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

Here is a list of everything we know so far about the upcoming Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.

Art by Paul Scott Canavan​

• May 18th, 256 pages
• 30 domains (with 30 villainous darklords)
• Barovia (Strahd), Dementlieu (twisted fairly tales), Lamordia (flesh golem), Falkovnia (zombies), Kalakeri (Indian folklore, dark rainforests), Valachan (hunting PCs for sport), Lamordia (mad science)
• NPCs include Esmerelda de’Avenir, Weathermay-Foxgrove twins, traveling detective Alanik Ray.
• Large section on setting safe boundaries.
• Dark Gifts are character traits with a cost.
• College of Spirits (bard storytellers who manipulate spirits of folklore) and Undead Patron (warlock) subclasses.
• Dhampir, Reborn, and Hexblood lineages.
• Cultural consultants used.
• Fresh take on Vistani.
• 40 pages of monsters. Also nautical monsters in Sea of Sorrows.
• 20 page adventure called The House of Lament - haunted house, spirits, seances.

​

D&D 5E - Full Wraparound Cover Art For Ravenloft

We've seen the cover already, but here's a look at the full wraparound art by Anna Podedworna. https://www.enworld.org/threads/updated-with-cover-the-d-d-book-is-van-richtens-guide-to-ravenloft.678411/ https://www.enworld.org/threads/heres-the-ravenloft-alternate-cover.678414/...

www.enworld.org

D&D 5E - Here's the Ravenloft Alternate Cover!

As usual, there is an alternate hobby-store exclusive cover for the upcoming Ravenloft book. Here's a look at it! And here's the full wraparound art. https://www.enworld.org/threads/updated-with-cover-the-d-d-book-is-van-richtens-guide-to-ravenloft.678411/...

www.enworld.org

D&D 5E - [Updated with cover!] The D&D Book Is.... Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft!

Yesterday's hints that a new D&D book would be announced today have born fruit -- we now have a product description and a title! It's a Ravenloft setting book, with tools and new rules for horror-themed games, and new horror-themed character options. I'll update this post with a product image as...

www.enworld.org

 

[Parmandur]

But no one would mistake Critical Role for a horror game.

Have you watched Critical Role...? Horror is quite the recurring theme and effect on the players. They have actually run World of Darkness and Call of Cthulu games, even.

 

[overgeeked]

We don't agree. D&D as it is doesn't really require much changes for you to run a Resident Evil style game, running around a scary mansion filled with really powerful monsters and enemy NPCs, needing to save your spell slots and abilities as using them all too quickly will lead to your death.

I mean, that's literally Death House

If they're too stupid to take a long rest, sure.

and to a lesser extent Tomb of Horrors (weird, horror is in the name).

You mean the cheesy tournament deathtrap module. Sure, it has the word in the title. Good job spotting that. But again, that doesn't make it horror.

This is obviously much easier to do at lower levels (the higher the level, the more resource PCs have), but Curse of Strahd and other Ravenloft modules don't tend to be high-level anyway.

Ah. It's almost like the more powerful the characters are the harder it is to do horror. Where have I seen that before? Hmm.

Now, I think the distinction here is most players don't want to be scared (it's why Tomb of Horrors is not actually fun for most players).

Right. Scared is bad. But thrilled, excited, titillated, maybe even grossed out. That's where horror gaming lives, I think.

Most players just want to play Castlevania. But the point is, you can run a horror game if you really have player buy-in for that kind of constant stress.

There's a vast excluded middle between Castlevania and horror. You don't need to go full Saw with the PCs for it to be horror.

 

[overgeeked]

Have you watched Critical Role...? Horror is quite the recurring theme and effect on the players.

Critical Role the main show is not horror. It has elements of horror. That's not the same thing. They'd have to peel Travis off the floor every night if it were.

They have actually run World of Darkness and Call of Cthulu games, even.

Yeah, they do horror shows on their platform, that doesn't mean the main show is horror. Their CoC game is what got me to finally watch liveplays.

 

[dave2008]

If they're too stupid to take a long rest, sure.

Do you always let your players take a long rest? I mean long rests are never guaranteed in my games and we are not even running a horror game!

You mean the cheesy tournament deathtrap module. Sure, it has the word in the title. Good job spotting that. But again, that doesn't make it horror.

Man, that is not a good luck for you. I done, sorry you can't enjoy horror in your D&D games.

 

[dave2008]

If the characters are not scared, there's no horror. If the characters are super powerful and can generally take whatever's thrown at them, it's not horror. So yeah, you could make D&D into a horror setting, but you'd have to change quite a bit, including some long-standing baseline assumptions.

You really don't have to change much IMO, but "change quite a bit" is pretty subjective. I can think of two simple changes which get you 90% of the way there.

 

[Faolyn]

If the characters are not scared, there's no horror. If the characters are super powerful and can generally take whatever's thrown at them, it's not horror. So yeah, you could make D&D into a horror setting, but you'd have to change quite a bit, including some long-standing baseline assumptions.

Your players shouldn't necessarily know if they can take what's being thrown at them. If you describe it right, you can make even a weak monster seem much more powerful, or much scarier, than it really is.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

If they're too stupid to take a long rest, sure.

You mean the cheesy tournament deathtrap module. Sure, it has the word in the title. Good job spotting that. But again, that doesn't make it horror.

Ah. It's almost like the more powerful the characters are the harder it is to do horror. Where have I seen that before? Hmm.

Right. Scared is bad. But thrilled, excited, titillated, maybe even grossed out. That's where horror gaming lives, I think.

There's a vast excluded middle between Castlevania and horror. You don't need to go full Saw with the PCs for it to be horror.

I do think we might be starting to be deliberately obtuse here... you, the DM, should not give them the opportunity to give them a long rest in this situation. It is after all a feature (not a bug) of many dungeons that you take a long rest outside the dungeon or haunted mansion. Inside the complex, your long rest will be interrupted by a wandering monster. That gives PCs the opportunity to take a short rest, but not a long one. PCs get a long rest after finding the way out, or clearing the complex of beasties, not before.

So anyway, I think we've hit the end of this debate. You haven't really provided much of an alternative for "D&D but also horror" beyond saying that the people replying to you don't know what horror is.... I'd like to hear what module, or what encounters you think would provide the "pure horror D&D experience" that you expect.

Otherwise, we are just stuck in the loop of "No, you're wrong!" and I'm losing interest.

 

[Ash Mantle]

I'd suggest D&D itself is actually a horror game. It has things like mind flayers, creatures changed through horrific processes by the mind flayers, the various fiends and their god-beings, the various Hells and other planes of existence that are extremely detrimental to mortal life, unholy clerics of evil gods, foul entities of the Far Realms, ghosts and other supernatural horrors, etc.

Our PCs in our relentless monster slaying would absolutely fulfil the role of the implacable Jason Vorhees/Michael Myers type for the monster world (I'll absolutely want to play in games where we're the monster races and we have to survive against the PCs).

By adjusting the degrees, by the way atmosphere and monsters are described viscerally rather than just simply named, and engaging in buy in, the horror in the game is increased further in visibility or you don't have to make it as important to the overarching tone of the game where the spotlight is then shone on the heroics of the PCs.


The art shown so far is simply stunning, looking forward to the book!

 

[Charlaquin]

But that is not necessarily true. Many adaptations of horror have a hero. Alien has Ripley, slasher films have the "final girl,"

Ripley was more or less a final girl in Alien, and the sequels were more action than horror. And the final girl is very much not a heroic role. Being the last one left alive is very different than being the triumphant hero.

Dracula has Van Helsing,

Van Helsing isn’t a hero, he’s an eccentric professor with a weird obsession. Later adaptations made him more heroic, but those adaptations are generally less horror and more action.

Stranger Things has Eleven, etc.

Stranger Things is also an homage to 80s coming of age sci-if adventure movies. And in the first season, Eleven is narratively as much a monster as a hero. Later seasons drop this, but later seasons also lean less on the horror and more on the 80s cinema nostalgia.

I think your are trying to narrowly define the horror genre and I personally don't see the need for that. Heck, one of my son's favorite movie genres is horror-comedy.

Well, it’s a sliding scale, right? Stranger things is a really good example, because it definitely has strong horror elements, but it blurs the line quite a bit. I don’t think it’s right to put horror in a tiny box, but I also don’t think it’s right to call anything with horror trappings horror. Genres are fluid things, but they do have conventions.

As far as Ravenloft goes, I think it’s appropriate to call it a horror setting for D&D, which I don’t think is appropriate to call a horror game. The vast majority of games set in Ravenloft will end up being a fusion of genres. The precise blend will vary from group to group, with some leaning heavily into the horror and others keeping it purely as set dressing, but most falling somewhere in-between. I expect the default presented in the book, and therefore the way most groups will engage with it, to basically be action-adventure with a horror tone and some light horror themes.

 

[overgeeked]

So anyway, I think we've hit the end of this debate. You haven't really provided much of an alternative for "D&D but also horror" beyond saying that the people replying to you don't know what horror is.... I'd like to hear what module, or what encounters you think would provide the "pure horror D&D experience" that you expect.

So you don't want to talk about it anymore but you also want me to keep talking to you about it. Nah. I'm good. There's only so many times I'm willing to pound my head into a brick wall.

I'd suggest D&D itself is actually a horror game. It has things like mind flayers, creatures changed through horrific processes by the mind flayers, the various fiends and their god-beings, the various Hells and other planes of existence that are extremely detrimental to mortal life, unholy clerics of evil gods, foul entities of the Far Realms, ghosts and other supernatural horrors, etc.

D&D absolutely has horror elements, but it's not a horror game. It's a fantasy adventure game. You'd need to adjust a fair few basic mechanics to make it into a proper horror game.

Our PCs in our relentless monster slaying would absolutely fulfil the role of the implacable Jason Vorhees/Michael Myers type for the monster world (I'll absolutely want to play in games where we're the monster races and we have to survive against the PCs).

It's interesting you slot the PCs into the roll of the slasher, the one with all the power.

By adjusting the degrees, by the way atmosphere and monsters are described viscerally rather than just simply named, and engaging in buy in, the horror in the game is increased further in visibility or you don't have to make it as important to the overarching tone of the game where the spotlight is then shone on the heroics of the PCs.

Absolutely. But things like short rests, long rests, cantrips, spells...are all things that dampen the horror. The more tools and talents the PCs have the harder it is to do horror. Even Uruk said so upthread.

I don’t think it’s right to put horror in a tiny box..

I don't think I'm putting horror in a tiny box, rather I'm pointing out some of its conventions.

but I also don’t think it’s right to call anything with horror trappings horror. Genres are fluid things, but they do have conventions.

Absolutely agreed.

As far as Ravenloft goes, I think it’s appropriate to call it a horror setting for D&D, which I don’t think is appropriate to call a horror game. The vast majority of games set in Ravenloft will end up being a fusion of genres. The precise blend will vary from group to group, with some leaning heavily into the horror and others keeping it purely as set dressing, but most falling somewhere in-between. I expect the default presented in the book, and therefore the way most groups will engage with it, to basically be action-adventure with a horror tone and some light horror themes.

Exactly.

I'll quote the ghoulish Sandy Petersen in his wonderful book Cthulhu Mythos for 5E...

Horror is a delicate topic. When horror is combined with another genre, the usual result is that the other genre wins out. For example, most horror-comedies are really just comedies with a horror element. Many attempts have been made to mix horror and superheroes, and, again, the end result is generally a superhero story with a horror element. Most players of fantasy role-playing games understandably are focused on high adventure, derring-do, and sword and sorcery. And of course, when horror is added to the adventure theme, just as with other genres, the adventure is what remains, though now horror-tinged.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. Consider the difference between the films Alien and Aliens. The first is a horror movie. The second is an adventure movie with horror elements. Both are great films.

As with many things horror gaming related, Sandy is right.