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.

 

[JLowder]

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.

TSR did not shift resources away from RPGs for the novels. The Book Department remained stable in size and tiny compared to Games from the mid- to late 80s through 1997, and novels were added to the schedule based on sales and demand, with very limited resources inside the company going toward them. Because the novels were reaching many more people than the RPGs for Ravenloft and Dark Sun and so on--the novels frequently sold over 100,000 copies, sometimes well over that, just in English, and were translated into multiple languages--they brought players to the games and worlds, not the other way around.

 

[JLowder]

No bad business choices killed TSR, nothing else. Novels are mostly don't by freelancers, so all TSR needed was editors. It never interfered in the D&D teams ability to design and sell the TTRP stuff, different folks working on each.

Indeed. The Book Department at its height was a managing editor, three or four full-time editors, one part-time editor, and an editorial assistant. This is tiny compared to the Game Department. Even the novels that were written by TSR staffers were written as freelance, off the clock. Fiction also required far less art than game products, was easier to get printed, and took less time to typeset and design.

 

[JLowder]

And one of those bad business choices was becoming dependant on book sales and neglecting the core game.

We know one of the things that happened when they went bust was they had warehouses full of undistributed novels. Why was TSR even doing the warehousing and distribution of novels? Why didn't they licence a publishing house to do it? Bad business decisions certainly, but bad business decisions related to the novels.

As noted above, the returns you describe were caused by TSR ending the distribution deal with Random House. RH returned everything in the sale pipeline, because they were returnable for credit. It did not mean the novels would not have sold. In fact, Random House ordered novels based on what they thought they could sell long-term. The novels were selling fine. TSR owed me five figures worth of royalties when they went under, even with the returns. They owed Salvatore and Hickman & Weis a lot more. Those debts only accrued with sales, with returns and damages deducted.

TSR had a warehouse for all its products. It was part of the building, until management lost the building because of printer debt. They had the entire Mail Order Hobby Shop in there, as well.

 

[JLowder]

That's spoken to more in Ben Riggs' Slaying the Dragon, which tells us that TSR decided to release twelve hardcover novels in 1996, as opposed to the one or two they'd released in previous years.

The hardcover novel explosion was indeed a mistake and was a cash grab, but no different from a lot of cash grabs the company was making through games at the time. All the lines after 1995 were overproduced. The company was in a desperate spiral caused by debt to Random House, as described in the Riggs book. They thought they could publish their way out of the hole, and digging faster only made it worse.

 

[JLowder]

Not true.

TSR made a lot of bad decisions regarding all sorts of stuff, novels included. Novels were also overproduced, and bookstores could rip the covers off and return just the covers for a refund. This isn't limited to the books sold by Random House and TSR, but it was a part of the mess that brought TSR down finally.

The novels were not returned with covers ripped off. They were trade paperbacks and fully returnable, but intact. As were all the game products from the book trade.

 

[Bedrockgames]

TSR did not shift resources away from RPGs for the novels. The Book Department remained stable in size and tiny compared to Games from the mid- to late 80s through 1997, and novels were added to the schedule based on sales and demand, with very limited resources inside the company going toward them. Because the novels were reaching many more people than the RPGs for Ravenloft and Dark Sun and so on, they brought players to the games and worlds, not the other way around.

Thanks for weighing in. This was my impression at the time. I also think the novels helped energize a lot of GMs. If you were running Ravenloft for example, a new novel in the setting could really serve as fuel for inspiration. As a customer at the time, I feel like there was a synergy between the novels and RPGs where both played a role in maintaining my interest

 

[JLowder]

Thanks for weighing in. This was my impression at the time. I also think the novels helped energize a lot of GMs. If you were running Ravenloft for example, a new novel in the setting could really serve as fuel for inspiration. As a customer at the time, I feel like there was a synergy between the novels and RPGs where both played a role in maintaining my interest

When they worked well, the novels and short stories and comics were models for the types of tales GMs and players could create on their own. As you say, inspiration. They were a great way to get a glimpse of a setting you might want to use for a game. They were also an accessible and familiar story form for people who might like the genre but who found the barrier of entry for the game itself too high. In all they were, in their day, like actual play and Stranger Things now--gateways into the RPG and the individual worlds for people who might not otherwise give D&D or the Realms or Ravenloft a look.

 

[M.L. Martin]

TSR did not shift resources away from RPGs for the novels. The Book Department remained stable in size and tiny compared to Games from the mid- to late 80s through 1997, and novels were added to the schedule based on sales and demand, with very limited resources inside the company going toward them.

Reminds me of something one TSR designer said on Usenet about thirty years ago when someone was making a similar accusation, combined with the usual "T$R" talking points: "If TSR was interested in going the WotC route [this was just after WotC had shut down their entire RPG department] and just making money, they'd kill the games and set everyone to work writing novels."

Because the novels were reaching many more people than the RPGs for Ravenloft and Dark Sun and so on--the novels frequently sold over 100,000 copies, sometimes well over that, just in English, and were translated into multiple languages--they brought players to the games and worlds, not the other way around.

Things to take into account based on my own experience:
1. The novels were able to avoid the lingering taint of the "Satanic Panic" better than the games.
2. It was a lot easier to drop $4-6 to sample a new setting in novel form than to drop $18-30 on a huge boxed set.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Reminds me of something one TSR designer said on Usenet about thirty years ago when someone was making a similar accusation, combined with the usual "T$R" talking points: "If TSR was interested in going the WotC route [this was just after WotC had shut down their entire RPG department] and just making money, they'd kill the games and set everyone to work writing novels."



Things to take into account based on my own experience:
1. The novels were able to avoid the lingering taint of the "Satanic Panic" better than the games.
2. It was a lot easier to drop $4-6 to sample a new setting in novel form than to drop $18-30 on a huge boxed set.

The other thing about novels is the players read them. A lot of the RPGs were more for the GM (especially setting books)

 

[JLowder]

Reminds me of something one TSR designer said on Usenet about thirty years ago when someone was making a similar accusation, combined with the usual "T$R" talking points: "If TSR was interested in going the WotC route [this was just after WotC had shut down their entire RPG department] and just making money, they'd kill the games and set everyone to work writing novels."

That rumor circulated in-house at TSR in 1996 or so: upper management was supposedly mulling over closing down much of the RPG program and shifting the design and editing staff to fiction, as writers and editors, because novels cost less to produce and had a higher profit margin than the games. (I was not working there at the time, but still hung out with some of the staff, which was where I heard it; I recently confirmed the rumor with the staffer who originally told me, as part of my research for the 50th anniversary D&D fiction program panel at Gen Con this year.) The company was such a mess at the time, those kinds of rumors were common.

This rumor may or may not have been true, but the (short-term) financial logic was sound. The novels did cost less to produce, sold well, and had a higher profit margin. I would also not be shocked to learn upper management was deperate enough to consider it, given the terrible financial shape the company was in, or that they (mistakenly) assumed the majority of their RPG staff could just become fiction writers and editors on command. With a few notable exceptions, TSR upper management from the mid-80s through the company's sale were ignorant of the products they produced and the skillsets possessed by their staff and freelancers.