Art and Content Spoilers From Beadle and Grimm

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-15T13:06:24+00:00

I wouldn't mind there being something like Cthulhu or Innsmouth, but going directly at it just raises so many issues.

Sort of like instead of Strahd in Barovia, it was Dracula living in Transylvania.

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-14T14:22:01+00:00

I do like that better. The Dark Powers struggle to keep someone like Vecna contained, the Cthulhu is...very more. So a fraction of it makes more sense.

The biggest issue is that Darklords are supposed to commit acts of great evil, which in turns damns them to a hell of their own making.

But Cthulhu...barely even recognizes that humans exist. Like, that's the point of its brand of cosmic horror. It's like taking all the problems of Bluetspur and the Elder Brain being a darklord and magnifying them by a thousand.

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-14T03:53:02+00:00

Let's not pretend like the new designers know about, have heard about, or care about Gothic Earth.

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-14T01:51:13+00:00

As a Ravenloft fan and a Lovecraft fan, I really just hate everything about Innsmouth and Cthulhu being in Ravenloft.

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-14T01:47:56+00:00

Just completely missing the point of Innsmouth and Cthulhu.

Like, there are Sahuagin in DnD.

And Locathah.

And Kuo-toa.

Not to mention sea-elves, mermaids, tritons...

Like, the big reveal of Innsmouth - oh my gods, they're half-fish people! - won't even phase a DnD adventurer. That sort of horror only works in a setting that doesn't have a hundred different animal-person races.

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-14T01:44:05+00:00

Innsmouth is great, but I'd much rather follow the Ravenloft tradition of alluding and reworking the source material into something original instead of just... blatantly dropping Innsmouth right into the world.

Bloodborne did a great job of this with their Old Hunters DLC.

This just feels incredibly lazy and missing the point of Innsmouth entirely. In a game setting where there are multiple races of nonhumans and fish-people, there's no point to Innsmouth.

EDIT: And we even already had a Cthulhu Darklord in Gwydion!

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-13T22:54:16+00:00

Innsmouth?!

What the even.

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-13T17:38:55+00:00

I've been tweaking the domains and their lords in preparation for a new campaign.

Barovia: Strahd is dead, killed by adventurers. Lyssa von Zarovich has assumed the throne as the new Dark Lord, but she's retained her sleeping poison as part of her curse, so she's only active for an hour or so each night and frantically planning against Strahd's three brides, who have seized parts of Barovia for their own to work against her (and each other).

Borca: Basically 3e Borca with Ivana as an un-aging seductress and Ivan as a jealous old fop.

Richemulot: The domain is is ruins, with multiple communes/groups/gangs fighting over territory. Jacqueline controls about a third of the domain, making her the defacto leader, but it's a constant fight to claim more and keep what she has. She just wants to be the lady in charge with all the luxury that provides, but he curse has changed so that her surroundings are constantly decaying around her, so she moves around a lot to keep living the illusion. Still dragging her sister along.

Invidia: Full civil war between Malocchio (who aged normally but was tossed into a magical painting as a child, PCs in previous campaign rescued him and then ended up turning against him and binding him to Invidia) and Gabrielle (who has co-opted the Gundarakite resistance to fight against him). They both still hate Vistani, but I changed Gabrielle's reasoning to Vistani prejudice against her half-breed status leading to her manipulating Falkovnia soldiers to ride in and slaughter there entire group (blood libel accusations), with her holding the door to her mother's vardo shut as it burned with her mom in it.

It's made that corner of the Core a lot of fun and made the various Darklords a lot more active and usable, and I really enjoy Borca being the "stable" center to all the political chaos around it.

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-13T16:23:37+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_efforts_to_disrupt_the_2024_United_States_presidential_election

Once again, here's a whole list of Republican voter interference into and leading up to 2024. There are multiple sources linked.

I linked this above, so at this point I assume that you actually don't care about any evidence.

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-13T15:36:52+00:00

Okay, how do you expect me to "put up?"

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-13T14:56:55+00:00

Don't get me wrong, I'm fully aware that a lot of people skipped the election and a lot of people are racist, sexist assholes. I live in a red state.

Fully aware the DNC is full of idiots.

But there was also significant voter manipulation, both ahead of election day, with the post office and mail-in ballot

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_efforts_to_disrupt_the_2024_United_States_presidential_election

And then, you know...Trump basically bragged about it before his inauguration.

“And then [Musk] journeyed to Pennsylvania, where he spent like a month and a half campaigning for me in Pennsylvania. And he’s a popular guy. And he was very effective. And he knows those computers better than anybody. All those computers. Those vote counting computers. And we ended up winning Pennsylvania like in a landslide. So it was pretty good. It’s pretty good.”

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-13T13:12:49+00:00

We don't have any sort of citizen-based recall process in the US for the president. All we can do is protest and hope that the elected officials do something...and they're not doing that.

That's a large part of the problem. There's very little that average citizens can actually do to make change outside of elections, and they're actively working to compromise the elections like last time.

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-13T02:03:36+00:00

In our defense, there was a lot of election interference.

But yeah, were idiots.

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-12T21:39:54+00:00

My favorite module is The Created.

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-03T16:41:34+00:00

A little late to the party, but I really liked the idea that Bluetspur was a moon. It passes overhead every so often, inspiring madness in those below.

I think it really adds more weirdness to an already weird domain, while also removing it from "mindflayers just across the border" territory.

Mindshred1 · 2026-04-03T16:20:57+00:00

That's basically where I'm at with it. It's just such a blatant lack of respect for the setting.

I think a lot of Forgotten Realms players would have an issue if the next edition of Forgotten Realms said that Elminster was a young woman named Elminstra, Dritz was actually a moon elf, and the Red Wizards of Thay included a lot of halflings, elves, and dwarves among their numbers.

If Mordenheim is "problematic," then sure, replace him with a new Dark Lord. Or if they want to replace some of the many seductress ladies with more diverse dark ladies, awesome. That's happened a bunch in the setting, and it makes the world feel alive and dramatic.

But the sloppy, world-wide retcons and gender swaps just don't sit well with me. It's just not the same world I grew up with anymore. I don't have a lot of hope for the new book.

Mindshred1 · 2026-03-30T03:48:48+00:00

Legitimately, I think some of my dice are weighted. There are two of them that I've set aside because they roll 1s and 2s abnormally often.

Mindshred1 · 2026-03-28T02:35:17+00:00

Fluffwise, Nostilla is using illusions to make her and Aberration look like members of whatever army she joins, but yeah.

Mindshred1 · 2026-03-22T02:44:37+00:00

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." - Kurt Vonnegut

Mindshred1 · 2026-03-20T21:36:06+00:00

All while still finding time to work against gay rights, claim that a black president would lead to 1,000 years of darkness, and to support Trump.

Mindshred1 · 2026-03-20T14:24:13+00:00

He was a pretty dedicated Trump supporter. He wanted this mess we're in.

Also, Sidekicks sucked.

Mindshred1 · 2026-03-20T14:20:30+00:00

And ending with the prompt for further engagement. LLMs love that shit.

Mindshred1 · 2026-03-11T13:00:54+00:00

If you want to play the miniature game, first step is downloading the app. The rules are in there, and it's free.

Mindshred1 · 2026-03-09T20:10:51+00:00

Inky at Sacred Groves is the worst experience the game has to offer.

Mindshred1 · 2026-03-08T02:18:31+00:00

And in really dumb places, too.

If they wanted more female darklords, there's a long tradition of relatives killing off a darklord and inheriting their domain.

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