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

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ugh. That's why I don't watch those. The closest I get is the Rusty Quill play podcast, where each ep is less than an hour long. I do not have a long enough attention span for anything longer than that.

Dimension 20, Not Another D&D Podcast, Adventure Time and Nerd Poker are each around an hour too, for the most part, and are all professional performers. Strongly recommended.

The only long-ass D&D podcast I listen to is Critical Role, which I use as audio wallpaper, as it could easily be cut down to half as long.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

• Il Aluk and Riveris mentioned, confirming Darkon. The cleric mentioned going to Il Aluk, so the Requiem/Necropolis seems retconned.

Blowing up a big part of the setting is interesting if you're invested in continuity, but three editions later, defaulting to the most gameable version of the domain seems to be the right call.

 

[Bedrockgames]

• One of the PCs is a lycanthrope.

If this is done in the classic, it is a bad thing, and you lose control and wake up with no memory of the killings you have committed, I welcome it. If we are about to see lycanthropes as a viable PC race, that is getting into WW territory

 

[Faolyn]

If this is done in the classic, it is a bad thing, and you lose control and wake up with no memory of the killings you have committed, I welcome it. If we are about to see lycanthropes as a viable PC race, that is getting into WW territory

The only way I would allow it is by making the person switch to Shifter, from Eberron, give them an allergen (which they don't know what it is at first) and then still say have no control and must change on on the full moon.

 

[Bedrockgames]

The only way I would allow it is by making the person switch to Shifter, from Eberron, give them an allergen (which they don't know what it is at first) and then still say have no control and must change on on the full moon.

My preferred approach is for players to acquire lycanthropy in the course of play naturally (so it is the big thing you fear when you encounter werewolves and other lycanthropes). But I have to admit to a soft spot for werewolf stuff (love the Howling, the Wolf Man, Dog Soldiers, American Werewolf in London, etc). For me the thing that makes them so terrifying is the loss of control and the transformation.

I like the way the Guide to Lycanthropes handled allergens and triggers (and even though I usually am not a fan of quantifying how many gallons of blood the vampire of barovia needs and if there are enough villagers to feed him) for the purposes of handling a player character infected wit lycanthropy, the guidelines on how much human meat they had to eat, was pretty useful)

 

[Remathilis]

If this is done in the classic, it is a bad thing, and you lose control and wake up with no memory of the killings you have committed, I welcome it. If we are about to see lycanthropes as a viable PC race, that is getting into WW territory

Not far enough along to know how they are handling it yet. Could be a shifter, a path of the beast barbarian, or a fade to black thing. Or they could have rules for pc lycanthropes. Or the DM is making an exception via fiat for dramatic purposes and it doesn't reflect rules in the book. When I get to listen more, we'll see.

 

[Parmandur]

Ugh. That's why I don't watch those. The closest I get is the Rusty Quill play podcast, where each ep is less than an hour long. I do not have a long enough attention span for anything longer than that.

Part of the fun for me is that I don't need to pay close attention all 4 hours, just like Baseball. I can read a book while listening to what's going on, and pay closer attention as things get interesting.

 

[overgeeked]

Part of the fun for me is that I don't need to pay close attention all 4 hours, just like Baseball. I can read a book while listening to what's going on, and pay closer attention as things get interesting.

Or you just pause it and come back later.

 

[Faolyn]

Part of the fun for me is that I don't need to pay close attention all 4 hours, just like Baseball. I can read a book while listening to what's going on, and pay closer attention as things get interesting.

Sadly, I have really severe ADHD that means I can either watch something, or read something, but I can't do both.

I can draw while watching or listening to something, but then I either lose about half of what I'm watching or I can't concentrate on my drawing.

 

[Parmandur]

Sadly, I have really severe ADHD that means I can either watch something, or read something, but I can't do both.

I can draw while watching or listening to something, but then I either lose about half of what I'm watching or I can't concentrate on my drawing.

Yeah, I could see that being frustrating. My brain works close to the opposite: I can hold a spoken conversation while writing something unrelated, and do so for work all the time.