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.

​

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]

Never played much Vampire, but isn't about half the point the in-depth political intrigue between the various powers? Also, never really heard of it as a Horror RPG.

Depends. It can certainly be played as horror, though in my experience political intrigue is a more common mode of play. Especially with the LARPers. Also, classic WoD is very gothic, not as much horror (which is why they called it gothic punk). The IP-formerly-known-as New World of Darkness was more horror in tone, especially in second edition. Though, of course, in practice you still get people using it to play less horror-y games.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's constructed of non-artificial parts. You know what I meant. Real people, real trees, etc.

And my table is made out of non-artificial wood, and my shoes are non-artificial leather, and my garden is made from non-artificial plants.

It doesn't matter how "natural" your materials are, anything constructed is by definition artificial.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Eh, they weren't very consistent about that. Sometimes the Dark Powers scooped up actual places from the Material Plane (i.e. Kalidnay), sometimes the domains never existed anywhere else and were shaped by the darklord's nature (i.e. Sithicus). That's why some folks having souls and some not works for me, it accounts for the inconsistency. (Plus the horror aspect that even death might not release you from Ravenloft...)

Indeed. Some parts of Ravenloft are lifted from real worlds, but the gaps are filled in with the material of the Shadowfell. Including some of the people, hence the soulless people in CoS.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Have you thought about a dread domain based in Ixalan, the Magic: the Gathering?

Falkovnian is a dystopy, and lord Falkon one of the best examples of toxic boss, and the economy can't survive the wear by the wars. I wonder about the creation of werefalcons as symbol of dictatorship agents. He is not only a "loser", but he looks too weak and stupid to survive an internal rebelion, and even starting a purgue may cause that rebellion as a escape forward.

There is magic to translate languages, but only Vistani dare to travel to trade usually.

* Do you remember the two first "Aliens" movies? The first was true horror in a space ship, the second was more action. The same creature but different styles of stories. Gothic horror isn't a group of monsters because Capcom's Darkstalkers has got those monsters but they are't so dreadful. Even within a movie, Silverster Stallone's "Cobra", for some scenes is pure horror, but in others is pure action, with the same chacter, the night slasher, as antagonist. The Night King from "Games of Thrones" is can cause fear, but not alway is as a monster from a horror movie.

* I imagine a "second Sithicus" like a "twin earth" next to Krynn material plane, a post-apocalypse zone (the remains of the timeline where Raitslin became god) where survivors face undeads (if they are killed but not "infected by undead curses" their souls can go to the veil of the souls, like the city Manifest from "Ghostwalk").

* If the dark lord of Nova Vaasa tries his redemption, does he deserves the end of the curse he didn't cause?

* Where is Kitiara (Dragonlance) soul?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The Elephant in the room - The Raven Queen

One of the consequences of placing Ravenloft canonically in the Shadowfell is it makes the Raven Queen a neighbour (at least). Does that mean that someone wandering into the Barovian mists could, instead of finding their way to somewhere else in Ravenloft, find themselves in Letherna, the Raven Queen's domain?

Is the Raven Queen a Dark Lord?!

The evidence says no. She is not a prisoner, she can exert her influence over other planes of existence, even being worshiped as a god in some of them.

Which brings us to another idea:

Is the Raven Queen the jailor?

After all, we have the "coincidence" of her name. Who made the holy symbol of Ravenkind anyway? Is the whole of Ravenoft a collection of snowglobe prisons floating around in the Raven Queen's Fortress of Memories?

 

[JEB]

The Elephant in the room - The Raven Queen

One of the consequences of placing Ravenloft canonically in the Shadowfell is it makes the Raven Queen a neighbour (at least). Does that mean that someone wandering into the Barovian mists could, instead of finding their way to somewhere else in Ravenloft, find themselves in Letherna, the Raven Queen's domain?

Is the Raven Queen a Dark Lord?!

The evidence says no. She is not a prisoner, she can exert her influence over other planes of existence, even being worshiped as a god in some of them.

Which brings us to another idea:

Is the Raven Queen the jailor?

After all, we have the "coincidence" of her name. Who made the holy symbol of Ravenkind anyway? Is the whole of Ravenoft a collection of snowglobe prisons floating around in the Raven Queen's Fortress of Memories?

Honestly, it's really surprising they haven't tied the Raven Queen in with Ravenloft. Almost feels like they're intentionally not doing it for some reason.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

shrug

The game I was in that featured imploded violently (not physical) but it was never once presented as two seperate domains to us. The only borders were surrounding the two. not between them. I mean, sure, there were mountains, but it wasn't a border that either one of them could do anything about, so it felt like a single domain, just split in half.

It was also just... a bad experience. Assist Vecna or Assist Kas there is no other choice, was the name of the game, and it got heavy handed with the railroading

It's definitely two separate domains in a single cluster. I haven't played either Vecna Reborn or Die Vecna Die so I can't testify to how enjoyable the adventure is. Vecna and Kas were really only around for 1 sourcebook and a pair of adventures though.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

But that wilderness is exactly what the jackalwere wants right? It is created to his specifications? And he is the one who can close the border to Farelle, just like Strahd, right?

No. It's not really created to his specifications. It is created to match the environment he hails from and then he has to watch it "ruined", so to speak.

Sure, he is always going to lose, because plot, but that has nothing to do with what I am saying.

And, I guess, if Dementileu, Mordent, Richemulot, Lamordia, Borca, Barovia, Kartakass, Valachan, Hazlan and Nova Vaasa are all so similiar... how does that fit with these Dark Lords being taken from across the multiverse?

You had Soth from DL, a jackalwere in the forest, an egyptian kingdom ruled by a mummy. I mean, I thought some of those were big name places, the mummy one wasn't part of the Core? And how did these dozen or so darklords all come from basically the same place? That seems... odd.

Huh? They don't come from the same place. Dementileu and Richemulot were founded by inhabitants of Mordent, which itself came from an unknown Material Plane. Borca and Barovia come from a separate world (which still exists, as seen in "Roots of Evil", Valachan, Hazlan and Nova Vaasa are all linked because their darklords were born in Toril.

The "mummy one" is Har'Akir, which is part of the Amber Wastes, a desert cluster with two Egyptian themed domains and an Arabic themed one ruled by Diamadel. They mesh pretty nicely, theme-wise. Just like the Frozen Reaches (two very cold east-slavic domains), the "Verdurous Lands" (jungle domains) etc.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Maybe the Raven Queen is not the jailor but a "sentinel watching the frontier".

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Like I told Bedrock, sure there are other threats, but they aren't the highlights of the setting. If I just wanted to run "tracked and pursued by a vampire" I could do that anywhere. you go to Ravenloft for the stories involving the Dark Lords.

And, if Strahd is only your enemy because you stepped on his turf, and you live in a continent where everyone is perfectly capable of just going somewhere else... then unless you have specifically crafted a scenario where they must go to Barovia, they just leave and don't deal with Strahd.

And if you have to force them together anyways, why is it so different if they can walk across the border versus get on a boat?

I don't understand why you are so hung up on the idea of forcing them to face Strahd. If you want to run that scenario, you can, just have him close the borders.

Which again, was my point.

If you travel through a land where you are hunted as cattle for vampires to feed upon, that is horrific. If you travel through a land where the army is constantly marching to an endless war... it is terrible, but the impact is lessened.

Sure, if you live there, that is different, but then that changes everything, doesn't it? And most of the point of these places is that you weren't born in the Dread Domain.

Why is that "the point"? I never said that.

And I don't particularly see "vampire land" as more horrific. That's not subtle. That's a themepark. It might as well be "Hotel Transylvania".

So is the "real" Ravenloft when you play the people who don't know what the world is truly like? That is a vast difference from every portrayal I've ever heard people talk about. And if that is the point, if the point of Ravenloft games is to play the peasants who didn't know what truly lurked in the shadows, then that is a much different version and it can work.

Then the war nation is horrific, because you are one of those soldiers, these are your people. That has huge weight. But if you are just traveling through, then it doesn't have that weight.

It is absolutely true that the people in the demiplane don't know they are ruled by monsters. Azalin is not a lich, he is "Azalin Rex", the wizard-king who rules austerely yet with a cold sense of justice. Strahd isn't known as a vampire, he is merely the latest in line of tyrants dating back to "Strahd I", who the Barovians revere as a great hero who delivered them from the Tergs. Jacqueline Renier is not known as a wererat. The place is not presented as some sort of spooky cartoon. Like all good horror you have to have the everyday, normal world to contrast the horror against for it actually to be horrific. It's the revelation.

I'm not doing a strawman. Bedrock said we were ignoring the trope of "man is the real monster" and in the new book, there are 30 domains. And we've been presented with 6 of them. And... it sounds like at least three of those will follow that trope.

So, I had to ask, is 50% not enough? Does it have to be every domain?

It seems the answer is no, but then why are we saying they are moving away from the trope that they are clearly using a lot?

I'm not sure what you're trying to argue. There already was a zombie domain. I don't need Falkovnia to be that. If I want an Island of Terror filled with zombies I will use Souragne.