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]

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.

Most people, pretty much everyone disagreed. I think if the government stepped in and told them to stop their message, that might have made it easier for them to paint themselves as victims or make it seem like their message was so powerful the government had to step in. We all got to see how ridiculous their worldview was when they spoke it. The problem was they were getting physically close to funerals: and I don’t know what the right answer there is. It was a question of how close they were allowed to get. But proximity to funerals is a different issue from whether they can say what they said. There was a protest by them near my work one day. It made me very angry. But I think acting on that anger by going there and shouting at them, just would have fueled their insanity. At the same time, if they can protest people have a right to counter protest

 

[Bedrockgames]

Are you suggesting my students usually have no idea where I am trying to go?

(probably true)

I didn’t think you were a teacher in real life do I wasn’t suggesting anything about that. But I have taken enough philosophy (and had enough religion in my life) to see where you are going here. I find it condescending

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Most people, pretty much everyone disagreed.

I can assure you, there are a great many who agree with them. I know the views of my local CofE vicar are along the same lines for a start.

I think if the government stepped in and told them to stop their message, that might have made it easier for them to paint themselves as victims or make it seem like their message was so powerful the government had to step in.

It's a valid point. It's a delicate balancing act on suppressing hateful ideas, but that doesn't mean they should be given free reign.

We all got to see how ridiculous their worldview was when they spoke it.

They only seem ridiculous to those who are already predisposed to disagree. I can assure you (because I have moved in those circles) that to many they seem entirely justified. After all it says so in print.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I didn’t think you were a teacher in real life do I wasn’t suggesting anything about that. But I have taken enough philosophy (and had enough religion in my life) to see where you are going here. I find it condescending

I'm a secondary school teacher, not a university lecturer!

NB: You kind of knew, because you picked up on the techniques teachers use to try and push students to draw their own conclusions. And this illustrates the difference between text and subtext. It failed to influence you because you saw it, and therefore it was text. But it might have been more effective on a 14 year old oblivious to the technique.

The morality of trying to influence young people in this way is a whole other debate!

 

[Bedrockgames]

They only seem ridiculous to those who are already predisposed to disagree. I can assure you (because I have moved in those circles) that to many they seem entirely justified. After all it says so in print.

Normally I would agree. But in the case of westboro, their specific message drive away even those who were sympathetic (they managed to infuriate both ends of the political spectrum). But part of that was the weirdness of their message

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

This is exactly why it’s a fool’s errand (and actually dangerous) to try to scare the players. You don’t do that. You go for thrills, unsettling, unnerving, creepy, cognitive dissonance, etc. If you’re trying to scare your players in the jump scare and gore sense, you’re doing it wildly wrong. I’ve been part of games where the DM tried to scare the players. It ended...badly.

I wonder who other than players has to be scared playing an horror rpg. But maybe i miss your point

 

[Bedrockgames]

I'm a secondary school teacher, not a university lecturer!

NB: You kind of knew, because you picked up on the techniques teachers use to try and push students to draw their own conclusions. And this illustrates the difference between text and subtext. It failed to influence you because you saw it, and therefore it was text. But it might have been more effective on a 14 year old oblivious to the technique.

The morality of trying to influence young people in this way is a whole other debate!

And I think this gets at why some of us are more put off my the way messaging is handled in new Ravenloft and a lot of newer content (or at least at the kind of content people in these threads say they want: I am not an active 5E player, so I may have the wrong impression of what the actual content is like--going mainly by the conversations and by the previews, and the messages the design team has been putting out). To me, even when the messages are ones I agree with, it feels like edutainment, almost like it were written by an elementary teacher or by Mr. Rogers. I am sure I agreed with Mr. Rogers on a lot of things political and perhaps even things religious, but I can't stand Mr. Rogers delivery of his message. A lot of this feels like it is talking down to the reader, like it is extremely worried the reader will do the wrong thing or take away the wrong interpretation. And it seems obsessed with projecting a kind of moral purity. There is nothing wrong with the morality itself, but it does have a very public display of piety feel, a very we're going to scrub out anything dirty here. It just comes off as very uninteresting to me. Again Ravenloft is a setting centered around villains. Villains needs to be bad. They don't need to be wholesome or unproblematic. And very importantly, horror should be scary. There seems to be a lot of discomfort with that idea in the previews I am seeing

 

[Remathilis]

Are you suggesting my students usually have no idea where I am trying to go?

(probably true)

I think Bedrock made a horrible choice to argue lit theory with two educators (former HS English teacher here).

 

[Bedrockgames]

I think Bedrock made a horrible choice to argue lit theory with two educators (former HS English teacher here).

With all due respect, I think I have been stating my case well. You guys might be teachers, and I commend you for it, but I also think people lording their educational credentials in discussions like this is (and to be clear Paul definitely wasn't doing that, Paul was very polite about any credentials possessed) overlooks that there are plenty of people who don't have formal education in lit theory but have encountered it and have valid critiques of some of the kinds of analysis we are seeing here (my background is history, because history departments were heavily influenced by lit----when I was a student the biggest intrusion into the field was the linguistic turn). But I did have to take media and lit courses. I did read and encounter this stuff. I might not use the precise language you do, but my criticisms are grounded in having been exposed to it and found it not very persuasive. All that said though, people who don't have a college degree, people who aren't teachers are just as smart as anyone else and can think for themselves. So it shouldn't be a problem for someone with no background in something to have an opinion on media, which impacts everyone. Specialized academic departments can embrace bad ideas. We saw this with a lot of the racialist theories in the earlier part of the 20th century. At the time a lot of non-racists who found those theories disagreeable would have had a hard time contenting with the intellectual arguments being made because they weren't part of that university system or that social class. But they could still see it was wrong, and that academia had talked itself into a very questionable place.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And I think this gets at why some of us are more put off my the way messaging is handled in new Ravenloft and a lot of newer content (or at least at the kind of content people in these threads say they want: I am not an active 5E player, so I may have the wrong impression of what the actual content is like--going mainly by the conversations and by the previews, and the messages the design team has been putting out). To me, even when the messages are ones I agree with, it feels like edutainment, almost like it were written by an elementary teacher or by Mr. Rogers. I am sure I agreed with Mr. Rogers on a lot of things political and perhaps even things religious, but I can't stand Mr. Rogers delivery of his message. A lot of this feels like it is talking down to the reader, like it is extremely worried the reader will do the wrong thing or take away the wrong interpretation. And it seems obsessed with projecting a kind of moral purity. There is nothing wrong with the morality itself, but it does have a very public display of piety feel, a very we're going to scrub out anything dirty here. It just comes off as very uninteresting to me. Again Ravenloft is a setting centered around villains. Villains needs to be bad. They don't need to be wholesome or unproblematic. And very importantly, horror should be scary. There seems to be a lot of discomfort with that idea in the previews I am seeing

The biggest danger for any reasonable person is to fall into the trap of assuming everyone else is a reasonable person.

WotC(2021) are well aware that their primary audience is teenage, and the books are written accordingly. You are the one who said it was important to understand the author's intent.