The Domains of Dread: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 00:38, 3 November 2025

THERE IS A LAND that exists between the Known and the Unknown. Fear here soaks a dying Man as he would slake on water. Hesitation sits on his very brows. Repudiation aches his fingers. A land that must be wrought—if I may be so certain—from those men, those foolish men. Men who once believed themselves gods. Men who at their hour of triumph looked out to what had become of this land, our land, and despaired.
This land is the Core.

It is home.

— Anonymous, Annals of the Unknown Arcanist

The Domains of Dread is a Neverwinter Nights persistent world blending Dungeon and Dragons Third Edition and Pathfinder First Edition sources with a world inspired by Advanced Dungeon and Dragons’ original Ravenloft campaign setting.

It is expected to be announced in Q3 2026, with a full release intended for Q1 2027. Development began in Q1 2024.

Vision

First collected in 1983 by Tracy and Laura Hickman, Ravenloft has endured among TSR’s most beloved modules—by 1990, campaign settings—for Advanced Dungeon and Dragons. It is this period that The Domains of Dread owes most of its inspiration as opposed to Third Edition or Fifth Edition Ravenloft.

The Domains of Dread seeks to provide cohesion between the more modern design principles found in Old School Renaissance or OSR titles and the older story threads found in eponymous 1998 hardback of the same name. In this it may be conceived as an alternate Third Edition made with the benefit of hindsight, taking on pains to ensure that the original Gothic horror atmosphere be preserved even in a Persistent World context. Rather than retelling these stories verbatim, however, it expands on the seeds planted by what came before so to push Ravenloft to its most cogent, well delivered conclusion.

It is the goal of the team to respect authorial intent while understanding that TSR’s Ravenloft was created to be a framework for enumeration by Dungeon Masters, later writers and, today, The Domains of Dread designers. Reconditioning story and character elements nearly 40 years long may never be perfect and neither were the originals, but it is ours and may also be yours.

Low-Medium Magic

In keeping with its OSR philosophy, The Domains of Dread may be described as a low-medium magic server whose level cap is 14. Barring ephemeral circumstances the largest Enhancement Bonus to expect on any weapon or armor is +3, wielded by characters who have earned them at the 14th level; +1 and +2 specimens are considered good and excellent respectively.

As consequence, soft attribute bonuses are capped at +10 and soft skill bonuses at +15. Equipment and class archetype features are designed with these limitations in mind.

The Domains of Dread takes a hard stance on resurrection. The Mists constrict organs for easy regeneration and resurrection as may be found on some Prime Material worlds, keeping them out of reach for player characters. Likewise The Domains of Dread is a permadeath server though players may expect that their characters are almost never killed in Character versus Environment conflict, only maimed with critical injuries, leaving permadeath as a consequence of Character versus Character conflict.

Class archetypes are designed to be less reliant on a constant supply of supernatural items and associated consumables, as they—being Influenced, in server parlance—carry specific drawbacks to use in The Domains of Dread in Tension, imperiling those who rely on their reckless use. All classes are subdivided into associated archetypes, which may be conceived as a mandatory subclass chosen by all characters at the 3rd level. Multiclassing is disabled to give these class archetypes the space to mechanically substantiate their concept as much as possible.

Nevertheless, it is expected that “power levels” are lower than on other Neverwinter Nights servers using high magic and deeper level caps. The Domains of Dread provides a wealth of flavorful options within these class archetypes for use in roleplay and in combat, leading to a server which begins at low magic and ends closer to the beginning of medium magic, all without compromising the Gothic atmosphere of Ravenloft.

Technical Specifications

The game world is hosted by the Server Owner and Operator, in Upstate New York State. The following ping ranges may be expected:

Eastern North America: 5-30ms
Eastern South America: 30-120ms
Midwest United States: 30-60ms
Western North America: 45-80ms
Western South America: 50-150ms
Western and Southern Europe: 70-140ms
Eastern Europe and the Middle East: 90-160ms
North and South Africa: 90-200ms
Asia and Oceania: 100-180ms

The alias of the game world will always be nwn.thedomainsofdread.com, resolving into whatever ithe present IP is behind Cloudflare. For the NWSync shard, this is nwsync.thedomainsofdread.com. Overall, measures have been taken to ensure players connecting globally face minimal difficulties owed to geographic distance.

For hardware, the server is equipped with a modern Ryzen CPU, enough RAM to distribute both the game world and NWSync shard, testing repositories and backup solutions without bottlenecking real server performance.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-<blockquote>''THERE EXISTS a land between all that is Known and all that is Not Known. In this land fear, hesitation and repudiation soaks a dying man as would water. A land wrought—I am certain—from men, '''foolish''' men. Men who thought themselves gods. Men who in their hour of what they thought their triumph were made to look upon this land, our land, and despair.''
+<blockquote>''THERE IS A LAND that exists between the Known and the Unknown. Fear here soaks a dying Man as he would slake on water. Hesitation sits on his very brows. Repudiation aches his fingers. A land that must be wrought—if I may be so certain—from those men, those foolish men. Men who once believed themselves gods. Men who at their hour of triumph looked out to what had become of this land, our land, and despaired.''
-''And it is our home.''</blockquote>— Anonymous, ''Annals of the Unknown Arcanist''
+''This land is the Core.''
-''The Domains of Dread'' is a persistent world hosted on Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition, blending a custom ruleset modified from Dungeon and Dragons Third Edition and Pathfinder First Edition sources with a storyline inspired by Advanced Dungeon and Dragons’ original Ravenloft campaign setting. It is a heavy roleplay server pursuant to Gothic horror themes, choices, and consequences.
+''It is home.''</blockquote>— Anonymous, ''Annals of the Unknown Arcanist''
-It is slated to be announced to the public in late 2025, with a full release intended for autumn 2026. Development began in early 2024.
+''The Domains of Dread'' is a Neverwinter Nights persistent world blending Dungeon and Dragons Third Edition and Pathfinder First Edition sources with a world inspired by Advanced Dungeon and Dragons’ original Ravenloft campaign setting.
-== The Vision ==
+It is expected to be announced in Q3 2026, with a full release intended for Q1 2027. Development began in Q1 2024.
-First codified in 1983 by Tracy and Laura Hickman, Ravenloft has endured to this day as one of the most beloved TSR modules—and by 1990, campaign settings—for Advanced Dungeon and Dragons. It is from that period ''The Domains of Dread'' owes the most of its inspiration, rather than Sword and Sorcery’s Third Edition or latter edition work such as Fifth Edition’s ''Curse of Strahd'' and ''Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenlof''t.
-What ''The Domains of Dread'' seeks to provide is a cohesion of modern design principles both in gameplay and storytelling viewed through the lens of OSR, or Old School Renaissance. In many ways it is an “alternate” Third Edition, one created with the benefit of hindsight while not losing what makes Gothic fantasy so compelling even to an audience forty years removed from the blue book original. It is not a retelling, rather an expansion founded on the good bones of what came before, remaking and adding where necessary to push Ravenloft to its most logical, coherent and well delivered conclusion.
+== Vision ==
+First collected in 1983 by Tracy and Laura Hickman, Ravenloft has endured among TSR’s most beloved modules—by 1990, campaign settings—for Advanced Dungeon and Dragons. It is this period that ''The Domains of Dread'' owes most of its inspiration as opposed to Third Edition or Fifth Edition Ravenloft.
-It will never be perfect, of course, and neither were the originals, but it is ours and may well be yours.
+''The Domains of Dread'' seeks to provide cohesion between the more modern design principles found in Old School Renaissance or OSR titles and the older story threads found in eponymous 1998 hardback of the same name. In this it may be conceived as an alternate Third Edition made with the benefit of hindsight, taking on pains to ensure that the original Gothic horror atmosphere be preserved even in a Persistent World context. Rather than retelling these stories verbatim, however, it expands on the seeds planted by what came before so to push Ravenloft to its most cogent, well delivered conclusion.
+It is the goal of the team to respect authorial intent while understanding that TSR’s Ravenloft was created to be a framework for enumeration by Dungeon Masters, later writers and, today, ''The Domains of Dread'' designers. Reconditioning story and character elements nearly 40 years long may never be perfect and neither were the originals, but it is ours and may also be yours.
 == Low-Medium Magic ==
-In keeping with OSR principles, ''The Domains of Dread'' may be generically described as a “low-medium magic” server, with a level cap of <code>14</code>. Barring ephemeral circumstances the largest Enhancement Bonus to expect on any weapon or armor is <code>+3</code>, wielded by characters who have earned them while already at the maximum level, with <code>+1</code> and <code>+2</code> equipment considered good and excellent specimens respectively.
+In keeping with its OSR philosophy, ''The Domains of Dread'' may be described as a low-medium magic server whose level cap is <code>14</code>. Barring ephemeral circumstances the largest Enhancement Bonus to expect on any [[Weapons|weapon]] or [[armor]] is <code>+3</code>, wielded by characters who have earned them at the <code>14th level</code>; <code>+1</code> and <code>+2</code> specimens are considered good and excellent respectively.
+As consequence, soft attribute bonuses are capped at <code>+10</code> and soft skill bonuses at <code>+15</code>. Equipment and class archetype features are designed with these limitations in mind.
-Consequently, soft [[Attributes|attribute]] bonuses are capped at <code>+10</code> and soft skill bonuses at <code>+15</code>. Equipment and class features are designed with these limits in mind.
+''The Domains of Dread'' takes a hard stance on resurrection. The Mists constrict organs for easy regeneration and resurrection as may be found on some Prime Material worlds, keeping them out of reach for player characters. Likewise ''The Domains of Dread'' is a permadeath server though players may expect that their characters are almost never killed in Character versus Environment conflict, only [[Death, Dying and Maiming|maimed]] with critical injuries, leaving permadeath as a consequence of Character versus Character conflict.
-[[Classes and Archetypes|Classes]] have been redesigned to be less reliant on magic items, as the quantity of being a magic—[[Modifiers|Influenced]], in server terms—item carries specific drawbacks in The Domains of Dread, imperiling those who use them recklessly. This means classes are richer in features, especially those owed to their archetype, which may be conceived as a mandatory subclass chosen by all characters within their class. Multiclassing is disabled to account for the greater class expression within archetypes.
+[[Classes and Archetypes|Class]] archetypes are designed to be less reliant on a constant supply of supernatural items and associated consumables, as they—being [[Modifiers|Influenced]], in server parlance—carry specific drawbacks to use in ''The Domains of Dread'' in [[Tension]], imperiling those who rely on their reckless use. All classes are subdivided into associated archetypes, which may be conceived as a mandatory subclass chosen by all characters at the <code>3rd level</code>. Multiclassing is disabled to give these class archetypes the space to mechanically substantiate their concept as much as possible.
-Still, it should be expected that a class’s total possible power will be lower than other servers which are higher magic, such as those from the Forgotten Realms. It is the intent of our design to ensure that even if “depowered”, every class archetype—including martials—will have a wealth of options to use during roleplay and combat, hence the need for a server that is higher magic than low magic without compromising the tone of Ravenloft.
+Nevertheless, it is expected that “power levels” are lower than on other Neverwinter Nights servers using high magic and deeper level caps. ''The Domains of Dread'' provides a wealth of flavorful options within these class archetypes for use in roleplay and in combat, leading to a server which begins at low magic and ends closer to the beginning of medium magic, all without compromising the Gothic atmosphere of Ravenloft.
 == Technical Specifications ==
-The game server is hosted locally by the [[Staff, Requirements and Applications|Server Owner and Operator]], located in upstate New York State in the United States. Roughly, the following ping ranges may be expected:
+The game world is hosted by the [[Staff, Requirements and Applications#Server Owner and Operator|Server Owner and Operator]], in Upstate New York State. The following ping ranges may be expected:
 * <code>'''Eastern North America'''</code>: <code>5-30ms</code>
@@ Line 36: / Line 40: @@
 * <code>'''Asia and Oceania'''</code>: <code>100-180ms</code>
-The alias of the game server will always be ''nwn.thedomainsofdread.com,'' which will resolve to the present IP. For the NWSync shard, this will be ''nwsync.thedomainsofdread.com''. Overall, measures have been taken to ensure players may connect globally with minimal difficulties owed to geographic location.
+The alias of the game world will always be ''nwn.thedomainsofdread.com'', resolving into whatever ithe present IP is behind Cloudflare. For the NWSync shard, this is ''nwsync.thedomainsofdread.com''. Overall, measures have been taken to ensure players connecting globally face minimal difficulties owed to geographic distance.
-In terms of hardware, the server is equipped with the latest Ryzen workstation-class CPU, enough RAM to distribute the game server, NWSync shard, testing repositories and backup solutions without any bottleneck to server performance.
+For hardware, the server is equipped with a modern Ryzen CPU, enough RAM to distribute both the game world and NWSync shard, testing repositories and backup solutions without bottlenecking real server performance.