D&D 5E Everything We Know About The Ravenloft Book

Parmandur · May 9, 2021

Eubani said:
I find only two sub classes (and of course they are both for spell casters) and no feats to be a bit half assed. More stat blocks fore NPC's would of been useful as well.

The Dark Gifts are de facto Feats, if not de jure, if you look at them. Most people don't use the Feat rule, anyways. Most of the Setting books tend to have only 2 or 3 Subclasses.

JEB · May 10, 2021

Thanks for the info, @Remathilis.

That also confirms it - reboot, not an evolution of the same Ravenloft. Long-time fans need to keep that in mind, they're not really looking to appeal to you, just new folks.

Guess you can always rationalize some kind of cosmic reboot, though, if you want to consider those now-invalidated cross-setting stories (like Die Vecna Die) canon. (As mentioned before, I'd go with the Time of Unparalleled Darkness as the cause.)

Faolyn · May 10, 2021

JEB said:
Thanks for the info, @Remathilis.

That also confirms it - reboot, not an evolution of the same Ravenloft. Long-time fans need to keep that in mind, they're not really looking to appeal to you, just new folks.

Guess you can always rationalize some kind of cosmic reboot, though, if you want to consider those now-invalidated cross-setting stories (like Die Vecna Die) canon. (As mentioned before, I'd go with the Time of Unparalleled Darkness as the cause.)

Fortunately, such things are built into the setting right from the Black Box beginning:

Combined with the Dark Power's ability to create false histories, yeah. Everything that happened below was but a nightmare... or perhaps what's happening now is the nightmare.

Remathilis · May 10, 2021

JEB said:
Thanks for the info, @Remathilis.

That also confirms it - reboot, not an evolution of the same Ravenloft. Long-time fans need to keep that in mind, they're not really looking to appeal to you, just new folks.

Guess you can always rationalize some kind of cosmic reboot, though, if you want to consider those now-invalidated cross-setting stories (like Die Vecna Die) canon. (As mentioned before, I'd go with the Time of Unparalleled Darkness as the cause.)

It is but it isn't. A clever DM could create a Grand Conjunction 2: Electric Boogaloo method of explaining a lot of it. But some of it is pure retool and you're going to struggle with "that isn't how it was before". And surprisingly, some of it does resemble what it always looked like. And others feel like a metaplot waiting to happen (hello Darkon/Azalin).

I will say this, longtime fans will appreciate the nods to the old setting materials scattered in the plot hooks and adventure sites; they did do thier homework. I would not be surprised if nearly every prior darklord isn't referenced or name-dropped somewhere in that book, and that was on a very casual perusal.

Is it going to be for everyone? Probably not. If you were very strongly tied to the status quo or the later 2e/3e metaplot, you won't be a fan. However, I will say the featured domains really do feel like there is a story going on beyond "escape before the Darklord notices". They make you want to explore them, which wasn't something I got from the Classic Dementieu, for example.

I recommend giving it a reading before making final judgement. It really does feel like a new beast stitched lovingly together with the choice pieces of the old, familiar yet unknown.

Faolyn · May 10, 2021

Remathilis said:
I recommend giving it a reading before making final judgement. It really does feel like a new beast stitched lovingly together with the choice pieces of the old, familiar yet unknown.

A setting golem, if you will.

Kurotowa · May 10, 2021

Remathilis said:
I recommend giving it a reading before making final judgement. It really does feel like a new beast stitched lovingly together with the choice pieces of the old, familiar yet unknown.

Maybe it's because of my overlap with other fandoms, but the idea of Ravenloft being mostly a reboot (unless you don't want it to be) that combines old favorites with repurposed callbacks with the completely new is ...honestly about what I expected. It's what Marvel is doing with their movies. It's what the new She-Ra did, and what every new TMNT and Transformers series does. It's basically the standard playbook these days. Direct sequels reviving decades old properties can happen, but they're the exception not the rule.

You keep all the best bits, you retool the stuff that has potential but didn't quite click the first time, and you ditch the bits that are embarrassingly outdated. I mean, isn't that the 5e ethos for everything, both rules and settings? Besides, having a metaplot that advances with new supplement releases is so 90s.

JEB · May 10, 2021

Kurotowa said:
I mean, isn't that the 5e ethos for everything, both rules and settings?

I can't vouch for Eberron 5E (not familiar enough to know what changed, if anything), but Forgotten Realms 5E had been pretty good about updating, rather than rebooting, their setting. Granted, many of the 5E changes were just reversions to older editions' status quo... but they never pretended that, say, the Spellplague never happened at all. They fixed what they perceived as problems, rather than starting from scratch. (Similar to the approach Marvel Comics tends to take - Secret Wars 2015 being an exception.)

Hard to say what gave them a different perspective on Ravenloft than the Realms. Was Ravenloft determined to just be too broken, and reboot was the only marketable choice? Has their stance on maximizing appeal to both new and veteran fans changed? Are they just gambling that Ravenloft fans are less likely to be upset by sweeping retcons than Realms fans? Who knows?

Parmandur · May 10, 2021

JEB said:
I can't vouch for Eberron 5E (not familiar enough to know what changed, if anything), but Forgotten Realms 5E had been pretty good about updating, rather than rebooting, their setting. Granted, many of the 5E changes were just reversions to older editions' status quo... but they never pretended that, say, the Spellplague never happened at all. They fixed what they perceived as problems, rather than starting from scratch. (Similar to the approach Marvel Comics tends to take - Secret Wars 2015 being an exception.)

Hard to say what gave them a different perspective on Ravenloft than the Realms. Was Ravenloft determined to just be too broken, and reboot was the only marketable choice? Has their stance on maximizing appeal to both new and veteran fans changed? Are they just gambling that Ravenloft fans are less likely to be upset by sweeping retcons than Realms fans? Who knows?

As pointed out above, Ravenloft as a Setting has retconning baked in, with the Dark Powers and the deceptive nature of reality in the Mists.

Paul Farquhar · May 10, 2021

Remathilis said:
MORE? Ok...

Chaluna is a werepanther who challenged the former rule Von Karhov and WON. He isn't a vampire, but more of an evil T'Challa

I saw that one coming.

humble minion · May 10, 2021

Parmandur said:
As pointed out above, Ravenloft as a Setting has retconning baked in, with the Dark Powers and the deceptive nature of reality in the Mists.

Frankly, that whole 'false history' concept was a pain in the posterior when 2e/3e did it, and if they were going to reboot I wish it was one thing they entirely did away with. It's cheap and metagamey and clearly has its origin more in poorly coordinated writing back in the TSR days than any attempt to make a playable setting. Aside from making (for instance) History proficiency damn near meaningless, it centres the setting even more tightly around the darklords, which i think would be the last thing you'd want if you're writing a more general campaign setting than a one-off CoS type long adventure.

D&D 5E Everything We Know About The Ravenloft Book

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