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

 

[Charlaquin]

It's totally thematic if you go for the Domain Hopper ticket option that allows you to visit as many domains in one day as you'd like. You can also trade your gold for Ravenloft Revenue. RR has the same value as gold, if you're entitled to change after a purchase you'll get standard silver and copper, but it's more fun because each coin features the image of a different Dread Lord. Ravenloft Revenue isn't good in any known dimension or world outside of Ravenloft, but a lot of visitors end up keeping it as souvenir to remind them of the good times. And of course there's the merchandise. Just because you're in Darkon doesn't mean you can't buy some spoons or shot glasses with Barovian images on it. You can get the same exclusive merchandise throughout the Ravenloft.

Is there a Fast Pass available?

 

[darjr]

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Granting a certain amount of freedom, doesn't mean just rampant murder hoboing.

It certainly does nothing to discourage it.

Again, CoS wasn't really for me. I quite liked the style of horror in the black box, and I liked having a core to use as a basis for campaigns. Forcing the players to remain in a scenario though, by mist or by having them imprisoned in a location, I think that is something to do very sparingly.

Being trapped is pretty central to most horror stories. Without that any sensible person would just leave. And yes, that lack of freedom is a problem - which is why I don't think horror really works for a full 1-20 campaign.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I didn't have the words for it, but I always preferred adventures where the PCs were "punching up" rather than "punching down", and where the main opponents were not normal flesh-and-blood people of whatever species, but undead, demons, animals, monsters and so on. Not that I never use the other ones, but like I'm pretty sure the very first time I killed some orcs and went through their stuff I got skeeved out, like I'd just mass-murdered some hobos or something.

Last night my players ploughed through duergar like Darth Vader through a squad of rebels. It does raise the question "who are the monsters here?"

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Last night my players ploughed through duergar like Darth Vader through a squad of rebels. It does raise the question "who are the monsters here?"

I dunno if Mitchell & Webb ever played RPGs (I kind of suspect not), but it is amazing how much relevance "Are we the baddies?" and "BMX Bandit and Angel Summoner" have to them.... "Are we the baddies?" probably gets mentioned about once every two sessions when we're playing D&D.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I mean, no argument about Columbus at all, but it is worth noting that it is by the standards of the Conquistadores that he was lacking virtue, not 21st century Anglos, as you say. I am certainly not defending the Conquistadores as some positive good. If anything, they were bog standard humans who tripped into a situation of technological advantage and battle-hardened training with said advantages: right place, right time.

I also received a good dose of the Black Legend in school, but simplistic cartoon villain narratives based in one empire's propaganda about how bad the other guy was aren't much more useful than weird racist narratives ( a "White Legend") that lionize the conquerors.

I don't know what these two "legends" are, that's not something I've come across in English-speaking discussions of the conquistadors and I notice you're using an alternate spelling with an extra e, so presumably you're from South or Central America? But curiously British phrases like "bog-standard"... Obviously history is written by the victor, and you seem to attempting to say "Oh it's in the middle" and I'm sorry but that's not actually well-supported by historical research.

As for "bog-standard humans", well, all humans are "bog-standard humans", none of us are elves or whatever, so that's meaningless. What is meaningful is that they carried out atrocity after atrocity, and there's no getting away from that, especially as they didn't just stop when they'd established control (like, say, the Romans usually did), they just got worse, for a very long time. You say "cartoon villains", but let's be real - they were much worse than any sanitized "cartoon villains".

I'm not sure who the "empire" spreading this "black legend" is, but I'd love to know! Because as I said, history is written by the victor, so it presumably can't be the Aztecs. Is there some kind of Spanish vs Portuguese scuffle you're referring to or something?

EDIT - As an aside, I will note that in the early 2000s there seemed to be some attempt to "re-assess" the conquistadors etc. and try and paint them in a "they were just doing their job" way, and to point out that the biggest cause of death was smallpox, and so on (esp. after evidence in the 1990s showing the Aztecs really were bad news), but the big problem that stuff faced, and what lead to it kind of stopping dead before a full re-assessment could be made, was that whenever new historical or archaeological evidence appeared, it made them look really bad, and made it obvious that these supposed "savages" were even further from that than had previously been believed. I remember watching some documentary series that wanted to "change your mind your mind about the conquistadors" or something, definitely implying in the sense that they weren't as bad as you thought, but whilst some specific incidents were clarified, the overall effect was to make them look even worse (which I don't think was intended).

 

[Coroc]

I've been ambivalent about dark gifts and corruption, but for some reason that comment makes me so much more interested in trying them out

in ravenloft 2e you had those "dark gifts"
A casting of an inversed or necromantic spell was enough to maybe grant you one, a killing of an innocent npc was a sure way. They came in 6 or so steps, turning you more and more into a monster, and had ugly side effects.
i actually did a conversion of hyskosa hexad back in 2015 and played it 5e.
using the suggested horror and madness checks, and some homebrew for the dark powers checks, which gave you these "gifts". I fear that many modern players would see a dark gifts only as some extra whoosh feat for their chars instead of the curse and punishment that they are intended to be.
back in 2e at stage 6 you were turning into an npc, irreversible. 5e did not even have an UA on this topic.
i personally do not view 5e as a good system for a ravenloft game. Players can shake of so many things far to easy.
it is very tough to come up with convincing dark lord.solo mobs.
back in 2e some of the dark lords only had a few hp. A lot of work is needed to convert these.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Being trapped is pretty central to most horror stories. Without that any sensible person would just leave. And yes, that lack of freedom is a problem - which is why I don't think horror really works for a full 1-20 campaign.

Bouncing off this, I think this is why I like the "Sea of Mist" idea, but also why I'm confused about the pushback.

I know very little about Ravenloft in general, and Curse of Strahd. I did run through part of it with a group, but they decided that "murder people to get Strahd's attention, then murder strahd so we can leave" was their preferred method of engagement.

But, part of what I do remember is that there is a lady who Strahd is after as the reincarnation of his beloved, and she wants nothing to do with him. So, if we are in "freely travel the Core" Ravenloft... why doesn't she just run to a different domain? Sure, it will be equally terrible in a lot of ways, but she can escape Strahd.

Now, I think the normal answer is "Strahd would prevent this, he controls the Mists" Which is a fine answer... but then... why are the player's free to leave? Why is Van Richten free to leave? Why is anyone free to leave? Why is Strahd bothering with a War if he can just shut down his entire domain to prevent anyone from entering or leaving?

And every way I twist on this, Strahd not being able to fully shut it down, Strahd not being able to permanently shut it down, ect, I find myself thinking that, while a different logic, the same end result can be done with a "Sea of Mist". It is difficult to leave, you need special something or others, not everyone can risk it.

And there is a second point. Sure, Geopolitics is easier when you have two static neighbors, but islands can also have trade, and what makes that interesting is if you wanted, you could have any two particular sets of domains have a relationship. Maybe a man in the Zombie apocalypse setting is fighting with one arm, because he was in the Most Dangerous Game setting and lost that arm escaping. You can play around with where you think the connections are most interesting. Which seems like a win, especially since it seems like the nature of the Mists isn't actually changing.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I was thinking about my own reboot of Yagno Petrovna, darklord of G'henna. He started as a mixture of Martin Luther and Robin Hood, a rebel against authority, but Nietsche warned: "Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster...for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you". Zhakata is was a keyname found in the wall of a cave but..... the truth is more complex. Really there was a god Provider/Devourer, but his existence was erasured almost totally from space-time continium, as when time-travelers avoid somebody's birth. Yagno is the "heir" of the remainers of the divine spark, not really a reincarnation but close. The church lodge of Zhakata isn't a mockery of the Vatican, becuase I dislike characters as the bishop of Aquila (Ladyhawke) or the archdeacon Claud Frollo (the hunchback of Notre-Dame), but an allegory of the Ukranian Holodomor and the hunger caused by the Mao's Great Leap Forward.

This new religion spiritual philosophy doesn't promote the death by starvation (this is really ridiculous!!), but the fasting as a way to learn better self-control against the sinful appetites, and wrong beauty model falling grazing the anorexia (beause the obestiy was a sign of wealth by the "popolo grosso" or fat people, the oppresive noble houses, and then hated by the ordinary people who suffered scarcity). The dark powers are tricking Yagno Petrovna with the eternal doubts to avoid the return or rebirth of that ancient enemy, a intetionally forgotten Barovian "pagan" deity, the provider/devourer. The tragic part is Yagno with that piece of divine spark could become into a benebolent demigod, the provider (and also the devourer, but as a sin-eater, purifier by means of penance), helping people with his gifts, but he is blinded by the proud, rancour and selfishness.

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* The dark powers want to be as a "franchise chain opening new stores" in the material plane. This means to create dread domains but next to the material plane close than the Shadowfell, something like the Otherworld from Silent Hills videogames or the STEM mindscape from Evil Within. This means for example if a group of children go to a haunted house, and this is controlled by the dark powers, the children aren't in the demiplane of the dread, still keep in the original material plane, or in a pocket universe within the astral plane, but come back to home is easy with only exit the building.

 

[humble minion]

But, part of what I do remember is that there is a lady who Strahd is after as the reincarnation of his beloved, and she wants nothing to do with him. So, if we are in "freely travel the Core" Ravenloft... why doesn't she just run to a different domain? Sure, it will be equally terrible in a lot of ways, but she can escape Strahd.

Now, I think the normal answer is "Strahd would prevent this, he controls the Mists" Which is a fine answer... but then... why are the player's free to leave? Why is Van Richten free to leave? Why is anyone free to leave? Why is Strahd bothering with a War if he can just shut down his entire domain to prevent anyone from entering or leaving?

And every way I twist on this, Strahd not being able to fully shut it down, Strahd not being able to permanently shut it down, ect, I find myself thinking that, while a different logic, the same end result can be done with a "Sea of Mist". It is difficult to leave, you need special something or others, not everyone can risk it.

There's no single answer to any of these questions, but most of them have been answered at various times over the years in the Ravenloft line.

Over the centuries, Strahd's obsession Tatyana has been reincarnated many many times. She's not aware of his interest or of her place in his punishment, but Strahd is cursed by the Dark Powers to fail to attain her. Maybe in some past lives she HAS escaped Barovia, and lived a full life outside in Mordent or somewhere, while Strahd raged impotently from Barovia. Maybe sometimes Strahd attempted to prevent her escape and she died trying to leave. The Dark Powers hold the whip hand in Ravenloft and they don't care what happens to Tatyana, as long as Strahd doesn't have her. She, through all her lives is nothing but an instrument of his punishment. Nobody ever said the Dark Powers were nice, or fair, after all!

But Strahd isn't onmiscient or omnipotent even in his own domain. He can only stop her leaving, or stop PCs leaving, or stop Van Richten entering, if he knows that they're actually trying to cross the borders. Closing the borders is all or nothing, They're completely closed, completely open to everyone (minus whatever spies etc Strahd might have on the roads or watching the Vistani). And of course when it comes to Tatyana his efforts are ultimately doomed to fail - even if he hampers her movement or keeps her in Barovia, she'll never love him. Because that's the curse the Dark Powers laid on him when he became a Darklord, and he can't use the powers of a Darklord to escape the destiny of a Darklord. From the outside Barovia might look like Strahd's dominion, but it's really his punishment.

And that's true with all the domain lords. They have vast powers in their domain, but their curse prevents them using those powers to achieve what they want the most. Could Strahd launch major wars etc, if he wanted to? Sure (though if he was invading another domain whose Darklord cared enough to defend it, he'd lose). But Strahd isn't really interested in conquest. He's only interested in Tatyana - if her newest incarnation appeared at a critical moment in his military operations, he'd drop everything to seek her out, and the Dark Powers would make sure he can't have her anyway. Some Darklords, like the pre-5e version of Vlad Drakov genuinely are driven by the desire to wage aggressive war - but Vlad's curse prevents him from ever being successful at it. Hell, part of Ankhtepot's curse is to watch the once-mighty kingdom he ruled wither into a scattering of ruins that ignorant foreigners plunder for treasure.

As for why Darklords EVER let their borders open - well, again, it depends how much they care. Darklords ONLY care about their curse, and the drives or desires that led them to be cursed in the first place. All else is secondary. Strahd only gives a damn about the borders insofar as they affect his quest to possess Tatyana. Why would he keep them closed, when perhaps her latest incarnation was born in another domain, or perhaps the secret to breaking his curse is held by some travelling wizard?

It's also worth remembering that, Strahd aside, many Darklords don't actually hold temporal political power in their domain. Sodo, Wilfred Godefroi, Adam, the Three Sisters of Tepet, etc - they probably don't actually care very much if their domain is invaded, and certainly aren't in a position to invade others even if they cared enough to want to.