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

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Yep, that was in the Requiem: The Grim Harvest boxed set, with a few additions provided in Dragon #234.

Note also that there were rules for playing undead characters in AD&D 2E in an appendix of The Apocalypse Stone (specifically death knights, with alternative templates for non-martial characters).

Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.

And 3E compatible rules were in the Ravenloft Gazetteer II which focused on Necropolis, the transformed Il Aluk inhabited by those "slain" by the Requiem.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

In Ravenloft an Island of Terror is isolated in the sea of mists. I agree that doesn't mean it has to be entrapped (it might just be hard to navigate to). But I was responding to people who said they need to be islands of dread that are not connected so that you can have all entrapment scenarios.

I think if you look at the core in the 2E boxed set, you see it is pretty easy to have domains be connected as part of a central landmass, with some resembling one another geographically, others being more oddly 'stitched on', and still have those realms reflect the darklord and serve well as their prison for punishment. With Falkovnia, they need places on their border to attack. And it makes sense those places should be other domains. I suppose the mists could just have places for him to invade inside his domain. I think it was more interesting have it be Darkon so that he was a constant pest to Azlin, and the lich lord could send back his solders as undead.

The Vecna Domain, if I recall, wasn't created for the line till Domains of Dread** (though its possible it appeared in the Red Boxed set or some other supplement and I forgot). Technically it though those were two connected domains (these were a concept called clusters that were introduced after the black boxed set and they were essentially like miniature cores). The core is really just, for lack of a better word, a Ravenloft continent made up of domains that are connected to one another. A cluster is just a smaller continent. The cluster was called The Burning Peaks, but it was made up of two domains: Covitius (whose lord was Vecna) and Tovag (whose lord is Kas). And some of the core domains could even have co-domain lords. But overall the borders in the core, generally corresponded to the borders of the realm as well.

Basically in the 90s TSR version of Ravenloft you had a core, which was the main continent, and this had tens of domains in it (it is where Barovia, Lamordia, Falkovnia, Tepest, Darkon, Kartakass, etc were located). There was a sea here, and later on they added a sea on the other side so it eventually had two coasts. This entire area was surrounded by mists. Beyond those mists were the Islands of terror and the clusters. In addition you had smaller domains that could show up within other domains (haunted houses, rooms, that kind of thing). It all worked really well. You had the core which provided a regular place for the players to exist in, but you had the more amorphous landscape deeper in the surrounding mists where islands of terror could be found.

I don't know. If the core doesn't work for you as a concept, that is fine. I just think it was such an obviously workable idea in practice, from all the years of play I had at the table, I don't understand why this is being treated as a controversial opinion.

**A note about this because this term seems to be causing a lot of confusion: I am talking about the Domains of Dread rulebook, released for 2E in 1997. The Ravenloft 2E line starts with the Realm of Terror Boxed set (the black boxed set, which expands the original ravenloft module and the house on gryphon hill into a complete setting), followed by the Ravenloft Campaign Setting (the red boxed set, which reshapes rravenloft according to the events of the Grand Conjunction: which were part of a series of modules), then that was followed by Domains of Dread. There were also lots of supplements in between for new domains, and a boxed set called Forbidden Lore (expanded rules with fortune telling dice and cool methods for bringing visitani fortune telling into the game). A lot of the modules also kind of served as setting supplements, like Feast of Goblyns and Castles Forlorn.

Yes, from Domains of Dread onwards you had the "little cores", ie "clusters", which grouped domains that didn't really fit the core, but had a reason to connect to each other. And for those who didn't like being able to travel normally between domains (and I still don't get that, but to each his own), there were an almost infinite number of floating "Islands of Terror".

Let's take an example, Dominia, the "evil asylum" domain. It went through many incarnations, but transitioned from an Island of Terror to an actual island in the Sea of Sorrows. This still gave you the feel of isolation and "no escape" but also the evocative image of towering seaside cliffs, frantic attempted escapes in the pouring rain and generally a better feel than a building surrounded by Mists.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I always wanted to do a higher-tech RL as well. I hadn't thought about Vistani railways, though--neat idea!

I actually think Paridon even already had railways right? It had newspapers and 19th century social clubs at the least.

 

[humble minion]

I actually think Paridon even already had railways right? It had newspapers and 19th century social clubs at the least.

I don't know if it canonically had railways - it was tiny and cut-off, after all, maybe it had them once but they didn't really have anywhere to go any more. But it was pretty much the highest-tech domain in the non-MotRD Ravenloft, so i wouldn't be surprised. Very Dickensian. I'm always surprised they didn't merge it into the Core at some point, it would have fitted fine alongside Mordent and Lamordia, Dementilieu and Richulemont and even Dominia.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I don't know if it canonically had railways - it was tiny and cut-off, after all, maybe it had them once but they didn't really have anywhere to go any more. But it was pretty much the highest-tech domain in the non-MotRD Ravenloft, so i wouldn't be surprised. Very Dickensian. I'm always surprised they didn't merge it into the Core at some point, it would have fitted fine alongside Mordent and Lamordia, Dementilieu and Richulemont and even Dominia.

I was always in two minds about that. It matches Mordent in a culture sense (its pretty much urban Mordent) but it is in my mind too advanced for the Core (if only a little). There should be a Mistway between it and Mordent, definitely though.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

But islands are not inherently entrapped. If I fly down to England, and I want to leave, there are plenty of boats. I don't need to be able to walk to leave the island.

And, if a hook is how two realms interacted, doesn't that take away from the realm being specifically crafted for that punishment? I mean, even in the case of Vecna and Kas, they were both in the Realm, it wasn't two really separate realms.

As stated earlier Vecna and Kas were in different domains and their punishment was slightly different. Vecna was denied power and freedom (he wanted to be a god, didn't really care about Kas that much) whereas Kas was cursed in never being able to actually beat Vecna, as well as being denied his powerful sword. (And teased with swords that looked like it continually appearing in his domain).

 

[Remathilis]

That's not what happens. If you enter the misty border, you reappear somewhere else. Stroll down the coast of Mordent and when you pass throught the Mists you'll emerge somewhat inland at Valachan (but maybe somewhere else). Sail down the Sea of Sorrows and you'll enter the Verdurous Lands (enjoy your stay in Saragoss). You don't "fall of the edge of any map".

I don't see where that is any improvement over the fuzzy borders of islands in the Shadowfell. A map that can't be used to chart a course is useless. Which is what my problem with how the Core was arranged; it doesn't make sense as a continent. Draw any 17 domains out of a hat and put them together on the map and they would make as much sense as the ones we have now.

I would have liked the Core to be well thought out and cohesive landmass, with the darklord influencing the area it controls and twisting it to his curse. (A model that works perfectly in... The Masque of the Red Death's gothic Earth setting). That said, if that isn't what we're getting, then islands in the Mists are just as good as patchwork domains arranged in some semblance of order.

I, as always, await the final book to see the details.

 

[Alzrius]

I actually think Paridon even already had railways right? It had newspapers and 19th century social clubs at the least.

I don't recall that it did (note that newspapers, in the real world, preceded railways and social clubs by a few hundred years). Insofar as I can remember, the only domain to have a railway was Mithras Court (from the novel of the same name).

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I don't recall that it did (note that newspapers, in the real world, preceded railways and social clubs by a few hundred years). Insofar as I can remember, the only domain to have a railway was Mithras Court (from the novel of the same name).

Oh I misremembered it , apparently. I think the fact the newspapers in Hour of the Knife and Shadow of the Knife resemble the Victorian era ones probably led me to "scale up" the tech level of the domain. Rereading its entry in the 3rd edition book I really think it and Nosos could be added to the Core now without throwing anything too off, but I'd probably put it north of Lamordia, to put distance between it and Falkovnia.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I really don't get the argument that "without islands floating in the Mist it's not Gothic, because you can escape."

You all know Gothic literature is set on Earth generally, right? A place that, even in the 19th century, you could get in a carriage (or on a horse) and go some distance without too much trouble. The Core allowed for the whole "can't escape terror" with isolated islands in the sea or Islands of Terror, but Barovia doesn't need to be inescapable to create the Gothic atmosphere. It only needs to be an isolated backwater, like the actual 19th century rural Transylvania or Wallachia.

And on the note of Falkovnia. Drakov's military dictatorship and endless war is absolutely a form of horror. Remember how I said the current incarnation seems to be ignoring the "humans are the real monsters" aspect. That's Falkovnia. It's a horrific land ruled by a misogynistic delusional psychopath who sends his people into a charnel house of endless wars with no victory to satisfy his own frustrated ambitions. The Dark Powers torture him by having him get beaten in battle by women (Borca, Richemulot), fops (Borca and Mordent) and wizards (Darkon), things he despises. Azalin's contempt for Drakov is even worst - the Wizard-King doesn't even bother turning up to the wars with Falkovnia, he just waves his hand and raises the dead.

The Falkovnian soldiers end up being gutted by their own (dead) comrades.

1) In a novel, the lack of escape can be portrayed many ways that can't be done as easily in DnD. For example, if you are being hunted by a vampire, you could flee to the countryside in a novel, but obviously the monster follows you. But, again, none of the Dark Lords can follow you/

2) It seems they are calling it Falkovnia because Drakov's relative is taking over and the zombie plague probably ties into the wars he used to run.

3) Military Dictatorship and endless war are a very different kind of horror, if you are on the outside of the situation. Like... Hobgoblins have a military dictatorship and run an endless war in the plane of Archeron. It isn't... horror in the same way as some of these other elements are. Sure, the soldiers rising endlessly to fight and die endlessly is vaguely horrific, but since the PCs aren't part of the war, it doesn't have the impact that I think drives that to true horror levels.

And like, the soldiers being killed by their own dead comrades is any war against a necromancer, and it is horrific if it is a surprise and used against the forces of the players, but... to a person just passing through, watching? Especially PCs who routinely see death and carnage? In a Realm they know is full of darkness and evil, it isn't going to have that impact on its own.

4) I don't think it is fully ignoring the "humans are the real monster" trope, but it is pulling new horrors in. And, if I have 30 stories of "humans are the real monster" then I'm going to get real bored by like, domain number 6. You have to have variety to compare the humans to for that sort of thing to truly impact the way you want it to.