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

 

[MGibster]

Mostly. The Original I6 doesn't use the word "Vistani" at all; they are just gypsies. Vistani came around when the module was turned into a setting.

You're absolutely right. I just did a word search through my legally purchased Ravenloft I-6 PDF and there is no use of the word Vistani. They just refer to Madam Eva as a, well, it's a word I've been told by moderators we shouldn't be using. But the interesting thing is that they refer to Patrina, an elf maiden, as one of these as well. Maybe Charlaquin's idea of the Vistani being a culture made up of elves, dragonborn, tieflings, etc., etc. is on the nose. (Nobody tell her I said she might be right. I have a reputation to protect.)

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Maybe Charlaquin's idea of the Vistani being a culture made up of elves, dragonborn, tieflings, etc., etc. is on the nose. (Nobody tell her I said she might be right. I have a reputation to protect.)

That's the 4E approach, I dunno if Charlaquin just came up with something similar or is quoting the 4E one. It's one of the 4E-era Dragon mags (which you can find in the Dragon archive), though I forget which.

Basically in 4E, Vistani is this dimension-travelling culture, which theoretically anyone can join, because it's a culture, rather than race. There's a ritual and everything to join it. Otherwise they're somewhat similar to typical Vistani. But as you say, it sounds like it started out as a culture as well, which would make complete sense in a D&D setting - more sense than the bizarre racial take they later went with.

 

[tetrasodium]

Not sure which one of your many quotes of the same material I'm supposed to respond to here, but ok... I guess? Certainly you've presented no case beyond "Well I liked it!" for why we should agree with this. I mean, that's fine... you don't have to do that... but it's unconvincing. Your statements remain contradictory.

I'm kind of intrigued by what the "kind of horror" you like is, and what films/books/TV are "horror" to you. To me it seems like it might be something that most people wouldn't call "horror" at all, merely "dark fantasy", stuff focused entirely on atmosphere rather than actual horror. Which can be cool but can also get pretty funny-by-accident - c.f. Ligotti.

Anyway, none of this has any bearing on what's coming in the new Ravenloft. I have little doubt it'll work better for most people than a mere refresh of the 2E take would have, but I'm excited to hear more about it, particularly any brand-new domains.

@tetrasodium That's true it being far less dangerous in Black Box-era Ravenloft than many D&D settings, but that was yet another problem with the setting, and why I described it early as that Forgotten Realms with the lights dimmed 15%. Most Ravenloft domains were full of these supposedly "fearful villagers" who are described in these ridiculous terms and always supposed to be "afraid of strangers" (why? rarely explained in any way that makes sense) and looking over their shoulders (again, why?) and so on, but the reality of the situation was that they were safer than most D&D villages, and certainly as safe as someone of the safer areas of the Forgotten Realms. It's almost like they're cos-playing or LARPing at being frightened villagers.

It was much better in the domains where there actually was a reason to be scared, and to act like that - then it made sense - ones with highly active and vindictive lords and roving packs of actually-dangerous-to-villlagers monsters and so on. But in a lot of places it felt like the villagers were basically theme-park staff there to "create atmosphere" for the PCs, not people who actually lived there.

EDIT - I kind of wonder if the "only 10% of villagers have souls" (which I expect the Ravenloft book to retcon, or make specific to Barovia, btw) was inspired by the bizarre and hard-to-understand behaviour prescribed for a lot of the locals.

the average commoner is about as interesting to the Dark Powers as the man woman or whatever that handed you the bag on your last trip through the drive through at mcdonalds. The PCs... those are a different story, PCs are interesting & can accomplish unexpected things. Dark lords know that J-Random villager won't be of any meaningful use, but those PCs can bring hope to a dark lord. If the PCs aren't filled with exploitable flaws useful for sending them deep into their cups to begin with it's just a matter of time to help them grow some >

 

[Voadam]

I am wondering what other new domains they will come up with for the new set. We know a tidbit about the Indian one, I expect a few more.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I'm kind of intrigued by what the "kind of horror" you like is, and what films/books/TV are "horror" to you. To me it seems like it might be something that most people wouldn't call "horror" at all, merely "dark fantasy", stuff focused entirely on atmosphere rather than actual horror. Which can be cool but can also get pretty funny-by-accident - c.f. Ligotti.

I gave examples earlier. I like all kinds of horror. But Ravenloft felt like the classic horror movies I watched growing up as a kid: hammer films (like their dracula movies, their frankenstein movies, reptile, plague of zombies, etc), universal films (frankenstein, bride of frank stein, the wolf man), old vincent price movies, etc. Stuff like that. After getting into Ravenloft I went down the rabbit whole of reading all the books mentioned in the black box and got into various gothic and classic horror stories.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Not sure which one of your many quotes of the same material I'm supposed to respond to here, but ok... I guess? Certainly you've presented no case beyond "Well I liked it!" for why we should agree with this. I mean, that's fine... you don't have to do that... but it's unconvincing. Your statements remain contradictory.

I've tried to be polite with you. I don't feel that has been reciprocated at all. So I won't be engaging you further

 

[Bedrockgames]

Living in ravenloft isn't going to be all that bad for most of the common folk when compared to the common folk inareas with people in a lot of d&d worlds living in ravenloft isn't all that bad. Sure you might have to worry about vampires werewolves or whatever at times, but those are a thing in every world & really not that bad when you consider that a village(r) may have been plucked from the path of an army of orc/gnoll/cannibal halfling/daelkyr reavers that would have slaughtered everyone. The Dark Powers are a lot ore subtle than FR/GH gods & fiends that go around getting in bar brawls over cities & such too. The move might be a little jarring & confusing but by & large most of the village(r)s aren't worth notice by the powers that be.

Not only that, now they have the common sense to say "oh my god, how incredible this is to mostly only have one kind of monster to worry about so we can plan for the full moon or whatever." Sure "Bob's neighbors" are screwed as @Faolyn mentioned, but serial killer "he was so normal" and "now that we really look back he was always a little off" can apply to most of the ones that are actual people.

the average commoner is about as interesting to the Dark Powers as the man woman or whatever that handed you the bag on your last trip through the drive through at mcdonalds. The PCs... those are a different story, PCs are interesting & can accomplish unexpected things. Dark lords know that J-Random villager won't be of any meaningful use, but those PCs can bring hope to a dark lord. If the PCs aren't filled with exploitable flaws useful for sending them deep into their cups to begin with it's just a matter of time to help them grow some >

Whether the powers took an interest in the villagers or not, they were subject to the monsters that inhabit ravenloft (and those were plentiful). But you look at a place like Kartakass, it is only a pleasant place to live if you turn into a wolf at night.

Whether it is more miserable elsewhere than Ravenloft, the life of the downtrodden in most fantasy worlds is pretty bad. I think in Ravenloft it is more the nature of the badness than whether it is more bad or less bad. In Forgotten Realms you can still die a horrible death or be forced into servitude somewhere. In Ravenloft loft the death is probably more likely to like something plucked out of a horror movie, where you are filled with fear before being killed. And the kinds of creatures you are likely to encounter are more in line with ghosts, werebeasts, ghouls, etc. Personally I would probably prefer the more straight forward death I am likely to get in the realms, but it is likely to only be more pleasant by a degree (and who knows you could end up getting killed by some sadistic orc chief).

I suppose it ultimately depends on who the GM is. Presumably though, if the villagers are described as cautious, superstitious, and skittish, then bad things are supposed to be happening to their people.

 

[tetrasodium]

Whether the powers took an interest in the villagers or not, they were subject to the monsters that inhabit ravenloft (and those were plentiful). But you look at a place like Kartakass, it is only a pleasant place to live if you turn into a wolf at night.

Spoiler

Carvings, floral patterns, & story telling/performances.... sounds like absolute hell so far.

Spoiler: Don't get me started on the people there

Warm and gregarious.... these folks are absolute monsters living a life of absolute misery. Sure there are wolves, maybe even werewolves, but they structure their culture around minimizing that risk.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Spoiler

View attachment 133461

Carvings, floral patterns, & story telling/performances.... sounds like absolute hell so far.

Spoiler: Don't get me started on the people there

View attachment 133462

Warm and gregarious.... these folks are absolute monsters living a life of absolute misery. Sure there are wolves, maybe even werewolves, but they structure their culture around minimizing that risk.

fair enough. Kartakans are pretty carefree. I should have read-read the entry before saying that. But I do think in cases where people of a given domain are described as fearful, we are meant to understand there is a reason for the fear

 

[JEB]

I am wondering what other new domains they will come up with for the new set. We know a tidbit about the Indian one, I expect a few more.

I'm also hoping they'll port over some of the domains they invented for 4E (which I don't know much about myself, but am eager to learn).

The Indian-themed domain doesn't actually appear to be new, however - since they also reference "Arijani" as a faction leader, it sounds like an update of the domain Sri Raji (where the rakshasa Arijani was darklord).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I gave examples earlier. I like all kinds of horror. But Ravenloft felt like the classic horror movies I watched growing up as a kid: hammer films (like their dracula movies, their frankenstein movies, reptile, plague of zombies, etc), universal films (frankenstein, bride of frank stein, the wolf man), old vincent price movies, etc. Stuff like that.

Corny self-parodies that are entertaining because they are funny, not scary.

 

[WarlockkingNelzul]

Man, could you imagine if your PC encountered something like that and got asked "Ticket please?"

But your PC doesn't have said ticket.......

or better yet you have a ticket.. and you don't know where it came from.. and everytime you get it punched you feel a little more of your self fading away.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Nor does killing the Dark Lord end the horror, since it might revive, or a new horror would just be appointed in its place.

This is the primary reason I will never run Ravenloft out of the box. I’ll use it’s elements to run a game where what the PCs do matters, at most.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The Indian-themed domain doesn't actually appear to be new, however - since they also reference "Arijani" as a faction leader, it sounds like an update of the domain Sri Raji (where the rakshasa Arijani was darklord).

I suspect it's a name change rather than a new domain. I suspect the old name could be interpreted as offensive. Raji is a (usually Islamic?) male name, and "Sri" seems to be an honorific, like Mister. So, as near as I can translate, it is Hindi for "Mister Shine".

Which I guess at a stretch could also be translated as Lucifer.

Whatever, there are probably a large number of people in the real world who are actually called "Sri Raji".

 

[JEB]

Corny self-parodies that are entertaining because they are funny, not scary.

Classic horror films such as Universal and Hammer's series certainly weren't funny or self-parodies when they were new. Some modern viewers may see them that way, but that's only because of all the later horror fiction that built on their foundation. (And even then, they can still have their moments.)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Classic horror films such as Universal and Hammer's series certainly weren't funny or self-parodies when they were new. Some modern viewers may see them that way, but that's only because of all the later horror fiction that built on their foundation. (And even then, they can still have their moments.)

True for the early ones, but for that later ones Hammer knew it was making parodies towards the end of the cycle. And what the censors permitted meant that the early ones are extremely tame by modern standards, with many former X certificates now being reclassified PG.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Horror is not simplely adding zombies to a story, but when witch-hunters discover these are the innocent children from the orphanague, killed by the evil necromancer to be used as cannon fodder. Horror is when a member of the ship crew has been killed and eaten but you don't know who is the murderer hidden among us. Or a group of dark faes using magic to transform sentient creatures into delicious fruits to be eaten. Horror is not the Joker killing people with tricked joke articles but Batman hurry to find the innocent teen girl kidnapped by the serial killer "the birthday boy". Horror is not a evil dragon attacking a town, but discovering a dragon is infiltrated among the humans as a trader, and he caused an epidemic to sell medicines. Horror is not an assasin with a knife, but to discover the murder of a child was a initation ritual, and the applicant to enter a secret society has to commite a human sacrifice and like this to can be blakmailed for the rest of his life. Horror is not Sweeny Tood, the psyco-killer barber with a blooded straight razor, but Mrs Lovett using the flesh to bake meat pies. Horror is not a robot from the future killing all the people within a police station, but when the characters needs to be totally blinded or keeping total silence to avoid the alien monster.

* I think Ravenloft is too "small", even more than Dark Sun. It can't be only a Jurasic Park for the monsters of Universal Pictures, but it needs a lot of space to be explored and discovered.

 

[Chaosmancer]

That is a perfectly good reason for liking Dragonlance. The storyline is about a war involving dragons. You certainly can face dragons in other settings, but you can more reliably face them in Dragonlance. But beyond that I really don't get this whole attitude of "your reasons are not adequate". People get to like things for whatever reasons they want. I don't know what a super dragon expansion is, but I don't think you've made the case against the van richten books not being a reason in favor of Ravenloft: they were made for the setting and reflect setting content. I really can't continue to debate on that. We've reached a point where we simply disagree (and I don't find your points convincing at all)

I'm not trying to say you can't like Ravenloft for whatever reason you want. I don't care why you like it.

What I am trying to say is that if you want to sell someone on the setting of Ravenloft, saying, "Playing 2e in Ravenloft with the Van Richten Guides so you can customize the monsters" isn't selling Ravenloft. It is selling a very particular set of books and options.

Of course you can. But the point is geography matters. Bodies of water are boundaries that matter. They have an impact on international politics and shape them. If the domains are separate islands then their 'international politics" are going to be different than they were in the core book. Your argument for islands as a model seems to be: islands are really great and do all these different things in the areas I want, but all the different things they do suddenly don't exist when you point them out as potential downsides. i just don't get this argument, and I don't get the argument for why you need islands in Ravenloft rather than having both a core and islands.

I understand that geography matters. I understand that international politics involving islands in a sea are different than those involving land and different than those involving mountain ranges. That is blatantly obvious.

But, when I've asked "What about the previous geography was usefuly? What are you losing?" your answers have been:

1) The Freedom to Travel (not lost by making them islands, just a different form of travel. Unless you make them specifically like the old Islands of Terror and make the area impossible to navigate which I am not assuming)

2) Falkovia going to war (they redid that domain it seems, so in terms of the geography that is a non-issue)

3) You lose international politics (You don't)

So... really I think what it comes down to for you is the bolded section. It is different. And it is completely fair that you as a fan of the old 2e version love the version you have used for decades and you don't want to change it. I hope you continue to use what has worked for your for decades. But, as a new player getting introduced to this setting? "It is different than it used to be" isn't a convincing argument for me to want to go back to the old version. I have no connections to either version, so I am seeing them as baseline equal to begin with.

It is probably the most important feature of Ravenloft. Without powers checks, the setting wouldn't have clicked or made sense in my opinion. When you commit evil acts, there is a percentage chance of attracting the dark powers attention. This can lead to advancing through various stages of corruption (the number varies from black box, to domains of dread, etc). But essentially each stage gives a reward and a punishment as you progress towards a more monstrous end result. It an happen to PCs, but also is assumed to happen to NPCs in the setting. Many foes in Ravenllfot are simply those who have advanced through different steps of corruption. There are guidelines for which acts would produce what percentage chance of attracting the dark powers (these get quite codified in later books), and there are guidelines on how to handle rewards and punishments.

That does sound interesting, and exactly like the type of thing I would want to include in this style of game. I'll have to think about how I want to include it.

I don't keep insisting he is inspired by Hitler, that is another poster (I do think that comparison is there, but he is also easily compared to Stalin and similar figures). For me, him being based on historical monsters is perfectly in keeping in with a horror game though (perhaps for you it isn't, or it is a bridge too far, and that is fine). But I already expressed my reasons for why I thought that was compelling, why it didn't personally bother me. You can read that post, if you still think it is a problem, then that is fine. We can have different opinions.

In terms of sympathetic, I think the lords vary, in terms of how that is handled, and Drakov is hitting a particular note, so he isn't sympathetic in the same style as Strahd. whose pining for his youth and the lost love who represents that youth is something people can relate to and sympathize with: even if the remainder of his actions: killing his brother, driving her to suicide, still make him a monster. This combined with his charm, his musical and arcane talents, give us something to admire. It creates that combo of being compelling and being repugnant.

In Drakov's case, as I recall (and I am going by memory here) he is a military conquerer trapped in a place where he can never really conquer anymore. As for Drakov, here is the section from the book that I think makes him a bit relatable:



Here is the part of his background that I think places him pretty firmly into horror (note this is his entry, not the domain's, and this is just part of his entry):



Obviously few can sympathize with his horrendous actions, but I can totally sympathize with being looked down upon and that fueling some kind of deep resentment. I think that is a near universal experience.

With Ravenloft it varied for sure, but it was a pretty firm guideline that these villains were meant to be tragic and sympathetic. There is camp too, and fun. Ivan Dilisnya is an example of that. But they all tend to have some basic human need or desire thwarted that you can at least understand. Again, they are compelling but also repugnant

Okay, I can see that angle of sympathy, and that does work to an extent. Though I find it to be a thin thread combined with every other aspect of him.

I also think that reading those really does highlight the Vlad Tepes comparison, in a lot of ways that I'm not sure I like. So there is a lot of give and take there. I think, all in all, it is a well-written character from an older time. I can see how he is compelling, but I can also see where I would never use him as written.

A couple of things here, the domains don't reset like a video game or anything like that (unless you have a land with a groundhog day premise or something). With Strahd Tatyana is reborn like every generation or so (can't recall the precise timing).

With domains, they are like real places. So once the land forms, whether it is drawn from another place, a copy of another place, or created whole cloth by the dark powers (and this as others have pointed out is a bit inconsistent and isn't always clear how it is handled: which I think is fine because I prefer to lean into one explanation as I need when I am making my own domains, rather than have a concrete way it needs be done), it is inhabited by people who are real, and that domain goes on to exist like a real place within Ravenloft (and this is one reason why I think having the core works). Mordent is formed in like 579, the calendar in the black box I think had present day as 735 (could be wrong on that). Dementlieu was formed in 707. So there is ample time for someone to be born within Ravenloft and to go on to do evil and have a new domain form around them.

On the prison thing. Ravenloft's best theory is that it is a prison for its dark lords. But the dark powers are deliberately left mysterious, it isn't really known why they are doing what they are doing. For all we know it is an evil terrarium and the eventual production of guys like Dominic d'Honaire is actually the final purpose of Ravenloft. It is left vague so it can be left to the imagination and so different GMs can lean into different explanations.

You know what? I was not sold on this concept until you made the comparison to an evil terrarium. THAT makes sense and I think makes a great concept for this setting, for me.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Corny self-parodies that are entertaining because they are funny, not scary.

That is how you feel about it. Horror is a very subjective thing. I don't find games that aim for sombre and serious to be all that horrific. Contrast is useful. Humor and dark humor especially, have a place in horror IMO (how much of that is present in Ravenloft is I think debatable of course). In fact I think horror movies that incorporate humor are usually more scary to me than ones that are super focused on maintaining a serious horror tone (not always of course, there are lots of things that make horror successful and I wouldn't just reduce it tonal variety). I think there was an element of camp in Ravenloft but in my opinion that actually was important for tonal variety. Maintaining a state of horror all the time doesn't work, you have to have other things in there to contrast it with, especially if you are trying to do it over a long period. Look, I like horror of many varieties (body horror, survival horror, slashers, gothic horror, etc). When it comes to RPGs, I found Ravenloft to be very successful at delivering a classic horror feel (which I think involves a certain amount of camp). It wasn't self parody. It was homage, but that isn't parody. It was still definitely scary. But it is a roleplaying game. If you go in thinking it is always going to be scary, you'll be disappointed (even CoC for all its seriousness, and brilliance, easily slips into slapstick). With Ravenloft it is incredibly atmospheric, and it is well suited to building fear and revealing horror, but if it doesn't happen to be scary, you still have the entertainment of the camp factor.

But Ravenloft was quite good at the scares I think because of the ways it got around players normal expectations of things like how powerful a monster might be, how things like the mist operated, and how the nature of these domains made their residents quite hard to contend with. Just a simple flesh golem adventure could be way harder in Ravenloft than in another setting, and the tools and advice in the black box for building up the tension did work. Now you could run Ravenloft in pure camp mode if you wanted to. But that was a choice.

But if you don't find it scary, you don't find it scary. That is a personal reaction. It isn't objective. When I started faming I was playing with a group of friends that included horror fans, and we used to rent horror movies after school and watch them all the time. We all disagreed on what movies were really scary. To me the most scary movie I ever saw was the original Nosferatu. For a lot of people that is too corny and silent to be scary. And I get that. But for whatever reason a film like that really horrified me as a kid. Whereas I can watch the exorcist and be extremely entertained and love it but I didn't find it especially scary (it is one of my favorite horror movies, I just don't find myself scared by it). I get why other people find it scary though.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I'm not trying to say you can't like Ravenloft for whatever reason you want. I don't care why you like it.

What I am trying to say is that if you want to sell someone on the setting of Ravenloft, saying, "Playing 2e in Ravenloft with the Van Richten Guides so you can customize the monsters" isn't selling Ravenloft. It is selling a very particular set of books and options.

Chaosmancer, we've gone back and forth over this point over and over. If you aren't convinced you aren't but I find your argument really strange. If I am telling someone that I think a line was good, of course I am going to include support for that line as reason for why it is worth exploring. And I have already given you reasons on why. But here is at least one more in terms of mechanics: all the mechanics in the van richten books are for 2E, so good luck using them in d20 or 5E, and some of the mechanics even fit to mechanics specific to ravenloft. At this point though, I am not trying to sell you on anything. If you don't think the van richten books are an attentive reason to go to 2E Ravenloft, then don't. It isn't my responsibility to give you a thorough sales pitch and secure the sale. I am telling you what I like about 2E Ravenloft and I feel like you are responding with incredibly pedantic quibbles to the things I say about. I will not respond to this point any further because this is not feeling like a conversation to me