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.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I found the VGR Carnival a great setting setting for a slasher horror adventure. I found gothic doesn’t really work, the tropes are too worn for the players to take seriously.

Slasher tropes are just as worn. I like both genres and think both genres work at the table just fine. Again your mileage may vary, but for me, the thing that made Ravenloft tick was the gothic setting

 

[Bedrockgames]

And as I’ve said before, as an old school Ravenloft fan, I think it’s great.

That is fair. I am old school as well and the thing I always appreciated about Ravenloft was its focus on gothic and classic horror. I do like other horror genres, just not for the Ravenloft setting (feels too broad)

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Slasher tropes are just as worn. I like both genres and think both genres work at the table just fine. Again your mileage may vary, but for me, the thing that made Ravenloft tick was the gothic setting

What would you say Smile/Lauraneversleeps/Smile 2's horror genre is or the Hellraiser series?

 

[Bedrockgames]

What would you say Smile/Lauraneversleeps/Smile 2's horror genre is or the Hellraiser series?

I still haven't seen the smile movies (been meaning to though). I iwll say I generally find newer horror movies less scary than older ones (but that is just me). I don't think how scary movies are is as much as bout tropes as thigns like film craft. The jump scare in Exorcist III is still effective even if you have been jaded by the large volume of jump scares in the past decade or so becasue it is so well crafted

How worn tropes are isn't really something I worry too much about. I was just making that point because slashers were brought up as an alternative. Hellraiser is worn just by how long it has been going I suppose. I don't think tropes being well known is an issue though. I suppose it depends on what you mean by Hell Praiser's tropes here. People get overly precious in my opinion about twisting tropes, keeping tropes fresh, but sometimes you just want a no BSD werewolf movie, or a film about demons sticking hooks in people. I like Hellraiser and don't really worry too much about how fresh its tropes are. Same with Gothic horror. I go to Ravenloft because I love Gothic horror movies and books, I want the gothic tropes (I'm not worried about how worn they are because they are still very effective at the table and they are what people in my Ravenloft campaigns want)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I found the VGR Carnival a great setting setting for a slasher horror adventure. I found gothic doesn’t really work, the tropes are too worn for the players to take seriously.

You could also merge it with or just swipe from Hit Point Press' Heckna mini-setting, which is set at a pretty horrific carnival.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hey, you know the cliché grognard rant about kids these days and their blue tieflings?

Well...between that cover and the latest PHB...I think its becoming a real thing. The delusions of basement troglodytes are becoming real!

If WotC's numbers are accurate -- and it'd be weird for them to lie about it, especially on investor calls -- the majority of D&D players ever are people who started playing with 5E. So yeah, they're going to cater to a younger crowd. It would be stupid of them not to.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Just comes off an more hominization of the settings. Everything samey. From Dragonlance to Ravenloft to Greyhawk.

I honestly can't wait to the modern version of Dark Sun. If you thought the GH Scarlet Brotherhood to Order was a weird change... just wait.

I still can't get passed Solomnic Knights not having facial hair. Just a weird flavor change IMO.

 

[ugavine]

That new cover makes me want to cry.

 

[Bedrockgames]

If WotC's numbers are accurate -- and it'd be weird for them to lie about it, especially on investor calls -- the majority of D&D players ever are people who started playing with 5E. So yeah, they're going to cater to a younger crowd. It would be stupid of them not to.

Sometimes though you can underestimate your audience. Maybe they jsut want blue teiflings. But this aesthetic is kind of overwhelmign. When Ravenloft first came out as a full setting I didn't know what I wanted twas a subdued gothic horror setting (I grew up on hammer and universal but I was happily consuming stuff like Friday the 13th, Hellraiser and Evil Dead at the time). But the book presented me with a setiting that didnt simply look like Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms , and encouraged me to read classic gothic novels. So they don't just have to spoin feed the audience things they have come to expect in every setting. What made that era of D&D special was the settings. And I think if there is anythign D&D and the new D&D audience can benefit from 2E today, it is the settings

ASorry for the typos, my Enworld is a bit screwy today

 

[Scribe]

Just comes off an more hominization of the settings. Everything samey. From Dragonlance to Ravenloft to Greyhawk.

I honestly can't wait to the modern version of Dark Sun. If you thought the GH Scarlet Brotherhood to Order was a weird change... just wait.

I still can't get passed Solomnic Knights not having facial hair. Just a weird flavor change IMO.

Pretty weird the market leader cannot create anything better than is back catalog and instead gets by trotting out the defiled corpses of past glory.

Major "how do you do fellow kids" energy with every retcon.