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]

Also, the “this person isn’t really trans” not only doesn’t work, it also comes off as simultaneously super gatekeepy.

But he wasn't in the original presentation. He was just a man who was humiliated by an emasculation ritual.I doubt the writers at that time were thinking trans when they wrote him (I certainly wasn't as a reader).

 

[Bedrockgames]

My goodness, you really packed as much Not Even Wrong into this post as you could, didn’t you?

I don't think that is what I have done at all.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Honestly I hope you are right. And six years ago I might have agreed with you. But today I don't think that is the case. I think you see people wanting problematic content removed an awful lot.

I think this can be impacted by the media you follow - which doesn't even mean right-wing media necessarily at all - some media like obsessively picks up on any kind of "cancellation" of anything, and highlights and centers it constantly, no matter how obscure or obviously false it is. I've seen this from otherwise pretty reasonable sources, both mainstream and blogs and whatever. There are some people who are just obsessed with any kind of perceived "cancellation", and hype it constantly. I was looking a blogger earlier, and it was absolutely astonishing, this guy had found super-obscure stuff and was promoting it all as "THIS IS WHAT TWITTER PEOPLE REALLY BELIEVE!!!", and it's like, what... I eventually tracked down one of the posts he made an entire video hyping as if it was mainstream. It had like 300 likes and 20 retweets. I have friends whose posts about their cat get twice that lol.

And the British media in general has a problem where there's this totally imaginary one-sided "war" going on, where most of the right-wing papers (and a couple of centrist ones) are constantly declaring "war on woke" or the like, and writing these insanely rabid editorials and thinkpieces and so on about how free speech is being destroyed because nobody under 40 likes JK Rowling as a person or whatever the latest deal is, and basically advocating for people to be forced to buy the latest Harry Potter (or whatever the heck she writes nowadays) at gunpoint to save democracy or equally wild bouts of lunacy.

Even if you're exposed to more mild stuff, if it's constant I think it can give a very false impression. It's notable that 99.9% of things/people that others have claimed are "cancelled" are doing just fine.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think it boils down to people being unable to comprehend that the rest of the world doesn't agree with their barmy right-wing ideas - ergo the billions of people who do agree with them must have somehow been "cancelled" by the left wing media oppressors.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I think this can be impacted by the media you follow - which doesn't even mean right-wing media necessarily at all - some media like obsessively picks up on any kind of "cancellation" of anything, and highlights and centers it constantly, no matter how obscure or obviously false it is. I've seen this from otherwise pretty reasonable sources, both mainstream and blogs and whatever. There are some people who are just obsessed with any kind of perceived "cancellation", and hype it constantly. I was looking a blogger earlier, and it was absolutely astonishing, this guy had found super-obscure stuff and was promoting it all as "THIS IS WHAT TWITTER PEOPLE REALLY BELIEVE!!!", and it's like, what... I eventually tracked down one of the posts he made an entire video hyping as if it was mainstream. It had like 300 likes and 20 retweets. I have friends whose posts about their cat get twice that lol.

And the British media in general has a problem where there's this totally imaginary one-sided "war" going on, where most of the right-wing papers (and a couple of centrist ones) are constantly declaring "war on woke" or the like, and writing these insanely rabid editorials and thinkpieces and so on about how free speech is being destroyed because nobody under 40 likes JK Rowling as a person or whatever the latest deal is, and basically advocating for people to be forced to buy the latest Harry Potter (or whatever the heck she writes nowadays) at gunpoint to save democracy or equally wild bouts of lunacy.

Even if you're exposed to more mild stuff, if it's constant I think it can give a very false impression. It's notable that 99.9% of things/people that others have claimed are "cancelled" are doing just fine.

I don't follow right wing media. And I think we are getting well outside the don't talk about real world politics rule. I will just say I do think cancel culture is a thing (I've seen it firsthand myself). I don't think you need to be far right or even not-left to see it (I myself am on the left and liberal). Just because people on the right have made an issue out of it (which is a whole topic on its own), that doesn't mean it isn't an issue (I would argue they picked up it because they know a lot of people are bothered by it across the political spectrum)

 

[Bedrockgames]

I think it boils down to people being unable to comprehend that the rest of the world doesn't agree with their barmy right-wing ideas - ergo the billions of people who do agree with them must have somehow been "cancelled" by the left wing media oppressors.

I am not right wing. I think part of the problem is people perceive that in things where it isn't the case, both in terms of people and in terms of media content. It becomes a 'you are with us or you are against us'. I think if you have followed what I've been saying on this thread, and paid attention to the nuance of it, you might disagree with me here or there, but I also think you'd be very hard pressed to label me right wing.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I don't follow right wing media. And I think we are getting well outside the don't talk about real world politics rule. I will just say I do think cancel culture is a thing (I've seen it firsthand myself). I don't think you need to be far right or even not-left to see it (I myself am on the left and liberal). Just because people on the right have made an issue out of it (which is a whole topic on its own), that doesn't mean it isn't an issue (I would argue they picked up it because they know a lot of people are bothered by it across the political spectrum)

I'm just saying, look at what people claim "got cancelled", vs. what's actually suffering from cancellation.

Just like, look at that. D&D has been cancelled countless times mate, by various obscure Twitterites. Has this harmed D&D in some way? I don't think so.

So I don't think it's worth worrying about. I think like, there's a lot of real stuff to worry about, and this ain't it.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I'm just saying, look at what people claim "got cancelled", vs. what's actually suffering from cancellation.

Just like, look at that. D&D has been cancelled countless times mate, by various obscure Twitterites. Has this harmed D&D in some way? I don't think so.

So I don't think it's worth worrying about. I think like, there's a lot of real stuff to worry about, and this ain't it.

I think it is too big a conversation to have here, but I do respect you being civil in your disagreement over this with me (I just have reached a different conclusion than you on the matter)

 

[Bedrockgames]

Just like, look at that. D&D has been cancelled countless times mate, by various obscure Twitterites. Has this harmed D&D in some way? I don't think so.

I think you could argue the satanic panic at the very least resulted in content being changed, and it was therefore a kind of censorship through societal pressure. The satanic panic wasn't like living through something much more significant (like say the Witch Craze or living in a country where the government routinely censors things), but it was a real moral panic (and it went well beyond D&D into the real world, resulting in plenty of lives being ruined). I remember seeing it myself and hearing the stories. But in terms of its impact on gaming itself, I think that is definitely a kind of censorship or cancelation that took place (you could say demons were canceled D&D if you like). None of us died because of it. But it was, in my opinion, a bad reason to get rid demons from the books. And lots of people were forbidden to play D&D because of it (I know I was: not a massive deal, my parents were just trying to do what they thought was best, but I think the point is moral panics don't lend themselves to making the most clear headed decisions on these matters: my mom later expressed regret over the matter)

 

[imagineGod]

• Cultural consultants used.

I really hope they brought in REAL LIFE VAMPIRES to consult on this matter!

I heard werecreatures in their human form liked this a lot.