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]

I must admit for me, it's a stale trope that hurts a long term Ravenloft game. The players quickly figure out the people of the land hate them, so they are less inclined to help them. You might get a few bleeding heart X-Men types, but most players get tired of not being able to enter town for supplies or creature comforts like food and a warm bed and they decide that the peasants aren't worth helping, let them suffer with their dark lord, I'm looking for a way home. And once you've trained your players to ignore NPCs, you've lost a huge swath of adventure hooks.

Moreover, I have grown distasteful of every village and town being a Sundown town and leaning on the racist and xenophobic tropes that brings. I will occasionally use a community with that sort of viewpoint as an adventure seed, but the vast majority of people in Ravenloft aren't inherently afraid of elves or goliaths (or they don't immediately retreat to hate and violence, an elves gold spends like anyone else's, and sometimes you gotta go along to get along.)

Further, it matters what domain you're in. Barovia might be insular and superstitious, but I would assume the more cosmopolitan Dementlieu is less so. Darkon certainly isn't, and a domain like Valachan has more important things to worry about than the elves' skin color. If you aren't a panther or a vampire, you're ok in their eyes.

But mostly, I moved away from Ravenloft being hardcore xenophobic because that ruins the fun of the setting. It's what I meant about "meat grinder" mode: running Ravenloft where there is no respite, no victory larger than your immediate survival, nothing worth fighting for other than your own skin. For an evening of terror (pop in, pop out) that's fine, but for a long game that's exhausting. So I run my Ravenloft dark, but a little less grim. It helps keep my players engaged and wanting to explore the dark places when there are still points of light worth fighting for.

Yep, I’ve trended more in later RL games of portraying it as a more Victorian setting not too different from a Hammer Horror setting but with less emphasis on the xenophobia and more like an scientific/industrial society bumping up against one that still has superstitions and dark legends that the city folk would like to pretend don’t exist anymore. It’s still a little tough with some of the character species to wrap my brain around it but that’s my hang up.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I must admit for me, it's a stale trope that hurts a long term Ravenloft game. The players quickly figure out the people of the land hate them, so they are less inclined to help them. You might get a few bleeding heart X-Men types, but most players get tired of not being able to enter town for supplies or creature comforts like food and a warm bed and they decide that the peasants aren't worth helping, let them suffer with their dark lord, I'm looking for a way home. And once you've trained your players to ignore NPCs, you've lost a huge swath of adventure hooks.

Moreover, I have grown distasteful of every village and town being a Sundown town and leaning on the racist and xenophobic tropes that brings. I will occasionally use a community with that sort of viewpoint as an adventure seed, but the vast majority of people in Ravenloft aren't inherently afraid of elves or goliaths (or they don't immediately retreat to hate and violence, an elves gold spends like anyone else's, and sometimes you gotta go along to get along.)

Further, it matters what domain you're in. Barovia might be insular and superstitious, but I would assume the more cosmopolitan Dementlieu is less so. Darkon certainly isn't, and a domain like Valachan has more important things to worry about than the elves' skin color. If you aren't a panther or a vampire, you're ok in their eyes.

But mostly, I moved away from Ravenloft being hardcore xenophobic because that ruins the fun of the setting. It's what I meant about "meat grinder" mode: running Ravenloft where there is no respite, no victory larger than your immediate survival, nothing worth fighting for other than your own skin. For an evening of terror (pop in, pop out) that's fine, but for a long game that's exhausting. So I run my Ravenloft dark, but a little less grim. It helps keep my players engaged and wanting to explore the dark places when there are still points of light worth fighting for.

There is another thread on Sleepy Hollow. The Tim Burton movie version is pretty much how I usually tackle Ravenloft. You have the gothic atmosphere. You have the monsters, ghosts and witches. But you also have a regular plot that the protagonists can engage with and have a reasonable expectation of prevailing against and bringing about a good ending.

 

[Remathilis]

Yep, I’ve trended more in later RL games of portraying it as a more Victorian setting not too different from a Hammer Horror setting but with less emphasis on the xenophobia and more like an scientific/industrial society bumping up against one that still has superstitions and dark legends that the city folk would like to pretend don’t exist anymore. It’s still a little tough with some of the character species to wrap my brain around it but that’s my hang up.

I mean, I'd be hard pressed to justify a thrikreen or plasmoid, but most of the stuff in the PHB (new or old) and Mordenkainen would work.

 

[Remathilis]

There is another thread on Sleepy Hollow. The Tim Burton movie version is pretty much how I tackle Ravenloft. You have the gothic atmosphere. You have the monsters, ghosts and witches. But you also have a regular plot that the protagonists can engage with and have a reasonable expectation of prevailing against and bringing about a good ending.

Absolutely. My Ravenloft is inspired by Sleepy Hollow, the Magnus Archives, Castlevania and Penny Dreadfuls.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I tend to run it more in the style of hammer and gothic horror in mind

For me having the demihumans be held in suspicion works better for the feel. But keep in mind even the black box said a simple disguise can usually get around the issue. But I think having the demihumans viewed this way (which isn't universal in the setting but is present) reinforces the idea of easily terrified villagers overacting. But more importantly it allows for thing like Drakov's Falkovnia (this is really the culmination of it in my view). Which admittedly is dark, but I think emotionally impactful and fitting for a horror setting. Ravenloft wasn't anywhere near as edgy as Vampire, and it was proudly a kind of square horror setting. But you still need some rough edges here or there, or to me it starts to become more like the toned down, kid friendly horror (nothing wrong with that stuff, it just isn't what I am interested in when it comes to Ravenloft)

 

[TiQuinn]

Absolutely. My Ravenloft is inspired by Sleepy Hollow, the Magnus Archives, Castlevania and Penny Dreadfuls.

Damn, man. I wanna play in your game. Throw in Hammer and those are tonally the same influences I try to use, particularly Magnus.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Damn, man. I wanna play in your game. Throw in Hammer and those are tonally the same influences I try to use, particularly Magnus.

The Tim Burton Sleepy Hollow takes a lot of inspiration from Hammer for the look of the film.

 

[Azzy]

If I could fix one thing in that pic it would be the (lol) Orc.

For me, it's the girl that looks (with different hair) like an ex-girlfriend of mine. It's just uncanny.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

For me, it's the girl that looks (with different hair) like an ex-girlfriend of mine. It's just uncanny.

Doppelgangers confirmed!

 

[Bedrockgames]

Ah yes, the peasants who can't handle a couple zombies in the graveyard and are begging for help suddenly become Seal Team Six when a group of non-Tokien adventurers enter the village. [emoji849]

I do think the perception that they are monsters would be fair. But I also don't think a party of adventurers are going to be taken down by angry villagers in most cases. Also these people are afraid and not looking to find monsters. So the reaction isn't necessarily going to be instant mob forming to hunt down the party. If they think they're masters, the people will likely close their doors, shutter their windows and avoid drawing the player characters attention (just like they wouldn't charge out into the street and take on a vampire or werewolf)