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

 

[Faolyn]

Well, except for that whole "the Red Death was one of Ravenloft's Dark Powers -- exiled for violations of their mysterious code of conduct" tidbit, and which you fought and banished at the end of the Living Death campaign.

I can't get the link to work. Was that an adventure? I don't buy adventures for the most part.

 

[Alzrius]

I can't get the link to work. Was that an adventure? I don't buy adventures for the most part.

I fixed the link; it should work now. It goes to an interview with William W. Connors after the line concluded. The Living Death adventures weren't for sale, being RPGA modules, but it's possible to find most of them if you search long enough, hard enough (and know the right people). Fortunately, I have a friend who enjoys doing exactly that, so I've seen most of them despite not having played them.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Volo's Guide for 5e was written from the perspective of Volo and with the Forgotten Realms in mind. Hasn't stopped me from using it in multiple other settings. They may have been made for Ravenloft decades ago, but they don't change my point that using the Van richten guides as a reason to play Ravenloft is a flawed argument. First, because those guides can be used elsewhere, Second because those Guides had to be purchased separately.

I will not fight you at all that the Van Richten Guides seem to have been an excellent resource, but they can't be used as a reason to go to Ravenloft, because the two things can be seperated with no issue.

This argument doesn't really make sense to me. I mean the Van Richten books, as I said, are part of the Ravenloft line. They are designed with the Ravenloft setting in mind. Can you use them in other settings? Sure, but in Ravenloft the mechanics and the setting material in the Van Richten books are a more perfect fit. Also, and this point keeps getting overlooked, the van richten books is an elaboration of tools and concepts presented in the black boxed set. Part of what makes Ravenloft work as a setting is that mechanically it does things differently than other settings. Spells work differently. Monsters work differently. Curses work differently. There are dark powers, and powers checks, which warp characters. These concepts are all carried into the van richten books. Now you can export those into other settings, but that isn't a sound argument against Ravenloft working as a horor setting because of its tools. I mean this discussion is very strange because people are asking me to defend why Ravenloft is good at horror. I say the setting and tools/mechanics. The responses are basically "the setting sucks" and "you can just export the tools" so your answer is wrong. I really don't know what to say to this particular argument. Its rhetorically interesting, but not persuasive at all.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Ravenloft was launched for 2e in 1990.

The First Van Richten Guide was released in 1992

If you are correct, that the Van Richten books were essential for understanding Ravenloft (which according to the bold text, is your claim). Then Ravenloft spent two years incomplete. Two years of its release being focused on the wrong part of the setting. Because, even from the beginning, the Dark Lords were there. If the true draw to the setting was Van Richten;s 1992 release, then why did Ravenloft win awards in 1991? Why was it made into a setting after the 1984 one-shot adventure?

Again, I have no problem with the claim that the Van Richten books were amazing. I have no problem with the claim that they elevated Ravenloft to new heights. But if you don't think the setting works without them... that is a problem with the design of the setting. Not the design we ended up with, but the design we started with.

This seems like a really big quibble over language to me. Ravenloft was a line that evolved. There were ideas expressed in the Black Box Set that were more fully explored in the Van Richten books (the idea of how you customize individual monsters like vampires for example). So those ideas were present going back to the black box set, but the van richten books really illustrate how to do that. And my point overall is, the full nature of this line becomes clear by the time you have the black box set, feast of goblins and the van richten books coming out. I do also think the van richten books improved upon the core ideas because you kind of needed that elaboration to fully explore it. They also just offered clear blueprints for the kinds of adventures that would work well in Ravenloft. I guess what I am saying is, it is essential for understanding both what the line became, and also helps illuminate ideas and builds off ideas in the core boxed set (the core boxed set is great on its own, but I don't think you quite have fully baked Ravenloft in all its magnificence till you get some of the Van Richten books).

 

[Chaosmancer]

Wow! I think this is the first time I've ever disagreed with one of your posts, since I generally just lurk here.

I think the 5E Raven Queen is amazing. She's forgotten what she needs to do to become a god and restore no just her own humanity, but the joy/love/humanity of the Shadar-Kai as well. In order to find it, she uses her shadar-kai to collect tragedies, negative emotions, and terrible memories, knowing that somewhere in there she'll find herself, and therefore her followers, allowing them to enter into the cycle of Reincarnation once more as she ascends to godhood. Its very much a corrupted, almost Buddhist-spin on her old ideas, but one that I think is very, very interesting.

That being said, I don't think she is a dark power either.

I'll agree it is interesting, but I'm not a fan of it, mostly because I fell in love hard with the original Raven Queen depiction. It was just perfect for a god of Death, and since my only other DnD God of Death before that was Nerull, I'm kind of salty about losing her in 5e.

The figure they present in the Tome is interesting. I just don't think I'm going to make her the Raven Queen.

 

[Bedrockgames]

None of which is prevented by making them islands. See the Philippines or Hawaii or any other island chain in the real world. Politics and reach can happen without needing a land border.

And if you don't want that, making them islands makes it easier to separate the domains and not deal with international politics or anything else.

Ravenloft islands of terror are not like islands in the real world. The mists are a much more disruptive force to things like trade and cultural transmission. But also, even in the real world, being an island impacts trade, movement and communication. It still matters. If Europe were a big collection of islands, its history and cultures would be very, very different. You definitely want islands in a setting, but I think having a setting that is all islands is going to be jarring if you are striving for places that feel recognizable (it would be a pretty big thought experiment as worlds go, sort of like Earthsea I suppose. That might be interesting, but it isn't what Ravenloft was, and it isn't what I want from Ravenloft.

 

[Bedrockgames]

And if you don't want that, making them islands makes it easier to separate the domains and not deal with international politics or anything else.

Why doesn't it also make it harder if you want international politics? I am sorry but I am just not seeing this at all. And definitely still not a fan of the broken up core idea.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Everyone is going to feel differently about this. It may be safer to not use these kinds of sources as inspiration. I also feel not drawing on real world examples like that for inspiration, leads to less flavor, less potency, and generally just doesn't appeal to me as much. One of the reasons Falkovnia resonated was because it tapped into powerful feelings around historical events. When I first played ravenloft we were a generation whose grandparents fought in the war in question, many of the people at my table, myself included, had family backgrounds where people were affected by the atrocities in question or had to flee them, and we were in a community where these atrocities were dealt with in school (I am trying to answer your question clearly without violating the real world politics rule, so sorry if I have to talk around events). I get that people will have different reactions to that stuff. To me, it had resonance because we were still living in the echo of some of the things it was drawing on. That said it is important to understand Drakov evolved over the course of the line. I do feel some of it got too on the nose toward the end (you could kind of project a wider range of historical figures onto Drakov early on I feel: though I am going largely by memory here). But it is like the other poster said about Daleks. You can invoke that stuff and it will be impactful. In fact I think there is more danger in not invoking it, and in avoiding it entirely. Much better to acknowledge those kinds of real world evils in a setting in my opinion when you are trying to do horror.

I think though, you have to consider people like Vlad the Impaler. He is often portrayed as a villain, and he did a lot of terrible things, but if memory serves he is still considered a bit of a national hero in his home country. Because he did those things to protect his people and his country from foreign invaders, and he succeeded.

Or Ghengis Khan, another figure that many see as a monster for his warmaking and the deaths he inflicted. But again, is regarded as a national hero in Mongolia by a lot of people because he made their country powerful and upset many of the old systems and ushered them into a new age of prosperity.

Certain historical figures are evil with few redeeming qualities, but a lot of them are more nuanced. That is why a lot of historians are rethinking "Ivan the Terrible" and going with the more accurate tranlastion of his title as "Ivan the Formidable", because history is usually complicated.

 

[Faolyn]

What makes the setting different from Eberron?

Is it politics? Constant war?

No. What makes Ravenloft unique is the Dark Lords. They are the biggest draw of the setting. Heck, you can't even say horror because with Megacorps and human experimentation and Sarlona, you can have plenty of horror in Eberron too. In fact, Sarlona is perfect for a horror campaign.

I'd disagree and say what makes Ravenloft unique is the personal horror; the idea that the horror is after you specifically, for something you did or didn't do, whether its actually fair or not.

The Dark Lords are just the ultimate expression of that. But they're not the end-all and be-all of it. Nor does killing the Dark Lord end the horror, since it might revive, or a new horror would just be appointed in its place.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I don’t know what Calibans are. Half-Vistani is a dumb idea, I think Vistani should be a culture rather than a race. It just creates another Avenue for non-human characters to enter Barovia. If you want a half-orc, just say an orc joined a caravan of Vistani at some point, or an orc adventurer got misted there and ended up marrying a local.

Calibans were introduced in the S&S version of Ravenloft. They are basically people afflicted with curses or deformities if I recall (and pretty much fill the role of half orc). I think the idea was kind of like half monster. I wasn't very into the S&S material so someone might be able to give a better overview