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

 

[darjr]

I like the DCC funnel vibe of the Survivor rules. I could see starting a campaign that way, and upgrading any surviving Survivors into normal PCs afterwards.

I was going to post this! Funnels are freaking awesome!

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Plenty of people have used good causes to justify and turn to evil. I think that kind of background can make sense for a dark lord (not that we know much about the colonizing force here). Revenge often starts out very justified and becomes increasingly irrational, punitive and cruel. It can also add some believability to begin with a motive that starts out noble

It just steps into a bunch of bad tropes... that being the chinese-inspired Dark Lord happens to be resisting a colonizer, and this turns her to evil. It's a little like saying "hey colonizing was bad, but if you resist it the wrong way, you're also bad!" Which seems like a narrative that could have easily been avoided. China's a lot more than a place imperial foreign powers tried to abuse.

 

[Faolyn]

Did it ever say he was white?

So, it's definitely a change in his appearance--and perhaps in the appearance of other Kartakans--but it falls into the "hey, why not?" category of changes.

 

[Faolyn]

It just steps into a bunch of bad tropes... that being the chinese-inspired Dark Lord happens to be resisting a colonizer, and this turns her to evil. It's a little like saying "hey colonizing was bad, but if you resist it the wrong way, you're also bad!" Which seems like a narrative that could have easily been avoided. China's a lot more than a place imperial foreign powers tried to abuse.

Since her original backstory was "had a sexist father, so she grew to hate all men and then murdered her mother and brothers and forced her suitors to fight to the death before she had sex with them and killed them, also, she was superstitious about the number four because four is written with the same character as death so she did everything in fours," this seems to be a major improvement.

 

[Azzy]

View attachment 136593

Ah, Harkon, my old enemy. I'm coming for you.
--Tristram

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Since her original backstory was "had a sexist father, so she grew to hate all men and then murdered her mother and brothers and forced her suitors to fight to the death before she had sex with them and killed them, also, she was superstitious about the number four because four is written with the same character as death so she did everything in fours," this seems to be a major improvement.

 

[Bedrockgames]

It just steps into a bunch of bad tropes... that being the chinese-inspired Dark Lord happens to be resisting a colonizer, and this turns her to evil. It's a little like saying "hey colonizing was bad, but if you resist it the wrong way, you're also bad!" Which seems like a narrative that could have easily been avoided. China's a lot more than a place imperial foreign powers tried to abuse.

Number one I don’t think that is the message but number two ‘hey colonizing was bad, but if you resist it the wrong way, you're also bad!’ Isn’t a bad argument at all if ‘the wrong way’ means something losing your humanity and inflicting harm on innocent people. These moral grandstanding arguments around stupid gaming storylines are getting utterly rediculous

 

[overgeeked]

Since her original backstory was "had a sexist father, so she grew to hate all men and then murdered her mother and brothers and forced her suitors to fight to the death before she had sex with them and killed them, also, she was superstitious about the number four because four is written with the same character as death so she did everything in fours," this seems to be a major improvement.

Sorry, but at least that tried to be tied to Chinese culture. A generic “colonizing force”...meh. Though it’s worth noting they did flub or intentionally change the four is death trope. They’re written differently but pronounced similarly, not the same. Historical sexism and the murder of female babies are real things. Not limited to China, of course, but at least the original character background was interesting. This one is meh at best.

Four Is Death - TV Tropes

In most Chinese languages and languages that borrow words from it, the words for "four" (å) and "death" (æ») are written differently but pronounced similarly ("sì" and "sÇ" respectively …

tvtropes.org

 

[Parmandur]

Since her original backstory was "had a sexist father, so she grew to hate all men and then murdered her mother and brothers and forced her suitors to fight to the death before she had sex with them and killed them, also, she was superstitious about the number four because four is written with the same character as death so she did everything in fours," this seems to be a major improvement.

I mean, both are pretty bad.

 

[Parmandur]

I was going to post this! Funnels are freaking awesome!

I've thought about how to do a 5E funnel before, but this might be just the ticket.