D&D 5E (2014) Everything We Know About The Ravenloft Book

Here is a list of everything we know so far about the upcoming Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.

Art by Paul Scott Canavan​

• May 18th, 256 pages
• 30 domains (with 30 villainous darklords)
• Barovia (Strahd), Dementlieu (twisted fairly tales), Lamordia (flesh golem), Falkovnia (zombies), Kalakeri (Indian folklore, dark rainforests), Valachan (hunting PCs for sport), Lamordia (mad science)
• NPCs include Esmerelda de’Avenir, Weathermay-Foxgrove twins, traveling detective Alanik Ray.
• Large section on setting safe boundaries.
• Dark Gifts are character traits with a cost.
• College of Spirits (bard storytellers who manipulate spirits of folklore) and Undead Patron (warlock) subclasses.
• Dhampir, Reborn, and Hexblood lineages.
• Cultural consultants used.
• Fresh take on Vistani.
• 40 pages of monsters. Also nautical monsters in Sea of Sorrows.
• 20 page adventure called The House of Lament - haunted house, spirits, seances.

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D&D 5E - Full Wraparound Cover Art For Ravenloft

We've seen the cover already, but here's a look at the full wraparound art by Anna Podedworna. https://www.enworld.org/threads/updated-with-cover-the-d-d-book-is-van-richtens-guide-to-ravenloft.678411/ https://www.enworld.org/threads/heres-the-ravenloft-alternate-cover.678414/...

www.enworld.org

D&D 5E - Here's the Ravenloft Alternate Cover!

As usual, there is an alternate hobby-store exclusive cover for the upcoming Ravenloft book. Here's a look at it! And here's the full wraparound art. https://www.enworld.org/threads/updated-with-cover-the-d-d-book-is-van-richtens-guide-to-ravenloft.678411/...

www.enworld.org

D&D 5E - [Updated with cover!] The D&D Book Is.... Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft!

Yesterday's hints that a new D&D book would be announced today have born fruit -- we now have a product description and a title! It's a Ravenloft setting book, with tools and new rules for horror-themed games, and new horror-themed character options. I'll update this post with a product image as...

www.enworld.org

 

[Voadam]

Drakov's Falkovnia is an interesting update since he kept raising armies to send into Darkon that kept getting attrition turned into zombies and inevitably failing.

 

[Stormonu]

I don't recall what was objectionable about their ancient Egyptian domain. What would need to be updated? As long as it's an island, rather than part of the core, the wildly different culture and technology there shouldn't be an issue. And if they wanted to attach it to the core, it wouldn't be hard to just move it forward a few thousand years of subjective time (or perceived time, with everyone waking up in a new core version of the domain, and everything in ruins around them, assuming they're thousands of years old).

The “Egypt is desert, slave labor making pyramids and walking mummies who want our women” trope.

 

[vtaltos]

Drakov's Falkovnia is an interesting update since he kept raising armies to send into Darkon that kept getting attrition turned into zombies and inevitably failing.

Yeah that was my first thought, that Darkon had raised the Falkovian dead and invaded

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

See, I always saw that as being a good thing. Travel in Ravenloft shouldn't be lightly undertaken, since it's potentially asking for trouble to find you while on the road. Having to go very far out of your way to avoid the gaping wound in the world makes that travel longer, and so discourages it, thereby reinforcing a sense of isolation.

I no longer own my old Ravenloft boxed set, but didn't it effectively turn the Core into a donut, with only one real route around the Core in either direction? My feeling was that it made it sort of boring. If you were going from Domain A to Domain D, you were going to have to go through Domains B and C, rather than coming up with some alternate route.

I think Ravenloft has more than enough ways to make travel difficult and dangerous and didn't need a Grand Canyon full of heebie-jeebies dropped into the middle of everything. Replacing it with, for instance, a dark and mysterious forest would be more thematically appropriate for pretty much every adjacent domain, but it'd also give players an interesting choice: Stay on the road where the Darklord has spies and agents waiting, or risk cutting through the forest that no one you know has ever gone into and come back out alive or unchanged?

 

[Faolyn]

• Barovia (Strahd), Dementlieu (twisted fairly tales), Lamordia (flesh golem), Falkovnia (zombies), Kalakeri (Indian folklore, dark rainforests), Valachan (hunting PCs for sport), Lamordia (mad science)

That seems to be a lot of new takes on old domains. The old Sri Raji never got much attention, and what there was of it was "Kali's priests are evil! Also, there are weretigers!", so it'll be interesting to see how different Kalakeri is.

Please tell me that whoever wrote the blurb has mixed up Valachan and Verbrek.

Could be they're combining the two. Maybe there's a rivalry between werepanthers and the werewolves, and the only thing they agree on is that humanoids are tasty.

[TD]Lamordia[/TD]
[TD]Dr. Victor Mordenheim[/TD]
[TD]Dr. Viktra Mordenheim[/TD]

Wait a minute--Adam was the DL, not Mordenheim.

Most of the new ones appear to be women that are relatives of the old Darklord.

Basically all the old female darklords were evil in large part because they either wanted to seduce men or they wanted to kill men. The only exception I can think of was Elana Faithhold. I really hope that these new women break the mold.

So long as there is no Shadow Rift down the middle of the map, I’ll be happy.

Seconded. Gwydion, or however its name was spelled, was an interesting concept but the whole place was weirdly done. I would have made it into a deep, dark forest instead.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The “Egypt is desert, slave labor making pyramids and walking mummies who want our women” trope.

Huh. For some reason, I thought the dark lord was a woman.

I actually like the idea of just moving it forward to the modern day, resembling an Ottomon-era Cairo, with ruins all around, where a Darklord pharaoh secretly rules. Given how many pharaohs were assisted along their way to the afterlife, it wouldn't be hard to justify a new Darklord or even competing Darklords slumbering in tombs around the domain.

 

[Faolyn]

Huh. For some reason, I thought the dark lord was a woman.

There's a couple of Egyptian-style domains. One of them did have a woman in charge, and I'm pretty sure she was a mummy.

That does not, of course, stop her from wanting your women.

 

[Stormonu]

Huh. For some reason, I thought the dark lord was a woman.

I actually like the idea of just moving it forward to the modern day, resembling an Ottomon-era Cairo, with ruins all around, where a Darklord pharaoh secretly rules. Given how many pharaohs were assisted along their way to the afterlife, it wouldn't be hard to justify a new Darklord or even competing Darklords slumbering in tombs around the domain.

There was Tetyet (sp) who Ate the hearts of men to keep her youth, but originally (as I recall) Anktepot was actually the ruler of that realm and she feared him. I could be misremembering, but Anktepot was definately drawn from the old 30’s mummy movie.

 

[Voadam]

Huh. For some reason, I thought the dark lord was a woman.

Har Akir was ruled by Ankhtepot, the first Great Mummy (male).

Sebua was a different Egypt themed domain and was ruled by Tiyet, a woman who I think was a mummy type too though a unique one.

Originally they were islands, then formed together with an Arabian desert one to form a cluster.

 

[Demetrios1453]

By the way, if you're scrounging Twitter for as much info as possible, Ajit George gives links to many of the folks who wrote the book!


And a tease!

Interesting. I wonder if that's hinting at some more South Asian themed stuff coming soon. That would be nice as it's definitely not as commonly seen as many other regions'.

(Durpar and neighboring nations are the closest to being South Asian in the Realms, so if it is FR material, that's the most likely setting).