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]

Isn't old Dementlieu where there is a puppet master mind control minion duel going on between the behind the scenes noble mesmerist darklord and the hidden crime lord psionic brain in a jar?

To be fair, the Brain in a Jar was added later in RMCA2 (and he's apparently moved to Lamordia in the new book) and his rivalry wasn't a major part of the conception of the domain or any of the writeups prior to 3e's gazetteer. It was a domain where the ruler had hypnotized everyone except those he fancied.

Anyway, is two competing mind-controlling masterminds more compelling than the masquerade balls of the new domain?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I often leaned away from defeating dark lords but they could just leave it to the GM and players to figure out. This sort of forces it to be non combat. Like I said, eventually someone tries to attack a darklord. This looks like a garbage heap to me

If the players try to attack the darklord at random, the darklord clicks their fingers and they die.

If they attack the darklord as part of the adventure devised by the DM then the DM will have stated up the darklord appropriately for the level of party and the kind of story.

I don't think it's unreasonable for players to assume that they may very well have some sort of climactic battle with them.

And that is exactly the type of thinking WotC is trying to get away from. Because that is a video game not a horror story.

 

[overgeeked]

Yep, deliberate design decision. They wanted to get away from the idea that the focus of a domain was to defeat the darklord.

Good. Dark Lords are gods of their domains. They shouldn’t ever get stat blocks. The idea of beating one in a fight is just silly and goes against the entire notion of it being a horror setting.

This book is not a book of lore, it's a book to help players create their own content.

That’s objectively untrue. They spend more pages talking about the new lore than providing tools for DMs to create their own content. If your claim were true, those numbers would be flipped.

 

[eyeheartawk]

And that is exactly the type of thinking WotC is trying to get away from. Because that is a video game not a horror story.

So, no climactic battle with Strahd then? Is that not a thing that happens?

Also, what horror stories take place in an environment where the main loop of the thing is to kill monsters and take their stuff and have virtually all of their abilities and powers tied around this fact?

 

[overgeeked]

To be fair, the Brain in a Jar was added later in RMCA2 (and he's apparently moved to Lamordia in the new book) and his rivalry wasn't a major part of the conception of the domain or any of the writeups prior to 3e's gazetteer. It was a domain where the ruler had hypnotized everyone except those he fancied.

Anyway, is two competing mind-controlling masterminds more compelling than the masquerade balls of the new domain?

Yes. Yes they are.

 

[overgeeked]

And that is exactly the type of thinking WotC is trying to get away from. Because that is a video game not a horror story.

You realize there are horror video games, right? Some where that exact model is used, right?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You realize there are horror video games, right? Some where that exact model is used, right?

Sure. And this book isn't based on horror video games.

It can be used to tell stories where the players get to fight (but not permanently kill) a dark lord, but that is part of the adventure, not part of the setting.

 

[eyeheartawk]

I think there is a disconnect between how some of these designers want this to be played vs how it will be played by most people. I can reasonably guess that on a fair number of tables this will simply be D&D with a Hammer horror paint job vs a true exploration of horror and dread.

The same thing happened with Vampire in the 90s. White Wolf was all in on exploring what some sort of internal, existential horror being a monster is all about. But then people actually played it and people just wanted vampire superpowers and politics.

 

[Bedrockgames]

If the players try to attack the darklord at random, the darklord clicks their fingers and they die.

If they attack the darklord as part of the adventure devised by the DM then the DM will have stated up the darklord appropriately for the level of party and the kind of story.

both of those seem like lousy options to me. The first is a total railroad (one thing from old Ravenloft that should be removed): the second puts all the work on the GM. The GM can still make a new custom stat block if needed, but this idea that the dark lords should magically shift to the level of the party, that they shouldn’t provide a working system block, it isn’t bold: it’s lame

 

[Voadam]

Also, what horror stories take place in an environment where the main loop of the thing is to kill monsters and take their stuff and have virtually all of their abilities and powers tied around this fact?

Take out the "and take their stuff" and you get Dracula. Most monster movies in fact.

Investigate the horrible monster, find out its story and weaknesses, then go after it is pretty on point for a bunch of horror stories and Ravenloft D&D.