Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Announced, Release Date Scheduled for June 2026

Charlaquin · 2026-03-04T05:25:52+0000

Dire Bare said:
Nancy Drew is the unknowing and unwitting darklord of a domain, solving mysteries without end, with each mystery "solved" her world gets darker, more people die . . . and then her rivals, the Hardy brothers, return to torment her further . . . I see it somewhat like the movie "Pleasantville".

Honestly, that fits the vibe a lot better than Cthulhu as a Darklord.

LuisCarlos17f · 2026-03-04T05:44:07+0000

The surprise for me is the return of lupines as PC specie. We know the ~~therian~~ "furry" playable species are wellcome in 5e.

The dark gift "second gift" could be interesting for storytelling effects. Let's imagine the surprise in the face of the citizens when these discover that kind gentleman isn't a true human but a construct.

Lovecraft's work is public domain, isn't it? There are Lovecraftian monsters in Paizo's Pathfinder. Cosmic horror hasn't to be always only Chulthu. Let's remember the ancient brain, dark lord of Bluespur or the forgotten dark lord of Shadow Rift. A cobra-dragon could be the leader of a secret cult of Yig. A brainstealer in Ravenloft could be a true nightmare for the players who are more focused into investigation than combat. There is also space for infernal dragons, or even for a hex-dragon.

* Wouldn't you like abysal genasi and infernal dragonborn as Ravenloft PC species?

* It is curious because the action-live teleserie of Nancy Drew had got supernatural elements, and not only ghosts. I imagine her more like the torment of the true dark lord.

* Has anybody played "Crisol: Threater of Idols"? You can watch the gameplay in youtube. I mean that videogame could be a source of inspiration for a dark domain.

The monsters from Resident Evil franchise were designed to face PC with firearms. To be "guest stars" in Ravenloft should be "nerferd", do you agree?

* Maybe the dark domain of Kalidnay(Dark Sun) returns, at least one paragraph

* The weak point of Ravenloft is to be a "too small space" to be place of confrontation of supernatural factions (vampire lodges, theriantrope tribes, spellcasters' guilds..).

Virgo · 2026-03-04T14:49:01+0000

It's been a very long time since I've kept up with all the additions to D&D. That being said, has an 'official' Cartomancer class ever been created? Or does the skill still only classify as a feat?

Parmandur · 2026-03-04T15:02:02+0000

Charlaquin said:
Right, but I don’t want the Cthulhu Mythos to cross over with Ravenloft. I think both are better as their own things. We’ve established this already.

Fair enough, but at the same time the Mythos being integrated with Ravenloft is at least material that is not repeating the last Ravenloft book, and it fits as well here as anywhere IMO.

Parmandur · 2026-03-04T15:03:00+0000

Virgo said:
It's been a very long time since I've kept up with all the additions to D&D. That being said, has an 'official' Cartomancer class ever been created? Or does the skill still only classify as a feat?

The latest Ebrrron book has an Artificer with travel based magic abilities tied to map making.

SkidAce · 2026-03-04T15:41:00+0000

Kurotowa said:
I've watched some videos by an artist going over character designs from various video games, like Marvel Rivals and Pokemon. Actually there's a lot of people doing those sorts of videos now, but she's got some actual schooling and brings up things like color theory and shape meaning. And it's the latter that matters here.

Her mantra is that rounded curves are friend shaped, rectangles signify strength, and triangles mean danger. One villain after another has pointy bits all over their design to drive home that this is something dangerous and menacing.

So I'm not surprised that vampires often get pointy ears to go with the pointy teeth, the better to show that "This is a predator, beware of it."

Its the relationship to bats I tell yah...

Whizbang Dustyboots · 2026-03-04T15:58:11+0000

Virgo said:
It's been a very long time since I've kept up with all the additions to D&D. That being said, has an 'official' Cartomancer class ever been created? Or does the skill still only classify as a feat?

Just a feat in Book of Many Things, as far as I know. But I believe several respected third party publishers have done their takes.

Stormonu · 2026-03-04T16:10:52+0000

Charlaquin said:
The same could be said of Nancy Drew, that doesn’t mean she would be a good choice to include in the book.

I would not be surprised if the Weathermay-Foxgrove twins were based on her.

Charlaquin · 2026-03-04T16:14:40+0000

Stormonu said:
I would not be surprised if the Weathermay-Foxgrove twins were based on her.

She is likely one of the inspirations behind them, along with other literary mystery-solving children. As well it should be! Creating original characters with diverse influences is much better than directly copy-pasting existing characters, especially when those characters have to basically be re-written to fit into your setting anyway.

Whizbang Dustyboots · 2026-03-04T16:17:38+0000

Charlaquin said:
She is likely one of the inspirations behind them, along with other literary mystery-solving children. As well it should be! Creating original characters with diverse influences is much better than directly copy-pasting existing characters, especially when those characters have to basically be re-written to fit into your setting anyway.

Oh god, now I want to create a magocracy domain menaced by a snake-themed lich Dark Lord who is doomed to get defeated by students at a wizard school every few generations.