Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd Cover, Synopsis Revealed

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.

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.

 

[Guest 85555]

I haven't been in a Barnes and Nobles in a minute, but the novels are at Target next to the YA stuff.

I go to barnes and noble a lot, and to me it looks like a very even mix of ages. But you can generally count on older people going to book stores.

Also I think if you look at the demographics of the US, it is pretty clear all the demographics we are talking about still matter. My age group is like 12 percent of the total (which is pretty much what most other age groups are. Depending on the year and source, 14 and under is like 18 percent of the population, 15-64 is 65 percent, etc. I would say that swatch between 25-65 is pretty important still.

 

[Remathilis]

I go to barnes and noble a lot, and to me it looks like a very even mix of ages. But you can generally count on older people going to book stores.

Also I think if you look at the demographics of the US, it is pretty clear all the demographics we are talking about still matter. My age group is like 12 percent of the total (which is pretty much what most other age groups are. Depending on the year and source, 14 and under is like 18 percent of the population, 15-64 is 65 percent, etc. I would say that swatch between 25-65 is pretty important still.

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But are those older demos buying D&D novels or are they buying fantasy and horror novels from more adult oriented writers like Martin or King?

 

[Guest 85555]

But are those older demos buying D&D novels or are they buying fantasy and horror novels from more adult oriented writers like Martin or King?

I would imagine older gamers are still in the market for gaming related novels. I'm sure they are also reading stuff like King, but if you really like a setting and the books are compelling enough, people will buy. The old TSR novels were NYT best sellers back in teh day and plenty of people read them who weren't what you would expect

 

[humble minion]

I haven’t (of course) read this, and to be honest I’m unlikely to. But I’m going to offer an old-ish school defence of it from a ravenloft point of view.

First, we have a group of PCs pulled into Ravenloft by the Mists. This is of course classic Ravenloft, none of that stuff with native inhabitants of the Core (which I loved and was my preferred way of doing things, btw). There is absolutely nothing inconsistent with even old-school Ravenloft here. Even back in the old days, PCs were assumed to be pulled into the mists from another setting. These days that setting is quite likely to be tiefling-heavy Exandria or similar, but back in the day, you reckon Ravenloft parties weren’t filled with overpowered bladesinger elves from FRs ‘mooooore elf sub races!!!’ phase, or annoying kender or weirdos from Spelljammer? Hell, TSR themselves forcibly shoved Dark Sun into ravenloft, so you could play a mul or thri-keen there too!

Secondly, I kinda like how the blurb calls out the main character’s character flaws. Prideful, embittered, etc. Experiencing the consequences of your own flaws, your own sins is of course CLASSIC Gothic and classic Ravenloft, an aspect that the 5e iteration completely abandoned, to my sorrow. But I have hope that this book may indeed explore that aspect a little. Of course, at least one of the party needs to die or turn evil for it to be really Ravenlofty, and I suspect that won’t happen.

But I think this might not quite be as much of a desecration as some are perhaps expecting.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Didn’t that used to be on the other side?

 

[Scribe]

But are those older demos buying D&D novels or are they buying fantasy and horror novels from more adult oriented writers like Martin or King?

How valuable is nostalgia, and who do you think it is appealing to?

While I am sure there are multiple reasons Wizards keeps going back to the wells of our youth, at least one of those reasons is to appeal to those of us who grew up along side those properties, because we are still here, and we have more disposable income than any kid (anyone sub 20) can dream of having.

 

[Starmaster]

Yeah, not my area. I only go into the various book stores like Chapters or whatever.

There are three Barnes & Noble stores in my general area, as well as a Books-a-Million, which is about the same size as the Barnes & Noble stores. All those stores used to keep the D&D novels in the sci-fi/fantasy section rather than the Young Adult section. I haven't checked all the stores in the last couple of years or so to see if that's still the case. RPGs had their own section separate from the novels.

 

[Scribe]

There are three Barnes & Noble stores in my general area, as well as a Books-a-Million, which is about the same size as the Barnes & Noble stores. All those stores used to keep the D&D novels in the sci-fi/fantasy section rather than the Young Adult section. I haven't checked all the stores in the last couple of years or so to see if that's still the case. RPGs had their own section separate from the novels.

Yeah, that matches my experience. D&D, 40K, these are in the general SciFi/Fantasy sections, while YA is its own thing with Percy Jackson, and that kind of stuff.

 

[Jahydin]

5E party going through the mists before heading to Strahds castle.

So thankful for posts like these that help me laugh while WotC drives my two favorite franchises off a cliff.

This makes me want an officially licensed Castlevania TTRPG even more...

 

[Jahydin]

I do have to say though, the chap on the far right is one of the few D&D characters I've seen in recent memory that actually looks like he's been in a fight before. More of that please.