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.

 

[Sulicius]

The thing people have to understand is that players also want to have a slice of the horror pie. They love being Dr. Frankenstein, half-werewolf, quarter zombie.

Ravenloft gives them a chance to play a bit of the monster as well.

And yeah, for you that might be the opposite of what you want at the table. In that case, talk to your players (and DM) about what tone you enjoy. Maybe you get figure something out together. Just try to keep an open mind for what other players enjoy.

It is weird I have to explain this to people who are probably in the hobby twice or thrice as long as me; WotC doesn’t decide the lore or how you play at your table. Don’t grant them control over your fun. Focus on your game.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If some players want Ravenloft to be action-horror then the client is always right.

Maybe the influence of "World of Darkness" has been too strong for some players but the rejection shouldn't be the path. Ravenloft should allow the option of "monster" PCs who fight also against within darkness (but if they are stupid murder-hobos then the things are different).

I imagine 5.5 Ravenloft like the sequel of 2nd Ed because when Vecna escaped and used Azalin Rex for his revengue against the dark powers the core was shatered.

I miss the core region because this allowed confroctations between dark lords and factions from diffrent domains.

Archivist class is possible but we need some good reason because a divine spellcaster isn't wearing armour.

* 5e dark gifts are a "superpower" with a handicap. Second skin could be potentially interesting for storytelling when a character is hidding she is not really human, for example a warforged who looks totally human until he is hurt.

* What if traveling to the past to kill Strahd is useless because the creation of the demiplane of dread was allowed to avoid a worse disaster?

* What happened to the original Barovia in the material plane?

* I suspect we will see in the future some new linked to Innistrad and Duskmourn.

 

[Azzy]

Surf Dracula. Cruise Mummy.

Frankenstein also need one now.

Franken "Skatin'" Stein

 

[humble minion]

Franken "Skatin'" Stein

The BMX Behemoth....

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The BMX Behemoth....

Is that the Paragon Path for the BMX Bandit?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

A novel is a novel, D&D settings are not novels, they exist to be played.

If you want to read the novel it hasn’t gone anywhere, you can read it as many times as you like.

D&D settings exists to tell stories, that can be via game, novels, TV shows, movies, video games, etc...

 

[Henadic Theologian]

You know what a good model for slasher horror in Ravenloft? se7en. The killer isn’t after the PCs, the PCs are rushing around trying to track down the killer as they horribly kill NPCs. They have to stop them before they get to NPCs the players care about.

So much this.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I think Chronicles of Darkness does psychological horror better then D&D even could.

That being said horror can be done in D&D, its just requires understanding different kinds of horror and how to terrify someone who is powerful. A special forces soldier is a badass, but if that soldiers finds out you kidnapped his daughter whose his whole world and he can't find her, he's going to be scared. And the fear is going to grow greater if he starts magically sent her fingers one by one.

Creepy atmosphere can also create a sense of foreboding, you throw a fireball at a sense of creeping dread.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I wouldn't expect it--WotC is also making nice with Weis & Hickman, and they virulently oppose him ever having been in the Land of Mists. The sample pages for the forthcoming D&D encyclopedia contained the Lord Soth entry, and it's comprehensive and pulls from everything from the 1996 novel about his living days up to Dragons of a Vanished Moon--but it doesn't make any reference to him being in Ravenloft.

Hickman's influence on Ravenloft has been entirely negative since 1986 so no surprise there.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Hickman's influence on Ravenloft has been entirely negative since 1986 so no surprise there.

Hickman consulted on CoS, and he was right about how the writers of the 2nd edition boxed set interpreted the original two Ravenloft adventures completely wrong.

Weis, of course, was not involved in the creation of Ravenloft, but was clearly irritated by a character she created being taken in a direction she didn’t approve of for religious reasons.