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

 

[Bedrockgames]

Being trapped is pretty central to most horror stories. Without that any sensible person would just leave. And yes, that lack of freedom is a problem - which is why I don't think horror really works for a full 1-20 campaign.

Many things are part of horror. The issue is you don't have to make those things present all the time. I liked running long Ravenloft campaigns, and if you entrapped them all the time, it really just frustrated players. Also you have to have contrast for horror to work. If the players are always entrapped, they become numb to it. However if they are typically not, when they do become entrapped, they will feel it more. You can mix up the elements. It depends on what you want. If you want every single adventure and every single moment to feel exactly like a horror movie, well you probably shouldn't be using D&D in the first place for a horror game. However if you want a world inspired by horror, that has interesting mechanics for emulating it, and you want a long term campaign, I found the classic Ravenloft stuff works provided you use things like entrapment, and the power the mists give the GM sparingly. And I also found, more often than not, I was able to achieve a sense of horror and dread. For me, having a long, ongoing campaign was important. I didn't like the idea of a horror one shot weekend in hell as much as I liked the idea of basing my campaigns in a setting inspired by classic horror. I played Ravenloft all through the 90s, and in my opinion the weekend in hell thing was the worst advertisement for the setting because it just made players hate Ravenloft. Right off the bat I ran them as long term campaigns, with the players all buying into the idea that they were outsiders sucked into Ravenloft from elsewhere (and that worked great).

All that said, D&D and levels 1-20 are tough for pure horror. But Ravenloft is probably better than most places for achieving it because it throws so many curve balls at the PCs. Vampires often require much different methods to be killed for example. This is actually true of most monsters in Ravenloft. The Van Richten books give you blueprints and tools for creating foes who can scale up in power and who are unique enough that the players often can't simply kill them with the swing of a sword or the launching of a fireball.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

why are the player's free to leave?

They aren't. Going all the way back to the original module the mists prevent the PCs leaving Barovia (which was much smaller back then). And actually most of the domains are like that, they can't leave unless the dark lord lets them.

 

[Bedrockgames]

And there is a second point. Sure, Geopolitics is easier when you have two static neighbors, but islands can also have trade, and what makes that interesting is if you wanted, you could have any two particular sets of domains have a relationship. Maybe a man in the Zombie apocalypse setting is fighting with one arm, because he was in the Most Dangerous Game setting and lost that arm escaping. You can play around with where you think the connections are most interesting. Which seems like a win, especially since it seems like the nature of the Mists isn't actually changing.

If you take away adjacent domains that are part of a core landmass, then you can't have the kinds of things that you saw in saw Falkovnia (where Drakov kept trying to invade Darkon but was always doomed to fail). You also don't have as rich of a horror environment to explore. Keep in mind in the original geography, Islands of Terror were floating in the mists, and those were very navigable (some people could do it, and the vistani seemed to be able to, but PCs stepping into the mists could end up anywhere, and dark lords wouldn't be able to consistently send shipments through them). In the black boxed set you had the best of both worlds because you had a core with connected domains (and that core shifted and evolved from time to time because the land is just a reflection of the dark lords), and you had individual islands or terror (and later you had clusters which were islands of terror that were connected to one another (usually just one or two domains). And some domains were really small, like the size of a house (and could show up anywhere in Ravenloft. Another thing: dark lords are not always the political leaders of domains. They have powerful ties to the land, can close the borders, and the realm is there to torment them, but they don't always hold political power.

Obviously tastes vary, and aesthetics change a lot. While CoS and new ravenloft didn't appeal to me, that probably has to do with me being 40+ and not really being that into 5E or D&D cosmology since 3rd edition. My tastes are a bit old. So if you like the new Ravenloft, that is great. If you like curse of strahd, that is great. I won't tell you shouldn't or that your tastes are worse than mine. But I see so much dismissal of the earlier material (sometimes by people who played it at the time and didn't like it, which I think is fair) but also by people who never even really gave it a chance or haven't read it. But there wouldn't be CoS if there wasn't an original Ravenloft module (and the new book wouldn't exist if there hadn't been a black boxed set and van richten books). So these things did something right. People saw enough value in them, and they were popular enough, that WOTC is willing to revisit them. I would definitely recommend reading the original Ravenloft Module, the black boxed set and possibly Feast of Goblyns and one or two Van Richten books (The created, the guide to werebeasts, the ancient dead, and the guide to liches were all good: the originals, not the compiled versions). At the very least, going back to the sources will help illuminate the newer books for you.

 

[Bedrockgames]

They aren't. Going all the way back to the original module the mists prevent the PCs leaving Barovia (which was much smaller back then). And actually most of the domains are like that, they can't leave unless the dark lord lets them.

This is true, but the borders were not always closed in the setting once you had the black box. And players were not always at odds with the dark lord. The GM certainly had that as an option, and it was a plausible consequence of the players taking certain actions. It just wasn't constant entrapment all the time (though you were still trapped in ravenloft itself)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Many things are part of horror. The issue is you don't have to make those things present all the time. I liked running long Ravenloft campaigns, and if you entrapped them all the time, it really just frustrated players. Also you have to have contrast for horror to work. If the players are always entrapped, they become numb to it.

Sure, the contrast is necessary. Which is why you transport PCs from their home plane to Ravenloft, and hold out the carrot of escape just out of reach. A campaign that is 100% in Ravenloft is not horror, and never has been. It is a regular D&D campaign with Hammer-themed monsters.

Vampires and werewolves and mummies (oh my!) Are no more inherently horrific than any other monster in the Monster Manual.

 

[Bedrockgames]

It certainly does nothing to discourage it.

I think this depends on who you play with. If the only thing keeping your party from going full murder hobo, is constantly entrapping them, I don't know, you probably should just be running murder hobo campaigns anyways I guess. But I have never had a Ravenloft campaign that became murder hobo. The setting just doesn't really lend itself to it because you have powers checks, you don't have easy targets for murder hobos (this isn't a place where there are lots of orcs to kill, and if you do decide to go into a place with Goblins or Goblyns, good luck!

 

[Bedrockgames]

Sure, the contrast is necessary. Which is why you transport PCs from their home plane to Ravenloft, and hold out the carrot of escape just out of reach. A campaign that is 100% in Ravenloft is not horror, and never has been. It is a regular D&D campaign with Hammer-themed monsters.

Sorry but I just disagree. Firstly because I couldn't stand doing weekends in hell (players didn't like them, it made Ravenloft a torturous novelty setting, etc). Secondly, Ravenloft worked great for long term campaigns, and they were definitely horror campaigns. Thirdly, doing it the way you describe risks becoming too heavy handed and too much of a railroad (it was a tendency that existed even in the original Ravenloft and the Black Box and something I learned to avoid over time because it wasn't effective). Now horror is hard to achieve whether you are doing a full campaign or a one shot. It takes skill. It also takes setting the right expectations (if you expect every horror adventure to play out like Frankenstein and Dracula, well you will be disappointed because of things like the randomness of dice). But if you know how to mix up the tone and atmosphere right, it can certainly be done. Ravenloft, as it was presented in the black boxed set, was the furthest thing from a standard D&D campaign. I certainly ran it as classic horror, so there was a bit of camp (wasn't afraid to go Bride of Frankenstein from time to time: but remember many people regard that as the better version of two original Frankenstein movies, even though the tone is more all over the map). But there was also plenty of horror and dread. YMMV.

 

[tetrasodium]

I know very little about Ravenloft in general, and Curse of Strahd. I did run through part of it with a group, but they decided that "murder people to get Strahd's attention, then murder strahd so we can leave" was their preferred method of engagement.

But, part of what I do remember is that there is a lady who Strahd is after as the reincarnation of his beloved, and she wants nothing to do with him. So, if we are in "freely travel the Core" Ravenloft... why doesn't she just run to a different domain? Sure, it will be equally terrible in a lot of ways, but she can escape Strahd.

Now, I think the normal answer is "Strahd would prevent this, he controls the Mists" Which is a fine answer... but then... why are the player's free to leave? Why is Van Richten free to leave? Why is anyone free to leave? Why is Strahd bothering with a War if he can just shut down his entire domain to prevent anyone from entering or leaving?

And every way I twist on this, Strahd not being able to fully shut it down, Strahd not being able to permanently shut it down, ect, I find myself thinking that, while a different logic, the same end result can be done with a "Sea of Mist". It is difficult to leave, you need special something or others, not everyone can risk it.

And there is a second point. Sure, Geopolitics is easier when you have two static neighbors, but islands can also have trade, and what makes that interesting is if you wanted, you could have any two particular sets of domains have a relationship. Maybe a man in the Zombie apocalypse setting is fighting with one arm, because he was in the Most Dangerous Game setting and lost that arm escaping. You can play around with where you think the connections are most interesting. Which seems like a win, especially since it seems like the nature of the Mists isn't actually changing.

That group of PCs sound like a perfect fit to wake up l(ower leveled) along with all of their loved ones in zombie land with someone from that murdered village back as a loch &(barely) controlling the zombies as a whole to seek revenge. Just killing the murderers would be too easy though so the zombies seem mindless and just happen to swarm in ways that ensure lots of one step forward two steps back . The PCs csn leave any time but need to survive with their families who also need to survive &its not like there is s neon sign saying that deliberately failing the escort quest or killing their zombified/revenant forms is the way out. The Dark Powers love the sort of thing the PCs did to get strahd's attention

The woman strand loves is the fiancee/wife of his brother & she's particularly against the idea of being around him given the whole killing his brother & drinking his blood (in front of jer?) On what was her wedding night

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Sorry but I just disagree. Firstly because I couldn't stand doing weekends in hell (players didn't like them, it made Ravenloft a torturous novelty setting, etc).

You seem to be labouring under the delusion that anything less than a 1-20 campaign is resolved within a single weekend. There is a middle ground. My players have been trapped in Icewind Dale (RotFM) for over three months now (real time). And will probably be there for another three. But there is plenty for them to do. They don't need to go whizzing all over the continent to find plenty of adventures.

Secondly, Ravenloft worked great for long term campaigns, and they were definitely horror campaigns.

How? What made the horrific? Your players are buzzing around the continent wherever they want to go, and presumably killing monsters for a living. That's no different to the Forgotten Realms.

Thirdly, doing it the way you describe risks becoming too heavy handed and too much of a railroad (it was a tendency that existed even in the original Ravenloft and the Black Box and something I learned to avoid over time because it wasn't effective).

Yes, an inherent problem with trying to do horror in D&D, that Ravenloft never solved.

Now horror is hard to achieve whether you are doing a full campaign or a one shot. It takes skill. It also takes setting the right expectations (if you expect every horror adventure to play out like Frankenstein and Dracula, well you will be disappointed because of things like the randomness of dice). But if you know how to mix up the tone and atmosphere right, it can certainly be done. Ravenloft, as it was presented in the black boxed set, was the furthest thing from a standard D&D campaign.

I owned it. And one of it's features was that is was most of the domains where difficult to leave once you entered them unless you defeated the Dark Lord. Another was the default assumption that PCs where transported there from their home plane and where trying to get home.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I owned it. And one of it's features was that is was most of the domains where difficult to leave once you entered them unless you defeated the Dark Lord. Another was the default assumption that PCs where transported there from their home plane and where trying to get home.

only if the dark lord closed the borders. That depended on what was going on (and especially depended on whether the PCs attracted the dark lords attention)