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

 

[Parmandur]

My only complaint so far is that the intro adventure is another haunted house. We already got that with Death House. Surely there are other ways besides haunted houses to introduce people to horror adventures!

I mean, haunted house is a broad genre full of possibility.

 

[GlassJaw]

No, presumably about not surprising your group with, say, sexual violence without checking if that's the kind of stuff they're OK with.

I know, I was being facetious.

I hope it doesn't take up too much page count. The "large section" descriptor caught my eye. It really doesn't need more than a paragraph reminding DMs to "talk to your group about what kind of content they are comfortable with."

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Next Dungeons & Dragons campaign book reboots the many realms of Ravenloft

30 different settings, 30 different villains, plus a whole lot more

www.polygon.com

This article gives names for all the Darklords that are so far confirmed;

Domain	Old Darklord	Current Darklord
Barovia	-	Strahd von Zarovich
Dementlieu	Dominic D'Honaire	Saidra D'Honaire
Lamordia	Dr. Victor Mordenheim	Dr. Viktra Mordenheim
Falkovnia	Vlad Drakov	Vladeska Drakov
Kalakeri	-	Ramya / Arijani / Reeva
Valachan	Baron Urik von Kharkov	Chakuna

Most of the new ones appear to be women that are relatives of the old Darklord. Clearly some time has passed in many of these Domains, where the old Darklord was removed somehow and someone new has taken their place.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

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

There is a theory that Cyre actually was sucked up into a Domain of Dread, for the following reasons;

• The Mournland stops at Cyre’s artificial, political, borders and thus had to be caused by some intelligent actor. The Dark Powers certainly count. It also explains why it stops so exactly at the water that the docks were left behind.
• The Mournland’s border is a wall of “dead-gray mist”. The link is obvious. In 4th Edition, this dead-gray mist supernaturally drains people of hope.
• The Forge of War states that Dannel ir'Wynarn insistence that the crown of Galifar belonged to her was the only thing keeping the Last War going, making her prime Darklord material.
• Dark Sun material describes Kalidnay as having been destroyed by "unknown disaster" that left it only "a jumble of ruins". The ruins in the Mournland are described being "moved", "rearranged", "turned 90 degrees", or "found miles from where war-era maps say they should be", which certainly can be described as a "jumble". The one adventure that travels to the ruined city (DSM2) mentions several structures remain intact, and many appear to be ruins purely because they're centuries old, which fits the multiple Mournland adventures with surviving structures, and several people seem to have died suddenly in a way that their body was intact. (While some of the Mournland's signature features are absent, all outside descriptions of Kalidnay are centuries after the fact while all descriptions of the Mournland are 0-4 years after its creation.)

Source: Demiplane of Dread - 1d4chan

I highly doubt this will ever be confirmed (it's kept ambiguous purposefully so DMs can create whatever fate for Cyre they want), but it is one of the strongest and most consistent theories IMO.

 

[Morrus]

Next Dungeons & Dragons campaign book reboots the many realms of Ravenloft

30 different settings, 30 different villains, plus a whole lot more

www.polygon.com

This article gives names for all the Darklords that are so far confirmed;

Domain	Old Darklord	Current Darklord
Barovia	-	Strahd von Zarovich
Dementlieu	Dominic D'Honaire	Saidra D'Honaire
Lamordia	Dr. Victor Mordenheim	Dr. Viktra Mordenheim
Falkovnia	Vlad Drakov	Vladeska Drakov
Kalakeri	-	Ramya / Arijani / Reeva
Valachan	Baron Urik von Kharkov	Chakuna

Most of the new ones appear to be women that are relatives of the old Darklord. Clearly some time has passed in many of these Domains, where the old Darklord was removed somehow and someone new has taken their place.

That's super useful!

 

[Alzrius]

Most of the new ones appear to be women that are relatives of the old Darklord. Clearly some time has passed in many of these Domains, where the old Darklord was removed somehow and someone new has taken their place.

Looking that over, all of the new darklords appear to be original characters, rather than using the ones from previous products (particularly Legacy of the Blood) who were previously positioned to do exactly this.

Eva Mordenheim for Lamordia. Celeste d'Honaire-Loverde for Dementlieu. Viktor Helsinger for Falkovnia. That they've apparently elected to go with none of what was laid down before strikes me as a missed opportunity to really play up the setting's continuity.

That said, I'll note that it's interesting that Arijani is listed for Kalakeri, since he was the darklord for Sri Raji. Is "Kalakeri" Sri Raji by another name? Or has something more unusual happened? Likewise, Urik von Kharkov was a vampire, so for him to have been replaced by someone else seems to imply that he was taken out at some point (though that doesn't have to be the case; there have been other darklords who lost their domains without dying...or they died and came back later).

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Looking that over, all of the new darklords appear to be original characters, rather than using the ones from previous products (particularly Legacy of the Blood) who were previously positioned to do exactly this.

Eva Mordenheim for Lamordia. Celeste d'Honaire-Loverde for Dementlieu. Viktor Helsinger for Falkovnia. That they've apparently elected to go with none of what was laid down before strikes me as a missed opportunity to really play up the setting's continuity.

That said, I'll note that it's interesting that Arijani is listed for Kalakeri, since he was the darklord for Sri Raji. Is "Kalakeri" Sri Raji by another name? Or has something more unusual happened? Likewise, Urik von Kharkov was a vampire, so for him to have been replaced by someone else seems to imply that he was taken out at some point (though that doesn't have to be the case; there have been other darklords who lost their domains without dying...or they died and came back later).

Yeah, and I'll add some of the naming is... well, lazy. Victor to Viktra, Vlad to Vladeska. Perhaps this is done because they're actually saying a lot of time has passed in some Domains (explaining why some of them have very different themes to their original intent). I could even see the soul being recycled in new bodies (as it was devised in Curse of Strahd), so that Victor actually is Viktra, but a hundred years later in a new life.

Also, I didn't notice that about Arijani! Considering how Sri Raji contained three cities, and Kalkeri appears to have three warring Darklords, it's likely Kalkeri is a spiritual successor of Sri Raji.

 

[darjr]

Related? Monster hunter? Dragon+ will tell.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, and I'll add some of the naming is... well, lazy. Victor to Viktra, Vlad to Vladeska. Perhaps this is done because they're actually saying a lot of time has passed in some Domains (explaining why some of them have very different themes to their original intent). I could even see the soul being recycled in new bodies (as it was devised in Curse of Strahd), so that Victor actually is Viktra, but a hundred years later in a new life.

Making these new folks their daughters or granddaughters would also fit the naming and denote the passage of time.

 

[Alzrius]

Making these new folks their daughters or granddaughters would also fit the naming and denote the passage of time.

That's kind of what the last parts of the 3.5 Ravenloft books did, though; we already had quite a few established children for multiple darklords.

Now, if they've advanced the timeline by decades (say, to the year 800 on the Barovian Calendar; though then we run up against that whole "Time of Unparalleled Darkness" that was prophesied to happen in 775, even if later products did walk that back to be less of an absolute) then it's understandable, but if this is still the late 750's or early 760's, then it's a bit more awkward.