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]

That's not a rational argument nor a well-reasoned opinion and appears to contradict your directly previous post. Blaming yourself for everything that didn't work, and the setting/writing for nothing is the opposite of making any real attempt to analyze the successes and potential failures of a setting.

I think I am being rationale. I just not be conveying my full meaning clearly to you. I have gamed now for many decades. I started in 86, began GMing around 1990. I am capable of knowing when things not working were my fault and when things not working were the games fault. With Ravenloft most of my early missteps were a product of me still learning to GM. Now to be clear, I am not saying the game was perfect, and there is definitely advice in the rulebooks that are a product of the time, which I would advise against. A lot of games at the time had conventions that got dropped. Just as there were conventions in RPGs in the 00s that have been dropped, and conventions now that will be dropped in the future. Settings and rulebooks are always a product of their time. But on the whole, Ravenloft seriously upped my game. And what was great about the Black Box was it had this stark vision of horror, which if you committed to, yielded results. Now I might do it differently if I were empowered to re-write the thing, because I have my own take.

What flaws Ravenloft had though, were not a product of the setting, nor were they really a product of the rules, they were a product of things like how games tended to be run at that time. Most of my criticisms of the Ravenloft line would have to do with elements of module adventure structure (things I have to work around in any version of D&D: I couldn't stand WOTC modules in the 00s for example).

I felt the setting was very successful. I felt the tone and writing of the book was extremely successful. I felt the advice was passionate and provoked a paradigm shift for me. Some of it certainly could be reworked in terms of how heavy handed to be with certain things, which I could say of almost anything, but I still regard that black box set as a masterpiece. And again, once you combine that box, with Van Richten books and sprinkling of FoG: it was perfection IMO.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Well, no matter what the canonical answer is, I'm keeping the Mistways and upping their importance. Heck, I'd even go so far as to build regular highways between domains--and the highways may be domains of their own.

A Fury Road inspired domain seems totally doable and awesome.

 

[Bedrockgames]

See, you said this previously, and that's much more of an actual attempt to look at things - it also contradicts the "it's all my fault" angle! Having to work to find an angle was certainly my experience - and most importantly to what I'm saying, often if you could find an angle, it wasn't one the writers appeared to have considered nor supported well.

As for "more effective than horror under 3E WotC", I totally agree! Definitely not going to argue with that!

WotC in 3E and 4E basically wrote about 75% mediocre-to-terrible adventures. There were some gems, for sure, but in general, the overall quality of their output was extremely low in anything but production-value terms. This is a big part of why Paizo and others were so successful. I don't think Paizo's APs were the apex of adventure design or anything, but they were typically vastly better-designed in everything from layout to understanding how players operate, more inherently "exciting" (subjective but I feel like the extreme success of their products helps bolster this assertion), often more mechanically sound and where they attempted horror, vastly more effective than WotC's attempts at it (but it wasn't typically the focus for either company).

Anyway, put it like this, if your contention is "Every single domain and lord, no exceptions, was good, and worked well to produce horror of some kind!", then I personally find that ludicrous and it seems to contradict your own statements.

But if your contention is "Ravenloft was the best D&D setting at horror and stayed that way!", I agree. And I think it'll continue, because it looks to me like WotC are making very sensible updates.

My contention is Ravenloft as a setting was a masterpiece as presented. That doesn't mean it was perfect. It doesn't mean I thought every single domain was as good as the best one. But overall, I found most of the entries in the black box to be good, and to eventually yield a lot of good horror even if I didn't click with them at first (and often not clicking simply had to do with the domain's flavor not being inspired by stuff that I was as interested in). I would put it this way: to me, it is the best horror setting regardless of system. As a horror fan it satisfied me for the kind of horror I liked more than any other game or setting.

In terms of the updates, I am not enthused by what I am hearing. That is just preference. I also wasn't terribly into the material in CoS. Again preference. I think I just prefer to tone and style of classic Ravenloft to the stuff coming out now. I also do want something more like what was presented in the black box, but again, that is preference.

 

[Charlaquin]

Re: humano-centrism in Ravenloft:

I think having the domains be majority human makes sense. It fits the aesthetics of gothic horror and helps make PC parties feel more like outsiders. But, I wouldn’t have them be exclusively human.

For my take on Curse of Strahd, what I’ve done is made dusk elves the native inhabitants of the valley before Strahd conquered it, though they’re nearly extinct. The Barovian settlers were all human, so modern Barovia is still majority human with some elves and half-elves here and there. But also, Vistani travel beyond the borders of Barovia, sometimes bringing non-human people with them, and adventurers occasionally get shlorped into Barovia by the mists. And at least some of those people stay there, and at least some of them have kids. So, other humanoid races can be found in Barovia, but they’re the minority, and they’re treated with similar suspicion to Vistani and other outsiders.

 

[Chaosmancer]

There's lots to do in Barovia without ever touching Strahd. Off the top of my head, the Ba'al Vezri and the Red Vardo Trading Company, and racial tensions between the native Barovians and the Gundarakites. And Vallaki--at least pre-CoS--was described as being full of arcane secrets.

Yes. That's actually it, exactly.

You wouldn't have to let them hear about it. Unless some of the players decided they wanted to be from Barovia or thereabouts, of course. The Core and the Amber Wastes are separated by both physical distance and by the Mists, and I imagine the same will be true in the 5e books.

Most of the Domains--outside of those pocket Domains brought up earlier--are fairly large. Like, many towns with miles of space between them.

The difference between the Domains is usually not very jarring until you really start looking into it. It's generally not a case of Romania sharing a border with Egypt. It's more like... As an example, the people in Barovia are oppressed by their superstitions. They're terrified of the things that go bump in the night. As one book put it, a Barovian mother wouldn't open the door at night even to save her own screaming child, because of her fear of the wolves and other monsters. Right next door is Borca. Those people are also oppressed, but by the horrible taxes they must pay for nearly everything they do or need. They don't fear wolves, they fear that the seemingly perfect grain they just harvested is actually a deadly poison.

Okay, but then back to my original question. If you could just not have them hear about the other lands, if you could focus the entire adventure to one land even without the Dark Lord, then why is the Island idea so bad? What are we losing?

You can still travel between the Domains You can still have them in contact, only letting them know about the islands you want them to know about. This actually prevents you from having to mess with the map, to bypass domains you don't want to deal with. And it seems nothing else changes. The one and only domain that seemed to require other domains to invade has been altered, so it no longer requires that. We can talk about how terrible that is, but most of these places seemed like they were potentially completely separate anyways, so why the fuss?

They don't. For one thing, the cultures between Domains is usually different. Often not radically so, but there is a difference. The Gazetteers did a good job with the cultures.

Also, they don't share languages. There are numerous different human languages, and no Common. Balok is spoken in Barovia, Borca, and some other countries. Mordentish, which is divided into Low and High Mordentish, is spoken in Mordent, Dementlieu, and Richemulot, and dialects are spoken elsewhere, such as in Souragne. Vaasi is spoken in Nova Vaasa and Hazlin. Some languages are only spoken in one country, like Lamordian and Falkovnian.

Okay, but that isn't what I was told by @QuentinGeorge , who I quoted saying this:

Yeah this is blatantly not true. They removed the domains from the Core that didn't belong there after the Red Box setting. (Zherisia, Bluetspur, the Nightmare lands etc). The remaining fit quite well - Dementileu, Mordent, Richemulot share a common culture and language. Lamordia is close culturally as well. Borca and Barovia share a language, as do Kartakass, Valachan, Hazlan and Nova Vaasa. Nova Vaasa and Hazlan share a religion. They all fit pretty well and their are cohesive cross-border socio-cultural links. It's no less hodgepodge than the Forgotten Realms.

So, I am being told on one end that four different domains share a common culture, and on the other end that the domains don't share a culture, or maybe they have a lot of similarities, but it is different.

And I think, after getting some sleep, the problem is that the core premise I was told about Ravenloft is just wrong. This isn't a land where evil people from across the multiverse are pulled in for punishments. This is a land where some people are pulled in, and other villains spiral off from their own circumstances. The villains of Borca are from Barovia originally, not outside of Ravenloft. And this... confuses me. Because I thought the entire purpose of the Dark Powers was to pull in people and torment them in a domain reflecting their own personal hell, but then they are creating new personal hells for the side characters in the personal hell of the original target?

I mean, they reset the reincarnation of a woman to torment Strahd, but they allow a family to grow so evil that they need an entirely new land to put them in to torment them? It feels like I am caught half-way between a cool concept and a bog-standard campaign world.

 

[Faolyn]

And I think that is compounded by the constant answer as well of all problems being solved because the Dark Powers enforce the status quo to keep the punishments cycling for all eternity. Yes, that is what they do, but the more blatant and the more often you need to reference them, the less effective they are.

Dont' forget that, for the vast majority of people, there is no eternal punishment. Strahd, for instance, doesn't actually care about most of the people in Barovia. He won't care about the PCs unless the PCs actively work to harass him.

And, with discussions of Mistways and shipping routes, I don't see how breaking up the core really makes that big of a difference in the terms of the players feeling less trapped. But it also gives you a less... overt way to trap them. Instead of "Strahd raises the border and none can leave" it could be as simple as "the next boat doesn't arrive for three days".

Well, yeah. That's always a possibility. Nobody is saying it's not. Strahd's not going to raise the border for just any reason, after all.

 

[Faolyn]

Re: humano-centrism in Ravenloft:

I think having the domains be majority human makes sense. It fits the aesthetics of gothic horror and helps make PC parties feel more like outsiders. But, I wouldn’t have them be exclusively human.

I do a "human's only" Ravenloft. Except that I also allow fey-touched (half-elves) and caliban (homebrew) from 3e, and I've also decided I'd allow shifters and changelings, plus the three races from the UA as well.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

There is a difference between dark fantasy and gothic horror, and Ravenloft is mainly gothic but not exclusively, but allowing other types of horror subgenres.

Velstrac Sactristan from Pathfinder.

* Do you remember the controversies about the wall of the faithless? I wonder about the fate of those unbeliever souls. What if those souls are sent to the demiplane of the dread as mixture of punishment and risky second oportunity? Living there is a nightmare, but not worse than the infernal planes, and it is the right punishment for the souls who didn't pray the gods.

* I wonder about local genasies (pyre, grave, blood and mist), and paraelemental monsters as natural enemies of the undeads or divine spellcasters with positive energy. Those corrupted paraelemental demiplanes may be perfect for high level PCs exploring post-apocalypse ruins in those dessert regions. Maybe there are hidden temples of the cult of the vile elemental eye, or a crashed alien spaceship.

* The breaking of the geography of "core" is a double edged sword, because this allows to add new elements, but if the links between the dread domain are broken, then to create plot about conflicts between the different dark lords is harder. And Ravenloft had got a lot of supernatural palace intrigues.

 

[Remathilis]

Re: humano-centrism in Ravenloft:

I think having the domains be majority human makes sense. It fits the aesthetics of gothic horror and helps make PC parties feel more like outsiders. But, I wouldn’t have them be exclusively human.

For my take on Curse of Strahd, what I’ve done is made dusk elves the native inhabitants of the valley before Strahd conquered it, though they’re nearly extinct. The Barovian settlers were all human, so modern Barovia is still majority human with some elves and half-elves here and there. But also, Vistani travel beyond the borders of Barovia, sometimes bringing non-human people with them, and adventurers occasionally get shlorped into Barovia by the mists. And at least some of those people stay there, and at least some of them have kids. So, other humanoid races can be found in Barovia, but they’re the minority, and they’re treated with similar suspicion to Vistani and other outsiders.

I've reached the point where I don't feel dwarves, gnomes, halflings or elves would be particularly terrifying. I might make a case for dragonborn and tielfings, but even then, I feel it's time to move past the "burn the drow" method of PC race selection. If WotC wants to say "there are no native X" in Ravenloft, then fine. Ravnica and Theros don't have full racial options either.

I'm not quite sure what to do about Calibans. There are no native orcs to have half-orc children with, but I'm not exactly sure about some of connotations caliban's bring. Half-Vistani need to GO. Just allow full-Vistani PCs.

 

[Charlaquin]

I've reached the point where I don't feel dwarves, gnomes, halflings or elves would be particularly terrifying.

Oh, certainly not. I think the value in keeping the domains of dread fairly humano-centric though is in making the PCs feel alien. I don’t imagine Barovians being horrified to meet a dwarf or whatever - heck, they might not even realize it’s not just an oddly-proportioned human. But in my experience humans are the minority in most PC parties, and having that eclectic PC party in a world inhabited mostly by humans who are distrustful of outsiders helps emphasize the feeling of alienation.

I might make a case for dragonborn and tielfings, but even then, I feel it's time to move past the "burn the drow" method of PC race selection. If WotC wants to say "there are no native X" in Ravenloft, then fine. Ravnica and Theros don't have full racial options either.

For sure.

I'm not quite sure what to do about Calibans. There are no native orcs to have half-orc children with, but I'm not exactly sure about some of connotations caliban's bring. Half-Vistani need to GO. Just allow full-Vistani PCs.

I don’t know what Calibans are. Half-Vistani is a dumb idea, I think Vistani should be a culture rather than a race. It just creates another Avenue for non-human characters to enter Barovia. If you want a half-orc, just say an orc joined a caravan of Vistani at some point, or an orc adventurer got misted there and ended up marrying a local.