Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd Review

Like many Ravenloft tabletop adventures, five adventurers are plucked from the realms by the mists to find themselves in Barovia. As usual, Strahd sends one of his minions to invite the newcomers to his castle to enjoy his hospitality, a.k.a. for Strahd to mess with their minds and tempt them.

The characters are:

• Rotrog: An arrogant Orc wizard apprentice
• Kah: A shy Kenku cleric from Waterdeep
• Fielle: A cheerful human artificer from Baldur’s Gate
• Alishai: A moody, hot-tempered Tiefling paladin to Selune
• Chivarion: A good-natured Drow barbarian with a hairless tressym named “Murder” as his pet.

Over the course of the novel, you discover that each one was taken when they were faced with a terrible choice or were poised to take an awful action. That sets the stage for the crux of the novel—which character(s) will succumb to either Strahd’s temptations and/or the malevolent energy of Barovia, embracing their darkest impulses.

Should You Buy It?​

I found Heir to Strahd interesting because while it presented elements of Barovia that Ravenloft players and DMs will be very familiar with, not everything was what I had expected, even though I’ve GM’d Ravenloft adventures. The spirit of Tatyana most notably was presented in a way I did not expect based on the prior information I had read.

I don’t want to explain too much about Tatyana, and how she factors into the plot because it could ruin the mystery of who falls prey to the darkness to become the titular character. I will say that I suspected the doomed character at first, then talked myself out of it, assuming it was a feint to distract from another option. A later character reveal reinforced my original suspicion, but I still thought there might be a twist to go in the another direction. There wasn’t but instead of being unsatisfying, the ending makes me eager for a sequel.

Regardless of how one feels about the mystery and certain aspects of the ending, this Ravenloft novel can be very useful for anyone thinking of DMing an adventure set in Barovia. Dawson, the author of a few Star Wars novels and several fantasy novels, not only sets the tone very well for Barovia but also shows how Strahd could be played by a DM. The audiobook in particular showcased how even a simple conversation with Strahd can be equal parts charming and sinister.

For those who like or prefer audiobooks, the narration by Ellie Gossage was very good. It’s also available in hardcover and ebook editions.

Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd: B+.

 

[Yaarel]

@Dire Bare

Spoiler

Yup, the prediction nailed.

 

[Paragon Lost]

What is drawing a lot of people into D&D is the fantasy of being whenever you want to be, looking like whatever you want to, and not encountering prejudice because of it. That includes pointy ears, furry feet, green skin, horns, tusks, tall, short etc etc etc.

It’s the cosmetic options that matter. A bunch of video games make most of their money by selling options that are purely cosmetic.

That, I get and embrace, always have. What I don't get is how the other poster worded some of what they said, which felt attacking( in a badwrongfun sort of way) in tone. (Shrug) Shortcomings of conversations of a text medium, things get missed.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Reality is that McDonald's is doing quite well.

View attachment 409613

Exactly. Hasbro/WotC owns the brand name of the most famous RPG in the world. It behooves them to make it as "grey" as possible to meet the needs/standards of the most people. More people = more money.

A Corp generally isn't out to win or influence a culture war, they are there to make money. Period. Well, unless getting into a culture war will make them money. Point being, corp gonna corp.

 

[wizard71]

Reality is that McDonald's is doing quite well.

View attachment 409613

Nice try but your info is wrong. Here is McDonald’s stock price as of today.

 

[Yaarel]

Would you prefer that wa constantly had characters annoyingly pointing out how unusual it is to see a smart Orc or Tiefling paladin?

I literally cannot think of single adventure where Kenku were ever used as villains. Closest is opening adventure in 2e's A Hero's Tale, and even then they're more doing dumb stuff in hope of getting their curse lifted.

Then about time this changes.

It means humanocentrism so huge that all heroes, even if they are not supposed to be human, look like human (usually also white ones, go figure) and at best are unusually short. It's humans, humans with pointy ears, short humans with beards on their faces and short humans with beards on their feet and one angel who disguised himself as a human so well 99% of fans have no idea he is not human and in fact he redefined whole wizard character archetype he became face off, despite the fact he is not actually a wizard and is not using magic but god-granted miracles, but he played it off so well endless legions of cliches wizard characters are based off him regardless.

To be clear, I am very happy with disentangling species from alignments and ability scores and away from inevitable references to reallife stereotypes.

At the same time, have concerns about messages that demonize White American males. This kind of reversal is just as wrong as the first kind of demonization.

I feel Spelljammer suffered from both kinds of demonizations. It seems to have targeted Black Americans with unconscious stereotypes accidentally. And it purposely targeted White Americans in a lampshaded way, demonizing "imperialist" tropes even to the point of coercing players to commit ethnic genocide, which is an astonishing transmission of hatespeech. First comes words, then comes actions. It is ethically urgent to avoid demonization of any kind.

In this novel, one character presents as conspicuously White. It seemed transparent that novel intended to demonize her - in this case somewhat literally. If the character presented as a White male, probably there would have been zero empathy for the character.

 

[Afroconan]

Nice try but your info is wrong. Here is McDonald’s stock price as of today.

You are comparing a 5 year upwards trend to a 1 day dip to prove them wrong?

 

[Yaarel]

As a rule of thumb, if a story has a villain, make sure there are prominent characters of the same identity groups who are heroic.

 

[mamba]

Nice try but your info is wrong. Here is McDonald’s stock price as of today.

so it lost a little today, that does not make the 5 year curve incorrect, or means much of anything

 

[Afroconan]

I have not seen anything for Ravenloft indicating that the domains have been substantially reconfigured. It’s really bad on WOTC to do this. No wonder the majority of the updated rules team has left.

Two members left, the oldest and the ones that would be most burnt out after working for 10> years with the same mechanics.

James Wyatt remains
F. Wesley Schneider
Justice Arman
Makenzie de Armas
Ben Petrisor

Those are all credited in the new rules. Plus Ray Winniger who left on 2022. At most you can say 3 out of 8 have left.

 

[pukunui]

Age of Worms, they're there for service to Vecna. I happen to be running that campaign so it was an easy answer

Another would be Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. The PCs have to fight four kenku who are members of the Xanathar Guild early in the adventure.