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.

 

[Parmandur]

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?

The Fallbacks was OK: about the same quality as old D&D books.

 

[Alzrius]

Personally, I've always thought that Ravenloft would work best with a Dark Sun-style "character tree," where each player has a pool of PCs they can rotate in and out. If nothing else, that allows for more leeway with regard to characters being killed, becoming evil NPCs (e.g. failing too many Dark Powers checks), needing time to recover after failing a madness check, are doing "off-screen" adventuring to regain levels drained by some undead, etc.

 

[Dire Bare]

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?

Looks bad, but you haven't read any of them?

Okay. Shrug.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Personally, I've always thought that Ravenloft would work best with a Dark Sun-style "character tree," where each player has a pool of PCs they can rotate in and out. If nothing else, that allows for more leeway with regard to characters being killed, becoming evil NPCs (e.g. failing too many Dark Powers checks), needing time to recover after failing a madness check, are doing "off-screen" adventuring to regain levels drained by some undead, etc.

Exactly. Ravenloft was TSR's answer to the rise of Call of Cthulhu RPG, expecting it to be a similar experience to vanilla D&D defeats the purpose in my view, but Crawford and his "D&D is D&D" philosophy leads to the commodification and flavourless goop that are 5E settings.

 

[God]

Clown shoes.

 

[Chaltab]

Personally, I've always thought that Ravenloft would work best with a Dark Sun-style "character tree," where each player has a pool of PCs they can rotate in and out. If nothing else, that allows for more leeway with regard to characters being killed, becoming evil NPCs (e.g. failing too many Dark Powers checks), needing time to recover after failing a madness check, are doing "off-screen" adventuring to regain levels drained by some undead, etc.

Conversely, horror needs a different mechanical baseline to achieve anything like the fragility expected of Call of Cthulhu. I think it was mismatched enough in 2E where 0HP meant dead and level drain was still a thing, but in 5E you have so many tools. I once was in a game where we thumped Strahd and make him retreat to the castle in Tier 1.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Conversely, horror needs a different mechanical baseline to achieve anything like the fragility expected of Call of Cthulhu. I think it was mismatched enough in 2E where 0HP meant dead and level drain was still a thing, but in 5E you have so many tools. I once was in a game where we thumped Strahd and make him retreat to the castle in Tier 1.

Yes, that's why there were rule variations, something the designers of 5E resolutely refuse to consider. Playing a Ravenloft campaign should feel different to playing a Forgotten Realms campaign. It doesn't. That's the problem.

 

[dead]

I'm getting some Monster High vibes... like they are going to break out in song and dance.

That compositional mistake with the kenku and artificer is called a "tangent" in the art world apparently.

 

[AK_Ambrian]

Kind of related, here's an interview with the writer of an official Ravenloft comic book series that was published in 2022.

 

[Autumnal]

Conversely, horror needs a different mechanical baseline to achieve anything like the fragility expected of Call of Cthulhu.

But that kind of frailty isn’t always appropriate. Looking at my shelves, I see stories by Laird Barron, Gwendolyn Kiste, David Wellington, Stephen King, Mary SanGiovanni, Brian Keene, Brian Hosge, and others whose protagonists give and/or take quite a bit of damage. The brittle and generally useless protagonist fits one kind of story, but there are others.