Check Out This Early Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Artwork

As part of today's reveal of Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, Wizards of the Coast also released several pieces of early preview artwork for the new book. You can check the artwork out in all its full glory below:

And here's the cover artwork (by Anna Podedworna) and alternate cover artwork (by Pam Wishbow):

Ravenloft: The Horrors Within was one of several products announced today. You can find a full rundown here.

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[ersatzphil]

I'm going with Appendix N having a long shadow, and Ravenloft being the catch-all "dark" kitchensink.

I agree with you that that could very well be the rationale behind it, but "Cthulhu has to be in Ravenloft because Cthulhu is horror and Ravenloft has to have all horror in it" feels weirdly tautological to me.

 

[Parmandur]

I agree with you that that could very well be the rationale behind it, but "Cthulhu has to be in Ravenloft because Cthulhu is horror and Ravenloft has to have all horror in it" feels weirdly tautological to me.

That feels about par for the course D&D design tautology, historically speaking.

 

[ersatzphil]

Yeah, this definitely works better in Call of Cthulhu, Trail of Cthulhu, Alien or Mothership, in my opinion, but "can D&D do horror" is a perennial argument around here.

I mean - I would argue that you can do horror in D&D, just not every kind of horror. D&D is (usually) a world where the Divine exists as a matter of fact, and cares enough about people - for good or ill - to interfere in people's lives and grant power to their followers through prayer. It's a gnostic world: angels and demons exist as Good and Evil things with form and extension in space and time - you can punch an angel and slap a demon on the back. If the central fear at the heart of cosmic horror is that nothing has meaning and everything is rudderless in an uncaring and alien cosmos, it's kind of antithetical to the whole idea of the game.

But slasher horror? Body horror? There's totes things you can do in D&D.

edit: it's been a minute since I had a good back-and-forth on here with you and @Parmandur. Always nice to chat with you guys.

 

[Mephista]

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft had the God-Brain of Bluetspur, an illithid-aligned "alien horror" Dark Domain.

I'm assuming the Great Race of Yith is going to be something aligned with that particular Elder Brain, maybe a mutation of the tadpoles that can use Dominate or something.

 

[Parmandur]

I mean - I would argue that you can do horror in D&D, just not every kind of horror. D&D is (usually) a world where the Divine exists as a matter of fact, and cares enough about people - for good or ill - to interfere in people's lives and grant power to their followers through prayer. It's a gnostic world: angels and demons exist as Good and Evil things with form and extension in space and time - you can punch an angel and slap a demon on the back. If the central fear at the heart of cosmic horror is that nothing has meaning and everything is rudderless in an uncaring and alien cosmos, it's kind of antithetical to the whole idea of the game.

But slasher horror? Body horror? There's totes things you can do in D&D.

edit: it's been a minute since I had a good back-and-forth on here with you and @Parmandur. Always nice to chat with you guys.

I think if you want straight horror genre, D&D is an odd fit. But dark fantasy with elements from pulp and Gothic horror? That's core D&D, right along Tolkien, Howard, and Burroughs.

 

[overgeeked]

I'll reserve judgement until I actually read the book or at least hear more, but I'm really unsure why the Great Race of Yith would be in Ravenloft.

Because they’re public domain and Cthulhu is popular.

 

[Scribe]

Because they’re public domain and Cthulhu is popular.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'll reserve judgement until I actually read the book or at least hear more, but I'm really unsure why the Great Race of Yith would be in Ravenloft.

The art is pretty unmistakable. And both Cthulhu and the Great Race have D&D history as both where in the original Deities & Demigods.

So now the copywrite is gone they (and probably more Lovecraft monsters) are being put back into the game.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think if you want straight horror genre, D&D is an odd fit. But dark fantasy with elements from pulp and Gothic horror? That's core D&D, right along Tolkien, Howard, and Burroughs.

D&D is the natural home of the “did you just punch Cthulhu?” Trope.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The great race of Yith appeared before in Pathfinder (Bestiary 3, They also appear in Starfinder Alien archives 3) although their name is Yizthian.