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

 

[Bedrockgames]

It continues to amaze me that we can both be fans of the exact same setting and yet not agree on a single aspect of it.

People have very different tastes. And our tastes evolve over time. I can definitely understand differing points of view. When I first started I fully embraced every facet of the advice in 2E Ravenloft, and in the 2E books, and ran my games that way. Over time though, I did become a bit frustrated with how story was handled (I particularly noticed it when I would read the examples of Van Richten's hunts of the monsters in the van richten books and realize they sounded a lot more fluid, free and open than my adventures). That, and the whole "Living adventure" thing with independently minded NPCs in Feast of Goblyns, shifted my thinking over time. I had a number of evolutions as a GM beyond that (I also played 3E, as written, as intended, and grew very frustrated with the way those adventures were handled). For me, one key thing I realized was frustrating me was advice discouraging us from discovering events organically through the dice. If someone dies, even if it is unexpected and possibly frustrating, it actually made game play more exciting in the long haul for me. Especially for horror

I designed a horror game about two or three years ago, and while it was totally different from a ravenloft like setting, it was definitely in part built on that experience I had as a GM running Ravenloft. One thing I did right away is what people have been advocating: I made characters killable but competent. That is, you have paths, which are like classes, and you can advance in level, but generally speaking you never increase or decrease how many wounds you can take (and you can only take a couple before you go down)-- there are two exceptions to this. So characters gained more abilities, but they remained vulnerable. The first adventure I ran to playtest the system resulted in a total party kill, and I was happy with that (didn't want total party kills all the time, but I wanted to know they could happen---particularly if characters were not cautious). One thing that also did, even if it was just by accident, was let the players know very loudly: you can die in this. All of this is taste of course. I understand some people find it more scary if they are playing one character who is unlikely to die over a long campaign because they invest in that character, but I find this approach more scary personally because it means you don't know if you will survive opening that door or not

 

[Urriak Uruk]

See, after decades of trying, I finally realized that D&D is an absolute failure for true horror. There are far better systems for that. D&D is great though for fantasy with a Horror overlay though. I tend to play to D&D's strengths rather than bend it into fit styles of play its ill-suited for. But that's my take.

I think it can work for levels 1-3. Past that though, it's pretty hard to scare the characters.

 

[overgeeked]

Never. Victorian novel was Victorian. Got to keep a stiff upper lip, what?

Incorrect.

“For an instant my heart stood still, and I would have screamed out, only that I was paralyzed.”

Chapter 21. Dr. Seward’s Diary.

Gotta love ebooks.

 

[Remathilis]

I think it can work for levels 1-3. Past that though, it's pretty hard to scare the characters.

I'm fine with that. They grow from weak and nervous n00bs to competent heroes. I just no longer subscribe to the theory that DM must perpetuatally keeping them weak and nervous, often by mechanically crippling them at every opportunity.

 

[MGibster]

I'm fine with that. They grow from weak and nervous n00bs to competent heroes. I just no longer subscribe to the theory that DM must perpetuatally keeping them weak and nervous, often by mechanically crippling them at every opportunity.

Ditto. It gets old and repetitive as well. I much prefer it when the PCs are competent and the situation is still dire.

A polar bear tracking the party across an icy waste when one has a broken leg from a lingering injury. They are all on reduced hp because they can’t rest without shelter and then the blizzard starts up reducing visibility to 30 ft...

How do you model that in D&D 5th edition? The rules as written don't really take into account the debilitating nature of taking a mace right to the knee or getting speared in the gut. And if it did, healing magic makes such injuries trivial.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I'm fine with that. They grow from weak and nervous n00bs to competent heroes. I just no longer subscribe to the theory that DM must perpetuatally keeping them weak and nervous, often by mechanically crippling them at every opportunity.

Agreed, D&D as a system is not meant for that sort of play.

 

[overgeeked]

I'm fine with that. They grow from weak and nervous n00bs to competent heroes. I just no longer subscribe to the theory that DM must perpetuatally keeping them weak and nervous, often by mechanically crippling them at every opportunity.

No one's talking about doing that. The people who want to push the horror are just saying they want horror in their horror game. It's not about "crippling [the characters] at every opportunity".

 

[overgeeked]

Ditto. It gets old and repetitive as well. I much prefer it when the PCs are competent and the situation is still dire.

How do you model that in D&D 5th edition? The rules as written don't really take into account the debilitating nature of taking a mace right to the knee or getting speared in the gut. And if it did, healing magic makes such injuries trivial.

Lingering Injuries, DMG, p272. Result 4 is a limp.

Characters also run out of spells.

If the characters can't rest, they don't regain their spell slots.

 

[Remathilis]

No one's talking about doing that. The people who want to push the horror are just saying they want horror in their horror game. It's not about "crippling [the characters] at every opportunity".

The 3e era of S&S Ravenloft was horrible about doing this, to the point of Powers Checks from leveling (!) And strict limits on nearly every spell in the PHB. (Tenser's disc? That's a powers check). Which was taking the notions of Ravenloft's "keep them off-balance" mantra to the extreme.

Even in this thread, people have suggested not letting PCs level past 3rd level.

If the price i pay for horror is constantly being kneecapped by the rules, I'll take my gothic fantasy.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

The 3e era of S&S Ravenloft was horrible about doing this, to the point of Powers Checks from leveling (!) And strict limits on nearly every spell in the PHB. (Tenser's disc? That's a powers check). Which was taking the notions of Ravenloft's "keep them off-balance" mantra to the extreme.

Even in this thread, people have suggested not letting PCs level past 3rd level.

If the price i pay for horror is constantly being kneecapped by the rules, I'll take my gothic fantasy.

I will add, the best way to do "horror" in a 5E concept is shown off well in Icewind Dale: Rind of the Frostmaiden. For example, the ice caves with the gnoll vampire has some great descriptors for how the gnoll should be making hit-and-run attacks, plus the psychological effects of the caves.

That said, it takes a skilled DM to pull that off, considering the players will be (I believe) level 10.