D&D 5E New D&D Hardcover To Be Announced On The 23rd (Tomorrow)?

According to this page on Amazon.com, a new Dungeon & Dragons hardcover title for May will be announced tomorrow. Users in the US see the product below (those in the UK are seeing a Wizkids miniatures set instead).

So far signs look like Ravenloft, but we’ll know for sure tomorrow.

[Update -- also mentioned by Todd Kendrick, recently of D&D Beyond].

WotC has posted the below animation, which says “The Mist Beckons”.

 

[Mistwell]

No, sorry, it isn't "up for debate", we have more than enough information to say that up until well into the middle ages, the sort of people who were labeled as "witches" were at worst, regarded as largely neutral figures by the general populace.

I disagree that we have more than enough information to declare that. That subset of history is not particularly well "settled" in the research on that topic.

We know it was regarded as evil in some places during that time frame.

For example, The laws of King Æthelstan (924–40), corresponsive with the early French laws, punished any person casting a spell which resulted in death by extracting the extreme penalty. Among the laws attributed to the Pictish King Cináed mac Ailpin (ruled 843 to 858), is an important statute which enacts that all sorcerers and witches, and such as invoke spirits, "and use to seek upon them for helpe, let them be burned to death". Even then this was obviously no new penalty, but the statutory confirmation of a long-established punishment. So the witches of Forres who attempted the life of King Duffus in the year 968 by the old bane of slowly melting a wax image, when discovered, were according to the law burned at the stake.

We really don't have a good handle on how well accepted it was prior to the mid-middle ages and I am not sure why you think think that entire period of history is somehow settled in anthropological and archaeological debate but it surely isn't.

 

[darjr]

I... I'm a little disapointed we don't have an announcment of an announcement about some mystery announcement.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

Well judging by the clues and the recent Unearthed Arcana, I'm betting on it being Ravenloft.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

Please, oh please, let Lord Soth be somewhere in it!

Considering a new line of Dragonlance novels are coming and the several references to Krynn in several 5e products, I'm betting we'll hear of him possibly.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Part of Ravenloft's general problem is that most of the Domains fall into three categories.

• Thinly veiled expy versions of the classic horror monsters and people: Strahd as Dracula, Mordenheim as Frankenstein, Hiregard/Malken as Jeckyl and Hyde, etc.
• Dark versions of other D&D settings which rely heavily on knowledge of that setting. Sithicus and Soth are the classic example, but by Domains of Dread, every D&D setting had a representative Darklord.

" One trick pony Domains that are all about thier darklord, leaving little room for anything else. They work good as one adventure settings, but Ravenloft is full of large domains that nothing but the Darklord. Forlorn might be a good example of this.

What I hope any new Ravenloft product does is make the Domains more than just thier darklord. Focus on telling stories in Ravenloft that doesn't need Strahd or Adam as the main antagonist. Tone down the obvious "this domain is Dracula/the Mummy/Dragonlance" stuff and give us new ideas or suggestions.

While the Kargatane -- both real and fictional -- would probably strongly object, I think it's possible to go at Ravenloft with a machete and cut away a lot of the cruft and reduce a lot of domains to islands that only exist to tell a single adventure and make the core a much more gameable setting.

 

[silentdante]

the amazon page description has been updated at least for me :


Explore the horrors of Ravenloft in this campaign sourcebook for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.


Terror stalks the nightmare realms of Ravenloft. No one knows this better than monster scholar Rudolph Van Richten. To arm a new generation against the creatures of the night, Van Richten has compiled his correspondence and case files into this tome of eerie tales and chilling truths.



• Travel (perhaps even by choice) to Ravenloft's expanded Domains of Dread—each domain with its own unique flavor of horror, thrilling story hooks, and grisly cast of characters

• Craft your own D&D horror settings, add tension with optional rules, and get advice for running a game that's ghastly in all the right ways

• Create characters with lineages tied to vampires, undead, and hags, horror-themed subclasses, the Investigator background, and "Dark Gifts" that may be a double-edged sword

• Unleash nightmarish monsters from an expanded bestiary, and browse a collection of mysterious trinkets

• Explore Ravenloft in the included Dungeons & Dragons adventure—play as a stand-alone adventure or drop it into your current game for a bit of sinister fun

 

[Scribe]

I mean good for the folks that like it but...damn I really want Planescape.

 

[Jeff Carpenter]

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft​

Is the the title and that makes sense. In the person guide naming scheme.

 

[TerraDave]

the amazon page description has been updated at least for me :


Explore the horrors of Ravenloft in this campaign sourcebook for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.


Terror stalks the nightmare realms of Ravenloft. No one knows this better than monster scholar Rudolph Van Richten. To arm a new generation against the creatures of the night, Van Richten has compiled his correspondence and case files into this tome of eerie tales and chilling truths.



• Travel (perhaps even by choice) to Ravenloft's expanded Domains of Dread—each domain with its own unique flavor of horror, thrilling story hooks, and grisly cast of characters

• Craft your own D&D horror settings, add tension with optional rules, and get advice for running a game that's ghastly in all the right ways

• Create characters with lineages tied to vampires, undead, and hags, horror-themed subclasses, the Investigator background, and "Dark Gifts" that may be a double-edged sword

• Unleash nightmarish monsters from an expanded bestiary, and browse a collection of mysterious trinkets

• Explore Ravenloft in the included Dungeons & Dragons adventure—play as a stand-alone adventure or drop it into your current game for a bit of sinister fun

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft (Dungeons & Dragons)Hardcover – May 18, 2021​

Its a little different than what we have seen before. Have we ever had a book with everything...setting, player stuff, dm stuff, and an adventure?

There was the original Expert Set. Its like that, but 5E and Ravenloft, and a book and not a box set.

 

[Weiley31]

Create characters with lineages tied to vampires, undead, and hags, horror-themed subclasses

There we go: The three Gothic Lineages, Spirit Bard and Undead Patron.*
I wonder if those are gonna be the only ones or if there will be more added in. Heck I'm even curious how the Lineages are now looking after UA feedback.

*Called it too.