Check Out This Early Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Artwork

As part of today's reveal of Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, Wizards of the Coast also released several pieces of early preview artwork for the new book. You can check the artwork out in all its full glory below:

And here's the cover artwork (by Anna Podedworna) and alternate cover artwork (by Pam Wishbow):

Ravenloft: The Horrors Within was one of several products announced today. You can find a full rundown here.

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[Parmandur]

He just doesn’t make sense as a darklord. What the heck would the dark powers even torment him with?

Guess we will find out.

Yes

But is it really...?

I6 is specific, the broader "Ravenloft" has always been a bit of a stew pot.

 

[Parmandur]

You know the best thing about the current Ravenloft lacking a Core is? You can absolutely ignore this if you want. Your players never go to Chthululand (or whatever his domain will be) and it exists like Schrodinger's Domain in the Mists.

That said, I am a little disappointed that, after VRGR took a firehose to all the overt IP ripoffs that Ravenloft was famous for, they literally import a major IP character wholesale. Dracula and Frankenstein are public domain too, yet we got heavily reworked versions of Strahd and Mordenheim to avoid them being Great Value Dracula and Frankenstein clones.

I mean, maybe they will have Frankenstein and Dracula in this book.

That would be, at least, not repeating material from Van Richten’s Guide.

 

[Charlaquin]

But is it really...?

Yes

I6 is specific, the broader "Ravenloft" has always been a bit of a stew pot.

It contains many domains featuring different types of horror that pastiche different familiar horror IPs. But there are specific common elements and internal consistency in how domains function. The dark powers take a domain from elsewhere in the multiverse, make them prisons for their dark lords, where they torment and are tormented in return in some “ironic punishment” type way. Can you force Cthulhu into that? Maybe, but either he or those common functions of Ravenloft will have to be distorted to the point of losing what makes them what they are. As is usually the issue with crossover slop.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That said, I am a little disappointed that, after VRGR took a firehose to all the overt IP ripoffs that Ravenloft was famous for, they literally import a major IP character wholesale. Dracula and Frankenstein are public domain too, yet we got heavily reworked versions of Strahd and Mordenheim to avoid them being Great Value Dracula and Frankenstein clones.

Got to consider the chronological order:

1. Cthulhu was added to the game.
2. Cthulhu was removed for copyright reasons.
3. Hickman writes a Dracula spoof called Ravenloft. He decides to change names.
4. TSR creates a World of Darkness competitor incorporating Hickman’s Dracula spoof. It adds in a lot of pastiches of classic horror novels and movies (including different takes on Dracula). Names are changed to protect the guilty.
5. Copywrite issues resolved, Cthulhu returns to D&D.

 

[SkidAce]

I seem to recall Deities & Demigods made them lawful neutral. That might be my memory playing tricks though. I used to have the original book, but I lost it decades ago. I couldn’t find an image of the original stat block on the net.

Here...

 

[Charlaquin]

I mean, maybe they will have Frankenstein and Dracula in this book.

Eew. Again, same problem. Strahd and Mordenheim work in Ravenloft because they aren’t Dracula and Dr Frankenstein. To bring those characters into Ravenloft in a way that felt authentic to Ravenloft, you would have to make them basically Strahd and Mordent.

 

[SkidAce]

So what? Ravenloft was always a collection of horror novel and movie pastiches, Cthulhu was always part of D&D, with an interruption due to copywrite issues. He is horror, so he gets filed under Ravenloft.

Cthulhu seems to "big" to be in Ravenloft (as is commonly depicted).

On the other hand, watch the movie Dagon, that's a good depiction of a "local" cosmic horror.

 

[Artamo]

Yes

It contains many domains featuring different types of horror that pastiche different familiar horror IPs. But there are specific common elements and internal consistency in how domains function. The dark powers take a domain from elsewhere in the multiverse, make them prisons for their dark lords, where they torment and are tormented in return in some “ironic punishment” type way. Can you force Cthulhu into that? Maybe, but either he or those common functions of Ravenloft will have to be distorted to the point of losing what makes them what they are. As is usually the issue with crossover slop.

So, I think the Dark Powers over all are taking a bit of a backseat and Ravenloft is becoming more about how to use D&D as a horror setting. That’s emblematic in the way that the VRGR really stressed the different types of horror, from Cosmic horror to Gothic horror to Slasher horror. Some of those lend themselves to the curse idea better than others. I would argue that from Day 1, while every darklord had a curse, some were a bit more cursed than others. Some barely had curses at all, or they were so underwhelming as to be footnotes. Others, it’s a core part of their being. Is the Elder Brain on Bluetspur really cursed, for instance? I would argue not really - at least not in anyway that distinguishes it from any other Elder Brain in any other D&D setting.

So yeah, I get that Cthulhu feels like a bolt-on part in Ravenloft. I personally probably would never use him. But it doesn’t bother me that he exists there as part of the game either.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I6 is specific, the broader "Ravenloft" has always been a bit of a stew pot.

A bit? More of a gumbo!

Can you name any Gothic horror story that was not thrown into the 2nd edition boxed pot?

 

[Artamo]

Cthulhu seems to "big" to be in Ravenloft (as is commonly depicted).

On the other hand, watch the movie Dagon, that's a good depiction of a "local" cosmic horror.

That was a solid B horror movie. I need to dig that up somewhere.