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

 

[dave2008]

Basically don't crap on the old material, don't crap on the old fans for liking the old material.

Of course that is an opinion. I am guessing that they don't see it as crapping on the old material or fans. What feels like a big deal to some, is not to others.

Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Ravenloft and have not owned any adventures set there or any setting information. It was just never my thing.

However, I will be purchasing this book on DnDBeyond.

 

[overgeeked]

Oh for the love of Pete...

They AREN'T getting rid of the Egyptian theming of Har'Akir. Anhktepot is called Pharaoh. Their are pyramids and deserts. Ankyb still wears funeral wrappings. What they have done is removed the overt Egypt references (like Osiris and the Egyptian gods) and made Anky more proactive as a living God of his realm rather than a sleeping treasure vault guardian.

They wanted to tell a story different from The Mummy where a bunch of foreigners go into a pyramid and awaken a sleeping evil trope. They wanted natives to have reason to adventure there and goals other than tomb raiding. Much like how Theros is "Greek inspired" but not adventures in Greek Myth, Har'Akir is Egyptian inspired.

Listen on it here:
Hope that clears things up. because I'd really like to stop these I'Cath whispers...

Seriously, stop feeding the troll.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This sort of thread is likely why WotC is reluctant to update old settings.

They need to somehow simultaneously:

• Include and honor everything that's come before
• Not just make it a rehash of previously published material
• Update stuff that's dated or problematic
• Not fundamentally change the core product with their new inclusions
• Pat their head and rub their belly at the same time

Honestly, if I were them, I'd stick to adventure paths and MTG settings as well.

Nostalgia is a trap. Everyone upset that the previous versions of Ravenloft aren't being duplicated in 5E 30 years later almost certainly have those original documents, and if you don't, you can get them all easily from DMs Guild or Noble Knight or eBay. If you've been playing since the late 1980s/early 1990s, you are more than capable of updating that material to 5E.

A book published in 2021 is going to be reflective of its time, just as a boxed set released in the early 1990s was reflective of its. Accept that, or don't, it is what it is.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Seriously, stop feeding the troll.

stop lying about me

 

[Stormonu]

For those that don't want ANYTHING to change, there is the old books - just dump the edition-specific stats.

Unfortunately, things do change. I have personally had a love-hate relationship with the likes of New BSG, Stargate Universe, New Trek and the latest SW trilogy. I am concerned over some of the changes for the new Ravenloft (Anketepot's appearance, for one), but overall I'm excited for the new changes - and anything I don't like I can chuck and replace with old campaign material if it bothers me that much. My table won't know any difference.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

That's taking it personal, which I would recommend not doing. I could never watch something like Gotham, which makes massive, sometimes in my view detrimental changes to Batman lore, but I don't take it as an personal slight I get what they're doing, it's just not for me. They made changes that fit their vision of the product, and I'm sure in some cases ones they even thought were improvements. But unless there's statements from the creators dogging the comics and their fans there isn't a need to feel insulted.

Imagine how it would feel if some new people took over DC comics, decided past Batman lore was lame and dumb, and rewrote it like GOTHAM

Now imagine it was gaming and not comics, where reboots tend not to be undone after 5 years. That every future Batman story was GOTHAM inspired

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Imagine how it would feel if some new people took over DC comics, decided past Batman lore was lame and dumb, and rewrote it like GOTHAM

Leave Zack Snyder out of this.

 

[Remathilis]

Imagine how it would feel if some new people took over DC comics, decided past Batman lore was lame and dumb, and rewrote it like GOTHAM

Now imagine it was gaming and not comics, where reboots tend not to be undone after 5 years. That every future Batman story was GOTHAM inspired

So Crisis on Infinite Earths?

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

I was just wondering: what changes could be made for the old fans? I mean, don't the old fans like the old content?

Keep as much of the old lore as possible. Change only what absolutely needs to be changed
Advance the timeline rather than rolling it back 20 or 30 years
Maybe don't shrink the lands down to one town, break apart the Core and erase all the past adventures and novels
Dominic d'Honair is a creepy sex offender? Have him killed and replaced by his daughter
Falkovnia leader is a Nazi and the land is boring? Just don't include it
The Three Hags don't interest you? Make all three interesting
And don't define the dark powers. That's like saying what caused the Mourning
Add don't subtract

Sure there's a lot more but I'm not "special enough" to get free books two weeks early
If I decide to bother with the book at all

Not everyone has the same sense of taste. What one person finds boring might fascinate someone else
I flipping hate CITIIZEN KANE and have never been able to sit through it. But a friend loves the film and watches it annually
Making changes because one designer thinks something is boring is pure ego and is flipping the bird to everyone that doesn't think exactly like them
Ironic then that VAN RICHTEN'S GUIDE TO RAVENLOFT really wants to be this big, inclusive and diverse product when it's setting out to exclude a chunk of the audience

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

So Crisis on Infinite Earths?

And because of that they needed to do ZERO HOUR and INFINITE CRISIS and FLASHPOINT and REBIRTH to "fix" things after the fact and roll back some of the changes