Welcome to the second installment of the Wonderful World of Darklords Summer Blockbuster series! In this episode, we're going to look at the only movies in our series that actually busted blocks: the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. (Mostly the original trilogy, but we'll touch on 4 and 5). Topics discussed include: Which of the MANY candidates …

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords' Summer Blockbuster series! We're kicking off the summer with a cult favorite that did quite well for itself at the box office despite not busting any blocks: Holes. The warden is a phenomenal darklord, and the source material is already chockablock with curses and dark vengeance from beyond the grave despite…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords: Marvel May! It's the inaugural episode of something we're hoping to make an annual tradition, but honestly, we kind of invented the whole thing just so we could talk about what might be the most obvious Ravenloft domain Disney has ever done. (If you wanted to describe Ravenloft domains to someone who wasn't …

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! In the spirit of April Fool's Day, we're once again taking a break from Disney movies for this month's episode (yes, we know Disney distributed the Ghiblis for a while, but we operate under strict Calvinball rules in which Home Alone can be a regular episode but Princess Mononoke can't). There's so much nigh…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! In this episode, we tackle Disney's most terrifying setting to date, as explored in a horror movie that was absolutely not a soulless cash grab: the Hundred Acre Wood. Topics discussed include: The surprising connections between Winnie the Pooh, a darklord ruled by his basest appetites, and another darklord …

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! While superheroes and D&D are staples of geek culture, they don't necessarily go together; the occasional Sorcerer Supreme notwithstanding, superheroes are more associated with sci-fi than high fantasy. Luckily, not only is there a D&D setting that lets us embrace the technowizardry of Big Hero 6 without thr…

On a Disney podcast, dear, Why is there live theater here? Why this Broadway musical? It ain't right, and it ain't natural. Listener, it's Hadestown. Regardless of how long anyone was gone and how lonesome we were or weren't, we couldn't resist such a perfect darklord and domain--especially since we're just coming off another domain with Hades as a…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! In this episode, we're going from talking tigers to literal freaking gods with what might be our most powerful darklord to date: Hades. (We don't know whether we'd back Hades, Elsa, or Maleficent in a fight, and we don't want to be anywhere in a hundred-mile radius if that ever happens.) Making the god of th…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! Second edition already did a Jungle Book-inspired domain with the Wildlands, but it didn't make the jump into 5e and it had some key differences from its source material, which means that this movie is as ripe for picking as a pawpaw or a prickly pear (as opposed to classic Disney movies that are already cov…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! Well, a sign pointing you toward Wonderful World of Darklords, anyway. As mentioned in our Home Alone episode, the Tower of Doom episode of Book Club of Dread was so ear-scorchingly filthy that we can't stand to have it appear on our main feed where some new listener might find it and think that's what we're…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords, ya filthy animal! While it's not animated, Home Alone is technically Disney now that they've bought 20th Century Fox (and let's face it, we're eventually doing Hocus Pocus and Haunted Mansion, so "not animated" isn't a dealbreaker). What's more, in a world where a magical wish really can make your family dis…

CONTENT ADVISORY: The in-character fiction for this episode involves children being held hostage and threatened with harm. They escape completely unharmed, but please proceed with caution if images from current events are fresh in your mind. (We're so sorry! We wanted something that connected to D's back story and didn't make the connection.) Welco…

Happy Halloween, and welcome to the Peddler's Tales! Today, in honor of the holiday, we present the greatest horror we have ever faced for this podcast: Home on the Range. Don't worry, you don't have to watch the movie to listen to the episode. In fact, we beg you not to. Kris Newton joins us to explain his bizarre fixation with Alameda Slim (the o…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! Since we release on the 13th of each month, our Coco episode was either going to be early or fashionably late for Day of the Dead, and we decided on early. Ernesto de la Cruz is a phenomenal darklord, and you can't go wrong with skeletons for a domain aesthetic, but getting the PCs to the Land of the Dead wi…

Welcome back to Wonderful World of Darklords! Our summer hiatus has ended, and we're coming back with a franchise that was our white whale for months: the Toy Story trilogy. (Yes, trilogy. We're so glad they didn't make any more movies after Toy Story 3, the perfect ending to the series, la la la we can't hear you.) Lotso is a perfect darklord in s…

Welcome to Part Two of the Wonderful World of Darklords' Dog Days of Summer! Tom and Rachel have finally finished their summer travel and will be returning to regular episodes next month, but for now, we're experimenting with a bonus episode format proposed by the incomparable Kris Newton: The Peddler's Tales, in which D learns about various Mist T…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords' Dog Days of Summer! Tom and Rachel have just finished driving thirty hours in the span of two weeks and their summer travel isn't done yet, so in lieu of regular episodes, we're going to be airing bonus episodes in July and August. Luckily, that gives us the chance to premier the long-awaited Book Club of Dr…

Oo-de-lally! Oo-de-lally! Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! One year ago today, we aired our pilot: a domain ruled by a petty, vindictive lion who usurped his elder brother's throne. To celebrate our podcast anniversary, we're returning to that well with another petty, vindictive lion who usurped his elder brother's throne: Prince John. Topi…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! It's been almost a year, and we're celebrating by going back to where it all began: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It's gorgeous, it's groundbreaking, it's a classic fairy tale, it has that nightmare fuel transformation scene . . . but in the film as presented, there's even less of a world than Sleeping Be…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! In the spirit of April Fools, we're taking a break from Disney to look at another beloved animated film (and an even more beloved book). We like to watch it. It fills us with joy. The first time we saw it, we thought we were going to die. We said to each other, we must podcast about it, all of it, all there …

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! In this episode, we discuss possibly the most iconic villain remaining to us: Tow Mater. Subjects discussed include: The nightmarish vision of Cars 2, Pixar's horror masterpiece, in which everyone is forced to cater to the whims of a madman no matter how outrageous and unfunny he becomes; The cosmic horror i…

Welcome to a special two-part episode of Wonderful World of Darklords! We found ourselves completely unable to contain the discussion of Disney's most adult, complex villain in a single episode. It's not our fault (nostra culpa); we're not to blame (nostra culpa); it was the Disney film that called for our acclaim (nostra maxima culpa). Join Tom, R…

Welcome to the second part of our Double Stuf Wonderful World of Darklords! (Frollo disapproves of this gluttonous Double Stuff debauchery, but that just encourages us.) In this episode, Tom, Rachel, and guest host Kris Newton dive into the dread possibilities and parting thoughts for this hair-sniffing hellfire hypocrite. Topics discussed include:…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! If you haven't listened to the Princess and the Frog episode yet, please give it a listen before checking out this bonus episode, because believe it or not, there are SPOILERS! This is something of a behind-the-scenes featurette for our longtime listeners rather than a setting, adventure, or deleted scene li…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! In this episode, we discuss Tom's favorite Disney movie of the neo-Renaissance, and possibly his favorite Disney movie of the entire 21st century. You're in his world now, not your world . . . but if the friends on the other side give you what you want and take what you have, rest assured that they're doing …

Mes chers mademonsieurs, it is with greatest pride and deepest pleasure that we welcome you to Wonderful World of Darklords! In this episode, we discuss one of the most gothic and atmospheric movies in the Disney canon, which asks us what makes a monster and what makes a man. No, no, not Hunchback, the tonally consistent one. (We promise Hunchback'…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords . . . IIIIIIIIIIIIN SPAAAAAAAAAAACE! We were stymied by how to actually make Treasure Planet as, y'know, Treasure Planet--until we realized that the solution was to take the entire Demiplane of Dread and plunk it into wildspace. Learn why spacers speak in hushed tones of the dreaded Raven Nebula, which pulls …

Ahoy, me hearties, and welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! In this episode, we be discussin' the 2002 cult classic Treasure Planet, a movie perhaps more suited to Spelljammer than Ravenloft--but we vowed to bring ye domains of dread, by t'under, and we be folk of our word. Subjects discussed include: How to put Treasure Planet back in the ocea…

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Darklords! In this episode, we explore the horror of frozen lands, frozen hearts, frozen bodies, and pretty much anything else we can think to freeze (except the trolls, because they have steam vents). As a fair warning, we went with Elsa rather than Hans as our darklord because she's a much more psychologically in…

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! We couldn't let the most Ravenloft-y of holidays go by without a new episode, so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to touch on a classic Disney property that works beautifully as a story but has always struggled to find its place as a domain. The Horseman's Bridge has been around ever since 2e, but there's not much "there" the…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! In this episode, a particularly manic Rachel and a particularly indulgent Tom discuss a movie that, on the surface, seems like a perfect match for a horror game--except that they're not mean in their town of Halloween, so how can it make your PCs truly feel that it's hopeless, they're finished, and they have…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! In this episode, we discuss how to convert Disney's most iconic villain into a darklord. (Don't get us wrong, the wicked queen from Snow White has a case for herself, but who's on the cover of Disney Villainous and who wasn't even included until the first expansion?) While Maleficent is amazing, the setting …

Peter Pan has a, um, checkered history with its use of Native American characters, but their role as a third faction of Neverland has the potential to be incredibly fruitful for gaming. In Episode 3, we have six or seven minutes devoted to possible ways to run Tiger Lily without wanting to punch yourself in the face, but we cut almost twenty minute…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! In this particularly liberal-arts-major episode (which, contrary to our expectations in Episode Zero, is only one episode), we discuss Peter Pan, and occasionally even touch on the Disney movie. A land of perpetual childhood is a bit like Narnia's Dark Island where dreams come true: it sounds lovely until yo…

CONTENT ADVISORY: In this episode, we're talking about how to make Encanto--a movie about emotional abuse, intergenerational trauma, emotional abuse, gaslighting, and emotional abuse--even darker, which involves getting pretty heavily into those themes and making some of the implicit horror of Encanto a lot more explicit. This episode, like this se…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! In our pilot episode, we discuss The Lion King, why Scar is basically already a darklord, and how to bring him into your own campaign if saving a horror-movie version of the Pride Lands sounds like a fun way to spend a Saturday night. Subjects discussed include: –Our own histories with Ravenloft, including R…

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! In this, our "session zero" episode, we get into who we are and what we plan to do. Subjects discussed include: --Why we hope a subject as specific as "turning Disney movies into Ravenloft domains of dread" will be helpful for more than just Disney fans and Ravenloft GMs; --What we mean when we say we're a "…