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

 

[Demetrios1453]

I think there will probably be means that make it more likely you'll get to your destination, especially paying for the Vistani to escort you there.

That is exactly what I was thinking too. Tasha's specifically mentioned that the Vistani are among the rare group of beings who can navigate the Shadowfell.

 

[Voadam]

The Shadowfell is pretty much the re-named Plane of Shadow from 3e which was pretty much the re-named Demiplane of Shadow from 1e and 2e (although it's a bit more complex than that). The Demiplane of Shadow existed well before the Forgotten Realms were a published setting.

I would say the 4e Shadowfell combined the plane of Shadow and Ravenloft and some of the concepts of the Ethereal to make a dark mirror of the 4e world similar to how the Feywild was a bright vibrant mirror of the world.

 

[humble minion]

This is a very 'your mileage may vary' opinion, but for me the 'weekend in hell' thing just never really worked. It seemed kinda cheap and consequence-free. Can it be a fun adventure? Sure, but you can do the same with a sidequest to a vampire's castle in Faerun or somewhere.

If a horror setting is nothing but different flavours of horror all the time, the whole thing risks being cheapened into the most parody-worthy sort of grimderp. Horror lacks impact unless there's normality to contrast it against. Even in the most everything-is-awful settings like survivalist post-zombie apocalypse worlds, the normality exists in memory, and in scraps and artifacts and leftovers, to contrast with the present and remind people of what has been lost.

But with a weekend in hell - my PCs have no investment in this place, they've probably never been here before, they don't know any of the people, their families and friends aren't here, it's just one evening it got a bit misty and suddenly poof, we're doing a Halloween-themed adventure today, and next week we'll be back to bashing orcs or whatever. There's no lasting consequences to the world, There's no slow burn. If you fail to stop your sister being turned into a vampire, (which you won't, because your sister is back in normality and didn't take the trip here with you) then you won't have to deal with the guilt and wrestle with the dilemma of what to do about her once she starts killing, or be horrified when she shows up smiling with a seat on the town council, or mourn her once she's gone. Meh meh and double meh.

That's what the Core and Ravenloft-as-a-setting-rather-than-holiday-destination gave us. Context to the horror, and normality for the horror to lurk underneath. Now it's quite possible that new Ravenloft will still do this. This is fantasy, it's perfectly 'reasonable' fantasy to have fantasy world denizens live in a realm bounded by mists and only be able to travel to other lands with the aid of experienced guides etc, and to be able to live perfectly mundane lives like that and never think it was weird at all because that's just the way the world it where they come from. So I'm not going to chuck the baby out with the bathwater here. but CoS was probably a fun adventure, but i really think it's a bad template to use once WotC expand Ravenloft to something that's meant to resemble and actual coherent world. Wall to wall gonzo monsters around every corner, who seem to outnumber regular people many, many times, and regular people only exist for monsters to prey on, and the only people in the place with any agency seem to be the PCs. It's a theme park, not a setting.

 

[Parmandur]

It's not really contentious at all unless you're talking to certain white Americans specifically (and few people who consider themselves "pureblooded" and the like in South America, but let's not go there, that's all built on bizarre lies and being unraveled by DNA tests right now). And I'm going to go ahead and say I believe it's simple racism that makes even faintly contentious for that group, because I've never seen a rational argument that didn't eventually get to "Well they bringing the word of Christ to particularly ghastly heathens!" (something they actually tried to avoid doing, note) as a last-ditch defense. Straightforward racism - just placing no value at all on the lives of the people of the Caribbean and South and Central America. They weren't mere "pirates", they were sadistic rapists, slavers, torturers, murderers and pillagers of the darkest and most evil kind - they made most 1700s pirates look like very honorable and upstanding fellows indeed! Again, I refer you to the journal of the guy with Columbus, who noted very clearly that by his standards, by 1400/1500s standards, not modern standards, Columbus was a deviant psychopath monster. These were VERY bad people by 1400/1500s standards.

That they eventually crashed into the Aztecs, who were also ruled/controlled by completely insane mass murderers is just... CE vs LE.. or something. I mean for a while people treated the Aztecs as "contentious" until we found out oh yeah really did human-sacrifice sometimes hundreds or thousands of people at a time.

I mean, no argument about Columbus at all, but it is worth noting that it is by the standards of the Conquistadores that he was lacking virtue, not 21st century Anglos, as you say. I am certainly not defending the Conquistadores as some positive good. If anything, they were bog standard humans who tripped into a situation of technological advantage and battle-hardened training with said advantages: right place, right time.

I also received a good dose of the Black Legend in school, but simplistic cartoon villain narratives based in one empire's propaganda about how bad the other guy was aren't much more useful than weird racist narratives ( a "White Legend") that lionize the conquerors.

 

[Azzy]

The more things change, the more they stay the same. It looks like one will be able to use the book, its game mechanics, and likely some of its new ideas to run Ravenloft in any one of its past incarnations as well as the new, "reimagined" Ravenloft. Or take the bits that one likes most from each of the different incarnations to make one's own Frankenloft setting.

 

[Zaukrie]

I guess what I’m getting at is I hope the domains feel like places not just theme-parks. “Zombie Apocalypse Domain,” “Most Dangerous Game Domain,” “Mad Science Domain,” etc. don’t sound like places to adventure, they just sound like themes. I don’t want it to feel like once you cross the border into Falkovnia you’re suddenly playing The Walking Dead RPG. I want the Core (or whatever they call it) to feel like a cohesive world*, where one county is under the rule of a vampire, another is overrun by zombies, another is the personal hunting ground of a crazed man-hunter, etc. Does that make sense?

*I know, part of the premise is that it’s separate worlds, each shaped by its Dark Lord and brought together by the mists; that’s fine, I like the idea of each domain having a very distinct tone.

Disagree. We have plenty of settings like that. Give me theme parks.... plus, I'd guess most descriptions are less than 5 pages......

 

[Remathilis]

This is a very 'your mileage may vary' opinion, but for me the 'weekend in hell' thing just never really worked. It seemed kinda cheap and consequence-free. Can it be a fun adventure? Sure, but you can do the same with a sidequest to a vampire's castle in Faerun or somewhere.

If a horror setting is nothing but different flavours of horror all the time, the whole thing risks being cheapened into the most parody-worthy sort of grimderp. Horror lacks impact unless there's normality to contrast it against. Even in the most everything-is-awful settings like survivalist post-zombie apocalypse worlds, the normality exists in memory, and in scraps and artifacts and leftovers, to contrast with the present and remind people of what has been lost.

But with a weekend in hell - my PCs have no investment in this place, they've probably never been here before, they don't know any of the people, their families and friends aren't here, it's just one evening it got a bit misty and suddenly poof, we're doing a Halloween-themed adventure today, and next week we'll be back to bashing orcs or whatever. There's no lasting consequences to the world, There's no slow burn. If you fail to stop your sister being turned into a vampire, (which you won't, because your sister is back in normality and didn't take the trip here with you) then you won't have to deal with the guilt and wrestle with the dilemma of what to do about her once she starts killing, or be horrified when she shows up smiling with a seat on the town council, or mourn her once she's gone. Meh meh and double meh.

That's what the Core and Ravenloft-as-a-setting-rather-than-holiday-destination gave us. Context to the horror, and normality for the horror to lurk underneath. Now it's quite possible that new Ravenloft will still do this. This is fantasy, it's perfectly 'reasonable' fantasy to have fantasy world denizens live in a realm bounded by mists and only be able to travel to other lands with the aid of experienced guides etc, and to be able to live perfectly mundane lives like that and never think it was weird at all because that's just the way the world it where they come from. So I'm not going to chuck the baby out with the bathwater here. but CoS was probably a fun adventure, but i really think it's a bad template to use once WotC expand Ravenloft to something that's meant to resemble and actual coherent world. Wall to wall gonzo monsters around every corner, who seem to outnumber regular people many, many times, and regular people only exist for monsters to prey on, and the only people in the place with any agency seem to be the PCs. It's a theme park, not a setting.

See I think Ravenloft failed on both counts precisely BECAUSE it was trying to do both.

If you want a good example of a Natural Horror Setting, look at Innistrad. There are four regions (Stensia, Gavony, Kessig, Nephalia) each with its own themes and locals. Yet despite the powerful things that live there, there are no monster lords ruling over, no mists to block your path, etc. You can walk from one side to the other and the world around you doesn't change any more than on a normal world. It feels natural and that contrasts against the supernatural elements. You feel like you are part of a natural world overrun by supernatual horror, rather than being in an artificial world

Look at the map @Stormonu posted. You could be a captain of a ship, set sail from Lamordia, past Mordent, Dementieu and as soon as you hit Valachan, you fall off the edge of the map. Seriously, there is NO coast for Valachan despite being on the same coastal border as the other western domains. Somehow, we are to believe that people walk the coast of Mordent, get to a point and and say "well, we're in Valachan now, guess the ocean ended..."

To be honest, I kinda wish WotC had gone in the opposite direction and made Ravenloft feel like a natural world that has supernatural horror elements, but I'll gladly take the horror-theme parks over trying to make sense of the Core's map. I also reserve final judgment until I see the final product, but I don't see the loss of the Core Map as a big deal since the map didn't make a lick of sense anyway.

 

[Charlaquin]

Disagree. We have plenty of settings like that. Give me theme parks.... plus, I'd guess most descriptions are less than 5 pages......

Plenty of settings like what? All I said was “feels like a place.”

 

[Charlaquin]

See I think Ravenloft failed on both counts precisely BECAUSE it was trying to do both.

If you want a good example of a Natural Horror Setting, look at Innistrad. There are four regions (Stensia, Gavony, Kessig, Nephalia) each with its own themes and locals. Yet despite the powerful things that live there, there are no monster lords ruling over, no mists to block your path, etc. You can walk from one side to the other and the world around you doesn't change any more than on a normal world. It feels natural and that contrasts against the supernatural elements. You feel like you are part of a natural world overrun by supernatual horror, rather than being in an artificial world

Look at the map @Stormonu posted. You could be a captain of a ship, set sail from Lamordia, past Mordent, Dementieu and as soon as you hit Valachan, you fall off the edge of the map. Seriously, there is NO coast for Valachan despite being on the same coastal border as the other western domains. Somehow, we are to believe that people walk the coast of Mordent, get to a point and and say "well, we're in Valachan now, guess the ocean ended..."

To be honest, I kinda wish WotC had gone in the opposite direction and made Ravenloft feel like a natural world that has supernatural horror elements, but I'll gladly take the horror-theme parks over trying to make sense of the Core's map. I also reserve final judgment until I see the final product, but I don't see the loss of the Core Map as a big deal since the map didn't make a lick of sense anyway.

Yeah, I think the “islands on a sea of mist” approach makes more sense than trying to cram the locations onto the same map. My worry is less geographical and more... I don’t know, I guess thematic? I just don’t want it to feel like each domain is a totally different kind of campaign.

 

[MGibster]

Yeah, I think the “islands on a sea of mist” approach makes more sense than trying to cram the locations onto the same map. My worry is less geographical and more... I don’t know, I guess thematic? I just don’t want it to feel like each domain is a totally different kind of campaign.

It's totally thematic if you go for the Domain Hopper ticket option that allows you to visit as many domains in one day as you'd like. You can also trade your gold for Ravenloft Revenue. RR has the same value as gold, if you're entitled to change after a purchase you'll get standard silver and copper, but it's more fun because each coin features the image of a different Dread Lord. Ravenloft Revenue isn't good in any known dimension or world outside of Ravenloft, but a lot of visitors end up keeping it as souvenir to remind them of the good times. And of course there's the merchandise. Just because you're in Darkon doesn't mean you can't buy some spoons or shot glasses with Barovian images on it. You can get the same exclusive merchandise throughout the Ravenloft.