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.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

This looks bad, as have all of the recent D&D tie-in novels. I will admit I haven't read any of them so I could be wrong. Am I secretly missing out?

I quite enjoyed the HAT prequel novel. I haven’t read any of the others.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I think a few of the settings has had problems between how they were actually played on tabletop vs how they were in the novels. So I could see them wanting to get novels more in with actual tabletop play.

I think it is almost a separate topic, but the issue I found with the old TSR novels was the ones modeled after play at the table (rather than just stories in the settings themselves) often hit an uncanny valley territory. In some lines it was fine. The Drizzt books seemed to have a mandate to abide by existing game mechanics (I know at one point the author had to defend keeping Artemis Entreri when they go did of the assassin----think his solution was a dual class character). But occasionally in dialogue people would reference character classes and other game mechanics, and it would feel a little odd. Also, I think something that is fun at the table (like a group of 5 characters going into a dungeon) is not always as fun in a novel. I do believe it is best to abide by the rules of the game )(by all means have characters use actual spells). But it still needs to be a novel and story first and foremost

 

[Epic Meepo]

I will be wait and see on the story. I could be wrong but I would be wearing a big smirk if the "heroes" end up all dead or drastically betraying themselves after Strahd is done with them. Because that would be the most Ravenloft of Ravenloft endings.

Plot twist: Strahd is the OSR DM of Barovia, and he's about to go full grognard on "the kids these days."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well that was simply dreadful, so it does have that part of Ravenloft down pat. Like others have said, I am so not the core demographic for the game anymore. And that's too bad because a new novel for Ravenloft is something I would be really interested in.

On the other hand, there are multiple cool Dracula-derived novels that have come out in recent years, including several where Mina goes on to be a vampire herself. Other than the fact that I don't think anyone is an elf or plays a cleric, that scratches a lot of the same itches for me.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Plot twist: Strahd is the OSR DM of Barovia, and he's about to go full grognard on "the kids these days."

"That's right, we use encumbrance rules here in Barovia!"

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

We geezers still buy books

Large print Dragonlance reissue when?

 

[Joshua Randall]

"That's right, we use encumbrance rules here in Barovia!"

"We also use weapon type vs. armor class here in Barovia! Mwah, hah, hah!"

 

[Bedrockgames]

On the other hand, there are multiple cool Dracula-derived novels that have come out in recent years, including several where Mina goes on to be a vampire herself. Other than the fact that I don't think anyone is an elf or plays a cleric, that scratches a lot of the same itches for me.

This reminded me of that book Mina by Elaine Bergstrom (who also wrote for Ravenloft, as did PN Elrod---another vampire writer). I have to admit I was a little vampire'd out by the end of the 90s lol. There was a sea of vampire books at the time

 

[Bedrockgames]

Large print Dragonlance reissue when?

I have a feeling Dragonlance is still pretty ever green (I have bought it again from time to time and it never seems out of print). In terms of large print. I may be older now, and I probably do need reading glasses, but I can't bring myself to read large print books. There is apparently a hardcover Dragonlance Chronicles coming out in february though

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Ravenloft wasn't created to be 100% gothic horror but a mixture of fantasy adventure with touchs of gothic horror. The 5e Ravenloft has been redesigned to can include also other different subgenres.

We could say the book will be about adventurers from epic fantasy (and some thorns in the soul) in the gothic-horor "theme park".

It is not written to be 100% horror but a mixture of horror and fantasy adventure, where main characters can enjoy enough possibilities to defeat, or at least avoid, most of the monsters.

And it will be not only about to kill monsters but also to solve some mistery, breaking some curse or find some way to escape.

* Ravenloft is not only the canon titles published by TSR, WotC or Arthaus but also the fanfiction you can find in the web "Fraternity of Shadows". There you could find potentially interesting ideas for new domains.

* I would like to see in Ravenloft abysal genasies (Caustic, Cinder, Plague and Void) and lower dragonborns (shadow, howling, chole, gloom, Styx, Pyroclastic, rust, Tarterian, and deathmask?)