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]

Like, just a bit ago...posts #815 and #816, you quoted Aldarac, quoting the exact same post both times. Your first post was to say that you weren't talking about that issue, your second post was to give an answer to his question. They are a bit apart, so maybe you came back later, but that could have easily been edited into your first post instead of quoting him again.

The reason is because I felt he misunderstood what I was saying and I wanted to offer a clarification. Then it occurred to me he raised a question in his post which I felt I should answer. Generally speaking I don't like editing my posts. If I edit, it is usually for correcting a major typo that changes the meaning of the post. Or I put a big bold edit: in it.

 

[Bedrockgames]

And then, posts #817, #818, #819, #820 and #821 were all responses to Aldarac, chopped up from one of his posts? Maybe two? And not only does that make it hard to respond to you (I actually started scrolling past other responses to find all your responses to me so I could reply cohesively) but it makes it incredibly hard to follow that conversation. Because I have to keep going back and seeing not only which post you are responding to, but which part of which post you are responding to. And there was that bit earlier today where you started responding to people, but no quoting them, so I had no idea what the context was for your points.

I do appolgize for this. I find it very time consuming to chop up posts like that into individual quotes. I just did it for the post asking questions about borders, and I just don't have the patience for it. I much prefer to answer individual sections one at a time (I also prefer focusing on that idea in the post). Again, if I am confusing you about anything, I am happy to clarify.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Got into a discussion with my son, which led to creating this little video. It's not great, but hope it inspires someone...

https://youtu.be/J1IND2dsf3I

Where did you get that version of Paint it Black?

 

[Remathilis]

Just to be clear here, I am going to answer these based on my own feelings about how I would like Ravenloft to work, rather than canon (which I think has been a little inconsistent over the years regarding borders):

I asked partially because it's been years since I deep-dived into the lore (and thus memory could be a bit... foggy. I'll stop.) I was under the impression that domain borders were clear and crossing them was akin to crossing the county line or any given political border (barring times when the borders of closed or the Mists want to move you elsewhere) but the discussion about the Sea of Sorrows disappearing when you leave Mordent for Valachan really made me question if I remember it correctly or not.

To be honest, they could have fixed the core just as easily as removed it. You only need to make the two seas connect to all the coastal areas (even the ones above Darkon/Below Sithicus), fill the Shadow Rift with a proper landmass domain, and maybe Grand Conjunction a few domains onto/off-of the Core (Sithicus should be gone if Soth isn't there, replace it with Souragne or similar). Give a little more thought to inter-domain things like the calendar, faiths, and technology levels (and perhaps a greater tolerance for fantasy elements like races and magic) and you could have a Core if you wanted it.

But I get the reason they went with what they did. It doesn't create a hierarchy of domains (where a domain like Hal-Akir or Souragne is less prominent than Keening or Forlorn just because they are back in the islands section rather than the core) It allows them to add new ones and it allows DMs to pick the ones that interest them (for example, I found the Borca/Dementieu area dreadfully boring with its human-level Darklords and limited monster encounters; I'd gladly swap them out for a domain like Zherstia or the Shadowborn cluster.)

Ultimately, not having the Core isn't a dealbreaker for me. I plan on having my Ravenloft game move domains regardless of if it is done via Mist, Shadowfell, or mundane borders. They are keeping the main parts of Ravenloft I love, the funky map isn't one of them.

 

[tetrasodium]

I asked partially because it's been years since I deep-dived into the lore (and thus memory could be a bit... foggy. I'll stop.) I was under the impression that domain borders were clear and crossing them was akin to crossing the county line or any given political border (barring times when the borders of closed or the Mists want to move you elsewhere) but the discussion about the Sea of Sorrows disappearing when you leave Mordent for Valachan really made me question if I remember it correctly or not.

To be honest, they could have fixed the core just as easily as removed it. You only need to make the two seas connect to all the coastal areas (even the ones above Darkon/Below Sithicus), fill the Shadow Rift with a proper landmass domain, and maybe Grand Conjunction a few domains onto/off-of the Core (Sithicus should be gone if Soth isn't there, replace it with Souragne or similar). Give a little more thought to inter-domain things like the calendar, faiths, and technology levels (and perhaps a greater tolerance for fantasy elements like races and magic) and you could have a Core if you wanted it.

But I get the reason they went with what they did. It doesn't create a hierarchy of domains (where a domain like Hal-Akir or Souragne is less prominent than Keening or Forlorn just because they are back in the islands section rather than the core) It allows them to add new ones and it allows DMs to pick the ones that interest them (for example, I found the Borca/Dementieu area dreadfully boring with its human-level Darklords and limited monster encounters; I'd gladly swap them out for a domain like Zherstia or the Shadowborn cluster.)

Ultimately, not having the Core isn't a dealbreaker for me. I plan on having my Ravenloft game move domains regardless of if it is done via Mist, Shadowfell, or mundane borders. They are keeping the main parts of Ravenloft I love, the funky map isn't one of them.

Sometimes

Spoiler: If you know what your doing & not unlucky

 

[Bedrockgames]

I asked partially because it's been years since I deep-dived into the lore (and thus memory could be a bit... foggy. I'll stop.) I was under the impression that domain borders were clear and crossing them was akin to crossing the county line or any given political border (barring times when the borders of closed or the Mists want to move you elsewhere) but the discussion about the Sea of Sorrows disappearing when you leave Mordent for Valachan really made me question if I remember it correctly or not.

as i recall domain borders are like natural borders most of the time, but the core is surrounded by the mists and the sea of sorrows ends before Valachan (so the Sea doesn't disappear from sight simply because you have crossed a border but because the misty borders to the sea of sorrows begin where Valachan begins.

 

[Remathilis]

Sometimes

Spoiler: If you know what your doing & not unlucky

View attachment 133509

While it doesn't directly answer my main question (if standing on the Barovia/Invidia border would allow you to gaze into both domains equally) it probably does more to say that a Core-less Ravenloft COULD work with semi-reliable mistways, Vistani, and similar.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Sometimes

Spoiler: If you know what your doing & not unlucky

View attachment 133509

Worth noting this stuff did evolve and was sometimes inconsistently applied over time.

This is the description of borders from Domains of Dread:

and its section on the mists:

Consistency has been an interesting issue with Ravenloft even within the same line with a lot of things. One I remember well is the name of the place. There is an adventure in book of Crypts where an NPC says to the party "Welcome to Ravenloft" but in another sourcebook from the time you are specifically told no one actually calls it Ravenloft.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I could be wrong but one major difference between the 2E line and the d20 version, is in 2E the core and islands had concrete distances (there was a map key with scale and even though this might have shifted from one version of the core to the next as the line evolved, it was something you could objectively measure. As a I remember it, the d20 version had no distance key, and just took the land to be more amorphous, with travel times varying a great deal. Personally I didn't really like the latter. Possible I am misremembering though

 

[tetrasodium]

I could be wrong but one major difference between the 2E line and the d20 version, is in 2E the core and islands had concrete distances (there was a map key with scale and even though this might have shifted from one version of the core to the next as the line evolved, it was something you could objectively measure. As a I remember it, the d20 version had no distance key, and just took the land to be more amorphous, with travel times varying a great deal. Personally I didn't really like the latter. Possible I am misremembering though

I don't think it does. None of the maps seem to have a key like you noted, this is the closest I could find to a measurement & it's hardly concrete