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.

 

[Scribe]

Asi are, howevrr, bad and boring design

Subjective.

getting rid of them is getting tid of glaring flaw in the game

Subjective.

ehich is objectively good.

Not objective at all.

 

[JEB]

The new Ravenloft novel had ASI in it? Wouldn't have expected that to be relevant to this topic.

 

[Scribe]

The new Ravenloft novel had ASI in it? Wouldn't have expected that to be relevant to this topic.

To be fair, we are 44 pages into a topic on a novel COVER and marketing blurb...we are adrift.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Subjective.



Subjective.



Not objective at all.

Getting rid of bad drsign is objectively good design. We may disagree what is bad design, but getting rid of bad is objectively good. So if I believe ASI were bad, which they are and always have ben...

 

[Scribe]

So if I believe ASI were bad, which they are and always have ben...

You have a subjective opinion. Yes.

If I believe ASI were good, which they are and always have been...I too have a subjective opinion.

 

[JEB]

Getting rid of bad drsign is objectively good design. We may disagree what is bad design, but getting rid of bad is objectively good. So if I believe ASI were bad, which they are and always have ben...

I mean, I would hope they don't include ASI rules in a novel. Would kind of ruin the flow as you read. Maybe as an appendix or something? Like those D&D comics with the character sheets in the back.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

You have a subjective opinion. Yes.

If I believe ASI were good, which they are and always have been...I too have a subjective opinion.

You are entitled to your wrong opinion.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

In the right hands the dragons can be very dreadful. We have got the brainstealer dragon, but also the linnords, enough smart to create their own Lovecraftian cults, and the forgotten planar dragons from the lower planes.

WotC doesn't worry too much Ravenloft was pure gothic horror but to be sold enoughly. If players want action-horror style "Resident Evil" movie then it will be like this.

There are several horror settings by 3PPs. If you want you can create a mash-up for you own game. What about "Shadows over Vathak" by Fat Gobling Games, the lost Citadel by Green Ronin or Obsidian Apocalypse by LPJ Design?

It is like saying "this has to be like a heavy-metal song" but "what metal subgenre"?


* Dark Fantasy is when the hero can defeat the evil lord, horror is when the main goal is the survival.

* Do you know the Japanese horror+comedy movie "Hausu"? Yes, it is very bizzare. It is not gothic at all, but it may be Ravenloft, or source of inspiration for a new domain.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

There are several horror settings by 3PPs. If you want you can create a mash-up for you own game. What about "Shadows over Vathak" by Fat Gobling Games, the lost Citadel by Green Ronin or Obsidian Apocalypse by LPJ Design?

I also like Grim Hollow and Drakkenheim when we're speaking of 3PP Dark Fantasy.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Again the tone of the image is sinister, the color palette evokes something dark

Good points about the tone an palette. But I find that when you start talking about "tone" in art or literature people find it even less comprehensible than quantum entanglement.

The new book cover just doesn't look like horror or gothic horror to me, and doesn't look like a good fit for ravenloft.

The top half definitely is Gothic - compare it to the Castle of Otranto cover I posted earlier. The bottom half is definitely not gothic. The bright colour palette is one feature that jumps out. Now, as @Not a Decepticon says, this is probably intentional, and is meant to indicate that the story is Heroic Fantasy meets Gothic Horror (compare Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein). The problem is, the picture fails to achieve the "meets" part - it just looks like two separate images slapped together. If I had been doing it, I would have added mist and shadows around the legs of the party, indicating Ravenloft trying to get hold and corrupt them (and also hiding the confusing jumble of legs).

Of course, personal taste aside, Ravenloft doesn't have to be either gothic or horror. It is much more flexible than that.