D&D 5E Everything We Know About The Ravenloft Book

QuentinGeorge · Feb 23, 2021

Please tell me that whoever wrote the blurb has mixed up Valachan and Verbrek.

Alzrius · Feb 23, 2021

A few immediate reactions come to mind after reading what we've found out so far:

"Lamordia is now the realm of Dr. Viktra Mordenheim" - Okay, first, this seems like a missed opportunity to bring back Eva Mordenheim, the adopted daughter of Victor and Elise Mordenheim who was presumed to have been killed by Adam, only to have been revealed in Legacy of the Blood: Great Families of the Core to have survived, growing up with amnesia that was starting to wear off after she became a doctor with a family of her own.
Likewise, the darklord of Lamordia wasn't Victor Mordenheim, but Adam. Is he still around or what?
"The wildest reinvention of all might be Van Richten’s Guide’s version of Falkovnia: once similar to Barovia as a riff on vampiric horror, it’s now a full-on zombie apocalypse zone." - While I know that everyone is focused on Vlad Drakov no longer being around, I'm more curious about what this means for the stability of the rest of the Core. Falkovnia has no natural barriers separating it from the surrounding domains, so are the zombies flooding outward, making Falkovnia's neighbors take measures to seal their borders? What has that done to the food situation in the rest of the Core? Falkovnia might have been belligerent, but it was also "the breadbasket of the Core" (to quote Gazetteer II), so has this caused famine to develop elsewhere?
"There’s Kalakeri, a new realm inspired by Indian folklore" - Does this mean that Sri Raji has been dropped? I'm curious why it was apparently passed over in favor of a new domain.

Ralif Redhammer · Feb 23, 2021

Oooh, I can dig it.

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
I saw a suggestion of a dark version of Cyre being there as a domain, which would be amazing.

GlassJaw · Feb 23, 2021

Morrus said:
Large section on setting safe boundaries.

"Safe boundaries" like points of light right?

QuentinGeorge · Feb 23, 2021

Morrus said:
Here is a list of everything we know so far about the upcoming Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.

View attachment 133189
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

Dementileu (twisted fairytales), Falkovnia (zombies)

Do not want.

and Kalakeri instead of Sri Raji or in addition to it.

As I suspected, it's taking its cues from CoS, every domain is crawling with monsters and the domains that had the theme "humans are the true monsters" are being turned into incredibly unsubtle places with traditional monsters. Sigh....

QuentinGeorge · Feb 23, 2021

Alzrius said:
A few immediate reactions come to mind after reading what we've found out so far:

"Lamordia is now the realm of Dr. Viktra Mordenheim" - Okay, first, this seems like a missed opportunity to bring back Eva Mordenheim, the adopted daughter of Victor and Elise Mordenheim who was presumed to have been killed by Adam, only to have been revealed in Legacy of the Blood: Great Families of the Core to have survived, growing up with amnesia that was starting to wear off after she became a doctor with a family of her own.

Likewise, the darklord of Lamordia wasn't Victor Mordenheim, but Adam. Is he still around or what?

"The wildest reinvention of all might be Van Richten’s Guide’s version of Falkovnia: once similar to Barovia as a riff on vampiric horror, it’s now a full-on zombie apocalypse zone." - While I know that everyone is focused on Vlad Drakov no longer being around, I'm more curious about what this means for the stability of the rest of the Core. Falkovnia has no natural barriers separating it from the surrounding domains, so are the zombies flooding outward, making Falkovnia's neighbors take measures to seal their borders? What has that done to the food situation in the rest of the Core? Falkovnia might have been belligerent, but it was also "the breadbasket of the Core" (to quote Gazetteer II), so has this caused famine to develop elsewhere?

"There’s Kalakeri, a new realm inspired by Indian folklore" - Does this mean that Sri Raji has been dropped? I'm curious why it was apparently passed over in favor of a new domain.

None of this inspires any confidence in me whatsoever. Interesting that Forgotten Realms gets a 5E release that doesn't change half the setting (in fact, puts it back to the way it was), Eberron likewise, but the Ravenloft setting gets completely "reimagined".

DEFCON 1 · Feb 23, 2021

QuentinGeorge said:
Dementileu (twisted fairytales), Falkovnia (zombies)

Do not want.

and Kalakeri instead of Sri Raji or in addition to it.

As I suspected, it's taking its cues from CoS, every domain is crawling with monsters and the domains that had the theme "humans are the true monsters" are being turned into incredibly unsubtle places with traditional monsters. Sigh....

Well, just pretend like the book doesn't exist and you can keep your Domains of Dread exactly how you like them.

QuentinGeorge · Feb 23, 2021

And come on, "Viktra". Could we have used "Victoria Mordenheim" ?

LuisCarlos17f · Feb 23, 2021

I wonder about mummies and vampires with age categories as true dragons.

Don't you miss any monsters from the compedium?

I wonder about regions in material plane being tainted by the dark powers, causing accidents and aparently natural disasters, for example the fallen meteorite causing an epidemic or plague of mutants.

Something will happen in Innistrad, and after of the event of Magic: the Gathering we will see some link between both. One reason is to trick those from Ravenloft who tried and got escape, and the second Innistrad can be a "source" of "guests", preys and predators, for the demiplane. Now I wonder about those "exclusive" summoned elementals (blood, mist, grave, pyre).

Do you notice what does mean Kalidnay in Ravenloft? Practically a teaser of Dark Sun.

* Have you thought about dragonborn in Ravenloft? Now they are too popular to forbid them.

* I would bet the metaplot is more open to allow crossovers with other franchises or lines. What about Ghostwalk? Something about somebody is hunting ghosts to use those as "fuel" for infernal machines.

* Any "easter eggs" about Spelljammers? The 2nd canon said sometimes some "skyships" disappeared. Then, where did they go?

* Any change with the geography of the main core? Do you thing any ideas from Mistipedia: Fraternity of shadows? At least something published in DM Guild.

* Any new about Vladantilan, Vladimir Ludzig's home? A world ruled by vampyres (not vampires, these humanoids are living blood-drinkers).

eyeheartawk · Feb 23, 2021

I'm just happy it's not a MtG book or Transformers.

That being said it looks like there might be some useful bits in here, but ultimately I doubt this fixes the problem Ravenloft has had since its debut, which is that D&D isn't really ideal for horror. And since D&D PCs have continued to grow in power in since then significantly I don't see that being addressed here.