D&D 5E 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

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Yeah, for sure. Having a few domains like that would be fine. I’m just concerned it will be most domains.

Even if it is most, is that really a problem? I mean "original-flavour" Ravenloft's domains are mostly ill-suited to lengthy campaigns in a single domain, with Strahd's one being the obvious exception. So long as a few of the domains could sustain people "hanging out" in them, I think that's enough.

 

[Charlaquin]

Even if it is most, is that really a problem? I mean "original-flavour" Ravenloft's domains are mostly ill-suited to lengthy campaigns in a single domain, with Strahd's one being the obvious exception. So long as a few of the domains could sustain people "hanging out" in them, I think that's enough.

I don’t really know much about original-flavor Ravenloft. But generally I feel like a campaign setting should have a variety of adventure locations, some more hostile than others. If most domains are death traps, and only a few have places to catch your breath, characters to interact with, etc... I dunno, sounds a little much to me. Maybe I’m worrying over nothing.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I don’t really know much about original-flavor Ravenloft. But generally I feel like a campaign setting should have a variety of adventure locations, some more hostile than others. If most domains are death traps, and only a few have places to catch your breath, characters to interact with, etc... I dunno, sounds a little much to me. Maybe I’m worrying over nothing.

I think it's probably not a big worry. From the domains we know about already it's like mostly non-deathtraps, with only two clear deathtraps (the zombie one and The Most Dangerous Game one). Even if it was 60% deathtraps I think it'd be fine. The original has some deathtraps and a certain number of domains which are so boring and vague they barely justify their existence and certainly don't conjure up "compelling Gothic Horror" or the like.

 

[Faolyn]

Neither Elena Faith-Hold, darklord of Nidala.

Well, she's supposed to be very Puritan in nature. What's your issue with her? I think she's probably the best female Darklord they had, especially since she's the only one whose backstory centers around men in some way.

 

[wingsandsword]

Has WOTC ever had 2 pending / upcoming books at the same time before? Usually it's one at a time, maybe memory off seems different to have 2 at once. Cool!

Yes, but not for 5th edition that I know of.

Before 5e, it was pretty common. In fact, in the 2e and 3e eras was usually at least one book coming out a month (occasionally more), and releases lined up for months to come.

 

[Faolyn]

I don’t really know much about original-flavor Ravenloft. But generally I feel like a campaign setting should have a variety of adventure locations, some more hostile than others. If most domains are death traps, and only a few have places to catch your breath, characters to interact with, etc... I dunno, sounds a little much to me. Maybe I’m worrying over nothing.

Up until CoS came out, many of the Domains were actually decent enough places to live. Some of them had (very) oppressive governments, but for the most part, it would be rare for monsters to leap out and attack. Probably only slightly more common than it would be for typical D&D NPCs.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Up until CoS came out, many of the Domains were actually decent enough places to live. Some of them had (very) oppressive governments, but for the most part, it would be rare for monsters to leap out and attack. Probably only slightly more common than it would be for typical D&D NPCs.

Many of them were so incredibly boring and un-horror-y that they didn't feel like "Domains of Dread" at all though, that's the problem there. Ravenloft's original 2E release (the first time it was a setting, I think), set up very specific and strong expectations that it was about "Gothic Horror", and like, a whole bunch of those domains, were neither really gothic nor really horror. They were like, "The Forgotten Realms only someone turned the lights down 15%".

 

[Charlaquin]

I think it's probably not a big worry. From the domains we know about already it's like mostly non-deathtraps, with only two clear deathtraps (the zombie one and The Most Dangerous Game one). Even if it was 60% deathtraps I think it'd be fine. The original has some deathtraps and a certain number of domains which are so boring and vague they barely justify their existence and certainly don't conjure up "compelling Gothic Horror" or the like.

I guess what I’m getting at is I hope the domains feel like places not just theme-parks. “Zombie Apocalypse Domain,” “Most Dangerous Game Domain,” “Mad Science Domain,” etc. don’t sound like places to adventure, they just sound like themes. I don’t want it to feel like once you cross the border into Falkovnia you’re suddenly playing The Walking Dead RPG. I want the Core (or whatever they call it) to feel like a cohesive world*, where one county is under the rule of a vampire, another is overrun by zombies, another is the personal hunting ground of a crazed man-hunter, etc. Does that make sense?

*I know, part of the premise is that it’s separate worlds, each shaped by its Dark Lord and brought together by the mists; that’s fine, I like the idea of each domain having a very distinct tone.

 

[Charlaquin]

Up until CoS came out, many of the Domains were actually decent enough places to live. Some of them had (very) oppressive governments, but for the most part, it would be rare for monsters to leap out and attack. Probably only slightly more common than it would be for typical D&D NPCs.

I’m fine with monster attacks being common, making travel between settlements difficult and such. But I do want there to be places within them people live. CoS hit a nice sweet spot for me; it felt dangerous and oppressive, but also like a place you could go adventuring in.

Many of them were so incredibly boring and un-horror-y that they didn't feel like "Domains of Dread" at all though, that's the problem there. Ravenloft's original 2E release (the first time it was a setting, I think), set up very specific and strong expectations that it was about "Gothic Horror", and like, a whole bunch of those domains, were neither really gothic nor really horror. They were like, "The Forgotten Realms only someone turned the lights down 15%".

Yeah, that’s definitely not what I want. The domains shouldn’t just be generic fantasy worlds with some spooky mood lighting. But I also don’t want them all to be non-stop terror, you know? There needs to be a balance between the heart-pounding terror, the gradual creeping dread, and the moments of calm, even glimmers of hope.

 

[wingsandsword]

• Large section on setting safe boundaries.

This is definitely something some Ravenloft DM's need to learn, and I'm glad WotC is approaching it.

Back in the 90's, our campus gaming club had one DM that absolutely, positively loved Ravenloft as his favorite setting. . .but fairly quickly word got out to never play under him, because he had absolutely no concept of boundaries while running RL, and liked to do everything he could to shock, horrify, disturb, and alarm players.

Ravenloft is a good setting, but it's definitely a setting that can go disturbing places, and absolutely a setting that a bad DM could make a mess with, and extensive guidance on how NOT to cross those lines is something that needs bundled with Ravenloft to be sure.