Homebrew or Unsupported Settings

In The Domains of Dread, four settings for character origin are officially supported: Ravenloft (where the story takes place), Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk and Krynn. All characters are to be taken from their Third Edition sources if available, though they may come from any time prior to the present day given in those sources.

An ideoligion’s deity (if applicable) does not have to be alive in Third Edition for a character to successfully worship them in The Domains of Dread, but they may lack official support. In these cases worshipers are subject to the same rules regarding unsupported deity worship they would if they were from a homebrew or unsupported setting, per below.

For supported settings, their living ideoligions are statistically represented in The Domains of Dread, and any Divine character must use the statistics provided when selecting divine domains or alignment.

Any character—even from a supported setting—must represent a playable race with no subraces which would necessitate readjusting NR, starting attributes or adding racial features. Put another way, the subrace must be equivalent to ECL 0. For example a moon elf from Forgotten Realms may be played as they are, as their appearance and abilities broadly fall under the spectrum of their playable parent race, but drow would not be.

Homebrew and unsupported settings observe the same rules:

1. Technology must not surpass what is featured in The Domains of Dread, roughly equivalent to the early modern period with limited influence from the early Victorian period in a domain like Lamordia. Therefore no setting should have technology—whether from science or magitek—in excess of the steam engine, including complicated steam machinery and/or electricity.
2. Characters cannot come from any version or variant of Earth.
3. Any race should be equivalent to a playable race in The Domains of Dread, even if they are fictionally called something else or have differing origins.
4. Ontological concepts such as alignment must be represented in those settings as they are in The Domains of Dread: actions that are evil in the Realms of Terror, like cannibalism, should remain evil in that setting.
5. The selected class archetype must exist in that setting, even if fictionally called something else or with differing origins. It is inadequate for a character from a homebrew or unsupported setting to have no connection to the class archetype chosen for them on The Domains of Dread.
6. The objective conditions of a homebrew or unsupported setting must not be “worse” than the Realms of Terror. Every Outlander should feel some disconnect between their homeland and what they experience in the demiplane, rather than being able to see their Misting as an escape or improvement (subjective worldviews to the effect are however acceptable).
7. Characters worshiping an ideoligion from an unsupported or homebrew setting must use the same statistics from an officially supported ideoligion, omitting any divine domains stated to be unique to that ideoligion. This should be disclosed during the application process. At any time the Game Masters may decide another ideoligion’s statistics are more suitable for the ideoligion described.

Explicitly disallowed settings include:

• Dark Sun: Setting is too grimdark whereon anyone from Athas would be able to see Ravenloft as an objective escape.
• Masque of the Red Death/Gothic Earth: Technology in excess of the steam engine, and a version of Earth.
• Lord of the Rings/Middle Earth: Variant of Earth.
• Spelljammer: Magitek in excess of the steam engine.
• Warhammer 40k: Technology in excess of the steam engine.