New Gothic D&D Storyline To Be Announced On Monday

I've heard from various sources that WotC will be announcing the new storyline on Monday. They've apparently seeded various promotional images to several websites. I don't know any more than that, but if I hear anything, I'll let you know. The below image was apparently sent to The Escapist. Make of it what you will! Looks to me like vampires and ... Ravenloft? (Though if it's not set in the Forgotten Realms, that'd be uncharacteristic.)

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And Geek & Sundry was sent this piece:

 

[neobolts]

There has been a direct crossover before.

Castle Spulzeer is part 1 and happens in Forgotten Realms: http://www.amazon.com/Spulzeer-Fantasy-Roleplaying-Forgotten-Ravenloft/dp/0786906693
The Forgotten Terror is part 2 happenes in Ravenloft: http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Ter..._UL160_SR121,160_&refRID=1E3RTW829T7VZKDDSAP7

Pre-WotC FR/Ravenloft crossover cannon!? They'd be crazy NOT to build on this. It sticks with their FR cross-platform branding and has nostalgia cred.

 

[Queer Venger]

I love the Realms, so as far as Im concerned they can put everything there
Never was a huge fan of Ravenloft, but happy to see some gothic horror injected into the FR. Then again, anyone can use the Ravenloft setting books and put this AP where it belongs, that is the beauty of having every published setting available on DnD Classics/DM Guild.

 

[Vampyr3]

I'm not seeing that image on Geek and Sundry at all.. Where is your source for that one?

 

[darjr]

https://twitter.com/GeekandSundry/status/688176167992479746

@Vampyr3 it was on twitter only, as far as I can tell.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Those illos look very Ravenloft, and I'm pretty sure that second one is a Vistani (and if the first one ISN'T a vampire, it's a clever, clever ruse!)

Maybe they're just having a "mists come and kidnap your PC's from their inn room in Neverwinter" or something, but if that's just the setup and the meat occurs in the Demiplane of Dread, it can still be a very Ravenloft-y adventure.

Maybe the rules will include a "play a refugee from the Mists" option alongside a "Play a native" option.

What's kind of exciting to me is that this artwork shows they're willing to do new and different things with the artwork, depending on the vibe, which is GRAND. I don't know that you can hire Brom for DS or DiTerlizzi for PS again, but if you're willing to truck in slightly similar styles, it'll really drive home the idea that D&D is a diverse and multifaceted game capable of many different kinds of adventures and that the only limit is your imagination.

I'm pumped for Ravenloft. I'm a little worried they're pulling a *syke* move and this'll just be Vampires in the Sword Coast, but only a little....they wouldn't do that to us.....would they?

 

[jamesjhaeck]

I'm most excited that this will likely be a short adventure, not a full adventure path. Chris Perkins has dropped hints alluding to this.

 

[Bera]

The four of coins is the merchant from the 2nd Edition Tarokka deck.

 

[Remathilis]

The art certainly invokes the old 2e Ravenloft art...

b/w art, gothic feel, its feeling a lot more like the classic art than the updated ones in ExtCR or CRBG does. I hope I'm right.

Thank God for having Monday off!

 

[Benji]

Interesting. Almost exactly two months before expected release. Fits with what perkins said about sustaining interest.

So 'Giants do shakespeare' might have been a hoax? Or pushed back?

Does look like Ravenloft. I really hope the plot isn't 'Strahd tries to break through to the realms.'

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I see no reason for this pessimism.

Isn't the core idea of Ravenloft that "You enter a strange mist and find yourself in different lands"?

This should make any connection to Forgotten Realms tenous and easily replacable.

Think of it this way, why would they set a gothic adventure in, say, Waterdeep? Or a small village that just so happens to have a heavy dose of specific Realmslore?

Take Lost Mines of Phandelver, for instance. That's about as specific to the Realms as I expect this to be. Which is to say "not much" and certainly not reason to be Debbie Downer.

I'd like it if you were right, but I'm not getting my hopes up. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised.

One thing though is that regardless of which avenue they take it will tell us something about how they are planning to take things in the near future.

Ravenloft is now a part of the Shadowfel iirc, which now (along with the Feywild) exists across all material planes as a dark reflection... so it wouldn't be too difficult to make a Ravenloft campaign Realm's based at least as a starting point. The Mists can take you from anywhere in the multiverse.

As I read it, you can reach the Domains of Dread through the Shadowfell. They conveniently (and I think wisely) left it vague as to whether or not those domains are actually in the Shadowfell.