumped out at me right away. Plus the art features a white-haired witch (as does Pathfinder) I also pretty much got her look in right away.

Last month's posts also helped me establish that Elowen, much like her mentor Larina, keeps a journal. Since I had some character journals for Tales of the Valiant, one of them became Elowen's.

Sorry for the weird lighting. My wife is turning on her grow lights for this year's garden.

I'll keep notes in this as I run her through various adventures. Yeah, she will be a GMPC for the most part, but her magic isn't going to be the thing to change the tide of a battle. But she can keep notes in her journals that Larina bought for her. Like Larina says, Elowen is not the storm, but she is the comfort away from the storm. She is a comfortable fire and a nice hot cup of tea. She is the one you can tell your horrifying truths to because she won't judge you.

Of course, this is just part of how I defined who Elowen otehr ideas about who she is came from other games too. She is at the intersection of all these witch ideas.

Mail Call Tuesday: Tales of the Valiant Player's Guide 2

 Tales of the Valiant Player's Guide 2 was delivered to my door this week! 

I backed this on Kickstarter a while back and I am happy to see it. 

The box was packed with the Player's Guide 2 and three character journals.

Of course, what I am most excited about is their new witch class.

It looks like it is a lot of fun and I can't wait to create a new character for it.

I think I do want a brand new character. One I can try in this, Pathfinder 2.1, and for the hell of it, something for my current AD&D game. It could be a lot of fun. 

Just need a concept that would fit all three games!

This witch has three subclasses, which are roughly equivalent to my ideas of traditions. The Crimson Cord, the Night Song, and the Twilight Soul. Pathfinder is more Patron-focused.  Somewhere is a witch I can slot into all three.

Monstrous Mondays: Wyrdcat

Carla Bosteder from Pixabay

 I am working on another piece of something that may or may not involve my "The One Who Remains."  Think of this as a warm-up sketch an artist would do before getting into their main composition. 

As it turns out, this also makes a decent OGL-ready version of a Displacer Beast. This is based on a monster we used to use called a "Tessercat." 

Wyrdcat

Dimensional Apex Predator

“It isn’t invisible. It’s just in three places you’re not.”

- Notes from the Archives of Killian Mazior

The Wyrdcat is a predator from beyond the edges of known planes, not born of one world, but between them. It is not native to any reality, and perhaps not even alive by most definitions. When Killian’s Tower began drawing in unstable planar energies, the Wyrdcat slipped through. A wandering apex hunter, now trapped within the folds of fractured dimensions.

Though feline in form, the Wyrdcat is a thing of quantum uncertainty and temporal stutter. It appears as a sleek, panther-like creature with oily black fur, three shadow-laced tails, and eyes that glint in colors no one can name. Its form pulses with fractured reflections. At any given moment, it may exist in multiple nearby positions, flickering like an unsynced illusion.

It hunts with the precision and cruelty of a big cat; stalking, pouncing, toying with prey before the kill. The laws of space and time bend around it. Some say it sees not just where a creature is, but where it was and will be. Those who survive a Wyrdcat encounter speak of claws that cut through armor, wounds that reappear after healing, and psychic echoes that return in dreams.

Behavior

Solitary Apex Predator: The Wyrdcat hunts alone. It marks its territory across multiple overlapping realities. If another apex predator enters its distorted hunting grounds, it becomes immediately aggressive.

Reality Drifter: The Wyrdcat can manipulate its form to align with different versions of reality. This shift can cause localized changes in reality, resulting in distorted probability fields. (This results in the players needing to use different dice to roll for initiative, to hit, and damage. It can also cause the local "rules" to shift between editions of the game.)

Mirror Flicker: It always appears in three semi-distinct forms: one solid, two afterimages or preimages. Only one is real at any time, and it may shift between them without warning.

Dimensional Stalker: It may pursue prey even after they plane shift, teleport, or escape into another zone of the tower. It remembers where they will be.

Wyrdcat (1st Edition)

Frequency: Very Rare
No. Appearing: 1 (always solitary)
Armor Class: 2
Move: 15"
Hit Dice: 7+2
% in Lair: 5%
Treasure Type: Q (×10), X
No. of Attacks: 2 claws / 1 bite
Damage/Attack: 2–8 / 2–8 / 2–12
Special Attacks: Surprise (90%), planar pounce
Special Defenses: Mirror Flicker (see below), +2 or better weapon to hit
Magic Resistance: 25%
Intelligence: Low (animal cunning)
Alignment: Neutral
Size: L (8–10' long)
Psionic Ability: Nil

The Wyrdcat is a sleek, black-furred feline predator from beyond the known planes. Though it resembles a panther or great jungle cat, the Wyrdcat’s form flickers unnaturally between overlapping dimensions, accompanied by afterimages that move out of sync with its body. Its three shadow-tailed limbs seem to lag or stutter through space, and its eyes shimmer with alien colors beyond mortal comprehension.

Wyrdcats are not native to any world. They are planar anomalies. Believed to be either accidents of cross-dimensional entropy or the predatory echoes of something far older and deeper. The creatures now prowl the fringes of unstable magical structures such as witch gates, collapsed covensites, and reality-warped ruins.

Though bestial in nature, Wyrdcats hunt with a cruel cunning. They stalk arcane spellcasters and dimensional travelers, and are particularly drawn to witches, warlocks, and those who have tampered with interplanar forces.

The Wyrdcat attacks via a claw/claw/bite routine common to large cat predators. Each claw can do 2-8 (2d4) hp worth of damage, while its bite can do 2-12 (2d6).

Mirror Flicker (Special Defense)

The Wyrdcat constantly flickers between three visible forms. It functions as if under a permanent mirror image spell with two false images. The true form randomly shifts every round. Attacks against the creature have a 66% chance to target an illusion unless the attacker has true seeing or similar magic.

Planar Pounce (Special Attack)

Once per encounter, the Wyrdcat may teleport up to 30 feet to attack as if using a dimension door. This grants it +2 to hit and imposes a -2 penalty on the target's surprise roll.

Edition Flux (Optional Rule)

Once per turn, the GM may declare that the Wyrdcat is using mechanics from a different edition (i.e., switch initiative methods, AC rules, etc.). Players must quickly adapt.

Wyrdcat (3.5 Edition)
Large Magical Beast

Hit Dice: 8d10+32 (76 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), planar pounce 1/day
AC: 18 (–1 size, +4 Dex, +5 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 14
Base Atk/Grapple: +8/+17
Attack: Claw +12 melee (1d8+5)
Full Attack: 2 claws +12 melee (1d8+5), bite +7 melee (2d6+5)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft. (10 ft. with claws)
Special Attacks: Planar Pounce
Special Qualities: Mirror Flicker, Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, DR 5/magic, SR 18
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +5
Abilities: Str 21, Dex 19, Con 18, Int 6, Wis 14, Cha 10
Skills: Hide +8, Listen +8, Move Silently +12, Spot +8
Feats: Multiattack, Improved Initiative, Weapon Focus (claw)
Environment: Any extraplanar
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: None
Alignment: Neutral
Advancement: 9–12 HD (Large); 13–18 HD (Huge)

The Wyrdcat is a sleek, black-furred feline predator from beyond the known planes. Though it resembles a panther or great jungle cat, the Wyrdcat’s form flickers unnaturally between overlapping dimensions, accompanied by afterimages that move out of sync with its body. Its three shadow-tailed limbs seem to lag or stutter through space, and its eyes shimmer with alien colors beyond mortal comprehension.

Wyrdcats are not native to any world. They are planar anomalies. Believed to be either accidents of cross-dimensional entropy or the predatory echoes of something far older and deeper. The creatures now prowl the fringes of unstable magical structures such as witch gates, collapsed covensites, and reality-warped ruins.

Though bestial in nature, Wyrdcats hunt with a cruel cunning. They stalk arcane spellcasters and dimensional travelers, and are particularly drawn to witches, warlocks, and those who have tampered with interplanar forces.

The Wyrdcat attacks via a claw/claw/bite routine common to large cat predators. Each claw can do 1d8+5 hp worth of damage, while its bite can do 2d6+5.

Mirror Flicker (Su): The Wyrdcat exists partially in multiple dimensions. It is constantly under an effect similar to mirror image, generating 2 illusory copies of itself. These cannot be dispelled normally. True seeing reveals the true form.

Planar Pounce (Su): Once per day as a free action, the Wyrdcat may teleport up to 30 feet before making a full attack. This does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Edition Flux (Ex): Once per encounter, the Wyrdcat may twist reality, forcing all initiative to be rerolled using d10 (2e style) or d6 (1e style), randomly determined. It may also alter damage reduction, attack styles, or magic resistance at the GM’s discretion.

Wyrdcat (D&D 5e)
Large monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 16 (natural armor, flickering defense)
Hit Points 95 (10d10 + 40)
Speed 40 ft.

STR 20 (+5)
DEX 18 (+4)
CON 18 (+4)
INT 6 (–2)
WIS 14 (+2)
CHA 10 (+0)

Saving Throws Dex +7, Wis +5
Skills Perception +5, Stealth +8
Damage Resistances force, necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks.
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15

Languages —

Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +3

The Wyrdcat is a sleek, black-furred feline predator from beyond the known planes. Though it resembles a panther or great jungle cat, the Wyrdcat’s form flickers unnaturally between overlapping dimensions, accompanied by afterimages that move out of sync with its body. Its three shadow-tailed limbs seem to lag or stutter through space, and its eyes shimmer with alien colors beyond mortal comprehension.

Wyrdcats are not native to any world. They are planar anomalies. Believed to be either accidents of cross-dimensional entropy or the predatory echoes of something far older and deeper. The creatures now prowl the fringes of unstable magical structures such as witch gates, collapsed covensites, and reality-warped ruins.

Though bestial in nature, Wyrdcats hunt with a cruel cunning. They stalk arcane spellcasters and dimensional travelers, and are particularly drawn to witches, warlocks, and those who have tampered with interplanar forces.

Mirror Flicker.

The Wyrdcat projects two illusory versions of itself, similar to the mirror image spell. At the start of each turn, roll 1d6. On a 1–4, the attack targets an illusion, which vanishes; on a 5–6, the attack targets the real creature. If all images are destroyed, they regenerate at the start of the Wyrdcat’s next turn.

Planar Pounce (1/Day).

As a bonus action, the Wyrdcat teleports up to 30 feet to a space it can see and makes a full multiattack.

Reality Flux (Recharge 5–6).

The Wyrdcat distorts the battlefield. Until the end of its next turn:

• All initiative rerolls use a d10 or d6
• Saving throws use the 3e categories (Fort/Ref/Will).
• AC is treated as descending (lower = better) for targeting purposes.

This affects PCs and NPCs alike. Creatures with truesight are unaffected.

Actions 

Multiattack. The wyrdcat makes two attacks with its claws and one attack with its bite.

Claw.

Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target

Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) slashing damage.

If the target is a spellcaster concentrating on a spell, it must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or lose concentration due to the Wyrdcat’s disruptive phasing claws.

Bite.

Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target

Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) piercing damage.

If this attack reduces a creature to 0 hit points, the Wyrdcat may teleport up to 30 feet as a free action at the start of its next turn (Planar Reflex Surge).

Forgotten Realms: Heroes and Adventures in Faerûn

 Went to my Favorite Local Game Store yesterday. They were doing downtown business trick or treating, oh, and I picked up the new D&D 5.5 Forgotten Realms books.

I have actually been looking forward to getting these.  I'll save a long and detailed review for a later date when they come up in my regular explorations into the Realms. 

The Shadow of Baldur's Gate

If you were new to the Forgotten Realms and this was your first exposure, you would be excused in thinking that Karlach Cliffgate, the tiefling barbarian with a heart of gold (well, really a heart of infernal machinery), was the most important character in the Realms. 

And she is. Full Stop.

But seriously. Karlach is all over these two books. There is one picture of Elminster, maybe one or two of Drizzt, one of The Simbul, a few of the D&D cartoon kids, and a ton of Karlach, with some more of Shadowheart, Astarion, and even Enver Gortash. Even Duke Ravengard gets a couple more than his son Wyl, anyway.

Everybody Loves Karlach

The Baldur's Gate III video game looms large here.

Honestly, this is a good thing.

The tone of the book is, "this is a big old world and there have been heroes before you, but now is your time to be the epic hero." This is exactly what they should do. Drizzt even is taking a lesser role so his daughter Briennelle can do more. And really, who better than Karlach to lead that charge?

The Books and their Contents

The two books, Heroes of Faerûn and Adventures in Faerûn are what you expect. Full color, plenty of art and new rules. Both books have expansive indexes. 

I feel that these two books are the way D&D 5.5 (and this is really a continuation of D&D 5) should move forward with their Campaign settings.

Both books cover the lands and people. The Heroes of Faerûn book for Players is an overview of everything, the Adventures in Faerûn book for Dungeon Masters covers some areas in more detail. 

Again, just very briefly. The lands seem brighter (as one should now expect from D&D 5.5) but that should never mean "safe." There is less emphasis on "this type of monster is a threat" and more on "this faction is a threat." Which is honestly much better. And there are plenty of factions to keep good characters busy fighting and evil characters, well also fighting them or even joining their ranks.

Though there are still monsters. 

There are changes, and really, I am the *least* qualified person to find these given how "new" my Realms education is, but a couple stick out.

Baldur's Gate, as expected, has eclipsed Waterdeep as the "city of choice" in this era. I think "in game" I'll say the Baldur's Gate has had an in-rush of tourism. Everyone wants to catch a glimpse of "The Hero of the Gate" Karlach. 

The Moonshae Isles have gone from the quasi-Celtic meets quasi-Vikings to a combined people living in an area where the Feywild bleeds through. And I like that.  

The Heroes of Faerûn book has expansions to the subclasses, including a College of the Moon Bard and a Spellfire Sorcerer. I want to try out both. Lots of new backgrounds, lots of new feats. Not as many spells as I would have expected. Adventures in Faerûn has lots of 1-page encounters and mini-adventures. Enough to get anyone going. The first ones can be used anywhere, and then there are location-specific ones. 

Of course, some of this covers the same ground as previous books, and they encourage people to check out these other sources too.

Inside cover maps

Venger and Presto still at it all these years later

Enver Gortash from Baldur's Gate III

Hank is now a King

I'll dig into these books more in the future. I still to finish my 2nd Ed AD&D exploration of the Realms.

The Player's book comes with a nice map. It reminds me of the map that came with the 3rd Edition D&D book.

on the backside is a Calendar of Harptos.

In my first pass these books fit well with my other Realms books and continue the saga of the Realms.

Of note. Ed Greenwood is not listed as a contributor in these volumes, but he is given a special thanks. Jeff Grubb is given a special thanks as well.

I am looking forward to delving deeper into these books.