Jeremy16 wrote: Wed Jul 08, 2026 3:20 pm
The Dark wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2026 5:30 am
My opinion of 5e Valachan is that it's a domain that becomes weaker the more one probes its inspirations, and would be better served as a new domain rather than trying to be an update of an existing domain. One of its weaknesses comes from the difference between a story and an RPG setting. While it draws from "The Most Dangerous Game," the differences in structure remove a couple of the sources of tension in the source material.
The first of those is the similarities between Rainsford and Zaroff, who are both white-presenting big-game hunters (with the implication of wealth and aristocracy/pseudo-aristocracy of big game hunting). Doing something similar in an RPG is difficult at best, since there are no guarantees of what any adventuring party's make-up will be. The closest would be making the Darklord someone who would be broadly accepted by players as having been heroic, but that would entail the sort of new entanglements between settings that 5e has mostly avoided.
The second is the ambiguity of the ending, where Rainsford kills Zaroff and enjoys his bed. Is this a rejection of Zaroff's ethos and a return to civilization, or an embracing of that ethos and a new apex predator enjoying his conquest? Ravenloft, with its perpetual domain, has to go with the second option in having Chakuna take over from Von Kharkov, but in doing so removes the uncertainty that makes the story worth discussion.
A bigger problem, though, is that the backstory of Chakuna and Von Kharkov opens up the domain to an interpretation of "if the oppressed gain power, they'll be worse than the oppressors," which is an ancient canard used to this day by oppressors to justify oppression. The Trial of Hearts subduing the wildness of the jungle also detracts from the Darklord's evil by slipping towards the "hard people making hard choices" justification for being a bad person. I don't think these were intentional, but I do consider 5e Valachan to be the Land of Unfortunate Implications.
5e Valachan, in my opinion, would need extensive rewriting to make it a domain I'd ever consider using, far more than 5e Dementlieu or Falkovnia. As with most of the "updated" legacy domains, I would have preferred to see them as new domains (the main exception being Darkon because Azalin sabotaging himself is traditional).
Are you saying that 5e Valachan is a patchwork of pastiches and ill-fitting tropes that are done much better elsewhere in the campaign setting? Well... Huzzah! At least the writers are carrying on that fine tradition of the domain from its 2e roots!
To an extent, but it does add some new twists, like the Darklord's evil being good for their society (since the hunt makes the land less hostile for a time), which I don't recall being a thing in Ravenloft before. There have certainly been awkward adaptations in past material, but this one takes a story that I don't think is particularly well-suited to Ravenloft's traditional style of horror, then adapts it in a way that violates prior tenets of the setting. I almost get the feeling there was a push to keep too close to the original story, where Rainsford/Chukuna is the heroic protagonist. Having Chukuna's hunts benefit the people comes off to me as a heavy-handed attempt to generate sympathy and cast her as a reluctant anti-hero instead of a villain. It's not a terrible idea, but it's not Ravenloft.
Off the top of my head (meaning there are probably issues or plotholes that I haven't thought through yet), an approach that would have fit traditional Ravenloft better could start with the same back story up until Chukuna becomes Darklord. At that point, her experience with von Kharkov leaves her murderously xenophobic toward outsiders. When outsiders enter the domain, the land becomes more active in general - predators are more active, but there's also more prey for hunters and more fruits to gather. Chukuna tolerates this for a time, because food is scarce when only her people are in Valachan and they need the bountiful times to store up for the lean times, but eventually her hatred for others overcomes her love for her people and the Hunt begins again.
This still needs to be handled carefully so that it's a matter of "the Dark Powers do this to annoy the Darklord" and avoid any sort of "this happens because outsiders are good and wonderful and better than the natives" thing. However, it takes Chukuna's violence and makes it a detriment to her people rather than a benefit.
