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

 

[Ruin Explorer]

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)

I mean I guess from my perspective, that was a massive, country-wide panic, with a pretty consistent focus, and backed by people with strong beliefs, and which specifically targeted D&D, and had sustained campaign against D&D over the better part of a decade.

And what did it exactly achieve in terms of impacting D&D?

2E renamed devils and demons temporarily. Ooooh big win guys!

So y'know, I'm only 43, and I'm from the UK so I didn't actually have to deal with it, but that's so much more extreme than the capricious whims of Twitterites, and all it did was that, so it seems like current worries are more than overblown lol. JMHO of course. Also, sorry, but honestly I prefer Baatezu and Taanari, because to me those feel way more mystical and scary and D&D-specific, like Beholder and Illithid and Umber Hulk and stuff than boring old devil/demon! YMMV and so on. We kept Yugoloth at least!

 

[Bedrockgames]

I mean I guess from my perspective, that was a massive, country-wide panic, with a pretty consistent focus, and backed by people with strong beliefs, and which specifically targeted D&D, and had sustained campaign against D&D over the better part of a decade.

And what did it exactly achieve in terms of impacting D&D?

2E renamed devils and demons temporarily. Ooooh big win guys!

So y'know, I'm only 43, and I'm from the UK so I didn't actually have to deal with it, but that's so much more extreme than the capricious whims of Twitterites, and all it did was that, so it seems like current worries are more than overblown lol. JMHO of course. Also, sorry, but honestly I prefer Baatezu and Taanari, because to me those feel way more mystical and scary and D&D-specific, like Beholder and Illithid and Umber Hulk and stuff than boring old devil/demon! YMMV and so on. We kept Yugoloth at least!

They didn't just rename them, The flavor was all changed. But the point is, whether you regard it as a minor alteration or not, it was altered for a very stupid reason (because we were going through a religious panic and D&D was being accused of Satanism so they had to scrub the game of things that could be used to label the game in that way). The difference in tone and flavor between 1E and 2E was enormous. Some of that was fantasy changing but a lot of that was an effort to avoid problems in the media (that's why they took out the assassin as a class for example).

I am 44, so we are about the same age. But like I said before, I started playing in 86 and I was living in a religious area when the Satanic Panic was ongoing. But the Satanic Panic wasn't actually just about RPGs, it was widespread throughout the culture (people were going to jail for satanic ritual abuse that seems to have never occurred). It just manifested in D&D as the issue of satanism and the concern that players were losing touch with reality (for example my mom's primary objection to D&D was that a family friend told her kids were killing each other playing the game: and given how little she would have known about it, I can sort of understand that reaction at the time).

My point is people should slow down before they jettison things and they shouldn't rush to judge art in that way. There are a lot of different reasons for content to exist in art, movies and games. And its easy to leap to the wrong conclusion. Doubly so when we have a set of bad things that are heavy on our mind and we are on the look out for them (as with the Satanic panic where people were seeing it in everything, even when there was no intention of something being satanic).

 

[Charlaquin]

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).

I was talking about Buffalo Bill...

 

[Bedrockgames]

I was talking about Buffalo Bill...

I wasn’t the one who said Buffalo Bill was it was not trans. Another poster made an assertion on that. I was saying the message of the film wasn’t that trans people are bad, that content doesn’t automatically equal a messsge

 

[Dire Bare]

And what did it exactly achieve in terms of impacting D&D?

Increased visibility and sales.

 

[Voadam]

I mean I guess from my perspective, that was a massive, country-wide panic, with a pretty consistent focus, and backed by people with strong beliefs, and which specifically targeted D&D, and had sustained campaign against D&D over the better part of a decade.

And what did it exactly achieve in terms of impacting D&D?

2E renamed devils and demons temporarily. Ooooh big win guys!

The biggest unfortunate impact I'd say was on kids who were playing D&D whose parents then forbid them from doing so and made them throw away/destroy their game books.

Within TSR AD&D 2e not only did not use the terms demons or devils for a few years, it had no outer planes stuff under any name for the first seven monster supplements, MC8 Outer planes appendix didn't come out until 1991.

AD&D 2e adopted a kind of comics book code for depicting evil in adventures, evil could not triumph. Players were written as default good heroes in core materials and adventures, not mercenary adventurers. Assassins and half-orcs were gone as PC options in the PH.

There was a lot of good stuff in 2e from the initial PH and on, but there was also impacts on the game and the products released.

This all eventually went away and we had stuff like the Guide to Hell but that was not until 1999, a ways past the 80s panic.

 

[Charlaquin]

I wasn’t the one who said Buffalo Bill was it was not trans.

No, the movie did.

 

[Bedrockgames]

No, the movie did.

I am not following your objection. My only point about silence of the lambs is if you take out Buffalo Bill or change Buffalo Bill it is a less interesting film because he is a compelling villain; and that character isn’t necessarily saying anything good or bad about trans people: content isn’t message

 

[Remathilis]

They could just mention “humilating tattoos” and leave it at that, I suppose.

In listening to the podcast linked above, it sounds like the lands of Hazlik themselves may become a metaphor for climate change, wrought by magical means.

The "in between the lines" reading of what changed is that Hazlik hates the Red Wizards because they didn't respect his genius, not his masculinity. A change for the better.

 

[Remathilis]

He can reportedly see through runes similar to his tattoos so he's got the tattoos, but they could elide the humiliating woman ID issue by saying he has tattoos and not providing anything more on that part of his backstory.

Similarly they could just not mention anything about his sexual orientation or any trans issues.

It seems to leave a hole in his Darklord back story though.

I mean, the issue is a blip in the original Hazlik story: Hazlik offended some people so they ostracized him. The only thing they have to change is the mechanics of the ostracization from "wrong gender tattoos" to something else. As Faolyn said, the issues with him wanting Eliza's body came in the 3.5 gazetteers and can be easily omitted.

I just think that they can tell his story perfectly well without bringing up the gender issues. He can be humiliated without being emasculated, they can ostracize him without crossdressing/transsexual undertones. If they want to keep the nonbinary element of his story, allow it to be HIS choice to get the tattoos and the ostracization coming from his choice rather than it being forced on him. Let it be adjacent to his evil, not the cause of it.