Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd Cover, Synopsis Revealed

The cover and synopsis for Penguin Random House's new Dungeons & Dragons novel has been revealed. This week, Penguin Random House revealed the official title and cover for Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd, a new novel by Delilah S. Dawson. The new novel is due for release in April 2025. The new novel follows a group of adventurers who arrive in Barovia under mysterious circumstances and are summoned to Castle Ravenloft to dine with the infamous Count Strahd. This marks the first Ravenloft novel released in 17 years.

Penguin Random House has slowly grown its line of novels over the past few years, with novels set in Spelljammer, Dragonlance, and the Forgotten Realms released over the last year. Characters from The Fallbacks novel by Jaleigh Johnson also appears in art in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide.

The full synopsis for Heir of Strahd can be found below:

Five strangers armed with steel and magic awaken in a mist-shrouded land, with no memory of how they arrived: Rotrog, a prideful orcish wizard; Chivarion, a sardonic drow barbarian; Alishai, an embittered tiefling paladin; Kah, a skittish kenku cleric; and Fielle, a sunny human artificer.

After they barely survive a nightmarish welcome to the realm of Barovia, a carriage arrives bearing an invitation:

Fairest Friends,

I pray you accept my humble Hospitality and dine with me tonight at Castle Ravenloft. It is rare we receive Visitors, and I do so Endeavor to Make your Acquaintance. The Carriage shall bear you to the Castle safely, and I await your Arrival with Pleasure.

Your host,
Strahd von Zarovich

With no alternative, and determined to find their way home, the strangers accept the summons and travel to the forbidding manor of the mysterious count. But all is not well at Castle Ravenloft. To survive the twisted enigmas of Strahd and his haunted home, the adventurers must confront the dark secrets in their own hearts and find a way to shift from strangers to comrades—before the mists of Barovia claim them forever.

 

[TiQuinn]

What's wrong with the synopsis?

It’s just the module in novel format and sounds boring.

 

[Bedrockgames]

It’s just the module in novel format and sounds boring.

The premise really comes down to execution and feel. Part of my assessment of the synopsis is informed by what I have seen in recent years with Ravenloft and D&D in general, but it could be wrong. I am generally not a big fan off fan of books with lots of characters, I think with horror focus on one or two works better. But you can always pull it off like Dracula did. My sense from teh cover is they are going more for YA urban fantasy or a Josh Whedon type vibe (if my cultural referencee is out of date it is because I am out of date). It just doesn't signal the kind of classic gothic horror the other novels tended to go for (Jander Sunstars whining notwithstanding)

 

[Jaiken]

I have to admit this cover does not fit Ravenloft for me at all.

I think the woman on the left (the happy one) and the guy in the center definitely give it an odd tone for me. I'm an old Ravenloft fan so my taste are probably pretty out of date, but this is definitely not the vibe I look for in Ravenloft. I am much more accustomed to the human-centric setting so only having one human isn't quite my cup of tea for Ravenloft. Not saying the protagonists have to be human, monster rally can work in Ravenloft in my opinion if it is does well. But that aside, the big thing is the tone, the guy in front looks too strutty or something (there is just attitude in his step that seems out of sync with a horror novel----it is something I would maybe expect on a horror comedy cover but not a Ravenloft cover). Again I am old, but this is definitely not the kind of art that is going to be bring me into a Ravenlof novel

You are right you need more than one tone, but you also have to keep in mind Ravenloft was based on gothic horror. I know it is multi-genre horror now, but I think a person like me is coming to it with an expectation of heavy atmosphere, and not something so... triumphant looking. not really sure what word fits here, but it just doesn't work for me

just to contrast it with the expectation that the TSR era novels set for me, these are what typical 2E Ravenloft novel art looked like:

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These ones have a variety of colors, and subjects but they all manage to be sinister in some way. There is atmosphere I don't get from the new novel cover

I agree completely. The cover is not menacing nor fits the tone.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Is it intended to be horror in the first place? It doesn’t seem to say it anywhere. Strahd has always been within a whisker of comic parody.

 

[Gorck]

I hated the Volo's version, the only mimicry thing was a dumb retcon, 4e Kenku never had that issue. It caused all kinds of problem like by raw they couldn't actually cast spells.

I agree, but it did lead to an adorable NPC in campaign 2 of Critical Role.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Is it intended to be horror in the first place? It doesn’t seem to say it anywhere. Strahd has always been within a whisker of comic parody.

The old setting was definitely horror. It may have veered into Vincent Price territory on occasion and had jokes in the first module, but if you look at the description of the black box set, it is very atmospheric and emphasises the importance of the gothic horror influence. And the books were written as horror (which may or may not have landed in individual cases for people but horror was the clear aim

 

[ezo]

You know, at first glance, I thought she was a centaur:

Upper human torso.
Elongated equine body.
Two forelegs of the equine body.
(If you look closely, next to the lower right-hand ellipse, there even appears the lower part of an equine hind leg (rectangle)...)

Honestly, if I stare at it for a minute and my eyes glaze a bit... still looks like a centaur LOL!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The old setting was definitely horror. It may have veered into Vincent Price territory on occasion and had jokes in the first module, but if you look at the description of the black box set, it is very atmospheric and emphasises the importance of the gothic horror influence. And the books were written as horror (which may or may not have landed in individual cases for people but horror was the clear aim

The terrible Black Box set wasn’t the original, and one of its problems was it had no sense of humour whatsoever.

 

[toucanbuzz]

I have to mock it. Ravenloft was penned as a gothic horror setting where parties can pop into the nightmarish and circular "prisons" (domains) of really evil beings. Most of Barovia's denizens are soulless shadow shades created by the Land to torture Strahd as he rules over nothing real and can't "win" against his dead brother but believing in his arrogance he will somehow, an endless cycle that sustains the land. This cover summons to mind nothing dark, sinister, despairing, mocking, or anything except a dab of goofiness.

The guy in the middle looks like he's going out to the dance club with his latest accessories, the lady and kenku on the left as noted by @ezo made me do a double take at first thinking she was riding him or something and that's why she's so happy to be in virtual hell, the tiefling paladin is a cliche from my first D&D 5E game at GenCon ("look at my cool combo" and probably "they're really deeply tortured and emotional"), and the guy at the end is ordering two happy meals to go for him and whatever that is riding his shoulder that surely in no way will become comic relief.

 

[TiQuinn]

The premise really comes down to execution and feel. Part of my assessment of the synopsis is informed by what I have seen in recent years with Ravenloft and D&D in general, but it could be wrong. I am generally not a big fan off fan of books with lots of characters, I think with horror focus on one or two works better. But you can always pull it off like Dracula did. My sense from teh cover is they are going more for YA urban fantasy or a Josh Whedon type vibe (if my cultural referencee is out of date it is because I am out of date). It just doesn't signal the kind of classic gothic horror the other novels tended to go for (Jander Sunstars whining notwithstanding)

Yeah, I don't have a problem if the tone isn't gothic Horror per se, because even the Van Richten's Guide aimed to broaden the types of horror that Ravenloft can handle, but to @Remathilis point, it's just very samey samey stuff for Strahd. I dunno, it's not like I'm really the market for this book. I'd like to see the book do well so that hopefully they do more books and potentially different books.