Wes Schneider Is the Product Lead for Ravenloft: The Horrors Within

Wes Schneider was confirmed to be the product lead for Ravenloft: The Horrors Within in a recent panel at Gary Con. Over the weekend, Wizards of the Coast hosted a panel discussion about the past and future of Dungeons & Dragons featuring much of the current game leadership and Luke Gygax. While discussing the upcoming Ravenloft: The Horrors Within rulebook, D&D game design director Justice Ramin Arman stated that Wes Schneider was the product lead for the book. Schneider notably was the product lead for the last Ravenloft book Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft notably updated the lore of Ravenloft, with different Domains of Dread shifting to focus on different genres of horror. While it's unclear whether that change is being reversed or fleshed out further, the new Ravenloft book will notably include statblocks for the various Darklords, something that Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft curiously lacked.

Ravenloft: The Horrors Within will be released on June 16th.

 

[Stormonu]

What did you dislike about Har'Akir changes? Personally I'd have explicitly linked it to Mulhorand in FR. And I loved the Domain is constantly gaslighting adventurers with new ruin and relics from a contradictory history that never happened, like the Domain is aware and having a sick laugh at the expense of the Archeologists and historians trying to understand it's history, but also creating magic items and treasures with a fake history to them. The Domain should just wreck havoc with legend lore spells.

The art mainly. I prefer the classic Boris Karloff or Brendan Fraiser look (1st two movies only). The Van Richten's looks like Ankhtepot stepped off the stage of Stargate (the movie, not the TV series).

There was a female mummy (Tetnya?), but for the life of me I can't find her entry. She was a later addition to Har'Akir and I found her to be more interesting - she was a mummy who ate the heart of her lovers to keep herself beautiful and I found that more interesting than the narcoleptic Ankhtepot.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There was a female mummy (Tetnya?), but for the life of me I can't find her entry.

Wasn't that the Tom Cruise movie?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The art mainly. I prefer the classic Boris Karloff or Brendan Fraiser look (1st two movies only)

I expect the artist was trying to avoid looking too cliché, because the "classic" look has been so often parodied (AKA the Scooby Doo look) that it's more likely to produce laughter than fear in the players. Although I would have changed his name to something that didn't sound like Tea Pot if I wanted him taken seriously.

Anyway, Wes Schneider is the product lead, not the art director, and we already know this book going to have a wide variety of art styles, so will probably include something for everyone to love and everyone to hate.

 

[Nilbog]

Think that could work really well! And i mean, ducks fit, come on. Did you know the quack of a vampiric duck has no echo?

Count Duckula says hello ( one for our UK peeps)

 

[Remathilis]

The art mainly. I prefer the classic Boris Karloff or Brendan Fraiser look (1st two movies only). The Van Richten's looks like Ankhtepot stepped off the stage of Stargate (the movie, not the TV series).

There was a female mummy (Tetnya?), but for the life of me I can't find her entry. She was a later addition to Har'Akir and I found her to be more interesting - she was a mummy who ate the heart of her lovers to keep herself beautiful and I found that more interesting than the narcoleptic Ankhtepot.

Darklords I think. She was her own domain lord and all three desert domains later formed a cluster. She's also covered in Domains of Dread. I think she lost her dark lord status in VRGR but kept the same story.

 

[Remathilis]

I have read this tired narrative quite a bit. Some of my groups favorite adventures since 5E came out were horror adventures. All modules off the DMs Guild of varying quality. Horror is an atmosphere that a decent DM can cultivate regardless of the system. Heroic or high fantasy does not preclude horror.

D&D really excels at Horror-themed Dark Fantasy. More Castlevania than Silent Hill. You can juice a more traditional horror style out of D&D, but I find it works best when it's doing D&D stuff in a horror background.

 

[Artamo]

The art mainly. I prefer the classic Boris Karloff or Brendan Fraiser look (1st two movies only). The Van Richten's looks like Ankhtepot stepped off the stage of Stargate (the movie, not the TV series).

There was a female mummy (Tetnya?), but for the life of me I can't find her entry. She was a later addition to Har'Akir and I found her to be more interesting - she was a mummy who ate the heart of her lovers to keep herself beautiful and I found that more interesting than the narcoleptic Ankhtepot.

Tiyet was the other one, and she was from the Darklords accessory - I also always dug her background.

My take on the Ankhtepot art is that I could choose to use it or not (I’ve never really used Ankhtepot but I don’t dislike the artist’s take on him.) With a character like that, I don’t feel like there needs to be a canon depiction of the character in the same way Soth has his bucket helm, or Elminster has he red robes and hat. The alternative is he’s a mummy, and I’ve got plenty of examples of those.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Tiyet was the other one, and she was from the Darklords accessory - I also always dug her background.

My take on the Ankhtepot art is that I could choose to use it or not (I’ve never really used Ankhtepot but I don’t dislike the artist’s take on him.) With a character like that, I don’t feel like there needs to be a canon depiction of the character in the same way Soth has his bucket helm, or Elminster has he red robes and hat. The alternative is he’s a mummy, and I’ve got plenty of examples of those.

This is a good point. A distinctive appearance is important for a character to be memorable.

Tea Pot did appear in the computer game Stone Prophet.

I don’t think this is how he appeared in the game. I have a vague recollection of a floating mummy wearing a crown or headdress of some kind, but you have to dodge him rather than fight him so I was too busy running away to get a good look.

 

[Alzrius]

There was a female mummy (Tetnya?), but for the life of me I can't find her entry. She was a later addition to Har'Akir and I found her to be more interesting - she was a mummy who ate the heart of her lovers to keep herself beautiful and I found that more interesting than the narcoleptic Ankhtepot.

That was Tiyet, the darklord of Sebua.

 

[Artamo]

Tea Pot did appear in the computer game Stone Prophet.

lol, Tea Pot!