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.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

No, because that's only one example of Ravenloft not being as real serious and look at my scars emo as people are remembering it through their nostalgia goggles.

I do think there tends to be a lots of "just look at how tragic my character is, aren't they cool" when it comes to 2e Ravenloft. As I mentioned earlier, that was very much a 90s thing, people trying to outdo each other with how grimdark they can get.

Not something that is popular amongst folk who did not grow up in the 90s*. I found my players hated the very idea of Ravenloft, several of them reporting bad experiences. I was able to win them over with Hammer Horror tropes and the sense that the good guys could win. They play D&D to be cheered up, not depressed.

*And, as someone who grew up in the 80s, I loved the original two adventures (both of which were written in a way that the PCs were expected to win), but hated the 2e boxed set and grimdark railroad adventures.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

We are definitely not on the same page on these

Yeah, all of those books have extremely evocative covers to me, rather than the same homogenised 5E art that has more in common with YA literature.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I didn't find this at all. Paladins are especially screwed in Ravenloft as they are singled it as attracting the ire of the place. Were you using the class changes and the altered turn undead tables?

Please keep in mind it seems a lot of these people responding are very unfamiliar with how a Ravenloft campaign was played, so likely no.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

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)

The TSR managers actually tried to get the Ravenloft design team to make it "more mature" after World of Darkness was released but the designers refused.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah, all of those books have extremely evocative covers to me, rather than the same homogenised 5E art that has more in common with YA literature.

Good covers, terrible literature.

As I said, I suspect this cover hasn't been given much attention because they expect most sales to be digital, and digital covers don't matter.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

That is fair on multiple counts. Most of my Ravenloft gaming was from 1991 to mid-2000s before Teiflings were a common thing for PCs, and I never adopted them or things like Dragonborn. And when I run Ravenloft now I exclusively use the 2E rules (I did used to run it with 3E, but I found the system doesn't quite for the setting enough for me).

I did run some weekend in hells initially (the issue with it was I just wanted to run Ravenloft so didn't see the point in making it an occasional venture). Even in those though, I would have avoided monstrous races. All that said, sometimes you accommodate people. I had a player who really wanted to be a deep gnome and allowed it. But most parties in my Ravenloft campaigns were 90% human

I actually am pro-tieflings for Ravenloft campaigns, I think they work for the atmosphere. But they shouldn't have a uniform appearance and be the sort of 5E Draenei ripoff that they have become. It should be more like 2E Planescape tieflings, complete with the wide variety of appearances.

Dragonborn, on the other hand, not without heavy modification.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The TSR managers actually tried to get the Ravenloft design team to make it "more mature" after World of Darkness was released but the designers refused.

"More mature" meaning "more grimdark".

 

[QuentinGeorge]

No, because that's only one example of Ravenloft not being as real serious and look at my scars emo as people are remembering it through their nostalgia goggles.

My introduction to the setting was an official novel about and evil cat man in a hilarious swing and a miss at both Jekyll and Hyde and Beauty and the Beast.

The entire premise is a bunch of DM expies torturing the villains from other settings or implied setting for funsies. It was D&D fanfiction: the setting. 'dude, what if Lord Soth hung out and was sad at people in a time loop?'

It was never a 'serious' setting. There were never any 'serious' settings* in D&D because D&D is goofy as hell.

Maybe some people played it serious (or the kind of 'serious' high schoolers think they're being when they're being cringefully hilarious), but that was thier problem and it'd be nice to not have it made the rest of the world's problem when they're trying to enjoy their weekend in ironic hell.

*yes, even that one. Especially that one. Cannibal halflings indeed.

Look, you could have just said "I don't understand the setting", it's ok to admit that.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But they shouldn't have a uniform appearance

That was a 4e idiocy, and is being rolled back somewhat. But "tieflings should have a wide range of appearences" is true of any D&D, not specific to Ravenloft.

Ravenloft has a wide range of domains. Barovia is human dominated, but other domains are not, and in the days of the core, inter-domain trade should have made other races a familiar sight.

And I see no reason to treat "Tolkienesque" races any different from other non-humans. And elf is just as non-human as a tabaxi, and as for warforged, "don't mind him, he is from Lamordia".

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Yeah, all of those books have extremely evocative covers to me, rather than the same homogenised 5E art that has more in common with YA literature.

But could you say these are Ravenloft without huge RAVENLOFT on the cover?