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]

Why a villain could not be a sex offender?

Why a villain could not be a nazi?

I really don't understand...

To be sex offender or nazi is evil and is depicted as evil. Why to remove it?

I feel every day more inclined to think about reality as an Idiocracy/Ravenloft crossover

@Disgruntled Hobbit is suggesting an alternate method of changing the Domains of Dread than how they think WotC did it. They are not saying villains can't be sex offenders or nazis, what they are suggesting is that if WotC doesn't want those things in the setting there are alternate ways to change them that don't change so much of the existing lore.

 

[Necrozius]

Given the people who are upset about this book…
I know I’m gonna love it.

No greater recommendation than to have crotchety olde players whining about it like children.

#NotAllCrotcheties LOL

I’m turning 40 and I’m excited about this book, preordered and everything. I do miss the old black and white art of Stephen Fabian but that doesn’t really matter. The older writing was kind of dull to me.

Am I in love with all of the changes? Of course not, but no one can stop me from tweaking things at my table to better suit the tastes of myself and my players.

I appreciate all the tools and tips listed in this book. The advice for DIY domains intrigues me.

 

[Necrozius]

Interesting. You seem to cut off from the game the empathic connection between player and character. I've ever tought that this was large part of the fun... maybe It's been 30 years that I'm playing wrong.

This has totally been a thing for me since playing WoD in the 90s and Dark Heresy in the 00s. That is, trying to frighten the characters and not necessarily the players. Part of the fun of playing WFRP 1e was the sardonic black humor at witnessing the miseries of our PCs.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I’m turning 40

Meh, young whippersnapper, get off my lawn!

 

[Remathilis]

In what ways is the new leader of Falkovia NOT a horrible fascist dictator? They're still an oppressively leader that kills people by placing them on pikes
That hasn't changed. All they did was add zombies and flip the gender

While Valeska is a cruel tyrant, there were some overt Nazi analogues that seem to be gone or downplayed. For example, nonhumans were considered property of the state and worked so death in camps, which is a little on the nose. 3e played with this further but referring to Vlad's title as fuerher to drive the point home.

That's the kind of stuff I don't mind seeing purged from the setting.

 

[humble minion]

That's the kind of stuff I don't mind seeing purged from the setting.

Mind you, some of the old Ravenloft stuff was so far beyond this that WotC didn't even try to retcon it, (possibly for fear of drawing attention to it in the first place...) Tiyet, the Darklord of Sebua, whose damnation was fueled by her undying love for ... the powerful official who blackmailed her into sex. Or Pharazia, the only arabian-inspired domain to make it into a game book, where the Darklord was basically an extremely thinly disguised fanatical Mohammed copy. Or the Gentleman Caller, an incubus who used his magical abilities to seduce women and impregnate them, and, if I remember right, leave them hazy blissful memories of the encounter ... unless at some point in the future it amused him to withdraw his enchantment and let them remember the horrifying degradation and brutality they really experienced.

Yeah. Personally I found Vlad Drakov more unimaginative and over-the-top than problematic, but that's just speaking for me personally. And he was entirely myopically focused on conquering his neighbours (and being cursed to fail whenever he tried), which obviously ceases to work if all domains are islands in the mist. I don't mind Falkovnia getting a rewrite.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

While Valeska is a cruel tyrant, there were some overt Nazi analogues that seem to be gone or downplayed. For example, nonhumans were considered property of the state and worked so death in camps, which is a little on the nose. 3e played with this further but referring to Vlad's title as fuerher to drive the point home.

That's the kind of stuff I don't mind seeing purged from the setting.

Right
And it was impossible to do that without changing the darklord's name, gender and backstory

 

[FryMinis]

Woah! It's great to see y'all link to a bunch of my videos here. Thank you!

Minor plug: I've got an entire playlist of info that might interest y'all.

Keep up the great conversations! I'm a long-time lurker, first-time poster.

 

[Remathilis]

Right
And it was impossible to do that without changing the darklord's name, gender and backstory

There are three reasons why Falkovia got hit hard with the rewrite stick:

• Vlad Drakov was a very uninspired knock off of Vlad Dracul, a real world person who is viewed somewhat of a hero in his native lands. The names and MO are so similar it borders on parody.
• WotC went though and took a number of Darklords that were "X Universal Monster, with a name change" and altered them to be less overt. Mordenheim and Hiregaard were similar expy characters. So is Strahd, but he has brand-mascot immunity.
• In an attempt to make Vlad less of a Vlad the Impaler rip off, they made him Hilter. Not sure who thought that was a good idea.
• In a coreless setting, Drakov loses his primary curse: to repeatedly get his butt kicked by Azalin's undead border patrol. So they moved they notion of Falkovia fighting an unwinnable war against the undead into the fabric of the whole domain.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

• WotC went though and took a number of Darklords that were "X Universal Monster, with a name change" and altered them to be less overt. Mordenheim and Hiregaard were similar expy characters. So is Strahd, but he has brand-mascot immunity.

Wasn't that half the point of the setting? Classic horror monsters in D&D
Feels like taking the dragons out of Dragonlance

Was there any land that wasn't completely revised and is more or less the same as it was in the past? Or did all of Ravenloft secretly suck?