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]

lol what module was that from?

It was from the Bride of Mordenheim adventure in Book of Crypts

 

[Bedrockgames]

This was one of the great issues with 2e: a mismatch of expectations between 1e style dungeon lethality and 2e's focus on metaplot and story driven adventures. They would put you on these incredibly intricate narratives and then kill you with splinters in a door. Which is why a 2e aged, more and more "help the PCs survive" mechanics were added.

I've been running Ravenloft using 2E again for some time, and I think the best way is to avoid metaplot, still focus on story but be open to character death when it happens

 

[Bedrockgames]

The secret is that Ravenloft is not horror, it is horror-tinged dark fantasy. If you think of Ravenloft with an eye towards fantasy tropes mixed with elements of gothic (and other) horror rather than a horror RPG, Ravenloft works great.

This I would disagree with with very strongly. Ravenloft was definitely horror. I will agree if we are talking Domains of Dread, they shifted that dial back towards dark fantasy, and later editions also kept the dial more at Dark Fantasy, but from black box to red, I found it to very much be a horror game set in a world with fantasy elements. Even the fantasy felt distinctly non-medieval (the setting was always schizophrenic but from the art to the actual setting content, it often felt more grounded in hammer studio 18th and 19th century locations

Now it is still D&D. So it is D&D and horror. But I think that is different from horror tinged dark fantasy. I ran it purely as a horror setting and it works great

 

[TiQuinn]

It was from the Bride of Mordenheim adventure in Book of Crypts

Ohhhh yeah. Yeah, that was one of the worst ones.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Ohhhh yeah. Yeah, that was one of the worst ones.

It certainly has its issues, but I have to admit I rather enjoy it when I run it. I did a kind of retrospective review of the book a while back: CLASSIC RAVENLOFT ADVENTURES: BOOK OF CRYPTS PART ONE

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think doing a horror setting was just an obvious choice for the 2E era, with its full press on varied settings. Regardless of which one came out first, there was a strong rivalry between those two lines (and there were moments in the 90s, where it felt like Ravenloft was trying to do things to keep up with white wolf). I remember having quite the chip on my shoulder towards White Wolf, even though I was in regular Vampire campaigns

It was the zeitgeist of the early 90s. Personally, I could have done without all the grimdarkness, since my real life was pretty rough at the time. That’s when I switched to FASA Star Trek RPG.

 

[Von Ether]

Clown shoes.

You mean dangerous clown shoes?

In our local meta, dangerous clown shoes means a magic item that looks silly or goes against the look of strong heroic character but offers a strong bonus or magical ability.

Usually only two types of players endure using dangerous clown shoes. Either those min/maxers who can't resist the bonus/magic and will wear those clown shoes to get it, or silly player who love the idea of their PC wearing the clown shoes and the bonus is just icing on the cake.

I am amused everyone is talking Ravenloft's changes and Masque of the Red Death is just sitting here unchanged and probably more in line as a D&D horror game anyway.

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

 

[Von Ether]

It was the zeitgeist of the early 90s. Personally, I could have done without all the grimdarkness, since my real life was pretty rough at the time. That’s when I switched to FASA Star Trek RPG.

Loved that RPG, love the wargame "simulator" even more. It gave one a taste of ST fleet battles but could be wrapped up in couple of hours.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I think it was mismatched enough in 2E where 0HP meant dead and level drain was still a thing, but in 5E you have so many tools.

These two things, among some other features of that system, really make a difference. Things like level drain were utterly terrifying to players in AD&D

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I am amused everyone is talking Ravenloft's changes and Masque of the Red Death is just sitting here unchanged and probably more in line as a D&D horror game anyway.

The 2nd edition box set and the 2nd edition rules are still sitting there too. But the scary thing about change if the fear that the world is leaving you behind.