Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd Cover, Synopsis Revealed

More details about next year's D&D novel has been revealed.

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The cover and synopsis for Penguin Random House's new Dungeons & Dragons novel has been revealed. This week, Penguin Random House revealed the official title and cover for Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd, a new novel by Delilah S. Dawson. The new novel is due for release in April 2025. The new novel follows a group of adventurers who arrive in Barovia under mysterious circumstances and are summoned to Castle Ravenloft to dine with the infamous Count Strahd. This marks the first Ravenloft novel released in 17 years.

Penguin Random House has slowly grown its line of novels over the past few years, with novels set in Spelljammer, Dragonlance, and the Forgotten Realms released over the last year. Characters from The Fallbacks novel by Jaleigh Johnson also appears in art in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide.

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The full synopsis for Heir of Strahd can be found below:

Five strangers armed with steel and magic awaken in a mist-shrouded land, with no memory of how they arrived: Rotrog, a prideful orcish wizard; Chivarion, a sardonic drow barbarian; Alishai, an embittered tiefling paladin; Kah, a skittish kenku cleric; and Fielle, a sunny human artificer.

After they barely survive a nightmarish welcome to the realm of Barovia, a carriage arrives bearing an invitation:

Fairest Friends,

I pray you accept my humble Hospitality and dine with me tonight at Castle Ravenloft. It is rare we receive Visitors, and I do so Endeavor to Make your Acquaintance. The Carriage shall bear you to the Castle safely, and I await your Arrival with Pleasure.

Your host,
Strahd von Zarovich

With no alternative, and determined to find their way home, the strangers accept the summons and travel to the forbidding manor of the mysterious count. But all is not well at Castle Ravenloft. To survive the twisted enigmas of Strahd and his haunted home, the adventurers must confront the dark secrets in their own hearts and find a way to shift from strangers to comrades—before the mists of Barovia claim them forever.
 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer









Bedrockgames

I post in the voice of Christopher Walken
Only one member of the party actually looks happy, and that’s their defining trait based on the synopsis. Good horror isn’t always oppressive. It contains moments or characters that bring levity to make the actual dread that much darker.

I have to admit this cover does not fit Ravenloft for me at all.

I think the woman on the left (the happy one) and the guy in the center definitely give it an odd tone for me. I'm an old Ravenloft fan so my taste are probably pretty out of date, but this is definitely not the vibe I look for in Ravenloft. I am much more accustomed to the human-centric setting so only having one human isn't quite my cup of tea for Ravenloft. Not saying the protagonists have to be human, monster rally can work in Ravenloft in my opinion if it is does well. But that aside, the big thing is the tone, the guy in front looks too strutty or something (there is just attitude in his step that seems out of sync with a horror novel----it is something I would maybe expect on a horror comedy cover but not a Ravenloft cover). Again I am old, but this is definitely not the kind of art that is going to be bring me into a Ravenlof novel

You are right you need more than one tone, but you also have to keep in mind Ravenloft was based on gothic horror. I know it is multi-genre horror now, but I think a person like me is coming to it with an expectation of heavy atmosphere, and not something so... triumphant looking. not really sure what word fits here, but it just doesn't work for me

just to contrast it with the expectation that the TSR era novels set for me, these are what typical 2E Ravenloft novel art looked like:

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These ones have a variety of colors, and subjects but they all manage to be sinister in some way. There is atmosphere I don't get from the new novel cover
 

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