Darkest Dungeon 2, as a game, is VERY much focused on the relationships between characters in a stressful environment, whereas DD1 was focused on how an individual copes with such horrors. As such, I imagine that these concepts influence the types of fanworks that we both create and consume. I'm curious:
What types of fanworks do you like to see relating to Darkest Dungeon?
I am an artist: I like to focus on romantic relationships in my work
I am an artist: I like to focus on platonic relationships in my work
I am an artist: I like to focus on familial relationships in my work
I am an artist: I like to focus on aspects other than relationships
I am not an artist: I like to focus on romantic relationships in what I consume
I am not an artist: I like to focus on platonic relationships in what I consume
I am not an artist: I like to focus on familial relationships in what I consume
I am not an artist: I like to focus on aspects other than relationships
I am not heavily invested in fanworks/I browse the tag for game content/other
Voting ended onJul 9, 2025
For clarification, when I say "aspects other than relationships," I mean:
Do you create/consume work inspired by character backstories?
Do you create/consume work inspired by character personality?
Do you create/consume work inspired by situations such as a team fighting a boss?
Do you create/consume work inspired by the mechanics in the game (ie: stress)?
Do you create/consume work inspired by a desire to show off symbolism?
For clarification x2, familial includes the "Found Family" trope (perhaps the most prevalent with regards to darkest dungeon.)
Edit: Clarification x3, a better way to think about the term relationship is the word “connection.” I don’t know if that will influence any answers, but I think it’s something to note!
I know that only having one answer is difficult, but please attempt to think about what brings you the most enjoyment in what you create/consume! Whatever you find yourself searching up more, whatever you find reading the most, whatever you like drawing the most.
And please, feel free to elaborate in the tags, it is very much encouraged! I'd love to hear everybody's thoughts. With the recent DDWLWeek that was hosted, plus the prevalence of Reymas in general, it's got me thinking about the subject. My own thoughts will be below the read more.
Reblogs appreciated, but obviously no pressure :^) Thank you for your time reading and considering the question, I hope you have a fantastic day!
For me, I find myself particularly drawn to romantic relationships, though familial is a very close second. Part of what interests me in romance wrt Darkest Dungeon is the concept of finding love even in the most stressful and difficult of situations. The world may be ending, the apocalypse having already come, and we may be fighting for our lives with barely any hope in sight, but I still find room within my heart for you.
I also like to use romantic relationships as a way to examine characters. For example, Plaguerobber is fascinating to me through that romantic lens, as I feel the two of them compliment each other in a very dysfunctional way, much to my enjoyment. I like to think about how two people terrible at love fall in love with each other anyways, and how their inability to connect leads to them, ironically, deepening their connection.
But, as I said before, familial is a very close second. Though I don't seek to infantilize her, I love to explore Bonnie's relationships with the other heroes, especially her and Audrey. The idea of Audrey taking on an older sister role (as it's implied she's the youngest/at least a younger sister) intrigues me greatly, and I feel Bonnie's the perfect candidate for that "forced adoption." Of course, as you can see in my writing, I am a die hard Plaguerobber shipper, and that very much influences my answer.
Oh no! I’m too relationship-anarchy-oriented for this! lol. I elected to vote artist/platonic but it’s very complicated!
I don’t believe there is a meaningful distinction between romantic/platonic/familial feelings of affection --- only social behaviors affiliated with those concepts and social structures creating boundaries between them! That’s not to say the words don’t have distinct meanings, just that the ways that those meanings are distinct don’t reflect inherent thought patterns/emotions, but rather learned ones.
In my opinion when i look back at my works for the fandom I can actually see myself constrained by the ways in which I hadnt yet discovered and committed to a relationship-anarchy mindset. Mainly this manifests/ed in the ways the relationships depicted in my works have evolved and the ways the focus on relationships has changed without waning. The progression that really exemplifies this for me is Opossum -> Mutualism -> Obligation; all very lonely works I think, or preoccupied with loneliness (and therefore w relationships --- absence being a shadow of presence and all.)
Regardless, I’m very much concerned with relationships vs anything else. Even when I’m writing/drawing combat scenarios, it’s with a focus on the people and what they're thinking about, and because DD is so focused on teamwork, they’re often thinking about their teammates.
It helps that I work in a very strangely enmeshed environment IRL and so even if the stakes are way different I have that experience of like... feeling like I know my coworkers way too well and yet am somehow separated from them. Anyway.
For me personally I think, as much as DD1 is less relationship-oriented than DD2, I very quickly fell into imagining those relationships in DD1 anyway because having those disparate party members sometimes helping each other directly (ex. healing), sometimes indirectly (mark), sometimes hurting each other (afflictions)... it was impossible for me not to like. integrate an understanding of relationships into my imaginings. Like, all of my fanworks through Retropulsion (really through Obligation if you squint) are based on the proceedings of an actual save file
If anything I felt a bit vindicated to see relationships added as a DD2 mechanic; it felt in line with how I had already been playing to a degree. It’s not about holding hands and facing the void together in triumph... it’s more about being trapped with people you don’t understand and having to get through something insurmountable. (Ha ha… no wonder I got into DD as a paranoid, autistic highschooler.)
Anyway anyway. I decided to go with platonic because it’s the hardest to differentiate from the other two IMO, and it kind of encompasses a really big gray area which is my favorite play space these days :) I like that all the heroes (whether theyre my OCs or canon) are weirdos and their relationships are weird because of it.
[Bullet points I kind of remember from the tags I lost when I saved my draft not knowing I'd passed tag limit D: ]
Mutualism is (IMO) my weakest work but I can't see myself ever revising it; it so clearly reflects what I was feeling and wanting when I wrote it and the desperation and instability is so pertinent to the canon/setting.
Instead, It feels both kinder to myself and more compelling as analysis/metatext/fanwork to build on the weird foothold it's put in my fan-worldbuilding. Which is what I'm doing. Slowlyyy
Horror (and DD/2 in specific) has always felt welcoming to me & my writing because of the characteristics of the genre/canon: failure is expected, instability is fundamental, personalities veer wildly as extreme circumstances dictate, character dynamics develop along strange axes.
Because of the ways relationships are integrated within/portrayed by the genre/canon, they allow for a similar "wide gray area" - how "romantic" is traumabonding? In what ways is friendliness distinct from loyalty? What do you owe to someone who saved you? What do you owe to someone who's saved you a dozen times, and who you've saved a dozen times in turn? If you wake up and can't bring yourself to get out of bed, who will bring you a meal and who will shove you onto the floor and kick you until you stand up? Of those two people, who do you like more? Who do you trust more? Who would you kiss? Fuck? Kill? Leave behind? Who would you write letters to in 20 years? Who would you never contact again but think about every night? Who holds you while you do?
DD2 Rey’s backstory feels so nothingburger compared to Sahar like I feel like he’s such a meaty character to bring back because he’s so obviously and easily a “bad” hero (or one of the most gray, if you like) but then the game engages with that exactly none. I enjoyed doing his shrine battles and fighting the warlord but it felt ultimately forgettable :( just didn’t feel like much to chew on
I love sending feedback. Defeated Collector is still visible in the Shroud so it looks like he’s just hanging out in the water under the dock. Get outta there!
No it's not that I don't appreciate the flirting, I just wish you wouldn't do it while I'm in the middle of vivisecting you. Yes I know that it's really hot when I'm covered in your blood elbow deep in your chest cavity that's why I keep vivisecting you. But I keep getting flustered and dropping your liver and its really slippery so I keep dropping it over and over again leading to very comedic slapstick comedy where I slip on your blood and fall over really funny
Put together a simple generator that spits a random named party for Darkest Dungeon 2, so feel free to use it if you’re looking to vary your runs! [Fully updated with the last patch!]
you can 'treat' any quirk you like in the sanatarium--a decision made unilaterally (the heroes do not seek treatment independently, and in fact their barks for being sent to treatment often imply that it is unwanted and unpleasant). but your concern (and by extent, the concern of the sanatarium) in seeking this 'treatment' for your employees is not their well-being, but their ability to continue producing profit for you. you have no incentive to ever remove a quirk other than the ones that directly prevent the hero from doing their job--& in fact the 'negative' and 'positive' categorization of quirks rests entirely upon their usefulness to you--"resolution" (being a teetotaller) is a negative trait, because you cannot calm that character's nerves by sending them to the bar, while being a "mankind hater" is a positive trait, because it makes the hero better at killing human enemies.
so ultimately the sanatarium in darkest dungeon is very explicitly a tool of control in the interest of molding better workers--the categorization of "mental health defects" (or in the game's parlance, 'negative quirks') made solely with regards to the person in question's continued economic productivity as a worker. it is merely an investment in maintaining control over your labour force (the labour force which the game's other mechanics, incidentally, encourage you to treat as fundamentally disposable) -- a tool of discipline in the truest sense.
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