Ravenloft Novel Coming in 2025

Penguin Random House will publish a new novel set in the Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting of Ravenloft in 2025. A listing for an untitled Ravenloft novel has recently appeared on various book retailer websites, along with Penguin Random House's official website. No author was named in the listing, but a description for the book states that it will feature the infamous Count Strahd and potentially other Domains of Dread as well. The book will have a recommended retail price of $30 and will be released in April 2025.

Penguin Random House has upped their Dungeons & Dragons novel releases in recent years, with books set in the Dragonlance, Spelljammer, and Forgotten Realms settings. While some books (such as the recently completed Dragonlance Destinies trilogy) have featured classic writers, other books have used contemporary fantasy authors and are geared more toward a mix of existing, new, and casual D&D fans. Some characters from the Fallback novels have also appeared in art slated for the 2024 Core Rulebook release. Given that we're getting more D&D novels, it seems this new line of licensed novels is a success for Penguin Random House.

You can check out the description of the new Ravenloft book below:

Journey to the Domains of Dread and face the fearsome Count Strahd von Zarovich in this upcoming official Dungeons & Dragons novel!

A group of adventurers must fight their way through a dark and twisted realm known as the Domains of Dread, where powerful darklords rule over worlds filled with supernatural horrors.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Untitled D&d Ravenloft Novel Book By Random House Worlds, ('tc') | Indigo

Buy the book Untitled D&D Ravenloft Novel by random house worlds at Indigo

www.indigo.ca

Not sure when.

So far we have been getting FR novels, DL novels, and Spelljammer Novel. Now Ravenloft, feels like the rebirth of the D&D novels, about time as for me those more then adventures are what breathes life into settings.

 

[ECMO3]

Untitled D&d Ravenloft Novel Book By Random House Worlds, ('tc') | Indigo

Buy the book Untitled D&D Ravenloft Novel by random house worlds at Indigo

www.indigo.ca

Not sure when.

So far we have been getting FR novels, DL novels, and Spelljammer Novel. Now Ravenloft, feels like the rebirth of the D&D novels, about time as for me those more then adventures are what breathes life into settings.

What new FR novels do we have other than the Drizzt novels?

 

[darjr]

@Morrus

 

[Azzy]

Untitled D&d Ravenloft Novel Book By Random House Worlds, ('tc') | Indigo

Buy the book Untitled D&D Ravenloft Novel by random house worlds at Indigo

www.indigo.ca

Not sure when.

So far we have been getting FR novels, DL novels, and Spelljammer Novel. Now Ravenloft, feels like the rebirth of the D&D novels, about time as for me those more then adventures are what breathes life into settings.

The market will probably bear it (with D&D being as popular as it is (relatively) so long as there's not the glut of books that helped kill TSR.

 

[Alzrius]

The market will probably bear it (with D&D being as popular as it is (relatively) so long as there's not the glut of books that helped kill TSR.

My understanding is that the novel line was never a "glut," and instead was a major part of the reason why TSR lasted as long as it did. @JLowder has, if I recall correctly, mentioned this before.

Personally, I'm excited to see a new Ravenloft novel, but I wish it was venturing further afield than being about Strahd. I get that he's the "face" of Ravenloft, particularly for this generation's crop of D&D players, but there's so much more to Ravenloft.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

and instead was a major part of the reason why TSR lasted as long as it did

Both are true. The novels kept TSR afloat in the short term, but killed it in the long term.

The novels were popular because they tied into a popular game, but as TSR neglected the game to focus on the novels, so the popularity of the game fell, so the popularity of the novels fell.

These days WotC are not producing novels, but they are willing to sell the license for other people to do it.

 

[Alzrius]

The novels were popular because they tied into a popular game, but as TSR neglected the game to focus on the novels, so the popularity of the game fell, so the popularity of the novels fell.

That's not how I read what James Lowder has said previously. I mean, he does cite that fiction sales became "shakier" in 1995 ("partly due to the market overall and the general company dysfunction, but also, in my opinion, to bad book line and department management post-Kirchof"), but notes that sales of a lot of their older titles, and some of the newer ones, lasted right up through the end of TSR, concluding "So it's fair to say the Book Department was a major revenue source for TSR from 1982 through the sale to WotC, much of the company's lifespan."

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That's not how I read what James Lowder has said previously

You don’t always get the best perspective from the inside.

 

[EldritchHistory]

What new FR novels do we have other than the Drizzt novels?

The Fallbacks by Jaleigh Johnson, as well as two movie tie ins