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.

 

[Azzy]

I gotta say, that when RL (the setting) came out, I thought it was rather lame. When WoD was offering a side of post-punk, RL offered bad pastiches of the Universal horror films. And, well... Bela Lugosi's Dead.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

No, I came to that conclusion because every step of the way since Tashas Wizards has gone in a direction I dont want, and instead of providing optional rules, alternative settings, they instead have doubled down.

The tent could absolutely be big enough for everyone, Wizards has more capital than likely every other RPG company combined, but they seemingly have no desire other than to release the most tepid of products.

As to why complain about it? A desire to see it changed.

Sitting snd complaining about fandom you removed yourself from is counterproductive, at best. But I'll bite - what was ypur issue with Tasha?

I am not sure what to tell you. I think most people who see Knight of the Black Rose would say it is fitting for gothic horror. 1) "Contains castle" wasn't the criteria for it being gothic. But castles are an essential feature of gothic, so when you put together a haunting undead knight, romantic and sinister atmosphere, sense of a fear, etc, I'd say it fits well with gothic horror.
2) I am sorry but that chapter isn't high fantasy. One can argue it isn't well done, they don't like it. But that is clearly going for the tragic background of the doomed south character and is completely in keeping with horror and gothic horror. It could also appear in dark fantasy or even a normal fantasy setting as a moment of darkness, but it is clear what the writer was going for. Soth may be a character from a high fantasy story. But he is also the darkest, most horror related character in the setting (and by the time you get to the twins books I would argue the mood is shifting towards something closer to dark fantasy).
3) I don't think the cover is okay. I think it is an awful cover for a horror setting, for the reasons I have said. I don't know where you are getting a sense of entitlement from my posts. I am just telling you what I think of the new book cover and the new setting. I don't feel entitled to get the Ravenloft I want at all. But I can weigh in on whether I think WOTC is handling Ravenloft well

I don't care what most pople would say, I literally provided examples of similiar covers with Soth to show there is nothing inherently unique or that is undenoably gothic horror about that one. Scary knight in a castle is, again, staple of fantasy art.

That chapter is literally Soth's part is siege of Solace in Test of the Twins, from his pov, you can debate what fantasy that is, but it is not gothic horror and does not communicate what kind if book you are reading.

And tou are entitled to your opinion, but the moment you try to dictate what is or is not horror, ypu begin sounding lke a different kind of entitled, one that thinks if something is not precisely to their specific taste, then it us for nobody.

 

[Scribe]

Sitting snd complaining about fandom you removed yourself from is counterproductive, at best. But I'll bite - what was ypur issue with Tasha?

That was when Floating ASI came in I believe, and was the writing on the wall for making species even less impactful to the game.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

That was when Floating ASI came in I believe, and was the writing on the wall for making species even less impactful to the game.

This is incredibly petty reason to ragequit. Especially since it was obiectively a good thing. Too bad in 2024 they didn't do what Kobold Press did and remove ASIs altogether.

 

[Remathilis]

This is incredibly petty reason to ragequit. Especially since it was obiectively a good thing. Too bad in 2024 they didn't do what Kobold Press did and remove ASIs altogether.

Shhhh... WotC is bad for removing ASI. It's rude to point out others did it as well...

 

[Autumnal]

Gothic horror and dark music kept me sane in high school

Writing for White Wolf and immersing myself in the ambience did the same for me in my thirties. Last week I did some de-stressing with Bel Canto and Cruxshadows, and a lot of good memories came with them.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Sitting snd complaining about fandom you removed yourself from is counterproductive, at best. But I'll bite - what was ypur issue with Tasha?


I don't care what most pople would say, I literally provided examples of similiar covers with Soth to show there is nothing inherently unique or that is undenoably gothic horror about that one. Scary knight in a castle is, again, staple of fantasy art.

That chapter is literally Soth's part is siege of Solace in Test of the Twins, from his pov, you can debate what fantasy that is, but it is not gothic horror and does not communicate what kind if book you are reading.

I found the cover to be very suited to gothic horror and when I re-read the first portion of Knight of the Black Rose last year I felt it was very atmospheric and very much in keeping with a gothic horror vibe (largely because you are getting things from his perspective, similar to how you get the monsters perspective in Frankenstein midway through the novel). At this point in the discussion I don't think we are going to persuade one another. But again the book works because it is a monster rally and done with good writing that creates atmosphere.

And tou are entitled to your opinion, but the moment you try to dictate what is or is not horror, ypu begin sounding lke a different kind of entitled, one that thinks if something is not precisely to their specific taste, then it us for nobody.

I m not entitled, no matter how many times you assert it. The idea that taking a position on what genre something falls into or what the parameters of a genre are is entitled doesn't make much sense to me. I don't know what you want. Do you want me to embrace the new approach to Ravenloft? Embrace the new cover? I am not telling anyone what they ought to think about these things. If people like the changes to Ravenloft and are enjoying it, they should continue to do so. If people are intrigued by the cover and want to read the book, they should do so. My opinion as a fan of the early days of Ravenloft, is the changes make it feel less like Ravenloft for me, like they took out the things that made the setting special. The cover just doesn't do it for me as a Ravenloft cover or as a horror cover (again I would point to the strutting attitude, I just can't square that with horror unless it is something in the ballpark of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I think of more as horror comedy).

 

[humble minion]

I have mixed feelings about KotBR, but Soth in the original Dragonlance Chronicles was absolutely 100% classic Gothic horror character, even though he happened to appear in a high-fantasy romantic melodrama.

Fallen noble knight, romantic obsession, temptation and betrayal, the chance of redemption being lost due to his own flaws, the wrath/curse of God/gods turning him into a monster, then hundreds of years later his evil rises again from his haunted castle, but the jealousy and need to control women that damned him, still rule him. That's basically every Gothic trope you could hit.

I mean, there's a lot of rubbish written about Soth too. The hazards of being a breakout character, you get ruthlessly overused. The Lord Soth novel missed the point by making him a murderous bastard from day 1 rather than having him be a flawed knight who fell from grace, and SotDQ just ... shoehorns him in as window dressing and an Easter egg for name recognition rather than using who he is.

Therer's been some good stuff too, to be fair. When Black Roses Bloom was really good, and i intend to adapt it for my current DL campaign.

 

[Scribe]

Especially since it was obiectively a good thing.

Its nothing of the sort lol. Other games being wrong in doing so is not a defense for it.

Players: Yay we like less restrictions!

Thats not objectively good design.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Its nothing of the sort lol. Other games being wrong in doing so is not a defense for it.

Players: Yay we like less restrictions!

Thats not objectively good design.

Asi are, howevrr, bad and boring design and getting rid of them is getting tid of glaring flaw in the game, ehich is objectively good.