Islands of Terror by Scott Bennie and Colin McComb is a role playing game supplement originally published by TSR, Inc. and now by Wizards of the Coast for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. This is a supplement for the Ravenloft setting covering new domains.
The supplement it available as a PDF from DriveThruRPG for $9.99 but can also be found in the original printed form from sites such as Amazon. The original book is the one reviewed. The book has 96 pages with two pages being the front matter and Table of Contents and one being an ad. There is also a fold out colour map included.
Chapter I: Introduction explains running adventures in Ravenloft, and the islands, as well as the darklords, who are dangerous to confront, and the mood of Ravenloft. The islands themselves are then detailed.
Chapter II: Nidala explains that Nidala’s darklord is a fallen paladin, Elene Faith-hold, whose quest to destroy evil led her to commit increasingly evil acts, whilst still believing she was on the side of good, something she believes to this day. Even though the evil she detects is no longer evil. She, the land, her castle and the current situation are all detailed. Elene is operating under an enormous self-delusion, and can convince others that she is still on the side of good, though her actions eventually counter this belief.
Chapter III: The Wildlands explains how the Wildlands were sucked in thanks to King Crocodile, a powerful, evil crocodile who terrorised the realm before it was sucked into Ravenloft. The domain is occupied by animals, all of which can talk and which generally do not like humans and other similar races.
Chapter IV: Scaena considers a very small domain. In fact, it is what will be classed as a Pocket. The domain can appear anywhere and solely consists of the interior of a theatre. The darklord replaced all the props for a play with the genuine articles, so his actors all ended up dead, and got sucked into the Mists as a result. Now, he looks for new participants for his various plays.
Chapter V: I’Cath has very few occupants; a woman and her daughters. The woman, a princess, turned to evil because her ambitions were thwarted for simply being a woman. She took gifts and changed them, eventually being sucked into Ravenloft. There are only a few locations, which are briefly mapped, and inhabitants.
Chapter VI: Saragoss is a Sargasso that sucks in ships. It is ruled by a former pirate and wereshark and is home to a number of dangerous sea creatures – sharks are perhaps the least deadly – and the occupants of the ships brought into the domain. The crews of the ships do no cooperate at all with each other.
Chapter VII: Timor is a land that appears normal on the surface but is riddled with sewers and warrens. The domain lord is the daughter of a formerly-human Hive Queen who made a bad bargain with an evil wizard when she was human. The city itself used to be large, but is now severely reduced in population.
Chapter VIII: Pharazia is a desert realm ruled by a warlord who sought to kill all those who did not agree with his god and creed. He was obsessed with seeing heaven and becoming one of the heavenly host and now, by day, that is what he appears to be, but inside he is a monster.
Chapter IX: Staunton Bluffs is a castle and its surroundings that were sucked into Ravenloft after the lord betrayed its inhabitants, and the rest of his family, to an enemy in a desire to thwart his elder brother. The darklord and his direct servants are undead; the rest of the population are regular humans. The castle itself is mapped and described.
Chapter X: Nosos is a filthy domain with heaps of rubbish lying around. The domain is effectively polluted. Its lord is a human with little in the way of powers or abilities, except for his genius. The darklord’s manor is also mapped and described.
Finally, four new monsters, wereshark, marikith, mist ferryman and sea zombie, are described.
Islands of Terror in Review
The Table of Contents simply lists the chapters and monsters. Navigation is quite poor. The text maintains a two-column format and Ravenloft’s two-colour format of that time and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of black and white illustrations up to about half a page in size that appear to be custom, as well as the full colour map.
This supplement is intended to be used to add new domains to Ravenloft without having to mess with the Core (which was done later), and it succeeds at doing that. Whether or not it does that successfully is another matter. Scaena, I’Cath, Timor, Pharazia and Nosos are covered in Domains of Dread, albeit not to quite the same level of detail, and Timor has changed by that time, becoming part of a Cluster domain with Paridon, the surviving remnant of Zherisia. Pharazia, too, became part of a Cluster. The others are never mentioned again. It’s worth noting that some of these domains have been given a significant overhaul via the DMs Guild Community Content Programme.
Nidala is interesting, given that its lord is evil yet still believes she is doing good. The Wildlands are a talking animal domain. Given that its dangerous and has no real reason for visiting, this is essentially a one-shot. Scaena is a theatre and again only really suitable for a one-shot, although the premise is fairly interesting. I’Cath is a lethal outdoor location that is almost completely uninhabited. Saragoss is another more interesting domain, with a lethal ship graveyard. Timor is a domain of sewer monsters, which sums it up. Pharazia is the domain of the religiously intolerant. Staunton Bluffs, originally covered in the core set, is a haunted house domain, which has been done before; in fact, The House on Gryphon Hill was one of the two inspirations for Ravenloft and has its own domain. Nosos is on the evils of pollution; not really fitting for a fantasy setting, even though Ravenloft does at times push into the 19th century.
Islands of Terror is not a great set of islands. Much of the content is covered again, though in lesser detail, in Domains of Dread, which is notably many times the size yet the same price in PDF. As it stands, the supplement is mostly useful in PDF for research into improving the domains, which is what it has been used for. Otherwise, this could perhaps be skipped, unless attempting to complete the physical set. Islands of Terror can be found by clicking here.
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