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]

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.

But you can chart a course with the map. Thousands of people make the journey from Lamordia to Borca all the time. Not many go to Valachan but that's because its a backwater. The Mistways provide generally reliable routes to most of the other places.

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.

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.

And again, the realms are not "influenced" by their Darklord. The realms function in a way to maximise the torment of its "ruler". Let's take Farelle, an Island of Terror ruled by a human-hating jackalwere. He has to watch his subjects grow, beat back the wilderness and generally suceed at building civilisation because the Dark Powers know that's what the darklord would hate!

 

[Bedrockgames]

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.

The lord of Falkovnia is based on Vlad the Impaler. With any genre there is going to be blending of flavors, and there is definitely room for the kind of horror you found in Falkovnia. This kind of horror was like the opening to the 92 Dracula movie. That combined with the way it handled demi-humans, made it a great backdrop for all kinds of horror adventures. It was one of the most popular domains for a reason: it worked.

 

[Bedrockgames]

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/

Two points about this: one the classic ravenloft still gave you tools for closing the domain and entrapping the pcs. If you needed to prevent escape, or needed to entrap the pcs in some way: you could. Nothing at all was stopping you. Making them disconnected islands doesn't make that easier to do (because even core domains could close their borders).

The second point is, a little complex. Yes domain lords can't leave their domains, but some domains are not bound by simple geography. Some have whole rivers, oceans or roads as their domain (stretching over many domains). Some have domains that can appear anywhere. So there are domain lords who can come after you. Also, domain lords can't chase you, but their minions can. One benefit of a connected core, is domain lords can send their minions over the border for all kinds of things. Finally, Ravenloft isn't really just about fighting with domain lords. There are so many other types of opponents to face.

 

[Bedrockgames]

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.

Sure if you are just passing through. But because the core is connected, the whole point is players start developing connections to different places. If they are based out of Falkovnia, that stuff is going to matter more (in some campaigns those dead comrades could be their fellow PCs). But it is also not something they are just going to watch passively. An army of undead isn't scenery, it is a threat. Sure players might be jaded and less scared of that, especially if the GM isn't building atmosphere: but that is true of anything horrifying that people have seen before. That is why so much of the advice on achieving horror is important. And overtime you develop a sense of how to maintain horror. Definitely having features in a setting like an endless war where the dead rise and march back on their homeland can be useful toward that end. Doesn't have to be though. If it doesn't resonate with you, then you don't use. I always found different things in Ravenloft resonated with different GMs. I always found stuff like the Kartakan Inn and lycanthropy particular fruitful for my campaigns. For some people Falkovnia will register for others it won't. If your like me, you ignored it for a while until you found a cool way to make use of it (I ended up running several very successful campaigns set in Falkovnia).

 

[Bedrockgames]

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.

Classic Ravenloft wasn't 30 stories of humans are the real monsters. And the old domains were far from boring, I promise you. Everyone has different taste of course, but I thought the domains were plenty entertaining and gameable.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

The lord of Falkovnia is based on Vlad the Impaler. With any genre there is going to be blending of flavors, and there is definitely room for the kind of horror you found in Falkovnia. This kind of horror was like the opening to the 92 Dracula movie. That combined with the way it handled demi-humans, made it a great backdrop for all kinds of horror adventures. It was one of the most popular domains for a reason: it worked.

He really only shares a name and an afinity for impaling with Vlad Tepes. He's actually much more like this guy:

 

[Faolyn]

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

No railways. But there was a Quoth the Raven netzine (I think it was that and not one of the Books of S___) that dealt with an Industrial Age cluster of Paridon, Timor, and Nosos, with railroad. Heh--think any of those domains will be revamped?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Classic Ravenloft wasn't 30 stories of humans are the real monsters. And the old domains were far from boring, I promise you. Everyone has different taste of course, but I thought the domains were plenty entertaining and gameable.

Except, I was also there, and they were boring.

Many of them were extremely boring.

Several of them weren't even really horror, betraying the passionately-put premise of the setting.

So promise away, but it's certainly valid to point out that a lot of the older domains were both same-y and un-exciting. "Gameable" is a meaningless term here because is no setting so bad, so poorly put together, so fundamentally dull that some DM doesn't consider "gameable". And they're probably right that it is! But it's just an incredibly low bar.

Entertaining I just can't agree with if you're claiming that applied to EVERY domain in old Ravenloft. That's wild.

 

[Bedrockgames]

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.

The lands of the core weren't completely like that. Check the back boxed set. Thought was put into their placement on the map. Some, like Bleutspur were wonky (but even that bordered a land like Hazlan which kind of made more sense). But the geography was connected. You had mountains, rivers and forests shared by domains. If you look at the North Western core it makes a lot of sense: those domains fit together pretty well. And if you look at the original map, there is clear geography that spreads across those borders. I think they did a very decent job of marrying the idea of individual dark realms, with a cohesive setting. It is still on the dreamy and surreal side, but it works. By the Red Box set it is even more cohesive (and by Domains of Dread 2nd edition, it is again, even more cohesive).

 

[Bedrockgames]

Except, I was also there, and they were boring.

Many of them were extremely boring.

To you. You are entitled to your opinion but others are entitled to theirs. You don't speak for everyone. To me they were far from boring. I can honestly say, the black boxed set was the most exciting gaming material I had read to that point. It was the most exciting game material I had played to that point. I devoured it. I used it all. I was a total fan. I certainly didn't find it boring.