Creating Domains of Dread

Ravenloft is a place where your nightmares can run wild, where anything you can imagine in moments of dread or despair can come to frightful life among the Mists. The setting as a whole is made up of countless isolated domains, each one a perfect expression of a particular flavor of the macabre. Creating your own domain allows you to blend legendary evils, unexpected monstrosities, and grim settings into a tailor-made whole, bound together by mysterious mists and buried alive inside your favorite horror genres.

This chapter explores how to create such domains, a process that starts by defining a Darklord—the villain at the heart of each sinister realm. Descriptions of various genres of horror also provide details to guide and inspire your creations.

Creating a Darklord

Domains are mocking reflections of the evils they confine. Each has a purpose, being a prison designed to torture a deliberately chosen villain. To devise a Domain of Dread, you must first conceive its central antagonist and prisoner: its Darklord. The following sections detail how to develop a Darklord that contrasts your characters and can serve as a central rival in your horror adventures.

Sinister Reflections

A Darklord’s memories, desires, mistakes, and evil deeds shape the domain’s twisted lands, inhabitants, and features. You need not create these in a vacuum, though. When creating your own Darklord, consider the relationship that will define their evil in your adventures: their conflict with your players' characters. Just as a Darklord is the inspiration for a domain, players' characters can be a source of inspiration for a Darklord. Consider a Darklord a sinister reflections of those characters. If you explore this connection, have your players create characters then involve them in the process of creating a Darklord in the following ways:

• What to Reflect. Ask your players which of their characters' personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws are their favorites. Request at least two favorites from each player. Write them down. If players have been playing characters for a while, ask them to rewrite these personal characteristics to reflect who their characters are now.
• Exaggerated Reflections. For each favored personal characteristic, imagine and write down a version twisted to its extreme. For example, transform “I idolize a particular hero of my faith, and constantly refer to that person’s deeds and example” into “I’m obsessed with a hero of my faith, and I must become exactly like them so I can take their place.” The more unreasonable, the better.
• Opposite Reflections. For each favored personal characteristic, imagine and write down its opposite—specifically, a version that compels characters into conflict. For example, transform “I idolize a particular hero of my faith, and constantly refer to that person’s deeds and example” into “I loathe a particular hero and their followers, and I will prove the hypocrisy of that person’s deeds and example.” The harsher, the better.

Use these exaggerated and opposite reflections as inspirations for creating your Darklord. By basing your Darklord on intimate details drawn from the players' characters, you create a feeling that the characters are trapped inside a collective nightmare. Through their interactions with a Darklord who mirrors them, characters discover how easily they could become the villains they face.

Past Life

Darklords aren’t mindless killing machines; they are full but monstrous individuals. In a few sentences, describe who the Darklord was before they chose to become irredeemable. For inspiration, consider how the Darklord is a reflection of the players' characters. You might also look ahead to the “Genres of Horror” section to see if any of these types of horror seem right for your Darklord. Then consider the following questions.

• Where was the Darklord before the Mists took them?
• Who was the Darklord’s family?
• How was the Darklord’s family oppressed, oppressive, or both?
• What was the Darklord’s childhood like?
• Whom did the Darklord care about?
• Who cared about the Darklord?
• Who hurt the Darklord?
• Whose respect or love did the Darklord crave?
• What did the Darklord value?

Consult the Dungeon Master’s Guide or the “This Is Your Life” section of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything for additional inspirations for your Darklord’s motivations.

Darklords from the Tarokka

If you have a tarokka fortune-telling deck—detailed in chapter 4 and featured in the adventure Curse of Strahd—consider using the power of fate to shape the Darklord you’re creating. As you proceed through the Darklord and domain creation process in this chapter, with each new decision draw from the deck to help inspire your choices. Take note of the drawn card’s name, physical orientation, and suit. A card drawn upside down represent the opposite of its original meaning.

Wicked Personality

Detailing the Darklord’s personality gives them a unique identity that will help motivate them in your adventures. To do this, give them ideals, bonds, and flaws similar to those you might give any NPC, as detailed in the section on creating nonplayer characters in the Dungeon Master’s Guide:

• Ideal. In one sentence, describe an ideal that the Darklord holds dear and that governs their greater actions.
• Bond. In one sentence, describe a person, place, or object that the Darklord desires. Avoid a bond that is simply about power; power isn’t an end in itself—power is a means to obtain a bond.
• Flaws. In one sentence, describe how the Darklord’s personality causes them to act against their own best interests, especially in their quest to win their bonds and desires. Flaws are often a negative emotion or destructive behavior—such as fear, hatred, insecurity, jealousy, mayhem, obsession, selfishness, shame—that drives an irrational habit causing the Darklord or others harm. Alternatively, you can choose or randomly determine a flaw from the Fatal Flaws table.

Fatal Flaws

Corrupt Beyond Redemption

Darklords aren’t misunderstood souls condemned through no fault of their own. If a person’s potential for evil is particularly great, the Dark Powers might indirectly nurture further transgression, but they don’t force individuals to undertake actions against their will. When an evildoer’s wickedness ripens, the Dark Powers engulf them forever.

When creating your Darklord, consider the depth of their greatest evil and what made it more significant, abominable, or poetic than more common forms of villainy. The following elements all might be aspects of this corruption:

• Evil Acts. The Dark Powers consider an act to be evil if it is intentional, unnecessary, and successful, and most importantly, if it causes significant harm. Accidents, self-defense, deeds necessary for survival, and forced or coerced actions do not qualify. Early in the character’s creation, consider what evils your Darklord performed, and revisit these crimes as you develop the villain’s other details.
• Those Harmed. The people the Darklord harmed need to feel real. Give them names. Imbue them with agency, and don’t define them as victims or props. The people who survived the Darklord’s evil might be part of a Darklord’s history or allies who join the players' characters, or might hold the key to righting the Darklord’s wrongs. For each character, consider whether they were important to the Darklord and how that relationship changed.
• Irredeemable. Once the Dark Powers take an evil person, that individual’s fate is sealed. Before the final corruption, a person can atone—but only if they take genuine responsibility, heal the harm caused, and reform to prevent future harm. Once an evildoer becomes a Darklord, it is far too late. Consider whether your Darklord had a chance to redeem themself and the decision that led to their current fate.

Developing a Darklord

Darklords are villains because of what they choose to do, not because of who they were. As you refine your idea for a Darklord, determine what deeds a Darklord committed, who was harmed, how the Dark Powers encouraged them, and the price the Darklord paid. Describe why they chose to commit these evil acts, including their ideals, flaws, and bonds.

Consider these questions when creating your Darklord’s backstory:

• What was the first depraved act the Darklord chose to commit, and how did their ideal encourage them down this path?
• Was the Darklord rewarded or celebrated for their evil? Did that reaction encourage greater crimes? Were these rewards earned or justified?
• Did the Darklord repeat or escalate their wickedness to obtain something they selfishly desired?
• Did the future Darklord realize that they were losing any hope of redemption, yet choose to commit other heinous acts in keeping with their flaw?
• What evil act was so atrocious that the future Darklord’s friends and family rejected them? Did the Darklord think this was warranted or an unreasonable judgment? How did they react?
• When and how did these acts attract the attention of the Dark Powers?
• How did the Dark Powers use these acts to craft the perfect prison domain for the Darklord?

Monstrous Transformation

Some Darklords have features that make them similar to familiar monsters. The Darklord might have been a supernatural creature to begin with, or perhaps they gained their form and related powers through their deeds or a curse. Maybe they even gained supernatural abilities via a pact with the Dark Powers or upon arriving in their domain.

Consider whether or not your Darklord has a monstrous form. If so, in a few sentences, describe how the Darklord gained this form. You might also roll or choose an option from the Monstrous Transformations table to provide a twist on a Darklord’s monstrousness. The Dark Gifts in chapter 1 serve as examples of the sorts of forms and powers a Darklord might possess. In any case, consider how this transformation embodies the Darklord’s evil.

Monstrous Transformations

Birth of a Darklord

Upon the completion of the Darklord’s greatest irredeemable act, the Mists drag them—and perhaps the lands around them—into the Domains of Dread. At this point, you should have an idea of who your Darklord is, what they did, what form their evil takes, and how they came to the attention of the Dark Powers. Flesh out these details, referring back to how the Darklord reflects your players' characters and the section on creating nonplayer characters in the Dungeon Master’s Guide as you desire.

Now, everything the Darklord knew changes and they find themself a prisoner within a domain of their own.

Creating a Domain

The guidelines in this section help you create your own unique Domain of Dread. This setting’s details should reflect the Darklord of the domain, being a reflection of that villain’s evil and torment. Use the “Genres of Horror” section later in this chapter or your own grim imaginings to inspire the details of your nightmare domain.

Darklord’s Shadows

A Darklord lurks at the heart of every Domain of Dread. Everything in their realm is inspired by or personalized to them in some way. Some domains might be dismal ruins reflective of past glories, others might be cheery realms where the Darklord is forever an outsider, and still others might embody everything a Darklord once strove for and be awful nonetheless.

A Darklord’s domain often includes sights, sounds, and smells that serve as constant painful reminders of the Darklord’s wicked past. To start creating your domain, choose three of the evil acts your Darklord committed. Consider selecting those that best complement the players' characters and that don’t conflict with any boundaries discussed in your group’s session zero (see “Preparing for Horror” in chapter 4). For each evil act, imagine the scene where it took place, and then answer the following questions:

• What does the act sound like from a distance or to someone in the next room?
• How does the act, or its consequences, smell?
• What colors demand attention from the surroundings, decor, or aftermath?
• What shapes, symbols, or decorations stand out?
• What does the light or darkness hide or reveal?
• Are there any sudden or subtle movements one’s eyes are drawn to?
• Who is there?
• How are they breathing?
• What are they feeling or thinking? Is it about this scene or something else entirely?
• Are words spoken? Are they relevant to the scene or unrelated?
• Where does this take place?
• When the scene is over, what evidence remains?
• Before this unfortunate scene happens, what warnings were missed or foreshadowed?

Once you’ve considered these questions, write down your answers and review them. Mark or highlight the words that resonate or feel creepily evocative. As you proceed through domain creation, refer back to these details for inspiration.

Endless Torment

In every domain, instruments of suffering from the Darklord’s past ensure their greatest desire remains in view but ever out of reach. Even though a Darklord is effectively immortal, their psychology never changes and their wounds never heal. Consider the following reasons why a Darklord’s torment remains unignorable and central to a domain’s story:

• Deathless Returns. Those who die in a domain return reincarnated, fated to repeat a version of their former lives.
• Endless Cycles. The Darklord shepherds another individual down a path of corruption in hopes of crafting a successor or recreating someone they lost. Despite the Darklord’s perceived care and tutelage, the object of their attention never satisfies their expectations.
• Last Gasp. An impending threat is on the cusp of overwhelming the Darklord and their domain. They can never look away as they are endlessly assaulted by cascading catastrophes, ever stemming from past choices.
• Obstinate Ignorance. The Darklord is cursed to be unable to learn from past mistakes or perceive their own failings, though they’re convinced that this time will be different.
• Shocking Reminders. The domain is drowning in symbolic reminders of the Darklord’s inadequacies. When symbolism is too subtle, the literal specters from the Darklord’s past return to haunt them.
• Unpleasant Hope. The Darklord’s desire—commonly their bond—is present and obvious, but still unattainable. This instills hope in the Darklord that they are unable to deny, resist, or ignore. Furthermore, they are overcome by their desire’s presence, spurring them to act irrationally.

Domain Overview

The domain’s buildings, natural elements, and landmarks all represent the Darklord’s vile past. When developing these features, follow these steps:

• Specify Locations. Choose locations similar to settings that appear in your Darklord’s past, or take inspiration from the Settings tables in the “Genres of Horror” section later in this chapter.
• Combine Locations and Visceral Details. In a few sentences, describe how the domain’s most prominent locations are twisted with suggestions that arose from answering the questions in the “Darklord’s Shadows” section. Pair opposites together, something creepy with something cute, dead with alive, threatening with welcoming. Mix details together in unexpected ways, the more unnatural or off-putting the better.
• Rationalize and Normalize. Outline the justifications inhabitants use to pretend nothing is wrong. What could reasonably explain their surreal experiences? They claim rivers of blood are crimson due to natural clay deposits, the devilish lights in the swamp are nothing but swamp gas, and the current reclusive count is the descendant of the region’s original reclusive count. Many of the domain’s inhabitants are likely creations of the Dark Powers and the domain is the only reality they know, but what logical and psychological leaps might an outsider need to make to sleep at night?

Cultural Specifics

As you develop your domain, consider the culture and how it emerges from this tragic setting. What might be most unsettling for the Darklord: if the culture is one with familiar strictures, one they opposed or were an outsider in, or something completely unknown or alien to them? While a domain’s culture might take inspirations from fantastical or historical examples, remember that a domain isn’t a functional or even logical construction. Domains are glimpses into the Darklord’s static and often exaggerated or flawed perception of a time, place, or situation. A domain’s inhabitants never develop, and they never reach their goals. A domain’s oppressive inquisition is no closer to rooting out evil today than it was a thousand years ago. This isn’t remarkable; it merely is as it has always been, and forces within a domain contort to maintain this status quo.

For inspiration into your domain’s culture, consider the following questions:

• What does the culture fear?
• What does the culture consider taboo?
• What is scarce, and how do inhabitants compensate for this scarcity?
• Who or what does the culture inflict harm upon?
• How does the culture treat outsiders?
• What values does the culture hold that not everyone abides by?
• How is the culture exaggerated, a parody, or otherwise unrealistic?
• How does the culture prevent change?
• What is the general attitude toward the Darklord?

Don’t get bogged down with the particulars of a working society. It doesn’t matter how a village in a domain of endless night grows crops, but it does matter that the supplies are about to run out. These details can fade into the background as your adventures focus on more exciting threats, or you can highlight the cosmic dread that declares, yes, this place doesn’t make sense at all, yet it persists.

For a specific example, consider the domain of Barovia in chapter 3. Not one villager in Barovia thinks it’s wise to live in the shadow of Castle Ravenloft, and yet the villagers don’t relocate, nor can they imagine living anywhere else. Life is as it’s always been and could never be better, but it’s constantly threatened with becoming worse.

Monsters

Ghosts, mind flayers, werewolves—every monster is a story. Consider which monsters complement or contrast a Darklord’s story. In a few sentences, describe which monsters best represent the Darklord’s evil and which might work against the Darklord’s schemes. For example, a wicked scientist Darklord might be aided by flesh golems and crawling claws, but they are opposed by dryads and ghosts who suffer from the Darklord’s experiments. For inspiration, refer to the “Darklord’s Shadows” section and your answers to the questions there, as well as the Monsters tables in the “Genres of Horror” section later in this chapter.

Misty Borders

In a few sentences, describe how the Mists of Ravenloft operate in your domain. This might largely be the same as detailed at the beginning of chapter 3, or they too might reflect the Darklord’s nature. Consider the following questions:

• What shapes, sounds, and smells appear within the Mists?
• Do the Mists behave in some predictable way?
• What stories do the domain’s people ascribe to the Mists? Do they ascribe a personality to them?
• Where do the Mists appear besides the domain’s borders?
• How does a Darklord use the Mists to close their domain’s borders (detailed in chapter 3)?

Adventures

The story of a Darklord and their domain is one and the same. Once you know your Darklord and the general shape of their domain, consider the types of encounters and adventures that play out in this land. For inspiration, refer to the Plots tables in the “Genres of Horror” section later in this chapter, and consider the following story elements.

• Captive Audience. Determine some aspect of the domain or Darklord that captures the characters' attention. How is this matter urgent and time-sensitive? What can the heroes learn that points them to larger threats or the Darklord’s past? How does this threat connect to the Darklord seeking their desires? Consider who might need the characters' aid and might guide them to deeper mysteries.
• Detail Key Locations. Briefly describe distinct locations suitable for adventure, where the heroes confront the Darklord’s threats. For inspiration, refer to the Setting and Adventure Sites tables in the “Genres of Horror” section later in this chapter or the “Supernatural Regions” section of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.
• Supporting Cast. Consider what types of characters support the Darklord, exacerbate their threat, or oppose them. How do characters take the Darklord’s situation from bad to worse, whether as fanatical supporters or tragic victims? Write down three types of characters who are aligned with the Darklord and three who aren’t. Sketch out these characters broadly, perhaps noting only their professions or roles in adventures. You can expand on their details as your adventures take shape.
• Entangling the Heroes. The Darklord might instantly sense visitors entering their domain, while the heroes have no reliable means of identifying the Darklord. Describe why the Darklord is interested in the characters. The Darklord Connections table provides examples of such connections.
• Interactions with the Darklord. Imagine situations that allow the players' characters and the Darklord to socialize without the encounter immediately spiraling into violence. For inspiration, consider the circumstances on the Darklord Interactions table.

Darklord Connections

Darklord Interactions

The Domain’s Downfall

Once you know what your domain and Darklord are, think ahead to the climax of your adventures.

A Darklord likely can’t be defeated by combat alone, so what is their weakness? In one or two sentences, describe this weakness, where it is in the domain, how the Darklord attempts to conceal this Achilles' heel, and how adventures might exploit it to bring the Darklord down.

Then, assuming the Darklord is defeated, consider what happens next and how that’s relevant to the player characters, addressing the following questions:

• Can the Darklord die permanently?
• Under what circumstances might they return?
• What happens to their domain?
• Does a new Darklord rise?
• Does the domain permanently dissolve?
• Can the adventurers escape the domain?
• Do the adventurers return home or travel to another domain?

Unleash Your Horror

At this point, you should have a wealth of information about your Darklord, domain, the types of adventures you might run involving both, and a general idea of how the Darklord might be defeated. As you review your notes, consider where you can make connections between elements, establish recurring themes, and potentially foreshadow circumstances your adventures will focus on. Don’t feel like you need to have answers for every question your Darklord or domain raises; many of these details can be defined as your adventures play out or by focusing on elements your players gravitate toward.

Now that you have a framework for your Darklord and domain, review the following “Genres of Horror” section. The details in that section can help you add exciting and shocking specifics to your creations as you prepare to unleash them on unsuspecting characters.

Genres of Horror

This section describes several horror subgenres, elements common to certain types of horror stories you can use to inspire your own Darklords and Domains of Dread. These sections provide suggestions for creating monsters; villains; torments for Darklords; settings; adventure sites; and plots evocative of horror stories, films, and games rooted in these genres, along with tables of inspiration for each. Don’t hesitate to mix and match pieces from different genres to create your own uniquely terrifying adventures.

The monster lists presented throughout this section reference creatures found in chapter 5 of this book (VGR) and the Monster Manual (MM). Also, for examples of fully detailed Darklords and domains employing these genres, look ahead to chapter 3.

Body Horror

Body horror as a genre examines a universal fear: our own failing anatomies. We rarely think about what goes on beneath our skin. We understand that the organs operate in harmony: the heart beats, the lungs pump air, and the gastrointestinal system labors to supply us with nutrients. But we don’t ponder the minutiae. Like whether embryonic parasites encyst in our brains, or what stage of cirrhosis we might be facing, or if tumors bloom deep in parts of ourselves we hope never to see.

When creating adventures involving body horror, use this lack of awareness. Focus on the unpredictability of flesh. Pull from the knowledge that even seeming robust health might be an illusion, that we’re not sacred beasts, that we might be incubating fecund, hungry, or malicious parasites right now.

In addition, consider the following genre tropes when creating your body horror domain:

• Physical transformations are common and might affect more than bodies. Objects, architecture, and the natural world might be anthropomorphized in terrifying ways.
• Characters suffer aberrant or excessive growth, whether of organs, discordant appendages, or unnatural materials.
• Though gore often takes center stage in body horror stories, it’s often a side effect of stories about fear of change, difference, mortality, physical harm, disease, or other fears.
• Body horror doesn’t need to be messy. Swapping bodies, turning to stone, or even gaining one’s ideal form might all feature in this genre.
• The genre has a history of portraying disability as monstrous. Be aware of those tropes and avoid them.

Body Horror Monsters

Any monster might be the focus of body horror plots. Know what your players are anticipating so you can distort those expectations. A poised elf revealed to be a husk puppeted by sapient worms can be as frightening as any eldritch horror.

A variety of monsters can be used without modification. This includes all manner of parasitic Beasts, Aberrations, Undead, and other creatures with unusual digestive systems or weird reproductive cycles.

Body Horror Monsters

Body Horror Villains

Villains of this genre present as tragic figures, whether they’re hereditary cannibals, captives enduring some forced metamorphosis, scientists looking to reverse death, or academics who went too far in the pursuit of knowledge.

Body Horror Villains

Body Horror Torments

Darklords in this genre draw their power from their biological changes or gain abilities that assist them in fulfilling their appetites. Their torment is rooted in the physiological and, frequently, in fecund and uncontrollable growth.

Body Horror Torments

Body Horror Settings

Body horror can occur anywhere, from mundane backdrops to garishly unsettling locations.

Body Horror Settings

Body Horror Adventure Sites

Body horror is exceptionally unnerving in juxtaposition with mundane settings, particularly in places where the characters are isolated from help, treatment, or confirmation that their torment is real.

Body Horror Adventure Sites

Body Horror Plots

Adventures in body horror realms are often tests of endurance, whether players are attempting to hold out until rescue arrives, endeavoring to mount a rescue themselves, or trying to escape somewhere on their own. Alternatively, they may be investigative in nature, requiring the heroes to uncover what dark secret lies behind the mundane.

Body Horror Plots

Cosmic Horror

Cosmic horror revolves around the fear of personal insignificance. The genre is predicated on the idea of entities so vast and so genuinely beyond our comprehension that we cannot fathom their simplest motivations. To see them is to become lost in their magnitude and the evidence that we have never, will never, and could never matter to the cosmos at large.

The genre deals with how alien forces might alter us, perverting our expectations and understanding of autonomy, debasing our minds, and separating us from what makes us human. Sometimes it is the result of a process we invite. Other times it simply happens, an accident of circumstance we can only hope to survive.

However you spin it, this genre involves a loss of control, an absence of autonomy, and the sense of insignificance within an indifferent universe.

In addition, consider the following genre tropes when creating your cosmic horror domain:

• There is no good or evil, no law or chaos.
• Be vague. Cosmic horror emerges through imagination and the indescribable, not details.
• At its best, cosmic horror makes characters feel gradually unmoored from their familiar reality.
• Cosmic horror is about ineffable forces driven by motivations humans can’t understand.
• Cults, forbidden books, and strange symbols form the cornerstones of cosmic horror.
• The genre has a history of framing marginalized demographics as monstrous and stigmatizing mental illness. Be aware and avoid those tropes.

Cosmic Horror Monsters

Monsters that work well in cosmic horror adventures enact change on their unwilling victims. Cosmic horror focuses on unknowable entities and creatures that see into the minds of their enemies and use what they find against them. Any monster can easily be modified to suit adventures in this genre, perhaps being controlled by a hidden intelligence or vast cosmic force.

Cosmic Horror Monsters

Cosmic Horror Villains

When the cosmic horror villains are mortal, they’re wretched creatures, perpetrating unimaginable horrors in the hope of an outcome they can’t properly articulate. Beyond them are monstrous beings, the spawn of horrors or those who’ve come to think of themselves as such. Past these harbingers are true cosmic horrors, inscrutable beings, godlike terrors, and the embodiments of forces unlikely to be interacted with and whose very beings are likely anathema to characters.

Cosmic Horror Villains

Cosmic Horror Torments

Darklords in this genre are endowed with powers stemming from their studies or ancestry, or granted by ancient numinosities. Darklords in cosmic horror realms commonly suffer psychological torments.

Cosmic Horror Torments

Cosmic Horror Settings

Cosmic horror frequently takes place in academic or maritime settings, both of which imply access to hidden knowledge, whether literal or metaphorical. When not in mortal realms, cosmic horror dimensions trend toward being unnatural, logic-defying places.

Cosmic Horror Settings

Cosmic Horror Adventure Sites

Cosmic horror is rarely overt save at critical moments, relying on creating subtle but growing unease and leaving details to the imagination.

Cosmic Horror Adventure Sites

Cosmic Horror Plots

Adventures in cosmic horror realms are bleak, desperate affairs where the best one can hope for is to survive relatively intact. There is no stopping the ultimate evil, but players may aspire to temporarily seal it away.

Cosmic Horror Plots

Dark Fantasy

Dark fantasy is as much a genre of fantasy as it is a genre of horror. Generally, any tale featuring both supernatural elements and horror themes might be considered dark fantasy, whether it’s a fantasy story steeped in horror elements or an otherwise realistic world that features a supernatural terror. Dark fantasy refers to fantasy worlds where grim themes, nihilistic plots, or horrifying elements inform a fantasy tale. Evil dominates a dark fantasy setting, with depravity being commonplace and life holding little value.

How dark you want to make your fantasy is up to you, but keep in mind the role of heroes and ensure places for light in your dark fantasy domain. If a domain holds no place for hope, there’s also little call for resistance and meaningful plots.

In addition, consider the following genre tropes when creating your dark fantasy domain:

• Good does not always win. Evil individuals with great power and unopposed schemes might be the norm.
• The lines between good and evil are blurred. Choices involve deciding which outcome is least bad.
• Corruption and suspicion flourish among organizations and individuals.
• Magic and magic items might be rarer or require a bargain or sacrifice to use.
• Antiheroes are common—characters tainted by the world’s evil or those who refuse to be considered heroes.

Dark Fantasy Monsters

Any monster can find a place in a dark fantasy plot. D&D’s most iconic threats—such as dragons and beholders—are well suited to horror-tinged tales, as are any other supernatural foes. Chapter 5 details how to make even the most familiar monsters into fear-worthy threats.

Dark Fantasy Monsters

Dark Fantasy Villains

Villains occupy places of prominence or control in dark fantasy domains. This manifests as political control, military authority, or physical or magical might that allows them to directly dominate others.

Dark Fantasy Villains

Dark Fantasy Torments

For Darklords in dark fantasy settings, power is at the root of their suffering. Perhaps their rise to dominance led them to sacrifice what mattered to them most, or they secretly seek to be rid of their might but fear being without it.

Dark Fantasy Torments

Dark Fantasy Settings

Sinister individuals leave their marks upon dark fantasy domains, whether as oppressive architecture, unavoidable propaganda, or scars upon an exploited environment. Alternatively, the setting might exhibit the effects of a disaster—perhaps an event that gave rise to brutal powers. Such scars appear both upon the setting and upon its inhabitants.

Dark Fantasy Settings

Dark Fantasy Adventure Sites

Evil is entrenched and effective in dark fantasy domains, truths reflected by grandiose adventure locations. Their size and grandeur seem out of proportion with the common structures of the domain and the magic that helped create them is clearly beyond the reach of mere mortals to create or destroy.

Dark Fantasy Adventure Sites

Dark Fantasy Plots

Adventures in dark fantasy domains involve unlikely or reluctant heroes (or rival villains) striking back against the evil at work in the land. This might involve taking on a world-ruining conspiracy or the street-level depravity affecting a single slum.

Dark Fantasy Plots

Folk Horror

Folk horror adventures involve traditions, beliefs, and perceptions that are passed down through generations and take terrifying twists. For those who ascribe to hidden traditions, sacrifices to strange gods or placations to lurking monsters are everyday events. For outsiders, though, these practices reveal the subjectivity of normalcy, societal truth, and taboos.

Folk horror explores fears of isolation, superstition, paranoia, and lost truths. Seemingly idyllic communities, rural reclusiveness, forgotten traditions, and naturalistic cults all frequently feature in folk horror adventures, particularly as they contrast with what majorities consider the status quo.

In folk horror tales, characters often discover that their beliefs aren’t as universally held as they assumed, and those beliefs provide no defense against those who reject them. In such stories, characters discover their perception of the way the world works is in the minority as those around them practice traditions beyond their understanding. Alternatively, characters might realize their own beliefs are lies as others reveal unsettling truths.

Communities that ascribe to the traditions of folk horror stories are rarely tolerant of nonbelievers. Outsiders might be given a chance to adopt the community’s ways, but otherwise are considered heretics or corrupting elements. Assuredly, their ancient traditions have ways of excising blasphemers.

Consider the following genre tropes when creating your folk horror domain:

• Strange and potentially dangerous traditions flourish in isolated or otherwise private communities. This might mean a rural village, a lost civilization, or cabal within a larger community.
• A community’s surroundings often influence its beliefs. Their traditions might be naturalistic or relate to some sort of ancient lore.
• Art, symbols, tools, celebrations, and other trappings of belief help make a community’s traditions more specific and eerie.
• Community members typically hide their beliefs, whether physically obscuring them or by manipulating others in power.
• Communities in folk horror stories often serve as a grim mirror of some aspect of accepted society.
• Beliefs highlighted in folk horror stories might or might not be true.
• Folk horror communities often have dramatic ways of using outsiders or purging nonbelievers.

Folk Horror Monsters

Eerie traditions and unnatural alliances with monsters fill folk horror tales. When something’s been normalized over generations, even the strangest practices and most dangerous beings might be accepted as part of society. Does the community in your folk horror domain live alongside deadly monsters? Does a regional faith consider an obvious abomination their god? Does a group make offerings to placate imaginary spirits of the fields?

Any monster might feature in your folk horror domains. It’s acceptance of such creatures and the trappings of willing servitude that provide sources of dread. The Folk Horror Monsters table suggests just a few creatures suited to this genre.

Folk Horror Monsters

Folk Horror Villains

Folk horror villains are manipulative, leading others to follow traditions they might not even entirely understand. They zealously defend their faith and community, and might eagerly seek new initiates or dangerous blasphemers.

Folk Horror Villains

Folk Horror Torments

A folk horror domain’s Darklord has been consumed by the traditions, land, or rituals they embody. They might not fully understand their own beliefs, though, causing them to fail in their duties or cause rites to spin out of control. Such Darklords remain devoted, though, desperately trying to prove themselves or satisfy the object of their belief.

Folk Horror Torments

Folk Horror Settings

Folk horror stories often take place in isolated or rural areas, but they could be set anywhere insular communities thrive or traditions stagnate.

Folk Horror Settings

Folk Horror Adventure Sites

The sites of folk horror adventures embody a community’s traditions or what shelters it from society at large.

Folk Horror Adventure Sites

Folk Horror Plots

Folk horror stories often involve outsiders or an unwitting new member of the community discovering a unsettling practices.

Folk Horror Plots

Ghost Stories

Ghost stories number among the more psychologically elaborate genres of horror. Only through revealing tales of tragedy and past wrongs can heroes truly bring peace to forces that share their suffering with the living.

Ghost stories touch on fundamental issues of human existence: the nature of the soul, the weighty fact of mortality, and the burden of ancestry and history. Spirits represent heavy-handed instruments of supernatural justice, plunging those responsible for their deaths into a living hell where they suffer for their sins. They also represent grief and the need for closure, lingering in a place until they bring about the completion of the work they hoped to accomplish in life.

In addition, consider the following genre tropes when creating your haunted domain:

• All hauntings have a deep story, and the smallest details tell it. A simple locket or portrait might contain clues that explain a haunting.
• Personal ties give ghost stories weight. Consider tying the heroes to spirits in ways they won’t predict, such as revealing that a phantasmal villain was a hero’s ancestor.
• Heroes are pure-hearted or unsuspecting individuals whose resolve is shaken by the story’s events. Look for ways to test heroes' psychology with your hauntings.
• Heroes need agency—a way to put spirits to rest. Once the story is revealed, ensure the way to combat the haunting is clear.
• Spirits are often evil, but they need not be. A spirit might appear to warn heroes of impending doom.

Ghost Story Monsters

Any creature that embodies or serves as a response to past injustices or tragedies makes a strong addition to a ghost story. Don’t limit yourself to incorporeal undead when creating your own hauntings. The “Haunted Traps” section of chapter 4 also explores options for creating threatening hauntings.

Ghost Story Monsters

Ghost Story Villains

While the villains in ghost stories are often spirits or haunted places, they might also be the individuals who provoked a haunting to begin with.

Ghost Story Villains

Ghost Story Torments

Whether they’re living monsters or ghosts, Darklords in ghost story settings are the architects of their own tragedies.

Ghost Story Torments

Ghost Story Settings

Suffering, tragic death, or a villain’s monstrous evil manifest subtly in the places ghost stories are set. Typically, a setting’s hauntings are revealed slowly, until the full nature of the horror is on display.

Ghost Story Settings

Ghost Story Adventure Sites

Ghost stories are intensely personal, and adventures within the genre take place in a setting dripping with tragic history.

Ghost Story Adventure Sites

Ghost Story Plots

Ghost story adventures deal with learning the story behind a haunting and ultimately resolving it. They benefit from preserving the mystery behind a spirit’s motivations until the heroes discover a hidden truth.

Ghost Story Plots

Gothic Horror

Gothic horror is about the terror within, not without. It shatters the illusion of humanity in a poignant way by holding a mirror up to us and saying: look at what we truly are, and look at what we pretend to be. Under that mask of civility, there is depravity. Under that thin veneer of society, there is wickedness. Under all the trappings of sophistication, are we not all predators or prey? Gothic horror shatters the lies we trick ourselves into believing and shows that we, not some distant entity, are and ever shall be the architects of our doom. The quest for perfection leads us to discover our own imperfection. Our quest for the divine leads us to believe we, ourselves, are gods. These are the themes that haunt stories of Gothic horror.

Consider the following genre tropes when creating your gothic horror domain:

• Gothic stories include intense, even exaggerated, emotions. Romances, rivalries, and life-changing events are common in these adventures.
• Atmosphere and a sense of dread are key to achieving a gothic feel. Set your story in an decrepit mansion, ruined cathedral, or other foreboding location.
• Gothic heroes are often virtuous, deeply passionate, or courageous. Find ways for adventures to test characters' beliefs and morality.
• Gothic villains are unrepentantly evil, but this shouldn’t be immediately obvious. Drop hints about your villain’s awful secrets before revealing them fully.
• Sacrifices feature prominently in gothic stories. Give characters heart-wrenching choices to make.

Gothic Horror Monsters

Creatures imbued with tragedy or abominable origins work well in gothic horror adventures. Often, lower-level monsters embody aspects of a more powerful villain’s evil, powers, or background. For example, swarms of bats suggest a vampire’s connection to the creatures of the night, while werewolves speak toward a vampire’s bloodthirsty nature.

Gothic Horror Monsters

Gothic Horror Villains

Villains in gothic horror tales are subtle or unassuming until they reveal their true nature. Any intriguing figure with a dark secret can serve as a gothic horror villain, and gothic villains are most effective when they are slowly revealed as shockingly cruel, immoral, or the antithesis of goodness.

Gothic Horror Villains

Gothic Horror Torments

Self-debasement and self-loathing lurk at the heart of gothic villains' evil, whether they indulge in vices or are consumed with misanthropy. This results in villains who torment themselves viciously.

Gothic Horror Torments

Gothic Horror Settings

Ominous history, supernatural forces, and an underlying sinister air are staples of gothic horror settings.

Gothic Horror Settings

Gothic Horror Adventure Sites

Gothic horror stories often center on a forlorn structure in which depravity finds a welcome home.

Gothic Horror Adventure Sites

Gothic Horror Plots

Poetic tragedy, the dichotomy between goodness and wickedness, and reckonings for wicked deeds are strong fodder for gothic horror plots.

Gothic Horror Plots

Other Horror Genres

In addition to the aforementioned terrors, consider exploring any of the following horror genres when creating adventures in the Domains of Dread. Beyond these, there are dozens of other types of horror tales you can explore. Consider investigating the hallmarks of any of those frightful categories, or look into the genres of your own favorite scary films and stories. Understanding what makes a type of horror story frightening and how you can mimic or subvert genre tropes in your storytelling can provide endless inspiration for your terrifying adventures.

Disaster Horror

In disaster horror adventures, the world has fallen to ruin—or it’s getting there fast. The unthinkable has happened and, as a result, society is collapsing. In these tales, a monster or villain might be replaced by cascading catastrophes like those brought about by a meteor strike or volcanic eruption. Regardless of a hero’s power, the best-timed critical hit or the most powerful spell might not fix a city ruined by an earthquake or a world ravaged by plagues.

The disasters in your horror adventures need not be natural. Magical disruptions, temporal shifts, and violent interplanar rifts might sow all manner of supernatural chaos. Wars and relentless monster hordes—like legions of zombies or fiends—can also cause region- or world-changing ruin.

In all these cases, society breaks down. There are no inns to sleep in, healers are few or overtaxed, and anarchy rises as governments crumble. Environmental hazards, such as those in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, might be extreme and lead to scarcity of food or other resources. Scared innocents, opportunistic scavengers, and leaderless military forces all seek to survive. The hopeless acts of others might even prove more horrifying than the provoking disaster.

When creating adventures inspired by disaster horror, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the disaster? Is it natural, a supernatural event, or the effect of a terrifying weapon? Is it war or endless throngs of monsters?
• Was the disaster somehow manufactured? Is there a cause behind it?
• Is there a place that was somehow spared from the disaster?
• What parts of society have collapsed? Are most common people trying to ride out the disaster, or are they fleeing in search of safety?
• Who is taking advantage of the disaster? Are they normal people, monsters, or another threat?
• Does everyone believe in the danger of the disaster?
• Has the disaster given rise to extreme behaviors, such as paranoia, cultic beliefs, or cannibalism?
• Will the world ever be the same again?

Occult Detective Stories

Adventures rooted in the occult detective genre straddle the line between fantasy, mystery, and horror. For the occult detective, solving paranormal mysteries is all part of the job. In these adventures, villains employ supernatural powers toward nefarious ends while characters act as detectives, interpreting events, learning patterns, deducing goals, and ultimately putting an end to the threat. investigation and cleverness take center stage in these adventures, though as in the noir stories that inspire the genre, there’s plenty of room for action.

Occult detective adventures can be just as terrifying as any other horror adventures, but also might be lighter in tone. Adventurers might experience terrors only after they’ve happened and face a foe only once they’re prepared to end its threat. Of course, there are ways to create threats distinct to this genre, such as when villains view detectives as rivals or targets.

When creating an occult detective adventure, consider what monster, magic, or other supernatural force might lend a thrilling twist to some criminal enterprise. How will the characters catch an invisible assassin or a thief that pilfers extradimensional spaces? Once you know the villain’s mode of operation, consider how it might give itself away. Even if you’re not sure, listen to the characters' plans and give them opportunities to feel brilliant in the course of running your adventures.

When creating adventures inspired by occult detective stories, ask yourself the following questions:

• What criminal or supernatural force is at large? What crime is it committing, or how is it a problem?
• Who wants the villain stopped? Do they have a personal reason for this?
• What evidence has the villain left behind? How is the evidence initially misleading?
• What clarifying evidence will the characters discover in the course of their investigation?
• How are the villain’s deeds terrifying or suggestive of a larger plot? Are the characters threatened?
• How might the characters trap the villain, draw them out, or predict their next move?

Psychological Horror

Psychological horror stories create suspense by heightening or calling into question characters' states of mind, emotions, and perceptions. They often highlight the difference between what characters think and how they behave.

When creating adventures rooted in psychological horror, consider common fears and anxieties. These readily become metaphors for villains and monsters. Fear of being judged by one’s peers might manifest as a jury of nothics, while fear of change could be represented by a medusa that petrifies those who threaten her community’s status quo.

Uncertainty, paranoia, and blurred lines between reality and fiction also shape psychological horror stories. In your adventures, this might take the form of unreliable information. Characters might experience a deadly encounter only to wake up at the end, not having previously realized they were asleep. Before undermining characters' senses, though, make sure you know what’s driving these skewed perceptions and how characters might overcome them. The “Fear and Stress” section of chapter 4 provides options for dealing with the stress of adventuring. If some force is actively trying to cause stress for characters, this might lead to its own psychological horror adventure.

Be aware that some classic psychological horror tales stigmatize mental illness. Work to avoid such tropes in your adventures as you consider the following questions:

• What are characters afraid of? Is a wizard afraid of losing their memory? Is a fighter afraid of growing old? Does a cleric fear their god is a lie?
• If every monster is a stand-in for something people fear, what do your favorite monsters embody? Can your adventures accentuate that?
• Why might a character think everyone around them is lying to them? Might this be paranoia, an actual conspiracy, or both? Who or what could pull the strings of such a plot?
• How can the environment change to undermine characters' sense of reality? The Mists already play into this, as could structures with no doors or stairs with no end, but what else might?

Slasher Horror

Every monster is a story, and many of those stories are horror stories. This brand of horror contends with relentless killers, which might be people or monsters. These adventures revel in grisly details, the suspense of an impending showdown with a powerful foe, and the fear that death waits right around the corner.

Adventures of this genre typically include one major antagonist that threatens a group. This might be a particularly large or cunning beast, a murderer who terrorizes a neighborhood, a monster stalking a town, or a supernatural menace who spreads a signature sort of death. When creating your own monster or slasher horror adventures, choose a creature with a challenge rating high enough that your party won’t defeat it with a few lucky hits. Also consider foes with details you’re eager to explore in various terrifying scenes. A medusa, for example, becomes all the more terrifying when it murders with petrified body parts or forces victims into unsettling poses before petrifying them. Also, consider who the villain’s targets are and why the villain has chosen to prey upon that group. Is it out of hunger or for revenge, or does the creature have a more deep seated need to kill?

The relentless killers presented in chapter 5 provide perfect foes for adventures embracing this type of horror. Also, when creating adventures inspired by monster or slasher horror, ask yourself the following questions:

• Who is the monster or slasher? How do they kill? What has made them infamous?
• Why is a community defenseless against the killer?
• In what shocking ways does the killer use its powers?
• How does the killer avoid capture? Where does it hide from its pursuers?
• Does the killer think it’s justified? Has the community wronged it in some way?
• What characters in your story exist only to be victims?
• What climactic event is sure to tempt the killer into the open?