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

 

[Faolyn]

No, it isn’t.

Kind of. Because PCs aren't going to do the often stupid things that characters in a horror story do. If you want to tell a story, you have to make the PCs do those stupid things.

But the difference is that RPGs aren't stories to be told and shouldn't be treated as such, and so the horror needs to be brought in without railroading the PCs.

Legit everything we've ever known about Ravenloft contradicts this sentence. Literally the entire focus of Ravenloft is the Dark Lords.

In the 3x books--and even later in 2e--there was a definite shift to expand the domains as their own places and focusing on the people in them as being important.

I've managed to run Ravenloft for years without once bringing in Darklords in person, and only having them send minions two or three times.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If we had got the stats for Maligno, dark lord of Odiare, this only would be for low-level players, but without stats, PCs don't know what is going to happen in Odiare. And there had been a lot of pages. It would be better to await for modules set in those dread domains.

Diamabael could be an interesting dark lord, but with some little retcon. He would start like a dethroned heir, a totally secular or lay background, a mixture of Spartacus, Robin Hood, Willian Tell, Paul Atreides (Frank Herber's Dune sage), Guy Hawknes (V of Vendetta), Robin Hood and Robespierre. He is a rebel leader, but also a caravan raider. The realm suffer a civil war, mixture of fight for the succesion (in the cultures with poligamy the firstborn isn't the heir usually) and religious conflict by different self-proclaimed prophets (of living idols, now practically demigods), or avatar/incarnations of the gods from the Pharaonic pantheon (or another Preislamic politeism from Middle East). He gets the power, becomes a new tyrant, and start a witch-hunt against those "idolaters" and the living idols, only allowing priests by a clergy totally controlled by the state (I think the term for that is "regalism", the opposite of Caesarpapism). Also he orderder of the extermination of the palace of staff, because he suspected (rightly) some nobility members were hidden among the servants. One of the warlocks before his execution warned him with a prophecy about his powers would be lost by hands of an celestial-blood(aasimar). And now lots of children with humans or another humanoid race are born with aasimar traits (even children by the members of the harem). I guess this can be used as a fabule against the false prophets but enoughly subtle and politically correct.

Other idea is "farm domains", demiplanes created by spellcasters, but "tainted" by the Dark Powers, as collaborator with a poisoned gift. These would be a relatively safe space, but sometimes visited by "predators" because their original "ecosystem" has hunted too many "preys" and this needs a "biological stop", also a trap because supernatural creatures could believe they have escaped, and they discover now they are in a zone where the native are totally ready to be not the prey any more.

The core will come back, but the domains within this will be according the level of popularity.

* The good horror games shouldn't be railroads.

Is not the novel Modderheim canon any more?

Ravenloft: Darklords / Characters - TV Tropes

Dungeons & Dragons Main Characters Index Character Classes | Creatures | Deities | Playable Races Campaign Settings: Dragonlance | Eberron (Dragonmarked Houses | Religions | Nations) | Forgotten Realms (Gods | Factions | The Legend of Drizzt …

tvtropes.org

 

[Demetrios1453]

They defined the Dark Powers.

That poster says, in the very first line, "as best as I can tell from spoilers at this time." Not exactly a ringing endorsement of his veracity...

(Spoilerphobes can click on that link and see, the post has everything outside the first line blanked out until you click on it. It's very obviously "This is what I have heard, so let's spin elaborate theories on incomplete information!")

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I haven't looked at the link yet. Do they really define them? You never define the dark powers. Ever. Their mystery is part of what makes them work. Defining the dark powers takes you down a 'it was just midichlorians the whole time' road

Nah, it specifically says "the dark powers are mysterious" etc. You can read that in at least one of the preview videos.

 

[Remathilis]

That poster says, in the very first line, "as best as I can tell from spoilers at this time." Not exactly a ringing endorsement of his veracity...

(Spoilerphobes can click on that link and see, the post has everything outside the first line blanked out until you click on it. It's very obviously "This is what I have heard, so let's spin elaborate theories on incomplete information!")

Some of it seems to match things I was able to see, like on Firan and Azalin. I don't know about much of the Dark Powers stuff yet, but the Tatiyana stuff is legit.

Take with a grain of salt, but they do have some verifiable stuff.

 

[darjr]

This livestream is starting soon. The folks playing the WotC Ravenloft live stream. Go ask questions and come back with answers, please? Cause I cannot.

 

[overgeeked]

Kind of. Because PCs aren't going to do the often stupid things that characters in a horror story do.

Have you ever run a game of D&D? PCs frequently do things far, far stupider than anything you see characters do in horror stories.

If you want to tell a story, you have to make the PCs do those stupid things.

Good thing it's not the DM's job to tell a story. The DM's job is to present the world around the PCs and to react to what the PCs do. If the DM presents a horror setting, filled with horror characters, and horror monsters, and uses horror tropes to build and release tension, then it's as close to a horror story as you can get without railroading. And really, a horror story isn't defined by the protagonists doing stupid things.

But the difference is that RPGs aren't stories to be told and shouldn't be treated as such, and so the horror needs to be brought in without railroading the PCs.

Weird how you understand that in this sentence but don't seem to in the previous ones.

I've managed to run Ravenloft for years without once bringing in Darklords in person, and only having them send minions two or three times.

Good. That's how it should be. The Dark Lords detract from the rest of the setting.

 

[Faolyn]

Have you ever run a game of D&D? PCs frequently do things far, far stupider than anything you see characters do in horror stories.

Good thing it's not the DM's job to tell a story. The DM's job is to present the world around the PCs and to react to what the PCs do. If the DM presents a horror setting, filled with horror characters, and horror monsters, and uses horror tropes to build and release tension, then it's as close to a horror story as you can get without railroading. And really, a horror story isn't defined by the protagonists doing stupid things.

Weird how you understand that in this sentence but don't seem to in the previous ones.

Why are you agreeing with me so antagonistically?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I have found in reddit somebody telling true spoilers about Ravenloft, for example about the true nature of the Dark Powers, or the two heroes from the picture where they are fighting against evil toys, they are a married couple.

I would like to suggest a homebred idea. After a dark lord is "killed" and the time-loop rebooted, one of the souls recieve a "spark" from the soul of the dark lord. This is more like a "twin soul" than a true reincarnation. This "incarnated" hasn't to be evil, even she could become a hero or a monster-hunter, even the worst nemesis of the dark lord.

Other idea is there is a second demiplane in the Astral Sea, linked with the "Mists" but not the Dark Powers, this is a continent. This land is the secret base of the guild of cronomancers, because here they can avoid the secondary effects of time-travel and potentital time-paradoxes. If the demiplane of the dread created by the Dark Powers was like a ship, this second demiplane would be like remains of the wreck used to built a home. This demiplane is created using remains of "time-spheres" rewritten by the time-travelers who altered the timeline to avoid apocaliptic events. Sometimes they can go to the "dread domains" to trade, usually food.

This place is full of supernatural "predators" but the survivors of this postapocalypse in the space-time continum are ready to defend themself. The bad new is there are some secret factions of supernatural creatures hidden in the cities and towns, sometimes with conflicts linked the dark lords.

 

[Azzy]

This livestream is starting soon. The folks playing the WotC Ravenloft live stream. Go ask questions and come back with answers, please? Cause I cannot.

I really like that picture.