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]

You are advocating Death of the Author, where the text is divorced from any greater meaning brought to it from knowing the author's reasoning.

No, actually I am arguing the opposite. I am saying what the film maker intended is very important. I don't know how you are getting death of the author from what I just said

 

[Bedrockgames]

Is it possible to analyze the politics of Star Wars without looking a George Lucas's liberal views, or gender in Harry Potter without looking at J.K. Rowling's recent issues with transphobia? Yes, but it's only one way and not always the right way.

I think media is always an attempt to communicate something. If you aren't even going to make an effort to understand what the author was trying to communicate, I don't think that is a fair reading. Now it can have broader meanings than what the author intended. And people can take it and give it new meaning. But I do think it is silly to ignore what the author was trying to do

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don't understand the disagreement.

Indeed you don't.

All I am saying is context matters in a media. Something simply being in a film doesn't automatically make it an endorsement of that thing (thus content does not equal message).

No it doesn't. but I'm not talking about TEXT. Text doesn't influence people. They see it and they either agree with it or not.

Now I am against hateful propaganda. But I also probably would guess we disagree on how to combat that (but that is a whole other conversation). I am certainly not an apologist for it (especially when my dad's side of the family fled Russia due to pogroms, and I've met holocaust survivors and survivors of the killing fields)

No, your not an apologist for that. But if you say "You can say anything you like, it's only media, it doesn't matter" you are giving free reign to people who would say that, or worse.

 

[Ash Mantle]

In an attempt to steer the thread back, what're you most looking forward to seeing/reading in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft?

 

[Bedrockgames]

No, your not an apologist for that. But if you say "You can say anything you like, it's only media, it doesn't matter" you are giving free reign to people who would say that, or worse.

People can say what they like but others can object to it. I am not saying people can say whatever and it doesn't matter. When the Westborough Baptist church was protesting funerals, what they had to say was bad. They were allowed to say it, but I disagreed strongly with their message. And I certainly wouldn't think their message would be something that should appear in a TSR product or something. But I do think it would be fair real world material to use in an RPG (not to advocate their position but to have something that reflects a real life extremist group in say a counter terrorrism scenario).

I am saying people are overreacting to content that isn't even meant to convey the message they think it conveys. That is my point. People see a storyline with a female doing X and they automatically assume it is a moral message about how females are supposed to be. I am saying people are taking a very simplified lens to reading and interpreting this stuff, and I think it is resulting in much less interesting content.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Indeed you don't.

No it doesn't. but I'm not talking about TEXT. Text doesn't influence people. They see it and they either agree with it or not.

then we are just using different language to say the same thing. In your language I think I am saying text does not equal subtext. To me that is what content does not equal message means

 

[Remathilis]

This is absurd. I have seen Raging Bull countless times. I never hit a woman, because I was raised to not hit women. I watched Scarface countless times too. I never went out and shot anyone, never wanted to (I hate guns, and I hate gun violence in real life). Also never became a cocaine dealer, bought a Ferrari (never even wanted one despite the product placement in the film), etc. I don't think the impact is as clear here as people think. And definitely subliminal stuff doesn't appear to be as strong as we once thought. Again, I remember the whole craze about subliminal ads, and subliminal messages in heavy metal. It turned out to be largely bunk, largely moral panic. That said, like anything else, it doesn't have zero impact. That is why people need to be able to watch things with a discerning eye and separate reality from fantasy. But that doesn't mean you have to excise all bad things from media.

You are putting Descartes before de horse.

Lots of people have read the Turner Diaries; a late 1970's dystopian novel about overthrowing the government. It's very popular with the militia movement in the US. Reading it probably never turned someone into a militias member with a bunker and an arsenal, but it did a LOT to reinforce the beliefs of those who already believed. Media can do that; reinforce held beliefs, making them impenetrable to new facts and points of view. Birth of a Nation or Triumph of the Will probably didn't make someone a Klansman or a Nazi; it convinced someone who was already sympathetic to those beliefs that they were right.

 

[HawaiiSteveO]

Didn't read whole thread... article over at DDB with sneak peek at Carrionettes, including stat block and some more art from the book.

Carrionettes: Play Killer Toys From Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft

Is no fun, is no Blinsky!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

People can say what they like but others can object to it. I am not saying people can say whatever and it doesn't matter. When the Westborough Baptist church was protesting funerals, what they had to say was bad.

How do you know? How do you judge "good" from bad"? I'm sure they just as sincerely believe they are "good" and we are "bad".

They were allowed to say it, but I disagreed strongly with their message.

Why should they have been allowed to say it? I'm sure there where those who saw what they where saying and agreed with it.

And I certainly wouldn't think their message would be something that should appear in a TSR product or something. But I do think it would be fair real world material to use in an RPG (not to advocate their position but to have something that reflects a real life extremist group in say a counter terrorrism scenario).

That's a strawman - I'm not the one advocating Ravenloft's allegory about religious extremism should be removed. That was someone else. It's the hurtful depictions of race and gender that many of use are glad to see the back of.

I am saying people are overreacting to content that isn't even meant to convey the message they think it conveys. That is my point. People see a storyline with a female doing X and they automatically assume it is a moral message about how females are supposed to be.

If women are only shown in a certain way, one can only conclude that is how the author thinks they are supposed to be.

I am saying people are taking a very simplified lens to reading and interpreting this stuff, and I think it is resulting in much less interesting content.

Of course, people are not literary critics. One always has to assume the majority of readers will draw the simplest possible interpretation from the text.

 

[Remathilis]

In an attempt to steer the thread back, what're you most looking forward to seeing/reading in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft?

I want to dive in now and see the changes, the Easter eggs, and the subtle nods. I have a feel for the nature of the changes but not the details and I can't wait to see the setting for the first time again.