History TabletopGame / Ravenloft

* {{Roma}}: The Vistani assume the part of the stereotyical Gypsy FortuneTeller of classic Gothic tradition.

* CanonDisContinuity: The novel ''Lord of the Necropolis'' explicitly stated the nature of the Dark Powers; both book and explanation were stricken from canon, as the Dark Powers are intended to be left undefined.
** Also, the novel ''The Enemy Within'', and the backstory of an NPC (Desmond [=LaRouche=]) were declared non-canon because they contradicted the origin story for Malken.

* MagicalLibrary: The lich-king Azalin has a library which houses the self-updating life stories of every sentient being who has ever been born in his domain of Darkon, or who's entered it and stayed long enough to lose all memory of their previous life. Destroying your own book is one of the few ways to recover from Darkon's insidious IdentityAmnesia effect.

* CrossoverCosmology: The slate of deities worshiped in Ravenloft, like its landscape, is a grab-bag of historical pagan deities (Belenus, the Akiri and Rajian pantheons), deities imported from other game-settings (the Morninglord and Lawgiver from ForgottenRealms, the Eternal Order's death-gods from {{Greyhawk}}), and deities made up for (Ezra, Hala) or even ''by'' (Zhakata, the Overseer) natives of the Land of Mists.

* CrossoverCosmology: The slate of deities worshiped in Ravenloft, like its landscape, is a grab-bag of historical pagan deities (Belenus, the Akiri and Rajian pantheons), deities invented from other game-settings (the Morninglord and Lawgiver from ForgottenRealms, the Eternal Order's death-gods from {{Greyhawk}}), and deities made up for (Ezra, Hala) or even ''by'' (Zhakata, the Overseer) natives of the Land of Mists.

* CrossoverCosmology: The slate of deities worshiped in Ravenloft, like its cultures, is a grab-bag of historical pagan deities (Belenus, the Akiri and Rajian pantheons), deities invented from other game-settings (the Morninglord and Lawgiver from ForgottenRealms, the Eternal Order gods from Greyhawk), and deities made up for (Ezra, Hala) or even ''by'' (Zhakata, the Overseer) natives of the Land of Mists.

** Played straight and averted in the ''Domains of Dread'' core rulebook, which introduced Vecna and Kas as darklords. Unlike the Lord Soth example, Vecna's entrapment was explicitly acknowledged by various {{Greyhawk}} sourcebooks when he was described as missing and/or trapped. Played straight as Vecna and Kas were two of the most famous {{Greyhawk}} characters in the setting and introduced some measure of celebrity to Ravenloft, but averted when the two were given a pair of domains adjacent to one another and in their own separate cluster where they could war against each other eternally, effectively making their appearance a sideshow that wouldn't disrupt the Core domains as a whole. Vecna, already a demigod at the very limits of the Dark Powers to hold and contain, managed to escape within a few years in an insane XanatosRoulette scheme that involved luring Iuz to Ravenloft, absorbing his essence to become a true god, and using his power to warp the Mists into shunting him into Sigil where, as a true God within the Cage, his very presence began breaking down the rules of reality ''(and replacing them with those of 3rd edition)''. Problematic for violating the explicit rules of three different settings? Or CrowningMomentOfAwesome for violating the explicit rules of three different settings? Your call.

'''Tropes:'''

Many of the individual domains of Ravenloft, along with their inhabitants, are directly inspired by classic horror and Gothic literature, infamous historical figures, and twisted versions of fairy tales and other stories. ''{{Dracula}}'', ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'', the works of H.P. Lovecraft, ''Pinocchio'', ''The Island of Dr. Moreau'', Shakespeare's ''{{MacBeth}}'', and the historical Borgia family among many others comprise only a few examples. There is also the {{Spinoff}} setting, ''MasqueOfTheRedDeath'', which takes place on an alternate version of Earth that has been under the influence of some entity called the Red Death. It features many of the above mentioned classic characters that Ravenloft drew inspiration from as villains.

** The most common theory was that Soth really did get sucked into Ravenloft, where he spent several decades forming one of the worst [[HeroicBSOD Villanous BSOD]] on record. After about a decade continually locked in his "happy place" caused his realm to literally begin falling apart around him, the White Rose appeared in Sithicus to snap Soth out of his reverie. Once he recovered, the Dark Powers let the White Rose take Soth back with her to Krynn, realizing that there was nothing they could do to Lord Soth that his own memories and haunting spirits couldn't do worse. When he came back, he returned to Krynn only an hour/a day/five minutes after he left, leaving him available for any {{Dragonlance}} events that came along in the meantime.

* BigFancyCastle: Castle Ravenloft.

* BroughtDownToNormal: Werewolf darklord Alfred Timothy's curse causes him to revert to human form if he ever starts cutting loose in his furred shape, forcing him to restrain his own feral impulses or else expose this weakness to his pack.

* CameBackWrong: While resurrection magic ''can'' be performed in Ravenloft, it's ''very damn hard'', and if you were an evil bastard in life, you might instead come back as a [[KingMook zombie lord]]. [[CursedWithAwesome Admittedly, that sounds like a good reason to be evil, but still...]]

* DarkIsNotEvil: [[YourMileageMayVary Very, very debatable]], but the Dark Powers are known to reward some people that pass their tests. They also are suspected of powering clerics' and paladins' class abilities, as it's unclear whether or not gods can influence events within the setting in that way. Of course, the Dark Powers also torment people who don't remotely deserve it. Dark is not ''good'', but may be closer to ChaoticNeutral.

** The Church of the Lawgiver falls under this too; their doctrine teaches that arcane magic is an abomination created by Mytteri, their religion's equivalent of {{Satan}}, and is an embodiment of pure rebellion and nihilism. Any arcane spellcaster, no matter how devoted they may be to the Lawgiver's tenents, is destined for the Hell of Slaves.

* InformedFlaw: Each Darklord has a curse of sorts, but some of the curses are abstract or far-reaching to the point where they have little practical effect in the scope of a typical adventure. One darklord's curse is that he cannot learn any new spells, but the game designers struggled to reconcile this with his InformedAbility of being a top-notch spellcaster. Later game supplements all but tell Dungeon Masterss to ignore the original curse.

* ShadowDictator: The Dark Powers

* UpliftedAnimal: Urik von Kharkov is a panther-turned-human-turned-nosferatu. Also, the Wildlands do this to animals that stay there for long.

* WhodunnitToMe: Ratik Ubel, a revenant who seeks to identify and take vengeance on his own murderer.

* DarkIsNotEvil: [[YourMileageMayVary Very, very debatable]], but the Dark Powers are known to reward some people that pass their tests. They also are suspected of powering clerics' and paladins' class abilities, as it's unclear whether or not gods can influence events within the setting in that way.
** Of course, the Dark Powers also torment people who don't remotely deserve it. Dark is not ''good'', but may be closer to ChaoticNeutral.
** Also, ravens and certain other gothic-associated creatures can be good-aligned guides to people seeking redemption.

* RavensAndCrows.

* SuperWeight: Check out the chart on the page.

* BiggerBad: The Darklords can play this role in a game, or depending on the GM, the Dark Powers themselves can be in this role.

** Averted in the case of ''Spelljammer'': although one SJ module ended with the option of having its villain swept up by the Ravenloft Mists, the Ravenloft design team never followed up on this, probably because Spelljammer's style of gaming was so much goofier than Ravenloft's as to be thematically incompatible.

* HereditaryCurse: Some of the noble families are saddled with these, such as the propensity to madness displayed by the Hiregaard clan in ''Legacies of the Blood''. One of the most powerful spells introduced as part of the setting allows the caster to inflict this trope upon an enemy and their descendents.

* HornyDevils: The setting has relatively few demons (well, for D&D anyway) but one of the more prominent, the Gentleman Caller, is an incubus has fathered one pseudo darklord and a couple of younger villains of the setting...

* InfantImmortality: Subverted, new mothers need to keep a VERY close eye on their babies. And even that's not always enough.

* IronicHell: Each domain is tailored to its darklord. All are given great power but at the cost of what they truly desire. Strahd is an immortal warrior-wizard and unquestioned ruler but can never possess the woman he loves. Azalin rules the largest domain in Ravenloft and is probably the most powerful Darklord there is, but cannot learn new magic. Others include a werewolf who hates his human side but will become human if he acts like animal, a sadistic killer whose presence removes pain and whose touch cures all ills (including death) and a wolfwere who want to rule his domain but whose people acknowledge no ruler.

* ReligionOfEvil: The setting has quite a few of them, evil cults and dark religions being quite a natural aspect of gothicism, but the most notable one is the Church of the Lawgiver, which is the state religion of both Nova Vaasa (which is generally regarded as a self-centered backwater, even in Ravenloft) and Hazlan (where the Mulan desperately cling to it as a further way to control the Rashemani who they persist in treating as subhuman chattel despite the slaves outnumbering the masters by about nine to one). Being that the Church of the Lawgiver is basically the worship of Bane, [[ForgottenRealms Faerunian]] God of Tyranny, with the serial numbers filed off, it's not surprising that it's membership is comprised solely of LawfulEvil and LawfulNeutral types -- it's dogma revolves around preaching that StatusQuoIsGod, those who are socially inferior must obey, and rebellion against one's superiors in even the slightest way warrants eternal damnation in the Hell of Slaves.

* SceneryPorn: It is mentioned on the 3.0 setting book that the Demiplane of Dread is actually a beautiful land filled with lots of pretty scenery.