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]

Also someone asked me about my use of Valachan, will answer that when I am at my desk (out and about at the moment: want to see which issue of Dungeon I was thinking of since it is relevant)

 

[JEB]

Good news: Valachan explicitly states Von Kharkov WAS the old ruler, and that Chakuna kills him to replace him as lord. Chakuna was a rebellion leader who grew tired of being hunted by Von Kharkov so he hunted the hunter and in doing so his cruelty gave him the darklord status (he also has Von Kharkov's heart; literally).

Now what VGR doesn't do is spell out who exactly VK was. Gone is the explicit ties to Faerun, the panther-turned-man-turned-vampire, or the white flu. When Chakuna takes his heart, he becomes a were panther and gains control over the flora and fauna. Could this VK be the classic one? It doesn't say it couldn't. It doesn't say it has it be, This VK could simply be a puppet lord, a were panther, or just a footnote. Point is, Chakuna is in charge now.

If you are willing to accept that Valachan changed shape (no longer a long thin "coast" and terrain (temperate forest to proper jungle) you can establish that link to DoD Valachan. Or you can ignore it and never dwell on VK's reign.

Dementieu has a similar, subtle example. One of the adventure seeds is a man in an asylum with "impressive powers of persuasion" claims to be the real Duke. You want an explanation? Sadria committed Dominic to a mental ward where his powers are dimmed by "therapy" and she gained control of the domain and instituted the masquerade. The domain shrank to accommodate her narrower focus. Or not and he's a crazy man who is really good at lying.

Right, I was aware of the Valachan and Dementlieu callbacks. And they're great, exactly for the reasons you state - they could refer to classic Ravenloft, and the domains changed to match their new lords, or they could just be Easter eggs. Tepest is another that appears to do this.

But then there are ones like I'Cath and Souragne, where the domain lords get new histories and motives that overwrite the originals, and they don't appear to be reconciliable. (I get that there are problems with the old versions, but if they could recontextualize the Vistani to make them work, they could have done it with them too.) Or, in a much more minor example, Kartakass with its werewolves instead of wolfweres. (That one just seems lazy.) Veteran fans certainly can rationalize these changes too, but it would have been nice if they'd given them a little bit of official help, like in the examples above.

 

[JEB]

I really don't understand why people even want 5E Ravenloft if they get upset that they change things...

People can want a setting updated for the current edition of the game, but still want that thing to resemble the version of the setting that they grew up on.

Honestly, I doubt that "doing it right" is really going to pull old fans in. Most of the complaints I've seen here tend to be about lore (like things like this "reboot" or that it isn't the core anymore). And these don't matter for what system people use. I highly doubt that getting the lore precisely correct in the way the "old D&Ders" like is going to bring people to a system they already don't like.

It seemed that early 5E did a better job of appealing to older fans than its predecessor did, while also keeping an appeal to newer fans. And at least part of that was the restoration of the pre-4E status quo for assorted bits of game lore. So it certainly appears that it can be done "right". It may require more of a balancing act than a reboot, of course, but it does appear it can pay off.

 

[Faolyn]

But then there are ones like I'Cath and Souragne, where the domain lords get new histories and motives that overwrite the originals, and they don't appear to be reconciliable. (I get that there are problems with the old versions, but if they could recontextualize the Vistani to make them work, they could have done it with them too.)

Could they have been?

I'Cath was more an adventure location than an actual domain. It had one person in it and a bunch of monsters and bells. The only way to make it suitable as a domain would be to go back to before it was one and start over. And at that point, Tsien Chiang's entire shtick was hating men and liking death. She really had no depth or other hooks.

And Souragne was pretty much cinematic voodoo and antebellum Louisiana with tons of built-in bigotry, with the only difference being that the bigotry was class-based instead of race-based. It's kind of built on problematic tropes. I mean, it's absolutely ripe for horror, but I'm not sure what could be done with it to make it sellable.

 

[JEB]

They absolutely pretend the 4e changes never happened. The Sundering adventures never amounted to anything, characters from before the 4e change are just alive again with no explanation given, everything about the setting has completely reverted to the pre-4e status quo.

And yet the 5E Realms still acknowledges events like the Spellplague, dragonborn didn't go away, Asmodeus is still a deity and they still use him to explain the 4E/5E-styled tieflings in the setting, and so forth. They may have undid many of the changes 4E wrought, but they do recognize that they happened.

 

[Charlaquin]

And yet the 5E Realms still acknowledges events like the Spellplague, dragonborn didn't go away, Asmodeus is still a deity and they still use him to explain the 4E/5E-styled tieflings in the setting, and so forth. They may have undid many of the changes 4E wrought, but they do recognize that they happened.

They recognize them when they have to, and ignore them when they can get away with it.

 

[JEB]

Could they have been?

I'Cath was more an adventure location than an actual domain. It had one person in it and a bunch of monsters and bells. The only way to make it suitable as a domain would be to go back to before it was one and start over. And at that point, Tsien Chiang's entire shtick was hating men and liking death. She really had no depth or other hooks.

And Souragne was pretty much cinematic voodoo and antebellum Louisiana with tons of built-in bigotry, with the only difference being that the bigotry was class-based instead of race-based. It's kind of built on problematic tropes. I mean, it's absolutely ripe for horror, but I'm not sure what could be done with it to make it sellable.

I suppose we'll never know, since it doesn't appear that they tried. (And I still don't get why, once you've changed every single other detail of the domain, you wouldn't just change the names too and free yourself from that unwanted baggage.)

 

[Bedrockgames]

Could they have been?

I'Cath was more an adventure location than an actual domain. It had one person in it and a bunch of monsters and bells. The only way to make it suitable as a domain would be to go back to before it was one and start over. And at that point, Tsien Chiang's entire shtick was hating men and liking death. She really had no depth or other hooks.

And Souragne was pretty much cinematic voodoo and antebellum Louisiana with tons of built-in bigotry, with the only difference being that the bigotry was class-based instead of race-based. It's kind of built on problematic tropes. I mean, it's absolutely ripe for horror, but I'm not sure what could be done with it to make it sellable

but sauragne worked great. And as you point out ripe for horror. Why can’t a domain have class based bigotry: it wasn’t an endorsement of classism

 

[Remathilis]

but sauragne worked great. And as you point out ripe for horror. Why can’t a domain have class based bigotry: it wasn’t an endorsement of classism

Souragne got a paragraph. In it, it changed the nature of the power dynamic from slaves/servants to prisoners, which still keeps the involuntary labor but changes it from plantation to prison. They also change Anton's death from being dragged down from his betrayed lover to being drowned in the swamp during a prison riot due to the abuse he inflicted on the prisoners. He still rises up as a zombie and still ends up gaining control of his prison though necromancy and controlling the swamp.

Personally, it all feels you could get a southern gothic feel there. Anton views himself a gentleman but is a sadist, and the first thing I imagined was a Green Mile like southern prison with chain gangs and the like. The voodoo element is very played down (though still hinted at, esp in Larissa Snownane's writeup) and the fact that the control he keeps over his people has moved from slavery to criminal incarceration can still be relevant if you did want to keep the race elements for whatever reason. It's still a Domain of zombies and swamps and gators, it just changed the nature of the human bondage.

It was the best they could do in one paragraph, but if you must keep plantation slavery as an important part of the domain, I guess nothing was going to save it.

 

[Remathilis]

Right, I was aware of the Valachan and Dementlieu callbacks. And they're great, exactly for the reasons you state - they could refer to classic Ravenloft, and the domains changed to match their new lords, or they could just be Easter eggs. Tepest is another that appears to do this.

But then there are ones like I'Cath and Souragne, where the domain lords get new histories and motives that overwrite the originals, and they don't appear to be reconciliable. (I get that there are problems with the old versions, but if they could recontextualize the Vistani to make them work, they could have done it with them too.) Or, in a much more minor example, Kartakass with its werewolves instead of wolfweres. (That one just seems lazy.) Veteran fans certainly can rationalize these changes too, but it would have been nice if they'd given them a little bit of official help, like in the examples above.

I discussed Souragne above, and to be honest I didn't read I'Cath nor did I remember enough of the old one to comment on the differences yet.