Wonderful World of Darklords
Wonderful World of Darklords
A podcast converting Disney movies to Ravenloft domains of dread, with new episodes dropping the 13th of every month.
You can find us @wonderfulworldofdarklords on Tumblr and Facebook, or email us at [email protected].
Support us on Patreon at www.patreon.com/wonderfulworldofdarklords
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This was so painful to listen to, i loved it! Great joke xD
No mention of the reality bending horror that is Vechor?
i really hope i can find a way to work that Wraith mechanic into a campaign.
i really like the idea of this being a domain within a domain and feel like Paridon would be an interesting fit for it. the court of miracles could be run by dopplegangers.
Yeah, that's a great location! You've got the crowded mega city, and Frollo could easily be in the Divinity of Man. The hardest part would be a sympathetic arch-deacon style cleric of that religion.
I'm using aspects of this for one of my PCs backstory villains. A pirate named Patroclus the Everliving whose shadow pilots a ship called the Lost Darling while he stays on an island warped by a captured Archfey.
That's awesome! Once you introduce the Shadow as s separate like, minion, it opens up some cool evocative possibilities.
i miss sinkholes of evil from the old editions. i feel like that would help explain your exhaustion mechanics based on place easier then just having to spell it out everytime. in this domain more than any of the others especially.
yeah, we basically started with sinkholes of evil and worked our way backward to a 5e version, but that is what we were going for.
I kinda think the magical mind control takes away from the terrifying actual manipulation that can happen in that situation. Abuela is absolutely charismatic enough to not have to use mind control and she genuinely thinks she is doing the right thing. The mind control might be better for the kids but I think adults can handle the idea that sometimes you don't need magic. It's just being raised in a home that venerates someone so much.
That is a a fantastic point and totally the right call if you have an adult group that is really into dark psychological roleplaying. Our default Domain is always for the "default ravenloft party" and so we magic-ed it a bit, as that party is more likely to have tools for solving problems based on enchantment magic and less so problems based on decades of psychological abuse.
Just discovered you guys and so far I've loved your stuff! And lion king in space sounds like a blast, yes please
Thank you! We were really proud of this idea, and think Ravenloft converts to Spelljammer in a really fun way.
I'd have called the city San-Sokyo. Rolls of the tongue better.
That's good! I wanted to steer clearer of the original to avoid copyright stuff (which I failed to do).
I knew that looking at this it was a bit But I think there's actually merit to a McQueen domain and I'm not kidding.
DO TELL!
@@WonderfulWorldofDarklord Simple! Make it Mad Max from a Dark Sun like setting and swap racing out for death races
@@rick8216 NICE
So the domain is kinda Souragne with all the banking and debt of Borca?
That...is an excellent description, actually
Alternatively, Rattigan kills him like in canon, and the Torment is that he knows that, despite his 'World's Greatest Criminal Mind' shpiel, he knows that he had to brute force a victory.
That's awesome! It's a lot like his Disney: Villainous win conditions.
Cool stuff but I got confused about what was being discussed starting at 1 hr 49 min.
Sorry! We'll try to have more of an on-ramp next time. Basically, Rachel is a grognard who's been into Ravenloft since 2e, and even if you're doing 5e there's a ton of great lore in 2e/3e that you can bring in to enrich your game. We put this section in so that Rachel could either introduce 5e mains to some interesting older lore that's relevant to the domain of the month (you don't have to run 2e/3e to have the Divinity of Mankind running around being awful) or help 2e/3e mains to mine the domain of the month for inspiration (if you're running 2e/3e Ivan Dilisnya who has neither a spider pram nor functioning taste buds, Barbossa is fantastic).
@@WonderfulWorldofDarklord Ok, I was listening while working and suddenly I had no contextual idea who was being discussed and essentially thought "wait, who what where huh? did it change to a different episode?" lol :-D
A wonderful episode! The body horror and memory loss angle is a delightfully devilish spin on the concept.
Thank you!
Imagining the Jack Skellington Darklord singing let it go as Hans loses his mind over having TWO people doing spooky crap in his kingdom has me seriously considering a Ravenloft black comedy long run game
Welp, now I (Rachel) am giggling uncontrollably.
Two comments in one comment: what happened to the spirited away episode? Is that still happening, and if so when? Secondly, are you doing Tron 1 or Tron 2, because Tron 2 is literally just high tech dark lord stuff.
We are hoping to have Spirited Away done in fall! As you suggest, Tron: Legacy is the main source of our Domain because Clu is a more psychologically complex Villain then the MCP, but we also mix some Tron 1 and Tron: Uprising (the animated series), as well as some references to other stuff.... I like Tron.
Hey all full episode available today! It includes our description of important locations in the setting, adventure hooks/plot ideas, and some stuff about other Pirates Villains as Darklords. Enjoy! kzread.info/dash/bejne/nXZtusaYg9m3mso.html The free Domain write up is on dmsguild, and includes a table of random nautical stuff for potential Pirates adventures. www.dmsguild.com/product/486011/Davy-Jones-Locker-A-Ravenloft-Domain-of-Dread
I have no idea what you're talking about, the best way to get over someone is to damn the world to eternal limbo and loop your song on spotify for hundreds of years. They hadn't invented Basketball in the golden age of piracy so they had no concept of "the rebound"
Rachel here. Spotify hadn't been invented when my college girlfriend broke up with me, which is too bad for the Indigo Girls, because if they'd gotten a fraction of a penny every time I played their cover of Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet" they'd be able to buy a private island.
Yeah I think Stabbing Westward would be way richer after all the times I listened to "What Do I Have To Do?"
First. I'm new to your channel and while I haven't watched a lot of your stuff.What I have seen i've enjoyed.
Thank you so much! <3
I'm sorry, I've come back after finishing this, and I recall that you mentioned there's a section in one of the books about dark power temptations where they'll slowly warp you into a monster based on your actions. Which book was that?
Hi! Sorry for the slow responses to your many thoughtful comments--SuperGeekMike shared us literally the day before we left for vacation, which was absolutely fantastic but also meant that we've been slow. We're finally working our way backwards through our notifications. That was the powers check system from the older core books--you can find versions of it in Realm of Terror/the black or red box (2e), Domains of Dread (2e), the Ravenloft Core Rulebook (3e), or the Ravenloft Player's Handbook (3.5e). I know you can get both of the 2e ones on DM's Guild for 10 or 15 bucks each.
So basically, it's Season 5 of Samurai Jack.
Part of the aspect of where you have to "play along" with his imagination reminds me of that one Twilight Zone episode where the kid has psychic powers and all the adults have to bend over backwards and appease him or else face the deadly consequences. *edit - 1:40:20 ah there it is
I remember a while back I saw a tumblr post that pointed out that Snow White's description sounds a lot like how you'd describe a vampire, with snow white skin (like a corpse) and deep red lips (as if covered in blood), and that the dwarves were suspiciously quick to trust her (in their defense, she is quite charming). Hag vs Vampire sound interesting, so long as you keep the vampire as the less impressive evil.
Yes! Vampire Snow White has a ton of potential if you want to go way off book from Disney.
I get the impression this was supposed to be an april fools episode.
LOL! I didn't realize until I saw this comment that there's a downside to uploading the entire RSS feed in one fell swoop. Checking the date on this episode no longer explains its existence.
I think I would go further with the Jekyll and Hyde angle. When Rattigan throws Basil from the tower and he falls into the mist, his body is never found. Basil dies, but the dark powers bind his soul to Rattigan. Rattigan never realizes how close his enemy truly is now. Basil's mind takes over while Rattigan rests, always leaving clues to his foe's crimes, always leaving clues to torment his host with the possibility that he is still out there. Rattigan may rationize these errors on his part as giving his simpleton foes a sporting chance. These "restless nights" may contribute to his monstrous outbursts. While Basil can leave clues and subtly help the PCs, he cannot overstep and alert Rattigan to the possibility of his existence inside his mind. Who knows what lengths Rattigan would go to extract him...
Oh my goodness, you just fixed 2e/3e Nova Vaasa and I love it. Basically, in 2e/3e Malken was the evil crime lord and Tristen Hiregaard was the nobleman who was always trying to hunt him down, but they were the same person. The problem was that it was very much played as Malken being Hiregaard's curse instead of vice versa, which didn't make any sense because Hiregaard is a perfectly okay guy. Having the Jekyll explicitly be the Hyde's curse, subtly foiling his evil schemes (rather than the Hyde always foiling the Jekyll's pursuit) is BRILLIANT.
Even outside of Ravenholm, I can totally see the players bumping into Nala and getting caught up in the latter half of the movie.
That's the great thing, a lot of these Domains have an inherent story that can be adapted into a regular adventure.
When the film first came out, there was a general concensus among my friends that the writers fucked up and accidentally put a bunch of one sided sexual tension on Elsa and Anna's dynamic, giving us the impression that Elsa was romantically in love with her sister. This would be an excellent thing to play into if you wanted to go particularly Game of Thronesy with them, and you aren't DMing with children.
That is creepy and glorious
I find this general concept genius and a campaign composed of short adventures in each of these sounds amazing
Thank you so much! <3
Why am I not surprised that the people who do a disney in ravnloft podcast own lots of nightmare before christmas merch?
It's shocking, I know! (We've gotten even more since recording. Any time a gift-giving occasion comes up and the extended family doesn't know what to get for Rachel, a safe bet is always "ooh, this has Jack Skellington on it.")
Something I feel would make this even more tragic but would fit (albeit you'd have to have a few non-human races which, eh) is if you make Peter part elf. In the film he's got pointy ears, and since elves are so longed lived I treat them as having an exceptionally good memory, but having to deal with the angst that comes from naturally living three times as long as human empires, let alone the individual humans.
Ooh, I like that. It would be an interesting alternate take on the torment--for a human version of Peter Pan, the immortality is a poison pill, whereas for an elf it's the forgetfulness. He'll outlive everyone, but at least he doesn't have object permanence. That's...better, or something, right?
So glad that SuperGeekMike recommended you guys on his. This was great!
thank you! I had no idea we'd gotten a shout out until your comment. It explained the spike in listeners of the last few days.
This episode is amazing and I love it
Thank you! <3
FYI, there is a 5e nightwalker, which is a CR20 huge undead giant
I knew the 3e one, but not that they did a 5e version. What book was it from, may I ask? I'm pretty sure the Nightwalker was a direct D&D-izing of the end of this movie.
I just watched the Hercules episode before this and left a comment including how the fates could be "avatars of the dark powers" and here you said it, lol.
Great minds! :D
Technically, there are some incarnations of Tatyana that are into Strahd, but they are murdered by an angry mob, or succumbs to illness, etc. etc. so that they can never be together, and if only Strahd had better control of his people, or if only he had accepted her advances sooner, etc. etc. etc. it could have worked out. Like, the OG was literally just being kind to get future brother in law, who was a mega incel. I think eventually even Strahd could possibly pick up that every incarnation hates him that maybe it wasn't meant to be, but the Dark Powers know that and use their cruellest weapon to keep him on the hook: hope. Every time he's sooooo close and if he has just done one small thing different it would have (of course it wouldn't have) worked out, so he has to keep trying, and 'learning', and amassing power so that next time, Next Time, will be different. Like, I dint know if I could ever do pure Strahd because he is such an incel, but I think especially a couple of the first few incarnations show actual interest, because the Dark Powers know they just a little bit of 'justification' will feed that incel ego for millennia. Side note: my actual favorite aspects of Strahd are that 1) he's such an ubernerd, and loves reading, especially about magic, and 2) he generally tries to be a strong and just leader to the people he rules over. True, he sees himself above them, but he also takes his duty with utmost sincerity. The worst parts of Strahd are anytime he thinks about Tatyana; the best part of Strahd is, "I am the ancient; I am the Land". Like, he mostly leaves the people alone, unless he has a specific plot reason to interact with them, right until some force threatens them, and then he smites the hell out of whoever disrespected his domain.
Rachel here. That's true! I usually elide that because a) it keeps the episode shorter and b) I tend to project a lot of my visceral loathing for Mina/Dracula onto Tatyana/Strahd. There was a bit at the end of the last Grand Conjunction mod where Tatyana's incarnation sees Strahd and is desperately trying to reach him, and I actually saw red for a second because it was hitting my "oh no, it's Winona Ryder's Mina having desperate love at first sight for the guy who canonically assaulted her" buttons. But you're right, sometimes she does have Winona Ryder's Mina energy and it makes it that much juicier. I do absolutely love his "I am the ancient, I am the land" energy. It's a boring mud slump, but it's HIS boring mud slump, dangit!
@@WonderfulWorldofDarklord I am curious how much of those details are in the older editions encounter settings, adventures, etc. (which I've never seen) and how much are in the novels (which I got through a few of before the incel-ness got to me). I am assuming you have consumed all the books :). I love how Strahd is such a nerd, and if there's any romance that needs to happen, it's obviously between Strahd and Azalin, duh. Now all they can do is send their agents to each other through the mists as sweet gifts.
@@codydwyerify I actually haven't read as many of the books as I'd like to! I loved reading the source material, but when it came to novels I was kind of ruined by Dragonlance. A good 90% of Dragonlance novels that weren't by Weis and Hickman, Richard Knaak, or Don Perrin were...not great, so I shied away from the Ravenloft novels for fear that they'd mess up my favorite setting. (Which is justified in some cases--see our Tower of Doom Book Club of Dread--but also meant I didn't read Dance of the Dead until last year, which is a crime.) Strahd and Azalin OTP. I love that old married couple so much.
I think the coolest meta Easter egg you could have is that the fates are actually avatars of The Dark Powers. The definition and meta physics of Ravenloft is that dark lords are all tragic figures, in the Greek tragic sense. And they all have a doomed *FATE*. Looking at the characters of the Fates, they clearly see the larger plot, and Hades is subservient to them, in the same way that dark lords ultimately answer to the dark powers. They don't seem bothered by what actually happens, but they are there as the mechanics of fate and to witness date play out. Which makes me think, there is another group of fantastic female 'witnesses' who could definitely have the ability to give a dark Lord 'ideas' and 'inspiration'. And canonically, the Muses feed on the creativity (torment) of their targets... That actually is a fantastic fit. Porque no los dos?
I love this as a take on the Fates that's specifically linked to messing with the darklords. Our Hadestown Fates were more about messing with the PCs.
This could totally be a haunted house story. It just so happens that the thing haunting the house is a living child. Alternatively, a rather dark version would be if Kevin eventually died in his isolation because he was a child, now he haunts his house, waiting for his family to come home.
Ooh. I like that you could either play that super dark for adults or almost as an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark for kids. ...oh dang, now an entire poignant adventure just dumped itself into my head where it's basically Wait Till Helen Comes. Kevin wished his family would disappear, but his dad made a mistake in the conjuring circle and that's why they actually did, but he blames himself. You put Kevin to rest by proving to him that it wasn't his fault and getting him to forgive himself.
is there a mistway from the Sea of Sorrows? the Fraternity of shadows' gazetteer has great pirate ideas.
That's a fantastic idea!
no talk of Abuela prepping to body swap with Mirabel?
Ooh, there's an interesting idea and a very cool take on the narcissistic elder using their descendants to relive their youth (a la The Witch in Buffy). A body swap with Isabela would also be interesting. That's why she's always talking her up (so everyone will love and respect her when Abuela takes over) and why she's setting up this marriage (because *she* thinks Mariano's cute).
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I've been wanting to use the flying Dutchman and Davy Jones on a campaign for a while so this is great! I'll definitely be checking the complete episode once it comes out, in the mean time I'll take a look at the rest of your channel.
Thank you! Our "Treasure Planet" Domain write-up has a lot of pirate story hooks you could use in the meantime. www.dmsguild.com/product/418121/Treasure-Island-A-Ravenloft-Domain-of-Dread?affiliate_id=241770
Intriguing
So happy Kraken Week brought me here! Running a Pirates-inspired Domain of Dread with Davy as the Darklord sounds sooooo enticing. Can't wait to hear the rest of the podcast episode!
You mentioned 'SW Gothic ' the closest i can think of would be some of Robert Howard's stuff. Def has some pretty strong Western vibes but you get a lot of Gothic themes. (Just to clarify im talking about his non Conan writing)
This was a really neat idea. Y'all are creative as Heck. As far as Star Wars and Ravenloft go they might work better than you think.. or at least it's not totally impossible? Have y'all heard of Dreadspace? It's a set of domains that exist in the "crystal sphere that holds the Donains of Dread". Basically Spelljammer meets Ravenloft and it works shockingly well. Its creator, Hour of the Raven has a cool channel covering other domains here on KZread as well..
Davey Jones kind of fits more as a "lesser" darklord from earlier editions with the Flying Dutchman as the pocket. I can't remember if the pockets popped up in the earlier ones, but they became a major thing with chunks of the 3e stuff Sword and Sorcery books, where they're, essentially, mobile domains that can intrude into other domains if different conditions are met. One of them was a heavily corrupted unicorn with a horrific glade that could pop up in any forest in any domain, that's Addar...there's also the fiendish tyrannosaurus that, essentially, had his own similar thing that is implied to be such a thing, but popped up in the encounter articles that WotC used to put out where each month was a new encounter with a new part each week, and the crawling jungle was a nightmare scenario Having something similar where the Dutchman can show up in the seas or any port or coast
I love pocket domains! I think they're one of the most narratively useful things in Ravenloft. We has Davy Jones' locker be a full setting (an archipelago) but we had pocket domains for Home Alone, Toy Story, Wandavision, and Nightmare before Christmas.
this a little of your treasure planet and some peater pan and i have a new dark priet plane idea growning thank you for your lovly and amazing ideas also Hello im new and now your podcasts are now on my list for ever!!
Thank you! It was hard to make these Domains seperate, and the whole episode will go into some of the differences we see between these Domains.
First time seeing your channel (via kraken week) but I love the concept y'all are using. Been a Ravenloft fan since back in the 2e days and its wonderful to see the setting getting so much new content from creators. Def subscribing, look forward to checking out the other darklords you've covered 👍👍
Thanks! Rachel's the real Ravenloft Grognard, she's been playing since second edition. I started playing D&D with third edition, and the first two full campaigns I played were Ravenloft campaigns she was DMing.
@@WonderfulWorldofDarklord oh that's awesome. Call me a curmudgeon but I feel like the rebooted Ravenloft lost a lot of the depth that made it such an entertaining setting in favor of easy villain of the week one shots. Nice to know someone with a background in both is doing these. Was already a cool concept but that just makes it sound even cooler, IMHO.
@@KS-PNW We both love the old 2e-3e unified core setting, and we actually tried to merge that with our "Raven Nebula"/Treasure Planet setting. We had each Domain as a solar system in the Astral Mist, but there were stable mistways between the Domains, so you could have a consistent "geography"- Planet Barovia is "next" to Planet Darkon because they have a direct mistway connecting them.
Go Pointy Hat and Ginny for getting it Kraken. Great content, thanks y'all. My wife loves Disney so I'll be stealing several ideas from your channel lol
Thank you! We've got the two Mist Travellers (and more coming) who are just Disney NPCs, if you don't want to do a whole Domain. Cruella DeVeill can drop in to a lot of campaigns.
Sweet video, Daddio! Totally rad!