Welcome to Baba Lysaga's Nocturnes and Nightmares, "a recipe for terror like no other."
Nocturnes & Nightmares makes a great first impression. The art invites the mind to wander into spooky places, an early shot of flavor text tempts the reader with what those places might be like, and the clear organization, which aligns precisely with what we’ve been trained to expect from official 5e titles, makes it easy to get there.
This is a fantastic-looking supplement and makes perfect use of 5th edition design language. It needs to: weighing in at over 100 pages, there is a lot of content here, and I love that there is something for both players (30%) and game runners (70%).
Subclasses
Subclasses players can expect fill a nice variety of roles, including a support Artificer, a debuffing and controlling Bard, and more. All of them check the horror box; some, like the Stitcher Fighter and the Circle of the Maw Druid, are so gross I had to stop reading for a moment to gouge out my mind's eye. My personal favorite is probably the Path of Silent Fury Barbarian; that thing is sheer terror, though the Banshee Sorcerer is a close second. |  |
In all, these class options are going to be great for advanced players - the type of player to look up a supplement on a blog or DrivethruRPG, yes you reading this right now - with spell lists pulling from many official sources in addition to this book. There are a couple of abilities I'd have a discussion about at my table (the druid and fighter seem a little too strong, while the monk and wizard might like a buff), but mostly the balance here feels good and nearly all are ready for play.
Lineages
 | With flavor for how to insert these creepy crawlies into established settings, all three lineages offer fun gameplay and roleplaying opportunities for player characters or memorable NPCs. |
Spells
Good to see support for the Artificer throughout, a class sometimes overlooked by first- and third- party supplements. |  |
The spell list is another well-varied batch of character options; perhaps we are seeing the benefit of so many contributing talents in the diverse design options on offer. With a mix of damage and demented effects, the Haunt spell is a standout. My first thought when reading was that it better be good if it requires 1,000-gp worth of components, and it is, making the caster a force to be feared within its bounds. Skullface, a reaction cantrip, will be a favorite for casters built to join the melee.
Lost Domains of Ravenloft
Four new domains tantalize with terrible (here used as a compliment) adventure hooks. The Gloom, as much a headspace as a physical location, would be ideal for a creepy capsule sidequest in any campaign, along with Psedelop. It may take some talent as a DM to generate stimulating sessions in places described as a never-ending series of twists and turns with no apparent way out, but the text, splattered with microhooks like a child running from monsters under the bed or inviting shops that will never invite the player inside to enjoy their warmth, does a lot of work to put you in the right mindset to pull it off. An encounter table with clear sources and a range of CRs, from ⅛ all the way up, is an excellent touch in the Gloom domain and would have been nice to see repeated in the others. They do benefit from adventure hook tables, at least.
Cursed Adventures
Though not connected, Night of the Scarecrow, intended for parties level 1-3, and The 13th Circle for 15-17, the adventures do a nice job of adding flavor to the Hex and Kachelior domains. The writers also make good use of fairly tale tie-ins here. |  |
Both adventures feature a perhaps impractical amount of box text meant for reading aloud. Some of that space might have been better utilized detailing NPCs and setting details. Non-combat encounters, especially early in Night of the Scarecrow where the players are intended to do their own thing for a while, would add needed variety to the simple combat encounters and reduce prep and improv for the DM.
Weirdly, there are interesting encounters early on, but players are expected to slog through the above table multiple times before having a chance to trigger them. Things improve dramatically once past the above filler, with helpful notes about NPC characterizations and suggestions for multiple paths for players to succeed at the coming tasks. The finale is climactic and all in all should make for a fun session or two, maybe more with extra prep work in the intro, for a low level party.
The layout of The 13th Circle is different from Night of the Scarecrow, and a bit more functional, with more summary and setup details at the beginning to instruct the DM. Adding hyperlinks within the document to certain references, such as the domain’s archfiends and the enemies’ blocks in a later chapter, would be appreciated.
 | Both adventures are scant on details for background and roleplay. Aside from a brief physical description, this is about all we get on the only humanoids the party is likely to encounter in The 13th Circle. |
Both adventures save the meat for the middle and end. The 13th Circle does a nice job anticipating player shenanigans, and the addition of an alternative encounter plus an optional bonus objective, is very much appreciated. For short adventures, both less than 10 pages, they provide a great framework with a couple of interesting key encounters apiece. Some prep is left to the DM, like mapping - and more background, setting and non-combat activities if your parties enjoy engaging with those things - but what’s here is good and makes excellent use of the rest of the book’s material.
Magic Items
Titled Haunted Treasures, these magic items live up to the billing. From a ranged weapon that deals 1d100 damage to the user after firing to a magical magnificent haunted mansion that resists the user’s attempts to rest in it, this is not a compendium of wonders to insert willy-nilly into any campaign. Since most of these items are designed to blow up, some literally, in the user’s face, you’ll need to be choosy about how and when you make them available to your party. A higher level group that can survive setbacks might get the most use out of them, but the right item in the hands of the right lower level party will inject a lot of excitement when it goes off. Note that not all assault your party’s HP, which is a very good thing as they would have run the risk of becoming predictable.
Creatures of Darkness
The bestiary is roughly 30 pages, the largest module of the book, and rightly so. A great Ravenloft-themed supplement needs to deliver terrifying foes more than anything, and Nightmares and Nocturnes delivers. The monsters are varied, with several types like fiends, angels, beasts, and undead that could easily plug into a variety of campaigns. Others, like the Bubak, an extraplanar soulsucking scarecrow which features prominently in one of the included adventures, and the Coulrophobe, a nightmarish clown, are perfectly horrific but probably more suited to seasonal sessions.
Yikes. Big yikes. How much fun would this be to play out? |  |
The fact that several of these beasties are versatile enough to use outside of a horror campaign is a definite bonus, but make no mistake: everything here is twisted. Devious. Evil. And it’s effective, too. You’ll find no sad sacks of HP queuing up to bite/claw before waiting for their inevitable deaths. Even the lowest-CR creatures have delightful - sorry, devilish - interplay with mechanics shared between other monsters in the book. This opens the door to deploy a couple of them strategically, or throw them all on the table and watch the chaos ensue. |
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Almost all of the creatures have art, and all have at least one paragraph of flavor to describe the monster and how it would act.
All in One
Baba Lysaga’s Nocturnes and Nightmares is a spooktacular AIO - all-in-one. The player options will be fun for everyone, and the glut of material for dungeon masters is more than enough for a haunted holiday campaign - and the epilogue, with suggestions for establishing tone, consent, gritty optional rules, and even a table of creepy adjectives, will help game runners both new and experienced kick off spooky sessions without going too far. A lot of this content will fit neatly with other Ravenloft-themed work, but there’s so much here you won’t need another supplement this season.
Recommended? Absolutely.
Thanks to @Bjarke_the_Bard for the review copy of Baba Lysaga's Nocturnes and Nightmares.
Homebrew Review is a series I've had on my to-do wishlist since starting up Tabletop Courant, and this was a great product to launch it. A lot of talented people worked together on this book, and I hope it's one you find useful in your games. I think you will - I know I'm looking forward to using it this Halloween and beyond.
All art from Baba Lysaga's Nocturnes and Nightmares.
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