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

 

[Remathilis]

Yes, because all those new players hated EBERRON: RISING FROM THE LAST WAR

Sauce? I heard nothing but praise for that book.

 

[overgeeked]

Since I haven't watched the video... did they list all the potential triggers? Did they say it was an example of triggers, and the DM can easily make up more?

They are very much presented as options rather than an exhaustive list, though they do give a distinct sense of "big crazy moments" rather than things that happen with any regularity. The provided examples are: A tense, dramatic moment, especially one involving one of a character’s Seeds of Fear. Every 24 hours the character goes without finishing a long rest. Witnessing the death of a loved one. A nightmare or darkest fear made real. Shattering the character’s fundamental understanding of reality. Witnessing a person transform into a horrid or unnatural creature.

The first two might happen more frequently, while the last four are going to be rare. Most players try to push for the five-minute workday and will try to take more rests than needed, so the DM will have to push the no rest thing. Likewise with the "tense, dramatic moment" that could honestly be anything. I think people will read the Seeds of Fear clause as pointing towards that as the trigger. So again, mostly rarer events rather than things that would reasonably come up even once a day. You're likely to get maybe one or two Stress at most during any given adventure, unless the DM really wants to push the new mechanic.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

Don't know why this rubs me the wrong way. Just feels - I don't know - disrespectful
The setting was dead for ten years (fifteen?) and those fans kept it alive. They wrote content for it on the Guild and kept running campaigns there
And now, finally, there's a new setting book! But not for them

It's like WizCo is coming up, giving them a pat on the head and saying "Good job over the last decade. We've found someone to replace you and your services are no longer required. Goodbye."

 

[Remathilis]

They are very much presented as options rather than an exhaustive list, though they do give a distinct sense of "big crazy moments" rather than things that happen with any regularity. The provided examples are: A tense, dramatic moment, especially one involving one of a character’s Seeds of Fear. Every 24 hours the character goes without finishing a long rest. Witnessing the death of a loved one. A nightmare or darkest fear made real. Shattering the character’s fundamental understanding of reality. Witnessing a person transform into a horrid or unnatural creature.

The first two might happen more frequently, while the last four are going to be rare. Most players try to push for the five-minute workday and will try to take more rests than needed, so the DM will have to push the no rest thing. Likewise with the "tense, dramatic moment" that could honestly be anything. I think people will read the Seeds of Fear clause as pointing towards that as the trigger. So again, mostly rarer events rather than things that would reasonably come up even once a day. You're likely to get maybe one or two Stress at most during any given adventure, unless the DM really wants to push the new mechanic.

We are talking a permanent -1 to all d20 rolls while in effect. Lesser Restore removes 1 point, Greater removes all, and you have to spend a day of downtime relaxing to have 1 point naturally go away. If it were frequent, you'd quickly descend into a death-spiral mechanic. I don't think the point was to reach -4 or minus -5 stress scores, but to give them -1 or -2 for the remainder of an adventure that stacks with bane, disadvantage, and other penalty effects. Its a handicap, not a backbreaker.

I think the issue is that it FEELS odd to say "your mom died; -1 to your attack rolls" but I don't think it was intended to be a huge penalty.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

Sauce? I heard nothing but praise for that book.

That was my point. It made few changes despite being fifteen-years-old and everyone loved it, new and old
They didn't need to rework anything to make a hit book

 

[Remathilis]

That was my point. It made few changes despite being fifteen-years-old and everyone loved it, new and old
They didn't need to rework anything to make a hit book

As an Eberron fan, I can certainly point out the changes it made: dwarves having ties the the daelkyr, the Mournland no longer negating healing, Lady Vol's name, the expanded presence of dragonborn and tieflings, etc. At least they removed the Nine Hells as a plane and restored the dragonmarks to their proper races.

Then again, Eberron didn't need as much work done. It was designed by WotC with modern D&D in mind, not a relic of TSR and 2nd edition. It has a Word of God in Keith Baker, while Ravenloft has changed hands repeatedly during its tenor (resulting in some wildly swingy design choices). To be fair, Dark Sun got the same sort of overhaul in 4e and while it alienated plenty of old guard, it was still considered the best designed 4e era setting by many.

And Ravenloft's fan community wasn't monolithic either, plenty of players disavowed the Arthaus stuff and I was privy to many a discussion about how X domain needs to be dropped or heavily redone to fit with modern standards (and ironically, many of them are in VGR, heavily modified like I'Cath, Valachan, or Souragne). WotC didn't decide one day that Ravenloft had issues; fans were telling WotC Ravenloft had issues all over social media, on DMs Guild, and probably in feedback surveys.

There will be initial pushback. You will have your initial group of ardents who will not touch that book with an 11-foot pole. You will have some who are resistant to the changes, but come around to it eventually (partially or in total) and you will have fans that adopt it whole-heartedly. I believe that in a few years, 5e Ravenloft will dominate the Ravenloft discussion as the canon on social media. I saw it with the Star Wars Legends/EU divide, or the Old Who/New Who divide. You'll always have hanger-ons, but I feel if the product is good enough, it will see adoption.

If not, then in 10 years you'll see the original Ravenloft domains and darklords return and it will be swiftly forgotten about.

 

[overgeeked]

We are talking a permanent -1 to all d20 rolls while in effect.

Everything's permanent while in effect. You're just trying to make it sound worse than it is.

Lesser Restore removes 1 point, Greater removes all, and you have to spend a day of downtime relaxing to have 1 point naturally go away. If it were frequent, you'd quickly descend into a death-spiral mechanic.

Right. It's supposed to be evoking a horror feel. If ever there's a place for a death spiral, it's horror gaming.

I don't think the point was to reach -4 or minus -5 stress scores, but to give them -1 or -2 for the remainder of an adventure that stacks with bane, disadvantage, and other penalty effects. Its a handicap, not a backbreaker.

It all depends on what you're trying to evoke with the mechanic. If it's meant as a minor inconvenience, then a rare -1 or -2 is fair. If it's meant as something that's actually supposed to worry the player, be an actual problem for the character, like...say...something stressful, then it's not going to happen frequently enough to matter.

I think the issue is that it FEELS odd to say "your mom died; -1 to your attack rolls"

Yeah, that is really weird.

but I don't think it was intended to be a huge penalty.

Clearly not. But that begs the question: why bother including it if it's not meant to really matter or effect gameplay in any meaningful way? A -1 or -2 can swing things, sure. But it's literally 5% or 10%. If it were disadvantage, that would matter more. That would be meaningful.

I guess my problem with it is the disconnect between the big rare things on the list of triggers and the minuscule mechanical effect. If it's big and rare event, then the effect should be big and rare; if it's a minuscule effect, then the events should be more common and frequent. And yeah, a -1 until you can take a day off is minuscule.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

There will be initial pushback. You will have your initial group of ardents who will not touch that book with an 11-foot pole. You will have some who are resistant to the changes, but come around to it eventually (partially or in total) and you will have fans that adopt it whole-heartedly. I believe that in a few years, 5e Ravenloft will dominate the Ravenloft discussion as the canon on social media. I saw it with the Star Wars Legends/EU divide, or the Old Who/New Who divide. You'll always have hanger-ons, but I feel if the product is good enough, it will see adoption.

I still see people whining about the EU erasure

The 5thEd Ravenloft will undoubtedly take over because of the number of new people in the hobby. (It's what? 50% under 30?)
And all the old guard won't "come around." They'll just be beaten down and driven out of the hobby. Replaced by younger gamers

Just wonder if everyone here will be as forgiving when they do Dark Sun without the slavery, psionics and Muls. Or Spelljammer without crystal spheres, the weird gravity, phlogiston, or the magical helms
Of it's just Ravenloft that must be rewriten because its wrongbadfun

 

[JEB]

And Ravenloft's fan community wasn't monolithic either, plenty of players disavowed the Arthaus stuff and I was privy to many a discussion about how X domain needs to be dropped or heavily redone to fit with modern standards (and ironically, many of them are in VGR, heavily modified like I'Cath, Valachan, or Souragne). WotC didn't decide one day that Ravenloft had issues; fans were telling WotC Ravenloft had issues all over social media, on DMs Guild, and probably in feedback surveys.

Increasingly, I don't think the presence of the controversial domains was ironic at all. I think you were on to something with the idea that those were specifically included, in their radically different form, as a statement.

The problem with such statements is that they imply that fans who liked the old take, or even those who simply didn't see a problem with the old take, were in the wrong. Whether or not you're justified in that implication, it generally isn't going to be received well, and does not endear said fans to the new product. (As you may have noticed.)

There will be initial pushback. You will have your initial group of ardents who will not touch that book with an 11-foot pole. You will have some who are resistant to the changes, but come around to it eventually (partially or in total) and you will have fans that adopt it whole-heartedly. I believe that in a few years, 5e Ravenloft will dominate the Ravenloft discussion as the canon on social media. I saw it with the Star Wars Legends/EU divide, or the Old Who/New Who divide. You'll always have hanger-ons, but I feel if the product is good enough, it will see adoption.

If not, then in 10 years you'll see the original Ravenloft domains and darklords return and it will be swiftly forgotten about.

I suspect you're correct here. But it's unfortunate that Wizards chose a path with 5E Ravenloft that was more likely to create divisions in the community, when their treatment of the Realms and Eberron in 5E demonstrated the benefits of a less strident approach. Welcome to the new era of D&D, I suppose.

 

[Eubani]

So all the "Old Guard" is allergic to change? It is better for the game that those Grogs that are allergic to change are left behind. Stagnation can only bring harm to the game.