Ravenloft: The Horrors Within

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

Looks pretty awesome. A proper dark, bloody revival of Ravenloft, not the neutered one where most Darklords had no stat blocks and nobody had alignments. Not to mention all the weird gender-swaps of characters like Doctor Victor Mordernheim, Adam, or Vlad Drakov - quite an unnecessary change, when Ravenloft had quite a large number of female Darklords already. I was particularly annoyed that they replaced the super interesting Ulrich von Kharkov (a black Panther turned human, used as an unwilling assassin, gaining sentience, becoming a Vampire of the Khargat (Azalin's secret police) then gaining his own domain) with the really boring Chakuna.

I am surprised by Chtulhu being there, albeit more of a prisoner than a Darklord. And one of the artworks shows a Ythian! I think WotC did not use Lovecraftian mythos before, although they could have at any time, it is in the public domain - and Paizo used it a lot already.

The new player races are mostly ones we had before, but Lupins are interesting. Unlike the Mystara anthro Wolf-people these are a result of a botched infection of lycanthropy and have dread howl and unarmed attack abilities. I do like the artwork shown. Hope there will be minis too!

Also, finally a lupin race!!
Were they even used after 2E?
 

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Looks pretty awesome. A proper dark, bloody revival of Ravenloft, not the neutered one where most Darklords had no stat blocks and nobody had alignments. Not to mention all the weird gender-swaps of characters like Doctor Victor Mordernheim, Adam, or Vlad Drakov - quite an unnecessary change, when Ravenloft had quite a large number of female Darklords already. I was particularly annoyed that they replaced the super interesting Ulrich von Kharkov (a black Panther turned human, used as an unwilling assassin, gaining sentience, becoming a Vampire of the Khargat (Azalin's secret police) then gaining his own domain) with the really boring Chakuna.

I am surprised by Chtulhu being there, albeit more of a prisoner than a Darklord. And one of the artworks shows a Ythian! I think WotC did not use Lovecraftian mythos before, although they could have at any time, it is in the public domain - and Paizo used it a lot already.

The new player races are mostly ones we had before, but Lupins are interesting. Unlike the Mystara anthro Wolf-people these are a result of a botched infection of lycanthropy and have dread howl and unarmed attack abilities. I do like the artwork shown. Hope there will be minis too!


Were they even used after 2E?
There is nothing to suggest so far that anything introduced in VRGR is going to be changed in this new book.
 




So glad Matt Mercer landed the Strahd gig! Maybe his next game will be called Stakeheart?

Seriously . . . was Strahd always an elf?
Methinks you shouldsts googleth before you make such statements(eth).
Ravenloft.jpg

D&D did not come up with the design of Vampires having pointed ears, that was so in various art and movies even before Ravenloft. But yes, Strahd always had such ears. It is part of the transformation, but he was never an Elf.
 

I'm curious if he's a domain lord or are they doing something different with him. I mean, the Dark Powers couldn't hold a demigod, an Elder Evil seems a little out of their league...
You can squint and read what is on his page.
Basically he is not really a Darklord like the others, he is not plagues by ironic punishments, he is kept imprisoned by the Dark Powers because of the havoc he could wreak on the multiverse. He slumbers eternally (as he usually does in lore) but even his dreams affect other worlds.
 


Methinks you shouldsts googleth before you make such statements(eth).
View attachment 430823
D&D did not come up with the design of Vampires having pointed ears, that was so in various art and movies even before Ravenloft. But yes, Strahd always had such ears. It is part of the transformation, but he was never an Elf.
This exactly. Vampires have (sometimes) been portrayed with pointed ears since at least 1922.
 

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