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.

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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

 

[Scribe]

A horror story wherein it is known to the audience from the jump that nothing the characters do can ever matter, where there are not multiple possible outcomes, where there is no element that if the characters do everything right they can get out alive and win the day, and the tension lies in seeing what choices lead them further and further away from that possibility, is pointlessly boring.

This is the basis of pretty much anything grimdark. So, I dont think is fact. It may be boring to you though.

 

[MGibster]

Why should I give a damn about what happens in literally any Ravenloft game, ever?

That's not unfair. Even Call of Cthulhu has an opportunity for Investigators' actions to have a positive impact on the world.

 

[Charlaquin]

It’s a difficult balancing act. Horror doesn’t need a happy ending, but it does need hope, which is difficult to achieve if you go in knowing there can’t be a happy ending.

 

[MGibster]

It’s a difficult balancing act. Horror doesn’t need a happy ending, but it does need hope, which is difficult to achieve if you go in knowing there can’t be a happy ending.

One of the reasons most of my horror campaigns are relatively short is because there's only so much bleakness I want to deal with. Though I don't really consider Ravenloft to be all that bleak. It's very difficult maintaining a horror atmosphere in a game designed for players to live out their power fantasies.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The horror feeling disappears when there is no hope and characters can't make the reader to feel empathy for them. If you aren't worried because they are going to be killed then it is not horror, but morbid repugnance.

If I want then there is enough hope in horror story, thanks faith's characters. Maybe somebody doesn't survive, but his sacrifice to save others helps more he could guess, becoming a martyr his relics hurt unholy creatures. The defenders of the innocents can be a true nightmare for evil monsters. Have you killed a cute doggy? Then John Wick warns you to start to pray.

Buffy the vampire-slayer was action-horror, but also it had got some piece of comedy, and it worked.

Some players want a happy ending, even the possibility some dark lord could find the path of the redemption to be free from the curse.

* Now I am remembering those old horror comics from 70's, and or supernatural young fiction, for example Brenna Yovanoff's The Replacement (I don't know the book to be good or bad, but I only mention it as example of possible future new Ravenloft novels).

* Other idea is a dread domain with creatures from Gamma World, antropomorphic animals thanks transgenic enginering who betrayed and rebelled against their human creators, and a horrible relation with the evolutionated apes, who learnt the way to craft ammo and firearms. (the dark powers sabotage all no-magic machine-guns but if these are too old and "expensive relics", at least mini-motors to reload crossbows works, but the no-magic batteries aren't easy nor too cheap to be crafted) .

Other idea is a plague of khytons, alien demons from 3rd Book of the Vile Darkness. The horror arrives when you discover the dark lord caused intentionally the plague, as a "pyromanian firefighter", the classic evil politician causing troubles to sell the solution. If the emergengy allows you to keep absolute power, then you don't want the end of the crisis.

* American Horror Story shows us example of stories within "little spaces", for example a single-family house gave enough plot for the first season.

* It would be fun, but nasty if characters from Sithicus find an escape to the prime material plane and they discover they are in the post-apocalypse Krynn where Raitslin become the one deity. (The good new is they are "welcome" or at least not hostile, because these "refugees" are an opportunity to rebuild his devastated world.

 

[Charlaquin]

One of the reasons most of my horror campaigns are relatively short is because there's only so much bleakness I want to deal with. Though I don't really consider Ravenloft to be all that bleak. It's very difficult maintaining a horror atmosphere in a game designed for players to live out their power fantasies.

Yeah, horror usually works better for one-shots than long-term campaigns. I think the key with campaigns like Curse of Strahd is to steer into the gothic and let the horror be a little looser.

 

[Savage Wombat]

We discussed this after CoS - one of my PCs intended to stay and rule Barovia after Strahd's demise.

I told him that, inevitably, he or his heirs would be corrupted by the darkness and become a wicked tyrant. And a couple of generations from now, a brave young hero would engage in a quest to enter Castle Ravenloft and overthrow the tyrant. He would find the resting place of the beloved, one true ruler of the land - only to pull out the stake or drop blood on the ashes and return the Count to his unlife.

 

[delericho]

The time loop aspect is an ongoing plot point in my current Ravenloft campaign, and it's working well. However, the endgame will absolutely be that if the PCs slay the darklord (Adam, in this case) then they will have broken the loop and freed the land.

That ending of "Curse of Strahd", where everything reset, really annoyed me - despite providing the useful inspiration for the above.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I guess I don't understand what the criticism is, then.

If Strahd dies, they might find someone more interesting to take his place.

Boring. Nah, at my table, if you kill Strahd under certain specific circumstances, and it’s a “puzzle” of sorts that the PCs can fail to solve, Barovia returns to its proper world. The mists recede, and there is now a whole traumatized population in whatever world that is.

Because horror doesn’t need pointlessness. It mostly just needs uncertainty, atmosphere, And the knowledge that you absolutely can fail utterly and all die.

You said "The whole adventure is pointless if there is no possible ending wherein the people of Barovia aren't saved."

Right. The “setting” is just a haunted house, not an actual setting. That’s boring as hell.

If The People Of Barovia are saved, that's a happy ending.

Also, there are small victories. You don't have to save "The People Of Barovia." You can save Farmer Bob from the horror that's going after him--or if not Farmer Bob, then other people who might be affected by the same horror later on.

RL isn’t Call of Cthulhu, it’s D&D. In D&D, the actions of the PCs matter.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The time loop aspect is an ongoing plot point in my current Ravenloft campaign, and it's working well. However, the endgame will absolutely be that if the PCs slay the darklord (Adam, in this case) then they will have broken the loop and freed the land.

That ending of "Curse of Strahd", where everything reset, really annoyed me - despite providing the useful inspiration for the above.

Yep. It’s a fun premise. Once. If the PCs can then go back and figure out the “switch” to end the cycle.