History TabletopGame / Ravenloft

* OnlyShopInTown: Bildrath's Mercantile is this, not only to the village of Barovia, but to the whole domain.

'''Warning: Unblocked spoilers ahead!''' As the Land of Mists is a setting built upon suspense, players looking for creepy surprises in a Ravenloft campaign should not read farther, lest they [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Be Disappointed By The Revelations]].

!! Tropes:

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Even if 3rd edition DungeonsAndDragons moved a lot of monsters from the ''always'' ChaoticEvil to ''usually'' Chaotic Evil, the ''Ravenloft'' setting adamantly keeps its critters and other nasties in the ''always'' evil section. Don't look for FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires.
** Enforced even, for lycanthropes -- normally nonevil lycanthrope types (such as werebears, who in other settings are AlwaysLawfulGood) are evil in the Land of Mists.
** Heck, even the likes of [[WhenTreesAttack treants]] and [[InvertedTrope unicorns]] are evil there.

* AnimateDead: Where else did all those [[DemBones skeletons]] and [[EverythingsDeaderWithZombies zombies]] come from?

* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: What happens if the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Nightmare Court]] decides your mind looks tasty.
* BedlamHouse: Dr. Heinfroth's asylum on the domain/island of Dominia.
* BigBoosHaunt: Castle Ravenloft, Necropolis even more so, and given the nature of the setting, probably some other places as well.

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

* BlackKnight: Lord Soth.
* BlackMagic: Almost every spell that even tangentially relates to the dead is evil and can attract the Powers' notice, including objectively benign ones like Raise Dead.
* BlessedWithSuck / CursedWithAwesome: Just about any darklord has inherited incredible power along with his punishments, with which to further inflict evil upon the denizens of Ravenloft. Which trope it happens to be for any given villain is probably a matter of interpretation...
** They are ''definitely'' ThePunishment. Every darklord's domain is designed so that it is unbearable to them specifically, even if it wouldn't sound like a bad deal to some other people. Strahd, for example, is immortal and has absolute power over everything in his domain, but he can never have the one thing he absolutely wants and ''needs'' to have: He is madly, obsessively in love with a woman who will never love him, whose existence he will only ever be able to make miserable (Ensuring she never even ''likes'' him), and is destined to reincarnate in Barovia periodically to torment him. He can't even leave. Same thing for all the other lords.
* TheBluebeard: The man himself, trapped as a darklord.
* 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. This is particularly sucky (for him) when you realise he's a high priest for a ReligionOfEvil whose main tenet is that lycanthropes must indulge in their bestial urges.

* 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...

* CanonImmigrant: In its early days, Ravenloft was designed as a catch-all holding cell for villains across the multiverse. This even included the player characters, when early adventures were designed to have the Mists take them to Ravenloft, let them complete the plot, and then whisk them back home. It wasn't until the ''Domains of Dread'' revision that more emphasis was made on making Ravenloft an actual "home base" campaign setting, with rules and ideas for creating native player characters.

* CartwrightCurse: Van Richten used to have everyone he came close to die horribly due to a literal curse put on him.
** Might better be called "Odysseus Syndrome", since it wasn't just close female friends who died.

* ChildrenAreInnocent: Subverted in a number of modules.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Felix from ''Neither Man Nor Beast''
* CircusOfFear: subverted with the eponymous boxset "The Carnival", played straight by the original Domain of The Carnival l'Morai.
* ConstructedWorld: The world is a construct of the Dark Powers, and they can rearrange it however they please.
* CorruptChurch: The Darkonian sect of the Church of Ezra.
* CreepyChild: The supplement ''Darklords'' has Merilee, a vampire child similar to Claudia from TheVampireChronicles. The feral children of Sebua can also evoke this trope, if seen watching from a distance.
* CreepyDoll: Doll golems and the Carrionettes.
* CreepySouvenir: One of the villains collects the still-living heads of her victims.

* CurseEscapeClause: Cursing someone with undeath or another torment is very easy to do as long as you include one of these. A lot of modules revolve around figuring out and fulfilling a clause.

* DeathWorld: Ravenloft has this reputation from what little bits people not living there have learned. The 2nd Edition products played up how dangerous Ravenloft is, but the 3rd Edition products eased off of this and even stated that a person can live their whole life without encountering any horrific monsters. There are some locations, like Necropolis, that still play this trope straight (any living creature that tries to enter Necropolis is immediately killed), and Necromantic magic is much stronger in Ravenloft than it is elsewhere in the [[{{Planescape}} multiverse.]]
** In all editions, the core domains of Ravenloft are ''ridiculously tame'' compared to how things usually are elsewhere. No evil armies regularly sweeping across the land to kill and enslave all in their path. No monsters that are so powerful they don't need to hide and can lay waste to entire towns for fun. Your darklord might be a tyrant, but at least you have a stable tyranny. World-shaking wars and catatrophes are not nearly as common as in many other campaign worlds, in fact, the only real example is Azalin blowing up most of his domain. In island domains life can be much worse, though.

* DepravedBisexual: Ivana Boritsi is strongly implied to be one of these.
* DetectEvil: Averted, as such spells don't work in the Land of Mists. Subverted in the case of ex-paladin darklord Elena Faith-hold, who only ''thinks'' she can still Detect Evil, but actually senses any strong emotion (fear, outrage, or even love) directed at her.
* DisproportionateRetribution: The Dark Powers grant vengeful curses as a sort of hobby, and only require that the punishment fit the crime ''in the perception of the one invoking it.'' Whether it's actually appropriate from an objective viewpoint (or for that matter whether the curser has correctly identified the guilty party) is less important.
** A lot of villainous characters are prone to this in general.
*** Stellar example can be found in Van Richten's reason for becoming a monster hunter; a tribe of Vistani bring one of their injured members to the doctor for treatment, but his injuries are too severe and he dies on the operating table. The Vistani ''promptly kidnap Van Richten's own son and sell him to a vampire in spite''. And then lay a curse on Van Richten that causes all of his friends and allies to die when this prompts his RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
* DoesNotLikeMagic: Lamordians even deny that magic exists at all, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. And their land follows suit, draining power from magical items and causing spells to be more likely to fail just for starters.
** 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 tenets, is destined for the Hell of Slaves.
** Practicing arcane magic in front of Tepestanis isn't a good idea, unless you'd like to play out the BurnTheWitch trope. Or rather, Burn The Fey, but that's hardly an improvement.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The map of Ravenloft's Core in the first release was very...patchwork, to say the least. For starters, Bluetspur, a lightning blasted wasteland filled with underground tunnels of Mind Flayers, was directly adjacent to domains with temperate forests. The [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Nightmare Lands]], an almost completely featureless desert ''(as long as you're awake)'' and Vechor, a domain ran by an insane RealityWarper whose terrain changes by the hour, were right next to relatively normal domains filled with wheat fields. Another domain centered around a religion based on starvation as holy was smack dab in the middle of the Core's breadbasket, surrounded by lands of plenty on all sides. The opportunity to fix this came with the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Grand Conjunction]], which, as a side effect, rearranged domains to correspond with roughly similar ecologies and created Islands and Clusters, domains separate from the Core that correspond with each other without seeming ''too'' out of place.
* EvilAlbino: The bakhna rakhna are a breed of deformed, albinistic goblins. Not all that tough as villains, but they're nasty, thieving little creeps.
* EvilVersusEvil: Many published Ravenloft adventures involve feuds between darklords, or lesser villains' attempts to seize power from an incumbent lord. Strahd and Azalin have been feuding for centuries, and several other rivalries (Sodo vs. the Hive Queen; Ivan vs. Ivana) are well established. Plus, the Dark Powers are considered evil by many gamers, making their imprisonment and tormenting of darklords an example of this trope as well.

* ExpositionOfImmortality: Dr. Van Richten realized that the fiend Drigor had been manipulating a particular family for generations when he looked at the family journals, and realized their writing styles hadn't changed for the past two hundred years.
* {{Expy}}: Though they're not direct analogues, many of the darklords take direct inspiration from popular gothic literary figures. Strahd is {{Dracula}}, Mordenheim is {{Frankenstein}} and Adam his Monster, Tristan Hiregaard and his alter ego Malken are [[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Jekyll and Hyde]], Markov is [[TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau Dr. Moreau]], Rudolph Van Richten is based on Van Helsing and so on. As well as [[SherlockHolmes Alanik Ray and Doctor Arthur Sedgewick]].
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Initially, ''Ravenloft'' was a one-adventure module with Strahd as the BigBad, whose defeat by the hands of the [[PlayerCharacter [=PCs=]]] was the conclusion. Since then, the setting evolved and Strahd is still alive and well (or should we say ''undead'' and well). The {{Canon}} timeline of ''Ravenloft'' even says "528: powerful heroes assault Castle Ravenloft and are killed".
** Also in keeping with this theme, certain aspects of the rules tended to make victory nearly impossible or at least very, very difficult. Most darklords had various means of resurrection that were almost guaranteed to succeed (Azalin's phylactery, Strahd's contingency spell to teleport to a hidden coffin in the mountains if he was ever killed, Harkon Lucas' mind jumping to any nearby wolf when his domain is covered in them, etc) unless the players were extremely clever. Likewise, a closed domain border pretty much meant the players were trapped, and any mundane or magical attempts to get out would fail automatically.
*** Finally, a trend that ran through many of the adventures involved the deaths of [=PCs=] as integral parts of the plot, usually as an excuse to resurrect them later as monsters or so the villain could force them to do something. Hour of the Knife involved any player who wandered away from the group getting killed 'off camera' by dopplegangers who promptly replaced him, Adam's Wrath forced the [=PCs=] to die so their brains could be transplanted into golems, From the Shadows had Azalin behead the [=PCs=] to fulfill a prophecy...the list goes on.
* TheFairFolk: The shadow fey, of the Shadow Rift. These range from benign pixies to savage redcaps to cruel sidhe lords, all psychically manipulated by an EldritchAbomination.

* FantasyGunControl: Averted, because it just wouldn't be a classic werewolf hunt without a SilverBullet or two.
* FantasyKitchenSink: Ravenloft could be considered a "Horror Kitchen Sink". It was originally meant to be a GothicHorror setting, and for the most part mostly is, but it also incorporates elements of CosmicHorror and other horror genres as well.
* FisherKingdom: Darkon will, over the course of three months, [[FakeMemories rewrite your memories]] so that you think you are a native. It's easily reversable though-one day outside its borders, and one migraine later, your ''real'' memories will come back. This is a lesser version of [[EvilSorcerer Azalin's]] curse, which prevents him from learning new spells.
* FluffyTamer: Paladins in other settings can eventually summon an intelligent good-aligned steed or other magical beast to serve as a mount. In Ravenloft, the Powers send you an evil, dire animal instead. Then sit back and chuckle as you deal with a mount that may actively try to make you lose your paladin-hood (depending on how much the DM wishes to torture you.)
* FlyingDutchman: Several, most notably Captain van Riese (a CaptainErsatz of the original).
* FogOfDoom: The Mists that often pluck people from other worlds and deposit them into Ravenloft.
* ForTheEvulz: Averting this trope was one of the setting's original selling points, as most of its villains were among gaming's most complex, three-dimensional [=NPC=]s of their era. Played straight in a few cases, such as Falkovnia's Vlad Drakov or Tepest's Three Hags.

* GeneralFailure: Vlad Drakov. The first time he launched an invasion, his armies were devoured by the undead. He's launched at least three more, with [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption similar results]]. It's part of his curse as a Darklord to want to be a great conquerer and be surrounded by those too strong to conquer.

* TheGrimReaper: The minor darklord Death claims to be this, [[spoiler: but in reality, it's a former servant of Azalin's]].
* GypsyCurse.
* HammerHorror.
* HauntedCastle.
* HauntedHouse: Several of them. The module ''Bleak House'' being the best example.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Rudolph Van Richten, author of the guides to Ravenloft's monsters, is a subversion: He started out angry and vindictive, but mellowed out as time went on, even learning to forgive the Vistani who had stolen his son. He still has nothing but vitriol for liches and willing vampires, but in those cases, they were evil ''before'' they became monsters.
** Although one of the possible endings for the final module suggests that Van Richten [[spoiler: finally became a darklord in his own right]].
*** [[spoiler: Or was locked in an oubliette within the Mists, if the 3E product-line is accepted as canon.]]
* HeWhoMustNotBeNamed: Lord Soth became such because of the copyright issues (see ExiledFromContinuity above) and is mentioned only as a "Black Knight" or a Blackguard. In ''Secrets Of The Dread Realms'', it is said that "no Sithican will speak his name for fear of calling him back from whatever abyss claimed him".
** To a lesser extent, many of the gods such as Bane and Lathander got renamed to the more generic The Lawgiver and Morninglord.
* HeadlessHorseman
* 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 who has fathered one pseudo darklord and a couple of younger villains of the setting...

* IdentityAmnesia: Do ''not'' stay in Darkon longer than a few weeks. You did? Oh, never mind, of course you can stay, because you're suddenly convinced you were born there.
* IgnoredEpiphany: Lord Soth is the ''poster child'' for this in ''Knight of the Black Rose''. Some of the other darklords seem to do their best to avoid confronting and dealing with the truth as well.
** Strahd, ever notice that ever since [[MoralEventHorizon that night]], [[spoiler: a reincarnation of Tatyana]] shows up every generation? It's only been...how many centuries?
*** Notice it? Strahd ''anticipates'' it. What he's refused to notice is that her repeated appearances -- and repeated tragic deaths -- might be [[KnowWhenToFoldEm trying to tell him something]].
*** Arguably, if Strahd, Soth and all the others were the sort of people (or monsters) capable of letting go of something or compromising their ambitions then the mists would never have chosen them. Also arguably, this is a theme that ties back into the gothic genre in general, in which the villain refuses to let go of something or someone long after they should have.
**** It's stated in some of the source material that this may be intentional on the part of the Dark Powers. To prolong the suffering of the Darklord, the Powers will always ensure that a glimmer of hope remains: It is never solely a twist of fate that prevents success, but also a failing on the Darklord's part (or the intervention of another). Thus the Darklord will always be left with the hope that "next time", it will be different, as long as they don't make the same mistake again (of course, they will simply make a different mistake).
* InfantImmortality: Subverted, new mothers need to keep a VERY close eye on their babies. And even that's not always enough.

* 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 Masters to ignore the original curse.
** Azalin ''is'' a top-notch spellcaster. It's just that he's only top notch at the spells he currently knows and will never be able to expand beyond that. From time to time, his stats and spell lists are updated to take into account new spells created in those supplements. In effect, they are a {{Retcon}} of the stats released in earlier products. As for the curses of other darklords, they are not usually there for [=PCs=] to take advantage of in battle, but instead are there for the darklord to live a life of 100% pure sucktitude.
* InnocenceLost: A game mechanic. Every character has an "Innocence" stat which provides limited protection from the Dark Powers. The problem is, witnessing the horrors that occur in Ravenloft tends to erode it over time, even if the character lives a life of unparalleled virtue.
* 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 an animal, a sadistic killer whose presence removes pain and whose touch cures all ills (including death), and a wolfwere who wants to rule his domain but whose people acknowledge no ruler.
* JerkassGenie: The MO of the Dark Powers is to grant a person's wish in the most horrible manner possible, landing them in an IronicHell.
* JerkassVictim: A number of people in this setting have bad things happen to them, but are such bad people it's hard to feel sorry for them. For example, the Vistani being eaten alive by zombies after selling an innocent man's son to become a vampire.
* KarmaHoudini: Nope, won't find any here. Moving along...
* KarmicTransformation.
* KnightInSourArmour: The demiplane might as well have a Cynical [[TheMessiah Messiah]] Factory.
* KnightTemplar: One darklord, Elena Faith-hold, is a former paladin.

* LordBritishPostulate: Gwydion, an EldritchAbomination, has only been given stats for his tentacles, not his body.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: Strahd's backstory.
* MadDoctor: Doctor Mordenheim (a CaptainErsatz for Doctor Frankenstein), and Doctor Heinfroth (keeper of the resident BedlamHouse). Darklord Frantisek Markov (a CaptainErsatz for Doctor Moreau) has no medical training, but he doesn't let that stop him experimenting on any animals, or humans, unfortunate enough to cross his path.
* MagicPoweredPseudoScience: It is possible for non magic using characters to create Dread Golems or even Undead, but it is stated that these creations gain their dark lifeforce from the Dark Powers granting it to them.
* MagicalLibrary: The lich-king Azalin has a giant book 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, in addition to Azalin's continuously updating biography. Crossing out or rewriting your lifestory are among the few ways to recover from Darkon's insidious IdentityAmnesia effect, as is asking Azalin to rewrite said lifestory to your benefit.

* MoralEventHorizon: InUniverse - The term for this in Ravenloft is an [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Act of Ultimate Darkness,"]] and it's a requirement for becoming one of the setting's dreaded Darklords; a near-perfect blend of {{hypocrisy}}, [[ThisIsUnforgivable depravity]], [[KickTheDog cruelty]], and [[ItsAllAboutMe selfishness]]. The clincher, though, [[ObliviouslyEvil is absolute refusal to acknowledge that what they did was wrong]]. Indeed, that's part of ThePunishment for darklords -- that if they worked up the moral strength to admit that what they have done is inexcusable and that they reaped what they sowed, their curse would be [[CursedWithAwesome moot]]. Then again, the books pretty much say that if they were the sorts of people who'd be able to do that, they would never have become darklords in the first place.
** EpiphanicPrison.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Ravenloft runs on this. Not just the people, convincing prospective tourists to visit beautiful ''Darkon'' or ''Ghastria'' is probably something of a challenge.
* {{Necromancer}}: Strahd is a [[DungeonsAndDragons Necromancer Specialist Wizard]], as are the darklords of I'Cath and the Nocturnal Sea. There are likely tons of others lurking around, due to the nature of the setting.
* NeverMyFault: This is a failing that a lot of the morally greyer (or outright black) are prone to.
** One of the big flaws of the Vistani, as a whole, is this; it's all but outright said that it's only a crime if it's done by a giorgio (outsider) to a Vistani, not the other way around. The absolute perfect example of this is the Vistani wise woman cursing Van Richten to bring a horrible death to anyone who comes to consider him an ally for destroying her tribe... not once considering the fact they brought it on themselves by kidnapping his son and selling him to become, essentially, a vampire's undead homosexual sex slave.
* NoCampaignForTheWicked: Even if there is no strict obligation for PlayerCharacters to always be [[LawfulGood goodie do-gooders]], morally questionable actions tend to attract the attention of the Dark Powers. After five failed "Power Checks", the character becomes an {{NPC}}; the sixth sends them headlong into darklord territory.
* NotSoDifferent: The setting goes to pains to describe that, as often as (insert group here) is regarded with distrust and suspicion by others, they are often just as bad and may genuinely give their neighbors reason to treat them the way they do.
** The Vistani are a great example of this. On the one hand, the "giorgio" are clearly shown to be xenophobes. On the other hand, the Vistani are, in many ways, just as xenophobic, as well as being smugly self-righteous, indifferent to cultural differences, and prone to blithely committing acts of theft, kidnapping and worse against giorgio simply because "it's not a crime if we're doing it to them".

* OminousFog: The Mists of Ravenloft are iconic setpieces, and are out and out said to work for the [[PowersThatBe Dark Powers]]. The Mists are often used to block various domains from each other, and to transport unsuspecting characters to wherever the GM pleases.
* OneWingedAngel: ''Everyone'' has a chance of doing this--ding the local KarmaMeter too often, and you'll find yourself turning into a literal monster. [[ThePunishment Too bad it's a real curse though...]]

* OurDemonsAreDifferent: All evil outsiders usually come to the demiplane by possessing someone, or by being summoned in by powerful spellcasters. They become trapped like everyone else once they are in. A powerful Incubus named the Gentlemen Caller is trying to escape by creating a child capable of escaping from the Demiplane. Fiends even got their own rules supplement dedicated to them called ''Van Richten's Guide to Fiends'' in 2nd Edition.
** Due to their rarity, Van Richten himself is under the impression that ''All'' Demons Are Different, i.e. every one is unique in its powers and appearance.
* OurGoblinsAreDifferent: A local variant are called gobl''y''ns, and they are humans mutated into monsters by dark magic.
** And they're all {{Violent Glaswegian}}s to a Goblyn.
** There are also plenty of conventional D&D goblins in Ravenloft. Even they are Different from most game goblins, being closer to their fairy-tale roots.
* OurMonstersAreDifferent: The iconic creatures, as described by Rudolph van Richten in his monster hunters' guides, have unique features that must be researched in order to properly fight them.
* OurOrcsAreDifferent: To set it apart from traditional fantasy settings, there are actually no orcs in Ravenloft at all. There's a record of one single orc who was brought to the Land of Mists as part of a twisted carnival, but the Dark Powers warped him into a grotesque ape-man.
** The setting thus doesn't have half-orcs as PlayerCharacters, but Calibans -- humans deformed in their mothers' wombs by curses or evil magics -- fill that role.
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Although individual vampires' powers can vary, ''Ravenloft'' for the most part played the "standard" vampire as close to the (Hollywood) archetype as possible, at least where the strict avoidance of FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires is concerned.
** The setting has literally TONS of variants (even though the regular ones are most common): a racial variant for each race (e.g. elven vampires kill vegetation and are harmed by moonlight), [[LooksLikeOrlok nosferatu]] that can walk around in the daytime, vampyres (who aren't undead but living creatures that suck blood), and about a zillion others.

* PathOfInspiration: The Eternal Order, Darkon's official religion, is a ReligionOfEvil in disguise and a tool of political control of the population in the hands of Azalin.
** In G'henna, the Church of Zhakata also fits this trope.
* PoisonousPerson: Ivana Boritsi and her Ermordenung.
* PopularityPower: In ''Knight of the Black Rose'', Count Strahd lures Soth into attacking Gundarak, a neighboring domain, on the promise that a portal there [[WeaselWords may]] lead him back home. Soth singlehandedly breaks into Duke Gundar's castle, murders his son, and uses his blood to open the portal while the Duke, supposedly an all-powerful Darklord in the seat of his power, takes one look at Lord Soth and vanishes until the scary man goes away. When the portal doesn't work as advertised, Soth intends to do the same to Strahd, but gets sidetracked by the Sorting Algorithm of Revenge and trapped in his own domain before he get the chance.
** Partially justified in game stat terms as Soth was both higher-level and a Death Knight, a very powerful type of undead warrior who as such was impervious to most of a vampire's bag of tricks.
* PowersThatBe: The Dark Powers. No one is sure what they want, or why. Only that they tend to do dramatic things, and stay strictly off-camera.

* {{Railroading}}: A lot of early {{Ravenloft}} adventures forced the party to go from Point A to Point B. Some even recommend the party ''die'' in order to get where they need to go. Also, the nature of the setting makes this very, very easy for a GM. Characters going in the wrong direction? Have undead hordes keep attacking them out of nowhere -- it happens all the time here. They want to visit another domain? Just close it off, problem solved.
* RavensAndCrows: Just about the only potentially good-aligned creatures in Ravenloft, they sometimes help TheAtoner.
* RazorFloss: Spider-like monsters called Head Hunters spin razor-sharp near-invisible webs that can decapitate the unwary.
* RealityIsOutToLunch: Vechor and the Nightmare Lands' Forest of Everchange
* TheRenfield: Naturally, since the setting has every classic vampire trope, there's plenty of these running around.
* 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 its membership is comprised solely of LawfulEvil and LawfulNeutral types -- its 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.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: A lot of these get mentioned in the background lore, and it's possible to portray a campaign as basically an extended one of these against the darkness.
** Van Richten himself had one of these. When the Vistani kidnapped his son because he was unable to keep their fatally wounded tribesmember from dying, he went charging off into the night in blind pursuit of them. A chance encounter with Azalin Rex, the Lich King of Darkon, and Van Richten found himself leading an army of zombies, because the lich was amused by it. These enabled Van Richten to trap the Vistani and force their leader to tell him where his son was. When she gloated they had sold him to a vampire, who had already transformed the boy by now, Van Richten set the zombies on them and slaughtered the lot of them,
* {{Roma}}: The Vistani assume the part of the stereotyical Gypsy FortuneTeller of classic Gothic (or rather, UniversalHorror) tradition.
* SafetyInMuggles: In the module Death Ascendant. While the religious service in the temple is going on the Kargat members take aside worshippers one at a time and drain them of their life force. When they try to do this to a PC, if the PC protests the Kargat member backs off because they don't want to make a scene.

* SecretPolice: The Kargat who serve Azalin.
* ShadowDictator: The Dark Powers.

* SinsOfOurFathers: Entire bloodlines can be cursed. In one or two realms, Darklord status is passed on generation to generation.

* SoBeautifulItsACurse: More literal than usual, if a Ravenloft woman is gifted with unusual beauty, it's generally so the Powers can torment her with particularly vile suitors that think NoMeansYes and RapeIsLove. Or, alternatively, torment her by gifting her with supernatural beauty that causes her to kill or repel potential soulmates.
* SuperWeight: Even a minor darklord of a small domain is going to be at least a 3. Major ones are the high end of 4, and would be 5 except the Powers regularly remind them exactly who's in charge here. As for the [=PCs=], they'll be whichever tier the Powers decide for that adventure and like it.
* TailorMadePrison: The entire setting is just a grouping of Oubliettes for the Darklords, along with all of the people who have to live in the domains, or those who get pulled in by the Mists from other worlds.

* TitleOfTheDead: The novel ''Dance of the Dead'' by Christie Golden.
* TwiceToldTale: The novel ''Mordenheim'' is a re-telling of {{Frankenstein}}.

* UnholyMatrimony: A vampire can create a special version of TheRenfield, exchanging the MindControl aspect for becoming MindlinkMates. The ritual has to be done in bed. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything With lots of panting and sweating, and both left helpless for a while afterwards]]. Strahd keeps trying to do this to the reincarnations of his lost love, but his curse keeps foiling the attempt.
* UnstuckInTime: Castle Forlorn is an example of a /place/ that's unstuck in time. While the wider domain of Forlorn is temporally concurrent with the rest of the demiplane, people who enter the castle can find themselves shuttled between at least three different eras in its history.
* UpliftedAnimal: Urik von Kharkov is a panther-turned-human-turned-nosferatu. Also, the Wildlands do this to animals that stay there for long, and Markov cranks them out via vivisection.
* UnwittingPawn: Darklords and especially vampires like arranging these. There's a very good chance that by the end of a module the players will end up fighting whoever asked them for help in the first place. On a larger scale, the Powers are the ones that are really "playing" Ravenloft -- all the characters, PC or not, are basically toys for their amusement.
* VanHelsingHateCrimes: Pretty much averted here; the premiere hunter of the setting, Rudolph Van Richten, is usually quite sympathetic to monsters who honestly have no choice in the matter, saving his vitriol for ones that like what they are.
** Although other hunters and [[TorchesAndPitchforks concerned villagers]] may not be nearly as sympathetic.
* VegetarianVampire: Averted for animal blood; even vampires from other worlds who'd previously been subsisting that way have to turn to human victims or starve. Some vampires use "shallow feeding" on multiple victims to avoid killing each night, but this is generally done for convenience (e.g. Strahd's feeding on captives in Castle Ravenloft's dungeon) rather than mercy.
* TheVonTropeFamily: Strahd '''von''' Zarovich, for starters...

* WhodunnitToMe: Ratik Ubel, a revenant who seeks to identify and take vengeance on his own murderer.
* WinterRoyalLady: Jezra Wagner, a spectre who haunts the high mountains of Barovia.

* WorldHalfEmpty: ''You have no idea.''
** It is noted that this was done deliberately: If the world is pitch-black, the actions of the heroes will shine all the brighter. Despite its WorldHalfEmpty aspects, it's actually pretty far along the idealistic scale.
** Debatable, since canonically, the heroes can't do much to actually ''change'' anything. You can never get rid of a Darklord unless the Dark Powers allow it (which they won't), at best you might (temporarily) save half a dozen people out of millions that are suffering.
*** But to paraphrase the old parable about starfish, it still makes a difference to them.
*** You ''can'' get rid of a darklord, actually. And in at least one published adventure, you ''do.''
** The ''Domains of Dread'' campaign book and 3rd Edition products from Arthaus both eased off on this trope, as these products adapted the setting for native player characters, not Mist-imports from other game settings. Rather than a blatant CrapsackWorld, they made it feel more like an entire [[EmpireWithADarkSecret Demiplane With A Dark Secret]], in which the masses are largely unaware that their world is any grimmer than normal, the average person never knowingly meets a monster, and the existence of darklords is unknown to all but a handful of occult scholars.

* YankTheDogsChain: The Dark Powers' favorite ''modus operandi''.
* YearInsideHourOutside: Time in the Shadow Rift flows much more quickly than it does in the rest of the Land. Also, Baron Evensong's curse is to be trapped in his parlor every night, which lasts 100 years for the room's occupants.
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* OneWingedAngel: ''Everyone'' has a chance of doing this--ding the local KarmaMeter too often, and you'll find yourself turning into a literal CompleteMonster. [[ThePunishment Too bad it's a real curse though...]]

* ChronicBackstabberSyndrome: Felix from ''Neither Man Nor Beast''

* ChronicBackstabbingSyndrome: Felix from ''Neither Man Nor Beast''

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome: The process for electing a new mayor of Skald, capital of Kartakass. The whole thing basically consists of several minutes of the candidates all explaining their platforms and issues, followed by several ''hours'' of a battle royale singing competition that's eventually decided by voice vote''(read: applause)''. That fact that Harkon Lucas has won every "election" for the past few decades doesn't preclude, say, a PC from throwing their hat into the ring. Say what you will about it, it's still the closest thing to democracy in the Core by a long shot.

** 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. Malken was given yet another origin story in Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium Appendix II: Children of the Night where he was even more of an espy of the scientist in ''Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde''.

* SoBeautifulItsACurse: More literal than usual, if a Ravenloft woman is gifted with unusual beauty, it's generally so the Powers can torment her with particularly vile suitors that think NoMeansYes and RapeIsLove.

* 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.

* AudioAdaptation: ''I, Strahd'' got an audiobook release-- read by [[FrightNight Peter Vincent]] himself, Roddy McDowall!

* AudioAdaptation: ''I, Strahd'' got an audiobook release.

* BigFancyCastle: Castle Ravenloft. Although some parts are pretty much falling appart from age and neglect.

* DisproportionateRetribution: The Dark Powers grant vengeful curses as a sort of hobby, and aren't really concerned about whether the punishment fits the crime (or whether there was even a crime in the first place.)

* CircusOfFear: subverted with the titular boxset "The Carnival", played straight by the original Domain of The Carnival l'Morai.

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** Being fair, in the one plotline where he wants you to kill him, that's because he's running a XanatosGambit where ''your destroying his current body is part of how he will escape Ravenloft''. And if Strahd van Zarovich hadn't interfered, Azalin would have ''made'' it too. No, his genius was entirely functional during that one.

** 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 GambitRoulette 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 [[TabletopGame/Planescape 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 [[TabletopGame/Greyhawk three]] [[TabletopGame/Planescape different]] [[TabletopGame/Ravenloft settings]]? Your call.

** 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 GambitRoulette 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.

Ravenloft is a campaign setting for the ''DungeonsAndDragons'' tabletop roleplaying game, focusing on themes of GothicHorror and dark fantasy. Events take place in a pocket dimension called the Land of Mists. The enigmatic Dark Powers have cobbled together a patchwork land of diverse kingdoms, each hiding their own foul secrets and held in thrall by a hideously corrupt being--its [[EvilOverlord darklord]]--for whom each domain is both a sovereign territory and a prison.

Many of the individual domains of Ravenloft, along with their inhabitants, are directly inspired by classic {{horror}} and [[GothicHorror Gothic literature]], infamous historical figures, and twisted versions of FairyTales and other stories. ''{{Dracula}}'', ''TheStrangeCaseOfDoctorJekyllAndMrHyde'', the works of HPLovecraft, ''Pinocchio'', ''TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau'', {{Shakespeare}}'s ''Theatre/{{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 [[EdgarAllanPoe the Red Death]]. It features many of the above mentioned classic characters that Ravenloft drew inspiration from as villains.

** 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. Malken was given yet another origin story in Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium Appendix II: Children of the Night where he was even more of an espy of the scientist in ''TheStrangeCaseOfDoctorJekyllAndMrHyde''.

* {{Expy}}: Though they're not direct analogues, many of the darklords take direct inspiration from popular gothic literary figures. Strahd is {{Dracula}}, Mordenheim is {{Frankenstein}} and Adam his Monster, Tristan Hiregaard and his alter ego Malken are [[TheStrangeCaseOfDoctorJekyllAndMrHyde Jekyll and Hyde]], Markov is [[TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau Dr. Moreau]], Rudolph Van Richten is based on Van Helsing and so on. As well as [[SherlockHolmes Alanik Ray and Doctor Arthur Sedgewick]].

Ravenloft is a campaign setting for the ''{{Dungeons and Dragons}}'' tabletop roleplaying game, focusing on themes of GothicHorror and dark fantasy. Events take place in a pocket dimension called the Land of Mists. The enigmatic Dark Powers have cobbled together a patchwork land of diverse kingdoms, each hiding their own foul secrets and held in thrall by a hideously corrupt being--its [[EvilOverlord darklord]]--for whom each domain is both a sovereign territory and a prison.

Many of the individual domains of Ravenloft, along with their inhabitants, are directly inspired by classic {{horror}} and [[GothicHorror Gothic literature]], infamous historical figures, and twisted versions of {{fairy tales}} and other stories. ''{{Dracula}}'', ''TheStrangeCaseOfDoctorJekyllAndMrHyde'', the works of HPLovecraft, ''Pinocchio'', ''TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau'', {{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 [[EdgarAllanPoe the Red Death]]. It features many of the above mentioned classic characters that Ravenloft drew inspiration from as villains.

* 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. Of course, one can always interpret that LOTN did happen, but Azalin only ''thought'' he discovered the true nature of the Dark Powers and he was mistaken at the time.

** In all editions, the core domains of Ravenloft are ''ridiculously tame'' compared to how things usually are elsewhere. No evil armies regularly sweeping across the land to kill and enslave all in their path. No monsters that are so powerful they don't need to hide and can lay waste to entire towns for fun. Your darklord might be a tyrant, but at least you have a stable tyranny. World-shaking wars and catatrophes are not nearly as common as in many other campaign worlds, in fact, the only real example is Azalin blowing up most of his domain. In island domains life can be much worse, though.

* EvilAlbino: The bakhna rakhna are a breed of deformed, albinistic goblins. Not all that tough as villains, but they're nasty, thieving little creeps.

* ExpositionOfImmortality: Dr. Van Richten realized that the fiend Drigor had been manipulating a particular family for generations when he looked at the family journals, and realized their writing styles hadn't changed for the past two hundred years.

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Initially, ''Ravenloft'' was a one-adventure module with Strahd as the BigBad, whose defeat by the hands of the [[PlayerCharacter PCs]] was the conclusion. Since then, the setting evolved and Strahd is still alive and well (or should we say ''undead'' and well). The {{Canon}} timeline of ''Ravenloft'' even says "528: powerful heroes assault Castle Ravenloft and are killed".

*** Finally, a trend that ran through many of the adventures involved the deaths of [=PCs=] as integral parts of the plot, usually as an excuse to resurrect them later as monsters or so the villain could force them to do something. Hour of the Knife involved any player who wandered away from the group getting killed 'off camera' by dopplegangers who promptly replaced him, Adam's Wrath forced the [=PCs=] to die so their brains could be transplanted into golems, From the Shadows had Azalin behead the [=PCs=] to fulfill a prophecy...the list goes on.

* HeWhoMustNotBeNamed: Lord Soth became such because of the copyright issues (see ExiledFromContinuity above) and is mentioned only as a "Black Knight" or a Blackguard. In ''Secrets Of The Dread Realms'', it is said that "no Sithican will speak his name for fear of calling him back from whatever abyss claimed him".

* HeroicAlbino: Helping an innocent young albino girl find refuge from prejudice among other human oddities is one of the sample scenarios from the supplement ''Carnival''.

** Azalin ''is'' a top-notch spellcaster. It's just that he's only top notch at the spells he currently knows and will never be able to expand beyond that. From time to time, his stats and spell lists are updated to take into account new spells created in those supplements. In effect, they are a RetCon of the stats released in earlier products. As for the curses of other darklords, they are not usually there for [=PCs=] to take advantage of in battle, but instead are there for the darklord to live a life of 100% pure sucktitude.

* 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 an animal, a sadistic killer whose presence removes pain and whose touch cures all ills (including death), and a wolfwere who wants to rule his domain but whose people acknowledge no ruler.

* MicroMonarchy: Ghastria, until the Great Upheaval.

** And they're all {{Violent Glaswegian}}s to a Goblyn.

* PathOfInspiration: The Eternal Order, Darkon's official religion, is a ReligionOfEvil in disguise and a tool of political control of the population in the hands of Azalin.

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

* SinsOfOurFathers: Entire bloodlines can be cursed. In one or two realms, Darklord status is passed on generation to generation.

* SuperWeight: Even a minor darklord of a small domain is going to be at least a 3. Major ones are the high end of 4, and would be 5 except the Powers regularly remind them exactly who's in charge here. As for the PCs, they'll be whichever tier the Powers decide for that adventure and like it.

* TheWallAroundTheWorld: The Misty Border that surrounds every domain, although they can also take the form of heatwaves or blizzards.

* 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. Or [[BlueAndOrangeMorality blue]].

** YourMileageMayVary, as once you realize the final sing-off is actually designed to let the candidates shower one another with really ''nasty'' backhanded compliments, it's a lot more interesting.