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

 

[doctorbadwolf]

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

Sure. Grimdark is shoddy, boring, trite, lazy, unimaginative, storytelling.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

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

Exactly.

 

[Scribe]

Sure. Grimdark is shoddy, boring, trite, lazy, unimaginative, storytelling.

In your opinion.

 

[Faolyn]

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

This is true. But there's a difference between "Barovia returns to its proper world"--assuming it even had one to begin with--and "it's all pointless." There's a lot of things to be done in Barovia even if Strahd never appears or acts against the PCs.

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

I don't see how.

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

Like with Call of Cthulhu, you get small victories. Even though Cthulhu is statted out, very few people ever would think to go toe-to-toe with it. Yes, you can go against the Big C, but that's almost not the point of the game.

Likewise, with Ravenloft, yes, you can go against Strahd--but there's so much else to do. You honestly don't need to.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

In your opinion.

Okay?

This is true. But there's a difference between "Barovia returns to its proper world"--assuming it even had one to begin with--and "it's all pointless." There's a lot of things to be done in Barovia even if Strahd never appears or acts against the PCs.

How is that relevant to anything I said?

I don't see how.

If you can’t meaningfully change it, it isn’t a real place. It’s a theme park ride, or similar.

Like with Call of Cthulhu, you get small victories. Even though Cthulhu is statted out, very few people ever would think to go toe-to-toe with it. Yes, you can go against the Big C, but that's almost not the point of the game.

Likewise, with Ravenloft, yes, you can go against Strahd--but there's so much else to do. You honestly don't need to.

In CoC, if you somehow shut down Cthulhu, it would stick. It wouldn’t magically reset and have the game tell you “lol nah none of that meant anything”

 

[Bedrockgames]

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.

I think one issue people run into with horror is trying to force it (similar to comedy). Obviously if you have more time to invest and prep for a one-shot, and you get the buy in, a one shot can work great for horror (I do this all the time). At the same time, I think it is easy to confuse atmosphere and use of horror oriented language (i.e. upping your adjectives and descriptions) for horror. Horror is an emotion, and it is a real challenge to pull off in a game whether it is a one shot or a years long string of adventures. I do think, like anything else, the more you do it, the better you get. After running Ravenloft for years and years, I felt like I got quite good at spotting the opportunities to scare the players, I got better at focusing on picking the right words (rather than lengthy descriptions because I felt like I had to paint the scene and involve all the sense or something), and I figured out more what works and what doesn't. Still I think you have to give people a break. If it is 100% horror, 100% dark and brooding all the time, it is all going to feel the same and the players will become dull to the horror. Also, it is still a game, with dice, and randomness, and occasional cheetos at the table. It is possible to take yourself too seriously when you are GMing horror. If the players want to crack jokes and have a more laid back session, I find it helps to go along with that. You can end up with a tyranny of horror situation where people stop having fun because you are being too rigid about bringing the horror atmosphere to the table. What I usually strive for are moments of fear that build to horror. You can have a lot of different things in between that. Some of the scariest movies I've seen were filled with humor, and the humor contrasted sharply, I think making for a scarier experience in the end.

When I run Ravenloft long term, one thing I lean into is the camp. Some session are going to feel dark and scary, and genuinely give people chills. Some sessions are more like Pretorius dining in a tomb or showing off his homunculi in Bride of Frankenstein. A long term horror campaign is a little bit more like a jam session, you have to find your way over a very long campaign, and if you hit the horror too hard all the time, people will just be numb to it or exhausted. In the end, I am happy as long as we played in a gothic horror setting, whether it ends in laughter or terror

 

[Scribe]

Okay?

You are making blanket statements as if they are fact, when those statements are not fact.

It's not particularly relevant I guess, I'm sure you know what your doing, so never mind.

 

[Bedrockgames]

You are making blanket statements as if they are fact, when those statements are not fact.

It's not particularly relevant I guess, I'm sure you know what your doing, so never mind.

Was that addressed to my post?

 

[Faolyn]

How is that relevant to anything I said?

Because it's exactly what you said?

If you can’t meaningfully change it, it isn’t a real place. It’s a theme park ride, or similar.

I don't know how much Ravenloft lore you know, but historically, most of the domains are either copies of real places or are made whole-cloth by the Dark Powers. Killing Strahd won't send Barovia back to its original world because there is no original world for it to go back to.

Also, going by the lore, if Barovia is destroyed, there's the possibility that the entire demiplane would be destroyed as well. The Dark Powers aren't going to let that happen.

And finally, the Dark Powers are the ones in who are ultimately in charge, not Strahd.

So let's say your adventuring party decides to kill Strahd, succeeds, and takes over, determined to make Barovia into a better place. They can do that! There are other domains that are actually fairly nice places to live (the political ruler of Mordent is Lawful Good), so Barovia could be changed for the better. Your PCs could make it so that the Barovians no longer huddle in fear of the creatures of the night, that they have access to education and higher technology.

But, what would also happen is that the DPs would assign a new Darklord. If one of the PCs in the party was actually quite evil, it may be that person. Or it might be an NPC like Leo Dilisnya, Jaqueline Montarri, Lyssa von Zorovich, or Ardonk Szerieza--or someone completely different. Whoever became the Darklord would end up changing the horrors of Barovia, but not eliminating them.

 

[Remathilis]

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

So between another DM my group used to play with and myself, we have run some iteration of Ravenloft three times (House of Strahd, Expedition, CoS). As an easter egg, there is a point where the group was asked to sign Strahd's "guest book" and amongst the names in the book I included the PCs from the previous two play-throughs. I included it as a handout, and each of the players "signed" the guestbook as their current PCs as well, nodding to the fact that perhaps those other times were cannon and the cycle has repeated before.

Of course, those other groups eventually escaped Ravenloft and went back to thier proper worlds and did other things, so to them, Strahd was defeated. But to the next group that wanders into the Mist?