So, simple question for discussion: do you think that Darkon should be included in the module?
From the mistipedia:
Due to Azalin's desire for unswerving loyalty, Darkon has the most obvious and unique curse in Ravenloft. After spending from one to three months within its borders, anyone not native to Darkon loses all memory of their original homeland, instead believing themselves to have always lived in Darkon. Additionally, they lose all personal desire to leave the country, though some do so anyway out of necessity or circumstance. The memories include a whole new life history and victim often adopt gravestones at the local cemeteries as graves of their ancestors. The lost memories return upon leaving the domain. In From the Shadows, it is shown that their memories are magically recorded in a book in a library in Avernus.
This feature leads some to believe that Darkon is an unsuitable realm for an outsiders-based campaign. Some players have experimented with campaigns of rediscovery, where the players have no clue as to their "real" histories but can discover them through investigation. (Inspired by the movie Memento and the video game Planescape: Torment.)
As a developer, I'd like to have Darkon in the module, and if we opt out of it at present I'd still probably have Nevuchar Springs (as Fourth Sect home church) and the Necropolis (since I want it as a dungeon hub).
But I'd like to hear your own opinions too: we cannot mechanically enforce this curse really, and so we'd have to trust in players that they can manage. What do you think?
Lead Developer, DM, and fellow roleplayer.
Always open to scenes and suggestions, if I'm not otherwise occupied.
I think the curse makes it unsuitable, really. I'd rather give the Fourth Sect another fortress elsewhere than to add Darkon in unless the curse was changed to something else. It's also such a big domain I think the sheer distances involved would be a bit awkward in rp too.
I think the curse could be an interesting RP hook, for some characters, to be honest. In my opinion, if you want it in the module, you should have it in the module. Pretty sure most players would abide by the curse, if they stay for that long in one area. Something I don't really see very many doing. And for those that does, they would probably do that because they find it interesting, and a possible RP hook, for someone that knew them away from Darkon. Could bring in quite a bit of RP, that particular hook. Just my opinion though.
Practically speaking, Darkon is a lot of work - for the reason Talis mentions above, lots of ground to cover, so I'm of the mind that if people generally want it around, we can include it in full. If we're split, or the majority is against it, I'll just make Nevuchar Springs, and Necropolis.
Nevuchar Springs's church is holy ground, so if you mist-walked to it directly, you would not be at risk. We can hand-wave the curse in the surrounding town by saying it's proximity to such a central church of Ezra protects most.
Even just that is more than others have, so I'm not displeased by the compromise, though if we want to embrace having it, by all means I'll build more (in time)
Lead Developer, DM, and fellow roleplayer.
Always open to scenes and suggestions, if I'm not otherwise occupied.
I'd like to see Darkon, And other than the work to make it. The big thing to consider is the curse. Though I do feel that this is easy to deal with with the following minor changes/Stipulations
1. The curse is optional for PCs as a slight homebrew change for a PW in that in general without DM involvement the choice to be cursed is up to the PC.
2. The curse can take effect at any time even years later from when a Person enters Darkon.
3. Azalins book is changed to contain the information of anyone in Darkon, Not just those that are cursed. (This would be unknowable to most PCs however.)
I feel with these changes Darkon is pretty workable and does allow for fun RP of the curse taking effect and also in some cases not taking effect for whatever reason.
"Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon."
-Terry Prachett
I am exceedingly biased as Darkon remains my favourite domain and likewise, Azalin Rex my favourite Darklord. That being said, I would like to see Darkon present on the server and I believe it's a strong candidate for a compelling region for a lot of reasons.
I've run TTRPG campaigns of Ravenloft in the past and Darkon featured heavily in one of these, in fact being the headquarters of the PC party. The nature of Darkon's curse is such that at a glance, it looks prohibitive to PC involvement. However, the curse is exceedingly lenient. I'll lay the details out here in full, for completeness' sake;
The Book of Names is an artefact, coupled with a magical quill, which dwells within Castle Avernus' library. Upon entry to Darkon, each person has their full history transcribed into a blank book by the magical quill within Castle Avernus' library. This process takes between 1-3 months, this being the timer that individual has before being afflicted by the Darkonian curse.
During this attenuation period it is expected that the victim gradually loses access to some memories of their past, this being the first warning sign that the character should leave Darkon. It could be inferred that this is a progressive and trackable loss of memories going in biographical order of their life experiences but for thematic purposes I've found it's better to randomly confront your PCs with the loss of a new memory by rolling randomly on tables; stopping a PC in the middle of a conversation with an NPC to tell them they're suddenly struck by the loss of a core childhood memory is a powerful tool.
At the conclusion of fully transcribing their biography, the enchanted quill then pivots to the Book of Names and writes that person's name and the current date. At this moment the curse of Darkon takes full effect; the afflicted character loses all their memories and has them replaced with a falsely generated Darkonian identity instead; this has the fringe benefits of granting them the Darkonian language for free but otherwise they remain unchanged in all essential aspects.
This process can be reversed in several ways; firstly, leaving Darkon. This resets the curse entirely, however any biographical details of their true history remain archived. Secondly, entering Castle Avernus' library and burning the book holding the false history of their new Darkonian identity. Thirdly, using the magical item Dust of Disappearance on the Book of Names entry holding their own name and date. (An aside here; no details are given as to what happens if someone only deletes their name, but not the date, or vice-versa. Nor is anything given to the idea of sabotaging the Book of Names.) Fourthly, using a magical artefact named a Quill of Law to strike a line through their name and date within the Book of Names. The first three methods are temporary, while the fourth method involving the Quill of Law is permanent and confers permanent immunity to the Darkonian curse along with Azalin's Modify Memory ability.
So; let's pick this apart and address some things.
Firstly, the format of the specific mechanics are a little bit flawed. The same quill that writes a person's full biographical history is also responsible for transcribing their new false Darkonian history and identity, as well as writing into the Book of Names. The details offered in From The Shadows confirms that in the niche scenario a character leaves Darkon, they regain their identity and a wholly new false Darkonian identity must be written by the enchanted quill, at the end of which once more their name is added to the Book of Names along with the new date. The falsified history and the true biographical account of each character are considered separate books; it is presumed that a character can burn the falsified history to restore their memories and identity, but Azalin retains copies of their true history which is in line with his particular personality traits.
The first change I've made in the past for my TTRPGs is that the Book of Names is the true artefact and that it possesses any quills within the room it is kept; this addresses the easily missed fact that, by description, the process only ever writes up one person at a time. Given the nature of Darkon, this is a huge flaw in that there would be a mountainous backlog of unaddressed new entrants. By making the Book of Names the only artefact and making the quill itself irrelevant, you enable the Book of Names to freely transcribe as many people as you desire.
The second change is largely background lore; Azalin Rex's paranoid and controlling nature means that he has a strong interest in the true histories of his new 'citizens', as a result I dedicated an extra vault in Castle Avernus to the true histories of every single person that has ever stepped foot in Darkon. This means that, on the rare instance that a group successfully infiltrates Castle Avernus and destroys falsified histories to restore memories, meddles with the Book of Names and potentially grants immunity to the Darkonian curse, Azalin Rex would still retain the extremely useful resource of those peoples' individual histories. By necessity newly transcribed biographies will build up in the library where the Book of Names is kept until servants collect them and move them to the vault of histories; this offers a small window where a character might succeed in depriving Azalin Rex of that most valuable tool with perhaps less effort than breaking into a well guarded vault.
Looking at the curse itself, 1d3 months after entry to Darkon, no will save, a character loses their memories and is converted to a native Darkonian and gains the Darkonian language but otherwise keeps all statistical properties as per their original identity; class, alignment, personality, etc are all retained. I've heard a lot of people elsewhere espouse that this curse is especially prohibitive to people coming to Darkon however I would put forth that it is perhaps one of the most lenient curses to overcome with even minor effort. One month is a long time for a player. The curse is foiled by simply stepping foot beyond the borders of Darkon; the quills busy at work simply have to start over. The 1d3 months is rerolled upon re-entry to Darkon, the countdown starts all over again.
The effects of the memory deletion act as both a profound source of horror for those especially sensitive to themes of identity, while also acting as a very useful yardstick. Characters are strongly motivated to leave Darkon once they become aware of their gradual identity loss; imagine waking up one morning and thinking about your dearly departed family, only to be suddenly struck by the fact you can't remember your sister. You know you had one but other than that fact you cannot remember them directly; perhaps you have a broken arm that never healed quite right resulting from an adventure you took with said sister during your childhood years. That you remember easily, but nothing about your sister comes to mind.
TL;DR - I support the inclusion of Darkon, with two tweaks to the specifics of how the Book of Names functions in regards to transcribing histories. These changes are only really relevant to the possibility of players infiltrating Castle Avernus, though.
