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

 

[Parmandur]

So as someone who has never played or read any Ravenloft material prior to Curse of Strahd, I'm interested in a comparison of the level of differences between CoS and older material to the changes Van Richten's guide is making to the setting. I wonder if there's a precedent here.

Curse of Strahd includes the entire original I6 module, word for word, in one chapter and expands beyond that based on Tracy Hickman's input (Hickman had nothing to do with the Setting product line, and didn't care for it much). So, mainly, the broader Setting is ignored in Curse of Strahd.

 

[Parmandur]

Changing everything and not giving a flip about the existing fans worked out well for 4th Ed

It's one thing to change for social reasons. The Vistani and stuff. Sure. Don't need to insult people. That rude
But to just change the lore because the current writers think all their ideas are better than two dozen writers' contributions over a decade of books? That just pure ego

And this is a hobby. People do it for fun. They learned all this lore and now they have to toss all that trivia away and start again. It's disrespecting their time
Change is work. If people have to change too much, they'll just stop playing

Catering only to the grogs is bad
But only catering to the newbs ain't much better

The primary audience is people who played Curse of Strahd. The core audience of 5E wasn't even born yet when Ravenloft was last in print as a Setting.

 

[Faolyn]

That was my point. It made few changes despite being fifteen-years-old and everyone loved it, new and old
They didn't need to rework anything to make a hit book

As has been thoroughly gone-over, though, there was a lot of problematic stuff in Ravenloft. Stuff that could be used just fine in unofficial fan content, but not so much for official work.

They could simply ignore Ravenloft, not updating it at all, But then the fans would be mad because their favorite setting is being ignored in favor of more Realms stuff or MtG settings or whatever.

They could just release a book of the old domains, untouched except for the problematic stuff being removed. But then the fans would be mad that they're paying $50 for stuff that I already have in their 2e and 3e books. But that assumes that there's anything left to a domain after the problematic stuff has been removed. And it still leaves you with a very non-diverse setting. Even ignoring non-white ethnicities, it's still very male-based. And if the problematic stuff is removed but not replaced, then most of the female darklords, and many of the male ones, would be gone as well.

They could just release a book of new domains and not touch the old ones. But then the fans would be mad that their favorite domains were ignored. After all, anyone can make new domains. If you don't mind 2e and 3e stuff, not only were there three two netbooks of fan-made domains (Edit: here and here), but there were more in the Books of S___ and the Undead Sea Scrolls netbooks, and probably still more in the Quoth the Raven netzines. On dndspeak.com there's a d100 list of new Ravenloft domains (which OK, are only described in a sentence or three, but still, that's a hundred potential new domains that can be expanded upon and used) (there's also another one which had been lost in the Mists).

So they're left with basically one option: Modify what exists, perhaps radically. Try to remove the problematic stuff and hope that what it's replaced by is good enough that even the old fans find something to like in it.

 

[Rikka66]

I don't see the value
It's like when someone makes a book into a movie and then makes major changes to the plot to "adapt" it. Just... why bother?

If they were going to change everything, why not do Ravenloft but just do all new domains? Or dodge the issue and do Innistrad
(My friend who cares more bout Ravenloft than me keeps saying it's the book equivalent of the Snyder DC Universe)

So the answer to the first question is name recognition, which I'm sure you already knew.

I don't think there's a winning choice between "all new domains that are clearly treading the same ground and are meant to be updated version of old domains" and "updating the old domains" if the goal is to avoid upsetting long-time fans. In the first scenario they'll demand to know why they didn't just use the perfectly good old domains and accuse them of trying to erase them. In the second scenario they want to know why they had to change the perfectly good old scenarios and accuse them of trying to erase the prior work.

Using the old names is just another way to tread on nostalgia, which is a huge element of 5e from top-to-bottom.

Edit: Also I'm not sure what "book equivalent of the Snyder DC Universe" means. Maybe I'm alone in that.

 

[Rikka66]

Curse of Strahd includes the entire original I6 module, word for word, in one chapter and expands beyond that based on Tracy Hickman's input (Hickman had nothing to do with the Setting product line, and didn't care for it much). So, mainly, the broader Setting is ignored in Curse of Strahd.

I have seen a few posters here decry Curse of Strahd and get into "not my Ravenloft" territory though,, and since I'm lazy and don't want to dig through threads if any of them are hanging around I'd be up to here their side of the story.

But it makes sense they would hew closer with Barovia, the only really famous part of the setting (except maybe the Vecna and Soth trivia) and the one most people are attached, and see the rest of the place as fair game for remodeling.

 

[Remathilis]

Could you imagine if the made an all new golem domain, an all new werewolf domain, and all new mummy domain, etc. and ignored Lamordia, Kartakass/Verbrek, and Har'Akir?

 

[Remathilis]

I have seen a few posters here decry Curse of Strahd and get into "not my Ravenloft" territory though,, and since I'm lazy and don't want to dig through threads if any of them are hanging around I'd be up to here their side of the story.

But it makes sense they would hew closer with Barovia, the only really famous part of the setting (except maybe the Vecna and Soth trivia) and the one most people are attached, and see the rest of the place as fair game for remodeling.

There was some changes to Strahd's origin, the Amber Temple, and Van Richten being there that all contradicted established Ravenloft lore. Plus they opted to borrow ideas from Fair Barovia which was also contradictory to classic Barovia, esp Vallaki. Lastly, Madame Eva's origin was heavily rewrote, though not as mangled as it was in Expedition.

Just a few I remembered.

 

[Voadam]

So as someone who has never played or read any Ravenloft material prior to Curse of Strahd, I'm interested in a comparison of the level of differences between CoS and older material to the changes Van Richten's guide is making to the setting. I wonder if there's a precedent here.

Curse of Strahd is a 5e remake and expansion of 3.5 Expedition to Castle Ravenloft which is a remake and expansion of 2e's House of Strahd which is a remake at two power levels of 1e's I6 Castle Ravenloft module.

Each is Barovia and centers around Strahd.

1e had some D&D non gothic monsters mixed in and bad puns in tombstones, 2e and 3e basically take those out and 3e from when I played it as a player had more zombie apocalypse and Cthulhu tomes stuff going on, but that might have been DM specific. 5e throws in some non gothic monsters again (rocs and such) and expands plot stuff to do outside significantly with lots of mini bosses to deal with for significant amounts of time.

Ravenloft the setting built out other domains, interconnected them, built a mini continent around Barovia, and focused in and out on gothic themes and D&D horror stuff of different varieties.

 

[Faolyn]

I have seen a few posters here decry Curse of Strahd and get into "not my Ravenloft" territory though,, and since I'm lazy and don't want to dig through threads if any of them are hanging around I'd be up to here their side of the story.

I'm not fond of CoS Barovia for a few reasons, and I had to do quite a bit of changing to get it to a way I like.

A large problem is that because it's an adventure, they simply couldn't include everything. They left out several towns, the Barovian/Gundarakite problems, and things like the Red Vardo Trading Company.

Spoiler: Spoilers because there might be players here, gasp!

They changed Krezk from a vibrant trading town and commerce hub to a paranoid place where, because almost nobody goes outside the walls, they survive on wolf meat and wine. They turned Vallaki into a "Happiness is Mandatory, Friend Citizen!" location, instead of location where sinister arcane secrets can be found.

They included things that had never been in Ravenloft before, such as fallen angels and rocs. And dusk elves.

They included an arcanaloth as just a mere CR-appropriate guardian, ignoring not only lore about how fiends work in Ravenloft, but also the presence of Inajira and Strahd's rivalry with him. They also forgot about Lyssa von Zorovich.

They gave Tatyana and Sergei a happy ending.

They included stupid joke names in the crypts ("Sir Klutz Tripalotsky: He fell on his own sword").

Yeah, I know it's an adventure and not a setting guide, but it felt very wrong and was quite a shock. Since I've read CoS, I'm prepared for the changes they're making, but I imagine I'll have to make quite a lot myself.

 

[Faolyn]

Just wonder if everyone here will be as forgiving when they do Dark Sun without the slavery, psionics and Muls. Or Spelljammer without crystal spheres, the weird gravity, phlogiston, or the magical helms
Of it's just Ravenloft that must be rewriten because its wrongbadfun

I doubt they'll have Dark Sun without slavery--they just will give Muls the ability to breed true and make them a race of their own. And since they're not likely to have psionics as a separate system and instead will almost certainly continue with psionic subclasses like they've been doing, I think people will be used to that if/when they release DS.

They've already released a Spelljammer helm in... I think it was Dungeon of the Mad Mage. So that's in. And considering how many people (myself not included) think they should just combine Spelljammer with planar travel and stick crystal spheres in the Astral, I don't think there will be as much blowback as you fear. As long as they remember to include giant space hamsters, of course.