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

 

[Bedrockgames]

Having a more diverse cast of characters in a setting isn't "politics driving the story," it's just having the world to reflect the diversity that exists in the real-world.

Reminds me of this Star Wars meme I saw the other day;

View attachment 136711

Anyway, it is well-established in Curse of Strahd that even when key characters are killed, they are often reborn in new bodies, with entirely new families and names (Tatyan/Ilyana being the best example). I see no reason why many of these Dark Lords aren't reincarnations of themselves after being killed by a previous group of adventurers (like in the classic modules). Being born as a new gender or race to me matters little if the internal conflict is quite similar.

Memes like that oversimplify. Most people were onboard with The Force Awakens. The Last Jedi was the movie that irritated a lot of fans. I think the reason wasn't diversity (Finn was introduced in the first film). It was the ham-fisted way the politics drove everything, and they way the movie was written to upturn the tropes that came before (while also seeming to cast them in a negative light and pass judgement on them). For the record I liked Finn and I loved Rose Tico. I also though an interracial relationship between those two characters would have been great (I am in an interracial marriage myself and I am saddened to see interracial couples becoming more frowned upon once again). And it is equally sad that the reason they didn't have them be a couple was because, at least in my view, they felt the global market wasn't open to a black and asian character being in love (that is at least my reading, because they clearly laid groundwork for that relationship with the kiss at the end of last jedi).

So for me, this isn't about diversity being bad. It is about leading with political correctness and leading with wokeness. It is also about not using these as our benchmarks of quality writing. What I find off-putting isn't the diversity, it is the 'hey look at how woke we are'. It is when it slides into pandering and when it is done in a way that the diverse characters aren't interesting because they have to be so clean or so wholesome. You see this especially with villains, which is why I think it will be a signifiant problem for Ravenloft.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Memes like that oversimplify. Most people were onboard with The Force Awakens. The Last Jedi was the movie that irritated a lot of fans. I think the reason wasn't diversity (Finn was introduced in the first film). It was the ham-fisted way the politics drove everything, and they way the movie was written to upturn the tropes that came before (while also seeming to cast them in a negative light and pass judgement on them). For the record I liked Finn and I loved Rose Tico. I also though an interracial relationship between those two characters would have been great (I am in an interracial marriage myself and I am saddened to see interracial couples becoming more frowned upon once again). And it is equally sad that the reason they didn't have them be a couple was because, at least in my view, they felt the global market wasn't open to a black and asian character being in love (that is at least my reading, because they clearly laid groundwork for that relationship with the kiss at the end of last jedi).

So for me, this isn't about diversity being bad. It is about leading with political correctness and leading with wokeness. It is also about not using these as our benchmarks of quality writing. What I find off-putting isn't the diversity, it is the 'hey look at how woke we are'. It is when it slides into pandering and when it is done in a way that the diverse characters aren't interesting because they have to be so clean or so wholesome. You see this especially with villains, which is why I think it will be a signifiant problem for Ravenloft.

Eh, didn't really want to go into a debate about Star Wars (I got my own problem with those films), but I definitely remember a very vocal and bigoted group of people who came out when that Force Awakens trailer dropped, all upset that that was a black Stormtrooper when "the lore says they are all clones of this same guy." Which not only was wrong (Stormtroopers aren't clones) even if it was true, it's set like 50 years after so it doesn't matter if it changed. The point is largely that complaints like "You made it too political," or "Your being woke for no reason," largely that have no meaning behind them; they're just a flippant thing thrown out to argue against representation.

Now I don't know you, are how you feel about diversity, so I'm not questioning your personal opinions. But I do feel that any argument that cites "Political Correctness" or "Wokeness" is inherently a bad argument, as these words mean essentially nothing (is diversity wokeness? What is wokeness?) They're buzzwords thrown about by bigoted people who can't craft real arguments.

To respond to your solid complaint, that these changes disregard some of the established Ravenloft lore... I largely believe it doesn't really matter. Do you really need a canon explanation for why Viktor Mordenheim is suddenly Viktra Mordenheim? Is it really so bad you don't have one? Can you not make one up yourself? Is it really disrespectful to the original writing to change it without explaining?

And IMO, I don't want an explanation, because it's probably going to something that is boring like "It's his great-grand daughter!" And I find over-explaining actually makes material worse. Back to Star Wars, I find the explaining of Rey's parentage, or Snoke's origins, are explanations that actively made the story worse... it would have been far better if both remained unexplained mysteries.

 

[Remathilis]

[QUOTE="Urriak Uruk, post: 8269523, member: 7015558] To respond to your solid complaint, that these changes disregard some of the established Ravenloft lore... I largely believe it doesn't really matter. Do you really need a canon explanation for why Viktor Mordenheim is suddenly Viktra Mordenheim? Is it really so bad you don't have one? Can you not make one up yourself? Is it really disrespectful to the original writing to change it without explaining?[/QUOTE]

Part of it is that they are selling a new version of a setting that hasn't seen licenced support in over a decade and official in-house design since the late 90s. There are players who weren't born when Domains of Dread was published. They don't give a flying fig how Victor and Viktra are related. And wasting limited page count explaining that evolution is a waste. Sure, us old grgonards would be tickled to know what happened to Adam and Victor, but their fates don't impact Lamordia now. And to a new fan, Victor might mean as much to them as Barov Von Zarovich does.

Plus, in an RPG, it gives us some options. Is Viktra Victor's soul in a new body, his descendant, an alternative timeline, or an echo distorted? Did Azalin break Ravenloft causing these alternate domains or is he victim to it? Is this the real timeline or is the original one real? What if the Dark Powers just got bored and rearranged the pieces on the board thus proving thier unknowable power and motives? Like the Lady of Pain's origin or the Day of Mourning, any answer the DM wants to provide is the cannon one.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Eh, didn't really want to go into a debate about Star Wars (I got my own problem with those films), but I definitely remember a very vocal and bigoted group of people who came out when that Force Awakens trailer dropped, all upset that that was a black Stormtrooper when "the lore says they are all clones of this same guy." Which not only was wrong (Stormtroopers aren't clones) even if it was true, it's set like 50 years after so it doesn't matter if it changed. The point is largely that complaints like "You made it too political," or "Your being woke for no reason," largely that have no meaning behind them; they're just a flippant thing thrown out to argue against representation.

Like I said, I liked Finn. I thought a stormtrooper turning to the good was a great idea. The Force Awakens is a good example of a movie being diverse, but not having wokeness drive the whole machine (which I think is the problem with Last Jedi). The Last Jedi is a perfect example of this going off the rails, because while it is fine as a self contained story, its function is supposed to be the middle movie in a trilogy. By subverting all the things they set up in the first movie, it just didn't serve that function well (after I saw it my only thought was, well there really isn't a place for a part III here). I think if they had gone the direction of having Rey and Kylo Ren uniting, that might have led to an interesting third movie. In the end, I think we were left with a great opening film, a weird second film that is entertaining but almost more like its own movie, and a third film that was trying to steer things back into making it a cohesive three parter but failed. Again this isn't about being bigoted. Plenty of non-bigots, very liberal and progressive people are trying to tell folks they don't like wokeness, they don't like stifling and repressive the ideology is (and how punitive it is when you step out of line). They don't like how instantly people jump to calling people bigots because they dislike a change to a movie, or dislike the overtly political message that is driving a storyline. And they don't like seeing media get worse, because the stories are getting worse as the focus just seems to be 'have we checked off all the boxes'. That doesn't mean you reject diversity or are bigoted. It means you don't want movies, shows and games that feel like they were written by a woke Mr. Rogers for elementary school students. I feel extremely talked down to when I view woke-influenced media. Making these criticisms doesn't mean one agrees with bigoted trolls who just don't want a black stormtrooper. To me the problem with wokeness isn't its diversity, its its rigidity, and its sense of propriety around everything (where anything vaguely transgressive is 'icky' and 'bad', and where everything seems to get read extremely uncharitably, and through a lens that is looking for issues to complain about). It honestly reminds me of when conservatives used to get all worked up about movies, music and shows. Same kind of moral outrage. Just different moral reasoning. But it is often narrow, and often misjudges things and accuses them of being something bad, when they aren't. The fact that you take it as a sign of a bad faith argument, simply because someone says woke, that should show you how containing that paradigm is. It is possible for well intentioned things to go off the rails, and to lead to less interesting art.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Like I said, I liked Finn. I thought a stormtrooper turning to the good was a great idea. The Force Awakens is a good example of a movie being diverse, but not having wokeness drive the whole machine (which I think is the problem with Last Jedi). The Last Jedi is a perfect example of this going off the rails, because while it is fine as a self contained story, its function is supposed to be the middle movie in a trilogy. By subverting all the things they set up in the first movie, it just didn't serve that function well (after I saw it my only thought was, well there really isn't a place for a part III here). I think if they had gone the direction of having Rey and Kylo Ren uniting, that might have led to an interesting third movie. In the end, I think we were left with a great opening film, a weird second film that is entertaining but almost more like its own movie, and a third film that was trying to steer things back into making it a cohesive three parter but failed. Again this isn't about being bigoted. Plenty of non-bigots, very liberal and progressive people are trying to tell folks they don't like wokeness, they don't like stifling and repressive the ideology is (and how punitive it is when you step out of line). They don't like how instantly people jump to calling people bigots because they dislike a change to a movie, or dislike the overtly political message that is driving a storyline. And they don't like seeing media get worse, because the stories are getting worse as the focus just seems to be 'have we checked off all the boxes'. That doesn't mean you reject diversity or are bigoted. It means you don't want movies, shows and games that feel like they were written by a woke Mr. Rogers for elementary school students. I feel extremely talked down to when I view woke-influenced media. Making these criticisms doesn't mean one agrees with bigoted trolls who just don't want a black stormtrooper. To me the problem with wokeness isn't its diversity, its its rigidity, and its sense of propriety around everything (where anything vaguely transgressive is 'icky' and 'bad', and where everything seems to get read extremely uncharitably, and through a lens that is looking for issues to complain about). It honestly reminds me of when conservatives used to get all worked up about movies, music and shows. Same kind of moral outrage. Just different moral reasoning. But it is often narrow, and often misjudges things and accuses them of being something bad, when they aren't. The fact that you take it as a sign of a bad faith argument, simply because someone says woke, that should show you how containing that paradigm is. It is possible for well intentioned things to go off the rails, and to lead to less interesting art.

I literally can't argue with you here, because there's no argument I can find... all I can read here is that you like diversity, but don't like wokeness. You told me which Star Wars movies you like and don't like, with a vague assertion that wokeness is what made the latter movies worse, without actually explaining why they are woke.

To be clear, I don't really want to talk about Star Wars, as the last film of the trilogy is written terribly, for normal bad-writing reasons. Second film also has really bad moments of writing too, nothing to do with politics (Leia Mary Poppins!)

Anyway, you keep repeating the words "wokeness" and "political correctness" as if this means something. They really don't unless you tie it to something specific. Vague assertions that these are bad things don't mean anything to me.

 

[Savage Wombat]

If this is going to go this far into real-world politics, maybe it's time to close the thread?

 

[overgeeked]

If this is going to go this far into real-world politics, maybe it's time to close the thread?

Never mind.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

We can agree intercompany-crossovers are vey difficult and complicated to be negotiated, but precisely for that reason they may have a future great value for collector and speculators. Why? To promote no-so-famous and popular IPs, to test new ideas. We have got here two options, the classic "isekai", abducted by the Dark Powers, or a (nerfed if it is necccesary) "mash-up" version. The second option allows known characters to be killed. I am opened-mind with the idea of a intercompany crossover with some 3PP's franchise, but we can't safe when and wich.

* The Shadowfell domains aren't totally controlled by the dark powers. This offers more opportunities to these "shadow lords" to get the redemption or to be freeded from their curses. I guess these "shadow domains" are too linked with Nentir Vale.

* Planar dragons from infernal planes should be in Ravenloft. The could be the nemesis of some dark lord, for example a former enemy "blessed" with some special power. (And some (kobolt) cultist enough crazy to create a new subrace of dragonborn: chole, gloom, tarterian..)

* "G.I.Joe: American Hero" had got a lot of no-Caucasian characters when nobody talked about more inclusivity. About the last Star Wars trilogy were different things, for example the "legends" no canon any more, Ray was a boring Mary Sue, Luke Skywalker wasn't a "wisdow source" as the previous jedis. One of the reasons because I want a Star Wars RPG is because here I say how the canon has to be.

Concept Art of the (canceled?) movie "Panzer 88"

 

[darjr]

You can always make a fan domain (and release it for free), but it's highly unlikely WotC is going to work out actual agreements with the copyright holders of those IPs.

I think a new domain by a third party was just released on the DMSGUILD

 

[darjr]

Here it is.

Van Richten's Guide to Korvidas - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

Van Richten's Guide to Korvidas - "Korvidas is the perfect DLC companion to Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, adding an additional lycanthropy-centric dom

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