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.

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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

 

[Charlaquin]

We don't actually know how isolated these 5E islands are going to be. They are all in the Shadowfell. For all we know, they're "islands" 10 feet apart from each other.

Everyone should save some of their powder for May, when we actually know how it's implemented.

Yeah, I was gonna say something along these lines too. Just because they’re not physically connected doesn’t mean they have to be isolated from one another. If you want travel between domains to be easy, just say the mist can transport you from one domain to the next.

 

[tetrasodium]

We don't actually know how isolated these 5E islands are going to be. They are all in the Shadowfell. For all we know, they're "islands" 10 feet apart from each other.

Everyone should save some of their powder for May, when we actually know how it's implemented.

Given the nature of the mists & the Dark Powers, as near far porous or impenetrable as plot & tension demands I'd guess

 

[Remathilis]

the issue with making them all islands is you lose a lot. It basically reduced the setting to isolation and entrapment, while taking away the flavor and adventure hooks that came with having lands connected. The key thing is in the boxed set, you had both. I can tell you from experience long term campaigns didn’t work as well with islands as they did with the core. But if you wanted isolated domains: that was still there.

While I agree in principle, I just think the core (or more precisely, how the core was implemented) was poorly done. If the domains are supposed to be connected, make them feel like a real world with proper geography and interplay. If they are going to wildly change by crossing the border, the is no point in placing them side by side and they can be islands you travel between by walking though The Mists.

 

[Bedrockgames]

While I agree in principle, I just think the core (or more precisely, how the core was implemented) was prolly poorly done. If the domains are supposed to be connected, make them feel like a real world with proper geography and interplay. If they are going to wildly change by crossing the border, the is no point in placing them side by side and they can be islands you travel between by walking though The Mists.

Again it is preference but I loved how they did it, a nice balance of strange, surreal and real world

 

[Parmandur]

Off-topic.

 

[Bedrockgames]

While I agree in principle, I just think the core (or more precisely, how the core was implemented) was poorly done. If the domains are supposed to be connected, make them feel like a real world with proper geography and interplay. If they are going to wildly change by crossing the border, the is no point in placing them side by side and they can be islands you travel between by walking though The Mists.

they don’t all widely change. Some do, some don’t. Depends largely on which point in the 90s line you are thinking (black box, post grand conjunctions red box, domains of dread, etc). Personally I like the black box map but that is just my opinion. And found having them connect worked for creating a sense of place and creating some connections between them is

 

[Parmandur]

Off-topic.

 

[Faolyn]

This incarnation of Ravenloft reimagines a great deal of what came before. Past explorations of the setting directly linked many of the domains of Ravenloft into a pseudo-continent called the ‘Core’. We’ve taken the Core, the heart of the Ravenloft setting, and shattered it. In this new interpretation, every domain is a lonely island drifting through the mists.

I approve.

I like the Core as an idea but they never did much about it--because, I mentioned elsewhere in a subthread about Planescape, Status Quo is God. I would have loved to have seen actual politics and wars between countries, or even the spread of a type of horror from one domain into another, but we never got that.

This will also, presumably, increase the importance of the Mists. I always feel bad about using them because they're such DM fiat. But now that they're the way to travel so it makes more sense to use them regularly.

 

[Faolyn]

But yeah, it sounds like the death of the "campaign setting" Ravenloft and a return to something closer to "weekend in Hell"

There's lots to do in any one Domain, and presumably you can still even just walk to one domain from another.

 

[Voadam]

they don’t all widely change. Some do, some don’t. Depends largely on which point in the 90s line you are thinking (black box, post grand conjunctions red box, domains of dread, etc). Personally I like the black box map but that is just my opinion. And found having them connect worked for creating a sense of place and creating some connections between them is

How many moons are in the core realm of Sithicus and what color are they? How many are in the core's Nova Vaasa? How about for their neighbors in the core?

For a setting where moon phases could matter significantly I would have preferred to have the same answer for all three instead of three different answers.